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I'll second the Chilean sea bass at Chic. Short rib at Wonderland was fabulous.

This is not cool at all. We enjoy the welcome back parties for C&A, and when we turned platinum we had a top tier event - a sailaway reception on the Oasis helipad. We loved it! I had been waiting for our top tier event on Quantum, and no invitation was forthcoming. I emailed RCCL twice about it, and got a bunch of nonsense about being loyal customer and that I am now close to Emerald. This is just an excuse to take away a benefit that I have "worked so hard" to achieve. Actually, we spent a fair amount of money to get to some perks, and I want them.

I am calling foul on this.

I liked Dynamic Dining a lot - I think the IT system is the problem. But let's say you were to choose classic, how does one get to eat and see a 2 1/2 show if you're relegated to either 6:00 or 8:30? The night we saw Mama Mia we ate at 5:30 and then tore out of American Icon to get there at 7:00. Seeing Broadway style shows during the day is not an option, especially for a ship such as this, where you don't have a show every night.

Cabin 6260 D-8 double occupancy - bed to the balcony

The cabin steward always gives us a corkscrew for the duration of the cruise. No need to bring one on board.

They're fed answers?!!!!

Now I feel stupid for believing this was actually a competitive "game show." We were on Celebrity once and a girl on her honeymoon said that the most unusual place she'd ever "made whoopie" was in her ear. The place roared with laughter. Guess the CD had a twisted sense of humor.

We've been on Oasis and Allure, and there was plenty of times when Blaze was absolutely empty - music blaring but no people, so not sure Oasis and Allure are filled with live wires either. (but maybe this old, fat, lazy, lying around middle-aged lady went too early).

For those who take issue with us "old people," don't worry, you'll be there soon enough.

Total cheating going on for the 1/23 cruise also. It annoyed us so much I actually referenced it in the RCCL feedback comments. Plus, I like Ken Rush, but he made a really big deal about an older couple who carried on like morons - I was embarrassed for them. In a way it's laziness when the cruise director chooses people who can do his job for him by being "entertaining."

We enjoyed Wonderland immensely. Some of the dishes were absolutely spectacular, some were good and a couple we didn't care for. We generally don't do any of the upcharge restaurants, but I'm glad we experienced this. I wouldn't do it again, but it was great to do it once and experience this.

We enjoyed AI on night 3 of our 10 night cruise, but we ate very, very early in order to get out in time for Momma Mia (5:30). Service was very fast and efficient. I had the pistachio crusted salmon and it was delicious. My husband enjoyed the southwestern pasta. I don't remember what our friends ate, but they liked it.

Night 10 - back at AI - Superbowl Sunday. We ate very late - 9:20, and ordered for our husbands who arrived right after the game. Service was rushed, and clearly annoyed since the place was almost empty. Don't allow people to be seated at 9:30 if you're going to have an attitude. I never got the coffee I asked for. At that point the waiter was completely ignoring us. They had changed up the menu a bit and we were thrilled to see grilled lobster. My friend and I both ordered it, and neither of us could eat much of it. It was absolutely horrible!!! Completely oversalted as to be inedible. The salad was almost all iceberg and dripping with water. What a disappointment that on the last night we had the worst food.

Also, excursions. We had a different itinerary so can't address what they listed for yours, but you're right - there seemed to be fewer excursions offered than in the past. We booked two - one of which we had done two years ago on Allure (St. John Champagne catamaran sail). It left at 7:30 a.m. - obviously added for Quantum, since Oasis had a more civilized meeting time and those passengers were showing up as we were finishing.

Then we did the Americas Cup sailing regatta in St. Maarten, which also had a lousy time - right in the middle of the day so you didn't have time to do much either earlier or later in the day.

We've only been to Nassau once, on Allure. We just walked over to Junkanoo beach and sat there for an hour. It was cold. Then walked around a little bit in town and got back on the ship (1:30 sail away). It was pretty much a throwaway port.

We had free wifi on 1/23 so can't really answer the question re: Royal IQ. I will say that it did show my calendar (some of it with double restaurant bookings (LOL), it did not show my luggage, and texting through the app was pretty hit or miss. We used regular text messaging via the wifi for that.

They did not give out tickets to North Star, and told me that they were no longer going to do that. You'll have to line up when you see a short(er) line. They had problems with tickets because the North Star shuts down due to weather and other operating difficulties. People who had tickets for a time when it was shut down came back when it was working and demanded to be accommodated ahead of the new people, who had tickets for that particular working time, thus unpleasantness ensued. (or worse). So it's just first come; first served. If it breaks down, go away, come back and get back on line when it's working.

If you're hanging around the pool deck you'll see a number of times when the lines are shorter. Don't stress about it. We went once, and had no desire to go again, but noticed no line just before 6:00 pm one day, so we went again.

Also, as an aside - I stressed a lot about Star Water, getting there early to get a good seat etc. We saw it 2 and a half times - the other 1 and a half just wandered in before it started. They show it A LOT. They show it so much that sometimes there's nothing else to do at night.

I thought both breakfast and lunch in Windjammer was better than on other ships, especially on both Oasis and Allure. With O & A if you wanted an omelet you had to go to the Wipeout Cafe; if you wanted smoked salmon, you had to go to Solarium Bistro or Park Cafe. Windjammer on Quantum had everything you could want all in one place. (including fresh baked cookies, which were amazing). We didn't have dinner in the Windjammer, so can't comment there, but they advertised specials each day, which sounded good, along with the 50% off wine deal. We were tempted, but too many other places to eat where you didn't have to serve yourself!

Not sure what the point of bionic bar was. There was hardly anyone there every time we went. We saw a drink being made and had no desire to have a robot make our drink and put it in a plastic cup. The atmosphere there was very brightly lit for a bar, and open to the esplanade below. Seemed like a very expensive waste of space and I don't really see how they're going to get a decent return on this very expensive investment.

Much preferred hanging at the bar at Michael's. A real bar.

Yes, Ken Rush replaced Jimmy Rhodes on our 1/23 sailing. We had him on Allure and I usually don't pay much attention to the CD, but I thought that Ken was the second best CD we've every had (the first being Gordon Whatley on Radiance - first cruise - in 2002. Alan Brooks on Oasis last year was awful - awful schtick and awful staff and he seemed lazy to me. Ken had a top notch staff, with Katie Turner being a treasure. I was pleased that she had joined him from Allure.

It's true though that there needed to be a few more things to do during the day, but we kept ourselves occupied with roller skating, bumper cars, ping pong and fooz ball. Trivia too. I have a feeling we were missing a Tribute Band. Supposedly the Bon Jovi band was supposed to be on this sailing, but never saw them. Just Beatles tribute the first 4 nights and once was enough.

We went to the cooking demonstration in Two70, which was kind of a bust cause they had trouble getting electricity to the burners. Whatever. I think after all those days at sea in the cold, I would have welcomed napkin folding. LOL

We were on that cruise too and ate in Silk the first night. We ordered nine appetizers for four of us and we loved them all. I can't believe the amount of food we consumed in Silk - all of it just yummy - it was pretty gross and we had nine more nights to go! DD turned out to be terrific for us too, despite the agita with all the reservations in advance, and redoing, and losing them etc.

Second night in Grande was the only issue - we had an 8:15 reservation and weren't seated until 8:50 and just made it out of there in time for a 10:30 show with minutes to spare. People with later reservations who got on line before us were seated before us. We arrived precisely at 8:15.

Agree, very noisy at night - all the creaking and banging - sounded like the ship was going to break apart!

Still we liked it enough to book Anthem same time next year.

Just back from Jan. 23 sailing and they are no longer giving out tickets or using time slots. They said that it caused more problems because it can't always run - especially in high winds, and that people whose times were cancelled came back and said once it was running again that they had priority over the next group of people, who were holding tickets for that particular new time.

It was nice, but I wouldn't wait too long to go up. They have signs that gauge the length of line, so if it's too long for you, just check back later.

We liked Ken Rush, and we actually had a conversation with him about Quantum, when Quantum was still a rumor. He was very nice and personable. Alan Brooks, on the other hand, obnoxious.

Best CD ever - our first one on Radiance - Gordon Whatley. Incredibly talented, great singer, very funny. I don't remember the others but they must have been fine. We had one though on Adventure who was so awful. I hope he's no longer CDing but have no idea.

Baby Boomers Rule the World! and we're not dead yet. And we're just getting into peak cruising years, so the lines HAVE to cater to us still, or risk the wrath of their shareholders.

I wonder if the next new RCI ship will feature "Non-Dynamic Dinning"! Perhaps they just need to remove the reservation system for dinning from their web site and force everyone to wait until they board.

Well gregdude - they may have heard you and thought that was a good idea. So, not only have I not received the email reinstating my customer-service dinner reservation, but my calendar is now showing 0 -yes 0 - dining reservations. I guess they decided to scrap the whole thing and we'll have to rebook everything on Friday. Or not... Who knows? I only know that Windjammer is not an option unless they put tablecloths down and serve us. Nor is eating at 5:30 or 9:00.

I can't tell my husband this one - he wanted to go on Windstar.

I have never been able to make reservations via the website for this cruise - either way too slow, taking a vacation, not allowing, not allowing me to add our friends, - so I have always called.

I believe that I have spent about 20 solid hours on the phone with them at this point - and given what my boss bills out for my time - they owe me many free cruises. (or maybe they owe my boss for some of this.)

Just upset that I got so upset, especially after vowing that I wouldn't. Frankly, I was more interested in the Jewel, with much more interesting ports, (and no hassle dining), but our friends were so anxious to try the Quantum, and being from NY, and seeing the attraction of only an hour's drive to the port, I went along.

We are on this Friday's sailing. I called RCCL this morning to change one of my very carefully and painfully made reservations in order to book Devinely Decadence. Well not only was I not able to get Devine, but lost a 7:00 in Chic trying. I totally lost it with customer service (pretty embarrassed about it) and in the 5 minutes between cancelling the Chic and then trying for Devine the reservation got snapped up. I was actually in tears - so pathetic. Anyway, I demanded a supervisor, and she emailed the ship's dining directly and supposedly we got the original reservation back.

Can't believe I'm even disclosing this. So, if there are issues on the ship, this may be our seventh and last cruise with RCCL. How stupid to not be able to see alternate dining times before cancelling what you have!! This is way too much advance work and I swore I'd stop getting stressed about it. Guess I lied...

In any event, the Quantum "specialist" I spoke with was lovely, and she hung on the phone until my confirmatory emails arrived. I've yet to book anything at all over the web for our sailing, as there were always issues.

My online calendar matches up with my email confirms. Nothing more to be done except get DH's pic uploaded.

Just got off on Saturday. I went standby for iFLY since I could not book it. The person behind me on the standby line had pre-booked her iFLY session. It seemed so easy to her, but alas -- the pre-board and onboard system do not speak to one another, so regardless of being to book something prior to boarding, it will not do you any good.

 

When you get on board, go to iFLY and book a time for any time during the week.

Thanks. Did they have all her other reservations in the system? Were yours there? I could see why people have been getting upset...

I just called RCI. There is no "Quantum Specialist".

 

Probably just a joke.

It's possible that their organization is "just a joke," but when I insisted to the customer service rep that I wanted to speak to a manager, or another rep, his choice, he said let me connect you to the Quantum specialist. And I spoke to a woman who made our iFly and then excursion reservations.

It's entirely possible that RCCL hasn't trained their customer service people to even know that there's at least one person who knows what she's doing, and knows how to get into the system in multiple ways.

That would be par for the course to be told different things by different customer service reps.