A slow boat to Dubai ("take 2")– May 2015 Quantum, BCN to Dubai

[I kind of made a false start and posted the first bit of this review back in June and I apologize for not continuing it then (if anybody noticed!). I took a bit of a break from “all things cruising” for a few weeks and have now got around to finishing this off. For the sake of completeness, I will start from the beginning again. It’s ended up being really, really L-O-N-G, so I’ll try posting it in manageable chunks. Any further delays to posting will be while I attempt to match up some relevant photos and when I have to go off and do other stuff, like, work, eat and sleep!]

BG – Me, female solo traveller, (very) early 50’s. A Brit by birth and a Canadian by choice, I’ve lived on the west coast for almost 20 years, but still have my Brit accent, which confuses everybody when I introduce myself as Canadian. I started taking solo cruises about 13 years ago and now try to average a couple of cruises a year. I’m not loyal to one cruiseline, I cruise whatever ship takes me where I want to go, when I want to go and for the price I’ve comfortable paying (though the majority of my cruises have been RCCL). I consider myself a “cruise nerd” and enjoy researching and reading about cruising. I’ve got to the point where I’m taking a cruise to see and experience the ship more than being bothered where the ship is going.

READER WARNING: What follows is going to include my honest opinion and some of what I have to say may be inferred as negative, so if you’re a cheerleader, who can’t bear to read anything bad about your BFF cruiseline – stop reading now! Also some of what I write might be firmly tongue-in-cheek as I still have my Brit sarcasm gene in place, and I know (from experience) that sometimes that sarcasm doesn’t always translate to North American – you have been warned! I’ll apologize in advance for too much detail on some things, and too little on others – feel free to ask specific questions if you feel I missed something – I’m working purely from memory, as I’m far too lazy to actually make notes while on vacation!

BACKGROUND TO THE CRUISE: I didn’t actually plan to be on this ship at all! Last year I booked a Baltic cruise on the Brilliance for May of 2015 (to celebrate my birthday), however around Christmas I saw some postings on CC about the Quantum repositioning from Barcelona to Dubai with a stop in Jordan with excursions to Petra. With the theme tune to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade running through my head, I thought “mmm, interesting”! After watching and waiting a few weeks, the single supplement dropped to a point, where the per diem price was on par to the Baltic cruise, however the Baltic reservation was an inside “studio” (i.e., a converted closet) and the possible Quantum cabin was a balcony. On researching airfares it seemed that the airfares for Canada to Barcelona plus Dubai to Canada were not much more than the Canada to UK return I would have needed for the Baltic. So, decision made, I transferred my booking from the Brilliance to the Quantum, knowing that at least the weather would be warmer on the new booking!

GETTING TO BARCELONA: I used British Airways, and the overnight flight, though a little bumpy at times, was mostly uneventful. Takeoff had been delayed a little (30-40 mins), which had me nervous as I only had a 2.5 hour layover in Heathrow and had to transfer terminals from T5 to T3, which has a recommended minimum time of 90 mins for the transfer. Once we landed and I managed to actually get off the plane (I was seated in the back of the plane!), I was down to 90 mins exactly and rushed through the airport following the signs for T3. The bus transfer from T5 to T3 seemed to take forever, but luck was with me and once I got to the correct terminal, there was no line up for the security checkpoint (you have to re-clear security to transfer terminals, but not go through immigration or customs). I even had time to browse the shops a little and plan what supplies of British chocolate (hmm, Cadbury’s Twirl) I would pick up on my return journey.

Once the gate for my next flight was announced I made my way there only to be met by a (male) BA employee who apparently had decided that no female travelling alone was going to be able to actually lift their carryon bag up into the storage compartment - or at least this appeared to be his view. I was informed I had to gate check my carry on as it was “too big”, I pointed out that other (male) passengers had bags as big or bigger, but my protests were met with denial. After a quick reorganization – luckily I had a light backpack in my carryon that I could move my valuables and breakables into – I reluctantly gate checked the bag. (Last time I was forced to gate-check a bag it went on an independent trip without me, finally being returned one week later with anything breakable, well and truly broken and the bag in tatters!) Once onboard the plane, I spoke to other passengers around me, they had also had their bags taken from them, and they were also female travelling without male companions, and together we watched during the debark of the plane’s passengers as male passengers (and male/female couples) took out large and multiple bags from the storage compartments (including one passenger, that had managed to fit, not one but two full size guitars in cases into the overhead compartments). Next time I am challenged to gate-check a bag I think I will show that I can bench-press it and perhaps they might let me take it on! (Yes, my carryon does fit in that handy little size-ing frame they have at the airport and I make sure that I am capable of lifting it too.)

VIVA ESPANA: Anyway, eventually me and all my bags made it to Barcelona and with no wait at all at immigration my next step was to find my hotel and get some sleep. I had decided to save a few Euros and try the Aerobus from the airport to Placa Catalunya (http://www.aerobusbcn.com/). I had done my research and their new website even has a video showing where exactly to go to catch the bus. I seemed to time it perfectly and after handing over my 5.90 Euros (one way) and (wo)man-handling my suitcases onboard the bus left the airport. It seemed like a very quick trip and each stop on the route is clearly announced. I had the advantage of having been in Barcelona and Placa Catalunya this time last year, so once I got off the bus it just took me a few moments to work out which direction to head for my hotel in Las Ramblas.

WELCOME TO THE HOTEL MONTECARLO: I would highly recommend this hotel. It is on Las Ramblas, just a short walk down from Placa Catalunya. (Last year I had stayed in a hotel in the middle of the Gothic quarter, and while it was a very nice hotel, I managed to get lost while wandering around, even though I think I have a good sense of direction.) Hotel Montecarlo appears to be a converted residence or office and is a little bit of a “rabbit warren” inside and has a few steps up from the street (there may be an alternative entrance or lift options, I didn’t see). It appears to be very newly renovated and all furnishings and fittings were modern and new. I was a little surprised that the key to the room was a actually, physical key (rather than a card) and attached to a large plastic key fob. When you left the hotel you were expected to hand the key over to the reception desk and then collect it when you came back to the hotel. I don’t actually remember when I stayed in a hotel with actual, real, metal keys to the rooms!

Small but very comfortable hotel room at the Hotel Montecarlo - love the adjustable bed!

A real key for the room - sorry but just had to take a picture of it...

I had booked a “single” room directly through their website (http://www.montecarlobcn.com) and if you register on their website you get a small discount. My single room was perfect for me for the day and a half I was going to need it, it had a full size bed (but not a lot of spare space around it), good size bathroom, TV, small closet and a window into an internal open space (so no street noise). The bath had jacuzzi jets and the bed was adjustable, which was a nice touch I hadn’t had in a hotel room before. (And I discovered that raising the foot of the bed overnight really helped ease those swollen ankles caused by a long plane journey or hours of walking around BCN!)

I ended up paying around Cdn$150 a night (including all taxes) which I think was very reasonable for the location and quality of room. A buffet breakfast was available in a nicely modernized room on the ground floor for (I think) 14 euros. While that is quite expensive they had a good variety of cold and hot food, cereals, cold cuts, pastries etc., so could chose between the English variety breakfast or the continental variety. I had their buffet the first morning for convenience, but went elsewhere (which ended up being even more expensive, however there were cheaper options in the area) the second morning.

ONE DAY IN BCN: After a good night’s sleep I was ready to maximize my one free day in BCN. I had pre-booked a couple of tours and the first was one of the free walking tours offered in the City. I had chosen the Old City Tour from the ones with the purple shirts (http://freewalkingtoursbarcelona.com/). We had a group of maybe, 20 people, and a great tour guide (oops, can’t remember his name, but I know he was an American) who led us through the maze of the Gothic quarter and fed us a lot of history of the area. The tour ended up near the waterfront at the El Cap de Barcelona sculpture. As it was a free tour you just need to “tip” the tour guide whatever you felt appropriate – so it’s a great way to see the city for a reasonable amount. After the tour the guide offered to take whomever was interested to a local restaurant for lunch. We walked about 10 minutes away to a restaurant that, I presume, has an arrangement with the tour firm, as they had tables ready. The guide suggested items from the menu and I ended up sharing a table with two great couples and had a great time. However I made sure to eat light and just have a salad as my evening tour was a food tour of the Gracia area and I knew there would be lots of food then.

After a nice lunch with good company, I wandered back to the port area and walked along the waterfront towards the Christopher Columbus statue, as I knew I could find my way back to my hotel from there. On my way back I looked for a wine store (to pick up some wine to take on board with me). I hadn’t actually noticed any dedicated “wine stores” during my wanderings around the City previously and although I knew that in Spain wine is available in food stores/supermarkets, I hadn’t seen any of those in the central area either. I wandered into the market on Las Ramblas in the hope of finding something, and stumbled upon a small wine store on the edge of the market (at the entrance to the market turn right and walk past all the food stalls to the building on the edge of the market, and it was about the second shop on the right). I managed to find a couple of bottles of white wine (I think I paid about 17 Euros for the two). I resisted the 3 Euro Cava (is that the European equivalent of “2 buck chuck”?) – but was later told by other passengers that the cheap Cava was actually pretty decent!

I got back to the hotel with just enough time to freshen up and sit down for a short break before heading back out to locate my evening Tapas tour. When I was in Barcelona last year I had done a Tapas Tour of the Gothic area with The Barcelona Taste (http://thebarcelonataste.com) which was wonderful. This year I decided to try their alternative tapas tour of the Gracia area. The meeting place was the Hotel Casa Fuster which is towards the top of Passeig de Gracia – the hotel looked really nice (the prices were a bit steep for me), but would be a good option for any shoppers, as there were lots of shopping options on the Passeig. I thought about braving the metro but decided as I had the time to walk up Passieg de Gracia past the two Gaudi designed buildings (which I still haven’t managed to actually go into!), and take a few pictures of the exteriors. The tapas tour was good, it was a very small group, just two couples and myself, plus the guide, a young English woman. It ended up being more of a moving feast than a tour of the area, but the food (and wine) was very good – sorry, I don’t think I took any food “pron” pictures. I had a wonderful chat with the tour guide about life in the UK/London – as I’ve been living in Canada for the past 20 years now, I like to take the opportunity to “touch base” with any Brits I meet, to see how things are and what has changed. After the tour, the guide walked us back to outside the Hotel Casa Fuster and I took a slow stroll back down the Passeig de Gracia and across the Placa Catalunya back to my hotel.

One of the Gaudi building at nighttime

ALL ABOARD (but first I have to find some candy!) – For my second morning in Barcelona, I decided to try and find a store I had stumbled on last year that sold the most amazing caramels and nougat. I couldn’t remember it’s name but I knew it was at the edge of the Gothic quarter and on a street that led out to Las Ramblas and I would recognize it once I saw it. So I wandered down the street hoping I would be able to find it again. Somehow I did manage to find the store (La Cure Gourmande), but it wasn’t open yet (it was about 9 a.m.) so I went in search of breakfast thinking the store would open soon. I returned after finding sustenance (about 10 a.m) – still not open – hmm, I guess stores open late in Barcelona! So to kill a little more time, I wandered down to the bottom of Las Ramblas to investigate whether it would be possible to walk or take transit to the ship. I discovered the bus stop for the Port bus, on the water side of the Christopher Columbus statue, which was busy with people coming into Barcelona for the day, not just from Quantum but from the other ships currently in port. I discovered that while it would, in theory, be possible to pull my suitcases down Las Ramblas and on to the bus, the cobbled pathways of Las Ramblas combined with the growing heat of the day, would make for a tiring and sweaty walk, so I decided I would later “treat” myself to a taxi! I wandered back up Las Ramblas, and back past La Cure Gourmande, which was now open, so I could stock up on my nougat and caramels to take back to Canada, and returned to the hotel, just long enough to pick up my suitcases and check out.

While completing on online check in for the Quantum, I had been assigned a “check-in appointment” of 12:45 p.m. This had seemed a little late to me – I like to get to the port nice and early to avoid the “pack” that is inevitable around 1 p.m. (For example, my last cruise on the NCL Getaway, I managed to arrive at the port before 10 a.m., was literally the first person to check in, and one of the first people to board – which worked out perfectly for my quest to snag a Vibe pass and cabana.) So I decided to ignore my “appointment” and risk an earlier arrival, I had originally planned to leave the hotel before 11 a.m., however my search for caramels had taken longer than anticipated so I ended up checking out at about 11:30 a.m., jumping into a taxi and arriving at the Quantum shortly before noon. As the taxi pulled up in the parking lot, a porter approached to take my bags, and while I would normally not use a porter, the taxi driver encouraged me to use one, and once I saw the line up to check-in your suitcases I was glad I did. No luggage line up for me, I gladly handed over a few Euro to the porter and he instructed me to head straight into the terminal, and he would take care of my bags.

[so let me add here, this was my first cruise as a newly-minted Diamond cruiser!! (Woo, hoo!). I say that not to boast but just to explain some of the comments that will follow on later in these notes. It has taken me a while to get to Diamond, partly due to the fact that I cruise on multiple cruiselines, and partly because I travel as a solo, and whilst I have nearly always had to pay that dreaded single supplement, it is only recently that RCCL has rewarded that extra payment with the extra credit of cruise points. However I am very glad that RCCL has now “seen the light” and gives the double points for solo travellers, which is more than I can say for most of their competitors!]

Back to the check-in – I managed to locate the right signage for Diamond Priority and got through the security point very quickly, only to be met with an already pretty full terminal area. I walked past the long line and located the line for Diamond and joined the queue to wait (and wait). I watched the line for the “regular” (first time) cruisers move quite quickly, however the Diamond “priority” line wasn’t moving much at all! I could immediately see why, there were only about 6 check-in desks servicing the Diamond, Diamond Plus, Pinnacle, Suites and wheelchair lines, with the Suites and wheelchair guests being given priority for the services of those 6 desks, while all the remaining desks (20+ at a guess) were servicing the “regular” line. My thoughts were pretty much, “oh well, guess I’ll get there eventually”, however there was some grumbling from other Diamond cruisers, who eventually managed to get the attention of one of the supervisors, and at that point guests in the Diamond line started being directed to some of the check-in desks further down the line – which then got some dirty looks from the “regular” line, which had now slowed down a little!

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT #1 (there might be a few of these) – Please have your papers/boarding pass/express pass/setsail pass, passport and credit card out and ready when you get to the check-in desk! Half of the delays during check-in were caused by people (who had already been standing in line for quite some time) getting to the desk and then having to stop and search through their bags for the appropriate papers/passport/credit card. “Oh, you need to see my boarding pass”, “Oh, and you need to see my passport”, “Oh, now you need a credit card” … sigh. And yes, they have to take your passport for some cruises (this one included), that way the ship can be cleared quickly and more efficiently for certain ports, I know and appreciate that some people don’t like handing over their passports, but if you had researched a little you would have known ahead of time that this was a possibility, and if all 4,180 passengers stop to argue about handing over their passports, check-in is going to take a l-o-n-g time… (I know I might get flamed for this comment, but sorry, that’s my opinion and you’re free to have your own opinion too…)

Once I actually got to a check-in desk, I handed over my papers, passport and credit card (which were out and in my hand!) and got my cruise card in return. I managed to scoot past the photogs with a wave and a quick “no thanks” and headed onboard just shortly before 1 p.m., so it took approximately an hour from getting out of the taxi to stepping on the ship – which I guess could be considered reasonable for such a large ship.

As I was walking by the speciality dining desk I stopped to make my reservation for the Chef’s Table for the actual day of my birthday. I try to avoid the crush of the buffet on embarkation day, if there is any other option, and I was happy to see that Jamie’s Italian was open for lunch – I knew there would be a cover charge involved but with the additional “renovation inconvenience” OBC burning a hole in my shipboard account, I intended to try out several of the speciality dining options. So I postponed my explorations of the ship until after lunch and headed to see what Jamie Oliver could offer. Jamie’s was quiet, very quiet, in fact there was no one else there! (Just a little later on a party of four did come into the restaurant, but I think that was the total number of guests in Jamie’s for lunch.) I confirmed that it was indeed open for business and got an “inside” table by a window. If I remember correctly, I ordered the mushroom risotto (wonderful - it had chunks of melting brie through it – yum) followed by the lasagne (good, but found it a bit heavy, I think it had pumpkin in it?) followed by the cheesecake (which I have to admit I didn’t manage to finish – it was just too much and I gave up!). I was thrilled to see they offer Aperol Spritz – an slightly orange flavoured Italian aperitif with prosecco – which is my drink of choice at my favourite Italian restaurant here in Vancouver, and ordered one to celebrate the start of my cruise on a slow boat to Dubai!

First drink of the cruise - Aperol Spritz at Jamie's Italian - Yum!

I’ll add here that I went back to Jamie’s towards the end of the cruise as I really wanted to have that melty cheesy risotto again, however it was not as good the second time round – no melty cheesy chunks this time (and everything was a lot saltier too)! A couple sitting at the table next to me also remarked that their food didn’t taste as good as their last visit to Jamie’s (and they had gone several times during the cruise) and they asked the waiter if something had changed at the restaurant. The waiter admitted that the chef in charge of Jamie’s had changed in the past week, so I guess he was putting his own “spin” on the dishes. I did manage to have another Aperol Spritz (actually as one of my “free” Diamond drinks for the evening – more on that later) so finished up the cruise the same way I had started it.

Bird's eye view - the Quantum deck taken from the North Star while docked in Barcelona

Looking back towards Barcelona from the North Star

The Quantum's famous resident bear

Part 4

CABIN DETAILS - After lunch I found my cabin (#8662) – a very acceptable, just aft of mid-ship balcony on the starboard side, with a slightly larger balcony due to it being on the edge of one of the “humps”. The location of the cabin was perfect being just a short walk from the elevator/stairway bank and I could just run down the few flights of stairs to the main promenade area on decks 4 and 5 (but usually waited for the elevator if I was heading up to the buffet or pool deck).

I had found some excellent photographs of that cabin on CruiseCritic and knew exactly what to expect. The cabins on the Quantum seem to be a little longer and thinner than cabins on older ships – but this might be an illusion due to the fact that the bathrooms kind of stick out into the corridor with the door to the cabin being recessed a little. This cabin had the bed by the balcony door – which I liked and meant there felt like there was space in the middle of the cabin. I liked the “new” layout of the bathroom and found the shower “pod” design to work fine and be plenty large enough (and appreciated) the foot rest bar provided (ladies, you know exactly what I mean!) The hand sink is a shallow rectangle, which is fine for washing of hands and face, but did present some challenges when attempting to do my own laundry. Also there is no extendable washing line over the shower like there is on the older ships, you either have to use the wall hooks or clothes hangers to hang stuff to dry.

There is a good amount of storage space in the cabin – I am not a light packer, was travelling with clothing to last for 3 weeks of travel and had plenty of space for all my stuff. The suitcases fit under the bed with no problem – is this a new thing for newer ships, as I don’t remember being able to do that on the older ships?

The balcony had two chairs (with reclining backs) two foot stools, and a small table. After a couple of days I asked my cabin steward if it would be possible to swap the 2 chairs for one lounger, as there was plenty of space and I spent quite some time out there during the day. However he checked with his supervisor and reported back that it was not allowed, as there had “previously been problems with doing that” – whatever that meant! I was tempted to try and carry down a lounger from the pool deck at 2 a.m. one night, but knowing my luck I would have put my back out or broken the glass elevator, so resisted that temptation! I made do with the two chairs and would bring out the cushions from the cabin sofa to attempt to make them more comfortable.

Balcony cabin 8662 - taken from the balcony door (and before I unpacked)

Cabin bathroom - self explanatory

Balcony area (there were 2 chairs and foot rests) - This cabin is on the end of the "hump" so was slightly angled and had a bit more space

Looking over the balcony and slightly aft (I think!) - glassed in area is for the smokers!

The infamous wristband - at first I didn't like it but after a couple of days, I could appreciate the convenience and wore it every day (but still carried my sea pass) - just wish it was a bit more elegant/delicate looking as it kind of spoiled the effect of dressing up for dinner!

THE MYSTERY OF THE CABIN KETTLE – Now as an ex-Brit, I like my nice cup of tea (hereinafter referred to as a “Cuppa”). In fact I usually take my own tea bags with me when I travel as I’ve been cutting down on caffeine and will only drink “regular” tea in the mornings and at all other times drink decaffeinated or herbal teas. I had even packed my own thermal mug so I could enjoy a nice Cuppa out on the balcony in the evening – all I needed was the hot water! I should explain that this cruise with its more exotic route had attracted a more multi-national range of passengers than your average Caribbean routing. While there were quite a lot of Americans on board, there were also quite a large number of Brits, Scots and Aussies – all of which, like me, appreciate a good Cuppa. I think it was on the 2nd or 3rd day of the cruise, when I was sharing a breakfast table with some Aussies, when I had the following conversation:

Aussie Lady: Have you found the kettle yet?

Me: Huh, what kettle?

Aussie Lady: Look under your bed, there’s a kettle under the bed!

Sure enough, when I returned to my cabin and checked under the bed, there was a nice new electric kettle still in it box. I rescued the poor kettle from its exile under the bed and set it up on one of the cabinets. When leaving my cabin I ran into my room steward and quietly told him “I’ve found the kettle”. The steward got a slightly guilty look on his face and tried to innocently say “What kettle?”. But then explained they were there to be put out for passengers once the ship got to China, as apparently all Chinese passengers will be expecting a kettle to be available in their rooms. I explained that I didn’t actually need any tea, sugar etc., that I was happy to use my own teabags, if he could just leave the kettle available, I would be happy.

On talking to other passengers through the cruise, their experiences with “The Kettle” seem to vary, some passengers had it set up in their rooms with tea, sugar etc. right from the first day, others, like me, discovered it during the voyage and then had it set up after they had discovered it, others, even at the end of the voyage, had not found or been provided with “the Kettle”. I have to admit, the idea does annoy me slightly that apparently cruiselines believe that kettles can only be trusted to passengers traveling in and from China. I have been on other cruises and requested a kettle (or even just a teapot) for my room only to be told that’s not possible and implied that it’s a safety issue. If you travel in the UK, it would be almost unheard of to not have some way of making hot water for tea (or coffee) in a hotel room. Likewise in the States, hotels nearly always have some way of making coffee (which can usually be utilized for making just hot water for tea). If it is okay to provide a kettle (with an automatic cut off once boiled) to passengers travelling to and from China, then why not provide it for other routes (or at least provide it, on request)? Perhaps us tea drinkers of the world need to speak up and demand our Kettles!!

I will mention here that my room steward was excellent. He always had a smile and a happy hello for me and was friendly and helpful without being intrusive (and left me plenty of fresh towels, whether I needed them or not!)

THE TALE OF THE MISSING MAGNET – On other cruises I had often seen decorated cabin doors, and decided “one day” maybe I should try that (but perhaps in my own quiet way). On my way through Vancouver airport I picked up a couple of magnets for use in my cabin to attach my various itineraries, tickets or assorted invitations that I invariably collect during a cruise to the wall for easy review and access. One of these magnets was a small (maybe 4” x 2”) Canadian (maple leaf) flag. As soon as I had unpacked I placed the flag magnet on the exterior of my cabin door just under the peephole – it was more to identify the “right” door than for decoration - I’m sure everyone has had the experience of merrily walking down the corridor and realizing you passed by your own cabin door 10 doors back! The next day when I returned from breakfast – No magnet…! Yes, someone on the first night decided they really, really needed a small Canadian flag magnet! I mentioned it to my cabin steward, just in case he had decided to, perhaps, move the magnet inside the cabin or something. He reported that he had noticed the magnet on the first day, but then noticed it was no longer there on the 2nd morning. He also reported that one of the neighbouring cabin stewards was now missing over half a dozen of the door magnets they use as “do not disturb/make up my room” signs.

So apparently there was a kleptomaniac magnet collector on my sailing of the Quantum! I wasn’t really upset, just a little sad about the state of human nature, when someone can just “take” something, even something so small, without any moral qualm – if it’s not yours don’t take it! (I really don’t believe it was any member of the ship’s crew – I know they have too much to lose if they get caught “taking” anything, even something so small and insignificant.) So … I guess that was my one and only attempt at decorating my cabin door!

Part 5

SHIP REVIEW – Deck by deck – So back to my impression of the ship, generally everything still looked pretty shiny and new (as it should for such a “young” ship). Let’s start from the bottom up – the casino is on Deck 3, but I don’t remember actually going into it at all, except to find a washroom (as they were the nearest washrooms to the 2 restaurants on Deck 3, Chic and The Grande). I liked that it was pretty much isolated (less chance of cigarette smoke spreading), there a couple of spiral staircases that led from the front (and back?) of the casino to the Esplanade area above, but the smoke didn’t seem to spread upward on this ship (unlike the new NCL ships!)

Deck 4 has the other 2 main restaurants, Silk and American Icon, along with the main floor of the Royal Esplanade, made up of various highend shops, Boleros, Sorrentos, La Patisserie, Michaels and guest services. I did find the Esplanade to be pretty narrow (especially when the shops were using the “islands” of showcases in the middle and foot traffic was always an issue here – I usually cut up one floor to Deck 5 to get from one end of the ship to the other and avoid the traffic on the Esplanade.

On embarkation day, at least one of the shops was boarded up and being changed into another “highend” shop and during the cruise more of the shops were being changed over. As I’m not financially in the market for a Coach bag or Ferragamo clothing, this did not impact me at all. It wasn’t until later in the cruise I realized there was not the usual “duty free” shop anywhere on the Quantum. Apparently this is because there is no such thing as “duty free” in the Chinese market, so it was removed. Again, this had no impact on me, I wasn’t about to try and pack any duty free booze into my suitcases for the marathon flight back to the West Coast.

The esplanade on deck 4 taken from deck 5 - this was on the suez transit day, so not as busy as usual.

The bottom level of the Music Hall was also on Deck 4 – I think I only went in there twice – the Meet n’Greet was held in there on the first sea day, and then it closed a few days after that so that another shop could be built out of a corner of it. In those first few days the lower level of the Music Hall was used as an extension for the Diamond Club during the “happy hours”. Once the Music Hall closed, part of the Boleros bar was roped off for Diamond Members (more on Diamond happy hours later). The Music Hall re-opened a couple of days before the end of the cruise and I popped in for ‘70’s night (I think, that was it), but it was very crowded and I didn’t stay there long. I note that on the new deck plan that area is now marked as a VIP casino.

The butterfly wall at the entrance to the Via

Deck 5 holds the speciality restaurants, Schooner Bar, the Bionic Bar, the Via (kind of like the Esplanade but leading to 270), 270 and a couple more highend shops. The Schooner Bar is where most of the trivia sessions were held, more on them later, but I will comment that as the bar is open on one side looking over the Esplanade this would occasionally have issues when there was some event (like a character parade) happening in the Esplanade while us “serious” trivia geeks were attempting to partake in trivia. The Bionic Bar is a cool idea, and I did enjoy watching the “dancing” of the robots however, on this cruise at least, it was rarely busy. I fell quite sorry for the crew member who was given the duty of “minder” to the robots (making sure that the person who ordered the drink picked up the right drink). Most afternoons she would be there endlessly cleaning the empty tables around the bar. Though I chatted to her later on and found out she was enjoying the new job – she was learning how the robots worked, getting lessons on DJ’ing on the DJ station (decks and buttons) next to the bar area, and improving her English language skills in chatting to the guests. I did mean to try out a drink from the robots at some point in the cruise but somehow never quite got around to it.

I loved the 270 area at the aft of the ship. Throughout the cruise it was well used during all hours of the day. This is a multi-level seating area surrounding a stage area (used for the Starwater show). The seating area had various combinations of chairs, benches and sofas – though the sofas really weren’t as comfortable to sit in as they looked. There was a mezzazine type area above 270 that held the library area and a small computer area. I think there was a total of 3 computers available – which during the last marathon of 6 sea days was not enough for all the people attempting to do last minute research and travel arrangements. I tried a couple of times to get on a computer but the wait was just too long and there was no obvious method of queuing for the computers, you just took a seat and trusted that when one would come available that everyone would be polite and let the right person use it.

An empty 270 lounge (a rarity) - taken on the morning of the Suez transit, most people were out on deck

One of the sofa "pods" on the Via area - there was usually someone sleeping in them - I managed to find it "empty" of sleepers on this occasion!

Jumping up to the pool deck now – on Deck 14, there was the normal Windjammer buffet area, a kids water area, outside pool and a large solarium. The solarium was divided into two distinct areas – the first area held the covered pool surrounded by various loungers, then you would go through another set of doors to the secondary solarium area, where the solarium bistro was and another large water feature. It wasn’t really a pool, more like a cascading series of plunge pools with seating in the water.

Looking down to the pool from the North Star

To either side of this feature were two large whirlpools. I found this feature to be nice, but a little odd, you couldn’t swim in it due to its shape and the seating, there was some movement to the water but did it not “whirl” like a whirlpool – I guess you were just meant to sit and chat in the water. I also found that both areas of the solarium got very hot and stuffy (for about 2/3rds of the cruise) as due to the area we were travelling in the weather was extremely hot. There were windows that opened over the top of the covered pool area to allow a through breeze however these were frequently closed.

One day I stopped to talk to an acquaintance at the pool bar next to the covered pool, it was a hot day, but there was a pleasant breeze coming from the open windows in the roof area. While we were sitting there we noticed the windows were being closed and my friend asked why and ended up talking to one of the deck officers. He explained that if just one guest requests that the windows be closed, they have to close the windows, no matter how many other guests request that the windows be open. I did mention to the officer that if the windows were closed and it got too stuffy, then I was left with no choice but to move down to the balcony of my cabin, where I would have shade and a breeze, and if I was in my cabin, I would not be spending any money at the bar, whereas if I was in a pleasantly temperate solarium pool bar, I might be spending money. He said he had no option that his instructions were that one request to close the roof meant close the roof – full stop! I guess this is a case of the wishes of one outweighing the wishes of all others!

The solarium pool area

Deck 15 is the level for the Spa, the North Star and the Seaplex with the iFly and Flowrider access being on deck 16. I am a little embarrassed to admit that I only went in the Seaplex once or twice. I never tried the bumper cars, roller skating or any of the other events offered up there – they’re just not my kind of thing. I did use the Spa once for a mani/pedi and they did a good job with just a little hard sell of the spa products. I did ride on the North Star twice – once on embarkation day, just before the muster drill, when it only went up and down (as we were still in port and later on in the cruise (before they shut it down for maintenance) when it went over the side. While I do have a bit of a thing about heights, I managed to keep my eyes open (most of the time), but did make sure I was near the rail, so I had something to hang on to! It was a cool ride, but I am not sure how many times I would repeat it. I only had a short wait both times.

ON WITH THE SHOW! As the production show, Mamma Mia, had infamously jumped ship to the Allure class, Quantum was left with 2 other main shows for the duration of this repositioning. The first being Starwater, produced in the 270 lounge. I had dutifully made my reservation for a mid-cruise show. However despite arriving a good 30 minutes before show time, most of the prime lower area seats were already taken. I headed up to the balcony area (part of the mezzanine area) and got what I though would be a reasonable seat. The show was good and enjoyable, but is a bit abstract with no real story thread, and made up of various dance numbers and “cirque-type” acts accompanied by the back drop of the large “dancing” robotic screens and projected images. However, and here comes PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT #2 – please people DO NOT talk all the way through the shows! It is inconsiderate to other people watching the show and just plain disrespectful to the performers! For the first dance number of Starwater, a couple directly behind me carried on a private conversation at normal conversational level. I tried a few “death glances” over my shoulder but after the first number I turned around and bluntly asked the couple to please stop talking! They were clearly shocked at my audacity to ask them to stop but did actually stop chatting (for a while). However there were other groups both to my left and right who also felt the urge to have a discussion during the performance (but not in English). I did my best to ignore them and focus on the performance. What is it these days? The same thing seems to happen to me at the movies, at concerts, at the theatre and even at the rare opera that I attend. People just talk all the way through – do they forget they are not in their own living rooms and that there are other people around them that would like to appreciate the skill and talent of the performers rather than listen to them talk! Aaargh…..

The other main production was Sonic Odyssey which was performed during the last few days of the cruise, as it required wires to be strung the length of the theatre which made up the electronic “earth harp” which was central to the performance. Other parts of the show included various dance and musical numbers. Again there was no real thread to the story and while it was enjoyable, I missed the regular Broadway musical with a story, sets and characters.

There were various other Headliner shows offered on a day by day basis. I didn’t attend many of them. I do remember there was an Elton John act, which was enjoyable, but nothing like the real thing (whom I have seen perform several times).

THE QUANTUM IS A MOVIE STAR! – From the first day of the cruise onwards I would frequently stumble upon a small movie crew and cast shooting in various locations on the ship. At first I thought this was perhaps a promotional RCCL shoot for the Chinese market, as all the cast and crew were Chinese. However I was later informed that they were actually making a movie. It was an extremely small movie crew – I come from a city that is frequently used in the movies and TV and am familiar with the sheer number of people that are involved – this movie involved about 6 cast members and probably less than 10 film crew! The film crew for the most part seemed to work around all the passengers and stuff going on around the ship – in fact they seemed to use the other passengers as unpaid extras. I did hear of one passenger’s slight run in with them up on the pool deck, when they were telling the passengers to “don’t look at the camera” and his response was it was his vacation and he wasn’t going to be told where to go and what to do! I guess RCCL thought that a movie would be good publicity for them in the new market – they were not a big inconvenience, whenever I saw they were in an area I just went another way around them – that’s a good thing about a big ship, there is usually another route to take to get anywhere. I think that perhaps the “stars” of the movies were well known in Asia, as I saw quite a lot of the younger Chinese passengers requesting a photo opportunity with them. One of these days, I should search Google/YouTube for the movie?

Talking of movies, various fairly new movies were offered either during the day in the theatre or in the evening on the outdoor movie screen. Unfortunately the timing of them never worked for me, they were either on at the same time as some other event, or the evening movies (which I really wanted to watch) were on at the normal dining hours, or much later in the evening, when I knew I just wouldn’t be able to stay awake through the whole movie. I did manage to catch the last half of a 3D showing of Guardians of the Galaxy one morning in the theatre but experienced something really odd. I was sitting near the back of the theatre (as I had come in half way through the movie) and a person two rows in front of me takes out her camera (a small point and shoot thing with a screen on the back) and starts taking pictures of the movie screen. Remember this is a 3D movie so without 3D glasses the pictures are just fuzzy and weird! After a few moments I leaned forward and using my sternest “***” voice requested that she put the camera away – which she did. I don’t know, perhaps they don’t have 3D movies wherever she came from but taking still pictures of a 3D movie, that was a real “What the heck are you thinking ….” moment!

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER? – As stated above this was my first Diamond status cruise and therefore, free booze during the cocktail hours, woo hoo!! On the first evening I made my way to the Diamond lounge, which was next to the lower level of the music hall. It was busy – there were a lot of Diamond and above cruises on this trip, with it being such a long and exotic one. I managed to find a seat and then had to work out what to order from the roving waiters. Actually I’m not a big drinker at all - I do enjoy a glass of wine with a meal, the occasional “fru-fru” cocktail or martini and a beer when watching ice hockey, but don’t really do “highball” type drinks. I had read the limited menu of drinks now being offered in the Diamond lounge and these menus were on the tables in the lounge. On the first night I settled for a glass of white wine, as there wasn’t much else on the limited menu that appealed to me, but after that I made it my mission to see how flexible the menu could be!

On various days (and places) I managed to get: Disaronno (not on the list), a vodka mojito (though I later got charged for this on my account (without having signed anything) and had to visit guest services (twice) to get it removed), a glass of Riesling (not one of the wines on the limited menu), an Aperol Spritz (at Jamie’s Italian), a Lemon Drop martini and a couple of chocolate martinis (though I was sitting next to one of the F&B officers at the time and when the waiter hesitated, she gave him the nod that it was okay). It really depended on who was serving you and where, as to what you could get both in the Diamond Lounge or as one of the “three free Diamond drinks” you could order from any bar or restaurant during the cocktail hours. (The fact that you could get your “Diamond drinks” in the restaurants was not advertised anywhere and I had several cruisers and the occasional waiter (usually new staff), telling me that this was “not allowed”! I had done my research and knew that it was now “allowed” and had the waiters check with some one more senior and then there was no problem.)

King Julian entertains the crowd during the Welcome Back reception for C&A members

The limitation of the type of drinks was a bit puzzling. A person could order limitless (if you were in the Diamond lounge there was no limit to the number of drinks) G&Ts, Vodka tonics, classic gin martinis (K. from Boston, if you’re reading this, I’m looking at you!) or cosmopolitans, but ask the bartender to put that same vodka in a glass, add mint, simple syrup and soda and it became an issue. However I took it as a challenge and usually managed to find something to drink! The best and easiest “result” I had was at Chops restaurant, were my polite requests for various types of drinks (as part of my “three free drinks”) was met with an “absolutely no problem” – and yes, I did give my waiter a healthy tip at the end of the meal as a result.

I will mention, just in passing, that the Diamond Lounge could be a bit daunting for a solo traveller. A lot of the diamond cruisers were doing the back to back with the transatlantic cruise and had formed their social groups. Until I met a few people and made friends (usually at the trivia sessions) going into the lounge by myself with all the tight groups taking up most of the seats was just slightly uncomfortable. A few days into the cruise, when they closed down the Music Hall for renovations, they opened up part of Boleros as a Diamond Lounge area, roping off about 2/3rds of the bar. After that Diamond members could use the smaller part of the official Diamond lounge or the roped off area of Boleros.

FOOD OPTIONS – STANDARD - Prior to the cruise I had dutifully made my dinner reservations in each of the four main restaurants. What I didn’t realize until about half way through the cruise was that each restaurant had 2 different menus which they ran on a 3 day rotation, i.e., 3 days of Menu A followed by 3 days of Menu B. In an attempt to try all of the different menus some days I ended up going to a different restaurant than I had reservations for. The ship was not sailing full so there was no problem swapping restaurants or changing times either. I usually just headed to a restaurant when I felt like it and didn’t have any problems getting in any of them or found any line ups. (However other guests did report that there were lines at some popular times – I guess I just lucked out in that regard.)

I made a schedule for what I was doing and when - the only way I could keep it straight (note the colour coding for the restaurants!)

I found the menus of Chic and American Icon to be somewhat similar and the food to be good (not great), mostly the usual cruise type of fare. The Grande was labelled the “formal” restaurant and the daily planner listed it as “Formal – Jacket required”. However this formal dress code seemed to be applied on a hit and miss basis – I saw guests in there wearing rain jackets, shorts and floppy sun hats, while other guests reported being turned away while wearing shirts and ties but not jackets. I have no problem with a dress code, but it needs to be applied equally not waived because of your nationality and the language you speak!

Silk restaurant was advertised as sort of asian fusion – which I had been very excited about. I love a good curry, either Indian or Thai, and some of the best curries I’ve had have been provided by the Indian chefs on board cruise ships. However I don’t think they have their Indian chefs cooking at Silk on the Quantum – the food was really, really disappointing, and the curry I had there was about equal to a frozen readi-meal from my local supermarket. I’m sorry to have to say that, but that’s the truth. Of the four regular restaurants, I found The Grande to be the best food and Silk to have the worst. However the best thing I ate from the four restaurants was the green pea chilled soup (I think it was in Chic). I know it sounds weird, but it was really, really good – a sort of sweet, savoury, salty mix of tastes that had me wanting to lick the bowl!

Devinly Decadence is the Solarium Bistro at night – they had a nightly lobster special (with no extra charge). I went there twice and it was quite good – the only teeny, tiny negative is that because of the “healthy” aspect of their food, that I was given some sort of melted butter substitute for the lobster (rather than real butter) and it tasted odd to me. Really for the amount someone uses on the (small) lobster, just give me real butter and damn the cholesterol!

I didn't use room service at all - but did get this message a couple of times when I attempted to check out the menu on the TV

SPECIALITIES – During the cruise I went to Chops, Jamie’s Italian (see earlier comments), Izumi (for lunch), Wonderland, and the Chef’s Table. I don’t often end up with much OBC on the cruises I take, but on this one I had OBC from booking with a certificate during a promotion period and then RCCL added the “renovation inconvenience” OBC for all passengers. As I wasn’t going to be spending all that on drinks I used it to try out the speciality restaurants (and to pay for the mani/pedi at the Spa!)

Chops was good, service was excellent. Izumi was good – I had the lobster sushi roll. I have some really good Sushi restaurants here on the West Coast and wasn’t expecting much of a floating sushi restaurant (I was unsure where they would source their fish from), but it was better than I expected. Wonderland was excellent but very difficult to describe, perhaps nouveau cuisine with a crazy twist and eclectic decor? I ended up going with a group of people I had just met that evening and had a wonderful time. It is the sort of restaurant you need to go as a group, as the food is served family style. We just asked them to bring one of everything on the menu and when we really liked something we asked for more. Even four months on from that evening I remember the tuna tartare served in scooped out limes, and the sushi cones with wasabi.

Devilled eggs (appetizer) at Wonderland complete with smoke effects

Another appetizer at Wonderland - can't remember what it was - olive oil something?

Tuna in scooped out limes at Wonderland - sorry about the blurriness (blame the lemon drop martini!)

Desert at Wonderland - chocolate lava cake?

I had initially booked the Chef’s Table to celebrate my birthday, however a couple of days after booking it I received a call from the hostess telling me that that particular evening the Chef’s Table had been booked by a large party of Chinese guests and asking if I would move my reservation to another day before as I might be more comfortable with a table where I could communicate with the other guests. I agreed (but did make a comment that I would have to move my birthday then!) I ended up on a table with an interesting mix of passengers and had a great time. The food, wine and service was excellent. I’ll try and add the menu and pictures of the food below and they can speak for themselves. You will see that they serve the Green Pea Soup that I loved so much at Chic, but this time it was served as a hot soup rather than chilled. I even ended up with a birthday cake and a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday being sung to me! (I had not mentioned my birthday to them other than my throw away comment to the hostess on the phone!)

I’ll be honest here, while the food service at all the speciality restaurants (including Devinly Decadence) and The Grande was good, the waiter service at the other regular restaurants was a bit hit and miss. It was obvious that a lot of new wait staff just recently joined specifically to provide service for the Chinese passengers (trying to be careful how I word this here!). There were a few problems with this, in that some of the new staff, (while their English was a lot better than my Chinese) did not have strong English skills – remember that the majority of the passengers on this particular cruise were American, European or Australian – and asking questions or communicating regarding the menu could sometimes be a challenge as the new staff were not familiar with any of the menus. Also I would guess that a lot of the new staff did not have cruiseline experience. It was just the little things that showed the difference – plates would be delivered to you or removed from you from either side, a waiter turn up with a plate and have no idea which seat had ordered it and ask “who ordered the steak/chicken/fish?”, plates removed before everyone in the party was finished, salt, pepper, butter etc. left on the table through desert. Now these things certainly did not ruin my cruise in any way, but it just indicated that the “normal” standard was slipping a little.

EATING SOLO – I usually approach the hostess of the dining room with the mantra of “one willing to share”. Sometimes I end up with a great table, sometimes not so great and sometimes I end up at a table for one. I just go with the flow whatever happens. On this cruise it was no different. At the speciality restaurants I was usually a table for one, apart from Wonderland. At the regular restaurants some nights I met up with people I had met previously and we ate together, and other times I would “roll the dice” and meet new people. The one odd thing on this cruise was that a couple of times I was put on a table where the people already sitting there were already well into their appetizer or even their entrée course, and then more people would come and join the table even later. Normally when a “sharing” table is set up it is rare for new people to be seated at the table once orders have been taken. While as a diner it was not a big deal, I can only guess at how confusing that must be for the wait staff.

Quote"I did hear of one passenger’s slight run in with them up on the pool deck, when they were telling the passengers to “don’t look at the camera” and his response was it was his vacation and he wasn’t going to be told where to go and what to do!"End Quote

I had the same thing happen to me while sitting at the bar in the covered pool. Told them the same thing. They were set up by the pool and the only other place I could watch was the bottles behind the bar. Was not as interesting as the pool activities.

They tried a couple of times but I still looked where there was something to see. They did get in the way of activities a bunch of times.

The young actress was setting at a table by the pool and a few minutes later, a kid did a cannonball into the pool and got her soaked!! Everybody had a good laugh.

[Hmm, seem to be having an issue with my photo links - I can see them in Chrome (which is what I used to originally post), but not sure if anyone else can see them, but all links are broken when viewing with IE. I've migrated all photos from goggle photo (which I've just read is being phased out) to photobucket, so will try the next chapter using IE and links to photobucket - so wish me luck...!]

The photos below are from the the Chef's Table (if the links work!).

First the menu...

Here's the amuse bouche ... can't remember what is was, I think it was something Japanese-like (as it looks like seaweed) - I remember it tasted good ...

This was the Hearts of Palm salad:

Next the Sweet Pea Soup ...

Butter Poached Lobster ...

Braised Short Rib Ravioli was next ...

Entree was Prime Beef Tenderloin ...

Desert was Chocolate Sabotage ....

Then an extra desert ... Happy Birthday to Me! (I shared with some of the other diners and the staff brought out extra for anyone who wanted a taste!)

WHAT TO DO WITH 10 SEA DAYS? – I love sea days, I always have, but this one with a total of 10 sea days (with 6 of them being in a row) did push that love to its limits! Each day the daily planner listed the various events being offered to entertain the masses, however, I frequently found that the things I wanted to do were all offered at the same time and I therefore had to choose one thing and miss the others, and at other times of the day there was nothing (that interested me) offered. I would have liked more movies being shown on the outside screen (or movies being offered more than once during the trip), at times that didn’t involve me moving or missing dinner or alternatively staying up to 1 a.m. to see the end of the movie. I would have liked to see the “Robo shows” in 270 (short performances of the moving robot screens) however these were always on during or overlapped with trivia sessions.

I’m not a sun worshiper (though there were plenty onboard), and did not spend a lot of time out on deck, but due to not having anything better to do I did spend some pleasant time appreciating the quiet shade of my balcony (and taking the occasional cat nap!).

Not sure when I took this, but managed to find it fairly empty which was rare!

There were two sets of enrichment lectures offered. The one in the morning was by David Kirkpatrick (former president of Paramount), this was a wonderful set of lectures, however I had heard them all on the transatlantic cruise I took last year – and they appeared to be exactly the same lectures. The lectures in the afternoons were with Robert Schirm about forensics and famous court cases. I attended a couple of them, unfortunately Mr. Schirm has a very dry delivery style, of basically just reading the information he has showing on his slides, and I just couldn’t stay engaged with the lectures.

Looking down from the North Star

TRIVIAL MATTERS – I will admit to be a trivia nut and I take the trivia session seriously, sometimes too seriously. As previously stated this cruise was very multi-national, however the questions used at trivia were obviously exactly the same questions they used for all their North American based cruises. I would estimate that 30% or more of the questions started “What US city/state/president …” to the point where I would groan whenever I heard those words. While I don’t expect a whole lot of British or Canadian focused questions, when you have a international set of passengers on an international cruise it would nice if they adjusted some of the questions to fit. It was even worse for the Australian guests, as you can guess how many Australian focused questions there were! There was also a problem with the same questions being asked used in different trivia sessions (sometimes the same questions being repeated on the same day) as different cruise staff members would host different sessions. I can think of several easy ways to avoid this – for example, the questions seemed to come from some master binder of questions, just tick off the questions as they are used, that way the next cruise staff member knows not to use that question. There was also the issue as a lot of cruisers were taking this cruise back to back with the previous transatlantic one, that whole sessions of questions were exactly the same as had been asked on the transatlantic one.

On some of the trivia sessions, language was also an issue. Some new cruise staff had joined the ship specifically for the Chinese cruises and again, while their English skills were much better than my Chinese, some of the pronunciations of the trivia questions were challenging – to the point that all key words in the questions had to be spelled out, or that in one case, there were two cruise staff members at one session with the questions being repeated by each staff member. I really do appreciate that the cruise staff wanted to improve and practice their English but I don’t think that trivia sessions were the place to do this. It made for some very long and drawn out trivia sessions.

SECURITY MATTERS – I’ve been on enough cruises to know that the muster is important and also to know to get to your muster station early if you want to secure a seat! My muster station was in the Vintages bar (on the Via next to Jamie’s restaurant). I got there early and got a seat, and while there were crew members about there appeared to be no one scanning or recording seapasses (to check attendance). I sat through the muster drill which included a video shown on the TVs in the bar – unfortunately the TVs were not well located for viewing and a lot of the people at that particular station could not see the screens. The muster ended and everyone was dismissed and still no one was around to scan my seapass. So the next day I got the “naughty letter” saying I had not attended muster and to attend a re-do. I went to talk to guest services and they just told me I could ignore the letter, which I did with no repercussions – which did worry me as they just took my word that I had attended. We had a late sailaway (scheduled for midnight, but actually left later than that) and I’m pretty sure a lot of people did not arrive till after muster (or arrived and then left the ship to go into BCN and missed the muster drill) – I thought after the Concordia that all cruiselines were being much more strict about attending the drill.

On arriving in my cabin on the first day I found the letter below regarding security for the transit of the Gulf of Aden.

Letter regarding security for the Gulf of Aden and Safe Haven Drill

I already knew about the security issues and had read on CruiseCritic how other ships had dealt with the transit in recent months so was not surprised by anything in the letter. I also knew that RCCL would have done a risk assessment and trusted that they would not be risking one of their shiny, new ships if there was any serious threat. However the letter seemed to really worry some of the passengers. I heard conversations along the line that it shouldn’t be going this route due to all the current problems in the Middle East! [Does the Quantum fit in the Panama canal, which is the other option from Florida?] I guess it could have gone from Florida and down around South America – which actually would have been a route I would be interested in taking! But as the ship was already over the Atlantic the only other way would have been around the outside of Africa – which holds its own set of risks and I’m guessing would have been a much longer trip and a bit impractical as a last minute change! I also heard rumours that large numbers of armed forces would be joining the ship for Gulf transit – this number varied anywhere from 50 to several hundred (which I knew was highly unlikely!). In the end we did have armed guards join the ship – 5 of them, with their “equipment”. I never saw any of them myself, but the captain made several announcements when they joined the ship and they had free run of all areas.

As stated in the letter the “Safe Haven” drill was held on Day 11 of the cruise and I dutifully went to stand in the corridor outside the cabin for about 15 minutes while the stewards checked the rooms and the captain made an explanatory announcement. There was some minor grumbling from a few passengers but really it was a non-event and only took 15 minutes or so for the drill and thankfully the ship never had any problems for real.

The letter also stated that Deck 5 would be closed for 4 days during the transit of the Gulf – this never seemed to materialize as I saw people out there all day and every day. Even at night when they did turn off some of the external lighting I saw people head out to the smoking area on Deck 5. I did go up to the pool deck during the transit period and the lights were out around the pools – so I turned around and went back down. I did use the hot tubs in the solarium during some of these evenings, it was kind of nice, the lights were turned down low and there were only a few people up there – it was very relaxing!

Speaking of smoking (for the record, I am not a smoker, and will avoid any smoky areas), there were various options if you needed them. On Deck 5 starboard side there was a large glassed in area on the promenade with seats and ashtrays. This area was just below and behind where my balcony was, however I never had a problem with any smoke coming up from it. The only minor thing was on the last night were the smokers seemed to be holding an impromptu farewell party and were a little noisy late into the night. Smoking was also allowed on the pool deck on the port side. This lead to me avoiding walking along that side of the pool deck and would deliberately cross over to the other side to avoid that area. As the smokers would sit in the shady area just outside the doors to the covered pool, their smoke would frequently waft though the doors everytime the doors opened, this led to several prime area loungers being left empty in that corner of the covered pool area.

Looking aft from the balcony - the glassed in area on the promanade deck is for the smokers.

PORTS AND TOURS - It’s Friday so it must be Civitavecchia – Since I had booked the cruise I would look at this stop on the itinerary and stumble over how to pronounce the name and end up calling it “the port for Rome”, so here’s how to pronounce it, break it down to the syllables – Ci‑vita‑vec‑chia – and it’s much less intimidating! I had initially attempted to set up a shared tour for the usual highlights of Rome, but as no one signed up for that I ended up setting up a different one for Orvieto and Civita Bagnoregio. (In the end I was glad I didn’t head to Rome as I was told that there was a transit strike in progress so getting around the city was difficult!)

I had set up the tour through Italy Shore Drivers and I highly recommend them. On their website you can set up a sharing tour and other people can sign up and join. I posted details on CruiseCritic and ended up as a group of eight, which worked perfectly. The Quantum docked right on time at 7 a.m., and I had arranged to meet up with my other tour group members in Boleros, and we made our way off the ship as a group. It was a little confusing on the dock as we were moored at the end of long pier, and at first we could not see anyone who looked like our driver. One of the members of the group fired up their phone and called the tour office to be told our driver was already there and would find us, as he was making the call, low and behold our driver appeared. We piled into a nice, clean minibus and headed off for the ride to Orvieto. We made a quick stop for an ATM (Italy Shore Drivers website will ask for a credit card to secure the tour, but prefer to receive Euros on the day – price was 75 Euros per person) and later on various stops for photos. The start of the day had been a bit grey with rain threatening but by the time we got to Orvieto the clouds had cleared and it was warming up.

A view of an Italian village on the way to Orvieto

Once in Orvieto we were let out of the bus outside the Orvieto Duomo and told to meet back in a little while to take the tour of the underground tunnels underneath the town. There was a funeral just finishing up in the Cathedral so I decided to just take a walk around some of the winding streets. Some of our party did brave the walk up the steps of the bell tower, which was an option. We met up outside the Duomo and were given tickets to the 11:30 tour (extra charge of 6 Euros per person). It was an interesting tour and it was explained how the caves were made, what they were originally used for, how they were used for shelters during the war and how they are being restored and preserved. After the tour (it was around 12:15 by then, I think) we decided to go in search of food as a group. There was one restaurant that looked really nice round the corner from the Duomo and at the edge of the hill, so we presumed it would have a good view. We tried to go in but were told that it was not open yet (I guess Italians eat late!), so went into a different restaurant just a couple of doors down, that was open and serving customers. We were glad we did, we sat outside and we had some wonderful pasta and wine. They were offering a wine tasting of three “tastes” for 10 Euros (it might have been less) – their “tastes” ended up being 3 full servings, one white, one red and one desert wine. Needless to say by the end of the meal, I was in a very good mood!

Orvieto Duomo exterior

We were meant to meet back up with our driver at 1 p.m., however we were having a good time and enjoying our food (and wine) so 1 p.m. came and went and we were still at the restaurant! Our driver did track us down but as the whole group was together he was fine with us running a little late! (One of the great things about small group private tours, you can adjust the schedule as the group wants!) Eventually we piled back into the minibus and headed to Civita Bagnoregio. Our driver had warned us that there was some work being done on the approach road to the Civita and that it might be difficult to get to it. We ended up driving to a viewing point with a small café and taking pictures of the Civita from a distance. We could see the causeway over to Bagnoregio but our driver said it would probably take about 45 minutes to walk over it and we just did not have the time to do that and look around the Civita. So after a short break for photos we piled back into the bus for the long trip back to the port. I managed to stay awake for most of the ride back, but most of the group took a nap to sleep off the pasta! We arrived back at the ship in plenty of time despite our driver having to take a detour as there was some problem with one of the highways – there seemed to be quite a bit of road works going on. We tipped our driver, wished him arrivederci and headed back on board.

Bagnoregio from the distance

NAPLES NEXT – Anyone who has read any of my other cruise reviews will know how much I like food tours, so guess what I did in Naples – yep, a food tour. I had booked a the Chiaia Food Tour with Eat In Italy Food Tours and advertised it on CruiseCritic, so ended up with a group of mostly Quantum cruisers with a couple of non-cruisers who also booked through the website. The Quantum cruisers met up in Boleros and walked through the city to the meeting point. The weather was cool and raining on and off and I ended up using my RCCL umbrella occasionally! The tour was great, we visited several cafes and restaurants, and during the day covering the range of ice cream, coffee, pizza, eggplant parmigiana, wine tasting and pasta. [sorry no food pictures, I thought I had taken some but apparently not!]

The tour was run by two young local guys who acted as our interpreters for the day. Part of the morning was taken up with a tour of napoli sotterranea – the underground caves under the city (hmm, there seems to be a theme here!).

Looking down the centre of the stairwell on the way down the napoli sotterranea - I don't like height so this made me dizzy!

The caves were originally used for water storage and later on as shelters during the war. There are narrow and low tunnels joining up some of the caves, I went through one of them but then “chickened” out and used the alternative route for the second set of low tunnels. This is not a tour for anyone claustrophobic but it was interesting hearing the history of the city and there is a long set of narrow steps down to the caves and back up to the surface at the end of the tour, so you work off some of the food from the tour! At one point after the war the tunnels were filled up with rubble but have been excavated and restored by one family who now run the tour of the caves. The tour ended about mid-afternoon and as a group we wandered back to the port stopping to purchase a few Limoncello candies on the way.

A Naples street view on the way back to the ship

One odd thing happened on the way back though, as a group we were waiting to cross a main road at a pedestrian controlled crossing (“push the button and wait for the walk sign” – which seem to be universal these days). As the light turned red a car failed to stop and ran the red light, our group had not started crossing yet, so for us “no big deal” (happens all the time here at home!). However the car immediately pulled into the curb on the other side of the crossing and sat and waited and as we crossed and carried on walking on the other side of the road, we heard sirens and a police car came out of nowhere pulled up to the stopped car and, I presume, issued a ticket. I guess that their crossings must be camera monitored in some way, and the car knew he had run the light so just stopped and waited for the cops to turn up (“It’s a fair cop, guv…”)

SUNNY IN ATHENS – Two days later and we’re in Athens. The weather has changed and it is sunny and hot. I had booked the Full Day Athens Tour (price 60 Euros per person) with PK Travel run by the Kalomiri Family. There were several groups from CruiseCritic using this company we had been separated in to manageable groups – I’m struggling to remember how many there were in my group but I think it was around 8. The instructions from the PK Travel said to meet at the terminal exit at 9 am (this was the immediately after we had docked). I got off the ship and quickly found my tour guide and several other members of my particular group and then we sat and waited (and waited), for the last few members of our group.

So here is PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT #3 – if you book a place on a tour, whether you have had to pay a deposit up front or not, and it ends up that you either can’t or don’t want to take the tour, please, please, make some attempt to contact the tour operator to let them know. Keeping the rest of the group waiting (and waiting) for you to turn up is just rude! I know sometimes bad things happen and that using the phone on the ship is expensive, but really with access to email, phone and internet, there is little excuse to just not show! We ended up waiting about an extra 30 minutes for two people who did not show and never did (to my knowledge) contact PK Travel to advise them.

Our tour guide had hoped to hit the road early and miss the hoards of the cruise ship excursions but with the extra wait, we were late getting going. There was a short drive around Piraeus and then we headed to the Acropolis. Our driver was Paul, one of the owners of PK Travel and we had Georgia (hope I spelled that right) as our guide. By the time we got to the Acropolis it was busy (there were several ships in port as well as the Quantum masses). Georgia took us away from the main exit and up a side path stopping to explain the different temples and areas of Athens we could see. Once at the top of the Acropolis hill she explained the history and gave us some time to explore by ourselves.

No review of Athens is complete with out an Acropolis picture!

It was really hot by then and I discovered a handy little hint for keeping the sun off my head. I would normally use the usual floppy hat or baseball cap and end up with sweaty flat “hat hair”. This time I had brought with me a loose weave linen scarf that I wrapped over my head around my neck and over my shoulders. The light scarf allowed any breeze to cool me off and didn’t give me the dreaded sweaty hair effect, while still protecting me from the sun. I used it during the extreme heat in Petra and Dubai too, now that scarf is going to go everywhere with me!

I met up with the rest of my group down the hill at the entrance and we located our minibus and headed to the Acropolis museum. Georgia accompanied the group into the museum and talked us through all the main exhibits. It’s a beautiful and well designed museum where you can get really close to most of the exhibits. It happened to be Museum Day on the day we were there so there was no extra charge for the Museum (or for entry to the Acropolis), but the museum was very busy with lots of local school kids.

After the museum we headed to the Plaka for some free time. As a group we decided that we wanted to sit down for some lunch so found a restaurant (Euxapis on Andrianou Street) where we were directed to a group table in the courtyard area which was shaded and cool. We all ordered various Greek options, with one member of the group being over ambitious and ordering the meat platter which ended up being a huge plate of meat, chicken, sausage type meat along with the usual rice and salad. I will give him “props” as he managed to make a sizeable dent in the amount of food. By the time we had finished and paid the bill it was just about time to meet up with Georgia again, so we unfortunately did not have time to explore the Plaka. One odd thing about the restaurant was there were “No Smoking” signs all around the courtyard area, however every table had an ashtray and people were smoking away quite happily!

Time for lunch - I think I had lamb kebab (or it could have been chicken - difficult to tell from the picture!)

We spoke to Paul about the financial crisis and how it was affecting the average person. I hope that they are managing okay and surviving. I know I paid for my tour partly through PayPal (the deposit) and then the remainder in cash – I think some members of the group did pay all in cash. If you happen to be heading that way I’m guessing that the tour operators would prefer cash so they don’t have to go through the bank restrictions. We did notice lots of graffiti around the city, some of it may have been political commentary but a lot was just mess – Paul explained that when the country is struggling to pay its police and emergency services that cleaning up graffiti is the last of its concerns.

The guards march every 30 minutes (if I remember correctly), this position is meant to represent how the soldiers rely on each other.

The olympic stadium - you could go in and walk around, but we just did a quick photo stop outside of it.

Once back at the bus we made a stop to watch the guards, to see the Olympic stadium and stopped to look around another temple/building (sorry don’t remember which one it was!) before heading back to the ship. I would highly recommend PK Travel, we had a great day.

Sailing away from Piraeus

HEADING THROUGH THE SUEZ – A couple of days later the ship paused outside the entrance to the canal waiting for the scheduled convoy for the south bound transit. It was interesting walking around the deck after dark and seeing all the lights from the ships anchored around us.

By the time I got up the next morning and headed to breakfast the following morning we were already transiting the canal. (I was delayed getting out to watch having to deal with a small minor issue at home via email – more on that later.) At first I headed to 270 lounge at the aft of the ship to watch out the big windows. You could see the large gap between each ship in the convoy and there seemed to be tugs stationed between each ship – I guess it would not be good to have a “stall” in the middle of the canal! Small local fishing boats would dash into the gaps as the ships passed. Looking down from 270 there was hardly any wake being created, but we seemed to be travelling at a steady speed.

Hardly any wake from the engines as we move steadily through the Suez.

Tugs behind and in front - in the distance you can see the next ship following us

Small fishing boats would dash inbetween the ships of the convoy.

After a while I headed up to the sun deck and walked around the walking track to the front of the ship, but on the quantum you cannot get very far forward. It was really hot outside so I headed into the solarium to try and find a window location where I could watch the scenery – desert on the port side and small towns and communities on the starboard. As we approached the other end of the canal you could see the construction of the new “twin” to the canal – I’m presuming eventually they will have one “lane” heading south and one “lane” heading north, rather than the current process of taking turns – I’m sorry that I missed the lectures they had onboard regarding the history of the canal, as they might have provided that information. The Quantum seemed to be making quite an impression on the locals on the riverside – as we passed the small communities (including various army barracks and security points), the people would run out with their cameras and take pictures as we passed. Later on the captain did announce that we were the largest cruise ship to ever transit the canal and at the end of the cruise we all received a certificate commemorating the transit delivered to our rooms.

You can just about make out the ongoing construction of the new "twin" canal.

EMAIL AND INTERNET – First let me say, that email access and internet was not a concern to me – I’m on vacation and don’t intend to spend my vacation “online”. I know that RCCL did advertise the Quantum as having the fastest internet on the seas, however it was a non-factor for me, and I also realized that that claim was probably just for it’s regular route and would not apply for the relocation route. However a lot of cruisers seemed to expect the “promised” high speed internet and there was a lot of general grumbling about it – though I’m not sure how much was required for legitimate urgent “business” reasons as I saw, at various times, people facetiming their grandkids and playing what appeared to be online games on their tablets! As a diamond cruiser, you could claim a free hour spread over the cruise or I think there were also options to have one day of free internet, but only for a single contiguous 24 hour period. The only reason I used my free hour was due to the minor issue I had at home that had to be dealt with via email.

I will point out one handy hint that if you install the Royal IQ app (or the same goes for iConcierge for NCL) on your phone and have your message alerts turned on, you can see the email alerts (including the first part of the re: line) on your phone, without actually having to access the email (and use up minutes). That way I could see if there was anything crucial happening at home that I needed to actually use up minutes for in dealing with. (My catsitter is instructed to put vital information in the re: line so I can see that my four legged kids are doing okay while I’m away!)

QUANTUM DOES THE LAST CRUSADE – As stated in the beginning one of the major reasons for taking this cruise was to visit Petra. Just before leaving for the cruise I watched a Nova program on our US PBS channel that explored and explained Petra. The program showed how the buildings had been carved out of the rock, how they had built a water system to maintain the once great city, and how that system had been destroyed or disturbed, probably by some nature disaster forcing the inhabitants to abandon the city and buildings. I highly recommend trying to find that program online for anyone heading to Petra as it was very informative.

The long line of buses waiting for the ship's tours

As we pulled into Aquba, Jordan I could see a long row of buses waiting to take the ship’s tours to Petra – there were really only two places to go from this port, Petra or Wadi Rum. I had booked a shared tour through Jordan Wonders ($135USD per person) and was due to met my bus and driver and other cruisers on the dock, and was glad at the prospect of taking a small group tour rather than the large tour groups that would be involved with the cruisetours. I walked past all the large buses to where the private tours were, there were lots of drivers but I had trouble locating mine. I eventually tracked him down (he had signs with names but was not holding them so anyone could actually see them!) There were three other cruisers there in my tour and we were expecting at least a couple more – again, (see PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT #3, under Athens), we waited and waited, while the driver walked up and down the dock, and phoned his office, and the other people didn’t show up. I could understand the driver’s (and the tour operator’s) reluctance to go without the full group, as there was now only four of us in the group, this would impact not only the income for the tour operator but also the tips for the driver and guide. After about 20 to 30 minutes of waiting in the minibus (fairly new and clean) the driver was given the go ahead by the office to head out with those cruises that had turned up. Again as a small group we should have been able to get a head start on the larger tour groups, however due to the delay, we lost that ability.

We drove through the city and headed into the rocky desert outside the city. The roads were wide and well kept and traffic was not very busy (as Friday is their “weekend” holy day) apart from other tourist buses coming from the ship. Once we turned off the main highway we stopped at a tourist shop for a short “comfort break” and an opportunity to shop for souvenirs – prices were in Jordanian Dinars but they would take US dollars. A bit further on we stopped for a photo opportunity of the rocky barren desert.

The Jordanian desert on the way to Petra

We headed into a town (Wadi Musa) with various hotels and signs in English and were let out of the bus and led to the visitors centre for Petra. For some reason I had expected Petra to be in the middle of nowhere however in reality it is on the edge of the town. Entrance tickets were provided by the driver and he introduced us to our Petra guide who walked us through the entrance buildings.

There is a long walk downhill to the entrance of the Sig (the canyon that leads to the buildings of Petra), and as you come through the entrance you have a few options. There are small donkey drawn carts that can be hired from the entrance that will take you down the hill and through the Siq. Our guide arranged for one of these carts for the couple in our group. However as I later saw, these carts can be scary – they race down the hill and through the Siq extremely fast, anyone walking through the Siq has to keep an eye out for the noise of them racing and attempt to keep to the walls to avoid being run over! The carts appear to have no suspension of any kind and bump and rattle down the rough walkway. As a pedestrian I watched as people in the carts hung on as they raced past me.

The colours of the Siq change as the light hits the wall [my point and shoot camera really didn't do it justice]

The other option for the walk down the hill (and up the hill when you return) is to ride a horse (and the cost of the horse ride is supposed to be included in the price of the ticket). I had done my research and read about this horse ride and knew they had a questionable reputation for the treatment of the animals. (I am an animal lover and used to ride horses as a child, but had prepared myself for “different culture, different expectations” and decided to just not partake of the horse ride and to use “Shank’s Pony” i.e, my own two feet!) There are signs at the entrance to Petra advising that the treatment of the animals is monitored and to report it if you feel you see any signs of cruelty – so they are aware of the reputation and addressing it. There are shelters/stables for the horses near the entrance buildings and I presume (hope) that the animals are given rest periods through the day. All the horses appeared well nourished and groomed and I certainly did not see any obvious cruelty – however did see the horses (and later on donkeys/mules) being raced back up the hill by the operators with ample encouragement of crop/whip. As you walked down the hill the operators constantly attempted to encourage any visitors to ride their horses, I just (repeatedly) said no thanks and continued to walk. Our guide offered to “find me a quiet one” I just said no thanks and explained that I was perfectly capable of riding a horse, but just did not want to – he eventually accepted this. One of our group did decide to try riding one of the horses – I think maybe he did it just to stop the operators from bugging our group – and he later admitted that the guy guiding the horse demanded a “tip” of approximately $40USD before he was allowed off the horse, apparently the horse guide explained that this was the “usual and expected” amount of a “tip” – so I was really, really glad to have avoided that!

The horse ride is only from the entrance buildings to the entrance of the Siq (maybe a mile?), you then have to walk (or have taken the donkey cart from the entrance buildings) through the actual Siq. The Siq is actually a beautiful walk between the canyon walls (if you ignore the 3,000 other people surrounding you and the racing donkey carts threatening to run you over!), and you can see areas where the clay water pipes would have run along the canyon to provide water to the ancient civilization.

During the walk I talked to our guide and he asked where my husband was, I explained there is no husband, that I’m solo, have a good job, work hard and spend my money to travel by myself. He seemed a little puzzled by this and suggested I should move to Jordan and find myself a good man to take care of me! (There was no suggestiveness to this, it was just “different culture, different expectations” and he just truly didn’t understand how a mature woman would be perfectly happy without a man!)

As we reached the last turn of the Siq, the guide got out his phone and played the famous Indiana Jones theme tune as the beautiful facade of the Treasury came into sight. The view was absolutely breathtaking and was beyond words – but somewhat diluted by the 3,000 or so other tourists in the plaza in front of the Treasury building. I attempted to ignore the 3,000 or so of my new not-so-closest-friends and just take in the magnificence of the architecture.

The Treasury building comes into view at the last turn of the Siq.

The Treasury building is stunning... now where is Indiana Jones hiding ...

We located the couple who had taken the donkey cart down through the Siq and the guide walked us past the Treasury and further into the Petra area past more buildings carved out of the cliffs. About half way through we stopped for a short break and a soda at a small café/shack (probably run by the guide’s cousin) and then walked further down to where the main restaurants are. At this point the guide left us and reminded us to meet up with our driver at the main gate at a certain time later in the day. (I’m pretty sure he wanted to get back up to the entrance in time to collect a new group as there was only the four of us so he knew his tips would be limited.) As a group we decided to try one of the restaurants – there are two – one attached to a hotel, which had a nice outdoor seating area, but seemed a little pricey for the buffet food on offer. We decided to try the more “rustic” restaurant next door, which also had a buffet of rice, meat and vegetable dishes, plus local bread and some sweets, which was a little cheaper. After some lunch we located the “museum”, which was a bit of a disappointment (considering we had been to the magnificent Acropolis museum just a few days before). The museum considered of about 3 rooms with some cases showing bits of pottery and jewellery with rather faded labels explaining the history.

One of the cafes in Petra - I guess this one really likes Aussies!

The couple in our group decided to hire donkeys to take them back up through the rose city as they had arranged to meet up with the donkey cart to take them back through the Siq and up the hill to the entrance buildings. Although it was really hot I decided to walk and took my time taking in the magnificent scenery some more.

Again, the donkeys all looked well fed and cared for, but most were being handled and led by school aged children. I would frequently see these children racing the donkeys back to the starting point with ample (and somewhat excessive) use of a switch or whip. At times, as an animal lover, I was tempted to grab the two-legged “jockey” and see how they would like that kind of treatment, but managed to grit my teeth and resist the temptation. (I generally always have more sympathy for four legged creatures than two legged ones, no matter what age the two legged ones might be!)

When I got back to the Treasury I still had some spare time to sit and take in the atmosphere, it was a lot calmer now with a lot less tourists and as the sun had moved the colours of the buildings changed. There were quite a few feral cats in the area who take advantage of the tourists and will eat just about anything they were offered, including chips/crisps and crumbs of muffins. Cats are definitely my weak spot and I had to remind myself I can’t take them home and save them all. I gave one of the feral cats a few head scratches and thought of my well fed, over-indulged moggies at home! (If you are heading to Petra anytime soon, please take some cat treats with you!)

I headed back through the Siq (avoiding the crazy donkey carts now racing back up to the entrance) and paused to take a few more pictures. I trekked back up the hill (again declining the offers of a horse ride) and found the other members of our group waiting up by the entrance – I guess I must have looked a little hot and dusty as they immediately offered me a bottle of water!

We met up with our driver outside the entrance and loaded back into the minibus for the drive back to the ship. Occasionally we would see Bedouin tents in the desert on the side of the road and stopped to watch a herd of camels being driven along the road. We arrived back at the ship in plenty of time, tipped our driver and said farewell. Despite the questionable delays at the beginning of the day, I would recommend Jordan Wonders, the day went well and the driver was reliable and got us there and back again safely with no issues! As only four of us actually turned up for the tour, they could have turned around and said there was not enough to meet the minimum number, but they didn’t, they went ahead with the tour and we had a good day!

A few more pictures from Petra:

The Treasury - taken on the way back, it was a lot less crowded.

Another of the buildings at Petra

Heading back through the Siq in the late afternoon - looks peaceful but watch out for the racing donkeys!

Tomb entrances

Mama cat looking for food from the tourists

I just wanted to take them all home with me....

EMERGENCY MEDICAL AND HUMAN NATURE – During a cruise of this length it is almost inevitable that there is going to be a medical emergency or two. Once we left Jordan I had heard of one passenger that had suffered back injuries from being thrown from a horse at Petra, somehow he had been transported back to the ship for medical treatment but was said to be in quite a bad way.

After we had passed through the gulf of Aden the captain announced that we were heading towards a port city in Oman (I don’t remember which one) to rendezvous with a tug that would take several passengers off for medical evacuation (I believe the passenger who had hurt his back was one of them). Later I went to my cabin to get changed for dinner and noticed we were getting closer to a industrial port type area, a few minutes later I looked out the window to see a tug boat heading towards for the ship. I went out on to my balcony to take a look and as the tug manoeuvred to line up with the tender entrance on the side of the ship, people started rushing towards the railing on Deck 5.

By the time the tug was secured (which involved a lot of shouting between the ship and the tug – seemed to be a slight language issue) the crowd at the railing was 3-4 people deep. Indeed people with cameras were elbowing other people out the way in their attempts to get a better shot of the action. Three passengers plus some luggage, another person, who I presume was the partner of one of the patients, and some medical personnel, were carefully transferred over to the tug. The walking person and medical personnel walked into the covered small cabin area of the tug, but the three patients secured on to stretchers were left out on the back deck of the tug! All through this process the hoards continued to push and jockey for position on the railing, those taking video leant over the railing apparently trying to zoom in on the patients on the deck of the tug below. One lady was so desperate to take a picture she climbed on to the railing and leant over so far I was really surprised she didn’t end up being a patient on the tug herself! A person in the neighbouring cabin put their cell phone on an extended “selfie stick” so that they could get a “bird’s eye” picture of the action. I was frankly quite disgusted by some of the actions of the “audience” – this wasn’t entertainment this was three people who were ill enough to have to endure an evacuation rather than wait another couple of days till we arrived in Dubai. While human curiosity is one thing and respectfully watching (and thanking your lucky stars that you or your loved ones are not one of the people being evacuated) is one thing, pushing and elbowing people out the way so you can get a video to post on YouTube is totally different, and, to me, morally disturbing. However during it all this the walking person on the tug boat did stop to waive at the curious hoards at the railings and even stopped to take a picture of his partner wrapped up and laying on the deck on the stretcher, so I’m presuming and hoping that none of the three patients were at death’s door!

[And no - I did not take any pictures of the medical evacuation...!]

After Jordan there were a whole bunch of sea days – six in a row – looking back I find it impossible to remember what I did during those days – I know I did a lot of trivia sessions!

I already admitted that I am not a sun worshipper. There were the usual passengers that came out at day break and reserved their loungers using towels, flipflops, books etc. (despite the constant days of over 30 degree (centigrade) temperatures) and baked themselves all day – I really don’t know how they did it! I was a bit like Goldilocks – I tried the pool deck, which was too noisy with the constant music either being piped in or provided by the band. I tried the sun deck, which was just way too hot, even on the first few days out of Greece. I tried the various parts of the solarium and covered pool area, and unless you could find a prime spot next to one of the open side windows it was too stuffy and humid. Most days I would spend a little time out on my balcony, which was mostly on the shady side of the ship (until we too the left hand turn at the bottom of Yemen). The balcony usually ended up being “just right” with some shade, a breeze and nice and quiet – I was just missing the lounger!

Balcony cabin 8662 - slighly angled as on the edge of the "hump"

A couple of days before the end of the cruise I overhead a conversation in the Diamond Lounge between the concierge, Marina, and another cruiser, regarding the dining packages, and how it was possible to retroactively request a dining package be applied if you had visited three or more of the speciality restaurants. I enquired further of Marina, and she sent an email on my behalf asking for the dining package discount to be applied, as I had been to Chops, Wonderland and Chef’s Table (as well as Jamie’s) during the voyage. The day before disembark I received a nice little refund back to my OBC account to reflect the dining package discount and requested and received this refund back in cash from guest services.

Day 1 - Dubai

DO I REALLY HAVE TO GET OFF THE SHIP NOW? – DUBAI – A week after Petra we sail into Dubai, again it was a Friday, so the equivalent of the weekend. I had dutifully put my luggage out the night before and requested a later disembark time as I was heading to a hotel (JW Marriott Marquis) for two nights before flying out on Sunday morning. I had my last breakfast in the American Icon restaurant and headed to the Diamond cruiser area in Boleros to wait for my number to be called.

Dubai had laid out the red carpet for disembarking passengers (actually it might have been for a VIP visitor I saw in the terminal building as I exited - I believe he might have been a member of the Emirati Royal family!)

Disembark was very slow and I think it was well after 10 a.m. before I walked off the ship. My passport was returned to me at a desk in the port prior to heading through to pick up my luggage, I found my suitcase and headed out to find a taxi. Well, actually, I headed the wrong way, as the signage was a little confusing – for taxis in the Port of Dubai go out the door and turn immediately left.

The Port is quite some way from the main part of the City – I think my taxi cost about 40 Dirham. I had pre-booked a 48 hour HOHO ticket (Big Bus Tours) and I realized later that I could have taken the Big Bus from the port to one of the malls and then taken a taxi from there, but it might have involved a bus change or two and considering the weight of my luggage the taxi was the easy route.

The JW Marriott Marquis claimed to be the tallest hotel in the world (don’t know if it still is though?), but no matter, it was a very big and very fancy hotel. I think I got there a bit before noon, but unfortunately could not check in as they said they had been fully booked the night before. They did offer to store my luggage and told me there was a hotel shuttle to Dubai Mall. I had just missed the shuttle which ran every 30 minutes so took a seat and waited for the next one. I thought about walking to the nearest transit station (the hotel is only one stop away on the train from the mall) but it was extremely hot, so even the 10 minute walk to the transit station didn’t seem like a good idea. After about 25 minutes I noticed people heading for the door, so went to find the shuttle only to find that the last seat had already been filled (it’s a really small minibus). I was a bit annoyed as I had been one of the first people waiting for the shuttle – so be warned there is no “queue” system! I ended up taking a taxi which cost about 12 dirham, if I recall correctly, as I didn’t wait to waste another 30 minutes waiting for the next shuttle.

Very large bed in a very large room at the JW Marriott Marquis

Interesting looking building still under construction opposite the hotel

While the mall is not far from the hotel, I found out that in Dubai there is a lot of “you can’t get there from here” places, as it is built for driving not walking. The taxi dropped me off in front of the Mall, near the taxi/bus area – the transit (train) station is apparently the opposite end of the Mall and I never did find it in my 2 day stay – which is where the HOHO buses pick up and drop off. (There are two HOHO bus companies, one has red buses (Big Bus) and the other had maroon painted buses – they all seemed to do the same routes, but whatever company you buy tickets for you can only use their buses.)

I had pre-purchased a 48 hour ticket but as I was only in the City for about 44 hours thought I better go ahead and start using it. One of the buses on the City route turned up so I hopped on it to take the circle tour, get a basic idea of what was where and end up back at Mall in a couple of hours, and stay in the bus’s air conditioning.

The Burj Khalifa - taken from the Big Bus tour

Lots of interesting architecture - this one is designed to look like Big Ben tower in London - without the clock.

Condo building near the marina district - built with a twist. There are plans to build a similar one with several floors that will rotate, so you get a different view in the morning than the evening!

Once I returned to the Mall I went inside to explore. Dubai Mall is big! I’m not a big shopper and in fact the only thing I wanted to find in the Mall was Marks & Spencer (British department type store). I picked up a map of the mall and after a wrong turn or two found M&S and did my little bit of shopping. I wandered around the mall a little more, but to be honest found it very intimidating (and very expensive!) I wandered past the waterfall and found the aquarium, where I watched the divers feeding the fish, which made me a little hungry so headed to the food court and got a smoothie to keep me going. The mall was very busy as was the food court, which had all the usual franchises you would see in a North American food court including a “Timmies” (Tim Horton’s)!

By this time I was starting to feel a bit sweaty and tired (disembark day always means an early start), so decided to head back to the hotel to clean up before deciding what to do with the evening. I managed to locate the hotel shuttle in front of the Mall and got the last available seat! I returned to the hotel, completed my check in and was assigned a room on the 48th floor. The room was huge (as was the bathroom), spotlessly clean and was very quiet. In fact I don’t think I ever saw or heard anyone else on my floor of the hotel at any time. After I had freshened up, taken some pictures of the room and worked out how to use the TV, I decided that I was too tired to return to the Mall to eat. I checked out the different menus to the hotel restaurants and decided on the Thai restaurant in the hotel. I had a very nice meal accompanied by a wonderful ginger and lemongrass cocktail – I don’t know what was in it but it was very good! I returned to my room, managed to find a (tape-delayed) NHL ice hockey playoff game on the TV, watched Coronation Street and opted for an early night!

I had managed to book the hotel with at a rate that included breakfast. The offerings for breakfast were expansive – there was a cooked breakfast station (no pork products though – only beef sausages, and turkey bacon), a fruit section, a pastry section, an asian type breakfast section and others. However both days I was at the hotel I just grabbed a quick bite as I was in a rush both days – the first day to get to my tour and the second day to get to the airport. I’m glad that my hotel rate included breakfast as I later read that they charge over $40 per person. However when I requested tea (as opposed to coffee), I ended up with a mug of lukewarm water and a tea bag on the side – I think I need to start a business that exports teapots to all areas where Brits (and Aussies) visit and train how to serve a good Cuppa!

The waterfall inside Dubai Mail

Looking down at the entrance to the Aquarium

Floating down the river on a Dhow

No not piles of garbage, but a mural of garbage in the Marina district - weird!

Stained glass ceiling in the souk area market of the Wafi mall

The Burj al Arab - this is about the closest I got to it - I would have really like to go inside for a meal or afternoon tea, but that was realy expensive!

The next day (Saturday) I had a fairly early start as I had booked the 9 a.m. Fahidi Heritage Tour followed by brunch at the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding (http://www.cultures.ae/) (SMCCU). This is a restored area in the Al Fahidi Historic District, one of the oldest traditional Emirati neighbourhoods in Bur Dubai, including a walk through the sikkas and beautiful wind towers that adorn the original residences along the Dubai Creek.

The wind towers of the Fahidi district - air conditioning without electricity.

I decided to try and use the train to get to the meeting place and I had carefully printed out instructions on how to get there. I walked the 10 minutes to the train station, and even though it was only 8 a.m. it was already getting really hot. I found the right train and even managed to change trains at the right place. However once I exited the station I was not sure which way to walk and it was getting close to 9 a.m., and I hate being late for anything! I flagged down a taxi, unfortunately I got the only taxi-driver in Dubai, who didn’t understand or speak English, I showed him the address but he didn’t know where it was. I knew the meeting place was near the Al Fahidi roundabout so managed to communicate to him to drive to the roundabout and I could see the wind towers from there, so managed to locate the meeting point, and only be about 2 minutes late! In the end I had only been about 3 or 4 blocks away from the roundabout, but it would have taken me a lot longer to walk there.

It was an interesting and informative tour, consisting of a time talking to two guides, a young Emirati woman and man, about the country, their culture and their religion. At the very beginning they say that no question is off limits, and I’m sure they are asked a lot of the same questions regarding dress and culture, over and over. After the Q&A session they walked the group through the restored buildings to the mosque, where we were asked to remove our shoes and the women were offered scarfs to cover their heads (most already had them) and we entered the mosque and were allowed to take pictures and had another Q&A session.

The ceiling and chandelier of the mosque

I had also signed up for brunch at the SMCCU, which is offered separately, so headed back to the office and joined the next group for another Q&A session followed by a traditional meal. It was a wonderful meal with lots of food left over, which was offered to us to take with us if we liked. When I had originally planned to visit Dubai, I had really wanted to take a food tour, unfortunately there seems to be only one company that offers one in the City and they were on vacation over the days I was there – so that is some thing I will have to save for “next time” and in the end the Brunch at SMCCU was wonderful and I’m very glad I had the opportunity to try it.

Brunch at SMCCU - highly recommend it

After the SMCCU I walked a few blocks to the museum as it appeared to be the nearest point where I could pick up the Big Bus. I had to wait a while in the shade of the doorway to the Museum. Eventually I hopped on to the bus and took the same route I had taken the day before, but this time hopped off to take the Dhow Cruise (that’s included in the ticket price). I guess I must have looked like I was melting, (did I say it was hot, over 40 degrees Celsius), as when I stepped on the Dhow one of the crew picked up a chair and put it directly in front of the air conditioning vent and told me to sit there! After cooling off for a short while I went out onto the deck and watched the City float by for a while.

I am fascinated by architecture and would have loved to take a proper architecture tour, but they were not available on the few days I was in the City, so I had to make do with the information that was offered by the HOHO and the Dhow cruise.

My plan for the rest of the day was to use the HOHO as much as possible for the remainder of the day. As it was so very hot, I really just “hopped on” and didn’t do much “hopping off”. I did repeat the rest of the City Tour, changed buses to take some of the Beach Tour route, saw the Burj al Arab from a distance, then changed buses again to take some of the Marina Tour route and saw where they are building a large London Eye (but much larger) type feature, from a distance. I ended up at the Mall of the Emirates with about half an hour to spare before the City Night Tour on the HOHO started. I rushed through the Mall to the ski slope took a few really bad pictures through the glass, grabbed a Chai and a pastry and headed to the meeting point for the City Night Tour.

The ski hill at the Mall of the Emirates

The City Night Tour bus picks up from the Mall of the Emirates and drives through the city to view the city lights, however there are no stops to “hop off” or take pictures. It did drive down the palm island towards the Atlantis hotel, but it doesn’t get very close.

The Atlantis resort at night - sorry bad picture taken from moving bus!

As I presumed it would now be cooler now it was dark I risked seating in the open top part of the bus – I had stayed inside the air conditioning on all the other routes. This ended up being a bit of a mistake, at times the bus travels very fast on the highways which results in it being very windy and feeling like you are sitting in front of a hairdryer (for a couple of hours). At points it was so windy the bus shimmied from side to side and ended up feeling like a rollercoaster ride! The good thing about this tour though is that it has a live commentary, as opposed to the taped commentary during the day time tours, so they do give you some interesting facts about the buildings you are speeding past. The tour ended at the Wafi Mall with a short tour through the souk that is part of the mall. They then offer another bus that can return you to the Dubai mall or the Emirates mall.

My overall impression of Dubai, is that it is a fascinating city. I tried to see as much of the main city as I could in the small amount of time I had, but don't feel like I did justice to the area at all, as I didn't get out of the main area city, and didn't even get to go into the desert either. I would like to go back (but when it's not quite so hot) and see more.

From the Dubai Mail I jumped into a taxi I got back to the hotel. Repacked my suitcase and got a few hours shut eye before my morning journey to the airport. The journey home was pretty uneventful – I did have one moment of worry, at Dubai airport where the exit immigration officer sent me back to the visa window, as apparently I didn’t have the “right” stamp on my passport, but that was fairly quickly corrected and I headed to my gate for the long flight to the West Coast (via Heathrow).

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So if you’ve stuck with this epic tale till the end, I’m very flattered! Grab yourself a virtual martini as a reward! I’ll will be “Escape-ing” across the Atlantic next month but I’m not sure if I will write a review of that one, as I think there might be some other cruisers planning to live blog it. After that I might be taking an Ovation or enjoying a Harmony, we’ll see how the new year treats me…

As I'm pretty sure the links to the photos for the first 6 posts (chapters?) of this review are broken - I'll add them in below in the order they were posted.

Small but very comfortable room at the Hotel Montecarlo - bed was adjustable

Real key to the room

Gaudi building at night

First drink of the cruise - Aperol Spritz at Jamie's Italian

Bird's eye view of the pool deck from the North Star

Looking back toward Barcelona from the North Star

Quantum's resident bear

Balcony cabin 8662 - taken from the balcony door (and before unpacking)

Cabin bathroom

Wristband - to be used in place of your Seapass

Esplanade on Deck 4 taken from Deck 5 - this was on suez transit day, so not as busy as usual

The butterfly wall at the entrance to the Via

An empty 270 longe - taken on the morning of the Suez transit, most people were out on deck.

One of the sofa "pods" on the Via area - there was usually someone napping in them - I managed to find it without its occupants on this occasion!

King Julian entertains the crowd before the start of the C&A cocktail event