kroozersfromNC

Greetings all,

At the risk of being a "Debbie Downer" (and there's much about this cruise that I am enjoying), I wanted to post a few "bones to pick" to see if others on this same cruise are having the same problems.

(1) Wifi. I realize that they made wifi free for everyone to use, but the net effect of this decision is that everyone is using it, all the time. RCCL seems to be giving QoS priority to UDP packets (Skype/Facetime/Youtube/Netflix etc.) so that I'm walking past people video-chatting home and I can't even get into email or get a web page to load. Also, the quality of wifi you get seems to be a function of your proximity to the access points - if you have a room close to one, you lucked out. I'm here typing this on an iMac in the library because my connection speeds on wifi wouldn't allow decent navigation through Cruise Critic.

(2) Cabin views from Deck 7. We booked our cabin back in 2013 (we were on Allure at the time) and were told our view was not obstructed. Welp, those lifeboat davits block every shot off the balcony (unless I raise the tripod to max height, and even then it's not a sure thing) and when I was on the dock at Sint Maarten yesterday, trying to take a photo of my wife, I had to shoot between them as well. Quick advice: if you're going to book a cabin on 7, make sure it's not on the "indented" part of the ship, because your view will be these two big yellow posts. All I can think of is, "WOW, what an incredible design flaw!"

(3) The motion of the ocean. The only other RCCL ship I've been on was Allure, and she was rock solid compared to Quantum. I get it, there was a storm when we left, but then it seems that the Captain threw both Azipods to redline (and pulled in the stabilizers) to get us down to St. Thomas, so we bounced around like crazy for the rest of the way. Even now, returning home at (what I assume is) a normal clip in (relatively) steady seas, Quantum is bucking like a spooked colt.

My full review will contain both these negatives and a lot of positives (the food at certain restaurants, Flowrider, iFly, North Star, the ports) but I just wanted to vent and see if other people's experiences were similar. Thanks!

Random-shot photo: "The Lady" (AOTS) absolutely dwarfing the (also much older) Carnival Ecstasy whilst parked at Nassau.

That'd explain it. Although they do not necessary want to broadcast it. I guess they will have to run the azipods to the ground. As for the stabilizers, we were lucky they weren't required. I was monitoring the NHC Satellite for a couple of potential tropical depression that never materialized. St Thomas and St Maarten carried a forecast of thunderstorms up to an including our day of embarkation. It changed for the better later on.

From my understanding, the center azipod was completely offline while the other two (starboard and port) handled propulsion for the entire trip. The trip was rockier than I expected, but then again I've never been aboard a cruise ship. At least the movement wasn't so severe they had to cancel all of the Oceanaria shows, which were absolutely amazing.