After much anticipation, brought on by all the marketing hype surrounding Royal Caribbean’s newest ship, I’m finally onboard Quantum of the Seas for her inaugural sailing to the Bahamas. Admittedly I’m not “loyal to Royal” because I’m not a fan of mass-market cruise lines. I prefer much smaller ships than the 4,200-passenger Quantum or the 5,400-passenger Allure of the Seas I was on a few years ago.
When I booked this trip the first thing to go through my mind was, “Do I really want to be on a ship that big again, knowing that I didn’t enjoy time on Allure?” Besides that, thoughts of bar servers dancing with drinks on their heads, long lines for everything, and flashbacks of June’s Carnival booze cruise kept going through my head.
Regardless of my preconceived notions and worries, I was genuinely excited to step board the world’s newest one-billion-dollar cruise ship.
After all, nothing beats that new ship smell.
After dropping off my rental car at the Newark airport, I popped my Uber cherry and used the “we’re not a taxi service, we’re a technology company” on-demand car service to take me to the Cape Liberty Cruise Port in Bayonne, NJ.
Coming into the port, I thought the driver accidentally transported me somewhere in bombed-out Beirut. While Royal Caribbean just built a brand new terminal to support Quantum, the rest of the port looks like a cold-war-era relic with boarded-up security checkpoints, barbed wire fences, roads in desperate need of repair, and plenty of places to hide bodies.
After all, this is Jersey.
Upon arrival, I started the timer on my phone to see if the promise of curbside to ship in 10 minutes or less was going to live up to the promise. Since I completed all the necessary check-in steps at home, including taking my own security photo, I should have no complications.
A luggage porter took my bags and attached RFID luggage tags to them so I could track their progress from the time his hands touched them to their arrival outside my stateroom, via the Royal iQ app which is also making its debut on Quantum.
Bags dropped, it was off to the terminal where rows and rows of check-in counters have been replaced by roaming agents with tablets who verify your passport, ask you the obligatory health questions where an affirmative answer will quickly get you booted off the ship, and if everything is in order… you proceed to the gangway.
There are a few check-in counters for those who did not complete their check-in at home or need additional assistance.
Being that all my stuff was in order, I arrived on time during my pre-scheduled 30-minute appointment window, I did indeed make it on the ship in just over eight minutes.
Very impressive. All embarkations should go that smoothly!
My first glimpse of Quantum revealed something new on the outside. While all Royal Caribbean ships have a white hull, Quantum debuted with a light-blue and white paint job.
Gone are the miles and miles of neon, Vegas-like décor and outlandish colors that most ships have. On Quantum they’ve been replaced by bright LED lighting, muted earth tones, imitation wood finishes (since real wood was outlawed under SOLAS guidelines), and plenty of marble and tile.
Gone are the stateroom keys. While you still get a plastic SeaPass, you don’t really need it onboard the ship. Passengers are now given RFID WOWBands that they wear on their wrists and swipe them in front of their stateroom door to open it and swipe it to make purchases onboard. I’m told you still need the SeaPass when you’re off the ship in port.
Those who purchased an unlimited beverage package, also need to hang on to their SeaPass until they figure out how to make the WOWBand tell servers they have a pass. If you purchase one of these packages, as I did for a whopping $450, a sticker is affixed to your SeaPass. No so high tech for the world’s first “smart ship.”
Also gone from Quantum is Royal’s signature Royal Promenade. On this ship of firsts, the central hub of activity has been replaced with the Royal Esplanade. Same concept, just a different name. It’s still the home for the various retail outlets, Sorrento’s pizza, bars, and music venues.
After wandering around for an hour or two taking in all the wow’s, I fired off a text message to some friends that simply said, “this is the most beautiful ship I’ve ever been on.”
Once the staterooms were ready, I headed up to check out mine on Deck 9 (9652 in case you’re on board and want to stalk me). I’m in a balcony cabin, which perhaps has the world’s smallest balcony. The room itself is small but is very well laid out and designed to maximize space. There is no shortage of storage, although the backs of the built-in closets are angled making one side deeper than the other.
There’s a king-size bed, a couch (which I believe can fold out to make another bed), a mini bar, a work area with, get this… USB ports for charging and large flat-screen television. Inside the bathroom, there’s one tiny sink, your standard vacuum toilet, and a shower with a rounded glass door instead of a disgusting shower curtain that grosses me out.
One thing that I’ve come to hate on all modern ships is the shower. In an attempt to become eco-friendly, lines have installed water-saving shower heads that have a flow worse than a man with an enlarged prostate. I had to strip down and step in to see whether the shower was going to be a friend or foe this trip.
Finally! I’m on a ship where you’re given the option to be eco-friendly or not. The water control valve has an “eco” feature where flow is restricted so you can feel good about showering and saving the world’s water but still feel dirty when you get out, or a simple push of a button lets you turn the knob more for full-flow. Same on the shower head. You have the option to use 1/3, 2/3, or 3/3 of the jets.
Of course, I opted for full power.
Another complaint I always have while at sea is the Internet connection. Here on Quantum, Royal Caribbean unveiled the next generation of satellite Internet at sea. You have the option to buy three levels of bandwidth, either by the hour or unlimited. With the top plan, you can actually stream movies on Netflix or similar services, while with the lower plan, you have enough bandwidth to check email and do minimal web tasks.
I opted for the $200 unlimited middle plan which also supports video calling on services like Skype or Facetime. So far, speeds have been great, and since it’s unlimited, I just keep my phone logged in all the time so emails are delivered like they are on land. Very impressive and inexpensive compared to other lines. I have not had any outages or dead spots, however, uploading photos consumes a lot of bandwidth and I didn’t opt for the plan that would make uploading faster, so you’ll have to wait a bit for me to get all the photos up, a limited few are up now.
I made mention earlier of the Royal iQ app. Once connected to the ship’s wi-fi network the app is used to make dining reservations, call or text other passengers, book excursions, keep track of your schedule, and also track your luggage. Unfortunately, the app wasn’t working all day (although it did start working today, Monday) and I was told it wasn’t functioning on the preview cruises either.
Like all cruises, passengers are required to attend the muster drill where they’re told what to do so should they have to abandon ship. This was perhaps the worst muster drill in my cruising history. Once at our assigned muster stations, we are told to direct our attention to televisions to view the safety video. On Quantum the cruise director no longer reads the script, it’s a video now. Unless you were in the front row, you could not see the television, so visuals be damned. Instead, people talked, texted, and would only shut up when told to by a crew member.
Once the safety part of the video was over, they showed a cartoon explaining over and over again that you must “wash your hands.” It was at this point that everyone started talking, and attempted to leave, before being told they are not dismissed yet and chaos ensued. At my station, people just stopped listening to crew members who told them they could not leave and just walked out. By the time the captain came on with his announcement, he could not be heard at all over the crowd who just decided to walk out.
My Facebook comment about the muster drill simply said, “Based on today’s muster drill, if we were to hit an iceberg, 90% of the people on board would die.”
I commented to a crew member about the drill and he shrugged his shoulders and said, “What do you expect, we’re in Jersey.”
After bidding the Garden State a fond farewell, I headed up to the top deck to watch as the ship sailed under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. This is always a highlight when cruising out of New York City on the Queen Mary 2 as she has to time her arrival and departure exactly with the low tide because she only clears the bridge by a few meters. Quantum came very close as well, and as the funnel cleared the bridge, cheers went up from the crowd as we made our way out to the Atlantic.
On Quantum, the main dining room has been ditched and in its place are more than a dozen restaurants you choose from – some free, some a flat per-person fate, and some ala carte. The new concept called Dynamic Dining is a hit in my book, as I never do the main dining room on ships. Also, on Quantum it’s smart casual all the time. No more dreaded formal nights – Amen to that sister! Well, I stand corrected. If you book dinner in The Grande, you dress to the nines as every night is formal night, for those who just have to have that time-honored cruise tradition that should have been banned along with real wood.
Before heading to dinner, I went to Vintages, the ship’s wine bar for a few glasses of, you guessed it… vino. Appetizers are also served, ala carte of course, from a tapas menu from the around-the-corner Jamie’s Italian. Want some nuts to go with your drink at the bar? That will cost you $3. I opted for the $5 “Meat Board” which was described as a selection of artisan meats and cheeses served with olives. It made for a nice starter, even if it was extra.
Dinner Sunday night for me was at Devinly Decadence, a restaurant created by Devin Alexander, the best-selling author of eight cookbooks and chef on NBC’s The Biggest Loser. The menu features comfort food all under 500 calories each. I started off with Mom’s Beef Stew which was good, but unlike my Mom’s, it lacked potatoes – but then it would be over 500 calories! Next up was Chicken Satay which wasn’t a hit or a miss, it was just “ok.” For my main course, I opted for the Cowboy Rubbed Beef Tenderloin. While a cowboy didn’t come out and rub it, it was tasty but small – then again, it must be under 500 calories. Dessert was an uninspired apple torte that lacked everything needed to make it delicious and was topped with perhaps the most god-awful ice cream ever.
After dinner, I headed to the Royal Esplanade where I fell in love with a watch at the Hublot store that was the same price as a new Ford. In order to wash away the sticker shock, I headed back to Vintages then off to the Music Hall to catch a live band before turning in for the night.
My initial impressions continue to revolve around “wow.” So far there has not been one – and I mean not one – intrusive announcement from the cruise director talking about a big sale on gold by the inch, no mid-day update from the captain, nothing. I’m loving that and hopefully, it will stay that way.
Passengers on this sailing are on the older side, with an average age I would say between 55-60.
Enough for today! More tomorrow where I talk about my Monday sea day, a quick bout of seasickness, the nickel and diming, and more. I’ve got to get ready for an early dinner and then the Broadway production of Mamma Mia at 8:15pm.
Personal Day-By-Day Quantum of the Seas Cruise Review:
Photo Tour of the Quantum of the Seas:
No cruise vacation is complete without taking a ton of photos, and that’s exactly what I did on my Quantum of the Seas cruise. From the ship’s stunning interiors to its beautiful pool areas and my cozy stateroom, I captured it all on camera. You can check out my photo tour of the ship and see all of the pictures I took by visiting the links above for my day-by-day review of the cruise.