After an exciting morning of getting on board our first Royal Caribbean ship, we decided to spend some time exploring the ship. Our first stop was the indoor pool area. This area had a retractable roof (that was always closed during this trip). There were two separate pool areas (one near the bar) and two hot tubs. This area remained surprisingly uncrowded during the entire cruise.
While on a recent Royal Caribbean cruise on board the Ovation of the Seas, we got the opportunity to try Izumi. Izumi is a specialty upgrade restaurant found onboard a number of Royal Caribbean ships. The restaurant has an a la carte menu. You can also visit the restaurant as part of a dining package, which is what we did. Since we used a dining package, we were granted $35 per person and anything additional would be charged to our stateroom.
While on a recent Royal Caribbean cruise onboard the Ovation of the Seas, we got the opportunity to try Wonderland. Wonderland is a specialty upgrade restaurant found onboard a number of Royal Caribbean ships. The upgrade is $45 per person. You can also visit the restaurant as part of a dining package, which is what we did.
One of the downside sometimes of getting free flights is that they tend to happen at odd times. In this case, our flight to Seattle for our Alaska cruise was scheduled to leave Dulles at 7:00 am. The night before our flight, I got an alert from United that our flight would be delayed by 30 minutes. The message said that we should still show up on time, so that is what we planned on.
For the summer of 2019, we had originally decided on a 10-night Mediterranean cruise on the Disney Magic. As we got into the Summer of 2018, we came to the conclusion that we couldn’t make the cruise work with our schedule and our budget. We already had a few cruises in the books that we had to pay for as well as a lot going on that would make it hard to plan a Europe trip. Canceling that cruise was a huge burden lifted off our shoulders.
We recently went on Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas for a 7 night Alaska Glacier Cruise (departure date August 16, 2019). We stayed in room 13132, which is a Category 5D Ocean View Balcony. It is located on the port (left) forward (front) side of the ship on Deck 13. It is located immediately under the Solarium pool deck, which was unfortunate because there were times when we could hear the noise of chairs being moved around. We loved the location of the room other than that. It was super convenient to head up one deck and be right at the Solarium or family indoor pool area.
I had the great privilege and honor to be invited on The DCL Dude podcast to discuss our recent Royal Caribbean cruise to Alaska onboard the Ovation of the Seas. Wes and I discussed our itinerary, some of the amenities on the ship, dining, and then did a comparison versus our August 2013 sailing on the Disney Wonder.