Review Quantum in Asia March 6, 2016

[jenn6743]

Hi All, My name is Jennifer, and I am going to do my first big review. This is really not my thing, and I hate writing... so please excuse my grammar :eek:

 

I could not find a lot of information on here about the Quantum of the Seas sailing out of China. I though I would write a review to help upcoming cruiser have an idea of what to expect. I have come to learn Asia is different than sailing Europe or the Caribbean.

 

My Husband and I are in our early 30's, and live in Indianapolis. We don't have kiddos yet, and our favorite pastime is you guessed it CRUISING !!!! We normal sail on the big 3... Carnival, Royal, and NCL. We love each on for different reasons. We normally take 2 or 3 cruises each year. One in the spring, and one in October for our anniversary. The 3rd one is generally when we feel we are burnt out from work and just want a break. We booked this trip very last minute.

 

My husband tends to fly by the seat of this pants when it comes to vacation.... I on the other hand have to have a game plan. We were planning to vacation in March, but still did not have anything booked. I was starting to panic at the end of January, and demanded my husband have something booked by the time I got home from work one day. I though we would enjoy some sun and sand in the Caribbean. Boy was I wrong...I never dreamed I would come home from work and he would say "honey we are going to CHINA"! I was so surprised, and the panic sat as soon as I processed what he said. He has a history of doing things on a whim. Last year I was in the shower, and he yelled though the house "Have you ever wanted to go to Europe?" I replied "some day"..... and when I got out he had the whole trip booked...Here is a picture of us in Rome in May 2015

 

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e146/jennie6743/234f41d7-de4f-4413-98aa-ceee6565259c.jpg

 

This trip is a 6 night Cruise on the Quantum of the Seas leaving from Shanghai.

 

Sailing Itinerary

 

Date Port Arrive Depart Activity

06-Mar Baoshan (Shanghai), China 5:00 PM

07-Mar Cruising Cruising

08-Mar Busan, Republic Of Korea (South Korea) 7:00 AM 6:00 PM Docked

09-Mar Fukuoka, Japan 7:00 AM 6:00 PM Docked

10-Mar Nagasaki, Japan 7:00 AM 6:00 PM Docked

11-Mar Cruising Cruising

12-Mar Baoshan (Shanghai), China 6:00 AM

 

 

The adventure started as soon as week booked the trip with getting our Chinese Visas!!!! More to come on that tomorrow.... After a 12 hour day my bed is calling my name.

[springaussie]

I am coming along for the ride.

Thanks in advance.

[Keith1010]

You are off to a good start and I'll continue to watch and read your updates.

 

Keith

[Iluvcruising2]

This should be interesting. Subscribed! :):)

[Clarea]

Looking forward to this, thanks!

[jenn6743]

Thanks... I hope you guys enjoy!!

 

VISA NIGHTMARE

The night my husband booked the trip he did not realize China requires visas for travel. He just of course book flights and the cruise...thinking we were good to go. Getting our Chinese visas may be the most stressful part of the whole trip. After researching how to apply for a vise we decided it would be best for us to use a company to handle the application for the visas. The companies name was Passport Visa Express it was $250 per person which included the fee payed to China for the visa. If we would have handled it our self it would have required us to travel to Chicago to apply, and then go back a week later to pick them up at the Chinese embassy. I shipped them out on Monday, and the visas came back the following Monday. The process went smoothly for my husbands visa, but mine not so much. When I opened my passport the the Chinese visa page my name was spelled wrong. I PANICKED!!!!! I called the company, and they tried calling the Chinese embassy, but they were close for the next 2 days for the Chinese New Year. They informed me that I needed me to send back my passport. They wanted to have it in hand when the embassy opened on Wednesday. The issues was resolved, and they corrected the spelling of my name. I had my passport back on Friday.

 

I had night mares of our passports getting lost from day one...I never dream they would spell my name wrong. I felt the money we spent to have someone handle our Visas was well worth it.

 

When applying for the visa you have to provide hotel reservation, reason for travel, and return flights reservation. The visa will only be issued with in 90 days of travel, and the process takes about a week.

 

 

The next thing I wanted to nail down was our transpiration to the port from Pudong International Airport which is 90 minutes away. Royal Caribbean does not offer a shuttle service to and from the airport like they do in the Caribbean so you are on your own. I started searching on trip advisory and found a tour company named Shanghai Tour Guides. This is a copy of the quote she gave me. The total cost for my husband and I after tax ended up being $314 US dollars.

 

 

March6/ PVG airport pickup service & Half-day tour of Shanghai Highlights

 

- 7am Our driver will meet you at the EXIT of the airport with a nameboard of your name "JENNIFER REBMAN"

- Our driver will take you to the downtown area and meet our tour guide around

 

8am at the meeting point.

- the Bund

- Yu Garden [Entrance ticket: RMB30 per person]

- Old city bazaar market

- People`s Square

- Urban Planning Exhibition Hall [Entrance ticket: RMB30 per person]

- former French concession area including stop at Xin Tian Di

- Lunch can be arranged in a local dining place if you like

- By 1:30pm, head to WuSongKou International Cruise Terminal [it will be helpful if you could provide the departure time of the cruise ship. It is about 1 hour drive from downtown to the cruise ship port.]

 

TOUR QUOTATION: RMB1,900

- English tour guide service up to 6 hours [RMB650]

- 5 or 7 seat van with driver, including PVG airport pickup & cruise terminal dropoff service [RMB1,250]

Additional Information:

- Cost for admission fee per person is RMB60 per person

- Cost for lunch depends on what to eat. Around RMB35 per person should be enough for local food.

 

 

 

I am starting to get really anxious for our trip.... We leave the evening of March 4th, and flight to LAX. We arrive in LA about 9 pm, and our flight to Shanghai leaves at 12:05 AM and arrives at 6am Sunday March 6th. We will be traveling more than 24 hours. (15 hrs from LA to Shanghai) I pray we will be able to sleep on the plane so we can enjoy our day tour before boarding the ship.

 

If anyone has any tips for surviving a long haul fight bring them on!!!!

 

Good night for now

 

 

P.S. How do you upload picture without using links? I have spent hours trying to figure this out.

[Alter Ego]

 

P.S. How do you upload picture without using links? I have spent hours trying to figure this out.

 

 

If you are using a phone, download the Tapatalk app and use that. Personally, I'm not a fan of the app itself, but it does allow you to just grab a photo from your album and they apparently host the photo themselves. I explain how in the attached thread (although the OP didn't seem to listen to me). Have to give credit to Whitshel, however, as I'm merely copying what he told me - I believe he said that he did his entire live review this way.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2318403

 

Glad to hear getting your visa worked out - honestly, when I first read how quickly this trip was planned, the first thing I thought of was whether or not you knew you needed one! (you answered this immediately in your 1st thread)

 

Looking forward to hearing about your trip.

[tomjohnsonjr]

Thanks for doing your review. Looking forward to it. Thanks

[KiwiGal117]

Safe travels! We've done lots of long haul flights to NZ and back to Toronto. Best suggestion is, if you can, take a light sleeping pill (over the counter or ask your doctor for a prescription for a light one) take it when you get on the flight to China, and drift off. However, if you can't take medication for whatever reason try melatonin, and just power through your day in Shanghai and boarding the ship, and go to bed around 9 local time. Should be fine the next day! Everyone has their own methods though!

[Royalpair]

Can't wait to hear your impressions. We were on her before they made the changes for the Asian market. Enjoy!

[jenn6743]

Hi All, I though I would just do a quickie...

 

We left Indianapolis at 4:30 pm Eastern standard time, and we are getting ready to board our plane in LA to Shanghai.. We are so exhausted from getting up at 7 this morning.... We are purchasing the blast internet package once we board the ship. Hopefully I will get to post on Tuesday.

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[KirkNC]

Look forward to seeing your reports.

[TonRin]

Great to see a review of Quantum on the go. We are getting on when you get off. We are doing the 8 day cruise and the 5 day cruise B2B. I will be reading this review with baited breath! We are currently doing a 10 day tour of China prior to the cruise. I am sending this post from a chilly Beijing which is currently -2deg celcius! We climbed the great wall today! I'm knackered now..

 

Have a blast!

 

Cheers

[The_Big_M]

Oh, China Eastern. That's... an experience (moreso out of China than on the way in).

Edited March 6, 2016 by The_Big_M

[khein905]

I am really looking forward to hearing about the quantum, as well! We aren't going on our cruise until June but I'm ready to start planning. The biggest mystery for me so far is how they've changed the dining options. I hear they did way with dynamic dining, but it hasn't been clear what they replaced it with.

 

Big M- I'm also curious about China Eastern..we are coming in from Hong Kong and China Eastern is just about the only reasonable direct option.

[GUT2407]

Thanks, really looking forward.

[The_Big_M]

I am really looking forward to hearing about the quantum, as well! We aren't going on our cruise until June but I'm ready to start planning. The biggest mystery for me so far is how they've changed the dining options. I hear they did way with dynamic dining, but it hasn't been clear what they replaced it with.

 

They still have dynamic dining, the same restaurants and so on. They have tweaked the way it works though so that the classic equivalent gives you flexibility of restaurant instead of following the same table and waiter on a set order. i.e. it's like a blend of MyTimeDining with DD classic.

 

Regular DD is still the same.

 

I suggest the fixed time DD so you can avoid the queues.

 

 

Big M- I'm also curious about China Eastern..we are coming in from Hong Kong and China Eastern is just about the only reasonable direct option.

 

We had a bad experience with them on the way back, and probably wouldn't fly with them again. Superficially they appear to be fairly similar to other major lines and for most people, in most instances, if your flight is on one of the newer planes it would probably be okay. Our flight on the way up was okay.

 

The food wasn't great, and was terrible on the way out from China - first time I haven't eaten airline food! You don't get the usual communication as you do with western airlines about flights paths and conditions (or anything).

 

The main issue was different, about trust. The difficulty comes from I believe their cultural approach and communications. They lied to us onboard about something significant, then tried to cover it up, and that just compounded things and caused distress.

 

Yours is a much shorter haul than ours, so will be quite different in pax and approach. I'm sure you won't have anything like we did though as it was just an unfortunate situation, made worse by their behaviour.

[TonRin]

I am sitting at Beijing Capital Airport about to board a China Eastern flight to Shanghai.. I will let you all know what the short haul flight is like!

 

Cheers

[clochette]

I can't wait to read more, what a great trip. I look forward to your pictures

[Royalpair]

Have you returned from your trip yet? Would love to hear your impressions!

[couple from Hungary]

Hi,

 

do anybody booked the cruise from Shanghai in August 21?

 

I would appriciate all the infos

 

have a good day

Maria from Hungary/Europe

[Biker19]

Hi,

 

do anybody booked the cruise from Shanghai in August 21?

 

I would appriciate all the infos

 

Since there seems to be no one answering questions about that specific sailing, you may want to ask here anything that you are interested in or concerns you.

[couple from Hungary]

Since there seems to be no one answering questions about that specific sailing, you may want to ask here anything that you are interested in or concerns you.

 

 

Hi Biker,

 

planst Du auch einen cruise mit Quantum oder bist du schon fertig damit?

viele Grüsse

M

[Biker19]

I was on the maiden voyage of Quantum - no plans for another sailing on her as of now.

 

Saját magyar sokkal jobb, mint a német

[couple from Hungary]

remek, akkor magyarul is folytathatjuk?