We are a family of four who are booked on Ovation of the Seas August 21, 2020. My two boys will be 15 and 13 at the time. Alaska has been on my bucket list since I was a kid. We have previously only cruised DCL, but decided to try Royal for Alaska because of the huge price differential and because my kids seemed to be aging out of DCL, although we all loved the service and enjoyed a lot of things about the line. Our goal in Alaska is to hike and spend time in the wilderness, enjoy the beauty, and see the glaciers.
I booked Ovation last year during the Black Friday sale, so I'm very happy with the price we got. We also were able to get one of the junior suites that has a pull-down bed, which is important for us -- kids will be much happier if they are not sharing a bed. However, I'm now debating whether to keep this itinerary or try to change it for something else. My concerns now:
Glacier Bay -- now that Royal is going to Glacier Bay, having an itinerary that goes there is very appealing to me. I was hoping our itinerary would change to include Glacier Bay when they announced the news earlier this summer, but so far no changes have been made.
Seattle -- I am wondering if we'd be happier with a round-trip cruise that departed/returned from Vancouver because it would allow more time in Alaska. The Victoria port seems nice but unmemorable. An extra stop in Alaska sounds appealing.
Huge ship -- There definitely seems like a lot of fun things to do on the ship itself, but I think in Alaska I'm more interested in the destination than the ports. Is the size of the ship going to hinder what we're able to see on the glacier cruising days?
There are some advantages to staying with what we have:
We have a stateroom we like at a price we are very happy with and there is some appeal to getting to do this in 2020 -- carpe diem, why postpone for another year? This does not have to be the only trip I take to Alaska in my life. If we enjoy it and wish we could see more, we could always go back.
Ship may be fun for the kids. We are kind of a bookish/nerdy family--our favorite thing to do on ships is usually trivia sessions -- but I can see the kids having a lot of fun with things like the rock climbing/IFly/escape room on the ship. On our DCL cruises, my younger son liked exploring the ship a lot and the older one liked finding a cozy porthole where he could sit and read and look out at the sea.
If we changed itineraries, I think I would try to book something as soon as 2021 itineraries were released, probably a roundtrip out of Vancouver but maybe a northbound/southbound starting in/ending in Vancouver. But maybe I'm overthinking?!?! Thoughts/advice is welcome!