After a couple of days in Vancouver, Canada, we boarded our Royal Caribbean cruise ship, the Ovation of the Seas. I have been looking forward to seeing Alaska for years!
Get ready for the longest post I have ever done—-I couldn’t leave anything out about this AMAZING trip.
We loved traveling with James, Sherrie, and David! Here is a pic of us as we were boarding the ship.
The views of Vancouver from the ship were so pretty.
This ship is so great for teens! It had a rock climbing wall, the iFly experience, the surf rider, a gym, bumper cars, roller skating, air hockey, ping pong tables, pickleball, dodgeball competitions, a teen room and arcade, pools and hot tubs, movies playing every evening, the North Star experience, shows, pool tables, food galore, etc. They also made sure to play the World Cup games on the big screens.
We made sure to get a balcony for all of the views we were going to get to see. If you look closely, you can see Sherrie waving off her balcony!
Our first dinner was at an Italian restaurant, Giovanni’s.
When we took off that evening, the views were spectacular (this word may be repeated a LOT in explaining what we saw on this trip!). We also cruised right under a bridge.
After dinner the first night, we played pool and then went to a show.
The next morning, Danny, the 3 kids, and David all did the iFly experience.
I especially loved the “adults only” section of the ship. There were pools and hot tubs that were at the front of the ship and we could see whales as we soaked in the hot tub! We even saw some humpbacks breach over and over!
The 2nd night was a night to “dress your best”.
We took some posed pics of course!
On day 3, Danny and the boys took lessons for the surf rider.
That same day, they did bumper cars for Embry.
Our ship was huge! Our first port was at Sitka. Here we took a shuttle to the Sitka National Historical Park to take a hike and see totem poles. It drizzled on us most of the day and we were cold, but it wasn’t too bad. We enjoyed seeing our first glimpse of Alaska!
They had fun walking the beach and finding star fish and other sea treasures.
There were bald eagles EVERYWHERE!
I ended my time in Sitka by buying a new hoodie.
Gotta give a spot in this post for all of our towel creatures!
As we came into port at Juneau the next day, the scenery was breathtaking!
We took a whale watching excursion and saw humpbacks! It was so cool to see whales diving down over and over again.
Next, a bus took us to Mendenhall glacier. Wow—-so freaking beautiful—I couldn’t stop taking pics of the glacier, the greenery and mountains around us, and the waterfalls. I will not apologize for the amount of pictures I posted.
This is a view of the glacier that Sherrie took through a telescope.
After the fam ate more seafood, we had to say goodbye to Juneau and boarded the ship.
At the next port, Skagway, we had a blast zip-lining up in the mountains. The drive there and back provided more fantastic views. James and Sherrie spent the day doing an amazing hike to a lake.
We took these military-like vehicles up the mountain to the zip lines.
We even drank from the stream!
Beautiful!
Back in the town, we got some Klondike Doughboy and ate at a restaurant while another World Cup game was on. The town was super cute, but super BUSY from all of the cruise ships.
Back at the ship, Embry went roller skating!
We had more seafood for dinner and Embry tried her first lobster tail.
We had to take a pic with our waiters.
The next morning, we sailed by Hubbard Glacier. It was freezing but super neat to float through ice chunks.
Isn’t this the coolest picture?!
We ate breakfast in this dining room and watched the glacier through the window.
Here’s pictures of the glacier.
That evening we had good laughs at a marriage game show. The night before, we attended a Battle of the Sexes show that was also pretty funny. On the final night, while the adults were packing, the kids went to a comedy show.
We ate at Izumi Sushi for our final dinner on the boat.
Embry also got to boogie board on the final day on the flow rider. She was a pro!
After disembarking at Seward, we had a driver take us to Anchorage with lots of stops along the way. It was well worth all of the things we got to see more “inland” in Alaska. We started the day off freezing our butts off— to wanting to wear tank tops in Anchorage. The first stop was at Exit Glacier. The fog covered it almost completely and then suddenly it went away and we could see it very well!
Instead of “Where’s Waldo”, this is “Where’s Evan”?
David must be pondering something.
…and now we can see the glacier!
Awe…the boys were so tuckered.
The scenery was once again…breathtaking. Shots through the window don’t do it justice, but you can at least see how simply gorgeous Alaska is.
There’s another glacier behind us! We were in the valley here and it was frigid.
One of my favorite stops of the day was at the Wildlife Conservation Center. I wanted to see Alaskan wildlife and it didn’t disappoint. Danny ran into old football buddies while we were there.
Up next, we did a short hike up to a beautiful waterfall.
Later, we stopped at Bird Point and through a viewing telescope, we spotted an actual black bear. He is the black dot you see on the picture of all green grass.
This was another viewing point a little bit past Beluga Point.
Finally, we went up to an overlook of Anchorage.
After we arrived in Anchorage, we ate at the hotel and then crashed hard! James and Sherrie had to leave at the crack of dawn. The next morning we hung out at the hotel playing cards and repacking before heading home to San Diego.
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