theCruiseView Daily Quantum Info Vlog Series

[EDL]

Excellent word Derek. Many thanks for this wonderful series of videos, I look forward to seeing the update notification each time you upload another episode. Brilliant presentation and totally fascinating content. Cheers, ed from Northern Ireland. Going on Anthem 22nd APRIL from Southampton.

[DEIx15x8]

Day 12, the Quantum’s warmest welcome.

 

Date: 12/4/14

Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico

Dine: Michael’s Genuine Pub

Venue: Bars (Schooner, Bionic, Boleros, Vintages)

Interview: Food & Beverage Manager Catalin Buta

 

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While the previous port of call day (Nassau) for the Quantum of the Seas was the absolute worst day I have ever experienced on a cruise, this first port of call day for the second sailing was the absolute greatest day I have ever experienced on a cruise! Today’s episode features a ton of activities as in an unusual move we had a fully loaded compass of activities and an evening in port where the people of Puerto Rico could not have been more excited and welcoming to the Quantum of the Seas. I highlight the arrival, departure, and crowds in this episode but you really should watch the full arrival and departure video because it was the coolest thing I’ve experienced and created such an incredibly excited energy all around the ship. In addition to all of this I did more interviews on this day than any other (including the captain on the bridge) so I was running around like crazy and couldn’t even do everything I wanted to because so much was going on.

 

We also look at the bars onboard with Michael’s Genuine Pub which is considered a daily dine since Royal Caribbean says it’s one of the 18 dinning venues. It does have an appetizer list but I’m not sure I would actually consider it a place to go for a meal. I also look at the Schooner Bar, Boleros, Vintages, and most importantly the brand new Bionic Bar.

 

Today we have another interview, this time with Catalin Buta the Food & Beverage Director onboard the Quantum of the Seas. This is the man responsible for the 18 dinning venues onboard including the operations of the Dynamic Dining venues. This was filmed in the conference room located by the offices of all the officers on deck 3, just down the hall from where I interviewed Jimmy the other day. Catalin provided a lot of insight into the thinking behind some of the Dynamic Dining decisions and how things are run. It’s another great interview for anyone wanting to know more about how things work so I hope everyone enjoys.

 

All these episodes lately are longer, but a large portion of it is because we now have the interviews that usually take up half or more of the episode.

[DEIx15x8]

Day 13, a Royal battle.

 

Date: 12/5/14

Location: Philipsburg, St. Martin

Dine: Sorrento's Pizzeria

Venue: Royal Esplanade Shopping and The Via

Interview: Hotel Director Darren Budden

 

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Today's episode features a very Royal day in St. Martin. I believe that in this sailing I saw more Royal Caribbean ships than every other cruise combined and today was no exception with three Royal ships in port and one P&O ship. This of course led to three horn battles with each ship wanting to go out with a fight.

 

The featured venue and dine today are once again very close with Sorrento's Pizzeria and the shopping options on the Royal Esplanade and The Via. Both of these segments like most other ones were filmed about 3am which is what made it possible to film with so few people around.

 

Our interview today is a great one with Darren Budden, the Hotel Director onboard. I really enjoyed this one, Darren is a great guy and really cares about his employees. He talked about his job a lot, but the really interesting part IMO is when he delved into the what makes working on a ship special, the memories that you gain, and the people that you meet. It's one of those moments where you can really tell he found a job that he not only enjoys, but a career that he personally is being impacted by in a positive way.

[DEIx15x8]

Sorry for the delay, don't want to leave anyone hanging out there not knowing what's going on. I've been in bed with the flue for the last week and unfortunately haven't been able to work on anything. I should be able to start working on theCruiseView again tonight. The next video needs a voice over recorded and my voice is still scratchy, but I'm hoping it'll be good enough by tomorrow so I can get a video up by the end of the week and be back to 2-3 episodes per week next week.

[AlwaysAndForever]

Feel better. I really look forward to your videos, interviews and commentary. They are so informative and interesting. You are also very fair in your assessments. You state the facts and pros and cons and leave it up to us to make our own judgments. What one person likes may be what someone else doesn't. I am sailing on the first sailing (RC said it was inaugural) of the Anthem April 22, 2015. After all the bad reviews on Quantum, I was worried. You have renewed my enthusiasm and I am so excited even though I am sure there will be lots of glitches. Hey, I'm on vacation in Europe on a brand new beautiful ship. What could be better.

[Yorkvillain]

Sorry for the delay, don't want to leave anyone hanging out there not knowing what's going on. I've been in bed with the flue for the last week and unfortunately haven't been able to work on anything. I should be able to start working on theCruiseView again tonight. The next video needs a voice over recorded and my voice is still scratchy, but I'm hoping it'll be good enough by tomorrow so I can get a video up by the end of the week and be back to 2-3 episodes per week next week.

 

Maybe Morgan Freeman can step in for you while you are on the shelf.

[DEIx15x8]

Feel better. I really look forward to your videos, interviews and commentary. They are so informative and interesting. You are also very fair in your assessments. You state the facts and pros and cons and leave it up to us to make our own judgments. What one person likes may be what someone else doesn't. I am sailing on the first sailing (RC said it was inaugural) of the Anthem April 22, 2015. After all the bad reviews on Quantum, I was worried. You have renewed my enthusiasm and I am so excited even though I am sure there will be lots of glitches. Hey, I'm on vacation in Europe on a brand new beautiful ship. What could be better.

Thanks. I always try to be honest in how I feel about things. I am a very positive person, I can spin most things into something great, but there are times that things do go wrong. I can say as many great things as I want about Royal Caribbean, but if I refuse to acknowledge when they do something wrong or are not completely on there game then the positive comments have no merit. You have to state the good and the bad in order to really give the whole picture.

Have fun on Anthem, Joff is my personal favorite cruise director and I had several conversations with him onboard Quantum, he is going to push this class even farther than they've done with Quantum. Since most issues with the first several sailings were technology related I'm also rather confident that Anthem will be much smoother since she's starting where Quantum is at and not from scratch. Wish I could join you, have fun!

 

Maybe Morgan Freeman can step in for you while you are on the shelf.

That would be rather hilarious, nothing like the voice of god telling you that you can get coke freestyle in the Windjammer, lol.

[AlwaysAndForever]

Thanks. I always try to be honest in how I feel about things. I am a very positive person, I can spin most things into something great, but there are times that things do go wrong. I can say as many great things as I want about Royal Caribbean, but if I refuse to acknowledge when they do something wrong or are not completely on there game then the positive comments have no merit. You have to state the good and the bad in order to really give the whole picture.

Have fun on Anthem, Joff is my personal favorite cruise director and I had several conversations with him onboard Quantum, he is going to push this class even farther than they've done with Quantum. Since most issues with the first several sailings were technology related I'm also rather confident that Anthem will be much smoother since she's starting where Quantum is at and not from scratch. Wish I could join you, have fun!

 

 

That would be rather hilarious, nothing like the voice of god telling you that you can get coke freestyle in the Windjammer, lol.

 

Thanks again Derek. I agree with you. Booking all the restaurants for Dynamic Dining and Entertainment is not a problem for me. I am a planner and did that when I sailed on Allure and it made it a full and enjoyable experience. I also do that if I'm going to NY or Vegas. However, having the reservations disappear is a definite problem. There has already been problems with booking entertainment. The schedule finally came out for the first 3 sailings less than 60 days from sailing. Then you couldn't book online. That finally became available late last week. If you had anything else already scheduled (excursions, dinner), it shows entertainment as a conflict and can't be booked. I've spoken to RC several times and they are very, very nice but the problem still hasn't been fixed. We Will Rock You is only being shown 3 times (2:30 and 7:00 the second day and 7:00 the third day). If you already booked dining, it is hard to book the show. Also, The Gift is not available on the first several sailings. I know it sounds like I'm complaining already. I'm not. Just to your point, that you have to be honest about the good and the bad. I am still do excited and do wish you could join us. Hope you are feeling much better and looking forward to your next installment.

[DEIx15x8]

Finally time for Day 14!

 

Date: 12/6/14

Location: Fort De France, Martinique

Dine: Windjammer Marketplace

Venue: Jogging Track and Promenade Deck (life boat deck)

Interview: Activities Manager Zach Stratford

 

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This was probably the most difficult episode to produce. Martinique was a full day with a long departure thanks to the bells that rang throughout the city. I also had several interviews this evening to film. As a result I was right on the edge of my battery, exhausted my main one that gets about 6 hours of battery life, and was on my 90 minute battery for filming. I pushed it to the point that the camera shut off about 3 times but it was impossible to get filmed before the battery died. So this is the only episode that was filmed partially in the day time as a result. I made it a point to go back to the same spot the very next morning to reshoot the ending so that I would have it, as well as the opening. It's funny but just the day before I was looking at how much I had filmed and the fact that I never once ran out of battery or even used my backup battery this sailing. Yet on the Oasis I filmed about 1/10th the amount of stuff and used both batteries daily. Guess I jinxed myself on that one.

 

If you haven't caught on yet, I film the main episode each evening, but the segments are all filmed independently of that. Some are filmed earlier and some are later. This interview with Zack while being the fifth interview of the series was actually the very first interview that I did for the series, which I guess also makes it the first on camera interview I've ever done! I'm glad it was with Zack though, he was very down to earth and passionate making it an easy interview to do.

 

For those interested in the Jogging Track and Lifeboat Deck (former promenade deck), this is also the episode for you as I have a full walk through of each one in this episode. I know some people that have watched the tour video have asked about this, and here it is! Hope everyone enjoys!

[DEIx15x8]

A tight squeeze into Day 15!

 

Date: 12/7/14

Location: Bridgetown, Barbados

Dine: Cafe Promenade

Venue: North Star & North Star Bar

Interview: Environmental Officer Ernst Andersen

 

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This is another example of a good idea that didn't turn out so good. I wanted to film in Wonderland the entire cruise because it is such a unique venue, unfortunately the lights are dimmed to an incredibly low level so I had to do some post editing to brighten it up. The actual episode looks fine now, but the intro is still a bit dark. Ironically this is also the location that was used for today's interview with Ernst, and no that was not intentional. I didn't even realize it until I was editing this episode. The interview locations are usually determined by the person I'm interviewing. We actually met early one morning at Vintages and then it was decided that Wonderland would be a quieter location so we moved there. Ernst got an extra long intro today, but he deserves it. That was without a doubt the funniest thing I've seen at a Captain's Corner. He also provides some great information. If you've ever wondered how the scrubbers work to clean the air coming out of the funnel you'll want to watch as he explains the entire process.

[inna61]

Derek, I watched ALL your Quantum videos and really enjoyed them! So informative and professional. I am relatively new to Royal, and I will cruise on Quantum in 3 weeks. Thank you so much for your great job!

[DEIx15x8]

Derek, I watched ALL your Quantum videos and really enjoyed them! So informative and professional. I am relatively new to Royal, and I will cruise on Quantum in 3 weeks. Thank you so much for your great job!

 

Thanks for watching, 4 episodes left and there biggies as I enter the entertainment portion of the series! That is the area that Royal Caribbean has always been the best, and Quantum in particular really shines. The next episode is all about Two70º, my favorite venue and show of any ship I've been on. I'm sure you will really enjoy it and be blown away by it all. Even the Oasis class doesn't compare to Quantum's entertainment lineup. Have fun!

[Mich455]

Great job Derek. Really enjoying all of the info and interviews. Getting me in the mood for my Anthem cruise later this year

[DEIx15x8]

Day 16...270!

 

Date: 12/8/14

Location: Basseterre, St. Kitts

Dine: Cafe@Two70

Venue: Two70

Interview: Lead Aerialist in Starwater Jane Edwards

 

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Today is a special episode for many reasons. It's the last port of call for the entire series! It's also a Two70 blowout day with the episode being filmed in Two70º while prep work for the first showing of the Virtual Concert continued behind me. The daily dine features the Cafe@Two70. The venue tour is of course Two70º, and IMO the best non crew guided venue tour of the series. The compass for the day is almost entirely Starwater focused. To top it off though we've got our first of 3 entertainer interviews with Jane Edwards, the lead aerialist in the Two70º Production Cast responsible for Starwater. Not sure it's possible to be any more focused on one venue than that and I know no other day in the series is that deep into one venue. That just goes to show you just how functional the venue is that I was able to devote every aspect of an entire episode to it and even at 2am there was still activity going on that was interesting to watch.

 

I filmed 3 interviews with members of the entertainment casts, one for each of the three production shows and they were without a doubt the 3 funnest interviews I did. For today's Starwater interview we filmed in the understage area in the chairs that would normally be located directly above our heads. When I went to do the interview I actually arrived during a show and as soon as it ended a member of the venue's stage crew brought me down below to meet Jane to do the interview. There were actually two shows that night so while we were talking there were people working to get ready for the next show. I'm not sure it's audible in the video, but at one point the production manager came on the PA system to announce that it was 15 minutes to showtime. Following the interview I then went back up stairs and of course, like I had done many times before and after, I watched Starwater once more!

 

Unfortunately a few weeks ago Jane suffered an injury and had to leave the ship early so you can't see her in Starwater at the moment. She's currently still in the US recovering from surgery and going through physical therapy so hopefully she'll be able to make a full recovery and return to another Two70º Moment Factory production in the future.

[DEIx15x8]

Day 17, Mamma Mia it's almost over!

 

Date: 12/9/14

Location: At Sea

Dine: Chef’s Table

Venue: Music Hall

Interview: Sophie in Mamma Mia! Danielle Black

 

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Today's episode starts the journey back north and that should be obvious when watching. Not only can you hear the ship creaking through the entire episode but you can actually see the camera swaying up and down as she creaks. I didn't see it happening while filming, and I'm guessing this late in the trip wasn't really feeling the motion as much, but could really tell it was happening while editing the video and watching it. On day 18 I'll show what the pool was doing as I went up there right after filming this episode and you'll completely understand why it was swaying so much, lol.

 

This episode as a sea day returns us to the more formal dinning options with the Chef's Table. We also continue the entertainment portion of the series with a look at the Music Hall, the most diversely used entertainment venue onboard. Our interview for the day is with Danielle Black who is part of the Royal Theater production cast. She is involved in Sonic Odyssey, the DreamWorks Kung Fu Panda Performance, and most importantly plays Sophie in Mamma Mia!. This interview was filmed right after one of their Sonic Odyssey rehearsals and I really have to thank her for working with me through some technical issues. I originally tried to film by the stage but the wireless mic system was causing to much interference for my lapel mics so eventually we had to move up to the balcony to record. That's why on the next episode when I did interview William Close (it was actually just a few hours later on the same day) on the stage we talked directly into the iPhones. I hope everyone enjoys it, these entertainment interviews were especially fun and you could really tell how much they all loved the productions they were putting on and even were personally blown away by them.

[DEIx15x8]

Day 18, time to use your imagination!

 

Date: 12/10/14

Location: At Sea

Dine: Wonderland

Venue: The Royal Theatre

Interview: Creator of Sonic Odyssey William Close

 

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Today's episode continues the journey back north with some rough and noisy seas. Today's Daily Dine is a great one for anyone with questions about Wonderland. One of the waiters (who I actually had when I ate there earlier in the sailing!) goes through the full theatrical presentation of a meal at wonderland. He introduces the concept, how it works, and presents the magical menu. He then goes through each of the elements and what the different offerings are. Finally he presents the dessert book and goes through the offerings for that as well. If your in any way concerned about if Wonderland is worth it, this is about as close as you can get to experiencing an entire meal for yourself in just a few minutes.

 

We also conclude our entertainment tours with a look at the Royal Theatre. Which is the location that today's interview with William Close was filmed. This is the best interview of the series. Typically I have to have all my questions written out ahead of time and approved, this one I went in with notes about what to ask and worded things on the fly which I think made the conversation more casual and less forced feeling. William was also an incredible interviewee. In addition to answering my question you'll see as we go into the Earth Harp as he explains how it all works. After the interview had concluded he let me stick around and film him tuning the Earth Harp which you'll get to see and I even got to play it! Not many people can say they've played a ship before, but you'll see it in this episode!

[DEIx15x8]

Meant to post this when I did the episode on Monday but forgot. If you watched the William Close interview it is impossible to miss just how noisy the ship was in the Royal Theatre, if your curious what seas that loud look like here is a photo I took from the North Star prior to going to film that interview:

and here is one that I took during the sunset shortly after finishing the interview:

 

It really doesn't add up right.

[DEIx15x8]

Day 19, a final view.

 

Date: 12/11/14

Location: At Sea

Dine: La Patisserie

Venue: Ship Review

Interview: Captain Srecko Ban

 

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In today's episode we unfortunately have to bring everything to an end. We started this series out with a very troubled start to this ships career and now after 19 nights onboard I'll look back over how this current sailing was, how it compared to the first, and how the Quantum of the Seas as a ship turned out. Since we've made it through the ships 18 official dinning venues today's Daily Dine is a review of how the whole Dynamic Dining process turned out onboard, what worked and what didn't. As a bonus Daily Dine we'll also be looking at La Patisserie, the new french bakery onboard that for some reason Royal Caribbean does not consider a dining venue.

 

It's not all about looking back though, I also got to sit down with Captain Srecko Ban to discuss how he became a captain and what it's like to be the captain onboard the latest, greatest, and smartest ship sailing the oceans. This interview was actually filmed onboard the bridge which was a really cool experience. It was actually done the morning that we arrived in San Juan so right after this interview his day became very busy getting everything ready for her arrival and of course that massive media storm we had that day.

 

Finally of course I had to look foreward to the next series with the Jewel of the Seas 8 night Pacific Coastal cruise on September 18th 2015. No idea how I messed the date up so badly in the video, seems like I merged the date we get off the Jewel 9/26 with November when we boarded the Quantum. I think this episode once again turned out great, but I have to admit I was probably more stressed and distracted during this filming than any other night. If you look at what I'm wearing and go back through the previous episodes you will find it a lot. I probably finished filming this episode a bit after 3 and then ran all around the ship to film venue tour and daily dine host segments. I also had to film a few additional clips for the ship tour. It's amazing that with 19 days onboard, half of which were sea day, I still had so much to do the last night. I managed to pull it all off though and sleep for about an hour before getting up to film our arrival back into Bayonne though!

 

I'm out of time right now, but I'll be posting one more wrap up commentary later.

[DEIx15x8]

I said that I would have one more post and I’ve been thinking about it a lot before posting it. This was a massive series and their are a lot of exciting things coming in the future. Now that the Quantum has officially left the country for the last time it seems like a great time to discuss this.

 

First looking back, I hope everyone enjoyed this sailing of theCruiseView as well as the entire Quantum video series. If you managed to watch everything, wow! As part of the editing and review process I had to watch every minute of each video a minimum of 3 times plus all the footage that was cut. Here are some stats though:

 

theCruiseView:

19 episodes

10 hours, 55 minutes, and 27 seconds long!

 

The Quantum Series:

41 videos

18 hours, 17 minutes, and 13 seconds long!

 

The Complete Quantum Ship Tour:

2 videos

1 hours, 47 minutes, and 13 seconds long!

 

For those really interested in Quantum if you watched everything:

62 videos

31 hours, 14 minutes, and 3 seconds long!

 

In addition to all of that there was the recent bonus 4/12 departure:

1 video

0 hours, 24 minutes, and 52 seconds long!

 

Along with:

11,725 photos!

 

I believe it’s safe to say with 100% certainty that nobody else covered the Quantum (and probably any ship) to this extent! It took roughly 1 month to complete the Quantum Series and an additional 3 months for theCruiseView. I was really hoping to get that cut down much farther, and it was significantly shorter than the Grandeur series took, but still a bit longer than I would have liked. I spent months planning out theCruiseView before setting sail and made a lot of decisions around speeding up the editing process such as filming the venue tour voice overs as actual onsite videos. In the end this was the thing that really did save a lot of time as much of the extra time needed was for the venues that did not get filmed onboard. There was also a rather lengthy delay in starting the Quantum Series due to camera difficulties. This was the first time I have had to backup my video camera during a sailing (a 120GB built in hard drive) and use the disk images to store my footage for use, rather than just archiving. It isn’t as easy as keeping it on the camera, but now that I’ve got it figured out it’s much faster to get started, and actually faster for dealing with multiple sets of videos.

 

This series took a big leap forward from the first, in addition to the sheer length and scale of it, for the first time I added other people. This of course added a lot of complexity to the run up to sailing with additional planning and coordination as well as onboard to get it all setup and filmed. In the end I think it was a huge success though and I personally had a blast filming the interviews. While some segments can just naturally be filmed by their nature others do take additional effort so please let me know which you liked, didn’t like, or if you have any ideas for the future.

 

But now looking toward that future, their are currently two more series of theCruiseView scheduled. As mentioned in the final episode of the Quantum sailing the next one will be the Jewel of the Seas’ 8 night Pacific Coastal sailing from Vancouver to LA on September 18th. This is a very different scenario than either of the previous sailings. When I filmed the Grandeur series I had already been onboard for 7 nights. That meant that the ship tour video was already published and I had a significant amount of stock footage shot from around the ship to use. This was also an itinerary that featured 5 sea days and 2 ports of call that I mainly stayed onboard in. That’s 7 days that I had to film any areas of the ship I needed and for the most part the segments were all voice overs recorded at home and matched with footage shot onboard. For this sailing we had the ship location, weather, venue tour, daily menu, and daily compass. For the Quantum series I had an insane 19 nights to film everything including the ship tour. To get this done though I had two sailings, one with 4 sea days, 1 port of call I stayed onboard for, and a port of call that got canceled and turned into an additional sea day, and a second with 5 sea days and 2 port of calls that I stayed onboard for. That meant that out of 19 nights I had 10 sea days and 3 port days (+ 1 turn around day) to film the whole ship. So essentially 14 days for filming which still ended in a rush at the end. For this sailing though I did ship location, weather, daily venue tour, daily compass, interviews, and since their were no daily menus a daily dine instead.

 

With the Jewel of the Seas I’ve only ever seen a Radiance class ship twice and one was from miles away passing in the middle of the night (Brilliance). So my existing footage is almost non existent. I did get lucky in that my other exposure to a Radiance class ship was the Jewel of the Seas docked next to us and departing from St. Kitts so I have some nice footage of her from off ship to use. That is the extent of it though. This itinerary is very port intensive as well with every port being brand new to me so I don’t plan to stay onboard for any of those, so I’m left with just 1 sea day to get everything done. Based on my experience with Quantum it is possible to film the ship tour in 1 day and that is my top priority, but it will be impossible to film all of the venue tours and the daily dine format just doesn’t fit here.

 

So after thinking about it for awhile I’ve decided that I do want to do a daily series instead of a short series of episodes that each summarize multiple days. The filming each night doesn’t take much prep work and accounts for the majority of the episode so I plan to go at this series focused on that. For this reason it will be a bit more minimalistic. There will be no interviews (may consider one with the captain or CD, but that would be the max and I’m not promising that at this point). The venue tours will also be gone. They take a decent amount of prep and work to pull off and the primary thing that is needed is an understanding of the ship in order to lay them all out. With the more limited number of days and understanding it would be easiest like the Grandeur to get footage and record them at home but that has proven far too time consuming in post production, so they will not be a part of the series. Instead they will be integrated into the conversational pieces I film each night. As I talk about events and aspects of the ship that come up in segments like the compass I will discuss those venues more extensively. There are not enough dining venues to do a daily dine like Quantum, and the menus will be the same as Grandeur with 2 less. So instead I’ll be going back to the Grandeur format with a different twist, like the venues instead of being an actual segment it will be more like the location and weather in that my topic lists will include a discussion of the dining room that night. It will be very similar to the intro and outro parts of the Grandeur’s dining segments but with a brief mention of what I had and how it was in the middle. Since this is such a port intensive itinerary and that will be my primary focus of the sailing (I expect onboard activities to be light as well) that will be a large focus of the series. Like the port days of the previous two sailings expect each episode to have a more lengthy overview of our arrival, departure, and time in each port of call. So for the next sailing the segments will be location, weather, port of call, dinner, and the compass.

 

This is not a long term change though, in 2016 theCruiseView will be back once more bigger than ever as I set sail on the Harmony of the Seas for her 13 night transatlantic. We’ll have more days than the Jewel (while still a more manageable number than Quantum’s 19) and plenty of sea days to get stuff done. I’ve already started the prep work for this series and you can expect many of the enhancements from Quantum plus a significantly enhanced venue tour segment that will incorporate the daily dine and other elements of the series. I am really looking forward to that one and hope I can pull off everything I’m attempting to. Aiming high seemed to work out for Quantum so I’ll be trying it again.

 

So let me know what you think of the future plans, if their is anything you don’t like about them such as the changing of focus to ports for this next sailing. To carry you over until then though, for anyone that did not take the 31+ hour challenge yet, here are all the links!

 

 

 

Photos

Full Album

November 10th, 2014: Maiden Arrival

November 23rd, 2014: Cape Liberty, NJ Embarkation

November 24th, 2014: At Sea

November 25th, 2014: At Sea

November 26th, 2014: Port Canaveral, Florida

November 27th, 2014: Nassau, Bahamas

November 28th, 2014: CocoCay, Bahamas (Attempt)

November 29th, 2014: At Sea

November 30th, 2014: At Sea

December 1st, 2014: Cape Liberty, NJ Turnaround Day

December 2nd, 2014: At Sea

December 3rd, 2014: At Sea

December 4th, 2014: San Juan, Puerto Rico

December 5th, 2014: Philipsburg, St. Maarten

December 6th, 2014: Fort de France, Martinique

December 7th, 2014: Bridgetown, Barbados

December 8th, 2014: Basseterre, St. Kitts

December 9th, 2014: At Sea

December 10th, 2014: At Sea

December 11th, 2014: At Sea

December 12th, 2014: Cape Liberty, NJ Debarkation

April 12th, 2015: Departure

 

 

 

Videos

 

Part 1: Lower Decks

Part 2: Upper Decks

 

Crown and Anchor Welcome Back Party - November 25, 2014

Two70º Technology Tour

Inaugural Captain's Corner Session - November 30, 2014

Captain's Corner Session - December 10, 2014

Coffee Chat with Jimmy Rhodes - Adventures in China

 

Perspective

Dance

The Heist

Robo Science

 

Gatsby Party into Fireworks

Impossible City

Outer Space

Virtual Concerts: Santa fe & The Fat City Horns

 

Kung Fu Panda

Madagascar

How to Train Your Dragon

Shrek

 

Parties

Groovytown 70’s Disco Party

 

Bayonne, NJ on 11/23/14 (Complete Unedited Ride)

Nassau, Bahamas on 11/27/14

Phillipsburg, St. Maarten on 12/5/14

Bridgetown, Barbados on 12/7/14

At Sea on 12/9/14 (bonus time-lapse!)

At Sea in High Winds on 12/11/14

 

Inaugural Sailing Timelapse Departures and Arrivals

Bayonne, NJ departure on 11/23/14

Port Canaveral on 11/26/14

Nassau, Bahamas on 11/27/14

CocoCay, Bahamas attempt on 11/28/14

Bayonne, NJ arrival on 12/1/14

 

12 Night Southern Caribbean Timelapse Departures and Arrivals

Bayonne, NJ departure on 12/1/14

San Juan, Puerto Rico on 12/4/14

Philipsburg, St. Maarten on 12/5/14

Fort de France, Martinique on 12/6/14

Bridgetown, Barbados on 12/7/14

Basseterre, St. Kitts on 12/8/14

Bayonne, NJ arrival on 12/12/14

 

Bonus Videos

Retractable funnel operating

Lifeboat Testing on 12/7/14

Maiden arrival to the US on 11/10/14

Departure on 4/12/15

 

 

 

 

Day 1

Date: 11/23/14

Location: Bayonne, NJ

Dine: American Icon Grill

Venue: Quantum Class Timeline

 

Day 2

Date: 11/24/14

Location: At Sea

Dine: Silk

Venue: FlowRider & Rock Wall

 

Day 3

Date: 11/25/14

Location: At Sea

Dine: The Grande

Venue: RipCord by iFly

 

Day 4

Date: 11/26/14

Location: Port Canaveral, FL

Dine: SeaPlex Dog House

Venue: SeaPlex

 

Day 5

Date: 11/27/14

Location: Nassau, Bahamas

Dine: Devinly Decadence

Venue: Adult Solarium

 

Day 6

Date: 11/28/14

Location: CocoCay, Bahamas (Attempt)

Dine: Johnny Rockets

Venue: Outdoor Pool Deck (pool, H20 Zone, Movie Screen)

 

Day 7

Date: 11/29/14

Location: At Sea

Dine: Chic

Venue: Indoor Pool

 

Day 8

Date 11/30/14

Location: At Sea

Dine: Coastal Kitchen

Venue: Adventure Ocean (Decks 11 & 12, Fuel Teen Disco, The Living Room)

 

Day 9

Date 12/1/14

Location: Bayonne, NJ

Dine: Chops Grill

Venue: Guest Amenities (guest services, shore excursions, next cruise, focus photo gallery)

 

Day 10

Date 12/2/14

Location: At Sea

Dine: Izumi

Venue: Vitality at Sea Spa and Fitness Center

Interview: Cruise Director Jimmy Rhodes

 

Day 11

Date: 12/3/14

Location: At Sea

Dine: Jamie’s Italian

Venue: Clubs (concierge, diamond, conference center)

Interview: Loyalty & Cruise Sales Manager Emma Laycock

 

Day 12

Date: 12/4/14

Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico

Dine: Michael’s Genuine Pub

Venue: Bars (Schooner, Bionic, Boleros, Vintages)

Interview: Food & Beverage Manager Catalin Buta

 

Day 13

Date: 12/5/14

Location: Philipsburg, St. Martin

Dine: Sorrento’s Pizzeria

Venue: Royal Esplanade Shopping and The Via

Interview: Hotel Director Darren Budden

 

Day 14

Date: 12/6/14

Location: Fort De France, Martinique

Dine: Windjammer Marketplace

Venue: Jogging Track and Promenade Deck (life boat deck)

Interview: Activities Manager Zach Stratford

 

Day 15

Date: 12/7/14

Location: Bridgetown, Barbados

Dine: Cafe Promenade

Venue: North Star & North Star Bar

Interview: Environmental Officer Ernst Andersen

 

Day 16

Date: 12/8/14

Location: Basseterre, St. Kitts

Dine: Cafe@Two70

Venue: Two70

Interview: Lead Aerialist in Starwater Jane Edwards

 

Day 17

Date: 12/9/14

Location: At Sea

Dine: Chef’s Table

Venue: Music Hall

Interview: Sophie in Mamma Mia! Danielle Black

 

Day 18

Date: 12/10/14

Location: At Sea

Dine: Wonderland

Venue: The Royal Theatre

Interview: Creator of Sonic Odyssey William Close

 

Day 19

Date: 12/11/14

Location: At Sea

Dine: La Patisserie

Venue: Ship Review

Interview: Captain Srecko Ban

 

 

 

So hopefully all of this will tie you over, and I hope you'll stay tuned for the future!

[RenaeG]

Can I ask if there was any difference between ship time and shore time? Thanks

[RenaeG]

...

Edited August 5, 2015 by RenaeG