My Week on Quantum of the Seas

I'm sure there are many reviews of Quantum out there and my photos will probably not be anything new, but I'll include some anyway. The following is just MY experience and My opinion. If you had a different experience and opinion, that's okay. We are a mature Diamond Plus couple on our 35th cruise -- 27 with RCCL.

We were intrigued by this new ship and the dynamic dining concept so decided to give it a try since it is a four-hour drive for us to Cape Liberty. Our sail date was March 29.

We received notice to arrive at Cape Liberty one hour after our appointment time. I had read there would be a deep cleaning after a noro virus outbreak on the previous sailing. We arrived as instructed and paid the $19 per day to park. There is still no garage, just an open parking lot. In the terminal there were two crew members with tablets for a crowd of about 100 people trying to check in so we still had to wait in line to get to one of the check in desks. Once checked in we were told to go to a section with a sign showing our appointment time. The new terminal is nothing fancy at all, just another big empty warehouse. The extremely long wait was on very uncomfortable chairs. Box lunches of snacks, candy, and a bottle of water were provided. There was no coffee, punch, etc. There was no priority boarding for Diamond Plus nor did I hear any announcements for suite guest boarding or any others in fact. Boarding was by appointment time and it was total chaos with people trying to sneak in lines and into areas with an earlier boarding time. It was 1:50 pm and over two hours after our appointment time when we finally walked on. At least you can walk directly onto the ship now and don't have to take the shuttle bus.

Finally Boarding

NYC Skyline from Upper Deck

Ship Exploration

We headed for the Windjammer and absolutely could not find a seat. I finally got the assistance of a crew member to find us a table. What a horrible experience although the food was good. If I had done some prior research, I would have known about the other eating venues on boarding day. I think, unlike me, I didn't do much research on this new ship in order to be surprised. Well, that bit me in the butt.

We explored the ship for a while waiting on the cabins to open. The ship was absolutely amazing and so different from the RCCL norm. I was quite impressed with all the new surroundings and innovations.

270

Library/Computer Room

Between The Via and Royal Esplanade

Artwork

Felicia is Huuuuge

Your pictures are wonderful. I cannot wait to hear more.

The cabins were to be ready by 3 pm but that did not happen. At 4 pm the doors to the corridors were still closed and passengers began opening them and heading to their cabins anyway. We noticed our corridor doors open about 4:30 so we checked out our cabin.

Cabin:

The door was open and our luggage was outside. We had no sea pass cards or WowBands. Later that evening our cabin attendant brought them by so we were able to leave just in time for ressies at Jamie's. There was no Diamond Plus welcome item. Later our two cokes and bag of nuts/cookies arrived but no beach towel (our selected gift item). During dinner at 6:50 pm an announcement was made that cabins were now open! Giggles were heard all around since most of us had obviously already been to our cabins.

Our D7 balcony cabin #10662 was modern with lovely decor. There were two closets and plenty of drawers and the cabin seemed longer than usual. It was on an angle which made the balcony slightly larger than others. Loved the shower but the sink was totally useless. It was barely three inches deep with an odd placement of the faucet. Just washing my face rendered the floor soaked. The bed was horribly hard. There were no egg crate toppers when I requested one the first morning but the cabin attendant made up a blanket and comforter under the sheet which helped. Due to the previous sailing with noro virus there were no drinks or snacks in the cabin fridge. Good -- we had room for our stuff. The fridge was actually cold for a change!!

I wore my WowBand once but it easily came off. The little knobs and holes closure was not secure enough for me to feel comfortable that I would not lose it so I never wore it again. I saw some passengers with WowBands with a secure watch-like closure but not ours.

Your pictures are wonderful. I cannot wait to hear more.

Thanks. Sorry it is so late but there is much, much more!

Our muster station was in Vintages and I managed to find us comfy chairs to sit in.

On our way!

Yay - Made It

SeaPlex - A wonderful venue for the entire family. We had a blast on the bumper cars!

Really enjoying your review! Looking forward to more as we prepare for our Anthem cruise:D

Looking forward to reading more.

Very nice, we go in Dubai on Board.

We were on the same sailing. Our first day was not a smooth as yours. We started boarding at 1:00 but we were not able to get into our cabin until 7:30 pm. Luckily, we had a 5:30 dinner reservation at The Grande. We were tired by then of dragging our carry-ons with us. At first the woman said we could not bring them in, but we said that the cabins were not ready and we were not going to miss our reservation so they let us bring them in.

When we got to our cabin, we had things in our frig but we did not move any of it. We did not have any magazines which I did not realize until we were leaving the ship because they were putting them in the cabins.

We had the same problems with the wrist bands. We really wanted to try them but they were also too small for my husband.

We were also missing towels, our gift, and our water that we ordered but we got them the next day.

We had lunch in 270 which was great ----the roast beef sandwiches.

The muster drill was not as smooth for us. We were in the top part of the music hall. Because we did not have our cards or wrist bands at this time, they were checking our setsail passes. It was crowded but we did find a seat.

It was chaos because they were trying to check everyone in but had to do it manually. The next day we had a message saying we did not attend the muster drill. We try going to guest services the next morning but the lines were long and continued to be long for several days.

I thought that RCCL would have given everyone some sort of compensation ( free wifi or OBC)for the rough first day but nothing happened.

I met someone who was on this cruise and the cruise before (Back to back). She said that they were asked to leave the ship and were given a free tour of New York for the day.

We love the ship, the food, shows, internet, and activities.

More areas of the ship:

Casino

Chic & Grande Entrance

Artwork

Guest Services always had a long line. I had read that there were no desks but roving crew members with tablets to help with issues. Wrong. As on other ships, the roving crew member asked if there was anything he/she could do for you, but passengers still had to wait to get to one of the desks for help.

There were several very large, pricey shops but the normally most popular one - The Shop, with the logo stuff - was miniscule and there was no room to get in most days.

Sale Baby!

Lovely Royal Esplanade

The concierge lounge is in a most inconvenient spot. Aft on deck 12, the view is lovely but 37 doors/183 steps down the corridor (yes, I just had to check) from the elevator is just way too inconvenient. Maybe that's their way of handling the overcrowding. We mostly used the Diamond Lounge more conveniently located on deck four. The Diamond Lounge had hot items for breakfast whereas the Concierge Lounge did not. The Diamond Lounge allowed guests to serve themselves from day one. The Concierge Lounge did not allow guests to touch ANYTHING until day five due to the previous Noro. I was chastised for getting a packet of sugar!

Concierge Lounge

I guess I forgot to take a photo of the Diamond Lounge. It was nice.

Outside Cafe 270. Some folks ate there.

Cafe 270

I had the best lunch there

Corridors were quite narrow in spots

This was left in the corridor overnight and into the next day and boy did it stink

Absolutely awesome photos! Thank you ... can't wait to see the rest :D

The Via is a stunning and calming area and always made me smile.

Usually there were people curled up in these cool pods

Indoor Pool

Pool Deck

Flow Rider from Top

Oh no, we don't know what day it is!

Bionic Bar - Very cool to watch - not very busy

A few more computers in the card room

The Big Chair in the Royal Esplanade

The line to the self-serve ice cream was always long. There were two machines but right next to each other instead of on each side of the deck so the one line spilled out into the walkway.

There was no welcome letter in the cabin with the names of the concierges, their hours, lounge hours, explanation of the drinks on the sea pass, etc. I asked about it and was advised we should have received the letter as a message on our account. We did not. No invitations for top tier party, welcome back party, etc. were received in the cabin. I was informed these were also only sent as messages on our account.

I happened to look at the room service menus and noticed a charge for a lot of the items. I have not actually looked at a room service menu in a regular balcony cabin for a long time so maybe this is not new, but it was surprising to me.

For a Charge & Complimentary

For a Charge

Complimentary

Cabin attendant Mariana took great care of us and was duly rewarded at the end of the cruise. She was most appreciative and came by to thank us.

One of our towel animals

Night Shots

Solarium

Moon through the life ring

On Deck

Kiddo Pool

Entertainment:

We had made all reservations in advance.

Mama Mia was outstanding and certainly did not seem as though it lasted 2.5 hours. We didn't even budge during intermission. DH even loved it!

Guest entertainer Finis Henderson was good.

Comedian Steve Bruner (?) was good.

The Journey tribute band in the Music Hall was excellent.

Sonic Odyssey was very good.

Starwater was odd; however, it had some visually stunning aspects. Each component of it was good, but it didn't seem like a cohesive show and left us both confused. I kept saying if I heard the words "diamonds in the sky" one more time, I was going to scream.

The Santa Fe & The Fat City Horns show and all shows on the robo screens in 270 were impressive.

The glow party in SeaPlex was lots of fun.

Name That Tune in the Theater - Fun. I had not seen this before on a ship and it was good to see something different.

Boleros

Royal Theater

Robo Screens

Bionic Bar Cool Seating

Ports:

We booked this cruise for the ship, certainly not the ports. We didn't even get off the ship at Port Canaveral but opted to enjoy the ship sans the crowds.

On Coco Cay we walked around for a while and waded out in the knee high water for about 100 yards. We enjoyed the BBQ lunch on the island and then headed back.

Approaching Nassau

We roamed around the port area in Nassau where I was in the mood for a banana daiquiri. Didn't think it would be so difficult but after trying four different bars, I settled for a strawberry one. Didn't stay there long before we went back on board to enjoy the ship.

From our balcony

The other direction

Approaching Nassau

 

Fantastic photo! Seen many in plenty of fellow CCer's reviews (including my own :eek:) of these "lighthouse + Atlantis" shots but this one has to take the prize.:D

Also I never had a Glow Party on Q back on Dec nor the Name That Tune game. Great to see they're incorporating new events and games. Thank you again for the photos and reporting.:)

Thanks to all for your kind comments.

Rip Cord is quite a unique experience for a ship. DH did it -- I was chicken. It was really fun watching him and others.

DH

The Expert Crew Member

North Star -- simply awesome. We waited one hour the first time when it only went straight up in port. The second time while at sea we waited 30 minutes to ride it side to side. If they would allow reservations for this, it would alleviate the long wait in the hot sun.