Just off Quantum April 12th. - Likes & dislikes

[tahkli71]

There have been some great live and post-cruise reviews of QOS. I thought I would add my 2 cents in three parts, First, what I liked and did not care for. Second, thoughts, day-by-day, through the week. Third, just general comments. Remember, these are my opinions and thoughts based on 6 past cruises with three different lines.

Liked:

The ship. It's beautiful.

North Star - Amazing. Did it twice.

The shows - saw all of them including the robotic displays in Two70.

Two USB ports on the desk and one on one of the night stands.

Plenty of empty deck chairs, other than directly around the pools.

Cococay - well managed, great food, pleasant to the eye.

The technology.

Our cabin steward, Mr. Wan, was outstanding. Cabin 10380.

Nicer bathroom set-up and seemed larger.

Coffee in La Patisserie.

Chops - outstanding food, presentation, and service.

Chic, American Icon, and Windjammer - all good to very good food.

Still enjoy seeing a towel animal in the evening.

Solarium was a nice place to hang, read, hot tub, bar, no kids.

Last but not least, the ride. It was the smoothest sailing I've been on.

 

Did not like so much:

Lack of service attendants in Windjammer. No more coming around and getting you coffee and or juice in the morning.

Lack of service attendants around the pool and deck areas. They were non-existent.

Only two electrical outlets in the cabin. Should have brought a strip.

Our cabin was laid out with the bed next to the sliding glass door.

Coffee in WJ was just awful.

No room service menu for tea or coffee in the morning.

RCCL either needs to enforce the formal attire for The Grande, of just forget it. Allowing guests in with short sleeve shirts and jeans should not be acceptable - and no they did not have the jacket supplied by the staff hanging from the chair.

Salt shakers in Chic had a dispensing head the size of an M&M. Had to open to get salt and pepper out.

No deck light on the balcony.

Pools seem to be way to small for a ship with over 4,000 guests.

Finally, my biggest dislike, leaning toward hatred, was the reservation system for dining and shows. Both prior to sailing and on the ship.

[tahkli71]

Hot water in the cabin is very, very hot - be careful.

The desk has very poor lighting - FYI - there is a light around the mirror.

Evidently, the fridge has no vent in the back because the heat given off from the cooler/chiller, rises into the top drawer (above the fridge) don't put anything in there that will melt (i.e., lipstick).

Storage space above the bed should have handles or a sign. We did not find it until day 5!

Stores on board are small and very high end. Mostly jewelry and watches.

The duty free shop ran out of Grey Goose on day 4.

If you are travelling with a group and you have side-by-side cabins, the cabin steward can open the doors between the balconies. Just ask.

The artwork on board is terrific. I am not an art aficionado, but it's worth paying attention to.

If you are looking for an isolated and private space for under 6 people, try deck 5 under the lifeboats.

WJ had a dinner menu each night with half-price glasses and bottles of wine. We did a wine and cheese dinner one night and it was fabulous (however, you are in WJ). You can take any unfinished wine to your cabin or to one of the comp. restaurants.

In order to turn on the lights once you enter your cabin, you must insert a sea pass card to engage the electricity and leave it there.

IMHO, this cruise felt like a training cruise for the staff for their journey to China.

Last thought, make sure you have all of your medications prior to departing. Visiting the infirmary on board is time consuming, expensive, and a little frightening. The doctor who consulted with my wife (she left her BP meds behind) did not know an equivalent generic drug nor could she give us a dosage based on what my wife told her she took. Called her doc from FL, all good.

Finally, on a scale of 1 to 10 our 6 person group gave the total experience: 7.5, 9.0, 9.0, 8.0, 8.5, and a no vote. As you can see by the range of numbers, it's really about what you felt, not anyone else. I was the 7.5 by the way.

[dani negreanu]

Thank you for taking the time to review. Taking notes:)

2 questions:

 

What's "La Patisserie"?

You didn't care for the food in Grande & Silk?

 

On a cruise of 13 days, I'm trying to alternate between the 4 complimentary restaurants.:D

 

Thanks

[tahkli71]

Ate at Chic twice - very nice. Silk was a disaster in all areas, all of us did not care for it. La Patisserie is a small coffee shop and pastry shop on deck 4 that opens very early for us early risers. It's complimentary.

[tahkli71]

Oh and The Grande was very nice. Very good food.

[dani negreanu]

La Patisserie is a small coffee shop and pastry shop on deck 4 that opens very early for us early risers. It's complimentary.

 

Thanks, DH is always on the look for a good cup of coffee and an early riser :)

Edited April 13, 2015 by dani negreanu

[Donsyb]

[quote=tahkli71;

No room service menu for tea or coffee

 

I've seen photos on here of room service menus from Quantum with tea and coffee in the morning - are you saying they've removed it?

[tahkli71]

We did not get one for our cabin. Don't know about others. There was a menu on the tv but we could not get it to function.

[Turtles06]

OP: thank you for taking the time to post your comprehensive and objective list. We are on Anthem in the fall, so it's helpful.

 

Your comment about the drawer over the fridge getting hot is the same problem we had on the Celebrity Eclipse (also built at Meyer Werft and similar in cabin design to Quantum class). On the Eclipse, the safe was above the fridge and got so hot inside we did not dare to put any electronics or camera memory cards in it. And the clothing drawers next to the fridge were so hot that our clothes were toasty, which was not always a good thing!

 

Thanks for the warning!

[liverpoollad]

Thanks for your comprehensive thoughts, I found them very helpful.

[Yorkvillain]

Ate at Chic twice - very nice. Silk was a disaster in all areas, all of us did not care for it. La Patisserie is a small coffee shop and pastry shop on deck 4 that opens very early for us early risers. It's complimentary.

 

Nice review.

 

Is La Patisserie really complimentary? On our cruise in February everything there cost something.

[silver7]

I had my undergarments in that drawer above the fridge, and was surprised by how toasty they were :) I highly recommend using it to store PJs or any other clothing items you want warmed up for that "straight out of the dryer" feeling.

Edited April 13, 2015 by silver7

[tahkli71]

I erred. It's Cafe Promenade that's complimentary.

[roe2ship]

We were on the same cruise. We really enjoyed the food....thought it was the best from our other Royal cruises. Service was another story. It was very obvious that Quantum was understaffed. New trainees were on our cruise and for the most part were clueless and didn't understand and speak English well.

We ran into a few more service issues than we ever experienced on a Royal cruise.

 

Entertainment was good but have to say I expected a little better. Perhaps Oasis spoiled that for us. Two70 was stunning with breathtaking views, comfortable furniture and an amazing sound system. With all the hype about this venue, I expected Starwater to be an unforgettable show. Well, it was good, but nothing to rave about. Same with Mamma Mia....a bit too long and slow. Sonic Odyssey and Guest Entertainer Ronn Lucas were great!

 

Quantum is a gorgeous ship though. We had a wonderful cruise, no such thing as a bad cruise in my book. We are re-thinking our Anthem cruise, possibly to postpone it for several reasons. One of them being, she will only be six months old but with the addition of Classic Dining as well. If Anthem is staffed like Quantum is, the problem will start there. Additionally, I believe those complimentary venues are not big enough for the number of passengers Quantum/Anthem has. We shall see.

 

I was very confident that Royal will have the kinks worked out on Quantum before we went on. I think with the change in plans to send Quantum off to China also has an affect on the service problems.

Edited April 14, 2015 by roe2ship

[Lumric]

Was on the same cruise. You were lucky, Parents, wife and I ate at chops on the first night, and had a total noob for a waiter. very slow, didn't come around to refill drinks, no help for presentation so placing plates one at a time. We had to demand the four sauces be brought out to add to our stakes.

 

Food was wonderful as always, but the service was lacking. Rest of the cruise was very good.

Though kinda sad to hear all the changes that are going to take place to it over the trip to China. :(

[Donsyb]

We did not get one for our cabin. Don't know about others. There was a menu on the tv but we could not get it to function.

 

You should have asked your cabin steward for one. There is definitely breakfast room service the menu is on here.

[read52]

We were on the March 29 cruise, and I have to say that for the first time we experienced some problems. Also we experienced some great things on this ship. We started with the first day because the cruise before us had noro. Did not board until 1:00 and did not get into room until 7:30 pm due to cleaning. We thought great it will be clean. But we had to go to The Grande with our carry ons. They continued to clean until day 4 and my husband got sick from the cleaning product. But the food was great as were the shows and activities. We loved the North Star and I did the ifly. We went on the Allure 6 months after it came out and had no problems. The other big issue was the fact that there were so many trainees that did not understand the language. Our room attendant tried hard but not in other parts of the ship. I think these problems will not be part of the Anthem because we were told that many of the older staff is going to that ship.

[DPurcell58]

We were on the same cruise too. Definitely the crew was training for China, most didn't understand much English.

Had a slow waiter in Chops too the final night.

Silk was ok, Grande was good, we got to eat in Coastal Kitchen one night, excellent.

No pool waiters, annoying. Loved Solarium

Thought there was a lot to do at night, Glow Party, 70s Party, Bon Jovi Tribute (3nights), Quest, White Hot Party, Silent Party, more I didn't do. Was out much later than other cruises.

Loved Mama Mia, Starwater was good, never got to Sonic .

We booked Anthem for June 2016 for 9 nights. 20 minutes from home.

[ladybird1292]

Thanks for your review very informative.

 

 

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