ReneFlores

I just returned from a RCL cruise and took one of those "How to make Sushi" classes put on by the workers from Izumi. It was great! The chefs taught the class and was really good. Plus we got to eat a huge plate of our own sushi made in the class. One of the best times I had on board a RCL ship. Check it out.:)

 

Any fish that will be served raw is always frozen in japan (country of origin) for at least one day as it kills any parasites and worms the fish might have.

 

If you see for example the Japanese tuna fish markets, you will see that tuna is always bought frozen (and a single fish can cost over $100,000 usd). Freezing fish doesn't take away quality. The quality and taste of the fish is usually more determined by the location in which the animal itself grew and it's living conditions, food sources, etc.

 

Of course, if you don’t preserve any piece of meaty protein properly it will go bad, regardless of the type of meat that you are consuming. So if the fish wasn’t frozen properly, or preserved at a certain temperature, it will take away from the quality.

 

What distinguishes Sushi restaurants in Japan isn’t the protein they use (sushi is not always made with raw fish), but rather the rice, as most restaurants have their own recipe for preparing sushi rice which is what gives each place its own flavor.

 

Cool fact, Japanese don’t export rice to any other country and imports are very controlled to avoid contamination to their local species. Their rice is their pride and joy.

Hi, this is for anyone that was on the maiden voyage from Southampton to New York Cruise November 2nd 2014.

 

Did you guys get free drinks at any time ?

 

Ed

 

I wasnt in the cruise but i did read the TA thread in Cruise Critic and they seem to have gotten alot of free stuff to make up for all the failures.

 

Inluding, if i recall correctly:

 

- Free Internet (wasn't working properly because they still had no coverage of OB3)

- Free Alcoholic Drinks

- On Board Credit (some got up more than $300 bucks)

- Credit for Future Cruises

You can only pay for the internet on board.

 

You connect to the "Royal WiFi" wireless, open your web browser to any web page, and you will be directed to the information page on how to create a wireless account.

 

Thanks for the heads up, Bob!

We board the Quantum march 1 and was wondering if we can pre-pay the internet service or do we have to get it once on board?

 

Also, do you have to get it in guest services?, or can we do it somewhere else?

 

thanks!

Nonsense

 

We walked up to Silk to give it another go at 7:45 tonight, straight in and out by 8:30

 

American Icon, no line

 

Chic, no line

 

Grande, no line

 

Jamie's, no line

 

No lines ANYWHERE tonight between 7:30 and 8:30 that we saw and apart from first two nights that is the way it has been all cruise.

 

What people have been guessing is that Quantum currently doesnt have enough restaurant complementary seats when it's at near full capacity (4800+ passangers).

 

We are wondering if they already made the change because Cruise Mates interviewed the "Food & Beverage Manager for Quantum, Director of Dynamic Dining" and he mentioned making Devinly Decadence complementary.

 

Because the Quantum uses Dynamic Dinning, it’s possible (though highly unlikely), that there would be more desirable hours in which people might want to dine, and that this would create lines and people waiting because of not enough seating (at that timeslot).

 

In traditional dinning they already have set hours in which people can go and dine, so people never go at the same time, as they’re already schedule. With no schedule, and people going in restaurants without changing or canceling their reservations, I could see how this could create a difficult experience if quantum was near capacity, as the complementary restaurants can only hold about 1948 passengers, and you have to take in consideration the way reservations work in which they might lock a longer time-span before and after.

 

For example, if my table was reserved at 7:30, and you tried to dine there at 6:30, and the only table available is mine, then there is a high chance that my table will remain empty untill i get there. People would get mad and say "Why arent you seating me if there are empty tables?", well it's because if you were to be seated in my table, then by the time i got to the restaurant you would still be eating, and i would have to wait, literally breaking the reservation system.

 

And that is only accounting for one table, imagine if it was 8-10 tables per timeslot, per restaurant, waiting for the reservation, then that limits how many people can dine at the same time and i bet the real number is probably arround 1500 people at the complementary restaurants at any given time.

I am on the 2/2 sailing and yesterday I saw that they had removed the cover charge for Divinely Decadence, went to the planner and made a reservation and there was no charge.

 

The tag on the icon does say "Starting at $0.00". It is possible they will be charging ala carte. The current menu does not show any charges, but the way things are going we will have to wait and see.

 

The way it was explained in the post I saw was that because there appeared to be more people who wanted to eat (complimentary) at the peak times than they had seats, they added Izumi and DD to the complimentary list.

 

Sounds good to me. We'll have to see how this plays out.

 

It is a move I would expect a quality organization to make given the current situation. So I take this as a very positive sign that the problem solvers are engaged and working to help us out.

 

There has been enough talk, we need solutions.

 

I Doubt they'll add izumi as the restaurant itself is pretty small and i doubt it would make a difference, from what I’ve seen in the photos, izumi seems to have very limited capacity, like 30-40 people max.

 

It's good to have devinly decadence though, especially in a longer cruise as you won’t have to repeat the same restaurants that much. And it would match the article in which RC mentioned that they would most likely make Dev Decadence complimentary.

I just saw a change in my Royal Caribbean cruise planner that states Devinly Decadence no longer has cost (usd 0), can anyone confirm if Devinly decadence will officially become free of charge?

[quote name='Bmulder1']LOL...So now we go from "Negative Nellies" and "Moaners and Groaners" to "we don't like change" That is NOT the crux of the whole thing. The crux of the whole thing is that honestly I don't care if I am in My Time Dining, the 6PM slot, the 8PM slot or DD slot...I TRULY COULDN'T CARE LESS. What I do care about is long waits, poor service, 3 and a 1/2 hour dinners, getting only one round of drinks, missing reservations, missing shows because of slow service etc. THAT was my experience and THAT is what my negative review was about. Why can't the people who had positive experiences just accept that perhaps they were on a cruise with less passengers or more staff and that people with a bad experience just MAY have been on a cruise with a maximum # of passengers and minimum # of staff and gotten a bad deal?[/QUOTE]

I don’t think you are neither a "Negative Nellie", nor a "Moaner", nor someone that doesn’t like change. What many people is failing to realize is that the ship was announced and available to put up a reservation before many details of the ship itself were made known, no one actually knew many details of the Quantum until it was almost ready to set sail.

Royal utterly screwed up Quantum’s launch, no one is questioning that and it’s bad that you had to pay to be “Beta testers”, I don’t think there should be an excuse for the bad service on dynamic dining, nor horrible noise in many cabins, etc. but as unfortunate as it was, [B]it’s not like Royal was just going to let the Quantum and the Anthem die… obviously they were going to try to fix the issues, and if the latest reviews are a good reference, I would say they are doing a decent job.[/B]

Yeah the Quantum is not perfect and probably never will be the “WoW” that royal, or we wanted it to be, all we can do is keep telling royal that it is not OK to lower even the most basic customer service, and hope they listen (for the ones that are already booked and cant cancel).

Now that's funny, complain about labeling then label us, " Considering the audience in cruise critic seems to be older than 40+ "

 

Complain about maturity then curse, " No wonder the world is so f’ed up, that attitude is what you’re passing into your children, grandchildren."

 

Us old geezers used to have a pot calling kettle saying, but that dates me :)

 

Everything is in the eye of the beholder.

 

George in NY

 

No offence but i think you need to get your dictionary, I wasn’t labeling you by saying cruise critic audience is older, i was stating a fact.

 

If you need to know what labeling means then:

 

Label:

1. a short word or phrase descriptive of a person, group, intellectual movement, etc.
   
2. a word or phrase indicating that what follows belongs in a particular category or classification: The following definition has the label “Archit.”.
   

 

Calling someone a Cheerleader, a sellout, a hater, that would be laveling.

 

¿how is stating the age demographics of this website doing that?

 

I only mentioned age because age is supposed to bring maturity, experience and knowledge. I expect more of an adult conversation than disrespectfully discarding others opinions just because they were different than yours.

 

We get it, you got a bad experience on the quantum and I think that’s terrible. There is no excuse for Royal Caribbean to treat us as guinea pigs, especially when the main reason for it is to increase profits.

 

I would be mad too about spending my hard earn money in something that didn’t meet even the most basic expectations. But you need to realize that just because you had a bad experience doesn’t mean everyone else will.

 

Stop calling other people names, I thought that was only done in Elementary School.

 

We’re not the ones you should be mad at, we don’t work at royal caribbean, we are people just like you who enjoy cruising and are thankful for everyone sharing their opinions with us on this boards.

I saw a raving review of Quantum by someone who basically had just started posting with that review post.

 

Call me cynical but I think the negative reviews come from honestly bad experiences. I think some of the positive reviews come from cheerleaders/people with a vested interest.

 

I've never really read a set of reviews on a ship that comprised so many negative and scathing reactions as those that were made with "dynamic dining", and I don't think that can be fixed with the flip of a switch.

 

I find it pretty ridiculous and ignorant that you would go as far as to label anyone that posted a nice review of the Quamtum either a sell out or a cheerleader.

 

Why do people have to label others to have this sense of superiority? So just because we disagree in an opinion based on two different experiences I’m a Cheerleader? I’ve seen this trend in many posts and I find it ridiculous.

 

Liking or disliking something is entirely subjective, for some people Picasso might be the best artist to ever live, while others might be clueless as to why he is so renowned and find his art something a child could do (obviously not), the point is that who am I to judge what you like or you dislike?, it’s a free world, you can do whatever you want as long as you don’t harm anyone or anything else.

 

There are many lurkers in the internet that never share their opinions but instead read / view information, and sometimes those lurkers join in the discussion, which is why you’re seeing posters with only 1 post. It doesn’t have to mean that they’re sell outs looking for their best interests.

 

Considering the audience in cruise critic seems to be older than 40+, I’d expect people to behave with more maturity than what i've seen and read in an alarming amount of comments I’ve read so far. No wonder the world is so f’ed up, that attitude is what you’re passing into your children, grandchildren, etc.

Oh yeah i did all my reservations about 3-4 months Ago, and the entertainment reservations more resently (1-2 months ago i think). All menus appeal to me, including American Icon, as it's food im not used to eating.

 

I'm from México City so traffic, lines and / or waiting are not a big deal to me, as long as food is tasty and hot enough. We're considering all eating options too, not just windjammer, but sorrentos, cafe 270, hotdogs, etc.

 

In Mexico we eat differently, our main meal (when we eat the most) is the lunch and usually we eat light for dinner, so having a pizza, or a sandwich would technically be more than enough for what we're used to.

 

I'm already aware of everything i should do in the Quantum, when i said i was worried it was about things beyond my control.

 

Cheers

Thank you so much for your comments Kiyoko, Jimmers, and JemzRoo.

I’m actually worried as well since it’s going to be a very expensive trip for us and we’ve been saving for a year to be able to make it! We’re in a group of four, me (28), my sister (31), my grand mom (82) and my grand mom’s female friend (73), traveling from México City. This trip will be over twice as expensive as the 7 day Freedom cruise we did.

 

I’ve read so far all the reviews that have come through in Cruise Critic’s forums (not in the reviews section at CC), and specially the first ones that came it seemed like there would be a lot of pressure on the staff because of the hindering problems.

 

We cannot deny that Morale is very important, and if 1/3rd of the crew has their Morale down due to constantly having to deal with issues, I bet most of the crew is sharing the same unpleasing feeling.

 

Morale is affecting us cruisers too, which haven’t even set foot on the ship, as we already have a bad impression of the QotS, and first impressions are hard to erase.

 

It’s clear that Royal Caribbean was / is testing the waters to see how much they could get away with reducing the amount of staff in the ship and that’s why they bought the tablets (it wasn’t a nice gesture to the crew, but instead it was supposed to increase productiveness). Removing assistant waiters made no sense, but Royal was trying to see if they could get away with it.

 

That’s the problem with our capitalist world, companies will keep trying to give you a cheaper product for a higher price (apple), and if presentation is good enough, they sometimes get away with it. Royal tried and they failed, the attractiveness in Cruise ships isn’t the technology, but the feeling of luxury you don’t get in any other form of trip, unless you spend a fortune.

You can see though how big the problematic is on the cruising world regarding two things:

 

1. The lack of young cruisers when it’s not a short spring break trip (I’ve never been in one though I read the horror stories :D)
   
2. The fact that cruisers pick ships based on itinerary and costs regardless of company or ship, because most cruise ships offer you the same quality service.
   

I honestly don’t expect everything to be fixed by the time we’re cruising, as they would have to stop using tablets in some areas of the ship and replace their IT Crew, but whatever happens I will make the best of it, as it’s up to me to make my vacations enjoyable by not being bothered by all the issues, as most of the time there is an alternative.

 

Cheers!

I don't want to get crew and staff in trouble so I won't mention particular names or positions. I spoke with quite a few and all that I spoke with couldn't wait to get off the ship and get back on a different one. In particular one, who should know, told me that RCL is considering doing away with DD. It not only apparently puts extreme stress on the Chefs but there's an incredible amount of waste, let alone not popular with the passengers. I was looking forward to DD until we experienced issues on a lot of different levels. IMHO I'm not sure if RCL will ever get it to work unless drastic changes are made to policies and procedures.

 

Actually, the only person employed by RCL on our sailing who said to me that he liked the ship was the Captain. But then, it wouldn't have looked good if he had said otherwise.

Hello guys, first a little introduction. New cruiser from México, this will be my second cruise, my first being on the Freedom of the seas circa 2013. While I know my knowledge will not even manage to scratch the experience some of our fellow cruisers have, nor the appreciation for the old things that I never experienced, I want to share my opinion with you.

 

I’ve been following the QotS since its Keel blocks thread, and booked in May of 2014 for a 12 day cruise on March 2015. I agree based on threads that the QotS has way more glitches than it should considering the price and expectations built around it, but I can also see the value of having a different, more appealing for the younger crowd ship which seems to be what RCL is seeking with QotS, as the fleet with traditional options is already big enough to offer different alternatives for all types of cruisers.

 

As someone have commented so far, the amount of QotS Haters that go on every post to repeat what they’ve already said in their reviews is scary. I wouldn’t want to be a staff member in QotS, a ship that’s going through an entire learning experience not only because of the changes in the Dining room, but also because of the changes in technology. As far as I’ve read in all reviews (good or bad), the only consistent thing in all of QotS cruises so far is the constant nagging of the crew, either be for reasonable or unreasonable points, it has to be unbearable to have to listen to people blame you for things that are ultimately out of your control.

 

Many people disagree with Royal Caribbean’s forward thinking, but how could Royal Possibly know, when it was true that they were taking a leap compared to other cruises currently available. Was dynamic dining, a robot bar, having a crew all work with tablets, or the sea plex different activities a good idea? I think they were, because that’s what made me sign for the QotS, the main mistake Royal made was thinking technology was going to replace human workers, as it seems most of the problems of the Quantum would be fixed if there was more staff / the staff was better prepared. It’s hard to prepare your staff for a ship that breaks the standard though, and I’m pretty sure the cruise experience in the Anthem of the seas will be outstanding.

 

Ultimately, the point most people is failing to realize is that Royal Caribbean was trying to differentiate itself and appeal cruisers, young and old, with new tricks. As far as I’ve read in this forums, most cruisers pick ships based in itinerary and price, as almost all the main cruise lines offer a very similar experience.

 

Like it or not, there is no other Quantum, and there might not be another one (Other than the anthem or the ovation), in a very long time. The quantum attractiveness comes from beign different, and as soon as they’re able to fix their understaffing / undertrained issues, I think the ship will allow Royal to grab a share of the market that’s uninterested in cruises, a younger audience.

 

I don’t mean to offend anyone, but all the photos I’ve seen of the Quantum so far show a very mature and experienced crowd, and unless they can attract new and young customers, cruise lines will have a difficult time surviving the tough competition.

Hahahaha, I can’t believe there is people in this thread that doesn’t realize this is pure sarcasm.

 

I guess those people need to do less cruising, and more reading.

Pretty sure it's been stated that the internet won’t be at full speed until QoS is at American (as a continent not a country) latitudes because the satellite only has coverage for that area. I’m sure another satellite will be available on Europe and Asia by the time Quantum and Anthem are around those places.

 

¿What's the difference between the cruise plan, and the unlimited plan?

There is no chapel in QoS, but I read somewhere in this forum that it was possible to make a reservation at North Star for this type of event. You would have to contact Royal Caribbean about it.