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Quantum of the Seas is one of the most
innovative but at the same time, most controversial ships, to debut
in the last few years. In many respects, Quantum is significantly
different than what Royal Caribbean and other cruise lines have done
in the past. I find this quite exciting.
Naturally, people who like what was
done in the past will need to get used to these changes. This
process has not been helped by various technological glitches that
plagued the ship early on.
However, during this cruise, people who
were at first skeptical of this ship seemed to be captured by the
beauty of her interior and to become comfortable with her different
way of presenting a cruise experience.
Should every cruise ship be like
Quantum? No, but I am glad that there is a ship like Quantum.
Indeed, I believe even Royal Caribbean would agree with this. As I
wrote in this blog before Quantum entered service, there were at
least three versions of the Royal Caribbean cruise experience within
the Royal Caribbean fleet. Now, there is a fourth version.
By way of background, this cruise was
not the first time that I was on Quantum. In November, Royal Caribbean
invited members of the press to see its new ship. She was impressive
at the press event. However, I wanted to see how she was in action
with real people aboard. Since new ships almost always have teething
problems, I decided to wait until January to cruise on her.
This particular was a 12-day winter
cruise to the Caribbean out of Bayonne, New Jersey, which is part of
the Port of New York.
The Quantum class ships were
originally conceived as all weather cruise ships. Most modern cruise
ships were designed with warm weather cruising in mind. They have
lots of open deck space and they are at their best sailing the calm
waters of the Caribbean or the Mediterranean.
A problem arises if you want to base a
ship in a northern port such as Bayonne or Southampton, England
during the winter time. The open deck areas cannot be used until the
ship reaches the warm seas. In addition, the ship may be
uncomfortable if it gets into a winter storm en route to the Sun.
Most of what would have been open deck
on Quantum is covered. This includes the adults only Solarium area,
one of the main pools, and the Seaplex, a section that roughly
corresponds to the sports area on other ships. Consequently, those
areas can be used throughout the cruise even in the cold weather of
the north.
Quantum has also been designed so as
to have improved seakeeping abilities. She cuts through the waves
rather than bounces over them. As a result, I found her ride smooth
and comfortable.
The interior of Quantum is also
impressive. I have consistently found the ships built by Meyer Weft
(e.g., Celebrity Solstice, Norwegian Breakaway, Brilliance of the
Seas) to have excellent quality and attention to detail. Quantum is
no exception.
When I first saw Quantum, my
impression was that her interior looked more like a Celebrity cruise
ship than a Royal Caribbean cruise ship. Her style is up-market and
elegant. However, in operation, Quantum clearly has the upbeat feel
of a Royal Caribbean ship thus proving that a cruise line's style
comes more from its people than the hardware.
I had no problems with the service on
Quantum. In general, the crew were competent and friendly. Indeed,
there were a few incidents where crew members who I had never met
before went beyond what I expected. I found this particularly
impressive because they had no relationship to maintain with me and
no expectation of a financial reward.
Quntum takes a much different approach
to dining than other cruise ships. It has no main dining room and
thus has no traditional fixed dining system or even the now familiar
flex dining system. Rather, under Dynamic Dining, guests instead
have the option of dining in four (five if you are staying in a
suite) complimentary restaurants and a battery of extra-tariff
specialty restaurants.
I liked the variety offered by this
system. It enabled me to have more dining experiences than on other
ships. The food quality in each venue was up to the Royal Caribbean
standard with the food in Coastal Kitchen (suite guests only) a
knotch above the other complimentary venues.
The Dynamic Dining system is quite
controversial. Quite a few guests said they missed not having the
same waiter each night who comes to know your likes and dislikes.
One of the benefits of the traditional cruise ship fixed seating
system is that you do develop a relationship with your server over
the course of the cruise. However, in the clourse of my travels, I
have noticed that fewer and fewer people are selecting the
traditional system. Indeed, at the late seating on many ships
lately, there have been numerous empty tables. I would not be
surprised if most lines eliminate or significantly modify the
traditional system over the next decade.
In any event, I am not sure that this
is a fair criticism of Dynamic Dining. I had breakfast in the
American Icon Grill during the first few days of the cruise. Without
making any special request, the same waiter served me each time and
he remembered what I like for breakfast. Along the same lines,
I had
several meals in Coastal Kitchen and there the servers remembered me
and my preferences from visit to visit. My conclusion is that the
level of personalized service depends more on the skills of the
server than on the dining system.
Another complaint often heard is that
the restaurants do not vary their menus during the course of the
cruise. Thus, if you go to one restaurant several times during a
voyage, you will probably end up having the same meal more than once.
The solution here is to try all the different venues. If you do,
you will encounter as much variety as you would in a traditional main
dining room over the course of a cruise.
Perhaps the biggest source of
controversy with Dyamic Dining is the reservation system. In order
to prevent everyone on the ship showing up at the same time at the
same restaurant, guests are encouraged to make reservations ahead of
time. You do not have to make a reservation but guests with
reservations are given priority access.
Before coming aboard Quantum, I was
concerned that having to make reservations would restrict my freedom
to adjust the cruise to suit the circumstances. I do not know prior
to a cruise what kind of dining experience I would like on a given
day during a cruise. Similarly, I do not know much beforehand what
time I would like to eat on a given day. It depends upon such things
as the people I meet during the cruise, what happened during the day,
what else there is to do on a given evening. One of the great
virtues of the flexible dining systems available on most ships these
days is that it allows you to be spontaneous.
But after experiencing Dynamic Dining,
my pre-cruise concerns seem unjustified. I was able to adjust where
and when I had dinner without much difficulty.
Another problem is that the
reservation system does not seem to be a very good regulator of
passenger flow. I generally like to eat late, roughly at the time
that would correspond to the late seating under a traditional system.
It was when I always dined on QE2 where I got my start cruising and
it has just remained with me. As a result, I did not experience any
lines and was always seated at the times specified in my
reservations. However, I did hear that at the more popular dining
times, even people with reservations sometimes had to wait to be
seated.
This is not altogether surprising.
When you make a reservation at a restaurant, the restaurant does not
normally hold a table empty until you arrive. Instead, the
restaurant accepts the reservation based on the assumption that a
table will become free at the time of the reservation. If the people
dining in the restaurant take longer to dine than the restaurant
expected, people arriving at the restaurant will have to wait even if
they have a reservation. When you are dealing with the number of
people that travel on a large cruise ship, this problem is magnified.
Time should alleviate this problem. A
restaurant learns from experience how much time it should allocate
between reservations. In addition, it can find ways to speed up
service so that the turnover is quicker and more efficient. Indeed,
I heard from people who have done several cruises on Quantum that
this problem has diminished even in the relatively short time that
the ship has been in service.
Leaving aside Dynamic Dining, there
are some other culinary features on Quantum that deserve special
mention. First, since Quantum does not have a main dining room, it
does not offer the Tuti Salad bar, which is an outstanding option
offered at lunch in the main dining rooms on most other Royal
Caribbean ships. You tell the chefs which of the wide array of
ingredients you want and they build a salad for you. While not
offering as an extensive array of ingredients as at the Tuti Salad
bars, Cafe@270 on Quantum offers very good made to order salads. In
addition, it has a nice selection of sandwiches, paninis and wraps as
well as pastries.
But if you are looking for a lunchtime
dessert, Quantum has great fresh baked cookies. These are available
at the bakery counter in the Windjammer buffet restaurant. They can
also be found in the Concierge Club.
Somewhat overshadowed by the
introduction of Dynamic Dining is the fact that the entertainment
offerings on Quantum are cutting edge.
In the main theater, there are no
traditional production shows. Rather, Quantum has a full-length
production of the Broadway musical Mama Mia. Although long - - two
and a half hours - - this is nicely performed. The Abba music is
universally appealing and overcomes the rather thin plot.
The other centerpiece show in the main
theater is Sonic Odyssey. This is a multi-media spectacular
utilizing such things as a stringed instrument that uses the entire
theater as its sounding board. There are also singers, dancers,
aerialists and a wall of drums.
The theater is also used for more
conventional shows. That cruise ship standard, the Love and
Marriage Game, is done here. Visiting comedians and singers also
gave performances. Of these the most memorable was Marcus Terell &
The Serenades. I have enjoyed them before on other ships.
On certain sea days, there were 3-D
movies in the theater. The films were major Hollywoood releases from
the last few years. Quantum's theater is a very good venue for
seeing such films and makes for a pleasurable experience.
Quantum's second major entertainment
venue is 270. This is a technologically enhanced lounge at the stern
of the ship with comfortable living room style seating.
On sea days, the large LED panels
perform “Robot Shows” in which they move about as videos produced
especially for Quantum are played. These are quite clever and worth
a look - - they only last about 10 minutes.
270 is also used for “virtual
concerts”. These shows were also produced for Quantum and involve
projections on the screens that cover the windows in 270 with various
artists performing in concert. Although more technologically
sophisticated, I found these to be like watching a video of a live
concert on the large LED screens that ships often have in their pool
areas.
The centerpiece production in 270 is
called “Starwater.” It involves the ship's singers and dancers,
aerialists and of course, 270's technology. The first time I watched
this production was from the back, standing behind the seating area.
My reaction was that this show was not much different than some of
the production shows on Celebrity Cruises' Solstice class ships and
thus nothing new.
However, I went back again and saw
Starwater from the seating area near the front. This was a totally
different experience. The performers appeared all around me, coming
from above, below and performing just inches away. I was in the
midst of the show. It was much more exciting and enjoyable.
The plot of Starwater is not easy to
discern. In fact, I did not think it had a plot. However, one of
the performers told me that it is about the relationship between men
and women. In the first part, the performers are at a urban fashion
show. It is analogy to a cold world where the people do not
interact. Then a muse appears, sings and flies around, which brings
men and women together. The final part of the show based on tango
dancing and music halls is a celebration of this new relationship.
OK, don't worry about the plot.
Quantum also has a number of day-time
entertainment features. The North Star is a giant crane with a
capsule at the end, which takes guests high over the ship. There was
a line of passengers waiting to take this ride seemingly all day,
every day. It is a fun ride and the views are great. I do not like
heights yet I was comfortable throughout this ride - - it was no more
uncomforatble than riding in a glass elevator.
The other two action features debuting
on Quantum were the sky diving simulator and the bumper cars in the
Seaplex. I'm not big on amusement parks so I pased on these. Other
people seemed to enjoy them, however.
In May, Quantum will be leaving North
America and sailing half way around the world to make China her new
home. To make the ship more attuned to Asian tastes and preferences,
much will be changed on Quantum. This naturally raises the question
why all the fuss and controversy over a ship that will only exist in
her present form for a few months.
The answer is two-fold. First,
Quantum is the first ship in a class of ships. Anthem of the Seas
and Ovation of the Seas will follow. Thus, the concepts developed
for Quantum will live on in her sister ships.
Perhaps more importantly, there is the
question of how Qunatum's innovations will impact other cruise lines.
What will be borrowed and what will be discarded in the ships that
will be compteing with the Quantum class? Not everything about
Quantum is perfect but has raised the ante and by so doing changed
the course of the cruise industry.
