On Board Quantum January 11th 12 day

[dedosr]

We had a FABULOUS dinner at Wonderland! We enjoyed it so much that we are booking it again for my birthday. What a cool experience. Delicious and different food, incredible atmosphere and AWESOME waitstaff! We knew our waiter from the Chefs Table on the Allure.:D. It was the most fun and interesting dining experience that I have had in a long time.

 

We are now enjoying a Moët at Vintages and waiting to go to the comedy show.

GREAT cruise so far!

 

Tara

 

Tara, can you describe your meal at Wonderland? We are trying to figure out if we will like it? Thanks

[smdubowsky]

Hi

 

The Tuna in Chops was a dinner entree and I would recommend it. Devinly Decadent is complimentary for breakfast and lunch but not listed as complimentary for dinner.

 

I took the iFly demo today. It was fun

[Ambiverol]

I am sailing on the 23rd and have a quick question:

Is there a "baby splash zone" on board.

 

All ships have a kiddie area, but some (like Oasis class) have a small area with only a few inches of water strictly for babies in swim diapers. It is filtered separately and independent of the regular kids zone.

 

I was on Quantum in November, but didn't think to check!

 

Thanks in advance.

[rene1103]

There are exactly 4231 passenger on board. 85 from germany, us included :-) any other nation you would like to know?

 

 

Gesendet von meinem iPhone mit Forums

[smdubowsky]

Quantum is still a work in progress. They have done some not so smart things. For instance I heard that on prevoius cruises that they did not supply shampoo and conditioner. Well, that's changed but when my wife asked for a shower cap, she was initially told there weren't any. Our stateroom attendant then came with one and told me he got it from a suite. Later on, guest relations told us the shower caps were available on request only. C'mon, if they have shower caps at Holiday Inn, they should have them on the ship.

[gaylemh]

Quantum is still a work in progress. They have done some not so smart things. For instance I heard that on prevoius cruises that they did not supply shampoo and conditioner. Well, that's changed but when my wife asked for a shower cap, she was initially told there weren't any. Our stateroom attendant then came with one and told me he got it from a suite. Later on, guest relations told us the shower caps were available on request only. C'mon, if they have shower caps at Holiday Inn, they should have them on the ship.

 

I was never able to get one on Explorer either. My cabin attendant was able to finally find one for me at the Spa on my first cruise. After that I brought my own.

[Biker19]

There are exactly 4231 passenger on board. 85 from germany, us included :-) any other nation you would like to know?

 

Thanks for that - so right at double occupancy capacity. I'm trying to correlate lines and issues with the number of guests on board.

Edited January 14, 2015 by Biker19

[tarajean1962]

I am sailing on the 23rd and have a quick question:

Is there a "baby splash zone" on board.

 

All ships have a kiddie area, but some (like Oasis class) have a small area with only a few inches of water strictly for babies in swim diapers. It is filtered separately and independent of the regular kids zone.

 

I was on Quantum in November, but didn't think to check!

 

Thanks in advance.

 

There is definitely an h2o zone on the ship. It has a bunch of dreamworks characters and is set up for kids. It looks fun!

 

We had another great day yesterday! What I love most about this ship is that you can walk by the same place several times and you notice something different. There are a lot of little inset areas that have neat things to see. We also did the iFly yesterday and loved it! The solarium is gorgeous and so far, we have had no problems finding a chair or getting in the hot tub (which is honestly not vey hot). We had another terrific dinner last night at Chops Grille and, without sounding too much like Mary Poppins, we are truly having a ball! Mama Mia was terrific and we love Vintages. Great bartender and great service.

 

Today we have the zip line scheduled in Labadee and we are looking forward to a nice relaxing beach day. The weather is beautiful! We have had no problems with dinner reservations and have been in and out of all three restaurants we tried so far in a little over an hour. We have been offered refills on our drinks as well. The assistant waiters have really helped.

 

 

Tara

Edited January 14, 2015 by tarajean1962

[newcruiser08820]

http://www.shipparade.com/az/Quantum_of_the_Seas/Interior_Photos/h2o-zone-pool-deck-quantum-of-the-seas-interior-photos.jpg

 

yes there is one but little smaller then on Oasis class

Edited January 14, 2015 by newcruiser08820
adding picture

[gaylemh]

How hot is the solarium when you get to warmer weather? When I was on the 3 night, and it was cold outside, they had it way too hot. It was very stuffy.

[chechebean]

I am sailing on the 23rd and have a quick question:

Is there a "baby splash zone" on board.

 

All ships have a kiddie area, but some (like Oasis class) have a small area with only a few inches of water strictly for babies in swim diapers. It is filtered separately and independent of the regular kids zone.

 

I was on Quantum in November, but didn't think to check!

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Hi, sailing on the 23rd too!! The "splash zone" is located outside of the exit of the Windjammer. If you are facing forward Johnny Rockets will be on the right and unfortunately the Smoking section will be on the left. It appears to be a "wave pool" but when I was on board if wasn't operating as such. The water remained calm and as you walked down the slope the depth increased. There was also a small area next to it with a small circular pool of water. Just a few inches. The cutest was the "mini" version of the deck chair. Safe travels!

[smdubowsky]

Day 4. We are in Labadee. It was a beautiful day. RCCL does not supply canvas beach bags. No big deal but it would have been a nice touch. Lots of people are complaining about the little things. Each one, by itself, is not much, but when added up they show a lack of attention to details. For instance, there is no bath mat in the bathroom. Go to any run of the mill hotel and they will provide a bath mat. Maybe they have one on request, but why should I have to ask?

 

Many of the cruisers are frequent RCCL patrons and they are saying similar things. don't get me wrong. It's a beautiful ship but as a passenger and a stockholder, I think they could do better.

[Ambiverol]

Thanks for the info about the baby pool. That picture was a huge help. I had looked all over and couldn't find anything definitive.

 

I knew I could count on you guys!

[SherriZ366]

Day 4. We are in Labadee. It was a beautiful day. RCCL does not supply canvas beach bags. No big deal but it would have been a nice touch. Lots of people are complaining about the little things. Each one, by itself, is not much, but when added up they show a lack of attention to details. For instance, there is no bath mat in the bathroom. Go to any run of the mill hotel and they will provide a bath mat. Maybe they have one on request, but why should I have to ask?

 

Many of the cruisers are frequent RCCL patrons and they are saying similar things. don't get me wrong. It's a beautiful ship but as a passenger and a stockholder, I think they could do better.

We have had bathmats on all of our RCI cruises.

[wesp]

We were on the Jan 3 cruise. We had a bath mat in our balcony cabin. At first I thought the mat was one of the towels. About mid-cruise our cabin attendant offered us shampoo and conditioner even though we brought our own. Sounds like another consistency/quality control problem of which there were many.

 

If you have reservations in Grande, ask for Basaam. And in Chic ask for Alvaro.

 

Be sure to watch "Hello" more than once in 270. There are different endings!

[PortCredit]

We are also on this cruise. We're long time cruisers on Celebrity and this is our first RC. Our observations:

 

• Check in was fairly fast and easy - we had uploaded our photos in advance and done all of the online check in.
   
  
• The ship is beautiful. Lots of interesting artwork and quiet nooks for reading and relaxing.
   
  
• Although booking in advance for Dynamic Dining was painful, if not impossible, it has been fairly straightforward to make adjustments and get reservations once on board. The same is true for booking entertainment.
   
  
• We loved Jamie's Italian (and this is coming from an Italian and avid cook).
   
  
• Chic was a real disappointment. Ours was the only table that didn't receive a bread basket. My husband never received his drink. I wasn't offered a second glass of wine. You might wonder why we didn't ask our waiter to fix this. The answer is that he was very scarce - only saw him again when he came to ask about dessert. Food was mediocre and I wouldn't go back.
   
  
• Unless I'm missing something, the only place for a sit down (not buffet) breakfast for non suite guests is American Icon Grill. The line up for that restaurant at breakfast is daunting. I miss the ability to eat breakfast in the main dining room.
   
  
• Hate that smoking is allowed in the casino. I come out smelling like an ashtray.
   
  
• Michael's Pub was great - food, drinks and service.
   
  
• 270 is a great choice for pre-dinner drinks and a great alternative to the crowded buffet for breakfast or lunch.
   
  
• Free wifi has been working great and is such a great plus on this cruise!
   
  
• Mamma Mia was a great show. I had seen it before and the ship's version was as good as that seen at the theatre in Toronto.
   
  
• We were surprised and disappointed at the limited room service menu and the extra charge for hot items at breakfast. Not used to this from our previous cruises on Celebrity.
   
  
• Dinner at Wonderland was great! Our large group had Oliver and Adele as the wait team and they were fantastic.
   
  
• Breakfast at Divinly Decadent was a disappointment. Buffet hot items were cold - not just tepid. Haven't tried it for other meals, so I can't comment on lunch or dinner.
   
  
• I'm so pleased that ship-wide announcements have been limited to daily noon updates from the captain.
  

That's it for now. We're having a great time on a beautiful ship with a wonderful group of friends. I'll be submitting comments via the onboard comment forms. All in all, based on our experience so far, I'd be more likely to book on Celebrity for our next cruise.

[Georgeny]

Thanks for that - so right at double occupancy capacity. I'm trying to correlate lines and issues with the number of guests on board.

 

Biker, We were thinking along the same lines. Historically this time frame os the least expensive and lesser traveled weeks on all lines. Looks like about 600 plus less pax than on our 12/27 cruise.

 

I am still paying attention due to simple interest in all things cruising and concerns about future trends in cruising. But honestly for those that like this style better that's great. For us, just booked Royal Princess 10 Day Oct 1 Penthouse Suite and good old boring traditional dining and same wait staff. Also booked May Carnival Pride nothing fancy relaxing cruise from Baltimore.

 

Like most things the bottom line for all of this will be the almighty dollar. Like most things now the priority in monetizing products.

 

As an unrelated aside with tax season upon us for RCCL stock holders. Turbo Tax follows the way of the US cruise and airlines now Deluxe version can no longer handle Schedule D stock transactions, upgrade FEE $30, they are doing this for OUR convenience I am sure :)

 

George in NY

[maria1122]

There are bath sets in the bathroom. They are the smaller thicker terry cloth.

[iceburg1]

Do you know which tribute band is performing in the Music Hall on your sailing? Any chance it is Beatlemania?

 

Can you ask who will be the tribute band on the next sailing leaving on January 23?

 

Thanks.

[OceanCruise]

This cruise the tribute bands were Bon Jovi and Journey music.

[smdubowsky]

It's been a few days since I posted. I sensed I was getting a little negative so I decided to stay off line and enjoy my vacation. Today is our last sailing day and it's getting colder outside so I decided to give a synopsis post.

 

The ship is beautiful but it is a work in progress in my opinion. Except for one indifferent waiter in Chic, the entire crew has been wonderful and has been bending over backwards to be accommodating. We've done, the North Star, iFly and saw all of th shows except one of the late night entertainers. We have eaten in all of the restuarants except Wonderland and Chef's Table.

 

Here's the rundown in my opinion:

 

Food is the weakest link. It appears to be a systems problem. The "dynamic dining" is new to RC and it shows. Speaking with staff they admit a lot of frustration also. The Windjammer is always overcrowded and tables are often hard to get. I found it od that at certain hours, Windjammer closes down altogether except for coffee, tea, and bread!. This is not at 2:00 AM but at around 5:00PM. We also found the selections available were unusually heavy. and the various salads like egg salad and tuna salad were very heavy on the mayonnaise.

 

Chic was our worst experience. I already outlined our first time there but our last time was the worst. My wife ordered sea bass. It was not only ice cold, it was undercooked. The maitre d' even took it back to the kitchen to show the staff how unacceptable it was. We did complain and RC took good care of us after that.

 

Chops was excellent and consistent. We ate there 3 times and were never disappointed. If this restaurant was on land where we lived, i would be going all of the time.

 

Jamie's was good. We ate there twice. The first time we had no problems. The second time we waited 50 minutes past our reservation to get a table. The restaurant manager was very apologetic and gave us complimentary champagne, but they obviously have problems.

 

Devinly Decadent was also good but we only had lunch there. The breakfast (buffet) and the lunches are complimentary but not dinner. I enjoyed the food but myDW thought it was a little spicy.

 

We ate several breakfasts in the American Icon Grill. It was a better alternative to the Windjammer except the last time we had breakfast there we waited 45 minutes for our order and it came cold. Again, I think there systems are not properly in place.

 

Silk was okay. Nothing special but decent.

 

After our last foray into CHic and the undercooked sea bass, my DW was up all night with what must have been from the undercooked fish. When we told guest relations, they were very upset and gave us a pass to Coastal Kitchen. The food there was excellent and served in a timely manner. I would say it was similar to Blu on Celebrity.

 

Finally, there was the Grand. The meal I had there was decent and reminded me of main dining room food found on previous cruises.

 

My next post will be about the entertainment.

[smdubowsky]

Here's my rundown on the entertainment. We did see most of the shows ALl in all they were excellent. My only note is that there were only three big production shows and they were basically repeated several times so all of the guests could see them. You were basically allowed to see each show once although there were stand-by seats available.

 

Mama MIa was a full blown Broadway show and was terrific. We have been to many Broadway shows and this was on that level.

 

StarMaster was very unusual. It uses 270 as its venue and was hard to describe. Go see it.

 

Sound Odyssey was also very innovative and fun and I would recommend it.

 

The headliner shows were also good but I would warn people with sensitive ears about the Mosaic. They are an A Capella group. It's very innovative but we had to leave because the sound level was actually hurting my ears.

[smdubowsky]

Here's my rundown on the entertainment. We did see most of the shows ALl in all they were excellent. My only note is that there were only three big production shows and they were basically repeated several times so all of the guests could see them. You were basically allowed to see each show once although there were stand-by seats available.

 

Mama MIa was a full blown Broadway show and was terrific. We have been to many Broadway shows and this was on that level.

 

StarMaster was very unusual. It uses 270 as its venue and was hard to describe. Go see it.

 

Sound Odyssey was also very innovative and fun and I would recommend it.

 

The headliner shows were also good but I would warn people with sensitive ears about the Mosaic. They are an A Capella group. It's very innovative but we had to leave because the sound level was actually hurting my ears.

[smdubowsky]

My synopsis of our cruise:

 

The Quantum of the Seas is a beautiful ship staffed by a crew that is really trying to produce a successful product fot the company. The still have a way to go in order to have a complete product.s As I have previously outlined, there are still problems that appear to be systems related, that they have yet to work out.Most everyone seems to have the right attitude and I think the that cruise line will ultimately succeed in getting their act together.

 

Personally, my wife and I prefer the conventional dining room experience. However, we also enjoyed os ailing out of our own home port and didn't mind the lack of extra airplane flights to get to the ship. One of the biggest surprises that we had on this cruise was the relative lack of passengers from the New York metropolitan area. We met fellow cruisers from all over the world including Australia.

 

So after we get home and unpack my wife and I will start our friendly debate about where to cruise next year. I think we will return to Celebrity out of Florida but we haven't ruled out Anthem for next year.

 

BTW, If anyone has any additional questions, please feel free to ask away!