Alaska on the Ovation

[SevenWonkas]

We will be on Ovation in July, and we have a Family Junior Suite. Admittedly, we always do balcony rooms. We have considered doing a Oceanciew (porthole) Room on the Dream, but the balcony has always been a very minimal cost over the ocean view room, that we always get a balcony. We enjoy sitting on our balcony, away from everyone else.

We went on an Alaska cruise 10 years ago, and loved that we had our own balcony. Especially on the days that we were sailing the Inside Passage and glaciers, we loved being able to just walk outside to see the views.

 

[kkbutterfly]

I'll be on the Ovation May 2020! I booked a single balcony room.

 

[AirDisney]

We will be on Ovation for the August 9, 2019 cruise! First cruise, and first time to Alaska! Booked a balcony room. Not having anything to compare to, I’m sure we will love it!

 

[OKW Lover]

What stateroom category would you recommend....oceanview or balcony?

Balcony. There is so much to see on an Alaskan cruise and you can do it very comfortably from your balcony.

 

[ScooterScott44]

We are just back from the Ovations initial Alaska sailing and not sure if the OP made a decision. A couple of quick notes about balcony or not.

- Views were great and the scenery just keeps on coming. Doesn’t matter if you are up on the decks or on your balcony, you will see something. So not much difference here.
- Weather was pretty good most of the time but it was iffy at a few points and at that time it was easier just to pop out to the veranda as opposed to going up to the decks.
- It was too easy to be up early with the time difference and the EARLY sunrise, so if you have trouble sleeping or napping the inside cabin would be the way to go.
- We were lucky to see a growler, small or baby ice berg, break apart from the balcony. Just watching the ice and its colors go by as you sail up to the glacier can be done anywhere but since it takes a couple hours it was nice to be able to sneak inside and sit or lay down for a few minutes.
- We happened to see whales, orca, bald eagles, seals and Dall’s Porpoises all from the balcony. We just happened to see them on our own buy looking out. The captain will make announcements overhead during daytime hours. He will say what they see and which side of the ship. If you are in your balcony room on that side all you have to do is step outside. A window may do but will limit the range of your view.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

We are just back from the Ovations initial Alaska sailing

Any other comments on the trip? How was the food? Your port stops? The Inside Passage?

 

[ScooterScott44]

Any other comments on the trip? How was the food? Your port stops? The Inside Passage?

It was a great trip, for this post I was just focusing more on the OP’s question about the veranda or not. Since we were lucky to do Star Class I will add some details to the DCL Concierge vs Star Class thread. Since we were on the initial Ovation Alaska it is not quite the same as the rest of the season. We started in Vancouver and did 11 nights, going to Icy Straight Point, Sitka, Juneau and Skagway for ports as well as the Hubbard and Dawes glaciers.

The rest of the season the ship will round trip to Seattle with stops at Victoria, Juneau and Skagway with the Dawes glacier. The ship will do the upper inside passage as that is the only way to reach those ports. Unfortunately with Seattle as the start and end point the ship will sail on the Pacific side of Vancouver Island.

 

[Hrhpd]

We sail on Ovation in July. My kids are 13 (boy) and 16 (girl) and they don’t care to share a bed, so we opted for a J3 (junior suite) that sleeps 5 on deck 9. One can have the sofa bed and the other can sleep in the bunk. It has 1.5 baths, so that is a plus!

Thank you for that info. We are in the same situation. We are currently booked on the Celebrity Eclipse in 2 aft sky suites but our Oasis med cruise is becoming a money pit so was looking at the Ovation to see if we can save some money. I will go check out the J3s.

To answer the OP, my preference is always a balcony. For Alaska, we preferred an Aft balcony. I love my downtime, so we use our balconies a ton. My idea of the perfect vacation is a good book and a view.

 

[Hrhpd]

We've cruised Alaska 3 times and have always had a balcony. Some people say you don't need one for Alaska but I really enjoyed sitting outside - especially in the morning with my coffee - looking for whales and other wildlife. My vote would be for a balcony.

That sounds like heaven! Now I can't wait.

 

[1Grumpy9]

Question for all that have done the Alaska cruise...My parents and I are planning on 2021 going to Alaska for a land/sea trip (dad's bucket list item).

Which do you prefer...Port or Starboard side? My parents have already said they want a balcony for the cruise portion of the trip.

 

[atricks]

I'm very curious about this type of ship, weve got an obstructed balcony view 7574 on the 18 night Transpacific from Sydney to Honolulu on the Ovation (with 2 stops in New Zealand and Tahiti/Morea/Bora Bora) next April... Suprisingly several thousand less than the 7 night Christmas Disney Fantasy cruise even with flights. From the exterior shots, it didn't look like deck 7 was all that obstructed, but curious if anyone knows.

We've done the Oasis, Harmony and Navigator ships (and the Majesty) but have no real reference for the Quantum class ships.

 

[ScooterScott44]

Question for all that have done the Alaska cruise...My parents and I are planning on 2021 going to Alaska for a land/sea trip (dad's bucket list item).

Which do you prefer...Port or Starboard side? My parents have already said they want a balcony for the cruise portion of the trip.

There really are no bad views. If you are headed up to the glaciers, Juneau or Skagway you will travel up the fjord on the way into port and back, retracing your route departing. So Port or Starboard really doesn’t matter, you will see one side in the morning and get views on the alternate side later in the day.

 

[wgeo]

We just got back from our Alaska cruise. We had the forward extra spacious oceanview with 2 large windows with "window seats" on them. We loved the room and loved sitting in the seats looking out the windows. The downside was very much being woken up with the sun around 3:50/4 AM every morning at sunrise.

I'm sure a balcony would have been great, but it wasn't in our budget and we didn't miss it. Especially since, as it turns out, the weather was really pretty cold for our trip. Temps in the 40s in the morning and a lot of rain. Except for the glacier day - that day was simply amazing - but there is no way I'd want to limit myself to a balcony for that day - you need to be outside and get 360 views it is so stunning.

Another consideration is that we traveled with my parents and so we preferred to have a meeting place that we could hang out and drink coffee at each day, so again in our circumstances a balcony wouldn't have worked because all the adults wouldn't fit on the balcony and the sleeping kids wouldn't have appreciated our waking them up.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

boarding Ovation this week. I did an Alaska cruise before, had a porthole. It was fine, since I could go outside. I have my mother along this time, got her a balcony to sit on. We're only doing half day excursions to see how she feels, so there will be a few more hours to see more of the port areas.

Does obstructed balcony mean there may be a lifeboat in the way?

 

[AgentMama]

We cruised without a balcony, I don't think we missed anything, we were up on deck just about from the time we were up until the time we went to bed. There are so many places on board that you can get a great view from, and there were often times we walked from one side of the ship to the other to see something different. We would have missed that if we were on a balcony.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Does obstructed balcony mean there may be a lifeboat in the way?

Yeah. I have seen pictures of them and they're not that blocked though.