Jimmers

They just changed that rule recently. Now you can use them for money off a cruise that has BOGOHO on it. Apparently, they were getting a lot of complaints.

Maybe some are getting special consideration but according to C&A the rules haven't been changed. The points can only be used as OBC credit on a bogo booked cruise. And the cash value for 125k points is only $1250 or roughly half of what it would be in cruise value.

So it's either find a non bogo cruise which we were told are still available or use the points as OBC. I'm leaning toward splitting our 150k points between our two upcoming cruises but my wife wants to hold out for a cruise. In any case, we're done using the RC Visa card.

We stopped using our cards some months back when it appeared the perpetual Bogo sales were going to prevent us from using them toward a free cruise.

I hope it's true that we can now use the points toward paying off a Bogo cruise. We did that once on a nonbogo cruise but I can't recall for sure what dollar value they applied to our 125k points.

It's true that you can get much better rewards with other CCs but we've enjoyed using our RC card as a vacation savings plan and if this info pans out we'll probably start using them again.

As others have said it's not the best way to get certified but as long as you're willing to devote your cruise time to it there's no reason not to do it. Wife and I received the basic Padi cert on the Navigator and finished the second part in the Grand Caymans on our next cruise. Again, better to do it all at the same time while the skills are fresh in your mind but it turned out ok for us.

It was a February cruise -Presidents week I guess.

Thanks for clarifying, I was just getting ready to cancel our April cruise. JK, too late for that:)

A 1000 kids on a March cruise?:eek:

Once booking opens up, I have some decisions to make.

I was so excited to book Anthem for Summer 2016. But between the issues on Quantum and how amazing Allure was, I may be in for a big disappointment.

It seems that the big thing on this ship was to be the dining experience.

However, DD, by a large amount seems to have failed, and possibly the quality that this ship yard put out, at least with this last build seems to be less than what past builds have produced from various other yards.

Most of the things on this ship were "gimmicky" at the on-set, where having a split hull design like Allure and Oasis have, was revolutionary and made that ship a real "WOW".

This ship doesn't seem to hold a whole lot of WOW factor to me.

I will say that it does look elegant, and very classy.

But it certainly doesn't fit the hype that they were pitching.

The savings on air fare would be a huge bonus for us, since we live in NY, and the extra nights at a hotel before and after our cruise would not be necessary.

But we have some friends who are going to be first timers, and it would be nice if they got to experience a WOW.

Maybe Oasis IV will come to NY :D

The Quantum wasn't our cup of tea and in fact we cancelled our Anthem cruise as soon as we got back but we're not sorry we tried her out. That's really the only way to know whether you'll like it or not.

We're flying to Florida :( for the Oasis in April but we'll be going out of Cape Liberty on the Liberty of the Seas in October:). I think the LOS is only going to be sailing out of there temporarily and we have no idea what, if anything, they'll replace her with. Personally, I was quite happy with the Explorer.

Looks like a good choice Sausbud, at least from the obstructed view standpoint. The outside area is rarely used and you're not over the kitchen area so maybe you won't have the noise issues.

Deck 10, D7--cabin 10650 (hump type). I can tell it was so creaky that it woke us up. Plus, there were some misc. noises whenever I closed the balcony sliding door that I could not place.

The snap, crackle, pop sound?:). I spent over an hour trying to locate and silence the source of that particular noise. Definitely coming from the door and or frame but the only thing I found that silenced it was cracking the door a bit which of course turned the ac off. The cabin steward claimed it was because the ship was new but I have no plans to go back to find out whether he was right or not.

Thanks for the replies. I wouldn't have picked these rooms but the others wanted to save money and have the rooms all close together. Oh well.

Our group leader selected the rooms for us presumably to save money also. Knowing what I know now I would've went with an inside room and saved even more.:) The noise was even worse than the view. Make sure you take some earplugs with you:D On the plus side the rooms have more storage, a big screen TV and a nicer shower.

Edit: If you hear popping and crackling sounds coming from the balcony door area, the only thing I found that silenced it was opening the door a crack. I've read posts claiming that putting lotion or some other solution on the door jamb worked but I never tried that.

Let's see now for $1.5 billion we've got:

 

Creakiest ship I've ever been on

A/C issues

Icy liquid developing on the frame of my sliding balcony door

Whistling sound in the Solarium, even though windows closed

Tsunami floods from the kiddie pools when the ship rocks

Dynamic Dining disaster for some folks. Although I enjoyed it as I had

reservations

 

Can't wait for the reviews from current Pax .

 

What else is in store for this proud ship.

Curious as to what deck you stayed on. We were 6284 and I can't imagine any room being more noisy than ours.

Well looks like things are back to normal today:)

I had 8:30 dinner reservations at Jamie's last night...one of the restaurants not effected. Thought it was going to be crazy packed...showed up a half hour early and was seated in 5 minutes time...WITH MY about #3 free drink:D...dinner went perfect and surprisingly they had empty tables sitting open by 9:30. I guess the free drinks worked and kept everyone at the bars happy. No cabins that I was aware of didn't have air....think it may have been mostly just the restaurants that closed...walking around the ship all seemed pretty normal with all shows running as normal. The CL has air restored and looks like another gorgeous day at sea:cool:

The person that came up with that idea is a genius. Best perk ever.

Let's see now for $1.5 billion we've got:

 

Creakiest ship I've ever been on

A/C issues

Icy liquid developing on the frame of my sliding balcony door

Whistling sound in the Solarium, even though windows closed

Tsunami floods from the kiddie pools when the ship rocks

Dynamic Dining disaster for some folks. Although I enjoyed it as I had

reservations

 

Can't wait for the reviews from current Pax .

What else is in store for this proud ship.

Best cruise ever!!!:)

Yes, we had friends staying in the neighboring rooms and the view was the same. If you look at a side view of the ship you can see that most of the deck six rooms have lifeboats in front of them. The other thing you may have to contend with is the noise from Jamie's restaurant which is directly under those rooms.

This thread has more info:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2145640

Quantum, the gift that keeps on giving:D

If it's just about the money go with what you can afford. Don't forget to allow for the extra cost you will incur by visiting two extra ports, that is unless you're just go to walk around or lay on the beach.

I can't imagine receiving a week of service that was so bad it didn't deserve the minimum level of "gratuity" that is auto deducted. We almost always give extra on the last night.

I agree that a gratuity is by definition, voluntary, so I think RC should change this to "service fee" instead. Better yet include it in the cruise fare.

I don't know how accurate it is but I read that the service employees are paid only about $50 a month so their livelihood depends on the "gratuities" they receive from passengers, many of which come from countries where tipping is not the custom. Not to mention the low life who decide to slither out the back door without paying any.

So I think the auto tipping is a good thing but again I still think it should be redefined as service fee.

As far as not trusting RC to pass on the gratuity to the crew, that's really not my responsibility. Just as it's not my responsibility to make sure that the gratuity I charge to my credit card at a land based restaurant gets to my server.

Just book it and get the bug out of your system:). You'll either like that class ship or you won't and I doubt a few glitches here or there is going to sway you one way or the other.

Wondering if anybody who has sailed Quantum can tell me about the nightlife on the ship? I've heard its quieter than Oasis class ships with Blaze. My friends and I like to go out some nights of each cruise and hoping it's not too slow.

It's quieter than anything we've ever cruised on.

Your best snorkeling will be in Cozumel.

Baje

 

It amazes me that when one expresses an opinion it is considered bashing. I appreciate the clarification from the other poster who did call RCL regarding the gratuities. Is this my first post? Absolutely! But I fail to see the significance of that. I have been on many RCL cruises and I felt that the things I previously stated were different from other ships. So much so that the guest relations personnel on Quantum concurred with my assessment. I have found these forums extremely helpful when contemplating different cruises and I thought it my be useful to give MY OPINION to assist others. Bashing seems to be a strong word to utilize in this instance.

Your "bashing" was worth 4 posts to him. Now that's amazing:)

Maybe the auto gratuities have made them less industrious. Just thinking aloud:D

We had a similar experience on the Quantum in December. It was like we were on a different cruise line and I wondered at the time whether RC had subcontracted the staff from an outside source.

I don't think it's a big ship problem. We've been on both the Oasis and Allure and it wasn't until the Quantum that I picked up on what appeared to be a big shift in service. We found it to be generally less friendly, less attentive and less competent.

I'm still hoping it was just a Quantum thing, specifically an early Quantum thing and not something we'll be dealing with on future cruises. We'll find out soon enough.

Maho beach will continue to be my favorite being a avaition geek who was too 4F to fly for a living. Bernards was great in 2011, though I don't like some of the changes to the public tour (less time at Orient beach and more time at manufactured tourist spots.) But in 2013 people from our group got enough people to get a private tour catered to their wishes at a reasonable price.

 

Now back to reading about St Kitts ideas. Our first time there we took the volcano tour through the ship which was ok, but I'd look for something else next time.

Totally agree. If someone is interested in spending any significant time at Orient Beach I would recommend just taking a taxi directly there. The tourists stops are just money makers for the tour operators.

Orient Beach and Maho Beach in St Maarten. Last few times we've been there we just take "tours" of the jewelry stores in port or hang out on the beach there.

Only been to St Kitts once and we just took a cab/tour (about $15pp for 4) to Fort Brimstone which we really enjoyed. Wife and I both love history and wish we could've spent more time there. There's an island off the coast (St Eustatius) that played a very important role in the American Revolutionary War.

On the Quantum we had three servers who stood out from the rest. Loon in Silk was amazing. Great personality and highly proficient. Our group was able get her table on all three visits to Silk. Albert in Coastal and Cosmo in Jamies were also great.

We've never had any problems booking excursions after boarding the ship. It's actually extremely rare for us to pre-book excursions and on many occasions we've booked them on the day before the excursion.

If you've spent 5 hours on the phone without resolution, then you've been talking to the wrong person. You have more patience than I do, I'd have gone up the chain after the first half hour.