Boarding Ovation of the Seas

I’m doing what I advise all my clients not to do. I’m flying into port the day that the cruise leaves. It’s a short 3-night sailing and I’m mentally prepared that my decision could mean I can’t go. I’m okay with that. I take an early nonstop flight from Cleveland that gets me to LAX around 9am. The sky was in our favor, and we arrive early. I’m going to make it on the cruise!

My gate was very close to the exit, and it takes me hardly any time to go from my gate to the curb outside. My friend is meeting me at the airport, and she is flying in from St. Louis. I look up her flight and see she arrives at Terminal 1 which is literally the other side of the airport. It’s a long way to walk around, but it looks like I can take a shortcut. The shortcut is to walk along the sidewalks to the parking garage and continue to the other side. My shortcuts don’t always work out, but I’m pleased this one does. I find a seat near baggage claim and wait for her to arrive. 

We rented a car with the intention of doing a little exploring before we drive to port. There is a shuttle bus stop near baggage claim. I saw several buses go by as I wait for my friend. My friend arrives and we go to the bus stop. All the bus drivers took their break at the same time and it’s a bus drought. Literally every other rental car company comes by more than once and ours is not there. If I hadn’t seen it earlier, I would start to think I was in the wrong place. Little did we know this was just the start. The shuttle comes and it’s a slow ride. We got on from terminal 1 which means we need to stop at every terminal before we go to the rental car office. The bus is packed. We enter the office and there are a ton of people. So many people that they have an overflow line to feed into the normal line. The line itself takes one hour and fifteen minutes. All the rental car companies near LAX had terrible reviews and I can confirm they are accurate. We finally get to the counter to check-in and find our car in the lot. A seemingly inexperienced driver nearly backs into us, but luckily we notice and move. A rental car employee comes to ask us if he hit us. Luckily, my friend had noticed and told me. We are in the car and thoughts of Crossroads the movie crosses my mind, and I think we’re finally free of this place. Nope. One more line to exit. It took us about 2 hours from baggage claim to the exit. That’s absurd. 

We’re hungry and don’t have as much time to explore as we were hoping. We find a taco place nearby that has a parking lot and we enjoy some tacos. The place was good and relatively inexpensive. Tacos feels fitting for our first meal in LA. 

Our boarding time is 3pm so at around 2pm we leave and drive to port. It takes about 45-minutes and is a relatively easy drive. There is traffic, but it’s not too bad. We follow the signs for the port parking lot and it’s easy to find and lots of spots available. We pull a ticket and it shows a daily rate of $22 per day. 

The walk from our car to the ship takes less than five minutes. This includes security and checking in to the cruise. Royal Caribbean is amazingly fast at getting passengers onboard and it’s a stark contrast from our rental car experience. 

Cabin on Ovation of the Seas

The nice thing about a 3pm boarding time is that our cabin is already ready! We don’t have much luggage, so we take it on ourselves and take the elevator up to deck 6. Our cabin is spacious and our “obstructed view” is not bad at all. We were expecting to get a straight-on view of a lifeboat. We can see a lifeboat, but it’s not in front of our cabin. We have a clear view out, but there is a roof below our cabin so we don’t have a clear view down. We’re happy with the view and eager to check out the little restaurant that appears to be below us. 

Selection of Indoor/Outdoor Amenities

It’s time for full exploration mode! Ovation of the Seas is built for cold-weather sailings so it’s different than other ships I’ve sailed. The main difference is that it has an indoor pool and the same area has two hot tubs. This is separate from the indoor solarium which is also on this ship. There is also an outdoor pool and an outdoor splash pad. There are no large water slides, but instead you have the SeaPlex. This is an indoor gym where you can find basketball, volleyball, ping pong, air hockey, and even bumper cars. This area also has a food truck serving hot dogs. We end exploration near the pool at the ice cream place. He gives us the cones and tells us the ice cream is from Japan. It was sooo good. (They don’t usually have Japanese ice cream, but the ship just finished Japanese sailings before our sailing.) The ice cream makes me seriously want to go to Japan. 

The North Star

We made a reservation for The North Star when we boarded. We needed to connect to the ship’s wi-fi to do this. There was no availability for tomorrow, so we settled on tonight. The North Star is an observation bubble that looks like one of the pods from the London Eye. You board into it with 14 other people and then the crane raises you 300 ft into the air. It gave us a nice view of the ship and port.

We go back to our cabin for a break, and we realize we never found that little restaurant below our balcony. We go back out to the balcony and a cloud of smoke smacks us in the face. It isn’t a restaurant. It’s the smoking section. I’d rather have my view blocked by a lifeboat. 

Dinner tonight is at the main dining room. Our meal isn’t until 8pm, but we decide to try and go early. Our sailing isn’t a normal sailing and there is no “my time dining.” We are denied so we walk to the bar and buy some appetizers. We buy cheddar and ale soup and pretzel sticks. While we wait for our food, a man asks if our stool is free and if he can take it. We say yes, he can take it. The man starts to take the stool and then someone from the table next to us asks to take a picture with him. There are tons of high-level Royal Caribbean staff on our ship, so this happens a decent amount. I wonder who he is for a second but then go back to thinking about my rumbling belly. Our food comes and I enjoyed both the soup and pretzel sticks. Well worth the extra money in my opinion. 

We go back to the main dining room at 8pm and are immediately taken to a table. Our waiter and assistant waiter are the sweetest. We order our food and it is delivered pretty quickly. Dinner ends at 9pm for us which for us feels like midnight with the time change. There are all sorts of parties tonight, but we call it an early night.