Mattsudds

P&O have this morning sent customers details of a new cancellation policy which applies to all cruises. In the past week they had been allowing flexible cancellations, and for funds that would be lost under a penalty, you could have that part as a future cruise credit. There were special cancellation policies for those now advised against cruising - I.e. over 70s and those with underlying health conditions. 

As of this morning, that has all changed. The ‘offer’ is now cancellation as per what you got at the time of booking or 110% future cruise credit. The other options is free transfer of booking. This means that over 70s for instance who want to cancel a cruise in May basically now cant get their money back. 

I think this is an absolutely disgraceful move by P&O. When this crisis is over I hope passengers remember which companies treated them well and which didn’t. 

In the past year, I have been slightly unlucky and had the cruise lines cancel 3 cruises on me. The first was Ponant, and the second and third were Costa. All three cancellations were down to delivery issues on new ships and itinerary cancellation caused partially by shipyards. In Ponant’s case the ship is early and they changed all the itineraries and cancelled our original one. In Costa’s case one was a change of plan with a ship being built at Fincantieri Italy, and the other was cancellation of Costa Smerelda due to late delivery. 

In every case the cruise line refunded the original payments, offered a future cruise discount and in addition reimbursed all out of pocket expenses including non-refundable air fare. All we had to do was provide receipts which showed the cancellation cost - easily obtainable from the airline.  In addition Costa also credited the loyalty club points that we would have earned, and offered an additional onboard credit for sailings taken within a set period. 

I dont know what Carnival is doing for Mardi Gras passengers but whenever a cruise line cancels a cruise I am planning, as a matter of principle I would expect them to ensure I was not out of pocket as a result. In a worst case scenario, travel insurance should cover this I presume, but the onus is surely on the cruise line. In each of the cases I mention above, I had booked the cruise direct with the line but flights and other expenses were booked by me with the relevant airline - and not as part of a package. 

If this works, it shows the sunloungers. It is taken in an evening and so 2 things are missing. Firstly the rolled up towel, and secondly anyone sunbathing. 

The other different from the artists impressions is that there is no headrest. 

I checked my daytime pics and there is no mattress added then - just checking it wasn’t put away at night.

20 minutes ago, Glenndale said:

Although we probably won't be doing any sunbathing on our trip to Norway can you tell me whether or not the sun beds have a soft mattress on top of the base?

On the artists mock ups they appear to have but on photos it doesn't seem to be the case.

I agree a retractable roof would have been sensible, bearing in mind the ship has a strengthened hull presumably for forays to the Arctic and Antarctic.

Thanks for your report 🙂

The sunloungers don’t have a soft mattress. The reason they look like the might is probably the colours. The frame is dark whilst the area where a mattress would be is beige.  The balcony chair is perfectly comfy - you just don’t lie down in it. If sunbathing is your thing, there is an awful lot of open deck sunbathing space available. Hope the weather makes that viable for your trip. 

My party had a single cabin and a standard balcony cabin on D deck - deck 8. The cabins all had double beds, spacious bathrooms. The double had 2 chairs and a coffee table, the single had 1 chair. On the balcony there was a single chair (not a sun Lounger) and table or 2 chairs and a table on the double. There was room to walk around the chair and table to get past it - this meant that the balconies were bigger than on some modern ships.

The cabins had some nice touches - there were plenty of electrical sockets, usb for charging things. Tea and coffee making. A fridge in the shelving area near the door. There as a desk do chair as well. I thought the metal woodpeckers in the bedside lights were a quirky, fun touch. 

Wirth noting that that the cabin key is inserted in the slot when you enter - this makes the power and air con really come to life. There are buttons to indicate if you want cabin service or do not disturb. Many singles have connecting doors but nothing was heard through them. 

Only one problem - which was quickly fixed. The rubber seal around the balcony door is very easily dislodged by the locking mechanism. If you don’t get this fixed, there is a tremendous whistling noise from an improperly sealed door. We reported this to reception and the people were there before we got back to the cabin. It is obviously a known issue because we didn’t even have to finish explaining the problem. The window seals in the Britannia lounge keep falling down too - I am sure a snagging person will fix these under guarantee soon. 

You're absolutely right that the amuse Bouche is not normally a menu item and I wouldn't expect to choose them. It is however shown in the menu for La Mer.

However when I have dined in such places before, if there was any dietary requirement, the chef usually has an alternative up their sleeve. This was certainly always the case on cruise ship restaurants, especially when they ask about allergies or dietary needs at the time of reservation several days in advance. In La Mer it as just a symptom of the attitude towards customers which is quite different than the rest of the ship. Ultimately the amuse bouche isn't going to make the difference between going to this place or staying away, I only mention it because it was below expectations - rather than exceeding expectations which cruise lines always want on the comment form.

I enjoyed the ship overall alot. By way of conparison, I also sailed on Royal's inaugural voyage. Overall most things were working well, it was only very minor matters of finish that i saw being done. This was quite a contrast to when Harmony of the Seas was introduced and she was a building site in places.

Princess provide an impressive cruise product that just works. They have some superb live music around the ship, they do movies under the stars like no one else and in general their staff service is good. We were on anytime dining and the waiters on recognised us when we sat in the same section for a second time - pretty inpressive given how many people they must see.

The ship is different to Royal and Regal and some things are actually better. The Hollywood Conservstory is quite a nice space, and unlike the sanctuary it is not extra charge. Of course i would actually rather the P&O version with a proper crow's next bar but you cant have everything. The aft lounge will seemingly become more gambling space in china but right now its just a secondary show lounge like the other ships.

Perhaps the only other issue, was again food related but this time in the buffet. Even at the start of service with newly put out dishes, the food temperature wasnt really hot enough, and nothing seemed to be labelled. There probably was a logic to the layout but I couldnt work it out if there was. So it was a bit of a trek to examine all counters before choosing. But if that is the biggest worry, things are pretty good really.

http://www.princess.com/news/news_releases/2016/11/Princess-Cruises-Announces-Partnership-with-Three-Michelin-Star-French-Chef-Emmanuel-Renaut.html

Back in November last year, Princess announced the above innovations in the restaurant range aboard Majestic Princess. I'm just back from the preview of Majestic Princess and thought I would post a couple of observations. Please note that this was a preview cruise and as a result it was not possible to reserve these restaurants until onboard (at least not online or via Princess) and they did not all have the full range of items available yet.

Harmony - This is in the restaurant space opposite reception. For a Chinese restaurant the decor is relatively muted. The service is very friendly and attentive. When operating fully there is a wide ranging menu, and everything my party of 3 tried was delicious. We actually went for a sea day lunch which was complimentary. Because the full menu wasn't loaded, the menu was reduced but oddly the lunch menu was better, in my view, that the dinner one. Perhaps the only thing that let this restaurant down was the menu of fruit drinks and smoothies. They sounded so great that we ordered 3 but they took 45 minutes to come and were served in plastic, take-away containers. A bit out of keeping with the surroundings. In my party we had the Peking Duck salad - absolutely delightful. Beef in Black Bean sauce and the cripsy chicken - again excellent. Desert at lunch is a fruit plate - very tasty and delicately arranged. Great service, would have been happy to pay for this if there had been a cover charge.

La Mer - What a disappointment. This restaurant has so many things wrong with it for dinner. The cover charge of $35 was simply not worth it on this occasion. So what didn't we like?

Well first things first. The setting is all wrong for this kind of restaurant. The supposed highest class dining experience on the ship is basically a through route at the top of the atrium. Other ships in this class have a bar or a tapas type place here which works much better. There is no Maitre D' point where you enter the restaurant so all arriving customers wander around aimlessly getting mixed up with people using the place as a corridor. The staff don't seem to pay attention to people obviously waiting to be served either. First impressions matter and this isn't great.

Second problem. The layout puts some tables actually right in the corridor and others in a windowless dead end of the space. If you get one of the tables by the glass window port side, it is great. Otherwise not so much. We were initially offered a table way out by the door to the outside deck, clearly there as an after thoughts.

The menu - decent french bistro food served with a modern style. But there was the 3rd problem. Any dishes which were cold dishes were pre-plated. And then refrigerated. I had the Pate en croute which was served straight from fridge on a cold plate. I don't expect pre plated food in a 'Michelin starred' restaurant. The same thing happened with any of the cold deserts.

Next issue - the amuse bouches. These were shown on the menu but surprisingly there is no room for variation - its take it or leave it. If you have a vegetarian in your party they just miss out. I have dined in similar restaurants on many ships and take it or leave it has never been the policy.

We ordered from a pleasant enough waiter but the overall staff training needs some work here. The waiter described the cooking of the dish - duck in the case of one of my party - as being partly raw. I'm sure it was a language issue but when the diner said they would prefer it medium, initially the waiter was going to refuse and say chef wouldn't allow it. I appreciate that in fine dining restaurants the chef has recommended ways of cooking things for optimum enjoyment, but they are rarely compulsory and never compulsorily 'raw'.

The wine menu has wine by the Carafe but they didn't want to serve carafe's. They had both the wine we wanted and carafe jugs so we couldn't work out why.

When the main courses came, one of our party had orzo as the side dish but it was almost cold. It took alot of effort to send it back and at first the waiter seemed surprised that we would want to. All we wanted was a hot side dish but the waiter seemed reluctant to get it done, and instead offered to bring something else. That was itself pretty good service in offering the replacement but it is worrying that he thought cold food was normal and seemed afraid to tell the kitchen. The Maitre D' also came over to see how the meal was going and when we mentioned the cold item, he also promised to investigate and come back and check the new one was ok. He never came until desert.

The food came with a bowl of french style bread. I say style because it wasn't crispy like an actual french bread, and it was overall a very uninventive selection for a premium restaurant.

Desserts were very good, although the cold ones on cold plate things did reduce the impact. The waiter brought the bill immediately after this course without asking if we wanted coffee or a digestif. On the bill we also had bottled water because, and I quote 'we do not have tap water in here' - I thought that was a policy only MSC had.

Overall the design of this restaurant, the service, the temperature issues and the general lack of ambience made this an experience I would not recommend. On future cruises diners may well have a better experience as the waiters are better trained but there is not much can be done to fix this location which just feels very wrong for a premium dining experience. I recognise that everyone's experience will be different and this is how I felt about mine.

By way of background, I am a frequent cruise traveller, and have spent alot of time in France, living there. I say this only so that other readers know what may have coloured my expectations. If you do go on Majestic Princess and want to try this restaurant, I would recommend considering lunch instead. Although the menu is simpler, it is also complimentary and would enable you to judge whether you want to spend the extra for the dinner experience first.

From a Royal Caribbean Press Release:

The newest class of ships from Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE: RCL) will be powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) and introduce the use of fuel cell technology, ushering in a new era of shipbuilding that will dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The ships will join the fleet of Royal Caribbean International, an industry leader in innovation and breakthrough ship design.

RCL said that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with shipbuilder Meyer Turku for the new class of vessel under the project name "Icon." The vessels will be delivered in the second quarters of 2022 and 2024. In the meantime, the company said, it will begin testing fuel cell technology on an existing Oasis-class ship in 2017, and will also run progressively larger fuel cell projects on new Quantum class vessels being built in the next several years.

Royal Caribbean is already known for making steady progress on energy efficiency and reduced emissions through such technologies as air lubrication, which sends billions of microscopic bubbles along the hull of a ship to reduce friction, and AEP scrubbers, which clean exhaust gases before they leave the ship. Use of the new technologies will result in much cleaner emissions, as they produce no sulfur and significantly reduce the production of nitrogen oxides and particulates.

"With Icon class, we move further in the journey to take the smoke out of our smokestacks," said Richard Fain, chairman and chief executive officer of Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. "We are dedicated to innovation, continuous improvement, and environmental responsibility, and Icon gives us the opportunity to deliver against all three of these pillars."

"Our guests expect us to push every envelope we can," said Michael Bayley, president and chief executive officer of Royal Caribbean International. "And on this new class of ship, we began by challenging ourselves to find a new approach to power and propulsion that is safe, reliable, and more energy-efficient than ever before." Bayley added that exciting and innovative new guest experience elements of the Icon class design will be revealed later in the development process.

"Our partnership with RCL has created a number of groundbreaking ship classes, such as Oasis, Celebrity Solstice, Quantum, and Mein Schiff, and we are grateful that Royal Caribbean is again giving us the opportunity to partner with them on a new class of ships," said Jan Meyer, the CEO of Meyer Turku.

The switch to LNG provides further momentum for the technology, which has begun making significant inroads in the maritime industry. "Increasing the commitment to LNG makes it easier for suppliers to make their own infrastructure commitments," said Fain. "As more ships are built for LNG, the number of ports that support it will grow." The Icon ships are expected to run primarily on LNG but will also be able to run on distillate fuel, to accommodate occasional itineraries that call on ports without LNG infrastructure.

The introduction of fuel cells represents another dramatic step forward for the maritime industry, which has only made limited experiments using the technology. "We believe fuel cells offer very interesting design possibilities," said Harri Kulovaara, RCL's chief of ship design. "As the technology becomes smaller and more efficient, fuel cells become more viable in a significant way to power the ship's hotel functions. We will begin testing those possibilities as soon as we can, and look to maximize their use when Icon class debuts."

Kulovaara said RCL had been eyeing fuel cells for nearly a decade, and believes the technology is now at a stage of development that justifies investment. "There is a long lead time for Icon class, and we will use that time to work with Meyer Turku to adapt fuel cell technology for maritime use." Kulovaara said that additional regulatory standards would also need to be developed for the technology.

Because of the long lead time, Kulovaara said that many Icon design elements are in early stages. The Icon ships would likely accommodate approximately 5,000 passengers, he said, but details are still being worked out.

Icon is the first new ship class announced by RCL since Celebrity Cruises' new Edge class, which debuts in 2018. The company is also expanding its fleet with new Oasis- and Quantum-class ships for Royal Caribbean International. Fain said the new ships are in line with RCL's strategy of moderate capacity growth.

This order is contingent upon the completion of contractual conditions, including documentation and financing. Final contracts are expected to be completed by year end. Based upon current ship orders, projected capital expenditures for full year 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 are $2.4 billion, $0.5 billion, $2.6 billion, $1.5 billion and $2.0 billion, respectively. Capacity increases for 2016 through 2020 remain unchanged and do not include potential ship sales or additions that the company may elect to make in the future.

I disagree with your assessments. The galleys for traditional and MTD will be completely separate, and should be no different than the other ships in the fleet. Quality should, and most likely will, be the same within traditional and MTD - just like the rest of the fleet.

 

I also think that if they wanted to get rid of traditional, they wouldn't be making a change as drastic as this one is. The goal of DD when Quantum first debuted was to completely rid the ships of traditional dining...We see how that worked out.

I am not sure what you mean here when you say the galleys for traditional and MTD will be completely separate - do you mean that each 'Dynamic' restaurant would have a pair of galleys? One to serve MTD and one to serve traditional?

I have toured the galleys on Quantum and Anthem and I don't remember that being the case but I apologize if I misunderstood. I do remember each 'Dynamic' restaurant had a separate kitchen, which was of course due to the fact that they each served different food. If all 4 restaurants now serve the same food, some very expensive reconfiguration could be done in order to merge the galleys. I don't know enough about kitchen layout etc to know whether that would be either necessary or useful.

The big issue though is going to remain seating capacity. The only sources I can find online indicate that each Dynamic restaurant seats around 430 people. If that is correct, that is 1720 seats for a ship with over 4,180 lower berths and a 4,900 max capacity. By way of contrast, Royal's website has a page on Freedom of the Seas which lists her main dining room capacity as 2,100 with a lower berth capacity of 3,600 and a max capacity of 4,300.

Of course these numbers aren't perfect, because they don't take account of Coastal Kitchen. And Anthem/ Ovation/ Quantum have more speciality restaurants.

If this change is permanent, and irreversible, I wonder if Royal might send the ships for a rebuild of the dining room. Move the entrance to the dining room (you wouldn't need a pair of large hallways with a single dining room without the reservation lines), and perhaps reconfigure the kitchens in order to create space at the aft end of the dining room, and the capacity problem could be solved.Maybe they won't bother with the rebuild, but surely the Ovation 4 and 5 will have quite different dining room and kitchen layouts now that Dynamic Dining has gone.

Add me to those who are sad to see it go. 39 nights on Quantum and enjoyed the DD experience a lot. The vast majority of people I spoke to also liked the concept.

 

We made some bookings prior to our first leg as we had read a few early doom and gloom posts but once on board just cancelled most and did our thing on a daily basis.

 

I predict there will be plenty of complaints once people who expect traditional to be the same as other ships find out there is far less available space for early and late traditional.

 

They will then take up the early or late times in the MTD room and those who expect to be able to just rock up for MTD will miss out all together.

 

Most of the issues with DD were centred around lack pf space in the dinning rooms (far lower seat to pax ratio than all the other ships) and lack of staff to serve them.

 

Unless they turn a few other spaces or fee restaurants into complimentary (not going to happen is it) or find some extra cabins for crew then things may even get worse.

Agree 100%. I sailed on Quantum, Anthem and Ovation. And the problem with Dynamic Dining was not the concept but the implementation. I have seen NCLs way of doing it on multiple NCL cruises too, and there it works. With Royal, the implementation suffered numerous problems. It seemed like the IT system couldn't handle the bookings easily so the staff had nightmares with that, as did I when attempting to book at home for our party. For instance, 8 people on Ovation and it took, with the Maitre D onboard, 45 mins to book tables for the first 5 nights. And I had done it onboard only because the online system wouldn't work on any of the preceding weeks.

All the 'Dynamic' restaurants missed the one crucial ingredient - an adjacent bar and a pager system so that you can have a drink whilst you wait. And the number of seats to passengers ratio was too low. I struggle to understand how an experienced company like Royal, which gets so many things right and innovates so much, managed to make such a mess of this.

The one shame now is that the Quantum class all will have 4 separate dining rooms serving the same food, whereas the rest of the fleet will have a single more spectacular space with a greater seat to pax ratio. I wonder if, with this abandonment, Quantum 4 and 5 will be redesigned to bring back a single, large, spectacular main dining room.

I think I saw on here, that some people were interested in a possible MSC Seaside transatlantic. The website of Palma port indicates a berth reserved for MSC Seaside on 4 Dec 2017, with a previous call at Malta and next at Barcelona. So it seems a transatlantic cruise is indeed planned.

http://www.portsdebalears.com/25.php3?idioma=eng&puerto=4&diainicio=09&mesinicio=02&anyoinicio=2017&diafin=10&mesfin=12&anyofin=2017

I would also recommend 'From Song to Sovereign' which was published upon the introduction of the Sovereign of the Seas, it is a good snapshot of the leap made at that time. It is written by John Maxtone-Graham.

In general some cruise lines are better than others at the corporate history type books, usually for some sort of anniversary.

There are a couple of good books on Celebrity Cruises history, Holland America. P&O and Cunard are excessively covered. Carnival has never, as far as I know, published its own corporate history.

The book Cruise Ship Pehenomenon in North America was pretty good too.

http://www.miamiherald.com/living/travel/article53682340.html

The article above says the Superfast service has ended with the final return to Miami. The ship will be replaced by a 'more efficient', 'faster' ferry.

Some sources say the ship will head to Germany for a rebuild before being used in Asia as a full scale gambling ship.

It's great news to see P&O Australia having grown so much that such a large newbuild is possible. I look forwards to seeing artists impressions and deck plans of the ship.

I am curious as to whether this is a genuinely new prototype design for the Carnival Corporation, or a version of something they already have. The dimensions are broadly similar to the Carnival Vista, but with quite a lot more cabins. I hope this means something new and innovative.

If people were to design the new Pacific Expander (or whatever it will be called😉), what would they put on it?

Looking at the Vista news, the ship certainly has some very nice spaces and new ideas. One which left me wondering was the main dining rooms and traditional, set time, dining. I don't see a description online of the mid ships dining room so it maybe that those still wanting set times eat there. However the aft Horizons dining room clearly says 'choose your time' and the installation of the bar implies a greater sense of fluidity in timing to me. The actual dining room size won't be enough to accommodate everyone at 2 sittings. So is this Carnival's first all 'anytime' dining ship?

Incidentally the size of the dining rooms looks exactly taken from Costa Diadema, but without the Horizons bar and with fewer passengers in Diadema. On Diadema, part of the buffet is decorated in such a way that it becomes the formal dining room with waiter service and the same menu as the main room, but eating when you like. One thing you then miss out on is the singing waiters and sense of occasion from special nights because they didn't do it in the anytime restaurant, only in the fixed time version.

On the assumption that the calls are Tuesday's and weekly (I can't get the Rome port website to show me that but have no reason to doubt the OP), I would suggest that Barcelona is the embarkation port. That would give a close to weekend departure day from Barcelona, and a standard 7 day circuit. I would imagine calls will include Marseille or Toulon for Provence, possibly Monaco, Livorno (for Pisa).

I find Cruisetimetables.com to be fairly accurate and most importantly - free!

I believe it will be worse on oasis and allure- there is one less complmentry venue. so you have 2000 more people and one less choice.

Apologies for not being clear. What I meant was that the Dynamic dining venues in Oasis seem to be taking more or less the same amount of space as the current main dining room. That dining room could seat half the passengers. Collectively the Quantum's Dynamic venues can only seat about 1/3rd of the passengers. The proportionate higher capacity of the spaces on Oasis should at least mean that there is more chance of getting a sets quickly.

It never ceases to amaze me how the big cruise groups apparently fail to learn from the different brands within the same group. On Carnival you can see Carnival Cruise lines failed attempt to introduce things to its newest ships which were properly done on the Aida sub-brand.

It seems to me that like Carnival, RCI could perhaps use some advice from its own German subsidiary. In June 2014 Tui cruises introduced the superb Mein Schiff 3. With her came a new dining concept, not dissimilar to Dynamic Dining but with one important difference.

Mein Schiff 3 is an approx 100,000gt ship and her main Atlantik restaurant is in fact 3 restaurants. On the upper level portside is an Asian restaurant, Starboard side is a Mediterranean restaurant. Their menus change after 3 nights. The lower level of the restaurant is the main restaurant which is a traditional cruise ship restaurant with a daily changing menu pitched somewhere around Chic and Grande on Quantum.

All these restaurants are eat when and with whom you want without reservations. Rarely on a full cruise did I see queues. The mix enables people who want the traditional experience to have it, and those wanting an inclusive alternative to have it. The capacity is sufficient to prevent huge queues.

In my experience the Tui Cruises operation is combining the key features of Dynamic dining but with style and delivery that makes it work really well. I think RCI could look across at what they are doing at TUI, which is after all part of the family, and take some inspiration to iron out the creases in Dynamic Dining.

Incidentally I do feel that Dynamic Dining on Oasis and Allure has more chance of success by simple virtue of the higher capacity of the overall inclusive venues. If nothing else, that ought to make waiting less likely.

Some of the things Inwould suggest make DD more workable. I agree with the original suggestion. However I believe to truly make it work there are bigger structural issues which will need addressing regarding capacity and adjacent bar waiting areas.

1) significantly improve the technology. Make it easier to book and easier to see if there is space.

2) Redesign the whole area and out a bar near each restaurant where people can wait for their table or friends and a have a. Drink

3) Imorive staff training. Make sure the simple tastes menu is always given.

4) Increase capacity. A traditional main dining room seats half the passengers and the Dynamic Rooms only seat 1/3rd. This isn't enouh for RCI at present.

All logical indications show that Royal got their idea for a split superstructure from Carnival.

The split superstructure was first found on the Silja Symphony and Silja Serenade which are huge cruise ferries operating in the Baltic which entered service in the early 1990s. At the time Harri Kulovaara was the lead naval architect for Silja and the parent company. When he joined RCI he brought the idea with him and did the first version in the Voyager and Freedom class, then went the whole way with the Oasis class. I do hope that Vista is a genuinely new class of ships for Carnival but have not seen anything definitive either way so far. Deck plans and renderings will be the clue.

One thing I really hope they don't do is copy the dreadful layout of the Costa Diadema - a further modified dream class which just entered service for Costa. In that ship they have made the forward restaurant level and moved the remaining diners up to a converted evening buffet. They have then brought some of the other public rooms down. The design is cramped, crowded and dysfunctional. And the Diadema buffet is probably the worst to set sail in 10+ years in terms of layout and flow.

On the 8 day trip, North Star did up and down in Bayonne and Nassau. The southbound sea days I didn't see it working at all, nor Port Canaveral, which I think was a combination of weather and technical related.

On the northbound sea days, many rides did up and also over the side of the ship. Even those going over the side of the ship, the total ride time was only just over 5 minutes (I timed a couple of rides and they were about 5 mins 15 seconds from doors closed to open).

They seem to be still working out the best way to manage demand. I saw several versions, including queues right around the ship and breakfast time giving out of tickets.

I'm just off the 8 night 23 Nov maiden trip. I won't post a full review because others have done that already, with great pictures. But I will make a couple of observations.

Firstly the ship really is lovely. She feels like the most spacious RCCL ship yet, outside the dining rooms. The blue hull and the wow features really are superb. I loved 270 which I think must surely be a candidate for the best public room ever to put to sea, and makes up for the loss of the Viking Crown Lounge for me.

Secondly the entertainment. In a word, top notch and challenging the boundaries of what has been done before. Sonic Odyssey is a very innovative show, and the music contains something for everyone. Starwater was an amazing fusion of people, space and technology, although that said, I could take or leave the actual show which felt a bit slow and drawn out to me.

The ship is a great sea keeper in my view. We had very rough seas out of New York but she handled them superbly. I watched a large car carrier sail near us that first day and compared to her, we seemed to be gliding through a pond.

Dynamic Dining - I get the idea. And there are certainly merits in dining in a more intimate setting, with waiters expert in that particular menu, matching drinks and the chance to rotate around. I also get that the big banquet meals with strangers is a huge factor in putting off the new to cruise market, so a company looking to expand will find such a step inevitable. But, for me the RCCL implementation just is not good enough yet. It is probably heresy to say it, but I think RCCL should send some staff on the Norwegian Beakaway and Getaway, together with their interior architects, to learn how it is done properly. Here are some of the ways I think Norwegian do it better.

1) Outside every 'complimentary' dining room (please can we banish that phrase and replace it with 'included') there are chairs and usually a bar. On Quantum, the only thing outside each restaurant is a corridor. There is nowhere nearby to wait, no adjacent bar to have a pre meal drink in.

2) Separate the with and without reservations lines. If I have reserved a table should I really have to line up to check in, then line up separately to 'wait' for the table, all the while in a long line of those without reservations.

3) Deal better with people who's table isn't ready. NCL give you a buzzer and in some cases a drinks voucher if your table isn't ready when you show up. Quantum gives you an arm wave to stand against the wall out of the way.

4) Make spontaneity possible. NCL use their big display screens to show restaurant availability. On Quantum you have to join the queue before you find out a place is full. I know Royal IQ is meant to let you do this, but so far forget it.

5) Make reservations easier - I know this is being done. I love the idea of the Royal IQ, and the sense that you will be able to see real time restaurant availability. But for most of this past cruise it just didn't work, either on my own devices or the ships. On NCL, the big screens in corridors also have a card reader and let you make reservations there and then.

6) Have some 'dish of the day' in at least some restaurants. On NCL, the 3 main 'complimentary' dining rooms have a combination of daily changes and regulars. I expected to see some rotation on Quantum but if there was any I didn't find it. Perhaps that is inevitable because I did not dine anywhere twice and only checked the menus online.

7) Deal better with those wanting something simple. There always used to be a kind of always available menu - something like chicken, strip steak, salmon and pasta with shrimp cocktail and Caesar to start. I thought there was this on Quantum but no matter who I asked in the restaurants they said no, there was the Dynamic menu or the kids menu. And I made a point of asking for the always available or simple tastes menu and even highlighting the things that used to be on it, so the staff I dealt with could be in no doubt what I meant even if I got the name wrong. I hope an equivalent of always available still exists, but if it does the staff need better training.

8) Please please do not let staff give the 'comment card' speech every meal. It is the part of the cruise I most loathe, being told how to fill in a comment card, and now it happened to me every single dinner in the Dynamic restaurants. It really is not the way I want to end my dinner.

I know at least one improvement is coming in Dynamic Dining, when the IT works properly. Apparently the waiters will be able to record your preferences in their tablets and software, and those will be attached to you wherever you dine. Thus if you always have something specific at each meal, they should be eventually able to know in advance even if you are in a different Dynamic restaurant. That should provide some comfort to those who miss getting to know a waiter personally.

One question I have in my mind is whethher part of the pressure to book and what felt like a lack of flexibility this past week is down to numbers. Quantum can seat approximately 1600 in the 4 main Dynnamic restaurants. This is about 1/3rd of the passenger total. On previous generations of ships, the Main Dining Room was designed to take 1/2 the passengers at a time so that in 2 sittings all would be done. The Coastal Kitchen, with 128 seats for suite guests, isn't enough to make up the difference.

Some other observations on the Quantum dining. The Windjammer is the best yet. It still puzzles me why other lines haven't copied RCCL and Celebrity for their outstanding buffet layout and choices. The bakery is a very fine addition to the offerings.

Do not miss Wonderland - creative and fun, really well worth booking in advance.

Devinly Decadence - for me please bring back the Solarium Bistro. I dined there on Oasis in September and it was great. I found the Devinly food much more obviously 'diet', stripped back food and really bland and rather tasteless - I would not dine there again.

I know it is early days for Quantum. I have every confidence that when they eventually get the IT fully working, it will be superb, apart from my niggling worry about whether the dining room capacity will be sufficient. I assume that Royal IQ will one day have the full daily programme, and allow booking of things like North Star and Ripcord slots and this will certainly help eliminate more lines.

One final point - I was expecting more 'fuss' for the inaugural, based on experience on Oasis at least.

In case you were wondering about whether I have enough experience to comment, I am Diamond with Royal and Equivalent with several other lines. This was my third RCCL trip this year, and it is 9 months since my last Norwegian trip (I mention just because of the comparison I used).