irun5k

Have you tried Carnival's Excel class? Their casual dining is on point and in general there are a lot of good complementary restaurants. Honestly I was hoping Icon or Utopia would steal some ideas from Carnival's Excel playbook. I think Carnival has had such a specific reputation basically forever that Excel class is often overlooked and/or lumped in with the rest of their fleet.

Yes those desserts remind me of something that might come out of a Star Trek protein resequencing food replicator. They all seem to be be made out of the same basic 3-4 ingredients yet they take on various visual forms. So you end with a slice of pie that is eerily similar to the jello.

I suppose this is one good reason to justify a late-in-day flight.. nothing is a given. We're on Quantum soon and I was debating flying out the same day. Eventually we decided to just stay the night and I'm glad we did because Delta has been swinging out flight departure time back and forth from at last as 1 PM to as early as 10 AM. Most people understandably focus on the variable departure time from the ship- but until this trip I hadn't thought much about airline schedule changes.

I am not sure if the latest breaking info is posted anywhere, but the PDF available here does appear to be maintained regularly (it has a recent timestamp and accurately reflects Quantum not stopping in Skagway this week, for example) https://claalaska.com/?page_id=665 I can really sympathize with missing an Alaskan port... being from FL maybe we have gotten spoiled on Caribbean cruises- but we are paying several times more for our upcoming Quantum cruise than we've ever paid for a Caribbean cruise and the premium isn't for the ship, it is for the destination. ( Although speaking of the ship, it is a little unfortunate that the Northstar is down, as it falls into the bucket of things that are already taken off the plate before sailing.) I know weather is already a game-day wildcard in Alaska so it definitely hurts to have a major port taken off the itinerary before you even set sail.

We are on Quantum in mid June, and I haven't been following the news so I'm trying to come up to speed. It sounds like some Quantum sailings are being redirected to Icy Strait, while in other situations ships may be tendering and/or utilizing shuttles since the pier is not walkable? Any insight (guesses) into what we might expect in mid June based on the current situation? I have not received anything from RCI yet about a port cancellation but perhaps they just haven't gotten to June sailings yet?

OP, Emril's is great- you'll enjoy it. It is al la carte but also very reasonable. We found it to be a great option a couple of nights when we didn't want a giant dinner (due to already have snacked in the afternoon, late lunch, or some such situation). Emril's was a great option those nights- fast yet well prepared. So many solid dining options on Excel class- something for everyone and for every schedule!

I am a little surprised to hear this also. A year ago we were down at Miami and it was an absolute disaster by noon- total gridlock and all the garages were filling up. (I suspect that arrival time was the big mistake.) Everyone was just parking in whatever garage had space (I had to yell out the car window to people walking to eventually identify a garage that had space... which ended up being quite a distance from the ship.) The last thought on my mind or anyone else's was whether the garage would be open when we got back, we were just happy to find a spot. After all that I ended up hiking on 6 inches of grass between a fence and the road, traversing a giant ditch, and crossing a multi-lane road with no crosswalk. Now, there were people lined up outside the garage- seemingly waiting on a shuttle- but when I asked, none of them knew if there actually was a shuttle or what ships it would go to.

I'm pretty familiar- or used to be. I've been sailing since before it was even an option. However, I was not familiar with the fact that they split a dining room for double duty. I booked MTD based on memories of smoother days. In my mind if you're exiting early dining and having to cut through lines wrapping around the floor of people trying to get in to MTD, it feels like there is room for improvement. (this is where I think the 3rd dining time might be that improvement.)

Yes, we were on Celebration last year and overall this worked smoothly. There was one little nuance that was slightly annoying... we had early dining but there was some rule where we had to wait until after a certain time before we could go in the app to request a table at a spot like Chi Bang. But, the virtual queue made that less of an issue. Overall though we loved being able to try different restaurants for dinner w/o an upcharge. We did the MDR a few nights and the other nights did the BBQ place, Chibang, and Emril's (rather small up charge) a couple of times. Carnival got a lot of things right (albeit with one or two weird issues) on their Excel class ships.

I asked the Maître d' why MTD started so late now, and he told me that they doubled up the 3rd floor dining room in this manner because there wasn't enough MTD demand. I am not sure if that is accurate or not... it seems hard to believe that there wasn't sufficient demand for a complete floor. However, it seems pretty clear there is strong demand for something in the middle, e.g. 6:30-6:45. That is why I'm wondering if they won't just kill MTD completely when they move to three dining times. I did notice that our waitlist for early dining on Quantum this summer was just honored and now we're at 5:00 PM. Was Quantum always at 5 or was it 5:15 before? I'm wondering if they're getting ready to support 5 PM, 6:45 PM and 8:30 PM dining times.

Probably a lot would disagree on the overall cruise, but you may find some agree on Quantum class... I've seen some reviews along those lines. From the photos I've seen the ship seems to lack a "style", e.g. the Esplanade looks very 90's indoor shopping mall-ish. Of course it wasn't built for our market so I guess this isn't much of a surprise.

Did you have a later time? I wondered if there was just excessive demand for the 6:45 slot since that slot would capture everyone that would have taken an earlier time if they were still offered.

I should also say/ask- we're on Quantum this summer and I made the same MTD booking mistake. We're now waitlisted for early dining. Any chance MTD works better on Quantum? This info may be dated but I understand there are 4 dining rooms and at least at one point two of them were (100%?) dedicated to MTD?

We were just on the Allure and I was so happy we were able to change to early dining once on board. I originally booked MTD based on pre COVID memories only to find that now it starts at 6:45. Every time we left early dining, it was a MTD horror show outside the dining room! The reservation line and standby lines were both extensive. So, you have to stay on top of trying to get the reservation you want, and then you have to wait in line. I really can't see how this would appeal to anyone. If I recall, back in the day an entire dining room may have been dedicated to MTD for the entire night but now it starts after early dining. I also remember it working pretty smoothly but maybe I'm misremembering. Anyway, I quickly gave up any minor complaints I had with a set dining time- I had a new appreciation for the ability to walk right in and sit down every night. I think the ultimate cruise dream for many is a sailing where you can stroll in to a restaurant any time you like, on any night, and with no reservation, and at worst experience a minor delay. Annoying realities like logistics and statistics seem to block the implementation of such a thing, at least on the mass market cruise lines with mega ships (I've never been on Norwegian though so I can't comment on their "freestyle dining") I have heard RCI is introducing a 3rd dining time- do we know if this will kill off MTD?

I assume the solarium on Quantum is adults-only as on other RCI ships? I suppose our kids are a bit of a wildcard. They definitely appreciate natural beauty, but while I could sit around for hours watching and sipping on something I don't have that expectation for a 9 yr old. So we'll want to balance doing onboard activities with them and perhaps taking some time for ourselves- she can do the kids club if she gets bored with us and our 16 yr old will figure something out on his own 🙂