Transpacific Questions

[amc80]

Hi all! We are in the very early stages of planning a possible Transpacific sailing in Spring 2025. Since the itineraries aren't out yet, I'm using the 2024 sailings as a starting point, specifically the April 4, 2024 sailing on Quantum. We have three boys who would be 12, 10, and 8 in 2025, so we would really prefer Quantum class (or greater) so there is plenty to do during the many at-sea days. A couple questions that we have so far:

 

1) How is the internet when in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? I'd likely need to do at least some work during the cruise.

2) Our longest sailing to date is 8 days, and we have a 9 day coming up. The food generally gets a bit blah towards the end. How is it at the end of 15 days? Is the produce terrible? Does stuff just start to taste...not great?

[Jasukkie]

The internet is yet to be determined due to the change to Starlink. As things are now, I'd be leery of any work which required video conferencing or streaming in general. It can also be highly variable from one part of the ship to another. Do not expect good wifi on your balcony for example. 

 

As for the food, the blahness may come from repetition. I've never noticed the quality changing over the course of a longer cruise. I believe they have the ability to add provisions in some ports as well? If you do the ship's tour you can see they have storage facilities maximized for each type of food. Produce at a certain temperature and humidity, dairy at another, etc. 

[amc80]

10 minutes ago, Jasukkie said:

The internet is yet to be determined due to the change to Starlink. As things are now, I'd be leery of any work which required video conferencing or streaming in general. It can also be highly variable from one part of the ship to another. Do not expect good wifi on your balcony for example. 

 

As for the food, the blahness may come from repetition. I've never noticed the quality changing over the course of a longer cruise. I believe they have the ability to add provisions in some ports as well? If you do the ship's tour you can see they have storage facilities maximized for each type of food. Produce at a certain temperature and humidity, dairy at another, etc. 

 

That was helpful, thank you! I could get away with no video/streaming, but would need to access files online.

 

And thanks for the food comments. It just seems that by like day 6 the salads and such are sort of floppy.

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, amc80 said:

2) Our longest sailing to date is 8 days, and we have a 9 day coming up. The food generally gets a bit blah towards the end. How is it at the end of 15 days? Is the produce terrible? Does stuff just start to taste...not great?

@ReneeFLL might have some comment on this.

[sandebeach]

We are on Day 5 of the Quantum TP and so far internet has been good for catching up on emails. So far food has been very good. We have been doing Coastal Kitchen and have a 5-dinner dining package. Did Chops the other night and it was very good. 

[Mikamarii]

We are on the tp right now headed to Sydney. We have the surf stream package and have had no issues so far. Kids have logged in and watched disney plus with no problems. Weve video called home with no issues. 

There are less than 3000 people on this cruise that holds i think over 4000 (not including crew). The few people probably keeps the internet from being overloaded so maybe why it works better but there have been no problems accessing anywhere. 

Theres been the odd time it hasnt connected and we have had to turn off wifi then back on and it reconnects and works great. 

 

We are on day 8 and so far food has been great. I'm sure theyve restocked some things while weve been in FP but cant say for sure. 

[ReneeFLL]

1 hour ago, amc80 said:

Hi all! We are in the very early stages of planning a possible Transpacific sailing in Spring 2025. Since the itineraries aren't out yet, I'm using the 2024 sailings as a starting point, specifically the April 4, 2024 sailing on Quantum. We have three boys who would be 12, 10, and 8 in 2025, so we would really prefer Quantum class (or greater) so there is plenty to do during the many at-sea days. A couple questions that we have so far:

 

1) How is the internet when in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? I'd likely need to do at least some work during the cruise.

2) Our longest sailing to date is 8 days, and we have a 9 day coming up. The food generally gets a bit blah towards the end. How is it at the end of 15 days? Is the produce terrible? Does stuff just start to taste...not great?

We are on a TP right now. So far the internet (surf and stream) has been fine and we don’t have the Starlink. We are only 8 days into the cruise and are in Papeete, Tahiti today and on our way to New Zealand. When we did TP’s in 2017 & 2018 we did have some trouble with the internet. I have a review going that I’ll be commenting on the it as we go. As for the food on the previous 2 we didn’t see a decline in quality. They do pick up some food along the way to replenish. It would be the menus repeating that might get boring to some, but I’m fine with it. 

 

 

Edited October 17, 2022 by ReneeFLL

[ReneeFLL]

10 minutes ago, sandebeach said:

We are on Day 5 of the Quantum TP and so far internet has been good for catching up on emails. So far food has been very good. We have been doing Coastal Kitchen and have a 5-dinner dining package. Did Chops the other night and it was very good. 

I think you are following behind us. I’ll make sure the seas are calm and the sun is shining. ☀️

[taglovestocruise]

1 hour ago, amc80 said:

 

That was helpful, thank you! I could get away with no video/streaming, but would need to access files online.

 

And thanks for the food comments. It just seems that by like day 6 the salads and such are sort of floppy.

Just off the 10 night Quantum transpacific. Absolutely worse food ever on any cruise ship, MDR and WJ specifically, Two70 fell to a all time low for quality.   Chop's and Jamies were exceptional. 7 days of rain caused almost everyone to be inside. We have done 5 transatlantics on Oasis Class and all have been fantastic. Very little for kids to do on Quantum Class for 10 - 12 days.  Quantum is just too small for us, we are in our late 60"s.  

[sandebeach]

31 minutes ago, ReneeFLL said:

I think you are following behind us. I’ll make sure the seas are calm and the sun is shining. ☀️

Yes, you left Sunday and we left Thursday. I was originally booked on your cruise but had to switch due to a wedding in the family! Hope weather continues to be great for you. 

[amc80]

2 hours ago, sandebeach said:

We are on Day 5 of the Quantum TP and so far internet has been good for catching up on emails. So far food has been very good. We have been doing Coastal Kitchen and have a 5-dinner dining package. Did Chops the other night and it was very good. 

Thanks for chiming in!

 

 

2 hours ago, Mikamarii said:

We are on the tp right now headed to Sydney. We have the surf stream package and have had no issues so far. Kids have logged in and watched disney plus with no problems. Weve video called home with no issues. 

 

Oh good. If you can stream, I don't think I'd have any issues opening files and such.

 

 

2 hours ago, ReneeFLL said:

They do pick up some food along the way to replenish. It would be the menus repeating that might get boring to some, but I’m fine with it. 
 

 

Great to know they replenish along the way, thank you!

[amc80]

1 hour ago, taglovestocruise said:

Just off the 10 night Quantum transpacific. Absolutely worse food ever on any cruise ship, MDR and WJ specifically, Two70 fell to a all time low for quality.   Chop's and Jamies were exceptional. 7 days of rain caused almost everyone to be inside. We have done 5 transatlantics on Oasis Class and all have been fantastic. Very little for kids to do on Quantum Class for 10 - 12 days.  Quantum is just too small for us, we are in our late 60"s.  

 

We really prefer Oasis or even Freedom class, but we specifically want to do TP vs TA. I was an exchange student to NZ in high school and have been wanting to go back for years, so we thought this would be a fun way to do it. Our kids are pretty happy to swim, do the flow rider, bumper cars, iFly, etc. They will also have to spend some time doing school work. I like the itinerary that Brilliance does better, but there is just so little for the kids to do on that ship.

[taglovestocruise]

23 minutes ago, amc80 said:

 

We really prefer Oasis or even Freedom class, but we specifically want to do TP vs TA. I was an exchange student to NZ in high school and have been wanting to go back for years, so we thought this would be a fun way to do it. Our kids are pretty happy to swim, do the flow rider, bumper cars, iFly, etc. They will also have to spend some time doing school work. I like the itinerary that Brilliance does better, but there is just so little for the kids to do on that ship.

By the time you cruise the whole Royal fleet should be on Starlink. Speeds should be 10 - 20 times faster.  Thank you Elon Musk...

[Biker19]

2 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

Speeds should be 10 - 20 times faster.  

Don’t go by current speeds being reported by ships testing- long term the speeds are unlikely to be much or any higher than current systems. Latency will get much better which may lead to better performance for many. 

[time4u2go]

I've noticed some fresh foods (mostly fruit) starts to run out even toward the end of a 7-night cruise.

[1025cruise]

One thing to keep in mind, most of these long cruises don't attract a lot of younger cruisers.

[taglovestocruise]

17 minutes ago, 1025cruise said:

One thing to keep in mind, most of these long cruises don't attract a lot of younger cruisers.

Bingo.  A Oasis Class transatlantic carries a dozen or so kids instead of the usual 1500. Most adults are in the 55+++ range. Just returned from Quantum Vancouver to Honolulu, I think a dozen would be stretching the number of under 16 year olds.

[Cigar King]

3 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

By the time you cruise the whole Royal fleet should be on Starlink. Speeds should be 10 - 20 times faster.

I'm not drinking the Kool-Aid, I just hope it's better overall.

[Hogbay]

6 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

c. Very little for kids to do on Quantum Class for 10 - 12 days.  

Ha ha . When i was growing up we did not have push bikes ....walked to town and dragged back a fruit box , collected ball bearings for wheels and made a billy cart . And the kids have nothing to do on Quantum........

[Mikamarii]

Our kids are 10 and 8. We were told there are about 100 kids on this cruise. Works well because we dont need to worry about kids club filling up. 

Ours have not been bored at all. Lots to do for them. They are having a blast and made a bunch of friends. 

Weve done two trips out land from the ship today theyve been forklifting supplies in all day. All ive seen so far is beer and toilet paper 🤣🤣

[Merion_Mom]

10 hours ago, ReneeFLL said:

@ReneeFLL- I love that this is the pic that CC's software chose to use for your thread!  😄 
 

 

 

[amc80]

14 hours ago, Mikamarii said:

Our kids are 10 and 8. We were told there are about 100 kids on this cruise. Works well because we dont need to worry about kids club filling up. 

Ours have not been bored at all. Lots to do for them. They are having a blast and made a bunch of friends. 

Weve done two trips out land from the ship today theyve been forklifting supplies in all day. All ive seen so far is beer and toilet paper 🤣🤣

 

Super helpful! It seems like there is a lot to do on the ship.

[moposh]

On 10/17/2022 at 12:13 PM, amc80 said:

The food generally gets a bit blah towards the end. How is it at the end of 15 days?

I was on a 15-night-cruise around the Panama Canal.  I did not starve.  😁  The food was fine.  The produce was good.  They may take on food on other ports during the cruise.  Cruise was a few years ago, but I honestly don't remember being unsatisfied with the food at the end.

[rudeney]

On 10/17/2022 at 12:51 PM, Mikamarii said:

Theres been the odd time it hasnt connected and we have had to turn off wifi then back on and it reconnects and works great. 

 

 

This is an issue with the ship's internal wifi access points.  They don't use a true "mesh" system and their equipment doesn't do good hand-offs so as you move around the ship, you are left connected to a distance access point with a weak signal.  I just found myself turning my device's wifi off and on every time I moved around.  Unless they upgrade their onboard wifi, the switchover to Starlink won't make this any better.

[ReneeFLL]

On 10/17/2022 at 8:34 AM, sandebeach said:

Yes, you left Sunday and we left Thursday. I was originally booked on your cruise but had to switch due to a wedding in the family! Hope weather continues to be great for you. 

So far so good. Had a little rain in Moorea and Tahiti, but it was more like a light shower.

 

23 hours ago, amc80 said:

Thanks for chiming in!

 

 

Oh good. If you can stream, I don't think I'd have any issues opening files and such.

 

 

 

Great to know they replenish along the way, thank you!

I saw them loading food and supplies yesterday while we were in Tahiti. Overheard one lady say she saw them loading large whole fish on. Not sure how that could be, because I would hope they would have been covered up. Looks like the pineapples came straight from the farm to the ship. They were loading supplies for a while.