Quantum of the Seas Alaksa 8/29 - 9/5; 9/5-9/12 Live Review

[swmichigan cruiser]

10 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

i saw a print out near guest services but did not take a copy so I am not sure who the hotel director is for this cruise.  His name was mention at the top tier event but I seldom pay attention as i can never recall interacting with senior officers on Royal Caribbean.

 

If you really need to know I will get his name for you.

 

Same for us about senior officers. We have done about 30 cruises with Royal. One of the hotel directors has turned out to be a good friend but I couldn't tell you the name of any of the other hotel directors or senior officers on Royal.

[neverbeenhere]

My good buddy Philip Ashcroft from Liverpool is still Hotel Director on the Quantum.

[CanuckCruizer]

12 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

i saw a print out near guest services but did not take a copy so I am not sure who the hotel director is for this cruise.  His name was mention at the top tier event but I seldom pay attention as i can never recall interacting with senior officers on Royal Caribbean.

 

If you really need to know I will get his name for you.

 

Hi DaKahuna - No need to bother, just thought you might have picked up the paper.

1 hour ago, neverbeenhere said:

My good buddy Philip Ashcroft from Liverpool is still Hotel Director on the Quantum.

Thanks, neverbeenhere - that's good to know. If he is a friend of yours, he must have a wonderful sense of humour.😄

 

Thanks DaKahuna for the food porn pics - wow, that chocolate dessert was sure chocolatey!!😁

 

Hope you have a great day in Sitka, despite the weather.

 

Canuck

[DaKahuna]

Good morning from Sitka.

 

We have nothing scheduled for this morning so we are just taking our time and relaxing.

 

Breakfast in Coastal Kitchen was once again delicious.  I remembered that I had not posted pictures of breakfast yet so took some this morning.
 

 Almond croissants

Ham & cheese omelette 

Two eggs over easy, corn beef hash, and fried rice.

[DarthGrady]

Great review, thanks for posting this! Heading up there in a few weeks for an Alaskan cruise on OV. 

[DaKahuna]

2 hours ago, DarthGrady said:

Great review, thanks for posting this! Heading up there in a few weeks for an Alaskan cruise on OV. 

Thank you.

 

As mentioned earlier, we are in Sitka today.  It has been a few years since we were last here.  The last time we anchored out in the harbor and tendered to a dock in town.  Today we are at a pier that is 12-15 minute shuttle bus ride from downtown.

 

We elected to avoid the crowds, and the crowding on a shuttle bus, and just walked around the pier area. 

 

[Bxc53]

We are really enjoying your review, especially as we are on QoS in a month for the VAN to HNL run. Almost hate to ask, but any info on the reported engine issues?

 

Thanks 

[DaKahuna]

2 hours ago, Bxc53 said:

We are really enjoying your review, especially as we are on QoS in a month for the VAN to HNL run. Almost hate to ask, but any info on the reported engine issues?

 

 The only thing I have heard is that the part had to be ordered and it's not something that can just simply be put into place.  It may require special maintenance period.  But now that you mention it I will see what I can find out and get back to you. 

 

 

[DaKahuna]

2 hours ago, Bxc53 said:

We are really enjoying your review, especially as we are on QoS in a month for the VAN to HNL run. Almost hate to ask, but any info on the reported engine issues?

 

 The only thing I have heard is that the part had to be ordered and it's not something that can just simply be put into place.  It may require special maintenance period.  But now that you mention it I will see what I can find out and get back to you. 

 

Leaving Sitka -- beautiful scenery is one of our favorite things about cruising in Alaska. 

 

[DaKahuna]

3 hours ago, Bxc53 said:

We are really enjoying your review, especially as we are on QoS in a month for the VAN to HNL run. Almost hate to ask, but any info on the reported engine issues?

 

Thanks 

Apparently, the maintenance crew is onboard and working on the engine repair.  
 

The one engine was down for scheduled maintenance when the other engine suffered a major catastrophe.  
 

They are hopeful repairs will be completed prior to the TP to Hawaii / Australia.

 

[DaKahuna]

Some beautiful views from the Suite Lounge as we sail for Juneau.

 

Our Suite Concierge says this cruise was the first  since summer to see snow on the mountains.

 

 

[DaKahuna]

Well, the aft end of the ship has been closed for the last half hour.  There was a fire in the engine room and the moved everyone from deck six aft and lower to the forward part of the ship. 
 

My wife had decided to stay in our room while I went to the casino to play roulette.  They closed the casino and moved everyone forward silo I have been camped out at the Schooner bar waiting for them to re-open the aft portion of the ship.

 

The fire was quickly contained and under control but it is taking them a while to secure all the gear and perform the necessary safety checks.

 

Anyway, I think the crew responded well and performed very professionally.

 

 

[Kathscof]

4 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

Well, the aft end of the ship has been closed for the last half hour.  There was a fire in the engine room and the moved everyone from deck six aft and lower to the forward part of the ship. 
 

My wife had decided to stay in our room while I went to the casino to play roulette.  They closed the casino and moved everyone forward silo I have been camped out at the Schooner bar waiting for them to re-open the aft portion of the ship.

 

The fire was quickly contained and under control but it is taking them a while to secure all the gear and perform the necessary safety checks.

 

Anyway, I think the crew responded well and performed very professionally.

 

 

Well, I’m glad for their good training and communication, but oh no! No good! Hopefully it doesn’t noticeably affect the ship going forward 

[sandebeach]

5 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

Well, the aft end of the ship has been closed for the last half hour.  There was a fire in the engine room and the moved everyone from deck six aft and lower to the forward part of the ship. 
 

My wife had decided to stay in our room while I went to the casino to play roulette.  They closed the casino and moved everyone forward silo I have been camped out at the Schooner bar waiting for them to re-open the aft portion of the ship.

 

The fire was quickly contained and under control but it is taking them a while to secure all the gear and perform the necessary safety checks.

 

Anyway, I think the crew responded well and performed very professionally.

 

 

Hope they can fix whatever caused the fire. 

[librarylady19]

Sure hope no crew members were injured. 

[gloriason]

1 hour ago, librarylady19 said:

Sure hope no crew members were injured. 

LibraryLady19, I don't know about you but I'm seriously concerned about our upcoming cruise on this ship.  We are to leave tomorrow for Seattle but I have such a bad feeling about the Quantum.  Have you given any thought to cancelling?  Would Royal Caribbean allow us to move our cruise to another time?  I would love to know if everything is truly under control on board, that would make me feel more confident about continuing on with this September 5th cruise.

[CanuckCruizer]

9 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

Well, the aft end of the ship has been closed for the last half hour.  There was a fire in the engine room and the moved everyone from deck six aft and lower to the forward part of the ship. 
 

My wife had decided to stay in our room while I went to the casino to play roulette.  They closed the casino and moved everyone forward silo I have been camped out at the Schooner bar waiting for them to re-open the aft portion of the ship.

 

The fire was quickly contained and under control but it is taking them a while to secure all the gear and perform the necessary safety checks.

 

Anyway, I think the crew responded well and performed very professionally.

 

 

DaKahuna - thanks again for all your detailed reporting!  Sorry to hear that there was a fire, but glad it was contained quickly.  Hope they are able to fix the engine as we are 5 days at sea on our cruise....

 

5 minutes ago, gloriason said:

LibraryLady19, I don't know about you but I'm seriously concerned about our upcoming cruise on this ship.  We are to leave tomorrow for Seattle but I have such a bad feeling about the Quantum.  Have you given any thought to cancelling?  Would Royal Caribbean allow us to move our cruise to another time?  I would love to know if everything is truly under control on board, that would make me feel more confident about continuing on with this September 5th cruise.

We have been on two ships that had fires in the engine rooms.  While it was scary hearing that while onboard, they are quickly contained by a well-trained crew.  I don't think you have to worry about your upcoming cruise as they are working on the engine repairs & maintenance.  Your cruise does not have many days at sea, as in, ports/land are close by, should there be any problems.

 

We are a bit worried about 5 days at sea in the Pacific on ours, so hope they get it fixed for the Hawaii & TP crossing to Australia.

 

Canuck

[Bxc53]

41 minutes ago, CanuckCruizer said:

 

 

We are a bit worried about 5 days at sea in the Pacific on ours, so hope they get it fixed for the Hawaii & TP crossing to Australia.

 

Canuck

I’ve  been following the engine issues since they were first reported. I’m not familiar with the maritime safety requirements, my career was in aviation.  That said, I confess I’m having trouble with the “ Well, two of the engines are not working, but we still have a couple more that are” message… Imagine hearing that from your captain as you buckle up for your flight to the cruise port..

 

Also, as I understand, one of the engines is down for scheduled heavy maintenance- that’s OK in my book, but the other was a reported unexpected major failure - and now an engine room fire. Those last two don’t help the confidence level.. in my aviation experience, unscheduled maintenance and major failures are too often linked to bean counter driven “ cost cutting programs” where inspections and preventative maintenance are scaled back to save $…

 

Hope they are able to get it all up to spec before the Pacific crossing. The redundancy of having all engines available is nice when we are 1000 mi from any assistance.

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by Bxc53

[DaKahuna]

We have no concerns with continuing our B2B at all.  Having spent 24 years in the US Navy and having had engine failures, including a total loss of power, the fact that two of four engines are out of operation at this time is not a concern.

 

While there is an active maintenance crew working on the engines, I have not been able to find out when they expect repairs to be completed.  Hopefully, by the time the ship sails for Hawaii or Australia, but rather that it’s done correctly versus just a patch job. 
 

[bobmacliberty]

5 minutes ago, Bxc53 said:

I’ve  been following the engine issues since they were first reported. I’m not familiar with the maritime safety requirements, my career was in aviation.  I confess I’m having trouble with the “ Well, two of the engines are not working, but we still have a couple more that are” message… Imagine hearing that from your captain as you buckle up for your flight to the cruise port..

 

Also, as I understand, one of the engines is down for scheduled heavy maintenance- that’s OK in my book, but the other was a reported unexpected major failure - and now an engine room fire. Those last two don’t help the confidence level.. in my aviation experience, unscheduled maintenance and major failures are too often linked to bean counter driven “ cost cutting programs” where inspections and preventative maintenance are scaled back to save $…

 

Hope they are able to get it all up to spec before the Pacific crossing. The redundancy of having all engines available is nice when we are 1000 mi from any assistance.

 

 

I'm far from an expert (i.e. don't bet on anything that I say) but there's a significant difference between planes and ships in terms of how power for thrust/propulsion is created.  Ships typically have generators onboard that create electricity.  The electricity is used to power everything on the ship, like the hotel operations.  It also powers electric motors that are used for propulsion, so there's a separation between power generation and propulsion.  There is usually enough redundancy built into the generators that they all do not need to be running while still creating enough electricity to meet all power consumption needs.  My understanding is that Quantum's problem is with the generators, not the propulsion motors.  She can run with 2 generators down, but with less power to the motors, meaning reduced ship speed.  Not something that they want to do, but not a situation that would cause any immediate safety concerns (although they're probably operating with little/no redundancy left??).  You'd know better than me but if you lost an engine on a plane, you could still fly/land, but then be grounded until the engine is repaired.  

 

 

[Bxc53]

25 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

I'm far from an expert (i.e. don't bet on anything that I say) but there's a significant difference between planes and ships in terms of how power for thrust/propulsion is created.  Ships typically have generators onboard that create electricity.  The electricity is used to power everything on the ship, like the hotel operations.  It also powers electric motors that are used for propulsion, so there's a separation between power generation and propulsion.  There is usually enough redundancy built into the generators that they all do not need to be running while still creating enough electricity to meet all power consumption needs.  My understanding is that Quantum's problem is with the generators, not the propulsion motors.  She can run with 2 generators down, but with less power to the motors, meaning reduced ship speed.  Not something that they want to do, but not a situation that would cause any immediate safety concerns (although they're probably operating with little/no redundancy left??).  You'd know better than me but if you lost an engine on a plane, you could still fly/land, but then be grounded until the engine is repaired.  

 

 

You have good points  and I am generally familiar with the engine/ generator units feeding electrical power to the propulsion units ( Azipods  and bow thrusters) as well as the Hotel loads. My concerns are the remaining level of redundancy and the root causes of the failure(s) and the engine fire.  To your comparison of the commercial aircraft losing an engine , you are correct that in most cases it could continue to a safe landing. But as you note, it would not continue to fly pax until it was back up to full safety spec. 
 

I Apologize to DaKahuna for poaching his great thread.  I’ll go away now…

Edited September 2, 2022 by Bxc53

[DaKahuna]

8 minutes ago, Bxc53 said:

You have good points  and I am generally familiar with the engine/ generator units feeding electrical power to the propulsion units ( Azipods  and bow thrusters) as well as the Hotel loads. My concerns are the remaining level of redundancy and the root causes of the failure(s) and the engine fire.  To your comparison of the commercial aircraft losing an engine , you are correct that in most cases it could continue to a safe landing. But then pick up another load of pax and and take another flight without repairs? I think not…

Quite correct as there are rules that commercial aircraft must follow.  There are also rules/maritime laws that govern cruise ship operations and I am certain that if it were unsafe the ship would not be sailing. 
 

If you are uncomfortable with the current situation, then I would suggest not cruising, otherwise I would put it out of my mind and trust the Captain & crew to do their jobs and provide a safe and enjoyable cruise.

 

[CanuckCruizer]

1 hour ago, Bxc53 said:

I’ve  been following the engine issues since they were first reported. I’m not familiar with the maritime safety requirements, my career was in aviation.  That said, I confess I’m having trouble with the “ Well, two of the engines are not working, but we still have a couple more that are” message… Imagine hearing that from your captain as you buckle up for your flight to the cruise port..

 

Also, as I understand, one of the engines is down for scheduled heavy maintenance- that’s OK in my book, but the other was a reported unexpected major failure - and now an engine room fire. Those last two don’t help the confidence level.. in my aviation experience, unscheduled maintenance and major failures are too often linked to bean counter driven “ cost cutting programs” where inspections and preventative maintenance are scaled back to save $…

 

Hope they are able to get it all up to spec before the Pacific crossing. The redundancy of having all engines available is nice when we are 1000 mi from any assistance.

 

Bxc53 - I am right there with you & agree with everything you said.  I told the other poster that I would not be too concerned about this for a 7 day Alaskan sailing, meaning if something were to go wrong, help is "close by" - unlike our sailing...

 

We are watching and waiting to see what happens.  I would be very shocked if Royal were to bring this ship all the way to Australia if only 2 engines were working (and now, who knows how many are actually working re the fire).  Bayley has commented on the other site (which shall remain nameless) that it is a go for Australia (but that was a week ago or so...) and he does have a track record of speaking prematurely.😊

 

Fingers crossed....

 

Canuck

[librarylady19]

3 hours ago, gloriason said:

LibraryLady19, I don't know about you but I'm seriously concerned about our upcoming cruise on this ship.  We are to leave tomorrow for Seattle but I have such a bad feeling about the Quantum.  Have you given any thought to cancelling?  Would Royal Caribbean allow us to move our cruise to another time?  I would love to know if everything is truly under control on board, that would make me feel more confident about continuing on with this September 5th cruise.

Yes, I am concerned also. We are leaving tomorrow too so will go to Seattle regardless. Don't think Royal is going to be too forthcoming to any passengers about ship issues however, not wanting to deal with mass cancellations/refunds if it can be avoided. I think they would have no problem missing more ports and giving us a token OBC, as was already done pre-cruise, however. A known  issue has now been compounded by an unanticipated emergency.  I could have cancelled then (and probably even now) but other options for Alaska in 2022 are severely limited at this point, so we decided to go ahead with the reduced itinerary. This certainly adds an additional level of concern.

Edited September 2, 2022 by librarylady19

[gloriason]

10 minutes ago, librarylady19 said:

Yes, I am concerned also. We are leaving tomorrow too so will go to Seattle regardless. Don't think Royal is going to be too forthcoming to any passengers about ship issues however, not wanting to deal with mass cancellations/refunds if it can be avoided. I think they would have no problem missing more ports and giving us a token OBC, as was already done pre-cruise, however. A known  issue has now been compounded by an unanticipated emergency.  I could have cancelled then (and probably even now) but other options for Alaska in 2022 are severely limited at this point, so we decided to go ahead with the reduced itinerary. This certainly adds an additional level of concern.

We decided to cancel.  I called RC and at first was told that all the engines are working and everything is fine.  I replied that I received an email from RC telling me that 2 engines are not working which was why they cancelled some of the ports.  With that, the lady responded that I was right and said I am entitled to a full refund back to my credit card.  I also canceled my flight with Delta and received a future credit usable until 12/31/23.  I wish you all well, we are now figuring out a cruise to take in the Caribbean for this fall.  The weather in Ketchikan for next Wednesday looks like it could be spectacular.  Please enjoy and stay safe!