Just back from 1/23-2/2 sailing on Quantum

[Dardreamer]

My husband and I just got back on Sunday from the 10 night sailing.

 

We live in CT an hour and 45 min drive. We arrived at the port at 10:45 am which was our designated time to check in. My husband dropped me off and then went to park. It was busy but not that bad - took our bags right away and I waited inside for my husband. He parked and was in the terminal (a quick walk across the street and up a way) within 10 minutes. When you first enter terminal it looks like chaos as some employees wandered around with iPads, and there were desks on back wall and lines everywhere but it wasn't bad at all. We found a fellow who checked us with his iPad. He had a problem taking our pics with it but after a few min he figured it out. He said our credit card was not in there and I know it was as it was on the set sail pass but I think he accidentally deleted it. We went to agent at a desk who took care of it quickly. We were on the ship within 30 minutes which include the 10 min of parking so it wasn't bad at all. You couldn't go to your cabin until 1:00 so we went up to check out windjammer and then decided to go to the 270 cafe instead on deck 5. It has great sandwiches, hot and cold, soups, desserts and a quick place to be waited on and then you seat yourself in the surrounding areas of 270 where there are tables and many levels of seats - a very relaxing place to hang out during day also.

 

We checked out the ship (this is our 25th cruise) and the first sailing that we became Diamond members. A great perk we found out. We proceeded to our cabin at 1:00. We were in a 7th floor balcony - when we first walked in I thought it was rather small but it had tons of storage - two closets - great bathroom with handheld shower head. A beautiful large flat screen on the wall. We downloaded the Royal IQ app on our iphones and it worked excellent. It tracked out luggage perfectly and said two of our 3 suitcases had arrived and they did right at 1:00 when we did and it said the third was on the floor and it came a few minutes later. The app had all our reservations as did the Tv app. No problems with either the entire cruise. And we received free Wifi for entire cruise! That was a big plus!! I had just purchased when we got on board and they credited me the next day. We missed our first stop which was Puerto Rico as there was a huge storm ahead and the captain said he would have to take a different route and hug the coast to avoid the storm of 30 ft waves and he would have to go much slower. It was fine for us as we have been there on numerous cruises. And it was smooth sailing - a little bump here and there but nothing compared to what it would have been if we went through the storm. I think this is why he announced free Internet - it was at the same time he announced both.

 

I must say we always liked traditional dining and went in with an open mind. We loved dynamic dining. We enjoyed trying the different restaurants and menus. We even requested the same waiter at Icon Grill as we went there 4 nights, 3 nights Chic, (my favorite) , 2 nights Grande, 1 night Jamie's Italian. All the restaurants were very good. We are not fussy eaters and each restaurant had at least 3 favorite things on menu which we truly enjoyed. The service is a little slow in the restaurants but we were on vacation and in no big rush - the shows all coordinated well for us as we usually went to dinner around 8 and then 10:30 shows. If you didn't have reservations usually 8:45 was all that was left but that is last minute same night. One night we decided we wanted to go at 7 instead of 8 and they took us right in. And some nights I saw people with no reservations get in after waiting a few minutes. It is good to make reservations at home before you go, but if you want to change things up it is possible. We made Jamie's reservation when we were checking out ship upon arrival and there were plenty of openings. If you don't make them at home then make all you can when you get on board.

 

Mama Mia was fantastic. I saw twice on broadway and this was as good if not better. I can't say enough about it. The other shows were ok. The ventriloquist was great. The comedian great. The 270 show was not what I thought it would be and was just ok to me, but I am sure many loved it. Just not our thing.

 

Casino was smoky at one end where the bar was but at other end near one exit it wasn't at all and I hate smoke. So you can find a non smokey area - it's just that you have to find a machine you like in that area!!

 

The only problem I found was the room creaked and banged at night if it was windy out. By the 4th night in Caribbean and was fine but on way back the last 3 nights one of those nights it was very windy and banged all night. I called guest services and they were very nice. Offered to change our cabin or take a cabin to just sleep in, but we didn't want to do that and I finally got used to it. I am a light sleeper so I was up on my quite a bit on my iPad until I couldn't hold eyes open and fell asleep. My husband sleeps immediately and had no problem!

 

We went to the Diamond lounge every evening. You can have all the drinks and appetizers pre-dinner and the waiters were excellent in there. They had loaded 3 free drinks per day on our card to use from 5-8:30 for any bar but we stopped at a few and when we said we were ordering from diamond drinks they gave us a menu of drinks for diamond and disappeared and never returned. We decided we like the diamond lounge better anyway. Great service and the music hall is right there and the overflow from the diamond lounge sits in the upper part of music hall and we always had music from there.

 

I know many people we met did not like dynamic dining - but we found it fun and refreshing to try different settings and menus. We never did try Silk as we heard so many bad reviews but then as we met different people they loved Silk so you have to judge for yourself. Everyone has different views and different likes.

 

So all in all we had a wonderful cruise. Would do dynamic dining again in a heartbeat. It's a wonderful ship - not glitzy and rather plain in many areas but it was great for us. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

[12times]

My husband and I are diamond MEMBERS. Just wanted to know ...did they load 3 free drinks from 5:30-8:30 on both husband and wife's cards'. Did it start from the first night?

 

 

thanks

[VaTech8912]

Agree 100% with everything. This was our experience as well. Would do DD again in a heartbeat and we are one of the people that was surprised to enjoy Silk. Also, liked that they added a "Chef's" selection to the menus after a few days which provided even more variety. We did not have anything that was bad.....just some we like more than others. We too are not overly fussy, nor gourmet eaters though. Thought is was very odd that the Casino bar was non-smoking, which was near the non-smoking machines but 10 feet away from this is where a large majority of smokers congregated. Also, thought is was horrible to see many people at machines smoking and flicking ashes on the floor. Crazy. Anyone considering Quantum or a ship with DD, give it a try, you may just find you love it.....

Edited February 5, 2015 by VaTech8912

[roe2ship]

Thanks for sharing your experience on board the Quantum. Sounds like you really enjoyed the cruise.

 

I have read a few reports about cabins creaking/banging. Was your cabin in the forward section?

 

Did you need to make reservations for the ventriloquist and comedian? Are both of these performances in the theater? TIA

[Dardreamer]

Yes, 3 drinks each to both your cards. Also it is from 5-8:30. And in the diamond lounge you can have as many as you want during that time.

[Dardreamer]

Yes our cabin was forward and I was thinking that is why so creaky as we usually book mid-ship or aft! Yes, both ventriloquist and comedian are in the theater. You do need reservations which you can do beforehand, but at some shows they don't even scan your card, especially late 10:30 shows as not that full. I saw one couple that had no reservations and she told them to just step aside for a few minutes. I am sure you can get in to any show without reservations as they were never totally full, except Mama Mia - def need reservations for that.

[Dardreamer]

And yes free drinks start on first night!

[cruzingduo]

We were also on this cruise. We loved DD. All our reservations were made at home. We had done a b2b and were also on the previous 12 night cruise. For this cruise we made a few dining changes since we now knew which rest's were our favorite. We loved Jamie's between the 2 cruises we ate there 5 times. Had to be rolled out. The Bolognese was outstanding. Our favorites include Coastal Kitchen where we ate breakfast, many lunch's (love the wedge & mozzarella sandwich) and dinners, Chic, American Icon and Chops. We tried Silk and had a great time, however DH is not a fan. I loved it because I don't get Asian cuisine at home. No way was I able to get DH to try Wonderland, we heard mixed reviews onboard.

 

Mamma Mia was so good we saw it 3 times. Sonic Oddessy was incredible. Not to be missed. In 270 we saw Starwater, however the couple in front of us who both were 7 feet tall (only joking) prevented us from really seeing it. Music was great. Also in 270, which many people missed was the Virtual Concert. Don't miss it. I think it was only shown once.

 

Great cruise!

[Stevie Lawson]

Really enjoyed reading your review here in Scotland. Nice to hear there is an overflow Diamond Lounge, this worked well for us on previous sailings as less crowded. Cant wait for Anthem....

[ksg]

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.

[Kosi]

Yes our cabin was forward and I was thinking that is why so creaky as we usually book mid-ship or aft! Yes, both ventriloquist and comedian are in the theater. You do need reservations which you can do beforehand, but at some shows they don't even scan your card, especially late 10:30 shows as not that full. I saw one couple that had no reservations and she told them to just step aside for a few minutes. I am sure you can get in to any show without reservations as they were never totally full, except Mama Mia - def need reservations for that.

 

Our cabin was mid ship and it creaked a lot as well. At the captain's Q&A ..he explained it as it being a new ship..and all that comes with that.. made sense!

Edited February 5, 2015 by Kosi

[VaTech8912]

We were mid-ship and had creaking too. Funny thing is I actually found I slept better when the ship was noisy. Crazy me.

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Thanks for your review! Glad you had a great time! We loved DD and the Quantum too!!

 

 

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[DreaAST]

Nice review! We were also on this sailing and it was an excellent cruise! Our room was very creaky too and we were in the middle. Wasn't sure If it was just our room but obv not. :)