Quantum 12/1 - 12/12 Review

Please keep in mind that this is my opinion, while I respect others reviews I ask that you treat me with the same respect and keep an open mind.

Boarding - very easy I arrived at 10:40 dropped off luggage curb side, parked the car, checked in and was eating my first meal in the Windjammer at 11am. Easy Breezy! Personally I had no issued with the previous terminal and having to take the bus down the pier, but the new terminal was a big improvement not only visually but also in terms of ease. Boarding is now on Deck 5. I was mesmerized from the moment I boarded. So very impressive.

Ship - boy oh boy... was I WOWED at every turn. They did an incredible job with the artwork throughout the ship. I especially enjoyed the pictures of the Dreamwork's character inside the elevators. One night at about 2am I rode each one to get pictures of all 10 animals. The layout was very easy to navigate. The decor was well done, as I felt like I was transported to a land of luxury. My favorite spot was the hut in the Via opposite Vintages. I spent many afternoons there just relaxing an listening to the folks giggle at my husband and I just laying in there... HeHe.

18 decks, 16 elevators, 4 bow thrusters, and approximately 4100 guests... Simply Amazing!!! In general I found my fellow cruisers to be the most friendly of all my sailings. We met lots of friendly folks and always got a warm welcome on the elevators. While we did hear stories of displeasure with the ship/dynamic dining in general folks were really upbeat during this sailing.

Rooms - I stayed in room 9604 a D7 balcony midship. The Quantum has 1,571 balcony rooms, 148 outside rooms, and 375 virtual balcony rooms. There were numerous suites and connecting families rooms in our corridor that we got a peak of the first day. The color schemes are very relaxing. We met several folks who were staying in the virtual balcony room and they all had wonderful things to say about their accommodations. As for my room is was slightly narrower than the balcony staterooms on the Explorer however it made up for it with the wonderful layout with tons of storage space. The bathroom had a new layout and the shower seems a bit larger. My favorite feature was the shave bar. Each bathroom has a nightlight, which is nice feature at 3am. I always hated being blasted in the face with the bright blinking bathroom light. Being that the ship is so new the towels were soft nice and soft. While the bed was slightly firmer than I am use to I slept well throughout the cruise. The couch on the other hand was way to firm for my taste. The only feature I missed was the magnification mirror. No biggie. My stateroom attendant Aldo was awesome he did a great job and was very accomadating. He made the cutest towel animals. I was shocked to hear that he was assigned 16 cabins- seemed like a bit much. Funny thing Aldo was the only person I ever saw in the hallway. I often felt like I had the ship to myself. While there were many complaints about noise in the cabins at the Captains Corner I thought my cabin was extremely quiet. On other sailings I was accustomed to voices in the hall. Very quiet on this one.

Entertainment - the shows were fabulous my favorite being Starwater. I suggest getting there early as two70 fills up very quickly. We sat upstairs and I had a hard time getting comfortable in the seats. The couches downstairs were much more comfortable, just like sitting in my living room. During one of the early performance one of the acrobats was injured and as that show was canceled after the first 10 minutes. I was so happy that they were able to so I was to continue performing later in the sailing. Starwater is a wonderful blend of technology and live performers. It should not be missed. As this show cannot going on during rough seas I suggest you schedule one of the early performances in the event of a cancelation you will have additional shows to select from. The show on the next to last night had to be canceled due to rough seas so folks packed the theatre on day 11 to see the show. The cast of Mamma Mia was incredible but the sound was a little too low for my taste. The after party was filled with so much energy. I was a little nervous that I wouldn't be able to sit for a 2.5 hour performance, but the show was so good that the time flew by.

Sonic Odyssey was simply amazing!!! As this was only the second sailing for this show we were lucky enough to see William Close the creator of the instruments. This was the first ship I have ever been on with more than two lead singers. The Royal Caribbean singers and dancers were simply incredible!!! Our guest entertainers were great... Jim David the comedian had me laughing so hard I nearly fell out of my seat. Joel Mason an Elton John impersonator was fabulous. I danced and sang throughout the show. He also had a great sense of humor. Ed Alonzo was a hilarious comedian/magician!!! Coincidentally he was on tv starring on top chefs as I was packing on the last day. Earl Turner is one very talented entertainer. His performance had the entire audience on their feet dancing. After all who doesn't love Motown?

Activities - the activities staff was simply incredible! With a vast variety of activities the staff was always pleasant and smiling. I want to give a special shout out to Jackie the instructor from I Fly who spent over a half an hour talking to my husband and I on the pier in Martinique. As we have cruised with Jimmy Rhodes in the past I was a little taken back by his toned down demeanor. It was clear that RCCL is trying to transform the role of the Cruise Director. I was lucky enough to have had several conversation with Jimmy and it seems like his role has become more Administrative. As for The Quest Jimmy would loved to have hosted the show however the ship just did not have a venue that could accommodate the show. We did however enjoy lots if the other entertainment such as roller skating, bumper cars, I fly, circus school, North Star, live music with Horizon, Beatlemanics, and Hot Spices, trivia, dream works parades/performances, Love and Marriage Game Show etc... There was always something to do. We were so busy we had very little time to layout on deck- this was a first. We spent every night in the Music Hall dancing the night away. The variety of music was great. We went from one live band to the next to a DJ. Very entertaining.

Enhanced Activities - the North Star there was only one day that it didn't go up due to high winds. It was easy to get a spot to go up on port days. On sea days they distributed tickets each day at 9am. As I am not an early riser I was lucky enough to go up twice, once in Martinique and once in St Martin. It goes up and down so smoothly. The view was incredible.

I Fly - I use to thinking that ice skating was the most exciting activity at sea... I Fly knocked it out of the box. It was very easy to get reservations. I had two different flights. If you hang around there are always one or two people who don't show up so it's fairly to get a flight without a reservation. To fly you have to <230 if you are under 6ft and <250 if you are over 6ft. My instructors were Del and Callen. Callen was the Quantum's first employee of the month and after my flight with him it is easy to tell why. Go Callen!!!

Dynamic Dining - well I was a little nervous about this concept, as I had made reservations for all

11 night back in March. I wasn't sure what to expect. Well I was simply knocked off my feet! The venues were well appointed and the food was incredible. I tried many things for the first time and loved everything. We only ate at the complimentary restaurants, however I heard nothing but raved reviews about Wonderland... Maybe next time. We only had a 5 minute wait one night at Silk and were seated right away all of the other nights. Except for the last two nights when we dined with friends we had a table for two. Although we sat at a table for two we always had pleasant conversation with the guests next to us. We even were easily able to reschedule reservations for the last two nights (with no issue) to dine with friends. The only negative about the entire sailing was the service in the restaurants. It is clear that the dining room staff is miserable. A few shared that they were unhappy because they were transferred against their wishes and that the new style of dining cut off their additional tips. Well I have to say that had the service been on par I would have had no issue tipping extra each night. In addition, the staff was not very accepting of change (maybe a change management facilitator would have been helpful during the transition) as they introduced technology into the role of the waiter RCCL thought that this would allow the waiters to take on additional responsibilities. I really don't buy into that concept and feel that if they added additional waiters the service would be greatly improved. I understand and was willing to accept hiccups due in part to technology but I have an issue accepting that a company known for their service lost focus of the standards like refilling the water, cleaning off the table between courses, clearing the plates in a timely manner, and ensuring that the guests were happy. Poor customer service. We had an awful experience the first time we dined in the Grande and when I asked to see the manager, even he made no attempt to apologize. Thankfully the food made up for the service. We had standing 8pm reservations and found the restaurants to be empty, so it was really hard to pin point the reason behind the terrible service. We did meet a lot of folks who were totally opposed to DD and opted to eat in the Windjammer. In my opinion they really missed out. I am certainly not opposed to DD and if I able to find a more affordable sailing I'll be booking the Anthem.

Laid Back Dining Option - there was so many to choose from and each was better than the next. Our favorite was Cafe @Two70. The Kummelweck is simply delicious and not to be missed. After the first few days we just ordered meat and skipped the bread and opted for an extra mini dessert. In addition to the Kummelweck Cafe Two70 offered all sorts of hot and cold sandwiches, soups, salads (both prepared and made to order) and all sorts of bite sized yummy desserts. My favorite desserts were the chocolate peanut butter cupcake and the Oreo cheesecake bite, simply Devine!!! Another item not to missed is the Cajun Grilled Shrimp Salad. They lines were always very reasonable and if you ordered a hot sandwich they have you a pager so you didn't have to wait at the counter. They had some tables and stools as well as the couches in the tables in the main theatre. Cafe Two70 is a must.

Windjammer Marketplace - another great upgrade. The new layout felt more grown up a lot less like a school cafeteria. They had a greater selection of foods and an expanded salad bar with lots of healthy choices. In addition at the very back of the windjammer they had a made to order station that offered a variety of omelettes and fajitas. The food was always hot and fresh. In addition to some of the standard choices they had a Asian Station, Mediterranean Station, Grill Station, Panini/Sandwich Station, Make your Own Pizza, a wide variety of fresh baked breads (even the pumpkin baked cheese bread from the MDR) and a salad bar. In addition to the sweet treats stations they have a fresh baked cookie station- yum. Be warned The smell is heavenly. The sweet treats were perfect bite sized portions and included a cupcake of the day. The vanilla one was delish. My favorite was the carrot cake bites. We found out on the second to last night that the Windjammer had a 24 hour grill. Thankfully I hadn't found out sooner as we visited twice for late night french fries. It was a pretty nice spread for a late night snack.

SeaPlex Dog House - the first food truck at sea. Such a great concept. My favorite was the Coney Island Dogs. They had four different variety of dogs and toppings that changed daily. The sauerkraut was the best I ever had.

Sorennto's - I was a fan I thought the pizza on the explorer was much better.

Cafe Promenade - another great upgrade. They really expanded on the selection of snacks. The Zeppoles were incredibly. I cannot even imagine how they would have tasted hot. The shrimp salad sandwich was incredible! The coffee is a big improvement as well.

FreeStyle soda machines - there were two in the cafe promenade the one on the left didn't seem to work as it often dispensed flat soda. There was one in the seaplex but was out of most of the popular choices. I am not really sure why it was never refilled. There were also two in the windjammer.

Disembarkation - we arrived late so that seem to make things a bit chaotic as folks were trying to board and folks were still getting off the ship. We are diamond members, however we ended up with #49 I guess they no longer offer priority disembarkation to Crown & Anchor members. No big deal as we ate breakfast in the Windjammer and struck up a nice conversation with some fellow passengers while waiting. Once off the ship we found our luggage flew through customs and headed to the parking to get our car. The process was seamless.

Overall I had an amazing cruise and would have no hesitations to book on the Quantum Class again. I will be posting my daily blog on cruise critic over the next couple of days. I could go on and on forever as it was just that awesome, but I am going to stop here. Please feel free to ask questions. our car. The process was seamless.

Overall I had an amazing cruise and would have no hesitations to book on the Quantum Class again. I will be posting my daily blog over the next couple of days. I could go on and on forever, but I am going to stop here. Please feel free to ask questions.

I enjoyed reading your review. Thanks for posting.

Thanks for your review.

Thanks for the review. Can't wait to cruise on the Quantum in April. :)

Nice to read a positive review! Thanks!!

Good to hear a positive review!! Thanks for sharing your cruise with us!:):)

I was on the same cruise, and your experience pretty much mirrors mine. I now consider myself a Dynamic Dining convert. There were some execution and staffing issues with it that I noticed early on, but those were the kinds of thing I might expect on a brand new ship with a brand new dining concept.

My experiences in Chic, and especially Silk, were spot on. I do believe they're going to need assistant waiters back, and said so in the survey. Maybe I'm wrong, and it just needs time to mature. One thing is for sure, we had an amazing cruise on Quantum of the Seas, and will cruise on her or her sisters again.

Activities - the activities staff was simply incredible!

 

Overall I had an amazing cruise and would have no hesitations to book on the Quantum Class again. I will be posting my daily blog over the next couple of days. I could go on and on forever, but I am going to stop here. Please feel free to ask questions.

I am glad to hear you liked the cruise. NYC is driving distance for us. But, the reviews have been so awful we decided to let the crew settle into their jobs before we considered booking.

Did you see "Jess from the US" from the activities staff?

We were on the Brilliance TA in early September. I went to the craft classes on each sea day [we had a lot of them] and got to know "Jess from the US." [yes--that is how they referred to her every time they introduced her. :rolleyes:] She also handled all of the karioka [sp] and music trivia on the ship. Did you see her?

She was leaving the Brilliance when we did and had a vacation and then going to Quantum to get it ready to sail. She was very excited. I hope she is having a good experience.

Great review of your cruise experience.

Is it possible to book the complimentary iFly sesions all online? As I understood from other threads, each passenger is allowed one complimentary iFly session per day?

Regarding North Star, I see that cannot be booked online?

There has been lots of criticism around regarding Dynamic Dining. When I look at the sample menus I like the selection, the only thing that disturbs me is the fact if there are no additional choices available the selection will become a bit boring on longer cruises. What I liked about the Main Dining Room was the changing menu every night. Hence how does it look in reality, is the Menu in each venue larger than the sample found online / or do they even have 2 or 3 rotating menus throughout the cruise?

I am sure RCL will do everything to improve the quality of the service in the different dining venues. Getting this ship going is probably even a bigger challenge than at the time the Oasis Ships as there are so many completely new concepts that were launched. As we know dinning is one of the main attractions on a cruise and introducing such a revolutionary concept that has never been there before will require quite a lot of practical experience before everything will run smoothly.

Everyone experience things differently, however taking your review and comparing it to others that were quite negative in terms of things that didn't work, it looks like that Quantum is on the right way and in a few months most if not all problems will be solved :)

Here is my opinion on the negative reviews and reports that people here are referencing.

There were definitely "growing" or "adjusting" pains in the initial cruises: Transatlantic, pre-inaugurals, taster cruises, maiden/inaugural cruise.

But I can confidently say that you will all be better served by ONLY reading/crediting reviews beginning with the December 1 cruise.

Things have improved THAT much.

:)

I will be on the Quantum in January and I was very happy to read your review.

Good stuff. I'm looking forward to my Feb. 2nd sail.

My travel agent asked me to call her with my impressions. I don't know what to say. Your review gave me some things that I agree with.

I wish there was a non smoking walking deck with an indication of how far one circuit is. This is my main recreation on ships. I found that I could walk on the running track late at night or early in the morning. But the running track is not lit very well on moonless nights.

My travel agent expects to be on the Quantum class next November. I'll have to tell her to wait until then and see what she thinks. I found my own, as well as other cruisers', reactions rather personal to what I consider a mixed bag of "innovations."

Glad to hear you had a better time than other posters were making it out to be (I guess its not the Nightmare of the Seas after all)

Very well written, sounds like you had a great time.

Enjoyed reading your review.

Very organized.

Thanks for taking the time.

Sea Ya

Is there a charge for North Star and the bumper cars?

"I do believe they're going to need assistant waiters back"

I agree.

I hesitate to say anything negative to my travel agent because I found the vast majority of the crew and the hotel staff to be working very hard to make the Quantum of the Seas a success.

Possibly, the Chiefs expect the Indians to work too hard. I found a few of the people who did most of the actual work crying because situations became impossible. I mean very close to breaking down and sobbing. Cruisers became too arrogant and bosses too demanding.

There has been lots of criticism around regarding Dynamic Dining. When I look at the sample menus I like the selection, the only thing that disturbs me is the fact if there are no additional choices available the selection will become a bit boring on longer cruises. What I liked about the Main Dining Room was the changing menu every night. Hence how does it look in reality, is the Menu in each venue larger than the sample found online / or do they even have 2 or 3 rotating menus throughout the cruise?

We liked the Dynamic Dining idea and thought the menus looked good, but we ran into that exact issue about the selection. We had a group of 4 and it's probably because several among us ordered multiple appetizers/entrees, but after 1 visit to the restaurant, we had tried almost everything we wanted to try, leaving only a few new things for the next visit. If we had only ordered 1 of each course on each visit, that probably wouldn't have been as much of an issue, but we were excited and wanted to try everything!

What we liked about the MDR was the changing menu, so things felt a little stagnant in that respect (especially with American Icon, since the majority of the lunch menu there is also repeated on the dinner menu). The size of the menu in the sample is about the same size as what you get, although you could ask for the Simple Tastes menu for more options and in some cases the kids menu. For example, we were wondering where people got other appetizers (like spring rolls) at Silk that weren't on the menu and they told us later it was all off the kids menu.

The menus did not rotate on the 11 night cruise, but there was, I guess, some unexpected variety since they ran out of so many things days before we got back to Cape Liberty. The arugula and spinach salads became predominantly lettuce, the banana dessert disappeared and got replaced with cherries jubilee, side dishes changed, etc.

Completely agree on the assistant waiters thing. We mentioned it in the survey too. The poor wait staff were running around like crazy and you could tell how unhappy they were when they were finally down to 1 or 2 tables and had a chance to talk. That wasn't a good change for the workers or the diners, so hopefully they fix it.

Thank you for posting such a detailed and balanced review.

We are sailing on board Anthem of the Seas next summer. I liked the sound of DD but have grown nervous with the concerning reviews, seen to date. Hopefully reviews will improve as things 'bed down' over the coming weeks.

Thanks for your detailed review. I've been on the ship as well. Despite the nit-pickers and negative nancies, the Quantum class ships are the new standard by which all other cruise ships will be measured.

Thank you for posting such a balanced review...looking forward to reading more!

Regarding running out of food - I did note the switch in salads, and no ahi tacos in Divinely Decadence, but that was all I caught on to. I learned a very interesting little factoid in my interview with the chef - with a brand new ship, they have to hone their food ordering habits for the first several cruises. In other words, this is a brand new ship, with brand new demographics. While they've got some experience to go on, they really have to get some cruises under their belt to get the food ordering as spot on as it usually is. Just repeating what I was told.

Regarding running out of food - I did note the switch in salads, and no ahi tacos in Divinely Decadence, but that was all I caught on to. I learned a very interesting little factoid in my interview with the chef - with a brand new ship, they have to hone their food ordering habits for the first several cruises. In other words, this is a brand new ship, with brand new demographics. While they've got some experience to go on, they really have to get some cruises under their belt to get the food ordering as spot on as it usually is. Just repeating what I was told.

Makes sense to me. We were the first 11 night cruise and I wouldn't expect them to get it exactly right on the first try. The one that stood out to me though was the lack of bananas. That was surprising since it's one of those foods that is not really menu-dependent in my mind and should be pretty similar with other ships. We asked in a bunch of places before they told us the ship was completely out with more than 3 days to go. If they ran out at the end it would be one thing but with 3 days left it was pretty surprising to us. Most of the other stuff made sense.

Ordering food shouldn't be big science on RCL for the normal items like lettuce?

X # of passengers in X # of days use up X # of heads of lettuce. Simple.

With so many RCL ships out there now, it should be a standard amount they order?

The type of ship shouldn't determine the amount of lettuce used? or such other easy foods......makes no sense to me. A different menu with new cuts of meat etc. maybe.

We have been on many ships that run out food too, and sure makes you wonder?

Ordering food shouldn't be big science on RCL for the normal items like lettuce?

 

 

 

X # of passengers in X # of days use up X # of heads of lettuce. Simple.

 

With so many RCL ships out there now, it should be a standard amount they order?

 

 

 

The type of ship shouldn't determine the amount of lettuce used? or such other easy foods......makes no sense to me. A different menu with new cuts of meat etc. maybe.

 

We have been on many ships that run out food too, and sure makes you wonder?

It's quite a science though, the last thing they want to do at the end of a cruise is throw out food, and remember some foods might not last long cruises.

One week you might have a ship with Pax who all eat salads with lettuce, meaning a chance of running out.

The next you might have a ship with Pax who don't even touch salads meaning a lot of wastage.