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LIVE - Couple's Blog from Quantum - Feb. 20, 2015

curryshake

By curryshake,
in Royal Caribbean International

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curryshake

curryshake

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Ok it's been 5 days. Do you think your children would enjoy Quantum?

 

The reason I would like to know is that we have kids, and wonder how the Quantum is for families.

 

:)

I've been thinking about this, actually. Our kids are in high school and I do think they would enjoy it - more so than Disney which has a teen club but as a ship is really geared toward younger kids. I think our sons would enjoy the quiet places on Quantum, the music, and the pools. And the dining, although, as I said before, I think Disney had better dining overall. That was actually our oldest son's favorite part of Disney.

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curryshake

curryshake

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Ok it's been 5 days. Do you think your children would enjoy Quantum?

 

The reason I would like to know is that we have kids, and wonder how the Quantum is for families.

 

:)

Oops, I forgot to say they would also enjoy Seaplex and the arcade.

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DreamingBig1

DreamingBig1

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I've been thinking about this, actually. Our kids are in high school and I do think they would enjoy it - more so than Disney which has a teen club but as a ship is really geared toward younger kids. I think our sons would enjoy the quiet places on Quantum, the music, and the pools. And the dining, although, as I said before, I think Disney had better dining overall. That was actually our oldest son's favorite part of Disney.

Our kids first cruise was on Disney, and the following year they went on the Freedom and enjoyed it more because of the multitude of options and places. The pools were awesome.

 

Thanks for answering. Just trying to see how family friendly a Quantum class ship is.

 

Sent using trained typing rabbits.

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BillOh Holiday Sharing Rare

BillOh

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We went for a quick dip in the hot tubs in the solarium. It was really cold in there. A crew member explained that it was because it was "negative twenty outside." I can buy that because the place is surrounded by windows. lol The hot tub was plenty warm, so it was fine.

 

 

As as self professed hot tub expert and to bring up a super controversial topic, this is a good reason to wear a robe to and from the hottub ;)

 

Its also an excuse for to write and add to the many people saying thank you for taking the time to do this.

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ftn807

ftn807

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We're back on board after a fun, sun-filled excursion to Old San Juan. I'm at the Sunshine Bar in the Solarium, chatting with my favorite bar tender on the ship, Zai Ma. He has been great, making suggestions, adding a little extra rum here and there, and always giving us fast service. He just told me he was up until 3:30 this morning to work here for the late night party they held last night.

 

Time to join my wife in the cascading pools here to cool off.

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FunCruiser59

FunCruiser59

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We get onboard the day you disembark......cant wait to have the kind of fun you are having :)

And yes, as someone else stated, the weather looks amazing! We will be happy to get away from the snow and cold in Canada!!!

 

Thanks again for all the time spent doing this for us all! You guys Rock!!!

 

Lisa

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curryshake

curryshake

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We are now pulling away from Old San Juan. Adios, beautiful city.

 

In 270 some of the performers are rehearsing for Starwater. I guess it's important to practice swinging by your feet a few times before the real thing so you don't bash your head on a passenger.

 

Back to last night.......

 

After we returned from our lovely excursion to St. Thomas and St. John, we went to the Solarium and enjoyed a performance called Sunset. The artist was Mother Nature. And before anyone asks, no, reservations are not required. It was lovely.

 

We had dinner at Grande. This was our best complimentary dining experience so far. I had the tuna carpaccio. It was quite good, with a paper-thin slice of tuna under the same giant capers I loved at Jamie's and hard boiled egg slices. I was looking for something light, and this dish fit the bill perfectly. DH had the melted brie salad. It came with a lingonberry dipping sauce that complimented the brie nicely. The brie was mild (not the "stinky" kind that we get at home), but was good in the salad. We both had the lobster tail. I've tried lobster several times over the years (it was hard to get growing up in central Texas), and it has always been dry and disappointing. Not so, last night. The lobster tails were quite small, but extremely tender and juicy. They were served on a bed of watery leeks and there were a couple roasted baby potatoes as well. There was also a cream sauce that was pretty good. All in all, it was not a bad meal. The only down side was that the servers were clearly over extended, again, even with assistant waiters. It was obvious that they were tired and frustrated because they couldn't deliver the quality of service they wanted to. They were trying their best, however, as DH saw our head waiter grab a manager who then helped serve our dessert. Speaking of which...I had the key lime and meringue pie and DH had the molten lava cake, both of which were very good.

 

After dinner we checked out the virtual music concert in 270. I'm a big fan of jazz, which I'm not sure is what the recorded band would consider itself, but it was a little easy-listening for my taste. Still, they had an awesome sound and I would have enjoyed watching the whole show if I hadn't fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion 15 minutes into it. Maybe I'll try to catch another showing if they offer one. After that I went straight to bed, being the fuddy-duddy I sometimes am, and DH checked out the casino.

 

This morning at 6:30 I couldn't tell if we had stopped moving, so I pulled back the curtain (I love having a bed next to the balcony), and was awarded with a stunning view of one of the forts at Old San Juan just as the sun was rising. I was so excited that I woke poor DH and we watched as we rounded the island and pulled into port.

 

Having gotten up early, we were ready to leave the ship as soon as the captain allowed. Once again, we were docked next to the Disney Fantasy. She actually kept us waiting to disembark because she was still docking and it's not considered safe to have passengers walk down the pier while that is happening. There were a total of five ships here in San Juan today, so it was quite crowded. But since we got off early, we were able to walk across to the forts and old city walls long before anyone else got there.

 

Our excursion for the day was the Spoon Food Tour. I will say this now, although I'm sure people are going to ask again, but this tour is not one of the RCI approved excursions. We chose it because it had over 500 reviews on TripAdvisor and got five stars and it sounded right up our alley. And it was. We met our tour guide, Caroline, at the totem at Quincentennial Plaza. The tour lasted for almost three hours, and was the perfect combination of history and authentic Puerto Rican cuisine. We sampled coffee grown in Puerto Rico, a brioche-like pastry who's name I didn't catch (my Spanish is non-existent), another pastry called quesito ("little cheese") that was a crispy shell filled with sweetened cheese (like that in a cheese Danish), grouper tacos (yes, tacos aren't Puerto Rican, but this was a favorite dish of our tour guide and amazingly good), and empanadillas ("little epanadas") filled with a choice of meats/seafood - I had mahi mahi and DH had conch. The dishes on their own were mild, but there were two types of popular local hot sauces, one made with tamarind and the other with avocado. They were spectacular, as was the food. My favorite was the taco. We also had a drink with rum and chinronja, a fruit that is a hybrid between an orange and a grapefruit. It was excellent.

 

After this wonderful lunch and fun conversations with the other tour participants, Caroline walked us to a nice art and gift shop and we all went our separate ways. DH and I found a nearby shop and got a nice vase/planter for our library which features the local image of a coquito, an indigenous frog common in Puerto Rican art.

 

Unfortunately, the all-aboard was at 2:30 (not sure why since you can practically skip a stone from Puerto Rico to Haiti). On the way back to the ship, we stopped and had a Cuba libre at an outdoor cafe while musicians and dancers performed in the same courtyard. After purchasing some hand-rolled cigars, we returned to the ship.

 

All in all, we felt this was the best non-beach excursion we have been on. The food tour was a perfect blend of history and food. Not too much food, not too little history. Caroline gave excellent recommendations to people who were staying at San Juan, and answered everyone's questions. The tour was relaxing, but managed to take us over a large portion of the island. I would not recommend it to people who require large portions, who don't like to try new foods, or who have trouble with mobility (the streets are very uneven and there is a lot of climbing/steps). But it was perfect for us and I would recommend it to anyone who likes food and history.

 

Tonight we're back at Jamie's and have reservations for the headliner, Ronn Lucas. The photo of his show includes puppets, so I have my doubts. But if he's half as good as the other entertainers on the ship so far I'm sure he'll be wonderful.

 

One thing we've noticed is that there seems to be a disproportionately large number of crew members from China on board. Our favorite bartender (Zai Ma) told us that he had suddenly been moved from a cruise that goes out of Florida and hadn't even had the chance to buy any warm clothes for the trip to New Jersey. My guess is that they are starting to train crew members on this ship for when it repositions to China in a few months. People fluent in Chinese (Mandarin/Cantonese) have to be more difficult to come by than people fluent in English. At any rate, service has been amazingly good.

Edited by curryshake
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Mott1086

Mott1086

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We've been inside all day today because it's been cold out, but it's been partly sunny and we enjoyed sitting in the sun in solarium earlier. It's cool on the balcony, but not frigid.

 

As we ate lunch, we discussed how impressed we are with the atmosphere and activities on the interior of the ship. The decor is stunning and it feels warm and relaxing throughout -- not at all like a mall, as we had feared. And it's not too crowded. RCI really has done a good job making the interior a place you want to spend time. And that's a necessity for a ship that makes voyages where it's too cold to go out on deck for days on end.

 

Lunch at Uzumi was wonderful and was some of the best sushi I've ever had. They brought out salted edamame as a complimentary appetizer. We shared tuna nigiri, eel nigiri, and two rolls: dragon eel and crispy spicy tuna. The eel was great (DH always calls it "bacon of the sea") and the spicy tuna was coated with Panko and lightly fried around the sides (the manager confirmed this with DH). It was spicy, which isn't always the case in sushi advertised as "spicy," so we were happy with it. The flavors were excellent.

 

We also had a dry sake that was some of the best I've had. I didn't get the name since we didn't have the bottle at our table and it wasn't on the menu. They overheated it a bit, but it was at the proper temperature in no time.

 

Mamma Mia was really good. The first half was amazing. The second half was a little slow, but still nice. The encore pieces were fun and lasted for a long time. If you sit kind of on the sides, you can see a monitor showing the director down in the orchestra pit. The guy played keyboard while directing the band the entire time. I found that impressive.

 

One thing we didn't expect - everyone has been told to set their clocks ahead an hour tonight. From what we'd read before, we thought the ship stayed on the same time the entire cruise. I'm glad that we're changing to the timezone for St. Thomas because I thought keeping up with ship time and land time would be a little confusing. Ken Rush said we'd get the hour back somewhere between ports, so I'm not sure when we'll change back.

 

As I said before, the wifi package for two devices allows you to disconnect any device and add another at any time. So it's really unlimited devices, but only two at any one time. I have switched back and forth between my laptop and phone a couple times today without any hassle or problem.

 

I apologize for not answering all of your questions. I want to blog about most or all of our experiences, but I also want to spend as much time as I can relaxing and enjoying the journey. Thanks to everyone for following along.

 

This is one of the BEST, and MOST ENTERTAINING reviews I have ever read on here.

 

I'm so sorry if I missed it, but what type of cabin / cabin number are you staying in?

 

-Michael

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evelyn51

evelyn51

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This is one of the BEST, and MOST ENTERTAINING reviews I have ever read on here.

 

I'm so sorry if I missed it, but what type of cabin / cabin number are you staying in?

 

-Michael

 

 

It's been a breath of fresh "salt" air! :)

 

A respite from the sand, and salters here..

Edited by evelyn51
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evelyn51

evelyn51

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Not angry at all. She was laughing at the comment made by the husband who posted--that he had checked out all the women's restrooms.

 

His post was because of the "wording" of her's. Maybe, it was my interpretation (tongue stuck out?) but, I don't think so. Just saying..

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JL&JW

JL&JW

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I have to admit, since we board the Quantum this Sunday, I would've followed your review no matter what. But - I have to give you both a huge round of thanks, kudos and regrets that you sailed this week and not next week.

 

Not only did you answer my random question about the wine dispensers in Vintages, this has also been the most enjoyable review/report I've ever read on this site (the photo of Einstein still has me laughing). I just wish we were on the same sailing, because you two seem like the exact kind of people we like to meet on cruises. You're doing pretty much the exact same things I imagine we'll be doing next week on our cruise, so thank you so much - you're paving the way for us to have an awesome time on Quantum next week.

 

Now, go enjoy the rest of your cruise!

 

-Josh

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ftn807

ftn807

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Tonight is probably the absolute highlight of the entertainment on this cruise. Truly, this has to be the pinnacle of the long tradition of the show while at sea. After a wonderful dinner, my wife and I are seated in the Royal Theater, soaking in the vibrant buzz of hundreds of cruisers in anticipation of...

 

a puppet show.

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