rbdavis3591

I was also on the May 13th Ovation cruise and took a taxi to the terminal. After being dropped off we walked towards the terminal to drop off our checked luggage. Since we were not Star Class we found a luggage drop off area located on the left hand side nearest the Ovation. These are my observations:

1. For some reason the end of the luggage drop off line started from the terminal side. This required people with their luggage in tow to squeeze past people already waiting in line with their luggage to get to the end of the line.
    
2. I did not see any signage that indicated whether the luggage drop off area was for the Ovation or the Solstice. We had to ask the porters and luckily we were in the correct area while the Solstice luggage drop off was further down and on the opposite side.
    
3. Once we were at the luggage drop off area and next in line to drop off our luggage with a porter we were notified that since our luggage already had been tagged we could drop it off on the other side of the porter stand. (If facing the porter stand luggage tagged by the porters was placed on the right side while self tagged luggage was placed on the left side). I am assuming that we could have just dropped off our self tagged luggage instead of waiting in line but there was no directions or instructions provided.
    
4. We then found the end of the long line to start the boarding process. There were several people in that line who had not dropped off their luggage and at the beginning porters would come by and load their self tagged luggage onto carts. After about 15 minutes those people with luggage that had not dropped off were forced to go to the luggage drop off area.

Once on board we enjoyed the cruise but am not a fan of the Pier 91 boarding process from arrival to setting foot on the Ovation.

10 hours ago, KevinJ said:

@rbdavis3591 are JS not able to go through the suite line, if there is one? We're in a JS for the June 17th Ovation. We had a JS on Oasis last October and that check in was also just a single line, but very fast due to lower capacity.

I did not see any separate lines; just the one slow line. According to our room attendant the Ovation carried just under 4,000 passengers for our sailing.

7 minutes ago, 10-42 said:

How was the waiting area inside the Terminal?  Did you notice?

I was in one line or another from the luggage drop off until after the final stop in the terminal where they did a last check of sail pass and passport.

Once that was completed you could walk onto the ship (after doing the final 2 checks of the sail pass) although the wife had to hit the bathroom before leaving the terminal. That was the first opportunity to sit down since arriving at the port.

39 minutes ago, 10-42 said:

Really don't know.  We were Star Class and went right in.  I did notice a line up to get into the terminal, kinda like the one in the video, but not as long, obviously.  The Ovation doesn't have the capacity as Harmony does.  

I was in the line for the May 13th Ovation sailing and arrival times were not enforced. Everyone Junior Suites and below were in the same line until the final stop in the terminal. We arrived at 10:45 AM for our 11:00 AM boarding but it took about 15 minutes to get our tagged luggage dropped off at the porter station. It took about 45 minutes from end of line to on the ship.

Unfortunately my wife is the type of person that has to look at and mark up the paper copies of the cruise compass instead of looking at the Royal app, the stateroom TV or the video boards by the elevators.

When we received the Ovation of the Seas May 13 - 20, 2022 cruise compasses I used my phone to scan them and sent them to Matt on June 2nd.

Ovation of the Seas 7-Night Alaska Cruise Compass - May 13, 2022

1 hour ago, Alztyrbn said:

What are the things that need to be done as soon as you board? Dining changes, show reservations etc?

Thanks!

If you are stuck in a never ending line waiting to start your boarding process you might be able to connect to the ships Wi-Fi and do some things while waiting.

26 minutes ago, CrimsonCruiser said:

I am always team lanyard - just makes it easy to find and keep track of even if you stick it in a pocket or belt loop.

That said, the newer ships/cards have chips in them making it impossible to get it hole punched. So if you get a lanyard it's a good idea to get one with a plastic sleeve that you can slide the card in.

 

As for luggage tags - YES. Do it! Not only do the stop the tags from getting beat up while in transit, they also make it easier to attach to non-traditional bags/luggage.

we got these: https://www.amazon.com/Cruise-Luggage-Holder-Seal-Steel/

I also attach luggage tags to our hand carries in case they either get separated or we decide at the last minute to check them.

56 minutes ago, Harbuddies said:

thanks rbdavis3591! I'll definitely look for the sign up sheet in our stateroom and promptly return to Guest Services.

Since you had signed up for the Port Valet, were you able to disembark in an earlier group?

The attached file lists the Ovation's departure times based on assigned luggage tag numbers.

Port Valet departures were either:

• 8:00 AM if your flight was from 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM or
• 8:45 AM if your flight was after 1:30 PM

Our departure time was 8:45 am since our flight was not until 5:30 PM so we stayed in our stateroom and monitored the status of departure numbers being called on the TV.

By 8:35 AM every luggage tag number above us had been called so we went from stateroom to gangway to CBP. Only delay we experienced exiting the terminal building was when the group ahead of us did not have their passports out for CBP to examine.

Ovation of the Seas Tips For An Easy Departure.pdf

Everyone keeps asking about whether ports are forcing passengers to show up for their assigned boarding times. 

This brings up my question: Is there a set number of passengers for each boarding time?

It would be nice to know so that when people arrive at a terminal and their assigned boarding time is in the first group but there are 1,000 people in line ahead of them they know whether boarding times are being enforced.

Using a ship sailing at full 4,000 capacity how many passengers would be expected in each group?

On 5/18/2022 at 4:10 PM, Harbuddies said:

Hello fellow cruisers!

Fellow cruisers, we are in such a cool club aren't we?

Has anyone used the Port Valet out of the port of Seattle? I booked with them about a month ago for our cruise that leaves in 24 days and received confirmation that we are all set. My question is will they notify RC of the need for Disembarkation day or should I check in with guest services on the ship to make sure? I like the idea of my luggage being taken to the airport for me.

 

thanks in advance

Prior to the Ovation May 13th sailing I signed up for Port Valet online and received a confirmation email from them. On the Ovation a sign up sheet was provided so I also filled that out and returned to Guest Services.

The last night by 6:30 PM I received our boarding passes and luggage tags in our stateroom. We set our luggage out and did not see it again until we arrived at our home airport.

Ovation of the Seas Luggage Valet Program.pdf

15 minutes ago, Pattycruise said:

I just cleared my history and it is working.  I had tried just prior to clearing my history and it was not working.  Can it be as easy as that?  Now I need to go figure out how to clear my iphone history since it was not working there either.

Myself it started working again without me doing anything different.

I also was finally able to get back in.

11 hours ago, 10-42 said:

WOW, I didn't notice that.  But, I was enjoying copious amounts of adult beverage at the Schooner Bar, et al.

I think I remember seeing you on the ship if that's you in your avatar.  

Hard for me to miss since it was outside our stateroom.

For better or worse that is what I actually look like.

1 hour ago, 10-42 said:

Yep, just got off of the Ovation last week and our last Alaska Port of Call was Sitka.  What they did was tie up to the pier, allow anyone to come and go until about 1:00 PM and then pulled the ship out to the middle of the sound and anchored or stabilized its location using gps and thrusters. This was done to let a Celebrity Cruise ship dock.  After that, those that wanted to come and go had to tender.  We got off and on long before the 1:00 PM tender schedule.  Sitka is a beautiful and clean little town.  I'd like to go back one day.  

BTW, workers were working hard on the pier.  And the tenders were the ship's lifeboats!

Here was one of the Ovation's lifeboat tenders going back to Sitka and the empty lifeboat cradles.

For some reason the tenders kept going back to Sitka empty. 

Same blank page on five different browsers including my Android phone. 

3 hours ago, luiiismdo said:

this was exactly my concern. thank you for clarifying it for me!

As TravisMA81 said make alternate dining plans for those nights if you have existing scheduled dinner reservations for those nights.

Just remember to also cancel those dinner reservations before trying to schedule show reservations.

2 hours ago, luiiismdo said:

thank you all for the replies! i was just worried that when i got on board, i wouldnt be able to reserve early showtimes because the times were blocked off by the MTD reservations

You might run into a problem with a 6:45 PM MTD and making an 8:15 PM show time if you actually have to reserve seats. We had early 5:00 PM dinners and always finished by 6:15 PM and was able to make the early 6:45 PM shows that did not require reservations.

The problem we ran into was that the app would not let us reserve spots for a 6:45 PM show because the app allotted 2 hours for our dinner reservations. The only option for us was to reserve the 9:00 pm show and we could have tried to see if there were space available seating for the 6:45 PM show. We actually decided to skip the show and cancelled our 9:00 PM reservation.

2 hours ago, KLA said:

Go up to the CK desk on Day 1 and see what they'll let you do. Back in October we had no issue doing this, but that was also during reduced capacity. You may not have the same luck now, but it doesn't hurt to ask. 

YMMV but on our May 13-20 Ovation cruise we stopped by the CK desk and was able to make reservations for the first two nights. On the second night we were able to make CK reservations for the remaining nights.

Nothing yet on my cards  

4 hours ago, DDD said:

Royal has done a very poor job at notifying passengers, in my opinion. That certainly hasn't helped the hours-long backups at the Seattle embarkations.

 

 

For the May 13 Ovation of the Seas Seattle embarkation our ArriveCAN information was not asked for. The embarkation backup was caused by people showing up at 10:30 am regardless of assigned boarding times.

2 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

https://www.kcaw.org/2022/05/12/damaged-mooring-dolphin-leaves-cruise-ship-terminal-at-half-capacity/

 

Looks like it'll require the 2nd ship that day to tender. 

 

I'm there June 7 on Serenade and Radiance (who did the damage) will be there too. I hope that means Radiance has to be the tender ship

The Ovation of the Seas was docked in port Sitka on May 17th but had to leave at 1 pm and anchor so that Celebrity Eclipse could dock. Ovation used their own boats to tender passengers until our departure.

1 hour ago, D Alt said:

Sorry, what cruise are you on?  ship and itinerary? 

Ovation of the Seas May 13 - 20, 2022.

Seattle
Juneau
Skagway
Sitka
Victoria
Seattle

4 hours ago, 10-42 said:

WELL, there isn't much to show, damnit!  On one, I repeat, NO ONE, asked to see our Vax verification OR COVID test results.  You heard it right, NO ONE asked to see our Vax verification or COVID test results.  We are on the ship.

A couple of bad things to report though, the line to get into the terminal was looooooooooooooong, real loooooooooooooooong.  Someone in my wife's Facebook page says that it was the worst embarkation that they have experienced in decades of cruising on Royal.

For us today we had to:

1. Show our negative COVID test results to get into the terminal.
2. Next stop in the terminal was verification of passport and sail pass.
3. Then security.
4. At the actual check in we showed passport and sail pass.
5. Then before going on the gangway another check of the sail pass.
6. Finally at the ship itself a final check of the sail pass.
7. At no point was the ArriveCAN verification asked for.

Saw that first hand today.

I selected Ogden Point A & B (Victoria) from the drop down list on the mobile app.