Quantum - The cruise that didn't want to end May 27-June 3, 2024

[poncho1973]

After posting about crawling like a grizzly out of hibernation and thinking about an Alaskan cruise.  We just decided to book one.  A last minute cruise to Alaska on Quantum of the Seas.  I was warned about the North Star being out of service, but everything worked out for us better than taking Ovation of the Seas on a similar route.  Timing-wise for us, it was ideal.  We booked & packed & flew to Seattle.  It helped that it was a great non-stop flight from Orlando to Seattle at an amazing price.  There weren't a lot of room options available.  In fact, there were no normal balcony rooms at all, but we booked a Junior Suite.  We weren't going to get a bargain on any room, so we decided to celebrate our first time back at sea since 2019 and our wedding anniversary in style.  Plus the flights were so insanely cheap, it made us feel like we could splurge a bit.

 

As I've done many years in the past, I try to spill the facts and our opinions without a ton of fluff/frills.  If you have questions or comments, post and I'll gladly expound or explain.

 

The home port:

We've been to Seattle before.  My wife had been for several days, but I was only there for one day and had done almost nothing in town.  It's a fun town and there is a lot to eat and see there.  It's a bit on the pricey side, but it's a fun and belly filling town.

 

As usual, when you are spoiled by an EPIC port like Port Canaveral, it's hard not to be disappointed in another port.  Pier 91 was much nicer than some of the ports we've been to, but it's a micro terminal and was about as bare-bones as you can get.  That said, we've been to MUCH worse.  If I would've paid attention to know @Aquahound (an old school poster like myself from way back) and @Ferry_Watcher were nearby, I would've said hello.  Royal tells you over and over and over DO NOT COME EARLY because the port is tiny.  As Diamond members and JS people, we were expedited through the terminal.  It was quick and painless.  We also always have everything properly filled out prior to sailing.  They double-checked and we were on the ship in minutes after arrival.  It was 1:30, but that was our window.

 

The Ship:

One of the first things we noticed about the ship itself was that she's in need of some love.  The paint was in really rough shape.  Our deck looked like confetti with paint chips everywhere.  The blue was coming off in giant chunks near the waterline.  We saw multiple places where the carpets looked worn.  The elevator lights were in various states of disorder.  Sometimes they lit up telling you up or down.  Sometimes they didn't.  Sometimes lights were out inside the elevator.  Some of the buttons didn't seem to function.  In several of the bars/lounges the chairs were ripped or in some state of disrepair.  These are all signs that a dry dock is near.  Overall, they were all small things, but they told the story.

 

One thing I haven't experienced before is that they seemed to have some food supply issues.  Only small things, but they ran out of cream cheese on the 2nd day.  They ran out of orange juice at many of the stations on the 6th day and said there wasn't enough to go around.  They ran out of a couple of the salad dressings.  We had a couple of people mention they were out of weird things like one of the types of jelly and one of the drink mix flavors that I didn't catch.  Seriously, nothing missing was a huge deal at all.  It was just weird.  They also didn't have a couple different beers in the pub and one of the popular whiskeys.  Oh well.  Nothing big.  No one starved or went thirsty.

 

The room:

Seriously, this was the best room I've had on a Royal ship.  The extra toilet seems superfluous, but when your wife takes an hour shower after pool days and you've gotta go... it's a game-changer.  We were mid-ship on deck 10 and it was heavenly.  The halls were pretty quiet.  The room was in perfect condition.  The views were epic.  The JS size is so so so nice.  I could rave about the room for days.  Loved it.  The bed was great.  The deck... well it kept raining paint chips on us.  That wasn't great.  However, it was cold out (40F-55F every day) and we didn't spend a ton of time out there except on the glacier watching day.  That said, the paint chips were everywhere and it was bad.

 

The food:

I'm going to be frank, I don't care for the food and I never have.  Cruise ship food is like bad wedding reception food.  The meat is dry.  The meals are needlessly complicated.  The food is always super salty.  For every ounce of fancy... it's an ounce of not done right.  The menu reads like a Michelin star restaurant.  The plate looks like an airport hotel banquet room.  The flavors are muddled and muted.  Everything is a few shades of brown, even the non-brown things.  I wish they just said "we're going to make dinner like Olive Garden or Applebee's or whatever... we know it's super mediocre, but it's done consistently."  I would like that better.  I don't eat at many chain restaurants at home, but at least I appreciate they know their niche and they nail that niche.

 

Don't tell me I'm getting Fancy-Fancy Meat with a side of super fancy-fancy item glazed with fancy sauce over a bed of fancy veggies and deliver me salty brown mush.

 

Tell me I'm getting a mediocre, but still tasty plate of Fettuccine Alfredo with bread sticks and a salad.  Then deliver that with all the style you can muster.

 

We ate at the Coastal Kitchen every night and probably shouldn't have.  The service was stunning.  The view was amazing.  The privacy was epic.  The food was... meh.  It's a slightly different MDR type of menu.  It wasn't crowded at all for dinner, so even as a JS we had zero trouble with reservations.

 

The ports:

Ketchikan, Sitka, and Juneau were awesome.  We had private excursions in Sitka/Juneau and they were awesome.  We did our own thing in Ketchikan.  We loved these 3 towns.  We had so much fun.

 

Victoria is the required Jones Act stop and they annoying treated it with contempt.  We docked in the late evening on a Sunday, so most of the town is closed.  They don't actually care if you get off or not.  The stop was at dinner, so you either eat super early or eat in town or super late.  The town was very pretty and Royal doesn't do this right at all.  This stop deserves the same respect that the others get.

 

I must add the only bad thing about the ports.  The gangway exit in Juneau was the worst I've ever been on outside of a tender in my entire cruise life.  The absolute worst exit.

 

We lined up 45 minutes early.  We tried to go to Deck 3 AFT, but were turned away and told to go to Deck 4.  We did.  The line stretched from the port side aft elevators (just past Boleros) to where we joined at the Beauty & Sunglasses store.

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-ships/quantum-of-the-seas/deck-plans/2252/04

 

After us, the line kept growing and wrapped all the way around the elevator bank, through Music Hall upper deck, past Sorrentos and the Guest Services to points unknown back by the dining rooms.  We never saw the end of the line.  We were just glad we didn't wait any longer to join.

 

We stood there for about 30 minutes before we suddenly started to move.  We were going to walk down and off the ship.  WRONG.  It took 15 minutes but we finally reached the stairwell to Deck 3.  That was only the beginning.

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-ships/quantum-of-the-seas/deck-plans/2252/03

 

We went down the stairs, through the Casino, through the Music Hall lower deck, back past the forward elevators, around the back side of them, past the forward elevators again on the starboard side, through the Music Hall again, through the Casino again and out the door.  It took forever to get off the ship.  It was a massive cluster and people kept jumping the line.  It wasn't 3 people, it was hundreds of people jumping the line.  There was no real oversight from the crew, so a small minority of people just did what they wanted.

 

The weird:

One morning in the Windjammer, the Washy-Washy person stopped a lady from walking around the sinks and said "washy washy" which was met with this fine piece of human trash telling our dear crew member to "STFU and wash this" while licking the palms of her hands.  In the words of Star Trek's Mr. Sulu... OH MY!  It's a good thing I don't get control of the ejector seat.

 

The cruise that didn't want to end:

We arrived back in Seattle and couldn't get off the ship.  As described in this thread:

We were stuck on the boat for hours and hours and hours and hours.  If you could magnify that thumbnail... I'm probably on the balcony in the picture.  Above the 5th lifeboat and before the hump.  I was out there most of the day reading in the chair.  We were on the port side.  What a mess, but safety is the key.

 

We met a woman in the Diamond... errrr Crown Lounge who was very angry that she was going to miss her 11:30am flight to Alabama.  I bluntly asked her why, if she's cruised as much as she obviously had to be in the lounge, she'd do something silly like that.  She said she'd been assured the boat always docks perfectly on time and she would have no issues.  Another woman in the lounge seemed annoyed at me and said she cruises all the time and was going to miss her noon flight to Florida, too!  They both seemed to think we were weird for not booking a morning/lunch flight out on disembarkation day.  A family in the Windjammer was fuming because missed their 11-something flight to London!!  Seriously?  You book an 11am international flight on docking day?  This isn't Port Everglades, where the FLL airport is a half mile away on a nearly abandoned to anything but cruise traffic road.  This is an airport 20 miles away on the opposite side of a town with busy rush hour Monday traffic.  Coming out of a dock where you have to walk a half mile to get to the taxi/Uber stand.

 

The meme of The Simpsons' Principal Skinner popped into my head.  They were looking at me thinking "Am I out of touch? No, it's the children who are wrong."

 

The Verdict:

We loved it.  I'm excited to a Vancouver to Anchorage one-way with a land tour.  This was great.

Edited June 11 by poncho1973

[Aquahound]

19 minutes ago, poncho1973 said:

 

 

The Ship:

One of the first things we noticed about the ship itself was that she's in need of some love.  The paint was in really rough shape.  Our deck looked like confetti with paint chips everywhere.  The blue was coming off in giant chunks near the waterline. 

 

Hey poncho!  Welcome back, and thank you for your review.  

 

I cruised a few weeks before you on the May 6 cruise.  We had a fantastic time but yeah, I've never seen the paint on an RCI ship look so bad.  We had a deck 11 balcony and like you, it was a steady snow shower of white paint chips the entire cruise.  The hull is looking pretty rough as well.  Good thing she's headed to drydock after the summer.  

 

I had a great view of you from my office the whole time you were anchored, and probably saw you on your balcony.  In fact, I ride the ferry to work and got a great pic of Quantum as we passed you.  😁

 

[snaefell]

Thanks for a nice review,really enjoyed it!

We sailed on Quantum in October 2019 from China to Singapore where she was to enter drydock for her 5 year refurb,we were shocked because she looked like new,the last 5 years obviously haven't been kind to her!

Interestingly her stay in Singapore ended up lasting years rather than the planned months due to the pandemic so she has been pretty inactive for part of the time since.

We too had a JS,totally agree they are lovely rooms,as the split bathroom was really handy for us too,my Wife could have her bath while I had a shower!

Food wise we had a bad experience in the MDR which saw us use the WJ for the rest of the cruise.

We have just returned from a TA on Anthem & the MDR experience was so different,great food & service,we don't put salt on or in anything & didn't notice anything at all salty.

Interesting to read about your encounters with rude/stupid passengers,we have sadly met too many of them!

Happy cruising!

[poncho1973]

22 hours ago, Aquahound said:

 

Hey poncho!  Welcome back, and thank you for your review.  

 

I cruised a few weeks before you on the May 6 cruise.  We had a fantastic time but yeah, I've never seen the paint on an RCI ship look so bad.  We had a deck 11 balcony and like you, it was a steady snow shower of white paint chips the entire cruise.  The hull is looking pretty rough as well.  Good thing she's headed to drydock after the summer.  

 

I had a great view of you from my office the whole time you were anchored, and probably saw you on your balcony.  In fact, I ride the ferry to work and got a great pic of Quantum as we passed you.  😁

 

 

 

 

I'm glad she's headed in.  I saw the ferry multiple times... so I probably saw you back!

 

 

16 hours ago, snaefell said:

Thanks for a nice review,really enjoyed it!

We sailed on Quantum in October 2019 from China to Singapore where she was to enter drydock for her 5 year refurb,we were shocked because she looked like new,the last 5 years obviously haven't been kind to her!

Interestingly her stay in Singapore ended up lasting years rather than the planned months due to the pandemic so she has been pretty inactive for part of the time since.

We too had a JS,totally agree they are lovely rooms,as the split bathroom was really handy for us too,my Wife could have her bath while I had a shower!

Food wise we had a bad experience in the MDR which saw us use the WJ for the rest of the cruise.

We have just returned from a TA on Anthem & the MDR experience was so different,great food & service,we don't put salt on or in anything & didn't notice anything at all salty.

Interesting to read about your encounters with rude/stupid passengers,we have sadly met too many of them!

Happy cruising!

 

Thanks for the history.  I appreciated that.

 

I wouldn't call the WJ a step up from the MDR either, though.

[snaefell]

7 hours ago, poncho1973 said:

 

 

I wouldn't call the WJ a step up from the MDR either, though.

Compared to the abysmal food & service we experienced in Quantum's MDR in 2019 dining outside at the stern out in the South China Sea,often watching distant lightning,made the WJ quite magical actually!

[The Scurvy Pirate]

So, just curious, but did RCI continue to honor the beverage package or Diamond vouchers during your extended stay on the ship?

[poncho1973]

On 6/12/2024 at 8:16 AM, The Scurvy Pirate said:

So, just curious, but did RCI continue to honor the beverage package or Diamond vouchers during your extended stay on the ship?

 

We probably should have tried, but we didn't.  I'm very sorry I can't answer you.  I was already showered and ready by the time the first announcement came.  My wife rolled over.  I went on the balcony to read.  We went to the WJ for breakfast, thinking we better get back to the room because it would be over.  We got back and there was another not very information announcement.  She went back to bed.  I went back to reading.  Another announcement said they expected noon.  She got ready.  We sat there for a few more hours.  We were out on the balcony waving until we docked.
 

One funny-ish story I didn't relate above: when we were pulling in the dock dozens and dozens of the workers started yelling and making the global sign of FLASH US to someone(s) in the aft of the ship on our side.  Apparently, she(they) did because there were multiple rounds of cheers.  It was like being at a 90s minor league hockey game all over.  We couldn't see who because of the hump.

[juanrod]

On 6/12/2024 at 5:16 AM, The Scurvy Pirate said:

So, just curious, but did RCI continue to honor the beverage package or Diamond vouchers during your extended stay on the ship?

When we were on Ovation going into Vancouver May 9 and delayed almost 12 hours , they allowed drink package and diamond until 1 pm, we docked at 2:30 pm so they closed up the bars.  No speciality dining open, just regular last day sailing open for breakfast/lunch 

[Coralc]

On 6/12/2024 at 5:16 AM, The Scurvy Pirate said:

So, just curious, but did RCI continue to honor the beverage package or Diamond vouchers during your extended stay on the ship?

When Majesty was delayed by a storm in the Gulf. Our departure was delayed until 1 PM. It was nice to sail up the Mississippi in the daytime. And our beverage package was honored until disembarkation. Our flights were totally fouled up, but overall, it was a pleasant experience. ☺️

[GimmeOcean]

On 6/10/2024 at 9:46 PM, poncho1973 said:

One morning in the Windjammer, the Washy-Washy person stopped a lady from walking around the sinks and said "washy washy" which was met with this fine piece of human trash telling our dear crew member to "STFU and wash this" while licking the palms of her hands.

Ick!