firebuck

They need one more range for those of us 6'5" and above lol. It's all good, as long as the weigh-in is before the briefing, it'll save me some time. Fingers crossed that their scales are off in my favor ? The land-based locations are a bit more forgiving. If it doesn't work out on the ship, I'll hit one up afterwards.

Piggybacking on this thread - I'm skating all around the ship's IFly weight limit... Are they pretty firm or will they let, say 4 pounds or so over get on? I've booked it on the morning of day 2, so if I have to avoid the windjammer/alcohol on day 1 and take some water pills, by gosh I will get on this darn thing ?

Yes - as long as you have both cards, they'll let you get two!

Agree with @JLMoran +1 to the Kraken Lava Flow... it's amazing! Another one of my favorite rum drinks is the Painkiller - It's made with Pusser's rum, orange juice, pineapple juice, coconut cream and a bit of grated nutmeg on top for good measure.

Haha we shall see! I'm sure there's gotta be some decent poutine in BC somewhere, right?? I noticed that on the menu for the restaurant in Victoria that @SpeedNoodles recommended that there is a seafood poutine... I'm not a seafood fan, but fries, cheese curds and gravy can make anything taste good!

My Sister-in-law is reeeeally hoping to see the Northern Lights - well, we all are, but she's the most excited I think lol. That's really a shame about the fog.... that's going to be one of things I'm also looking forward to most. I can understand how you'd be bummed. Thanks again for all your tips, they're really appreciated!

Thanks for the tip! I'm all for walking around the port, so we'll definitely do that then.

Awesome! Thanks so much for the tip, I'll definitely remember that! These live blogs definitely help the post cruise blues! We usually cruise once a year, so it helps a lot during the dry dock phase!

Hi all! Today, we're one week out from our cruise, so I figured I'd get this thing kicked off! This will be the first Alaskan cruise for everyone in our group, so we're all really looking forward to it! It's the last official Alaskan trip for the Ovation this season before she moves on to visit Hawaii and then on to Australia. (I'm waaaay jealous of those folks doing a b2b2b - what an incredible experience that has to be!) Itinerary: Who's going: We're a group of 6 this time - Myself (Phill), my Wife Kelly, SIL Cyndi, BIL George, and our friends Polly and Sheri. Pre-Cruise: Each couple are on different flights into Seattle the day before - We're flying in from Philly, and the rest are flying in from Newark. Our flight leaves at 6 AM, and we'll arrive around 10 AM Seattle time. I'm not one to sleep on an airplane, but hopefully I can catch a few winks. My wife and I along with the In-laws are booked at the Moore hotel in downtown Seattle. This hotel offers a room with two bedrooms with a bathroom in between - those logistics should be fun, but the price was right and it's only one night, so we booked it! The Moore is just a short walk away from Pike Place Market, so we plan on touring around that area. I donate plenty of money to Starbucks, so I'll be excited to visit the original. Polly and Sheri have booked the Edgewater hotel which isn't too far away either, and right on the water...the pictures of that hotel look amazing! Cabin: Each couple has booked a balcony cabin close together on Deck 13 forward. Pre-cruise purchases: Everyone booked The Key as well as the 3 night dining package. I'm team DX for life since I easily break even and way beyond (even on port days :P) - myself, George, Polly and Sheri have the DX, My wife and Cyndi have the Refreshment package since they will not drink enough to make the DX package make financial sense. Any alcohol on their part will be a-la-carte. Excursions: In Juneau, we are doing the Mendenhall Glacier tour and Salmon Bake (Purchased through the cruise planner) Skagway, we've booked the White Pass Scenic Railway (also through cruise planner) No real plans for the rest of the ports, we'll either stay on the ship or stroll around the port area. Post Cruise: Cyndi and George have a wedding to attend, so they'll be headed to the airport after debarkation. Since this cruise ends in Vancouver, and we've never been, my wife and I along with Polly and Sheri have decided to extend our stay by one night. We've booked the River Rock Casino in Richmond, BC which is a little south of the cruise port. We'll fly back out to Philly early the next morning. I look forward to documenting our adventure - let me know if anyone has any questions or if there's anything in particular you'd like to see, and thanks for reading!

Thanks so much for the info! Can't wait to board in 8 more days!

As a New Jersey resident, I can confirm that a Wine Warehouse is a mighty fine place to get your wine ?

Seconded - We'll be on her the 13th, so looking forward to checking out the differences between Ovation and her sister the Anthem. I could go for some fish and ships right now. Also, congrats on becoming Emerald!

That lasagna looks amazing! I'll have to look at some old cruise compasses to find out when lasagna night is on my upcoming sailing. Your pictures are all stunning as well! I think you've convinced me to add the Greek Isles to my cruise bucket list!

You're correct - since the parasailing is a tandem ride, it does state a maximum combined of 375. Source: Everyone flies tandem, weather permitting. Boat ride will be approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour. Maximum combined weight is 375 pounds. Also, for the wave runners you can be a single rider up to 375 pounds, but if you have a passenger with you it would again be the combined max weight of 375.

Following along! Hope you guys have a great time!

I know it's just a typo, but now I can't help but to read this entire blog in the voice of Popeye ?

BOGO rate for the DX on my 9/13/19 Ovation sailing is @ 51 per day. It was at $55 per person per day as of yesterday... The lowest I've seen (and thankfully locked in) was $47...

I think the only other benefit of booking with Air2Sea is that they're pretty much guaranteeing that you will get to the ship with any flight that you select through them. That said, due to the nature of air travel, things could still go wrong, but instead of YOU being on the hook for missing the ship, Royal will do everything possible to get you there - at least at the next port stop. From the Air2Sea site: ASSURED ARRIVAL When your vacation comes around, you don't want to miss the ship because of flight delays or cancellations. Book airfare through us and we guarantee, should an issue arise, our Emergency Travel Team will work with our airline partners to get you to the first available port of call.

Hi Jake - I did the excursion. I posted about it in my live blog last year - you can read my summary and see pics here I thought it was a pretty decent excursion... something to say you did at least once. The staff at the island were really good and engaging with our group as well as quick to clean up any... accidents.

Oh man that's one of my favorites! The Schooner bar usually does a pretty good one - they should have the nutmeg there.

That's definitely interesting... so it's the ships that are broadcasting the signal and then it's being picked up by repeaters throughout the island? Pretty neat solution to handle auth with more than one ship. Thanks for sharing these techy tidbits, @twangster

Ugh.. yeah. Deluxe on my Sept. 13th Ovation sailing is now $55 PP, up from the $47 that I locked in. The refreshment package is also up $6 per night. I hope this trend doesn't continue...

Looking forward to following along! You'll still live blog when you're a pineapple, right??? ?

I agree with @twangster - it's hard to miss the signs for sky class at Cape Liberty. Once you follow the signs, check-in for suite guests is a breeze and the suite waiting area offers plenty of comfy chairs in which to relax. I'm also an advocate for the ~ 10 AM arrival time. Traffic around the port can start getting pretty bad past 10 AM. There have been some occasions where the line of cars to drop off your baggage is slowed due to the port not having enough porters to handle the influx. From what I've experienced and also read on here, the ship is usually cleared for boarding around 11 AM (although this will of course vary), so a 10 AM arrival will have you checked in and waiting comfortably to be one of the first guests on the ship.

Has anyone done this particular excursion? This is our first trip to Alaska, so we're really not sure what to expect. We're a group of 3 couples and we've settled on this particular excursion for Juneau. Just curious how long of a ride it is to the glacier, what sort of things there are to do there or is it simply a spot for photo ops (which I'm totally fine with because it's breathtaking from the picture here). Any reviews from you all would help! P.S. we were able to snag this one for $10 cheaper per person than what it's currently listed at a few weeks ago.