LoneStarJeffe

I did make my reservations on a day to day basis. 7 or 7:30 might be busy but not impossible.

A table for two is more difficult, but if you want to share table, not a problem.

Some restaurants are more popular then others: Silk, Wonderland and Jamie's Italian, while Grande, Chick and American Icon Grill are less crowded.

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So even if a venue shows not available to reserve at that time, there might be space if you will share a table with others? Interesting. Sharing is not a problem.

I've heard that there have been so many upset people on the online message board at Cruise Critic that they are selling the Quantum & Anthem to Carnival and cancelling the 3rd and 4th ship orders.

 

The sheer power that 150 or so people on this forum wield over the financial decisions of a multi-billion dollar company is outstanding.

 

DD is over.

The entire fleet is going to formal wear for EVERYTHING (including the pools) 24 HOURS A DAY.

Smoking is allowed everywhere.

The casinos have guaranteed minimum winnings.

All the tanzanite you can carry off the ship is free.

BINGO is mandatory.

Everyone who has ever taken a dance class at Arthur Murray Studios is granted full privileges on the ship. Carte Blanche.

A $20 tip is required upon stepping a foot on the ship.

Also, robes will have RFID sensors and if you ever attempt to wear them outside your cabin, you will be caught and put ashore at the nearest port.

Embarkation will include a spelling and grammar competency check. Why board if you cannot write a grammatically correct review on Cruise Critic with proper spelling?

:) :) :)

I go late, no lines, no wait. Right on board and right to the room. I try to avoid the mass gathering in the windjammer between 11-2pm. I usually checkin around 2:30-3pm.

I think this makes sense but when people are driving several hours to reach port, you tend to plan for worse case and thus arrive early if traffic is not bad. Nobody wants to miss their cruise.

I do like it when I can go right to our cabin immediately after boarding.

We are leaving on Quantum Jan. 11th. We are flying in the day before and taking a cab to the port from our hotel. I plan to arrive to port around noon to 12:30. Sleep in, enjoy a relaxed breakfast, enjoy the ambiance of Newark. Well, maybe not the last one. :) Then head to port after the departing passengers have left. With this size ship, I assume wait times to get checked in no matter what. We shall see.

Not sure the motion sensor type alarm will work when the ship is moving if the seas are causing it to move around. There is another type that fits into the door edge that might work better.

I would assume the risk is during normal hours when a worker would be normally be working and entering rooms. The computer tracks when a given card is used to access and any use after normal work hours would be easily tracked.

While this is clearly a disturbing crime on many levels, I also think it is exceedingly rare. There is nothing unique to Quantum for this type of crime. Given the volume of cruises without such an incident makes this very unlikely. But that is little comfort to the woman who was assaulted. And everyone needs to make their decision on how they view the risk and how to manage it.

I think the key is many people who booked thinking "new ship" are realizing it is not just a new ship but a completely different cruise experience. For those who do not feel the cost is worth it for that experience based on reviews so far, I do support them making the hard decision to book something they feel will deliver better value for their money.

We are booked in January. I have been reading the reviews and can pick up on things I do not like such as slow service at the different restaurant options. But I like the itinerary and feel like we can manage if we have to using Windjammer and other options.

I love the concept of Two70 and iFly. I love the solarium pool area. I love the ports. We have a balcony to get away from others when we want. I have books loaded on my Kindle. I plan to enjoy some adult beverages but I am happy with plain cruise coffee. I want some hot tub time and will donate small amounts to the casino. If lines get too long, I believe I mentioned I have a balcony. So we are looking forward to a new and beautiful ship.

But I understand the decisions other make. I do not think they are complainers but people who simply do not see the new style of cruising Quantum has offered as being in line with what they want for a cruise experience.

What's that got to do with standing in line every night?

I won't wait a long time in line. No dining experience on board is worth it (for me). I will go to another venue or change to another time where I do not have to wait. I cruise to relax but I am also not too particular about food. That is why I was wondering about traffic patterns since I think both eating and distribution of time will be more spread throughout the ship. Certain restaurants will be busy almost all the time and others will busy only at certain times. There is no way Dynamic Dining can support everyone who wants to eat at the most popular restaurants every night. I suspect that is why the menu is so limited. To force you to change to other restaurants to get variety and again, distribute the traffic.

I certainly agree that for those who want a particular food experience, booked it in advance, and then have to wait in line a long time, that would be disappointing.

On my last cruise, I decided to take a poll about robe wearing with fellow passengers who:

• I cared what they wore.
  
• I cared about what they thought about what I wore.
  

The results were:

• Number of those polled who thought wearing a robe was proper: 0
  
• Number who thought wearing a robe was improper: 0
  

Poll size: 0

It is a vacation folks. Relax. Enjoy. :)

The problem is there's not nearly enough supply for the potential demand in complimentary dining.

 

Our sailing on 1st December had 3500 out of a possible 4900, we had a terrible experience on almost every one of the 11 nights onboard with dining issues.

 

The push as we know is for more $$$$ per passenger once you're onboard.

 

I'm looking forward to the reviews from the Christmas and New Year sailings as they are supposed to be more full.

Dining is my major concern area. My wife and I are fans of traditional dining. We like seeing the same waiter and assistant every night. So this will be different for us when we cruise on Quantum in December. But at the same time, it will be interesting to see how traffic flow across venues change by people being able to eat at different times. And how the flow from passengers departing the main dining room in the back moving to main entertainment on stage at the from the ship will change. I think we might have a much different cruise experience but not worse. If you have bad wait staff, you have bad wait staff. We will make do. For all the complaints on dining, I have never seen anyone lose weight on a cruise. :)

I'm 59 years old and finally had a chance to try it on our last cruise on Navigator. I choose boogie board and not stand-up and it was really fun. The water jet does pound you and you feel it the next day. But it was also really fun. I am hardly athletic. I also echo what others said about light rain being a great time. You are going to get wet anyway so who cares?

A friend did hurt his leg trying stand-up. The fall can be more intense. But boogie board is relatively safe in terms of fall. The trade off is the water jet pounds you the entire time. I recommend trying it.

Per this article, weekend service will resume next Saturday, December 20:

 

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/12/weekend_path_service_to_resume_between_newark_and_wtc.html

Excellent news!!! I did a leap of faith and booked awhile ago for our hotel the Hilton Newark Penn Station with the hope to be able to make the trip on PATH.

Subscribing! Looking forward to your feedback about your experiences. I want to especially thank you for highlighting the crew as a positive. It has to be very hard to listen to so many complaints caused by circumstances beyond the crew member's control.

Any feedback on traffic patterns of passengers during the day and what areas seemed congested?

Thank you for your review and feedback on various topics. Any feedback in general on traffic patterns during the day and night on the ship? Did it seem crowded at times?

In terms of walk up for the free restaurants when you did not already have a reservation, what times did you seem to have the most success?

We are leaving on Quantum on January and do not have reservations for most nights for dinner. So I am curious if we will be spending a lot of time in the Windjammer or if there is still hope. :)

Thank you again!

Hi. Any update on if the construction at the PATH station at the World Trade Center will still be happening in January on the weekends? We are looking to travel there Saturday January 24th after our return from our cruise.

I think all the free venues should be walk up only with no reservations but clear status on wait times on the screens throughout the ship.

I read reviews to better understand options and choices once on board. I think "That is something I would like to be sure and see or try." I do not try to get a full picture of what my cruise experience will be like based upon someone else's experience.

I do pay attention to age and family mix. But if there is a quiet deck chair somewhere where I can see the water and read a book, I am generally happy. :) I judge a cruise successful by the degree I can relax while on board.

Lines aren't fighting over traditional cruisers as much anymore (in my opinion), they are trying to win over people who are relatively new to the idea.

Totally agree. If they attract new cruisers, especially families, they will not notice cutbacks or changes. It will be new to them. I feel what we are seeing is more pushing for revenue combined with more choices. While I remember less pushing for incremental charges, there were also fewer choices. I like the increased entertainment choices and still enjoy finding a quiet spot to relax, enjoy a book, and watch the ever changing scenery. I call that place, my balcony. :) I do think free dining menus are more limited. But there are still enough choices, just fewer than before.

Now if they eliminate 70's night... :o

This technology is increasingly becoming both cheaper and continues to grow capabilities such as auto hover and flying to routes based on GPS without manual control. I suspect over time, the answer will be similar to car insurance. Users will have to have insurance to fly legally. Won't stop all all bad actors but will make it manageable.

Navigator is pulling out right behind her.

There goes the Magic! What a beautiful day!

Beautiful morning and picture of the Carnival Magic. Should be a nice departure today of Magic and Navigator!

I'm not liking that either. I think it would have been a smart idea to switch the locations of the Schooner Bar and the Bionic Bar.

 

However, there seems to be a large entrance into the Schooner Bar which would appear to be right across from the large windows that have the "X" crossbars in them above the retail shops.

 

If your not sure which windows I'm referring to, here is a link to some images posted a while ago: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=44168412&postcount=3818

It is on the same deck as the lifeboats anyway isn't it? Most likely, the view would be a yellow lifeboat. Or am I missing something.

I think the OP has a good point. If the eliminate the main dining room to make way for Dynamic Dining, they will have to implement it on all sailings after dry dock. The main dining room will no longer have the capacity. What I suspect will happen is they will implement as a proof of concept dynamic dining on Freedom and see how well it goes. If it works, they will change out and deploy the same design into all Freedom and Voyager class ships during each dry dock rotation.

While offering more choices and times to eat, DD does also increase how many fee based options there are to choose from. So it has increased revenue making it relatively easy to calculate how long to recover the cost of the refurbishment to add DD. I do not think they are deploying DD because customers want more options. I think they have run the numbers and revenue from the dining v. no incremental revenue from main dining means they will push this out quickly as part of every scheduled dry dock going forward.

Let's see. Brand new cruise ship. Brand new terminal. And some people still find something to complain about that the view from the terminal isn't what they expected. To quote the great philosopher William Shatner..."Get a life." You are going on a great cruise. Who cares what the view is from the port of departure? Every minute of your vacation experience won't be special. What's next on the list of things to complain about? no monorail running alongside the shoreline with pretty views of your ship as you arrive? You might have to...oh, the horrors...take a normal cab or drive your own vehicle to the port? What a horrible start to your trip! Why your vacation is simply ruined before it begins. Sheesh.

Very nice review! Loved the photos. That is a trip we have never been able to do yet so it was noce to watch through your eyes. :) Thank you!!!

Day is looking pretty nice. I missed arrival but hope to watch sail away this afternoon. I will be on Navigator in November so it is getting closer.