Quantum of the Seas -- Just back from Dec 20 Cruise

[allready]

We are just back from our 7 night cruise to the Bahamas on the Quantum. The ship is beautiful! The layout of the ship is amazing! Great spaces for Teens and little kids, as well as us adults.

 

We had Cabin 11110.. which was a lot of fun when we checked in almost everyone, cabin 1-1-1 (yes another 1)-1 (yes 1 more 1)- 0. Then came the smiles -- what a fun cabin number. It is a 300 sqft bow Ocean view. Tons of space for us and our two kids. Easily held 4, could probably hold 5. If you are a family traveling -- I would definitely recommend this room. It also shared a small hallway with Cabin 11108 which you could close of another door to give you privacy between the two cabins - which we did cause we and family in 11108.

 

The good-- It is an absolutely beautiful boat. The pool deck is wonderful with 3 sections - the solarium for adults with infinity style pools. An indoor pool area for the kids, and the outdoor pool. The promenade was beautiful and decorated with a Christmas tree and a menorah. It had beautiful high end shops, a pub, Sorrentos with pizza until 3. pretty seating areas. Deck 5 was Schooner Bar and the Bionic bar which never seemed to work. My husband purchased a rum and coke which was 98% rum.The Music Hall was awesome. Really neat set up , two floors, pool tables, a lot of fun.

Two70 is amazing view, so unique. We enjoyed eating lunch there too with 'take out' from the two70 cafe.

 

The shows were magnificent. We have the luxury of having seen Broadway and West End productions and this ranks right up there with quality and talent. Mamma Mia was wonderful. Sonic Odyssey an RCCL exclusive was amazing with Maestro and his earth harp from America's Got Talent. Starwater was our least favorite but still impressive. We had the random opportunity to have breakfast with one of the leads in Mamma Mia. IT was really neat, he was super nice and really loved what he was doing.

 

Kids club - fabulous staff. My 9 yr old never wanted to leave. He had a blast and the Adventure Ocean space seems to be greatly extended on this ship.

 

Teen Clubs - The Living Room and Fuel were great. Located right next to Sea Plex it kept the older kids very busy in generally located at one place on the boat.

 

SeaPlex -- was awesome. By far the best layout of sport complex on board yet. The bumper cars were a novelty. Hard to find a time when they were actually running but we got the chance to do it. Tons of basketball and volley ball time. We missed the circus school, but that was ok by us. Around the sea plex is several open spaces with Xbox areas, ping pong etc. It held a ton of people and kids were so busy!

 

Flowride and iFLY -- totally awesome! Book early, nothing more to say then don't miss out on this.

 

Rockclimbing wall was off to the side of seaplex, closed a few times due to wind, but generally busy.

 

North Star -- Very neat. we went up 4x and got stuck on our 4th ride. Last night we tried to get a sunset view and RCCL did not disappoint -gave a few extra minutes up there as we waited for the manual override. I have to say, the crew was trained very well. There is an attendant in there and he was very calm, matter of fact and just explained what happened. A sensor triggered the stop. If it wasn't for 1 panicky teen it would have been really pleasant to have the prolonged visit up top. Still we saw the sunset up there and were down quite quickly.

 

Christmas -- the managed to make arrangements for Santa to board the Quantum. His elves had gifts for ALL 1200 kids on board. It was a long process but our kids did get a picture with Santa.

 

The Bad - the Disaster Dining Concept. Oops -- I really meant Dynamic Disaster Dining. This is a disaster of EPiC proportions. No one is happy, not the customer, not the employee. A miserable experience all around. Even guest services seemed to worn down by the complaints. The seating staff was generally rude, and I get it they are frustrated themselves. They had gone as far at Silk of blaming the customers for eating too slow. Which was why our 6:45 reservation was not able to be seated until close to 7:30, with a lot of push for our diabetic family members. We didn't finish dinner until after 9:15 mainly because even after we were sat and ordered they couldn't get food to the table until close to 8;30. So stop blaming the customers …. its not there fault.

 

I actually had to ask someone who told me that they weren't able to help everyone tonight -- if they were really going to leave guests unfed? Its that how it goes? That dinner is not included, only for those who don't experience a technical failures. They blame everything on technology, are generally rude probably because they have been beaten down by the previous 1000 unhappy customers, and it was just so un-enjoyable for the most part.

 

The only dinner we really enjoyed was the one night we got in the GRANDE. That was like old-school cruising where you had a waiter and an assistance waiter and a somewhat decent menu.

 

American Icon, Chic, Silk offered the same menu every night. We were stuck in Chic for 3 dinners and every night got worse. The last night we were there the head waiter berated me for asking questions because I have food allergies and I hadn't given her 24 hours notice and there was no way my allergies could be accommodated (I had asked for a plate of tomatoes with olive oils, as they were servicing tomatoes tartare with multiple seasonings, cheeses etc). How dare I want a plate of tomatoes as an appetizer. I was totally appalled since I had already dined there before and not has so much troubles, and if it was such a hassles to have food allergies, why didn't they tell me before I boarded.

 

Also those with food allergies -- they will tell you every dessert contains nuts. Peanuts or almonds, they don't really know, even though it may be a sugar cookie. It's just they don't want to really get the real info so their knee jerk reaction is yes it has nuts. I was told by one waiter that all their chocolate on the ship has peanuts in it. Wow. I was wowed, not true but no arguing there. If he is convinced he is.

 

There was apparently special menus at the restaurants on several nights, some times you were told about them, sometimes not. Even if you asked for specials, you were told no, none, and then the next table was given a specials menu.

 

The reservation system for the dynamic dining does not really work. So even if you make reservations before hand, I suggest checking the first day of your cruise because the systems (on board and booking) do not speak and there was a lot of mix up.

 

Other down points, seems the really streamlined the staff, there was little in the way of entertainment on the way down to Florida. No Sail Away party, no music by the pools, nothing until the 3rd or so day. Not one person peddling drinks by the pools, no drink of the day. Jimmy Rhodes the Cruise Director was strange, seemed mostly absent and a bit full of himself when he was around. I did not find him engaging like some of his assistant cruise directors.

 

So all in all, we enjoyed our time, though not sure we would go back again unless they fix their dining in a disaster program. It doesn't work at all. No one is happy. Dinner has always been a focal point of our cruises. We all go our on way during the day and meet back at dinner. The staff makes it enjoyable but if they are miserable, they make you miserable. On a last note, the bread was good. We ate a lot of bread.

[Holly dolly]

We are going on this ship in April 2015 on a 12 night cruise out of NJ down to caribbean & back. I booked my DD restaurants back in September and the Grande was especially heavily booked. So hopefully the dinning times I booked online will be ok and they will have ironed out the problems. I thought the DD would be a disaster from the outset and I hope they go back to main dining rooms. They are planning to do DD on Allure & Oasis also, I hope RCI have a rethink on this option.

[cybor]

At least good to know, that I was not alone on this cruise, eating a lot of bread….

Yes, bread was very good on this cruise.

[Is131ny]

I am also come back from the same cruise and I am totally agree what you said. I booked the grande for the Christmas day and waited for one hour to get in. I saw a lot of lost reservation at grande. Told people go to buffet with everybody fully dress up at Christmas. Chop grille is also very slow and the streak came out warm at best. 2+ hour dining is no fun:mad:. No personal service at all restaurant.

[Turtles06]

OP: thank you for taking the time to post your detailed and objective review. I'm glad that you were able to enjoy so much about your cruise, despite the issues with dining. What you have said about DD really troubles me, as you clearly have a great attitude and it does not seem that you came into this ready to hate DD because it's not traditional dining.

 

We are booked on the Anthem TA next fall. I can only hope that for everyone cruising in the future on Quantum and Anthem, RCI gets this whole DD thing worked out quickly.

 

Question: were the specialty restaurants packed? I wonder if perhaps they have not been operating at the capacity RCI expected when designing the DD concept with four smaller included venues replacing the MDR...

[DKNYC]

Thanks for your review Allready. Also welcome to Cruise critic. Sorry that your Dynamic Dining experience was not so good, but glad you seem to have enjoyed Quantum otherwise. I am cruising in a couple of weeks as a solo cruiser. I am a little concerned but will try to make the best of it. I have only prebooked 2 dinner restaurants and plan to "wing" the rest. I eat slowly so could endure a 2 hour dinner. Luckily I could almost live on bread as well. :D

I was wondering if there was anywhere onboard where you could see (perhaps) on a screen or board where there is space available at the different eating venues at a glance? Last time I cruised on NCL with their Freestyle Dining there were screens around which told you about how long the wait was at each venue. I think something like this would be helpful.

 

Thanks

 

Denise

[barnacle_boy]

I was also on this cruise, and completely agree with the OP. At the Q&A, the crowd started clapping loudly whenever someone suggested that they scrap Dynamic Dining. Perhaps RCI will take the hint...

 

 

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[Gonflipin]

Also back from the 12/20 Quantum sailing. OP wrote a great review so I will just add my two cents.

Family of 3, including a 5 year old DS. We had a wonderful time- ship is absolutely stunning.

Two major issues- assistant waiters needed and lack of activities scheduled for family/kids or even in general.

I was able to make reservations for all complimentary dining prior to the cruise. Mostly 7:15 reservations with a couple late 8:45. We found to be hungry (and bored) and were able to show up early and be seated immediately from 5:30-6:15 without an issue. We were supposed to dine in American Icon for a second night but didn't care for it the first night. Went to Chic instead and was accommodated immediately (this was Christmas Day). Service is SLOW.... I could dehydrate by the time someone came to fill my iced tea and water glass! Definitely not the service of 'if the glass is a 1/4 empty- refill immediately!' There is no one around to ask for a refill either. The server is working very hard, they are completely overwhelmed. Was Royal trying to save money on a brand new ship with a brand new dining concept minus the assistant waiters? Why do that?

Since we ate early, we would see the lines form outside the restaurant, specifically the Grande. What we would also see were available tables that needed to be cleaned. Where are the bus boys??

We are huge NCL fans, we are used to freestyle dining. NCL has all of this down pat.... Assistant waiters, bus boys ready with a new table linen in their hand as soon as the table gets up and radios that into the the system. It's spot on.

 

Onto activities, by just looking at the compass, it looks sparse... And it is. We did the North Star and iFly once each. My 5 year old really enjoyed the kids wave pool and kid pool on the warm days. Seaplex was great but it can't be the sole location for activities. The Xbox stations were always taken (or not working). Did bumper cars the first day and were lucky to get on multiple times because the rest of the time bumper cars were scheduled- the lined wrapped around. My suggestion is to break up times by ages. They had a night where it was teens only which was great but wish they made a 10 & under time slot. Same for roller skating. They even had the balloon man and face painting in Seaplex. Should be in another venue..... Spread the crowds out. Forget the balloon man line.... It was ridiculous. The man is very talented. But you have 'herds' of families that ask for 2 balloons each (and each balloon takes about 10 minutes), there's not many people you can accommodate in a 2 hour window. Thankfully we explained to my son that a balloon that would only last a day or so was not worth the line, he didn't want one anyway. There were moms who lined up way before the start time, waited for the 2 hours that he was there and then the line was cut off and they missed out. It was terrible to see. Should be children only, 1 per child who is present on the line.

Again we are used to NCL and wished there were more family activities: family bingo, family arts and crafts, family movies (they did show the Penguins of Madagassar once). Just a few examples.

Don't get me wrong, we did have a wonderful time, just a few observations, suggestions.

O and we LOVED Mama Mia! The cast is out of this world. It was fun to see them in Sonic Odyssey again but some of that show was hard for me to believe the authenticy of all of the instrument sounds.

Would I sail on a Quantum class ship again? Yes, because I know what to expect now and overall I'm okay with it. I respect that all cruise lines are different. I had a great vacation!

[NYC cruiser lady]

Thanks for your review Allready. Also welcome to Cruise critic. Sorry that your Dynamic Dining experience was not so good, but glad you seem to have enjoyed Quantum otherwise. I am cruising in a couple of weeks as a solo cruiser. I am a little concerned but will try to make the best of it. I have only prebooked 2 dinner restaurants and plan to "wing" the rest. I eat slowly so could endure a 2 hour dinner. Luckily I could almost live on bread as well. :D

I was wondering if there was anywhere onboard where you could see (perhaps) on a screen or board where there is space available at the different eating venues at a glance? Last time I cruised on NCL with their Freestyle Dining there were screens around which told you about how long the wait was at each venue. I think something like this would be helpful.

 

Thanks

 

Denise

 

Denise: If you still have the time, I strongly suggest you book more dinners. The lines for the people without a reservation were unpleasant!

[bay guy]

I was on the 12/1 cruise. I beleive the biggest issue with DD is, as others have pointed out, not enough dining room staff. We cancelled a couple of,our reservations because we didn't care for the food in a venue, Silk. So we walked up to where we wanted to eat and were seated fairly quickly but the staff definately had to think hard about where they would seat us two. When we said we were willing to be seated at a table with others, there was a great look of relief on their faces.

One of those unreserved nights was in Chic. We were there at prime time and there were several table where no one was ever seated but I also noted that there weren't any dining room staff standing around with nothing to do. This told me that the visible staff would have had to attend to those tables if they had been filled and my feeling was that if that had been the case they would have been totally overwhelmed.

 

I would suggest the following if RCI wants to make DD work better.

1) definately need assistant waiters and bus boys to make things flow better in terms of service time and customer flow through the tables to improve table turnover times.

2) as someone else said, have some system which shows which venues may have more availability for those who change or don't have reservations.

3) for longer trips, over a week, have some variation to the menus in each venue. The staff on the other ships deals with a new menu every night, why can't you do that with DD? It doesn't have to be totally different, just change a couple,of the entrees.

 

For the information of the poster who doesn't have more than a couple of reservations, we were told that if we showed up at almost any venue between 5:30-6 we could be seated very easily.

[allready]

To further explain the dynamic disaster of dining on the Quantum… they pre-booking computer system doesn't always communicate well with the system they run onboard. Thus they overbook and lose bookings at an alarming rate. All the specialty restaurants seemed to be overbooked, we couldn't get in, and didn't really try just showing up.

 

They have an App for iPhones called Royal IQ which will show you all your dining and other reservations. This app worked marginally poor most of the time. Some reservations could be viewed others not. If you try to book reservations through this app, it will tell you everything is booked.

 

Best advice is to go to one of the restaurants when you board and speak to the host/hostess and review all your reservations. These should show on your TV screen even in your cabin, even if it doesn't show on your Royal IQ app.

 

If you haven't booked any reservations, just make them, you don't have to keep them, but at least you will have something.

 

We were sent away when we showed up early. One day after we formally complained about really poor service and attitudes we did receive some petit fours in our cabin with a note they were from the manager at Silk -no apology. Though they did call us and tell us to come early for Christmas eve at the Grande so we could get better service (though they had told us earlier in the day not too). Hard to understand this. I guess if you get the right person's ear, you get some action.

 

About the entertainment - someone mentioned it was a little spares in the Compass -- I agree. Seems like most of the onboard entertainment (i.e. calypso band, etc) boarded later in the cruise. It was a little Quiet on the way down to Florida. No sail away party, little music aside from DJs. We seem to find our way to trivia games and that was about it. And the worst decision -- NO QUEST!!!! I can't believe they are not doing Quest. They did have Battle of the Sexes in the Music Hall but it was not in the Cruise Compass we just happened on it.

[karmacats]

Denise: If you still have the time, I strongly suggest you book more dinners. The lines for the people without a reservation were unpleasant!

 

Are there separate lines now for those with and without reservations? I've seen conflicting reports. We board next Saturday, and would like to know how early we need to get to the restaurants (we have reservations for 6 of our 8 nights).

 

Thanks!

[NYC cruiser lady]

Are there separate lines now for those with and without reservations? I've seen conflicting reports. We board next Saturday, and would like to know how early we need to get to the restaurants (we have reservations for 6 of our 8 nights).

 

Thanks!

Yes, I just got off the ship on 12/27. Grande, Amer Icon (skip it), Chic and Silk now have signs. In my humble opinion, my neighbor's 5 year old can prepare food better than the preparation at American Icon!

[Georgeny]

We are going on this ship in April 2015 on a 12 night cruise out of NJ down to caribbean & back. I booked my DD restaurants back in September and the Grande was especially heavily booked. So hopefully the dinning times I booked online will be ok and they will have ironed out the problems. I thought the DD would be a disaster from the outset and I hope they go back to main dining rooms. They are planning to do DD on Allure & Oasis also, I hope RCI have a rethink on this option.

 

Holly I really don't think that we are dealing with a situation of ironing out problems. In my humble opinion ( I too just returned from the 12/20 sailing ) Disaster Dining cannot really be repaired.

 

I wish you a good cruise none the less.

 

George in NY

[Georgeny]

We are just back from our 7 night cruise to the Bahamas on the Quantum.

 

I cannot comment concerning kids sections but as for the rest I wholeheartedly agree, Disaster Dining. HATED it period. We liked the TWO70 area and cafe were tremendous, love it. The buffet area was very good with decent choices but best part good seating layout. I like the concept of having two bars in there as well especially since only saw one bar waiter the entire cruise I think in general area.

 

Our cabin same cruise was 13620, cabin itself was just fine but the overhang extends out so far on those cabins that you will never see sun on the 13th deck or probably decks lower. No matter for me I am a shade guy. What was bad is that overhang is the steel floor on 14th. Every morning between 4 am and 6 am deck crew moves all the deck chairs into place etc. I can sleep through most anything especial on a ship but that was unbelievable racket. They never thought to put some sound proofing there?

 

Will never sail Disaster Dining again.

 

George in NY

[Georgeny]

At least good to know, that I was not alone on this cruise, eating a lot of bread….

Yes, bread was very good on this cruise.

 

I am also come back from the same cruise and I am totally agree what you said. I booked the grande for the Christmas day and waited for one hour to get in. I saw a lot of lost reservation at grande. Told people go to buffet with everybody fully dress up at Christmas. Chop grille is also very slow and the streak came out warm at best. 2+ hour dining is no fun:mad:. No personal service at all restaurant.

 

We ate at Chops that evening, slow, I had the 12oz steak, had better in local dinner. Should have gone with filet mignon. Could not believe in extra cost restaurant they still have even more added cost for lobster or better steaks. Finally if you don't buy the $12 special coffee's the regular coffee in Chops is the same sail syrup instant served out of canisters in buffet? UNBELIEVABLE... We had reservations all but one night. As two people longest wait with reservation 5 minutes but I saw how the groups of 5 or more were shuttled to side line and made to wait with reservations.

 

The one night we didn't have reservation, I wanted to try doing that, we actually would up eating in the buffet. No one would have us until 9:30 closing they hoped.

 

George in NY - no more Disaster Dining in our future.

[NYC cruiser lady]

George, after one experience on the deck immediately below the pool, I will never book a cabin on that deck again. Quantum is not the only ship that you hear the chairs dragging each morning. I have had it happen on other ships.

 

There is a way to fix DD. Convert some of the restaurants back to two seatings, early and late, especially Grande. That would be the best of both worlds until RCL can figure out how to do DD correctly. Their staff is clearly not capable of handling it throughout the ship yet.

[NYC cruiser lady]

We ate at Chops that evening, slow, I had the 12oz steak, had better in local dinner. Should have gone with filet mignon. Could not believe in extra cost restaurant they still have even more added cost for lobster or better steaks. Finally if you don't buy the $12 special coffee's the regular coffee in Chops is the same sail syrup instant served out of canisters in buffet? UNBELIEVABLE... We had reservations all but one night. As two people longest wait with reservation 5 minutes but I saw how the groups of 5 or more were shuttled to side line and made to wait with reservations.

 

The one night we didn't have reservation, I wanted to try doing that, we actually would up eating in the buffet. No one would have us until 9:30 closing they hoped.

 

George in NY - no more Disaster Dining in our future.

 

I felt that way about Jamies. I have had better Italian at my neighborhood place, but most people loved it. Oh well.... I think everyone can agree that American Icon is an utter travesty. The chef (and I use that term loosely) in that kitchen simply does not know how to cook!

[carsaw]

After reading all the negative comments about the dining system, I am not looking forward to our Quantum cruise in April. It took close to 20 calls to straighten out the reservations and I don't expect them to be correct on the ship. The new reservation system is a mess even after all this time.

 

I booked our dining reservations for another cruise in January and our documents did not include the specialty restaurant reservations that I made. When I called and asked why they were not on our documents, he said it wasn't on their system at first, then after looking again said he found them on the other system??

 

I am not hopeful this will be fixed in the near future.

[heatherb1958]

allready thank you for your review. We were on Quantum from 31st October for 10 nights on sailings that were not full on purpose as the ship was brand new out of the dock.

 

I know that while the ship was still in dock the crew were eating in the guest restaurants to test the systems, menus etc.

 

No one is denying the ship is stunning with some excellent guest venues, I love cafe 270 and Coastal Kitchen. It really pains me to hear that guests are still being subjected to the awful set up with reservations, queues onboard for DD, slow service , which I have to say we only experienced slow service poblems.

 

If DD restaurants were on land they would have gone out of business by now. 2 months down the line these so called glitches should be sorted or at least the person sacked who thought up the programming !!:eek:

[karmacats]

Yes, I just got off the ship on 12/27. Grande, Amer Icon (skip it), Chic and Silk now have signs. In my humble opinion, my neighbor's 5 year old can prepare food better than the preparation at American Icon!

 

I saw how the groups of 5 or more were shuttled to side line and made to wait with reservations.

 

Thanks to you both for the info. Glad there is a separate "reservations" line now, though I am traveling with a party of 6 so maybe it won't do me any good. I'll report back after we return.

 

My group wants to eat in each free venue, so we've actually got AI reservations for the first night, but if it's really bad we'll just pop up to the windjammer after, or maybe order room service (i'm in a suite so it's free). The group is already aware that dinner may be hit-or-miss, so hopefully it won't make or break the cruise for us.

[DKNYC]

Denise: If you still have the time, I strongly suggest you book more dinners. The lines for the people without a reservation were unpleasant!

 

Thanks for the advice. I tend to be very patient although people also tell me I am a glutton for punishment. ☺ I will take all of your remarks under consideration. The restaurants I have booked are ones that I really want to go to. The others were not as important to me. If I never make it to AIG it would be ok. LOL In any event I don't think I will go hungry, but if I do maybe I will have invented the "Quantum Diet". The tip about showing up early could work on days I want to skip Diamond drink time. Maybe I can still make the end of that.

Denise

 

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[DKNYC]

Also I have it on fairly good authority from someone onboard now that the Assistant Waiters are back now. Hopefully this may improve the dining service.

Denise

 

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[Gonflipin]

They are changing rules/policies from cruise to cruise as well as daily on the cruise.

For example, the cruise before 12/20, you could book reservations for the North Star, for our cruise you couldn't. It was confusing- many people were looking to book a time slot because that's what they heard and ended up having to stand on the line.

Another example, announcements in Seaplex are that you must be 5 years old to do bumper cars. Day 1 the child was allowed to sit behind the wheel. By day 3, they were scanning Wow bands of kids to make sure they were 5 and children couldn't sit behind the wheel. I completely understand the reasoning behind the wheel- when you get hit hard it hurts. But it just goes to show the constant changing of rules/policy. Worth mentioning- we lined up 45 minutes before the bumper car session- one of the employees comes over to me about 15 minutes INTO the session and says the rule is 6 years old.... Absolutely not! The girl employee just said on the announcement it was 5!!!! Lo and behold- we get to the front of the line where the girl employee confirms the 5 year old age and I tell her that her co worker is misinformed. She immediately went over to correct him.

I hope the assistant waiters are back for the sake of future cruisers.

[jmrothermel]

Wow 1200 kids on board? That sounds like a crazy number! We travel on longer cruises / in the off season so there is usually 100 or 2. I can't even imagine! 😳

 

 

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