March 21 Quantum Review

[malackym]

My family and I just got back from the March 21, 2015 sailing on the Quantum of the Seas, I’m going to try to post a day of our cruise each day for the next week. But please feel free to ask questions about anything at any time.

 

Planning stages of the Cruise

 

My wife and I decided to take the kids on another cruise as their Christmas present. We live in Ohio and wanted to sail without having to fly simply to save on the air. So I checked both the Baltimore and Port Liberty out of New Jersey. I had to work around the kid’s spring break, so we were limited to the end of March. Started reading cruisecritic and read a lot of bad reviews about the Quantum. But we decided on the March 21 sailing of the Quantum out of Cape Liberty anyway, simply because the dates worked the best for us. We’re pretty easy going and also figured they had months to work out the bugs. I called and booked 3 cabins on Nov 21, 2014 – All interior, one for my wife and I, one for my three teenage children and one for my in laws who wanted to join us.

 

We gave our children each a bottle of sun screen for Christmas and asked them to guess where we were going. They all said “cruise” on the first guess and were excited about the Quantum. They started reading the reviews and kept watching the approval rating of the ship, which was in the 30% range when we started looking in December.

 

Not trusting the online reservations, on December 26, 2014, I called RC and booked dinner for the seven of us for each night of the cruise, switching between the complementary restaurants: Grand, Silk, Chic and American Icon. Since the show times weren’t available, (I was told they would be available at the beginning of February 2015), I made all our dinner reservations at either 6:30 or 7:00 depending on availability. Reserving dinner over the phone took about 25 minutes, and I didn’t think that was too bad. I also booked the iFly for myself and the three kids on day two.

 

After New Year, my brother decided to join us and we were very happy about that! So I called RC and moved my oldest son out of the kid’s room and put him with my brother. So we now had 4 rooms of two people. A few days later I called again to add my brother to our dinner reservations and found that because my son had switched rooms, he was dropped from our reservations, so I needed to add them both onto our dinner reservations. There was no problem doing that. However, he was also dropped from our iFly reservation, and there were no slots available at the same time we had. So I figured I would check when I got on board and if we couldn’t get him added with us, I would hold off going and let him go in my place and I would go some other time.

 

Once shows became available to book, I called RC to do that. I had no trouble booking the shows and all 8 of us had reservations just about every night after dinner for a show.

 

Since it was about a 6 hour drive from Ohio to the port, we need both a place to leave our cars and also a place to stay Friday night, since we didn’t want to travel that far the day the ship departed. Checking cruisecritic again, I decided to book us two rooms at the Ramada by the Newark airport. Each room came with parking for the duration of the cruse and also transportation to the port and back.

 

You may have noticed I called RC several times. There is more up front work with Dynamic Dining, but each time I called I had no trouble getting what I needed. Did it take extra time that I normally wouldn't have had to spend? Yes, but the way I looked at it, anytime I was talking about the Cruise, I was happy thinking about going!!!! :D

 

Next up: Driving to NJ

 

Our Group at the Grand! I'm on the left.

[malackym]

On to NJ

 

Several weeks before the cruise I took everyone’s picture, registered everyone for the Cruise and printed out our bag tags. The earliest time to board I could get was 12:45.

 

One mistake I did make setting up the account that RC couldn’t help me with, yes I called them again, was I set up two of my kids without linking them to my account. I couldn’t go back and change it to link them to my charge account. RC could not fix this over the phone, they said I had to set up the charge account once I got on board. So I just left them set up with no account.

 

Friday before the cruse we start our journey to NJ and of course there is a snow storm across the whole state of Pennsylvania. Whoo Hoo! Travel took a little longer than planned but we all arrived at the Ramada safe and sound. At check in I set up our pick up for 10:00 am figuring on about a half an hour trip to the port. I thought that if we have to wait to board, we would rather wait at the port.

 

Here is a picture outside of the lobby at the Ramada that quite a few people took a picture of and also me starting to fold the tags for our 14 pieces of luggage the night before we sail.

 

 

 

Next: Onto the Quantum

[Nhsaltshaker]

Good looking family...subscribing!

[malackym]

Getting to The Quantum

 

Woke up at the Ramada and did our final packing and got ready to head to the pier. The Ramada did not have a complimentary breakfast. They did have a buffet, $12 I think, and also a little kiosk that sold juices, muffins and sandwiches, so some of us had a quick snack before we headed out. Made sure I had everyone's boarding papers and we headed to the lobby to wait for our rides.

 

Our drivers showed up in two Lincoln Navigators 15 minutes early at 9:45, so we piled ourselves and our luggage in and were on our way by 9:50. The ride over only took about 15 minutes to get to the pier. Once we got close we sat in a line right by the drop off for about 5 minutes.

 

Even though there was snow on the ground, there is nothing like seeing your ship for the first time. We didn't hit traffic until we rounded the bend up ahead as we turned to the right.

 

We were dropped off about 30 feet from the entrance and after the baggage lady tagged our bags with a tracking tag we walked into the terminal. I guess we were too excited to board the ship because we don’t have any pictures of the terminal. Sorry.

 

Once we were inside, we quickly found someone to help us. He scanned all of our pre completed registration forms and checked our passports and checked us in. This took about 15 minutes. I was able to add my two kids to my account without any problem. In fact he saw that they had no account and asked me if I wanted to add them to mine. Also, for some reason, my pre-loaded picture didn’t load for him and he had to take mine there. We then proceeded to security where we went right thru, there were no lines there at all.

 

After security you come to a waiting area roped off for different times of boarding. There were several hundred people here. I would imagine that we would have been put in the 12:45 slot but I’m not sure because one of the RC workers saw my father in law with his cane walking slowly, he is in his 80’s, and put us in the next time slot to go in. We only had to sit there about 15 minutes.

 

We then headed thru a check point and had our pre-printed papers scanned again. We went up an escalator, down a hall and were walking onto the ship at 10:50 am. So it was just under an hour from when we left the hotel to when we boarded the ship. Not bad at all.

 

The best feeling - my wife and father in law walking on!

Next up: Departure

[Nhsaltshaker]

Wow! That's a quick boarding!

 

I'd love to know if the luggage tags (RFID?) work yet. Do you have the Royal app and if so, can you actually track your luggage

[jmrothermel]

Subscribing!

[malackym]

Wow! That's a quick boarding!

 

I'd love to know if the luggage tags (RFID?) work yet. Do you have the Royal app and if so, can you actually track your luggage

 

Yes we did use the Royal IQ app, and it worked great by allowing us to text each other when we were on the ships network, so we always knew where each other were and could contact one another if we needed to. You didn't need to sign up for the internet package for this to work.

 

However, I tried one time to track my luggage and it said I had no luggage with this account, so no it didn't work very well for that. I checked about an 2 hours after we dropped off our luggage, so you think it would have been working by then. All our luggage was at our rooms by three, so I never really needed to check it again.

Edited April 1, 2015 by malackym

[malackym]

On The Quantum

 

We walked on the ship on the starboard side of deck 5 just forward of the aft elevators. Always a very exciting time. We decided to try lunch at Café 270 as something different from the Windjammer. 270 is a very impressive room. The windows around the whole venue make it a great place for a good view.

 

Here are a few shots of Two270.

 

 

 

From the stage/windows looking back

 

 

I will not be critiquing the food. I’m one of those people who think food is something you eat to survive. My wife on the other hand took a picture of every meal she had the whole week. So if you are looking for something specific, maybe I can find it. So, the food in Two270 for lunch was good and the lines were short, 2 minute wait in line to get our food. Went over to the bar to get my first drink of the cruise, and I just used my set sail pass to charge it to my room. We didn’t have our wristband or cards yet as they are in your room and we were told the rooms would be ready around 1:00.

 

After the kids ran off to explore the ship, I headed over to the excursion shop to book the Labadee zip line for my kids and my wife went up to the spa to book our couples massage. There was one person working at the excursion shop and there was one group in front of me. Had I know at the time, I could have used one of the several ipads mounted to the desks there to book my excursion using the Royal IQ app on the iPad. There was only one person using one while I waited. As I was waiting my wife returned to inform me our massage was today at 4:15. They had a “Sail away special “. I had to wait about 15 minutes to talk with the excursion desk and they booked the zip line in no time. I then went over to buy a pop package for one of my children. FYI, the reason I didn’t already book the excursion & pop package was because I had OBC and wanted to use it for as much as I could, thinking I had enough to cover all our expenses on the ship. Well, we did go over, but not by too much. I got the OBC credit with our RC Credit Card.

 

Here are few shot my kids took the first day.

 

Outside Jamie's/ Vintages

 

 

 

Next: On to the room

[Nhsaltshaker]

You and your family definitely have the photographic eye. Great pics.

 

Have you seen any of the shows at 270?

 

I'm wondering which seat to camp out on for a good view.

 

Love your review so far!

[dedosr]

The texting between the 4 in our party worked well. However, you need to add the people in other staterooms to your contact list in the IQ App. It is easy to do. Each person that purchases the FREE texting package has an extension #. Just add that extension number to your contacts in the Chat section of the app.

One more thing that is very very important!! Everyone needs to keep the IQ App open for the texts to go thru immediately. If you close the App, and someone sends you a text, the sender will get a message that the recipient is off line. The recipient will get the text, but not until they re open the app. So for best text messaging, keep the app open in the background.

[malackym]

You and your family definitely have the photographic eye. Great pics.

 

Have you seen any of the shows at 270?

 

I'm wondering which seat to camp out on for a good view.

 

Love your review so far!

 

The only show we saw in two70 was Starwater. We sat to the right of the stage as you look at it, over by the bar in the front row. Great view, but we didn't get the full affect of the performance I think you would get from directly in front. My two oldest kids went to the perfomance again and sat more in the middle.

 

Thanks for the complements. Trying to keep the updates coming, but it's taking a little longer than I thought it would especially with this work thing!!! ;)

 

Mark.

[malackym]

The texting between the 4 in our party worked well. However, you need to add the people in other staterooms to your contact list in the IQ App. It is easy to do. Each person that purchases the FREE texting package has an extension #. Just add that extension number to your contacts in the Chat section of the app.

One more thing that is very very important!! Everyone needs to keep the IQ App open for the texts to go thru immediately. If you close the App, and someone sends you a text, the sender will get a message that the recipient is off line. The recipient will get the text, but not until they re open the app. So for best text messaging, keep the app open in the background.

 

Great tip, wish I could rep it. Completely agree! We had the same experience.

[malackym]

Our rooms

 

After setting up our excursions and pop packages, we walked around a bit to get oriented. I waited in line at the Grand to check on our resurvations and the dress code for the first night. Took 15 minutes. It is defiantly casual the first night. No jackets required. There were many people in jeans and tee shirts. There were also a lot of people waiting in line.

 

One thing to point out. If you do need to go to make a change or check on a dinner reservation at one of the complementary restaurants, you don’t have to wait in line for the receptionist at the one you are inquiring about. You can go to any of them. All four were usually open all the time.

 

I did like how everything indoors was on either deck 3, 4 or 5. I never felt like I was too far away from anything. We checked on our room at 12:45, deck 8, and they were ready and two of our bags were already there, both mine. Our party had 4 large interior rooms. Large is from the RC description, but I will say they were larger than our interior rooms on the Freedom and had plenty of closet and drawer space for the two of us. I also liked the virtual balcony, and we had no problems with it during the cruise.

 

Here are a few pictures of the kids room.

 

 

 

 

After unpacking it was time for the Guest Assembly Drill as the called it. We had to muster in Two70. No life jackets needed. They mentioned that there wouldn’t be enough seats for everyone and asked for people to come down to the dance floor if you were able to stand. Here is a picture of me standing. Lol

 

 

By the time the drill started, the floor was mostly full. They showed a video of what to do if anything should happen and then we got to hear, for the first time, the lovely tune from the video “Wash your hands.” Finally, we heard the captains ‘required’ remarks that we will get under way as soon as he finds the keys! The whole thing took about 25 minutes.

 

After the drill, it was time for our couple’s massage. The only bad thing about it was that it was at the same time as our departure and I didn’t get to see the sail away. In all honesty, I enjoyed the massage, but I will admit, I’ve never had one before and I don’t really think they are for me. My wife loved it, and I think I would be better off getting her two on the next cruise.

 

Here are some pictures of the sail away my kids took

 

 

I could only post 6 pictures per post, so I will put a couple more in the next post.

 

After the massage, we went back to our room and got ready for dinner at the Grand at 7:00. We arrived about 6:45 and walked right in to our table of eight. Mike from Philly, “How YOU doin!" was our waiter and was very entertaining. We ordered 2 bottles of wine and just relaxed. I had the salmon, it was good. ;-) We scheduled meeting at the American Icon Grill for breakfast for anyone interested. We stayed at dinner until a little after 9:00 and never felt rushed or like we were waiting.

 

Not wanting to get too worn out the first day, The wife and I, as well as my in laws, went up to bed after dinner. I don’t know what the kids did. I’m happy they are older and we didn’t have to keep tabs on them as much as we did on past cruises. We never took them on cruises when they were babies, but I was surprised how many strollers I saw during the cruise.

 

We did not go to Ken Rush’s welcome aboard show. It started at 8:00 and went until 9:15, right during our dinner. If we weren’t at dinner, I’m sure we would have gone.

 

Next: Day 1

[malackym]

A few more sail away pics.

 

No chair hogs at the pool yet

 

Coney Island?

[rm1247]

Thanks for the pics of the cabins! Did all of your interior cabins have the beds by the door? Also, was there a curtain to separate off the sitting area? We'll have three teens in a category K, and I'm trying to picture how that will work.

[malackym]

Thanks for the pics of the cabins! Did all of your interior cabins have the beds by the door? Also, was there a curtain to separate off the sitting area? We'll have three teens in a category K, and I'm trying to picture how that will work.

 

No, funny, but two of our rooms has the bed by the door and two had the bed by the virtual balcony. The two rooms that we had right next to each other had one by the door and one by the balcony.

 

There was no curtain in any of the rooms, but maybe if you have three in a room there will be one. Sorry I don't know for sure.

 

Mark.

[nycruise]

A few more sail away pics.

 

 

Coney Island?

 

That sure is Coney Island with the world famous Parachute Jump, which was originally built for the 1939 World's Fair. It was relocated to Coney Island when the fair closed.

 

Here's a little history:

 

 

"The Parachute Jump is a defunct amusement ride in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York, whose iconic open-frame steel structure remains a Brooklyn landmark. 250 feet tall and weighing 170 tons, it has been called the "Eiffel Tower of Brooklyn".

 

It was originally built for the 1939 New York World's Fair in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens, and moved to its current site, then part of the Steeplechase Park amusement park, in 1941. It is the only portion of Steeplechase Park still standing today. The ride ceased operations in 1964, when the park shut down for good.

 

The ride was based on functional parachutes which were held open by metal rings throughout the ascent and descent. Twelve cantilevered steel arms sprout from the top of the tower, each of which supported a parachute attached to a lift rope and a set of surrounding guide cables. Riders were belted into a two-person canvas seat hanging below the closed chute, then hoisted to the top, where a release mechanism would drop them, the descent slowed only by the parachute. Shock absorbers at the bottom, consisting of pole-mounted springs, cushioned the landing. Each parachute required three cable operators, keeping labor expenses high."

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parachute_Jump

[read52]

At what point in the cruise did you find out about some people having noravirus?

[DonnaK]

Thanks for your review!

Edited April 5, 2015 by DonnaK

[mj]

Great review. Keep it coming.

[CruisinCons]

No, funny, but two of our rooms has the bed by the door and two had the bed by the virtual balcony. The two rooms that we had right next to each other had one by the door and one by the balcony.

 

There was no curtain in any of the rooms, but maybe if you have three in a room there will be one. Sorry I don't know for sure.

 

Mark.

 

From what I have read here, the position of the bed & sofa is determined by whether or not that sofa is just a sofa, or if it's a sofabed.

 

We were in 11306 & 11308, connecting balconies. Our bed was by the door in 306, and in 308 the bed was by the balcony.

[malackym]

From what I have read here, the position of the bed & sofa is determined by whether or not that sofa is just a sofa, or if it's a sofabed.

 

We were in 11306 & 11308, connecting balconies. Our bed was by the door in 306, and in 308 the bed was by the balcony.

 

Interesting, I never checked any of ours to see if they were beds, I just thought they were sofas.

[malackym]

At what point in the cruise did you find out about some people having noravirus?

 

I would say by day four. We stated seeing our cabin doors and hallway rails soapy. Staff was really out with the Purell and they closed the Craps table. The casino manager said they were short some staff because of the virus, plus they needed staff to man the doors with purell, so they didn't have enough people to run the craps table. I only got to play one night.

[rm1247]

From what I have read here, the position of the bed & sofa is determined by whether or not that sofa is just a sofa, or if it's a sofabed.

 

We were in 11306 & 11308, connecting balconies. Our bed was by the door in 306, and in 308 the bed was by the balcony.

 

Thanks! Is the sofabed by the door or the balcony?

[CruisinCons]

Thanks! Is the sofabed by the door or the balcony?

 

306 has the sofabed, it actually sleeps 3. So sofabed by the balcony.