Bxc53

Having made the trip in both directions, I agree that the south bound experience is nicer/ more vacation oriented: Fly to ANCHORAGE, a mid size town that is easy to navigate, stay a little or a lot as you prefer, then catch the train from inside the ANC airport direct to Seward , a very scenic trip. Walk from the train depot a short distance to the ship. Begin a wonderful scenic cruise ,. Northbound, it’s get to Vancouver airport or cross the border by land, make your way through very crowded traffic to the cruise port where there may be two to four ships loading at the same time. Deal with the crowds and finally get to the ship worn out..

It is open for breakfast and lunch, with a sorta buffet Windjammer light menu. Dinner is sit down and be served, with a Mediterranean type menu. We found the morning coffee quite acceptable.

We were on the Quantum 10 day to Hawaii. We found the food on the main dining and windjammer just OK.. Chops was very good, we didn’t so any other upcharge restaurants . Salads had brown lettuce towards the end . Surf and stream was also just OK, quite variable and had to be re-booted frequently. I did some speed tests, max was 3 mbps, we get over 900 at home, so quite a difference.. The ship was slightly above half capacity, per crew members . We saw a only a small handful of kids, mostly early grade school ages. There was an arcade, it was empty the few times we passed it. The Seaplex did have a variety of activities, times varied. The flow rider and skydiving simulator was active, once we got out of the storms .

I have to disagree. We are just finishing our second RCL cruise but have done 5 on Celebrity. They do share ownership, but are managed separately and follow different standards. In our view, Celebrity has much better food. We are not impressed with the offerings on our present RCL cruise. Celebrity also has much less of the theme park ambience and more traditional onboard experience. One major difference is the pool deck experience. On RCL it was much more crowded with extreme “chair hogging” and no RCL enforcement of the policy. Much more refined atmosphere on Celebrity.

Not aware of any. Masks now optional for pax and crew. Maybe 15-20% are wearing them, some as chin guards, lol. Crew seems happy and at full strength. Pretty much back to old school normal, drink prices excepted 😜

And that’s why we live there 😎 Grew up in Seattle, then moved to Lynwood, Marysville, Arlington and now Lynden for our retirement home. Any farther north will take a different passport 😉

Have to agree. At our favorite local restaurant/ lounge, an old fashioned is $7.50 or 5.00 on happy hour. Got one yesterday onboard for $15.34 total and it was not as good ( or as strong) as my local watering hole… But a long swim to the next option 😉

We are on the Quantum now. The DW brought her protein powder collection on with no issues .

I’m on the Quantum now. Most drinks a la carte are $13 plus mandatory gratuity, so $15.34 total. It’s helping me keep on my “one a day” plan… 😏

Long Beach has nicer choices, but the Doubletree in San Pedro is in a handy location and fine for one night..

Still required for cruises 10 days or longer, like our Oct 3 Vancouver to Hawaii, but Non Supervised home tests are now OK

We are on Quantum next Monday for the Hawaii crossing and looking forward to lots of hydrotherapy, aka pool time. Any recent Quantum cruisers that can comment on the pool temps? Thanks

I guess I’ve been mistaken all this time . I thought the chairs with towels were thoughtfully setup by the pool attendant as a nice perk. I just pick one and settle in. Being of a certain age, plus size and mostly deaf, if someone comes by to discuss chair ownership, I just point to my ear and say, loudly , that I left my hearing aids in the room. Works for me…

Ah yes, the Official Company line... I recently retired from a large multinational company and they had folks whoses full job was creating and disseminating a "One Voice" to the customer facing employees to pass on to the customers. We called it the Official BS... 😉 . I suspect, if indeed all engines were operating to spec, RCL would make an announcement to close out the earlier ones discussing the engine issues..

We are on the upcoming Quantum repo to Hawaii. We initially booked one a one Device Voom connection, understanding ( hopefully) that the one connection can be shared , but only one device can be connected at a time. We just decided to get the second device option so we could each have our phones available. So to my question. When pricing two devices, there is a significant increase if I order one each for the wife and I vs. one of us ordering two devices. Any reason I can’t order the two device option and assign one to the wife's phone?

I did a search, but didn’t see a definitive answer.. Specific to Quantum, can I use the ships WiFi for WiFi calling, with the Voom purchased of course? I ask because I have encountered situations where purchased temporary WiFi had calling blocked- onboard an airliner, for example. And if WiFi calling works, does that include texts as well? Thanks

Jumping in to follow. We are in a similar place to the OP, never cruised Virgin and intrigued with the Fall 23 TA. We do like the longer cruises and have done a TA on Royal several years ago, plus other one way repo cruises. We like the No- rush schedule of many sea days, but also appreciate activity choices . We’ll be looking for reports from the upcoming Oct 22 TA to see how Virgin handles the week of sea days.

They should be done as soon as they figure out where those extra parts go 🙂 But what the heck, they have 5 more engines..

No Joy. Goes to an 'Access Denied" error message. I suspect it's local to the ship server

DaKahuna, we continue to enjoy your onboard experiences vicariously as we count down to our Hawaii crossing in a few weeks . One small, but important question if I may.. Morning coffee. DW and I don’t get too far in the AM until we get our dose of caffeine. We’re in a standard balcony, so no in-room coffee maker, as I understand. Does the Solarium Bistro have self serve coffee? Our room is close.. Thanks

Catch the Vancouver to Hawaii reposition at the end of the Alaska season.

You have good points and I am generally familiar with the engine/ generator units feeding electrical power to the propulsion units ( Azipods and bow thrusters) as well as the Hotel loads. My concerns are the remaining level of redundancy and the root causes of the failure(s) and the engine fire. To your comparison of the commercial aircraft losing an engine , you are correct that in most cases it could continue to a safe landing. But as you note, it would not continue to fly pax until it was back up to full safety spec. I Apologize to DaKahuna for poaching his great thread. I’ll go away now…

I’ve been following the engine issues since they were first reported. I’m not familiar with the maritime safety requirements, my career was in aviation. That said, I confess I’m having trouble with the “ Well, two of the engines are not working, but we still have a couple more that are” message… Imagine hearing that from your captain as you buckle up for your flight to the cruise port.. Also, as I understand, one of the engines is down for scheduled heavy maintenance- that’s OK in my book, but the other was a reported unexpected major failure - and now an engine room fire. Those last two don’t help the confidence level.. in my aviation experience, unscheduled maintenance and major failures are too often linked to bean counter driven “ cost cutting programs” where inspections and preventative maintenance are scaled back to save $… Hope they are able to get it all up to spec before the Pacific crossing. The redundancy of having all engines available is nice when we are 1000 mi from any assistance.

We are really enjoying your review, especially as we are on QoS in a month for the VAN to HNL run. Almost hate to ask, but any info on the reported engine issues? Thanks

We are on the Quantum in a few weeks . Curious where the choke point is for the dining options? In our past cruises ( well pre Covid) it was table / chair space. Are they slow to clear tables or ?. Thanks