A (Mostly) Qomplaint-Free QUANTUM REVIEW (Feb. 20 - Mar. 1, 2015)

[Yorkvillain]

I was going to write a full review after we returned from our February 20th Quantum cruise but after reading curryshake and ftn807's amazing live review, I decided to bag it since there's no way I could possibly top or even match their incredible review. So take care everyone, talk to you soon. Happy cruising.

 

 

(long pause)

 

 

Still here? Alright fine, I'll slap something together quickly and include some photos from our 9-day voyage on the Quantum.

 

By the way, here is a link to curryshake and ftn807's live review in case you were living in a Carnival lifeboat for the past nine days.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2168722

 

Ok, here we go. I actually wasn't sure if I would do a review since I was extremely lazy on the last few cruises and didn't take any notes to do a full review when we returned home. However on day 3 of the Quantum I decided I needed to do my share of charity work and give back to the Cruise Critic family since this little community has provided me with hundreds (read thousands) of hours of knowledge and entertainment over the years (and none of which were at work, I swear). So here's a tip of the cap to all of my favorite posters/reviewers including Trainman-2, Radio, Clarea, LittleMissMagic, SailorJack, Gambee, DEIx15x8, maureencruiser, MerianMom, EmpressofPurple, JohnGaltny, A&L_Ont (aka Andrew & Lisa, aka our Rising Tide Bar & Nachi Cocum drinking companions from our Nov. 2014 Oasis cruise), ckrobyn and her great live Freedom thread which I have to catch up on now since our cruises overlapped, and to all of the great posters from the live Quantum transatlantic thread.

 

By the way, if you haven't seen the video series that DEIx15x8 has produced after his 19 days on the Quantum, you must check it out. There is some great stuff in there and is very well done. Here is a link:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2158075

 

Traveling on our cruise were me: Tim (45/M) and girlfriend Courtney (a few years younger than me/F). We were in balcony room #6532. Courtney's father and his girlfriend were also on this cruise and they also had a balcony room on deck six.

 

PRE-CRUISE

Fortunately I have a good friend that lives in Bayonne, NJ. He was nice enough to let me park my car in his garage at his beautiful condo which is right on the water in Bayonne and only minutes away from the new cruise ship terminal. I owe him big time for this AND for driving us in his brand new Maserati to the terminal AND for the piece of mind I had over the next nine days knowing that I did not have to shovel my car out when we got back. How we managed to fit all of our luggage (including Courtney's 74 pairs of shoes) into his little Maserati, I'll never know.

 

And speaking of luggage, for the first time ever I decided to not bring a garment bag. I did research for hours and watched endless amounts of videos on how to roll your clothes when packing. This is something I always wanted to try and I finally decided to give it a go for this trip.

 

I am happy to report that everything came out great and there were hardly any wrinkles in my clothes that a little Downy Wrinkle Release couldn't get out. The suit jacket was the hardest piece of clothing to roll but surprisingly it came out wrinkle free. But like the idiot that I am, I did not take any before or after pictures. I know, you're devastated. As a consolation prize, here is a photo of that Downy Wrinkle Release:

 

 

Much more to come. Stay tuned.

[Life is Good Cruising]

Glad all went well for you, then again, what's not to enjoy.

 

I've been using dry cleaning bags on our clothes for years, no wrinkles at all, already on hangers that go right into the closet.

[A&L_Ont]

From one great Quantum cruise review to another. I am looking forward to this one for sure. I can only imagine your friend cringing while you shoehorned half a dozen bags into his Maseratti, not to mention all 4 of you jamming into his super ride. Hope you didn't have to strap any onto the roof. Did it look like the clown car at the circus, only a way swankier car full of good looking people?:D

 

Looking forward to your review Tim. Say hi to Courtney for us. What a great way to pass the time prior to our embarkation on Allure.

 

Andrew

[Yorkvillain]

Some other packed items:

 

The gators have been moonlighting as security guards since our November cruise. Here they are guarding the passports.

 

For the germaphobe in me.

 

 

 

Because of A&L_Ont's glowing recommendation, this product will be joining me on every vacation. (That rhymes, right?)

[Yorkvillain]

From one great Quantum cruise review to another. I am looking forward to this one for sure. I can only imagine your friend cringing while you shoehorned half a dozen bags into his Maseratti, not to mention all 4 of you jamming into his super ride. Hope you didn't have to strap any onto the roof. Did it look like the clown car at the circus, only a way swankier car full of good looking people?:D

 

Looking forward to your review Tim. Say hi to Courtney for us. What a great way to pass the time prior to our embarkation on Allure.

 

Andrew

 

Ha. Fortunately my friend only had to drive Courtney and I to the pier. It was still a verrrrry tight fit.

 

Have fun on the Allure. And more importantly enjoy the weather!

[Sea Dame 1]

I use dry cleaner bags also Life is Good Cruising they are the best!

[Yorkvillain]

If anyone is curious about what camera I used to take my pictures, I used a very high tech and sophisticated machine called the Iphone 6. I'm not sure if any of you have ever heard of it. It is a very rare and elegant piece of photography equipment.

 

My reading material for this trip:

 

SailorJack's latest masterpiece. You can find it here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2129055

 

 

And this book:

 

Not only is the author Steve Belichick the father of Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, he is also the father of modern NFL scouting. Ok, now that I have completely bored you to death I'll move on to actual cruise stuff.

[Yorkvillain]

Thanks to a recent Cruise Critic thread, I picked up these little tea lights at a Dollar Tree store. They worked great for those middle of the night trips to the bathroom in a very dark stateroom. And on a completely unrelated note, I went home with a lot less bruises and cuts on my legs and feet.

 

Tea light OFF (In my best Mr. Miyagi voice)

 

Tea light ON

[Yorkvillain]

DAY 1

It was extremely difficult to leave that gorgeous 6 degree weather we were having on February 20th. However when I make a commitment, I stick to it and I was determined to board the ship at any cost (and any temperature).

 

We arrived at the pier around 11:30 AM. We dropped off our luggage and went thru security without any hiccups. And while all this was happening I was bragging to Courtney about how we would be on the ship within 10 minutes.

 

Wrong.

 

I approached one of the people walking around with an iPad and gave him our SetSail passes. He checked us in and told us to wait in this one section which I assumed was a section for everyone like us that had “11:15-11:45” as their time slot for check-in.

 

Well this brain surgeon put us in the section for “12:15-12:45”. Thankfully the gentleman sitting across from us overheard me and told us we could board the ship now. If we were put in the right line we would have been on in under 10 minutes, however the whole process ended up being 24 minutes. Still not bad and hopefully will not happen next time.

 

For some reason the date printed on our cards had the disembarkation date on it and not the embarkation date. Hmmm. Interesting. Never seen that before. (I cropped my name out of the photo so none of you serial killers could track me down and murder me).

 

Love, let me repeat…LOVE the new WOW Bands. When I first heard that they were having these on the Quantum I thought that I “might” use it while at the pool on sea days. Nope. I wore it the entire time. It is so convenient and I am really going to miss it on the Oasis in September. It seemed that most passengers were wearing them too, young and old alike.

 

Our room - 6532

[Donna_In_India]

Hi Tim - Courtney looked well-rested (and tan) today. Glad you enjoyed your trip. Looking forward to your review.

 

I'm impressed that you rolled your clothes but I've never had luck with the spray wrinkle release. Maybe I'll be brave enough to try it next time.

 

What did you use the WOW bands for?

[CVU]

Doesn't Q have the soft night light in the bathroom like Oasis and Allure? that seemed to light the way OK for us.........instead of the Tea Lights.

[Yorkvillain]

DAY 1 CONTINUED

 

Our stateroom attendant cleared out our refrigerator so I could fill it with my bottled water and Sugar Free Red Bull. And I am happy to report that the temperature in the fridge was very good all week! Everything was nice and cold and not the usual 82 degrees like on other ships.

 

El Bano. The shower seemed to have more room than the showers on other ships.

 

As others have mentioned in other threads, if you leave your bathroom door open while showering, you will have a nice ocean view. I swear I was fully clothed while taking this picture in the shower.

 

The obligatory first Corona of the trip.

Edited March 3, 2015 by Yorkvillain

[Yorkvillain]

Doesn't Q have the soft night light in the bathroom like Oasis and Allure? that seemed to light the way OK for us.........instead of the Tea Lights.

 

Yes it does. I used the tea lights for the walk to the bathroom.

 

Here is a picture of the night light. It's not as bright as it looks in the picture. It is actually lit just right.

 

[Yorkvillain]

Hi Tim - Courtney looked well-rested (and tan) today. Glad you enjoyed your trip. Looking forward to your review.

 

I'm impressed that you rolled your clothes but I've never had luck with the spray wrinkle release. Maybe I'll be brave enough to try it next time.

 

What did you use the WOW bands for?

 

Hi Donna!

 

The WOW bands can be used at any bar to make a purchase, at the shops on board and most importantly to open your stateroom door. It even worked at the bars on Labadee.

 

It's optional so you can use your regular room key card if you don't like to wear the band.

[Yorkvillain]

WRAPPING UP DAY 1

 

The first meal of the trip was at the cafe at Two70 where I crushed two beef on wecks (with extra Au Jus of course). We then checked out the ship since it was the first time we were on this new class. Our luggage arrived pretty quickly so we unpacked and made our way to the theater for the muster drill.

 

For sailaway we went to the indoor pool (not the Solarium) where I recorded us going under the Verrazano. Does anyone know the best way to post video from my iPhone to this thread?

 

We went to the Diamond Lounge for a drink around 6pm but it was jam packed and standing room only. You could tell some of the people in there sprinted there right after the muster drill to claim their seat. We popped in there a few times during the trip around 7:45-8pm and there were always seats available. Dinner was at Chic and I think we all had the prime rib. We all agreed it was delicious and the service was very good.

 

Total Fitbit steps for Day 1: 13,739 (I had a goal set for 10,000 a day but in hindsight I should have upped it to at least 12,000 a day since my goal at home on a normal day is 10,000.

 

Up Next: Day 2 - Our first trivia win of the trip, lunch at Michael’s Pub and a cranky old complaining couple at the Grande.

[Kathie13]

Read that you could use the wow band to text other cruisers. Is it true? And how!?!?!?

 

 

Kathie

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[kathygruvs]

 

Our first trivia win of the trip, lunch at Michael’s Pub and a cranky old complaining couple at the Grande.

 

Congrats on winning a cranky old couple. They should really get better prizes for trivia.

 

Kathygruvs

[Yorkvillain]

Read that you could use the wow band to text other cruisers. Is it true? And how!?!?!?

 

 

Kathie

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

You can text other passengers with the RoyalIQ app on your smartphone, not the WOW band. It worked surprisingly very well as long as both parties were signed in to the app. If someone you were texting were not signed in, they would receive the message the next time they did sign in.

 

The app is free too, you do not need to purchase a wifi package to use it. I thought that the whole RoyalIQ thing was much better than I expected it to be. I had no problem changing dinner reservations or my Ifly reservation on it. You can view your stateroom charges on it too.

 

I thought that the Cruise Compass was going to be on it but if it was I couldn't find it. The same goes for the menus at the restaurants. I couldn't find them on there.

[Yorkvillain]

Congrats on winning a cranky old couple. They should really get better prizes for trivia.

 

Kathygruvs

 

Ha. Thankfully I only witnessed a handful of cranky people.

[Kathie13]

Thanks so much! It won't work for us cause I'm the only one with a smartphone!! DH & DS are still carrying the flip phones without apps.

 

 

Kathie

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Yorkvillain]

DAY 2

Day 2 started off by watching a little of Ken Rush's morning show "The Morning Rush" on channel 14. His show is not funny like other cruise directors' morning shows. Richard Spacey, Leigh Xuereb and others always make theirs a little goofy and entertaining. Watching Ken's show is like watching the Home Shopping Network. It seemed that the whole point of his morning show was to get you to buy something. "Don't forget to book your shore excursions, spend $200 to play Bingo and then buy a terrible $10 t-shirt at our Royal Garage Sale on the Royal Esplanade".

 

 

After not falling for Rush's sales pitch, I made my way over to the gym and had a good workout. This would be my only trip to the gym this week. I did walk a lot on the track above the pool deck but this would be it for the gym. The gym is nice and has more ocean views than the Oasis class.

 

Next was lunch at Michael's Genuine Pub. The food was ok but I don't think I would eat there again unless the food was complimentary. It was good but just not good enough to pay extra for, especially when there is delicious (and free) beef on wecks just a short distance away.

 

It was a little warmer out on day two and we actually sat on our balcony for a bit and played a little backgammon. Without the sun beating on us I don't think there would have been any way to sit outside on this day.

 

We also checked out the Robo Show Spectacular in 270. We are not "show people" however I did want to check out some of the new technology in 270. This show basically just demonstrated what the big screens were capable of doing. Well, about 14 seconds into the show I demonstrated what I was capable of doing as my ADD kicked in and I found myself staring at my foot. I looked over at Courtney and she looked like she was about to fall asleep and hibernate for the rest of the winter.

 

Her: "When can we leave?"

Me: "Isn't it rude to leave in the middle of a show?"

Her: "Well it's not like there are any live performers in this show."

Me: "Good point. Let's get out of here."

 

I had Ifly reservations for 4pm. This time my laziness kicked in and decided to move my time slot to day 4.

 

We participated in the Crown & Anchor trivia at the Schooner Bar where we came up short by one answer. And right before dinner we won the movie love songs trivia at Boleros. For our efforts we were rewarded with Quantum lanyards (which we never wear).

 

 

 

 

Dinner on day two was at the formal restaurant, the Grande. The food was very good but the service was very slowwwwwwwwww. This would be the only time that we had bad service in any of the restaurants. Other people that I talked to said that they had very good service in the Grande so I guess it was just the waiter we had and not the system that they had in place.

 

We did have a very cranky couple sitting next to us that complained non-stop. The husband did all the talking while the wife just sat there with a frown on her face. I ran into him a few times during the week and every time (I kid you not), he was complaining about something. I saw him on the pool deck complaining to another passenger and every time I went to the Diamond Lounge he was in there complaining but obviously he had no problem throwing back his free drinks. I'm sure he had something to complain about the free drinks. "I specifically asked for EIGHT ice cubes in my FREE Bourbon & Ginger but I only count 7.5!"

 

Every time we saw them the wife just sat there frowning without saying a word. So for the rest of the trip whenever we saw them we would say, "Oh look, there's Cranky & Frowny". Maybe instead of the "Morning Rush" they should have the "Cranky & Frowny" show and end the show with Cranky's complaint of the day segment.

 

Day two (or actually night two now) was also the latest we stayed up the entire trip. We checked out the reggae band in Music Hall and then ended the night at the Ice Bar in 270.

 

Day 2 Fitbit steps: 10,152

 

Next Up: Day 3 - The North Star, Dinner at American Icon and the thermometer hits 70!

Edited March 3, 2015 by Yorkvillain

[Yorkvillain]

DAY 3

Lunch on day 3 was at the windjammer (yes lunch, we slept thru breakfast after staying up late and closing down the Ice Bar at 270 on day 2). The windjammer on the Quantum class is now officially my favorite windjammer of any Royal ship that I have been on. It is well designed and I really like the outside seating in the back. Surprisingly we always found seats outside. I guess some passengers didn't even know outside seating existed. The made to order omelette station is also in the back by the exit to the outdoor seating.

 

 

There could be worse views while having a nice lunch.

 

I like the real sinks with real running water to wash your hands. They had one outside and more inside when you first walk into the windjammer. This picture is of the one outside.

 

Courtney took a nap as she was still feeling the effects of the previous night's activities. I grabbed a chair by the main outdoor pool for a bit in the 70 degree weather and then jumped on line for the North Star. The line was as long as one hour at one point but when it got under 30 minutes I decided to give it a shot.

 

I enjoyed the North Star much more than I thought I would. Today was a sea day and the view was pretty amazing especially when the North Star moved over the side of the ship. I thought this would be a one-time thing for me however I will definitely do it again on the Anthem. Next time I would like to do it while we are in port.

[Yorkvillain]

DAY 3 CONTINUED

 

"A lesson in counterproductivity"

At one point late in the afternoon I realized that I was not being very active and needed to walk more to keep up with my goal of 10,000 steps a day. I started walking around the track and was doing fine until I walked into the windjammer and smelled the cookies. So of course I grabbed three and ate them on the way back to our stateroom. I should have just taken a nap instead, at least I would have saved the calories.

 

We played a few trivia games at the Schooner Bar with now my favorite trivia emcee/host/whatever you call him. His name is Fritz from Philly (Philly meaning Phillipines). He was hilarious and had a very unique laugh that made me laugh every time. If you've seen him, you know what I'm talking about.

 

 

And speaking of the Schooner Bar, Ariel and Patrick are officially my favorite bartenders ever. These guys were the best and made a mean Bloody Mary.

 

 

 

Dinner was at American Icon. The food was good and they had one of those machines by the entrance where you put a penny in and it converts the penny into a souvenir for you. Sick, right?

 

 

Day 3 Fitbit steps: 9,669 (FAILURE)

Calories from the 3 cookies: unknown, but can't be good

 

Next Up: Day 4 - I blow off Ifly again and a little girl puts me in my place.

[rclibertygirl5]

Loving your review!!!! Thanks for taking the time to do this. We are on the Quantum April 5 and we are very excited!!

 

Were you just able to book the iFly only once or could you have booked it more times if you wanted? Was there a charge after the first time?

 

Thanks!

[Catcat222]

Enjoying your review.

 

We are packing for our cruise next Friday and we love to learn more about ship!!

 

Were you able to bring water and other beverages on board? Did you hand-carry them? I am debating whether to bring some or not.