QUANTUM Dec 1-11, 2014 REVIEW w/lots of photos

Ah, were you on day 3 as well? Sean was taking us around? They were really awesome up there weren't they... I thought for sure they'd limit us somewhat to what we were allowed to take pictures of, especially the control room in behind and walking in and out of there. Thank you for your kind words, glad you're enjoying this :)

Day 3 it was. Sean was great and having the Captain stop by made a great bridge tour extra special. You were almost in our group for St Kitts with Grey's Tours. I'm looking forward to seeing your pics from that tour too! Wish we'd had a chance to meet and say hello!

It got dark extremely quickly once I got off Northstar, I would say within about 15 minutes. I made my way to deck 15 aft where those awesome padded chairs and seating area is located just above the Windjammer to watch us pull away.

St Maarten looked beautiful lit up at night, and the Azura & Adventure looked beautiful as well.

I had noticed the Adventure was actually moving and sailing away as well. At that same time, the moon began to pop out of the clouds for a couple of beautiful night shots

What a gorgeous and rare sailaway! I don't usually get to experience a sailaway at night like that, but I guess in December with the shortest sunlight days of the year that's what you can get.

I now wish to review American Icon and likely my worst dining experience of the 11 days. Don't get me wrong... it was not bad at all, but there were several obvious issues. As the other nights in the other free venues, I arrived on time for my appointment at 6:30pm and asked to be seated in a group table. No problem at all and the table filled extremely quickly. Looking around, I would have to say it was 95% full occupancy. Wow, was it ever packed in there, the busiest I had seen any of the venues. Looking over the menu, I had read it before sailing on-line but felt at this time it was lacking somewhat, I felt the items offered were kinda like trying to make Johnnie Rockets into a MDR Dining experience ... chicken wings, burgers, that kind of idea. I also felt sitting there that is was the least refined and least "classy" of the free venues (furniture, ambiance, etc). Just my honest opinion and perception.

The waitress came very quickly and wanted us to order very quickly. She was most definitely in a rush and all business tonight, no smiles. Luckily we had the opportunity to look over the menu as the table was being filled and seated, so that was ok. I ordered the chicken wings, lobster Mac&Cheese and Gumbo for entree. Most of us at the table commented at how busy the restaurant was, at all the servers basically jogging in and out of the galley, that our server was no where to be seen and only when the food was being served. The wings were great but super messy, not something I would order again eating with other cruisers. The Mac & Cheese was... well... Mac & Cheese, I thought it would be something more special but it wasn't. The gumbo was very boring, bland, nothing. That's ok, no biggie. Not gross food, but not that great either.

When the waitress was clearing plates, I mentioned to her that we noticed her running around and we appreciated her efforts. She stopped in her tracks and thanked me a couple of times. I got the feeling she was getting no credit from anyone, bosses or other tables. To me, I was 100% convinced they had too many tables to deal with and were understaffed that particular night. My desert order came out wrong but I did not want to chance waiting 15min for another, so I had what was delivered... the Grilled Banana Sundae as well as the Coffe & Doughnuts. Being a sweets guy, I was surprised at how underwhelmed I was. For the record, a couple of appies and I think one of the entrees came out wrong as well.

So bottom line for me here was that while it wasn't bad, I had better ambiance, food and service in all the other 3 venues I had already eaten at. This was just my experience... I see that many other cruisers loved American Icon the best. Truly goes to show you how subjective food and service is with respect to personal tastes, timing, etc.

Tonight's headliner was "Joel Mason", an Elton John impersonator. I had not read the compass about the entertainer and found out about the impersonator when I went to the theater... I cringed

But I un-cringed shortly thereafter. This guy did not pretend to be an impersonator at all. While he played all Elton John music, he was a comedian too. What a gas, he had the whole crowd going by the end, very impressive actually. I didn't expect it. So kudos to this guy for putting on this act and making it that good.

Tonight I believe was the first shot at Rock-a-Rockie in the Music Hall. I had seen the very first implementation of this on the Independence a few years ago and it was excellent! Bottom line... it's Karaoke but instead of singing with computerized music, the actual band plays live behind you. Superb idea. I do not sing, you definitely don;t want to hear me sing, and you will never hear me sing unless I am utterly drunk!!!!... so I only watched a bit of this before heading to enjoy Boleros for a while as per usual... oh, by the way, the signature drink in Boleros that is not served in other bars is the Coconut Mojito. YUM YUM! Try it

Ok, bed time, another early day in mysterious Martinique tomorrow on an RCL excursion so we'll see how that goes.

Day 3 it was. Sean was great and having the Captain stop by made a great bridge tour extra special. You were almost in our group for St Kitts with Grey's Tours. I'm looking forward to seeing your pics from that tour too! Wish we'd had a chance to meet and say hello!

Ah I remember you guys now! Yes, Thenford Grey's brother (I forget his name) called my name into your group then pulled me away iniot another group instead. Lol. If I miss mentioning something on the Grey's tour, by all means chime in. Who knows, hopefully we'll cross paths again some day :D

Was on the cruise following yours, and enjoyed 'revisiting' all of the great scenes aboard the Quantum...

One spot that I really enjoyed for the sail-in, in the pre-dawn quietude from the Ambrose pilot station on into Bayonne, was the empty, and dimmed, gym...I found a spot just starboard of center that gave a great forward view, even thru the glass, thanks to the lights dimmed way down.

Had a cup of coffee from the WJ, my scanner tuned to the marine traffic channel, and my binoculars for spectacular views....:cool:

I tried to experience different things on board when I can rather than doing the same thing over and over and over again as so many people seem to do. Sailaway was no different. I had mentioned previously that I was so not impressed with the design of this ship facing forward as far as sitelines and views, but I was determined to try and experience at least one sail-in or sailaway from the forward wings above the bridge, and having previous pics of San Juan both coming and going I know I could chance this sailway. ...

 

Hoopster -- thanks so much for taking the time to do this review and put up all the photos (I know how time consuming that is!). We're booked on the Anthem next year, so I've been following this and other Quantum threads. Glad you had a great time!

From the deck plans and photos I've seen, it looks like there really is no place where you can be far forward and up high, sort of where the Solarium is (maybe a deck higher) but outside.. Is that correct? That would be disappointing, and I would agree with you not the best design.

You've mentioned the "wings." Are those public decks literally over the bridge wings?

Thanks again for this thread!

Hoopster -- thanks so much for taking the time to do this review and put up all the photos (I know how time consuming that is!).

 

From the deck plans and photos I've seen, it looks like there really is no place where you can be far forward and up high, sort of where the Solarium is (maybe a deck higher) but outside.. Is that correct? That would be disappointing, and I would agree with you not the best design.

 

You've mentioned the "wings." Are those public decks literally over the bridge wings?

Thank you... you're welcome, glad you're enjoying the pics and commentary :D You are correct in your statement, no outdoor forward view anywhere unless you're on the wings :mad:

Here's a picture of Q blown up to show a close-up of the wing. Note above the bridge there a solo person standing there looking through one of the slots in the glass which is higher than the person

You get there by going to the very front of the Solarium and turning right or left. Note the next picture... directly below me would be the door out to the wing. Just walk down the center stairs of the Solarium to the front loungers and walk in front of the hot tubs in the walkway between the hot tubs and windows

You'll find this door leading out to the wings. I noticed the door button right away, but I noticed several cruisers try to open the locked door manually and getting confused that the door would not budge, needs to be opened by pressing the button. There's another button out on the wing in order to open to get back in.

Was on the cruise following yours, and enjoyed 'revisiting' all of the great scenes aboard the Quantum...

 

One spot that I really enjoyed for the sail-in, in the pre-dawn quietude from the Ambrose pilot station on into Bayonne, was the empty, and dimmed, gym...I found a spot just starboard of center that gave a great forward view, even thru the glass, thanks to the lights dimmed way down.

Had a cup of coffee from the WJ, my scanner tuned to the marine traffic channel, and my binoculars for spectacular views....:cool:

Ah... so that puts you at the far side of this picture right beside the elliptical machines just above the exercise balls? ;) Makes total sense as the gym is deck 16 and sits above the wall of the jogging track. I guess you'd be watching a forward view overtop of the Solarium Glass? Did you get a 270 degree view over to the port side as well from this vantage point? Hate to say it, I'm guessing 99.9% of cruisers, me included, wouldn't want to spend a morning sailing into port behind gym windows :p, but this is an interesting spot for sure now that you mentioned it. Thank you.

Thank you... you're welcome, glad you're enjoying the pics and commentary :D You are correct in your statement, no outdoor forward view anywhere unless you're on the wings :mad:

 

Here's a picture of Q blown up to show a close-up of the wing. Note above the bridge there a solo person standing there looking through one of the slots in the glass which is higher than the person . . .

 

 

Thanks for the additional info and the helpful photos. I agree with you, the ship is not well designed in terms of forward-facing views. One of things that's a real negative for me about so many newer builds/big ships is how much they remove the cruiser from the water. I think it started first with cruise lines doing away with true promenade decks. Celebrity's S-class ships are a good example, but at least on those ships you can go all the way forward, outside, on a high deck and have access/views to both sides of the ship and the center. The Quantum doesn't even have that, which to me is a negative in terms of the design of a cruise ship.

I was set to wake up early this morning in order to experience sail-in to a port I've never been to. Fort-De-France. As i went up to top deck, I see we were approaching land with Mt Pelee on the left.

It was still quite early as sail-in was due for 9am. I didn't think we were too close to port yet so today I decided I would try Cafe270 for breakfast for the 1st time. First I had to grab my Macchiato at the CL. Mario wasn't in there this morning, but it did give me the opportunity to take this photo of the large CL with hardly anyone in it

So heading down to deck 5 and into The Via I realized I didn't have the greatest pics of these areas with all the people around on embarkation day. It was somewhat of a ghost town this morning through here so I was able to shoot a bunch of unobstructed photos as I went through. The 6 elevator shafts are to the left and right of the first photo, and here you see the beginning of The Via with "Waves of Light" in the distance.

Here we are looking back from where I had stared at the elevators

The artwork on the sides is really interesting with the top areas being animated constantly changing screens 24/7. I always looked up and all around when walking through here rather than straight ahead

Making may way through the via, I enter the open square with " Waves of Light" in the center, Jamie's to the right, and the walkway that leads to Two70 to the left passing Vintages

Here's the path leading to Two70. There's lots of different and interesting furniture along the way separated by those white curtains. Up ahead on the left is the very small space for the art center. Cafe Two70 is basically right across from the art center

I didn't stop at the Cafe right away as the morning light was beautiful in Two70 this morning so I wanted to take a few pics first. I walked up the stairs to deck 6, and remembered just off to the side of Two70 is "the "Workshop", an arts and crafts center. This is the only time I paid any attention to this space.

I was able to get some great shots of Two70 from deck 6 this morning and couple from different angles and spots I hadn't seen yet,

I showed a couple of pictures on a previous day of the Library, but I wish to add this other one I took this morning as I walked through on deck 6 as it clearly shows the only 4 computers available on the whole ship. Definitely the plan for Quantum is for cruisers to have their own personal devices for internet use, not the typical waits and super slow internet at RConline on the rest of the fleet.

Another beautiful look at Two70 from above just after passing through the library, and just past this point a little used staircase leading down into Two70 behind the bar.

Here you get really good perspective at truly how tall the windows are. Keep in mind the images of the shows I've already posted (and will post more) with respect to the images on these same windows at night!

And the bar itself at the bottom of the stairs

Ok... I'm hungry now! I took a few more photos of some of the artwork and rear areas of Two70, then headed to get some food

This is almost a carbon copy of Park Cafe on the other classes of ships, except more expansive and a few more selections. You'll find the usual favorites here including the Royal egg muffin, breakfast burrito, fruit and yogurt cups, and made to order bagels with various cream cheeses and toppings

Mmmmm.... smoked salmon on cream cheese bagel w/tomato, onion and capers, and a Royal Muffin too and some OJ. That hit the spot!

I had realized before heading for food that perhaps we were closer to the pier than I had first thought we would be, and it seemed early. Nonetheless I had an RCL excursion booked this morning, so deciding to get breakfast and get ready for the day rather than rush up to top deck without breakfast, then an excursion with no breakfast, would not be a good option for me.

I feel it's important to show you the amazing view outside that Two70 gives you in person that a camera cannot duplicate. You've seen all my previous photos of Two70, but the lighting of the photography washes out any view to the outside. As I'm eating breakfast at a table up at the Cafe Two70, I took the following 2 pictures with different camera settings. With your human eye, you get to see both at the same time that a camera doesn't pick up. What an awesome view Two70 provides when close to land!

As I ate breakfast, I realized I would be enjoying a new sail-in experience to a new port from an inside venue rather than my normal outside top deck routine. So I finished off breakfast and headed down towards the big windows to get a closer look of the pier and our sail-in

I spent some time here chilling out on one of the big comfy chairs against the windows enjoying Q finishing it's spin and backing up to the pier

And now we have come to a standstill and docking. Leaving Two70 I took this shot looking back at Two70 with my back almost against the rear windows, a perspective I hadn't seen photo'd yet.

The ship hadn't been cleared yet. It was still about a 1/2 hour before we were due to be cleared at 9am, and with my excursion time of 9:30 out on the pier, I still had plenty of time, so I decided to get some more detailed photos of both Vintages and Jamie's while I was passing through. First Vintages.

This is a very nice venue. I personally did not spend any time here so I don't have much to say about it other than it was not used very much the many times I walked by. I noticed it has a very cool wine dispensing area at the back.

Having dined for lunch at Jamie's a couple of days before, I hadn't taken any decent photos at all of this area either, especially as I wouldn't want to intrude on other cruiser's dining while taking any pictures, so this was my chance with the venue totally empty in the morning

As mentioned on Day 4 during lunch, Jamie's is totally different than Portofino's or Giovanni's on the other ships in that it's extremely casual in nature rather than "classy"... I don't know how else to explain it. As mentioned before lot's of stainless steel and wood, wood tables and very basic furniture. waiter's in jeans and half-ties much more casual feeling than Giovanni's.

And here are the "outside" tables that are slightly outside of the restaurant and more into The Via area immediately across "Waves of Light". When looking at people eating here on these tables each night, I got the feeling I was walking through a mall or an airport rather than this beautiful cruise ship, this was the only negative feeling I had with any of the interior spaces on the ship. I think they were trying to replicate the outside seating of Giovanni's on Oasis but it just cannot compare to the Central Park and outside feel.

(I'll finish up Martinique tomorrow .... stay tuned)

Still following. Loving this review! 😁

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I wish to comment on Andrea's review I've been following without hijacking her thread

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2137662

It seems that a few others have hijacked it on several occasions to push their own personal views which is unfortunate. It just dawned on me as I read her last couple of paragraphs regarding having fun dancing, husband letting loose, etc... I hung out with fun and active people. The fun and active people I know from the ship who have posted on CC (I know a few handles) loved the ship, the new entertainment and most everything else. Easily there are other problems, but overall huge positive for me and them.

I feel this ship is made for fun and activities. I suspect when I'm older, less active, mobility/medical issues, maybe I wouldn't like Quantum either. I too might want (and need!!) stability, the "same old same old" every night. It's comforting. This ship is such a MASSIVE change, it's not the RCL we know at all. I was clear that I did not feel home at all until about 3 days in.

Quantum IS NOT even close to the same RCL we all know and love... they could've branded the ship "ACME cruises" and you wouldn't have known any better, it's so different. If you expected the same RCL brand when booking Quantum, there's no way you could not have been hugely disappointed. If you love fun, ultra entertainment, tons of activities, and especially you embrace something new, then you would've loved this ship.

Just my 2 cents. Thanks you Andrea :)

AWESOME review!!! I was also on this cruise, and this is bringing back wonderful memories! My dad is even in your bumper cars picture :p Thanks for posting!!

Great Photos Hoopster 95. We agree with your assessment of Jamie's.

We met you at the Grande on the second night of sailing. I am Big Al

Great Photos Hoopster 95. We agree with your assessment of Jamie's.

We met you at the Grande on the second night of sailing. I am Big Al

Hey hey Big Al :D:D lol. How the heck are you?? Great to hear from you :) It was really nice meeting and seeing you & Rowena around the ship it seems daily after that. Hope we cross paths again some day. You two are really good people. Wasn't that Jersey couple we sat with "interesting"? :rolleyes:

Are you comparing the dinner that night I saw you two eating at Jamie's to your experiences at Giovanni's on other ships? You were sitting on those outside tables... I'm guessing you thought it was "airport'ish" also? While I liked Jamie's for a change and it was pretty good, I would choose Giovanni's 9 out of 10 times going forward if I had the choice. I feel on the other ships I could easily do Giovanni's 2-3 nights and be totally satisfied, not bored. Jamie's?.... once and that's all you need, you're done imho.

I wish to comment on Andrea's review I've been following without hijacking her thread

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2137662

 

It seems that a few others have hijacked it on several occasions to push their own personal views which is unfortunate. It just dawned on me as I read her last couple of paragraphs regarding having fun dancing, husband letting loose, etc... I hung out with fun and active people. The fun and active people I know from the ship who have posted on CC (I know a few handles) loved the ship, the new entertainment and most everything else. Easily there are other problems, but overall huge positive for me and them.

 

I feel this ship is made for fun and activities. I suspect when I'm older, less active, mobility/medical issues, maybe I wouldn't like Quantum either. I too might want (and need!!) stability, the "same old same old" every night. It's comforting. This ship is such a MASSIVE change, it's not the RCL we know at all. I was clear that I did not feel home at all until about 3 days in.

 

Quantum IS NOT even close to the same RCL we all know and love... they could've branded the ship "ACME cruises" and you wouldn't have known any better, it's so different. If you expected the same RCL brand when booking Quantum, there's no way you could not have been hugely disappointed. If you love fun, ultra entertainment, tons of activities, and especially you embrace something new, then you would've loved this ship.

 

Just my 2 cents. Thanks you Andrea :)

Hoopster I am enjoying your review as well. Feel free to hijack away. I have tons of pics but just can't figure out how to upload. I am enjoying your pics makes me feel like I am back on board. I never came home from vacation so relaxed. It was the greatest vacation ever for us!

AWESOME review!!! I was also on this cruise, and this is bringing back wonderful memories! My dad is even in your bumper cars picture :p Thanks for posting!!

Lol! Did I hit him? :cool::p

I had a really good rivalry going on with a few guys on several of my bumper car episodes, so much so on the last ride (I think day 10) there were a group of other cruisers I had a meal with and also rode with on a previous day we started bantering at each other in line quite loudly. Every once in a while there was a spare bumper car available to a solo, and when this group got to the front they were begging the attendant to have a solo for me so I can get on the floor with them as I was back in the line. Sure enough, I got my solo call up! LOL. You should've heard us. We went after each other big time on the floor, they were ganging up on me. We were yelling at each across the floor and telling other bumper car drivers to get out of our way as we went head on several times. I got airborne a couple of times on those head ons! What a hoot... I know a bunch of people in the line were laughing at us, I think we had provided the entertainment there for about 5 min that day :D

Before getting off the ship I took some photography top deck of the city and docking area. Here's one for you

I went down to the gangway in order to get off the ship and meet our tour group on the pier.

Having researched Martinique quite a bit to find any private tours at all in English, I realized very quickly by the lack of info on the web and the various negative reviews of several tours, that likely this would be best to book through RCL and have an English speaking tour guaranteed. I chose the St. Pierre excursion.

Our group gathered at the bus and began our journey. The port area where the buses and taxis are is appalling compared to all other ports I've been to. It looks more like an area for trades/commercial vehicles than a cruise port, lot's of gravel, no landscaping at all, and a seemingly chicken wire fence as the perimeter security. The "security" hut as you exited the one-way entrance/exit is basically a tent with a guy standing there not really doing much. Interesting.

We first made our way through town, with some narration of the city. I have a few pictures but they are underwhelming. Not that I need to be impressed, but I thought the town itself did not show well. We made it out to the highway... our first stop to be Balata Church "with panoramic vistas of Fort de France and its bay from this replica of Paris' Sacred Heart Basilica."

I am spoiled... I just came from Rome/Venice/Malta with some of the most amazing cathedrals known to man, so I was underwhelmed here. It was a nice stop, and the view was nice too, but it certainly was not spectacular so the description on-line was embellished. This is 1/10th the size of the actual cathedral in France.

I don't do excursions for distilleries... in fact, I consider them a waste of time and filler to make an excursion longer. But I have to say I enjoyed our short time at the Depaz Rum Distillery here just outside of St. Pierre and at the foot of Mt. Pelee.

The grounds are beautiful with a great view up to Mt. Pelee from the edge of the mansion perimeter (they call it castle). There was no access to the castle past that point as it is still used as the private residence. The distillery is set up very well for tours with a clearly marked path with signage and descriptions of the equipment as you go through. It was quite busy when we were there, so it was popular.

Getting through all the areas of the distilling process from start to finish, you get into the commercial area and store. I can tell you the line-up at the check-out counter was at least 15 minutes long and the store was extremely busy.

I can also tell you as a rum fan (Capt. Morgan is my favorite) that this was one of the best rums I have ever tasted. If someone knows better than me, please correct me here, but if I remember correctly this is the last of the rum distilleries in the Carribean still using pure cane sugar to produce their rum (not corn syrup, or other filler). Totally smooth and delicious.

We were able to taste test a couple. I tried the dark rum obviously and a white coconut rum... awesome! For the first time I can remember, I actually decided I wanted to buy liquor during an excursion rather than at duty free on the way home. There was a large display close to the checkout counter that showed a beautiful shaped bottle that I thought would look excellent on my bar, so I picked up one of the 50 or so boxes right beside it with the label 22 euro. I got to the check out counter... they spoke very little english. So I showed them the box and showed them the picture I took of the specialty bottle. The lady said no, took my box and came back with a much larger box. She showed me the bottle in it. I said how much. She said $220!!!!!!! {GASP!} I waved her off as a no and said I would take the 22euro bottle that I was already buying as it was the dark rum anyways, just not a reserve and specialty bottle.

Above is a good picture of the white rum clearly showing their trademark labelling.

Of note when I got on the bus to look at my bottle of rum, I was immediately confused by the box. I looked better at the label and in the smaller fine print it said 3L (3 litres). It didn't dawn on me right away, and I tried to open the box thinking I had a 750ml or 1L bottle in there. It finally dawned on me as I looked at the perforations on the side of the box... it was like boxed wine where you pull out a spout!!! There was no bottle inside, it was ALL rum! Lol, that's why it was so heavy hahaha! Well, I did sweat through the airport after packing this box in my luggage all the way home, but it made it home now sits proudly on my bar

St Pierre was a disappointment. On our way through the town I remember stopping in traffic and seeing a kid on a bike look up at the bus, snarl (yes seriously, curl his lip) and give us the finger. I did not get a warm and fuzzy from anyone on this island at all and I'm quite a happy go lucky guy. I read on another review that a cruiser had great luck with friendly people right in Fort De France in the shops close to the ships, with most taking US currency, so perhaps the cruise port area is better for friendliness (funny how $$$ does that).

We stopped at the St. Pierre museum which was basically a small building about 80ft by 30ft, about the same size and look of a burger joint at the beach for example. You were not allowed pictures inside... there was nothing there I feel would be damaged unlike the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. It was unfortunate as now I have no memories of the museum and some of the artifacts. I did get this shot just behind the "museum" of the shoreline.

You can google Mt. Pelee and the description it's famous massive volcanic eruption in 1902 which killed 30,000 people in St. Pierre and destroyed the city. Lava did not do the destruction... it was the 420mph surge of super heated 1000 degree farenheit gases that flattened the city and killed most everyone.

Obviously there is very little left to see as far as remnant ruins

The main set of ruins left intact is the theatre and jail, which were positioned side by side on the main street. Here are a couple of pictures from the theatre

Next door to the theatre, you can look down onto the remnants of the jail. It was here that one of the two survivors of this event actually made it. The dungeonous cell below is where Louis-Auguste Cyparis, a felon held in this underground cell in the town's jail for wounding a friend with a cutlass, survived this ordeal.

We finished up this site and headed back to our final spot, a viewpoint you see on many travel websites looking back at St. Pierre and Mt Pelee in the background. Thankfully, at this very moment the clouds cleared away from the peak for the first time.

As a summery for this excursion I rate the guide a 8/10... engaging and quite good, she did her best for sure. The value of the excursion for what you get barely acceptable 6/10. The museum and St. Pierre a fail at 5/10. The locals could do so much more to accept curious and interested visitors to this country, to learn the history and tribulations of the people, but they barely do anything at all in that respect. There was nothing to buy in St. Pierre, there was no where to walk around and explore, there was just nothing. Very disappointing as I was looking forward to seeing the history of St. Pierre.