QUANTUM is EPIC FAILURE—2½ STARS!!!

QUANTUM is EPIC FAILURE—2½ STARS!!!

This is my 5th transatlantic cruise, out of 15 cruises and my second maiden transatlantic, from this route. This ship has many similarities with my maiden voyage with the NCL Epic (2-Star vessel/voyage). In short this ship is much more an NCL vessel than a ship within the RCCL fleet. This ship is a complete disgrace and not representative in any way, shape, or form; with any Royal vessel in existence.

Below is a list of key areas to consider, followed by a summary of my experience.

The ship seems cheaply built inside, while costing a staggering 6.5 billion Dollars. There is no similarity in the few public rooms, with any other spaces, throughout the fleet.

There is no Ben & Jerry’s (or any other) ice cream offered on the ship.

There is no central meeting place, as is there is no Centrum or true Royal Promenade, as seen on other RCCL vessels.

The technology aboard the ship is a complete failure, as are the many “enhancements”.

The Bionic Bar, is a complete failure, which many NEVER work, due to its design.

The drunken exploits, of the woman RCCL Vice-President, at the Bionic Bar; is a complete disgrace to RCCL, its passengers, & its employees!!!!

The bumper cars, have very limited hours, which are during dinner hours, odd???

All dining is not equal to the quality offered fleet-wide!!!!

There are significant room service surcharges, on items which are free on other RCCL ships.

The 3½-4 hour dinner at Wonderland, is excessive due to the poor service!

The service at The Grand, was the worst of the 4 free venues.

The Silk & Chic had the most mediocre meals onboard.

There are no items in the “Royal Cookbook” offered on this vessel.

The dining at “the Pub” is nothing impressive and should be free, for what is offered.

The drink prices aboard are outrageous!!!

The two hour boarding process is the second worst (1st being NCL Epic, Maiden Voyage) I have done and their new boarding process is pathetic!

The employees & managers are poorly trained and not well motivated.

My cabin attendant was the worst I have had, on any cruise: refusing to change sheets, then making my bed without sheets???

Very poor service throughout, dining had constantly the worst service I have experienced, on ANY RCCL ship and generally equal to that of, the NCL Epic.

The internet offered did not work and my never, due to its complexities.

Very boring crossing, with no lectures, cooking demonstrations, tier level tours: just noting but complete rest and boredom.

A 15% gratuity on a prepackaged 8 piece French Macaroons; let me to refuse the sail and never to return to the retail store again. The stupid manager, tried to argue that, “retail purchases, count as bar purchases, thus are subject to mandatory 15% gratuity”. What a load of crap!!!!

There is now WOW factor, other than corporate propaganda and lies told to the public. This ship is a complete betrayal of the proud history of the line and its loyal passengers!

Parts of the ship, such as the steel elevator deck are ugly as are the bizarre pictures in the elevators themselves.

The Purple Polar Bear does not belong on a RCCL vessel.

The Guest Services, Port Excursions, and Future Cruises rooms were the worst laid out spaces, I have seen, in all my time cruising!!!

The position of the outdoor TV screen is complexly misplaced and thus unusable.

There were NO onboard Ship-Wide Maiden Voyage Parties and the High Level Executives, were hidden from the passengers. NO grad buffets, dances, or anything based on this special occasion.

On a bright side, the cabins are the most, well designed on any Royal ship. The bathrooms are outstanding, as are the large flat screen TVs in the cabins.

I will never set forth on the Quantum/Epic again and am seriously reconsidering my loyalty to Royal. It was my first Diamond cruise and now I will start to explore other lines such as, Cunard & Holland America Line. These lines both respect tradition, but also serve to protect it, as well. They respect their loyal passengers and are not in the process of changing their line; to suit a younger land based, travel demographic. As such I am deeply concerned with the direction of the company and if I was a stockholder, I would sell my shares.

I feel cheated, as this is not the product that I purchased, 1½ years ago; when I put my deposit on what I thought, would be a true RCCL ship. We were lied to, as the 1150 Diamond/above who were on this ship: as this was not the experience we were promised (based on the lines past reputation/ships/onboard experience.) If I wanted to fly Southwest/Spirit I would fly them: if I wanted NCL and it’s “freestyle Cruising” and type of ships, I would book them. I sadly chose Royal and got someone else’s poor product in return.

We in essence paid to be on a training cruise, while others (travel agents on free cruises) continue to pretend that the ship, its staff, & operation, are acceptable??? The paid shills on this board, including those who submit fake reviews, should be shown for what they are.

This sad experience was nothing more than a 2½ Star experience at best: it is a sad departure, for a once truly innovative & promising Cruise Line!!!

No chance did Quantum cost 6.5 billion to build

Thank you for sharing.

Pink.

:)

I don't believe the cost of Quantum was 6.5 billion dollars.

No chance did Quantum cost 6.5 billion to build

I came to address that. I thought final cost was just under $1B.

The rest of the review echoes other reviews though; nothing really special done for the maiden voyage which is disappointing, and the fees for everything is just out of control.

This is a cruise ship for people who have never been on a ship and have only done land vacations.

Welcome to the world of the Millennials.

WOW, should I cancel our upcoming b2b?:D

I am sure you are going to have a different feed back from others that were on this cruise, but I appreciate your point of view. Thank you.

Estimated 969 million to build. Who knows the purchase price.

Wow... considering it's human nature to voice complaints rather than good things, it's been so far positive reviews from this sailing by most others who have voiced an opinion. I feel there's way too much drama in your review to take it at all seriously... if there are others who post this amount of venom I will certainly take note. I do feel for you that you had a poor experience, I truly hope your next sailing on whatever line you choose is excellent :)

WOW, should I cancel our upcoming b2b?:D

I'd be very curious to get your feedback after your B2B.:)

This is a cruise ship for people who have never been on a ship and have only done land vacations.

Like Oasis class? :rolleyes:;)

Truly, I'll see Q for myself in a little over two weeks, For now I disagree with your comment. From what I can see from the thousands of photos, various video and reviews, this ship is more like a larger Radiance Class than anything else. So far the positive reviews outweigh by quite a margin the negative. and the landslide majority have come from high level cruisers who have posted from first hand experience, and these cruisers are like us having been on all classes of ships and other lines as well.

Now if the reviews of the Q TA came out on CC overwhelmingly negative, like the many posts from the Oasis TA which obviously had many many issues and reported by many high level cruisers, then I would take more stock in that.

I'd be very curious to get your feedback after your B2B.:)

I will be taking notes!:p And, maybe a few pictures.

I would have swapped with you in a minute to take that cruise. I'm sure I would have had a MUCH brighter outcome.

You take the so-so with the awesome...the cruise is what YOU make it.

Sorry you didn't like it, I would have loved it.

Like Oasis class? :rolleyes:;)

 

Truly, I'll see Q for myself in a little over two weeks, For now I disagree with your comment. From what I can see from the thousands of photos, various video and reviews, this ship is more like a larger Radiance Class than anything else.

It's a ship filled with gimmicks to attract young families, which is fine, just like a land based resort. It has little similarity to Radiance class in my opinion.

You will have the opportunity to experience soon and decide for yourself.

Dude - I love your passion, and the details in your post. It wasn't just "It sucked!"

But, common, you can't post "The drunken exploits, of the woman RCCL Vice-President, at the Bionic Bar; is a complete disgrace to RCCL, its passengers, & its employees!!!! " without giving us the details!

I was also on the Quantam TA and agree with everything you said except the cabin steward. Ours was exceptional.

Sorry but I don't waste my time reading "reviews" with such dramatic titles and appearing to have NO positives.

I skimmed and seen none.

Sorry but I don't waste my time reading "reviews" with such dramatic titles and appearing to have NO positives.

 

Leaving RCI huh?

 

 

Well............bye

You should have read it. Some opinion, but some things are objective facts like no lectures or speakers on the TA, gratuity charged on packaged food, long waits for dinner.

You don't have to agree on opinions but facts are facts and helpful to us all. This is not the first less than glowing review. I'll cut some slack since the TA was the very first voyage and a bunch of the items can be rectified with staff training, some can not. 2.5 stars is not an entirely negative review; had you read it you would have read positive comments as well.

Wow... considering it's human nature to voice complaints rather than good things, it's been so far positive reviews from this sailing by most others who have voiced an opinion. I feel there's way too much drama in your review to take it at all seriously... if there are others who post this amount of venom I will certainly take note. I do feel for you that you had a poor experience, I truly hope your next sailing on whatever line you choose is excellent :)

Have you bothered to read the official passenger reviews, posted on this site?

The ship has a 44% Cruise Critic Member approval rating!!!

Now that someone started it...

Here is my list of complaints :

Dynamic Dinning: No Sirloin Steak in any of the venues offered which is not acceptable since this is a staple of the former main dining rooms. Booking is a hassle and still leads to line ups and looses the personal touch with a head/assistant waiters.

Reservations are a pain... Royal IQ needs work, especially since it required internet connectivity and did not always sync up with the system. (Restaurants said they 'lost' our reservation despite it showing up in Royal IQ having been booked over a month before).

North Star - Line up was crazy, only 14 people at a time at 15 minutes each is too long - this need some improvement as many cruisers were not able to get onto the north star

Entertainment program : Nightly entertainment (in Royal Theatre) was missing the introduction/exit nights from the Cruise Director. Yes there were programs but there was really very little 'stage time' for the cruise director. Maybe it was a case of being the first cruise and being disorganized but I thought it was surprising.

Day to Day activities - I didn't see any of the 'typical' cruise programs and I thought the cruise was running on quite a skeleton day to day program. I was not able to find much to do unfortunately when the weather was heavy and prevented some of the outdoor activities (ie rock climbing/flow rider/iFly)

Flow Rider Schedule - Would have liked more 'Boogie Board' time given its simplicity for new/beginner flow riders. Most of the time were assigned for wakeboarding (5 hrs/day as opposed to boggie board which was 3 hrs/day)

Bumper Cars - Would be nice if there was more time slots allotted for this as the lines were always full everyday. This activity had only 2 hours dedicated daily and should probably be given 4 to 5 hours a day, given the long lines and the large hours of overhead in set-up required by the sports staff.

I came to address that. I thought final cost was just under $1B.

 

The rest of the review echoes other reviews though; nothing really special done for the maiden voyage which is disappointing, and the fees for everything is just out of control.

 

This is a cruise ship for people who have never been on a ship and have only done land vacations.

Which RCI has confirmed. I guess I'll be stuck on the other ships.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-11-14/royal-caribbeans-newest-ship-built-to-lure-those-who-hate-cruising

Now that someone started it...

 

Here is my list of complaints :

.......................

Entertainment program : Nightly entertainment (in Royal Theatre) was missing the introduction/exit nights from the Cruise Director. Yes there were programs but there was really very little 'stage time' for the cruise director. Maybe it was a case of being the first cruise and being disorganized but I thought it was surprising.

I would have considered that a HUGE positive.:D

WOW, should I cancel our upcoming b2b?:D

Same here. I'm going to call my TA today.

I was willing to appreciate the content of the review until three things struck me:

The second maiden TA on a new mega-cruise ship after the first experience was rated only 2 stars? Strike 1.

You didn't realize this ship was unlike the others in the RCCL fleet before stepping on board? Strike 2.

You were lied to, deceived and not provided the experience you were promised? Strike 3.

You're out.