Help me with Alaska

[Ariel 2021]

I did an extensive amount of research and booked Royal Caribbean Ovation of the Seas for Alaska this summer. We have only cruised Disney thus far but I picked RCCL for the following reasons:

• Cost - We have 2 connecting balcony rooms for 1/2 the price of 1 regular veranda at DCL.
• Indoor pool
• More indoor large glass wall viewing areas (Solarium, Two 70, etc). This ship was built for cold weather cruising, we went on the Disney Wonder for a cold rainy cruise once and indoor areas felt jam packed with no one utilizing the outdoor areas. It was wet and miserable even going on deck 9 to pick up pizza from the quick serve window, no desire to do that again.
• Better and more onboard activities for older kids (Flow Rider, iFly sky diving, Bumper Cars, Rock Climbing Wall, North Star, and much more).
• I read that they don’t do deck parties / pool parties as they’re prohibited due to noise in Alaska. I read online that they sometimes do stuff in the casino but it’s rare and not like the Caribbean cruises. It’s a newer ship and the casino is in a closed door area off to the side of the ship, not central and you don’t need to walk through it or see it if you don’t want to.
• More food options for dinners, DCL’s main dining times are a little restrictive for us for longer cruises. We like the idea of the buffet and other options for dinner too.

We aren’t really into characters though. I’ll miss the Disney shows but we have already been on the Wonder twice so I’ve seen them already. Good luck planning! I’ll report back once we go.

 

[Chrispy97]

We did DCL Alaska 5 years ago for our 20th anniversary (oh, shoot…that means…)

It was my favorite cruise I’ve done to date on DCL (5 on the 5 ships, no other cruise lines yet). Our DD7 loved it at that age. We agreed we thought Alaska was a bucket list trip, but we both want to go back and do Denali someday.

We added on a couple days in Victoria up front so it wasn’t just Vancouver and the inside passage for us. But we loved the Wonder and how they did that itinerary despite the added premium.

If they did Denali I’d pay to do DCL in Alaska again. But if I go back I want to go to Denali.

 

[crauen]

I spent a LOT of time going back and forth on Alaska cruise options before booking DCL this week for summer 2024. Factors that led to booking DCL included that we are big Disney fans, we wanted to go out of Vancouver (easy flight for us from the SF Bay Area and we want to spend a weekend in Vancouver before we cruise) and the quality of food, service and entertainment on DCL. We looked at Princess and HAL but the sticking point for us was that we are cruising with my FIL and he is VERY casual. The more formal dress code on the other lines was the big sticking point for us. I can get him into a collared shirt if I have too but he is a retired landscaper and wears sweats with a t-shirt basically every day. He ones one suit that he only wears to funerals or weddings. As a really not fancy person we were only considering Royal and DCL (I have cruised both) and the food, entertainment and service in DCL put them over the top, despite the price premium.

 

[auntlynne]

 

[auntlynne]