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

[Jimmers]

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.

 

We were told by RCI after our Dec 1 cruise that they had been flooded with complaints about the shortage of personnel and would be adding 500 crew members. Sounds like they made good on the promise.

 

As to the conflicting information you referred to, that was so bad on our cruise it was almost funny. You could speak with 3 different crew members and get 3 different answers. New ship, new and overworked crew, not enough training. But I suspect things will get better with each cruise.

[kathbern]

Has anyone bought any of the drink packages. Can you use them for the specialty drinks in the specialty restaurants ??

[cybor]

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

 

We were in the cabin 13614, same cruise.

And our second disaster was our housekeeper. For the extra bed first night we received just 1 pillow, i duvet in the cover and 1 blanket, it was not new and very scratchy. We call our maid, she promised to come and to fix the bedding problem, but never did. We waited till 1am. No any apologize from her side. Next day she told never any extra sheet comes under the blanket, but she will make us a favor and bring blanket cover.:eek: Really, no any cover under old, not very fresh blanket???

Few times she just ignored the sign Do not disturb, and ask if she can clean the room. On day 3 Do not disturb sign disappeared from our door.:D

Saw Do not disturb written on the paper by hand on the door nearby.:) Looks, we were not alone.

Never had anything similar on other cruise lines.

[NYC cruiser lady]

I also noticed by the end of the cruise that someone actually came by twice to fill our water glass. My daughter and I were not drinking wine and needed the extra water. It does appear they got the staff from someplace else on the ship. They didn't bring them on in any of the ports!

[Dave85]

Glad to hear that the Assistant Waiter position is apparently making a grand comeback on Quantum. They are certainly essential to the orderly operation of a cruise ship dining room and I hope we'll start to hear reports of improved service going forward.

 

...now if only they could also fix the reservation system :confused:

[DKNYC]

I also noticed by the end of the cruise that someone actually came by twice to fill our water glass. My daughter and I were not drinking wine and needed the extra water. It does appear they got the staff from someplace else on the ship. They didn't bring them on in any of the ports!

 

I heard a CD once say "Everyone has more than one job on a cruiseship". 😯

 

Denise

 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

[Bmulder1]

I find it interesting to see that some people think it is acceptable for RC to just work out the kinks. My family had a JS and 3 staterooms and paid more than double the regular rate because this was a 'holiday cruise'. For the money we paid we could have spent a few weeks in a resort on Bora Bora. If you charge this kind of money I don't want to be your guinea pig and expect exceptional service. Period. Instead RC gave horrible service, made us jump through hoops with their online reservation system, let us stand in lines for hours, thought that missing shows because of 3 1/2 hr dinners at an up charge was acceptable, couldn't even give us shampoo, blamed us if a dinner reservation was missing, billed us incorrectly at the end, and overall left a bitter taste in our mouth. After 8 weeks of having the chance to bring in more staff, it seems that very little has been done to improve the customer's overall experience.

[JL&Fam]

Has anyone bought any of the drink packages. Can you use them for the specialty drinks in the specialty restaurants ??

 

If you have the Ultimate Package it would cover the specialty drinks for $12, which is what the price was every time.

 

Cheers,

Jeff

[SherriZ366]

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.

Are you the George in NY from a previous iteration of a cruise forum in the 1990's? Did you sail a lot of Celebrity? This may be off the wall but did you work as prison warden and retired in the 1990s? Hope you don't mind the questions.

[nelblu]

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.

 

DD on Allure/Oasis has been postponed to a later date.

[Nebber1234]

I find it interesting to see that some people think it is acceptable for RC to just work out the kinks. My family had a JS and 3 staterooms and paid more than double the regular rate because this was a 'holiday cruise'. For the money we paid we could have spent a few weeks in a resort on Bora Bora. If you charge this kind of money I don't want to be your guinea pig and expect exceptional service. Period. Instead RC gave horrible service, made us jump through hoops with their online reservation system, let us stand in lines for hours, thought that missing shows because of 3 1/2 hr dinners at an up charge was acceptable, couldn't even give us shampoo, blamed us if a dinner reservation was missing, billed us incorrectly at the end, and overall left a bitter taste in our mouth. After 8 weeks of having the chance to bring in more staff, it seems that very little has been done to improve the customer's overall experience.

I feel the same way, I am a Diamond Plus member with over 25 RCCL and and another 10 on other lines. My family booked 4 cabins for the 12/20 holiday cruise. Between the technology that did not work, the long waits to get into the dining room, the extra long meals and the ship being under staffed . My whole family got off the ship feeling very stressed and unfulfilled. For the first time in 35 cruises I feel like a did not get my money's worth and I am due a refund. To make matters worse when I spoke to a officer at the crown and anchor event and told him I was cancelling my April cruise on the Quantum he was honest and admitted they have problems especially with the dinning but assured me they will be fixed in 4 weeks. That did nothing to save this vacation! We got home and canceled the April cruise.

[Wildcatfish]

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.

 

Glad to hear a good review on room 11110. We just booked that room for our upcoming Anthem cruise. A few questions...

 

1. Was there a pole near the end of the bed? I heard some Cat F's have a pole in the room.

 

2. I believe Adventure Ocean is also on deck 11. Was there any excessive noise?

Edited March 15, 2015 by Wildcatfish