Well its been forever, at least it seems like forever, but we finally were able to get back on a cruise ship. What a wonderful way to get back into the swing of things with a seven day cruise out of Seattle to three Alaskan ports on the Royal Caribbean Ovation of the Seas! This was just the third sailing on the Ovation of the Seas after she returned to service in August. We were very familiar with the ship since we spent a month on her sailing between Australia and Canada back in 2019, so we were anxious to see the changes and how the new normal of cruising during a pandemic was going to work. It also helped that we were cruising with five friends, three senior cruisers and two that had never been on RCL before.

Two of our cruise friends, Jim and John, have over 1,500 cruise points between them and are serious gamblers. We had been cruising together on our last cruise which was a Transatlantic Crossing in March of 2020 which was the last cruise into Spain before the Pandemic shut everything down. It was also our friends first cruise back on RCL.

This cruise had been booked since before the Pandemic and everyone was quite surprised that it actually wasn’t canceled along with the other 10 or so we had booked last year. Since Canada was closed to cruise traffic and federal law requires foreign flagged vessels to stop in foreign ports prior to reentry into the US, it would take Congressional Action to allow this cruise to sail. Unbelievably, CONGRESS ACTUALLY TOOK ACTION TO ALLOW THESE SAILINGS! I could go on about the 100+ year old “Jones Act” and how it funnels money into Canada at the expense of American Ports and cruisers…..but that would need to be another post.

We drove up a few days early to spend time with our daughter and new baby before we picked up two of our friends and headed for the cruiseport. Even though we were all vaccinated, prior to cruising we were required to obtain a negative Covid-19 test within three days (now changed to two days) which we arranged to have completed at Walgreens a couple days before the cruise.

RCL sails out of Pier 91 in Seattle which is a couple of miles north of the downtown area. We prepaid $157 to park for the week (a little pricey but there was no other reasonable option.) When we arrived at Seattle CruisePark, we quickly checked in and parked in the front row. We were one of only about 30 cars parking there for the cruise and the lot was less than half full. When I asked the shuttle driver about how things were going he said things were slow but he was glad to be back working. Generally, we heard the same thing over and over again from all of the cruise industry workers and ship employees. They were glad to see things coming back and were glad to be working.

Check-in:

There were 1,900 passengers on the Ovation of the Seas sailing Aug 27 through Sep 3, 2021. The capacity of the ship is 4,180, so it was a little less than half full. All guests over 12 had to be vaccinated and present a negative Covid test completed within 72 hours. All of this documentation had to be checked. Each reservation had a show time and we arrived about 45 minutes early and lined up in our que. The lines were exceptionally long and everyone’s paperwork was screened prior to entry into the terminal. Masks were required to be worn while in line and we were thankful it was a relatively warm and dry day! Once we entered the terminal the check-in process was typical and we boarded the ship around 1:00 about 30 minutes after our scheduled show time.

RCL has changed the muster program and now you do almost everything through the App on your cellphone. There was a short video and several forms to complete. Once on the ship you had to report to your muster station for some additional training and sign-off. This was a big improvement compared to the old process of gathering at your muster station and going through a briefing.

At least one of the guest floors was being used by the crew and for possible quarantine space if needed. The signs saying that the staterooms in that area weren’t ready yet remained up for the entire cruise.

Rooms:

Once in the room, we found two masks and all of the amenities that we were accustomed to, with the addition of a coffee pot. I guess they figured that would remove at least one reason to leave your room. For this cruise we chose an inside stateroom with a virtual balcony. The room had a large flat-screen TV, mounted sideways. The screen displayed a video stream from a camera on the outside of the ship. This enabled you to see outside, even though you were in an inner hallway.

The room attendant provided service twice a day (we had heard that they were going to one) and there was a daily activity newsletter provided as before.

Ship Activities:

The ship was divided into “vaccinated guests” only areas and “all guest” areas. In “all guest” areas inside masks were required and closely monitored, Each vaccinated guest was required to wear a white bracelet and all guests were required to wear a tracking device to enable contact tracing if someone was identified with Covid-19. In areas where there were two story venues, vaccinated only floors were identified, Most bars and dance venues were designated “vaccinated guests only” and masks could be removed. In areas where all guests had access including a few bars, every other table was blocked off for social distancing.

For activities such as trivia, two sessions were held simultaneously. One was for vaccinated guests only with no social distancing or masks required. The other one was for anyone, but social distancing was required. If you were seated however you could take off your mask.

When doing indoor activities, like bumper cars, masks were required. Likewise, when doing outside activities, like rock wall climbing, masks were required, until you were actually climbing. There were several changes however in the activities. For example; the bumper cars were cleaned after each use, the bells were removed from the top of the rock climbing wall (that was a surprise), and several activities were no longer available such as roller skating and trapeze school.

The Ovation of the Seas has two indoor pool areas, one was open to anyone while the other one required masks. The outside pool area required no masks, but many chairs had been removed to enable social distancing.

Entertainment:

Many of the shows were offered multiple times, so the crowds could be controlled. Reservations were required for most of the shows. However, several of the big parties, like the 70’s Disco Party was limited to vaccinated guests only, so they went off much like before. I think there was less entertainment than usual but there was more than enough to ensure that there was always something to do.

The bars operated as normal. Most were for vaccinated guests only and they never were crowded.

Food:

In the buffet, every other table was blocked off and you were required to wear masks except when seated at your table. Capacity was controlled using a check-in and check-out process but we never ran into a situation where there was a problem getting in. The buffet was open for breakfast and lunch and closed for dinner. Food was either served by the staff or on small individual plates that you could pick-up. Drinks (water, ice tea, etc.) were served by the staff….no self-serve anywhere. This tended to slow down dining and possibly the amount of food that you consumed. Not necessarily a bad thing.

In the restaurants, there were certain areas for vaccinated guests and others for the “unclean”…excuse me unvaccinated. Many tables were blocked off for social distancing, and menus were available only on request. All of the menus were on the Royal Carnelian Mobile App, so you could view it on your phone. This allowed you to see the Vegan and Children’s menu as well…..so if you really wanted mac and cheese for dinner it was available. Service and the food, as usual, was quite good. The restaurant was the only place where salt and peppers shakers were seen. Packets of salt and pepper were available in the other restaurants but they were provided to you by the staff.

Other restaurants, such as; Sorrentos Pizza, Fish and Ships, SeaPlex Doghouse, the Cafe @ Two70 and Cafe Promenade all required you to wear masks and practice social distancing until you were seated.

Cruise Ports:

The Alaskan Cruise ports were beautiful. Ship sponsored shore excursions were required for unvaccinated guests, but if you were vaccinated, you were free to come and go as you please. Since the ship never docked in a foreign country there were no customs issues to deal with. Maybe due to the limited number of guests, there was no waiting to get off of the ship. This was much less of a hassle than on a normal “pre-covid” cruise.

Casino:

The casino was a vaccinated guest only area and operated pretty much as usual. On this cruise, we decided to explore the casino perks which I will describe in a separate post.

Disembarkation:

When we got to the end of the cruise, disembarkation was fairly standard. However, instead of waiting in common areas, you were allowed to stay in your staterooms until your luggage number was called to leave the ship. We were surprised when we were asked for our passports by an official when we got off the ship, but we assumed that was just to make sure non-Americans weren’t getting off. That required people to scramble to locate their passports but caused only minor delays.

Final Thoughts:

Before we got off the ship, we sat down with our friends and asked them about the big changes they saw and what they though of everything. This is what we heard:

1. The decreased capacity made the overall experience fantastic. You never see cruise ships this empty. At one point, were were allowed to stay on the bumper cars for an hour….and I have the bruises to prove it.
2. The elevator capacity was reduced to a four guest limit but they were always available. Usually, we never use the elevators to go between floors, but climbing 10 or more floors while wearing a mask was a pain; so we did make some exceptions.
3. The sanitation and social distancing on the ship was closely maintained and done very well. They were taking everything very seriously.
4. The food and service was a good as ever.
5. The crew was glad to be back to work and everyone you talked to was in a good mood. The crew was masked at all times and was confined to the ship on port days. But they didn’t seem to care. Some guests were bringing the crew snacks and some personal items back to the ship that they couldn’t easily obtain. We also saw the crew out, in their areas, enjoying their time off which you rarely saw before the pandemic.
6. Royal Caribbean has a fantastic loyalty program and one of the changes that was made to it was the elimination of a nightly happy hour in the “Diamond lounge”. This was replaced with providing each Diamond and above loyalty member with four to six free drinks daily at any bar. Anything up to $13 in value was available which really added to the cruise. We still visited the Diamond lounge but it was never crowded. Just a nice place to sit and relax with friends.

Overall, it was great to be back on a cruise even with the additional restrictions. Our serious cruise friends actually flew off to Florida for their next series of cruises. As for us, we would be back on board an MSC ship in a couple of months in the Caribbean for Halloween. Life goes on, even during a Pandemic, live it as you chose. We chose to travel: frequently but carefully.