19 Nights, 10,000+ photos, and way too many videos. A Quantum Review

Day 6a: November 28, 2014

Day 6 photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/115365916503583655211/QuantumOfTheSeasNovember282014CocoCayBahamasAttempt

Today was supposed to be the beach day of the sailing as the Quantum would tender for the first time when she arrived at CocoCay. Unfortunately while the Captain did get us their early and spent an hour or more maneuvering the ship into different locations and angles their was nothing that could be done to try and shield the island from the rough seas. That meant that the tenders could not even attempt to get out to us and we had to just sail on. We weren’t alone though, the MSC Divina was right their with us trying the same thing at Great Stirrup Cay (though she didn’t move around much, just sat their) and we both left at the same time so they were clearly communicating with one another.

This would have been my first visit to CocoCay so I was a bit disappointed to miss it. I went into the cruise though knowing that it is often missed for bad weather and as soon as we arrived at the island I had a feeling we were not going to be staying, long before the captain’s announcement. Since our next destination was back up to Bayonne though that limited our options. We were told of a hand full of ports available but all had reasons they didn’t work.

-Miami: Too shallow too allow Quantum to pull in

-Ft. Lauderdale: Requires 24 hour notice and would not even talk to the ship

-Charleston: Not able to accomodate a ship this large

-Bermuda: Still hasn’t dredged the channel, so too shallow to accommodate her

I’ve been told that Charleston was sounding like a very real possibility up until the last second and then they were told it would not work. So we just sailed strait back home with an extra sea day. Things were nice onboard though with some warm weather. A lot of people seemed to make it a pool day since their was no longer a beach day.

Even North Star seemed to feel sorry and decided to actually work nearly all day for the first time (nearly, because she did breakdown for several short periods still).

Unfortunately the ice cream machines stayed their stubborn broken course so we still didn’t have that. For the first time though the crew tried to make up for it. During lunch in the Windjammer their were people walking around with trays of dixie cups with a small squirt of vanilla ice cream in each. They were apparently filling them up down in the dining rooms and running them up stairs to hand out to people. It certainly didn’t make up for never having the ice cream machines working but it was better than nothing.

As we were sailing we once again saw another Disney ship docked at Castaway Cay. This time the Disney Fantasy.

The cruise director and his team also got a new daily planner put together and released. His team covered the ship to personally hand them out to every person, I know I was asked if I wanted one 3 times as I walked around. In addition to that Jimmy went on the intercom system to ensure that anyone that somehow managed to not get one still knew all the additions. It seemed like they mainly copied some items from day 7 early. They added another David Kirkpatrick lecture, a few small things I can’t remember, but the biggest thing was that they started the hourly roboshows for the first time this sailing. They only had two of them, Perspective and Dance, which aired back to back each hour.

We got a decent sunset that evening, it wasn’t to special but still nice.

That night they also added a game of Majority Rules in the Music Hall. This was the first game show of the sailing! Can’t stress that enough. Unfortunately it’s timing in the middle of when everyone is rushing off to dinner and shows meant it was very lightly attended which never works for games like that.

Loving your pictures and your review

Just so you know the ropes course on Breakaway/getaway is so much fun.The way its designed they can have a lot of people up there at once and you all go in different directions. My kids probably spent 8 hours up there over the week. It sort of surprised me how much they enjoyed it actually.

I did not do it since I am able to break my leg walking and are terrified of heights.

Quick question about the Royal IQ app….if you use the Royal IQ app on the ship, does that mean you're using your data on your phone? Or does it work in airplane mode? I'm technologically dumb, so I hope this question isn't too offensive! :D

Thanks in advance! Loving your review! :)

Quick question about the Royal IQ app….if you use the Royal IQ app on the ship, does that mean you're using your data on your phone? Or does it work in airplane mode? I'm technologically dumb, so I hope this question isn't too offensive! :D

 

Thanks in advance! Loving your review! :)

I'm assuming you have an iPhone. You must use airplane mode while on vacation to ensure you don't get any charges for cellular activity while abroad. The Royal iQ app is only available while on the ships wifi network named Royal Wifi. So once you turn airplane mode on it will shut everything on your phone off so you must then manually turn the wifi back on. If you use the the quick options available when you swipe from the bottom of the screen you want to see the left two icons selected (airplane and wifi). If you do it from the settings app you should have airplane turned on at the top and then go into wi-fi (the second item) and swipe it to on. As long as you keep airplane mode on and then turn wifi on it will work and you won't get any cellular charges. Hope that makes sense.

I'm assuming you have an iPhone. You must use airplane mode while on vacation to ensure you don't get any charges for cellular activity while abroad. The Royal iQ app is only available while on the ships wifi network named Royal Wifi. So once you turn airplane mode on it will shut everything on your phone off so you must then manually turn the wifi back on. If you use the the quick options available when you swipe from the bottom of the screen you want to see the left two icons selected (airplane and wifi). If you do it from the settings app you should have airplane turned on at the top and then go into wi-fi (the second item) and swipe it to on. As long as you keep airplane mode on and then turn wifi on it will work and you won't get any cellular charges. Hope that makes sense.

Perfect thank you! We're on tomorrow!! :)

Sorry for the lack of updates. I'm still keeping up with this thread but as I said at the start I will be working on the updates as I'm waiting on things to render and export. Currently I've been working on the tour video which is a very intensive editing process so I haven't had much downtime to write. Once I get past this one the videos are much quicker to edit and then lengthy exports to wait on so I'll be able to post more again. I can honestly say though that when I set out to do this tour video I expected it to be bigger and more complicated than the Grandeur's but I also did a lot to make it easier. Even when I finally was done though I don't think I expected it to be as big as it is. Currently it is 1 hour and 45 minutes long. It's not that it's a slower video but there really is that much more to cover. For instance the MDR on the Grandeur took 3.5 minutes on her tour, each of the 4 Dynamic Dining venues takes 3-3.5 minutes individually. This is partly because they are so closed and divided that large sweeps can't reveal even a portion of the venue. I have all the videos in place and the graphics there. I now am watching through the whole thing to place the transitions (which will help shorten it slightly), set the proper lower third text for the different venues, and ensure the clips are all trimmed properly and flowing. After that I then have to set the "you are here" marker which is probably the most annoying part of the process but the one that makes the video so unique. This tour video has 442 individual clips and each clip will require it's own "you are here" marker location to be set. Once all that's done I then have to export it (likely 6-12 hours for a video this long and complicated), upload it to Youtube, and hope none of the venue music gets it flagged. If it does I have to go back and play with the audio so I can export it again. In the end though I hope everyone will enjoy it and benefit from it for years to come.

I do have one question though, with it likely ending up at 1 hour and 30 minutes long (Labadee was 28 minutes, Falmouth was 9 minutes, and Grandeur was 35 minutes), would people prefer two parts? One video for deck 3, 4, 5, and 6. Then a separate to cover 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16. It's not a difficult change, simply cut it in the middle and add the end and beginning back on.

This was a big day for Royal Caribbean. It's the first time they have had to put there latest ship up against what the competition has to offer. Even bigger though she was docked right across from the Breakaway so everyone on both ships was looking at the two ships being offered to them out of NYC and generating ideas about if they made the right decision. Being on the Quantum of the Seas I can tell you that Royal Caribbean lost the battle. The Breakaway had a DJ on the pier along with dancers, characters, and a red carpet to welcome guests back onboard. Meanwhile on the Quantum their was a massive crowd waiting for the North Star which was broken. Instead of telling us that it was broken though they simply walked past the massive line and would say they'd find out and let us know but instead each one chose to sneak down the other side. Eventually after a lot of yelling and complaining somebody finally decided to make a statement, North Star was still broken. So while everybody was being ignored waiting in line for the continuously broken North Star they were staring out at the Breakway and talking about how much better of an experience everyone on that ship appeared to be having. Considering that the people on the Breakaway were not hearing anything from our ship and North Star wasn't running I'm a bit doubtful the same was being said over there.

Derek, loving your outstanding review as always. I have to say, having recently returned from Breakaway, you had me in stitches with this particular post because I vividly remember Breakaway's awesome pier party in Nassau and I was juxtaposing it in my mind with a long line of incredibly bitter people staring up at a broken machine, as you so perfectly described. Sorry it happened to you though!

I will give you my $.02 on Breakaway, since you commented about not understanding the appeal of the ship. That's kind of how we felt going on, and we thus went on with no expectations. We had such a blast, more fun than we had on the Allure in May, and were so favorably impressed by NCL's outstanding entertainment, generally fun atmosphere, and very friendly crew. I look forward to adding NCL to our rotation going forward! It may be Carnival's slogan, but Breakaway was ACTUALLY a "Fun Ship."

Looking forward to the rest of the review, particularly of the 11 night since I'm doing a similar 12 night on Anthem next year. Glad to read in your preview that it went so much better!!!

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.

I do have one question though, with it likely ending up at 1 hour and 30 minutes long (Labadee was 28 minutes, Falmouth was 9 minutes, and Grandeur was 35 minutes), would people prefer two parts? One video for deck 3, 4, 5, and 6. Then a separate to cover 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16. It's not a difficult change, simply cut it in the middle and add the end and beginning back on.

I love your review and the pictures -- we will be going on the 11 day Anthem next year so this is a great preview.

As far as the video -- It would be better to have 2 parts IMO.

Thanks for all the hard work you have put into this.

I also vote for two parts - and thanks again!

KC

Before I begin day 7 I've been thinking about this cruise and wanted to mention something rather nice I just realized. Our very first cruise was on the Disney Magic back in April of 2000 for a 4 night Bahamas sailing:

April 10, 2000 - Port Canaveral

April 11, 2000 - Nassau, Bahamas,

April 12, 2000 - Castaway Cay, Bahamas

April 13, 2000 - Day at Sea

April 14, 2000 - Port Canaveral

This 8 night "inaugural" Bahamas sailing of the Quantum of the Seas was my tenth cruise and it's kind of neat how while leaving from the northeast it still essentially followed the path of my first cruise.

Day 7a: November 29, 2014

Day 7 photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/115365916503583655211/QuantumOfTheSeasNovember292014DayAtSea?noredirect=1

Today was the start of the scheduled journey back home. Even though we did get an early start due to the poor sea conditions at CocoCay it was still a warmer day out. Just to torment us it came with the perfect sea conditions, something we all were wishing for just a day earlier.

The weather was so nice that I even ate lunch in the Windjammer’s outdoor seating area. It was beautiful back their, no breeze at all and actually even a bit hot when the sun was shining in.

This was the day that my RipCord session was rescheduled for. That was a blast and just the first of 3 times. I’ll discuss this later.

As I mentioned the previous days compass finally had some activities and most seemed to be repeated this day as well (technically I think yesterdays run of them were actually the repeats). It truly wasn’t until day 6/7 that the cruise actually began. The North Star was working (mostly) this day once again. The technology was (mostly) working. With the exception of Royal iQ and the ice cream machines not working things were finally feeling like a real cruise for the first time. They even scheduled the “Two70 Technology Tour” during the afternoon which was very similar to the Captain’s Corner but with crew and cast members that worked in Two70. It was very casual and a much more positive session than either of the Captain’s Corners that I experienced in the 19 nights. I’ll have the full video of it available shortly.

We had another nice sunset this evening. The perfectly smooth seas and clear skies had my hopes up for a green flash. But unfortunately the horizon was all clouds that blocked it.

This was also the night that Sonic Odyssey premiered for the first time ever!

This is why things were suddenly starting to feel like a cruise again. Every evening I would stop by the Royal Theater and William Close along with a team of stage crew workers would be stringing the Earth Harp. They’d work much of the night and then rehearse all day long. This is why the Royal Theater was off limits to the cruise director and the Royal Theater Cast was unavailable to participate in any of their usual activities. I’m going to talk about it more at the end when I review all the entertainment. I did see this one 3 times because it was so incredible so I’d rather not talk about it repeatedly.

I do however want to talk about the reservation system. This was a big night for the show so of course everyone wanted to see it. I always arrive 15-30 minutes before the doors even open (45 minutes before the show) and there is still often a line. This evening obviously was no different then. I was on deck 4 starboard side near the Music Hall where it’s often a bit emptier since the Esplanade leads directly to the Port side. As normally happens a long line formed and then as the time neared people started gathering by the stairs area to make a rush in. Well the doors didn’t open so the crowd just got bigger. About 5 minutes after the doors should have opened someone finally came out and said that the reservation system was having problems so they could not scan cards. Instead they would need an organized line (what had and still mostly existed) so that each person could say there cabin number and have it looked up. Knowing this extra burden you would think they would try to keep things organized or pay attention to the line. Instead the people from the stairs rush in and rather than checking the next person in line they would actually turn around to check the people clearly coming from another direction! Royal Caribbean has been terrible at this in the past but for the most part they’ve managed the lines well on the Quantum, this night was just pathetic though. I was only about 15th in line, but by the time I got in the theater the place was already a third full. Apparently in addition to not following the line they had multiple people working the other side and opened their doors on time. It was a really poor experience all the way around and one that was 100% in their control. With just a few more seconds of thought they could have managed that line and overcome the issues with no real adverse effect but speed.

Following Sonic Odyssey over in Music Hall was then the 70’s Disco Inferno Party replacement, Groovytown. I have to say this feels like a Ken Rush creation. I love the parties as an observer, but on the Oasis with Ken Rush in January 2010 it was done as more of a dance party in Studio B with a few segments of entertainment mixed throughout. That is exactly how this was. A member of the cruise director’s staff came out as the host of the party along with several other members to dance among the crowd as the DJ played 70s music.

Eventually Jimmy Rhodes then came out and took charge of things with the live band taking over the music.

They had a few segments of dancing on the stage by members of the activities staff and a few little audience moments. Overall though if you are one who likes to be in the middle of the parties and dance you’ll likely enjoy it even more now, but if like me you prefer to watch it’s really not worth the time. It is simply way too long and the short entertainment moments are not up to the "quality" (even the cheesy quality) of the old ones.

Derek, thanks so much for doing this thorough review and also for all your beautiful pics. I was also on the Nov.23 Un-Naugural so your pics remind of some of the good times we had while onboard. Unfortunately I still look at this cruise as the worst I have ever taken with Royal and I'm patiently waiting for a response to my letter to A. Goldstein and R Fain.

I'm looking forward to your videos.

This was also the night that Sonic Odyssey premiered for the first time ever!

This is why things were suddenly starting to feel like a cruise again. Every evening I would stop by the Royal Theater and William Close along with a team of stage crew workers would be stringing the Earth Harp. They’d work much of the night and then rehearse all day long. This is why the Royal Theater was off limits to the cruise director and the Royal Theater Cast was unavailable to participate in any of their usual activities. I’m going to talk about it more at the end when I review all the entertainment. I did see this one 3 times because it was so incredible so I’d rather not talk about it repeatedly.

I do however want to talk about the reservation system. This was a big night for the show so of course everyone wanted to see it. I always arrive 15-30 minutes before the doors even open (45 minutes before the show) and there is still often a line. This evening obviously was no different then. I was on deck 4 starboard side near the Music Hall where it’s often a bit emptier since the Esplanade leads directly to the Port side. As normally happens a long line formed and then as the time neared people started gathering by the stairs area to make a rush in. Well the doors didn’t open so the crowd just got bigger. About 5 minutes after the doors should have opened someone finally came out and said that the reservation system was having problems so they could not scan cards. Instead they would need an organized line (what had and still mostly existed) so that each person could say there cabin number and have it looked up. Knowing this extra burden you would think they would try to keep things organized or pay attention to the line. Instead the people from the stairs rush in and rather than checking the next person in line they would actually turn around to check the people clearly coming from another direction! Royal Caribbean has been terrible at this in the past but for the most part they’ve managed the lines well on the Quantum, this night was just pathetic though. I was only about 15th in line, but by the time I got in the theater the place was already a third full. Apparently in addition to not following the line they had multiple people working the other side and opened their doors on time. It was a really poor experience all the way around and one that was 100% in their control. With just a few more seconds of thought they could have managed that line and overcome the issues with no real adverse effect but speed.

 

Following Sonic Odyssey over in Music Hall was then the 70’s Disco Inferno Party replacement, Groovytown. I have to say this feels like a Ken Rush creation. I love the parties as an observer, but on the Oasis with Ken Rush in January 2010 it was done as more of a dance party in Studio B with a few segments of entertainment mixed throughout. That is exactly how this was. A member of the cruise director’s staff came out as the host of the party along with several other members to dance among the crowd as the DJ played 70s music.

Eventually Jimmy Rhodes then came out and took charge of things with the live band taking over the music.

They had a few segments of dancing on the stage by members of the activities staff and a few little audience moments. Overall though if you are one who likes to be in the middle of the parties and dance you’ll likely enjoy it even more now, but if like me you prefer to watch it’s really not worth the time. It is simply way too long and the short entertainment moments are not up to the "quality" (even the cheesy quality) of the old ones.

Great pictures and reviews Derek! My wife and I just returned from the recent 8-night cruise. By the way, we were there mainly to see my daughter perform in Mamma Mia! and Sonic Odyssey. (She's the tiny Asian one. lol). I'm glad you enjoyed the shows. Overall, we enjoyed the whole Quantum experience.

Derek, thanks so much for doing this thorough review and also for all your beautiful pics. I was also on the Nov.23 Un-Naugural so your pics remind of some of the good times we had while onboard. Unfortunately I still look at this cruise as the worst I have ever taken with Royal and I'm patiently waiting for a response to my letter to A. Goldstein and R Fain.

 

I'm looking forward to your videos.

Yep, I'm waiting on a response from Michael as well, lol. I did the proper contact form they said to fill out, it claims the average response time is 2 days. After 2 weeks I tweeted them and they claim its 30 days or more. So I sent them a picture of the message displayed after submitting and they didn't respond so I just went higher up.

I'm up to 3 computers working on the videos right now. A PC that has all the videos to identify the ones I need, a MacBook working on the tour video, and then a second MacBook working on the other videos. I have the 5 info series videos done and am working on the Roboshows and Vistaramas now. The uploads are slow though. With most people not being around during the holidays I may post the captain's corners today if I can get around to annotating them and then hold back until the 26th. Otherwise all 5 will likely be posted on the 26th.

Great pictures and reviews Derek! My wife and I just returned from the recent 8-night cruise. By the way, we were there mainly to see my daughter perform in Mamma Mia! and Sonic Odyssey. (She's the tiny Asian one. lol). I'm glad you enjoyed the shows. Overall, we enjoyed the whole Quantum experience.

That had to be fun! Considering how the 11 day sailing was I have to believe that your 8 day sailing was wonderful. Just being onboard though to see her perform I'm sure made it great no matter what the cruise experience was like.

The Captain's Corner from the "inaugural" sailing is now available complete with the company's poor excuses and guest blaming. I have to say these two Captain's Corners were probably the worst I have been to. This one for the behavior of Royal Caribbean and the second for the behavior of the guests.

You can watch for your self and see if you think their reasons for it not being an inaugural were valid. I personally found it a bit patronizing to claim that we all expected Rihanna onboard. I think at a minimum we expected to hear the word inaugural being used, which seemed to be too much trouble for them to even do. The main inaugural questions are at 29:55 and 42:55 in the video. Darren tried his hardest to make excuses but it wasn't his fault. I got to interview him and can say that he is the most knowledgeable person onboard when it comes to the Quantum class concept. Why they didn't have inaugural festivities was a Miami mistake not his so I doubt he really knows why it was such a wasted sailing. Some of his information such as the Oasis inaugural were inaccurate though since she did in fact have a maiden 5 night to Labadee which differed form the Inaugural which was the second sailing.

There are some good pieces of information and the crew's humor and good spirits, but the inaugural issues certainly steal the spotlight while dynamic dinning is brought up but certainly not the focus you would expect based on the discussions here.

bHgWGSMdmB8

I already have the complete info series exported so i won't be changing it on these, but I think the inter series video selection at the end is too long so I'll be shortening it to 15 seconds in the future, the series selection screen will remain 30 seconds. The 12/1 sailing's Captain's Corner will be available this afternoon. Please share the video around.

Since there was no Captain's Welcome Reception on Quantum I recorded the Crown & Anchor Welcome Back Party on the inaugural sailing. During it Emma did call us the first passengers at the start of her speech and referred to it as an inaugural at the end. I believe that, was the second of 3 uses I counted during the whole sailing.

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The second Captain's Corner is available. This is the one that happened on December 10th during the 12/1 sailing.

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This one as I mentioned earlier was another poor session. Instead of it being Royal Caribbean's fault though this one was the passengers. A lot of people simply taking the opportunity to complain and make statements rather than ask questions. Even complaining about things after they've already been complained about and asked to not be discussed again. It really was disappointing to see how horrible the passengers were to the officers, especially after the 11 night sailing was such an incredible cruise. Nobody onboard had any excuse to be complaining compared to the 8 night inaugural. The best part of the video though comes at the end when Jimmy has the captain run through what happens when he makes an inaugural call on a port. It's rather interesting to hear detailed and kind of emphasizes the fact that the 11 night sailing actually felt more inaugural than the inaugural did.

Great job with the videos Derek.

Did you build those lower thirds on Final Cut?

Great job with the videos Derek.

 

Did you build those lower thirds on Final Cut?

Yep, I love playing around with custom motion graphics. I made this set for my Independence of the Seas cruise back in 2012. I had custom Oasis specific ones back in 2010, but I really like these Royal ones and their generic enough to work on any Royal Caribbean videos. I have a second set (older) that I'll be using the lower thirds from for ship arrivals and departures to identify non Royal ships. A third set will be used for theCruiseView that is huge and based on opacities with no branding.

The Coffee Chat with Jimmy Rhodes: Adventures in China video is now available. It was filmed on 12/11, the last day of the 12/1 sailing. It has gone by a different name of Black Man in China which was the title of this blog entries that he originally wrote when on contract in China for the first time. I was mixed on posting this video. I didn’t want to ruin some of his material, but at the same time I think it really shows who Jimmy Rhodes is. When ever I go on a cruise I look up the cruise director and look for them on Youtube. I really don’t think their are many if any videos that give a good idea of who Jimmy is. This really does. Throughout it he is very personal in speaking to the guests and especially at the beginning and end when he gives some background on himself. I’m not sure if he’s going to continue doing this or not. He did not do it during the inaugural sailing but after the Captain’s Corner had a very engaging conversation with a group of guests about it that I think sparked the idea to make it an official event on the 12/1 sailing.

[YOUTUBE]VDRobHOIoP8[/YOUTUBE]

I’m not done with my daily rundown, but I think this video is the perfect opportunity to give my Cruise Director review. I have to say I did not enter with as positive a mindset as I usually do. Not for anything he did, but simply because Richard Spacey was hyped so much and I was so looking forward to experiencing him for the first time. I also could not find much online to get me excited about Jimmy so a rather neutral idea of him combined with wishing Richard was back did lead to a slightly negative view going in that had nothing to do with Jimmy himself. That quickly changed though. On the third evening while walking the Esplanade at night I passed Jimmy outside Wonderland and got a picture with him. He was so incredibly engaging and personal from that first small interaction.

From that moment on it seemed like I was running into him everywhere and everytime he was so incredibly personable. He is a very genuine and down to earth guy. I honestly don’t think he has a filter, because he just talks to everyone like their old pals. It didn’t matter how busy he was, and I can personally tell you his scheduled was packed from morning to night with meetings and media even if the guests weren’t aware of it, he always had time to talk to someone if they wanted.

The one day there was a larger than usual line for standby to get into StarWater on the inaugural as a result of a canceled show earlier in the sailing. People were a bit antsy when he stopped by to check on his staff so he stayed. He spent probably a good 20 minutes standing at the doors chatting with the passengers in line, it was the funnest standby line I was in all sailing and it completely diffused the situation and I believe made people feel like he cared about them and had their back which was incredible. I’ve seen CDs pass by lines before but this was the first I’ve had take charge of the entrance to a show, but I think it really shows the kind of guy he is. He wants everyone to be happy and have a good time. If there not he tries to change that.

The main place that people tend to see cruise directors is as they do their bits to pad the evening entertainment and even those he seemed to make feel a bit more personalized. I have been on new ships before and the cruise director never had the time of day to even say hi as he walked down the hall (let alone to take 3 extra steps to not push through the middle of a conversation!). For Jimmy to be so relaxed and personable during the entire 19 days with so much going on behind the scenes was incredible. He did not have Ken Rush back their taking over the media stuff at this point, he was flying solo and was running around like crazy but it didn’t effect anything on the surface. I would love to sail with him again at a later time when he can truly shine with 100% of his focus on the guest side of the job because I’m sure it’s incredible based on what he pulled off this time. I hope everyone sailing with him right now realizes the amount of work he is likely still dealing with and takes a moment to let him know how good a job he is doing rather than just hounding him with complaints. Those small comments can go a long distance.

I’ll have an interview with Jimmy coming up on theCruiseView where he’ll go into some of his background on how he became a cruise director, what the roll out process was like for him, and some of the future things in store for Quantum of the Seas. So be sure to stay tuned for that!

The Coffee Chat was outstanding, thanks for posting! Really enjoyed Jimmy's stories.

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The Coffee Chat was outstanding, thanks for posting! Really enjoyed Jimmy's stories.

 

 

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Your welcome, glad you enjoyed it. If anyone on a later sailing is reading this I'm curious if Jimmy has done this again since then or if he's done any other Coffee Chat sessions.

thanks for the video's post

it made me feel like I was watching on the cruise with everyone else

The Captain's Corner from the "inaugural" sailing is now available complete with the company's poor excuses and guest blaming. I have to say these two Captain's Corners were probably the worst I have been to. This one for the behavior of Royal Caribbean and the second for the behavior of the guests.

 

You can watch for your self and see if you think their reasons for it not being an inaugural were valid. I personally found it a bit patronizing to claim that we all expected Rihanna onboard. I think at a minimum we expected to hear the word inaugural being used, which seemed to be too much trouble for them to even do. The main inaugural questions are at 29:55 and 42:55 in the video. Darren tried his hardest to make excuses but it wasn't his fault. I got to interview him and can say that he is the most knowledgeable person onboard when it comes to the Quantum class concept. Why they didn't have inaugural festivities was a Miami mistake not his so I doubt he really knows why it was such a wasted sailing. Some of his information such as the Oasis inaugural were inaccurate though since she did in fact have a maiden 5 night to Labadee which differed form the Inaugural which was the second sailing.

 

There are some good pieces of information and the crew's humor and good spirits, but the inaugural issues certainly steal the spotlight while dynamic dinning is brought up but certainly not the focus you would expect based on the discussions here.

bHgWGSMdmB8

 

I already have the complete info series exported so i won't be changing it on these, but I think the inter series video selection at the end is too long so I'll be shortening it to 15 seconds in the future, the series selection screen will remain 30 seconds. The 12/1 sailing's Captain's Corner will be available this afternoon. Please share the video around.

Actually, the Oasis pre-inaugural was 4 nights. We were on both the Oasis pre-inaugural and inaugural sailings, which (interestingly enough) were Dec 1-12 overall (EXACTLY five years to the day the Quantum inaugural Caribbean sailing).