Nightmare of the Pacific

Quantum of the Seas Cruise Review to Alaska - Inside Passage

Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Reviews: 2
Helpful Votes: 22

Overall rating:

2.6 out of 5
Quantum of the Seas

7 Night Alaska Glacier (Seattle Roundtrip)

Sail date: May 15, 2023

Ship: Quantum of the Seas

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 9116

Traveled as: Large Group

Reviewed: 10 months ago

Review summary

I'm really not the one who likes to leave reviews, especially negative ones, but this is one I felt obligated to write. We chose this cruise as a family of 8 trip out of Seattle for a 7 night Alaska Glacier Cruise on Quantum of the Seas 15 -21 May 2023. From the get go, lines were hectic and lengthy at the terminal. It seemed that they did not have near enough staff to accommodate guests on the ship. We boarded the boat at around 1pm, we were informed that we would get our bags before dinner time delivered to our room but we did not receive them until the next day. That means only the clothes on our back for that afternoon and night. Room service was nonexistent the first couple of nights on the cruise, we ran out of towels and toilet paper before we had to request room service. Knowing the advanced gratuity we pay, lack of room service was just unacceptable. The excursions lines in Juneau were abysmal, with delays and wait times. Everything was a struggle. On about the 5th day of the cruise, my 2 year old daughter got extremely sick with uncontrollable vomiting at around 11pm. We took her down to medical where the doctor and nurse saw her, they literally had no response for her condition only giving us blank stares. We were confused and basically had to pry a diagnosis out of the nurse and doctor and talk them into giving her something other than throw-up bags (which she was throwing up in front of them) so they gave her some motion sickness medication. They did not give an explanation of what may be causing her illness and would not even administer the meds to my daughter, as my wife and I along with the doctor had to figure out how to give my daughter the medicine. It was nerve racking receiving eerily silence from the doctor and his handling of the situation. We took her back to the room, she continued the vomit every hour, ruining all our clothes and sheets and came down with a fever. I call back down to medical requesting baby Tylenol after telling them about the fever, and the nurse tells me she would have to call the doctor and charge yet another doctor visit fee for doing so. She then says she will schedule a doctor's appointment at 8am the next morning which was 5 hours from the time I was calling. I then responded by saying that you expect me to let my child to continue to vomit and burn up with a fever for 5 hours even after we previously visited you guys 2 hours ago and you want to double charge me for a medical visit?? She said we can schedule an appointment for 8am. We hung up and about 5 mins later the nurse called back saying I concerned her with the phone call I placed earlier and that she called the doctor and stated it was ok for her to provide us baby tylenol for the fever. I went to pick up the tylenol and adminstered it to my child, and her fever did go down and she did get better. Overall this was a very scary situation and the service provided by the medical staff only made it worse knowing we were stranded in the middle of the Pacific ocean with this being our only medical care. We were charged $470 the following day, even though we are military and have Tricare Prime, we are stuck with this bill to make a claim. The following day, my wife, brother in law, sister in law and myself came down with the Norovirus and spent the final two days of cruise and travel day after throwing up and on the toilet. 7 out 8 people on our family got severely ill on the cruise. My sister in law also saw medical and they informed her that she had kidney issues that was causing her illness, only to find out when she got home to see her care provider that she indeed had Norovirus. Needless to say it seemed that the medical staff did not want to inform us that Norovirus was being spread around the ship. When we got home, on 22 May, I immediately request medical record documentation and medical bill to make my medical claim with insurance to be reimbursed $470 that Royal Caribbean charged me. I submitted all documentation and was told it would be sent in 7-10 business days. It is currently 21 June, almost a month after requested and I have yet to receive any response from Royal Caribbean. I have contacted them 4 times in the past month resending them requested documentation each time but still receive zero response. Each time I talked to customer service they assured me I would receive expediated care and response but never heard anything once the phone calls ended. This has been a huge inconvenience and I'm sick of dealing with this trip. Not to mention, 2 port stops were cancelled and glacier cruise cancelled during the trip. Anything that could went wrong went wrong and the customer service is atrocious. I felt like this cruise was a money grab and the exact opposite of a pleasant Royal Caribbean cruise my wife and I took in Jan 2020. I'm still waiting on my daughter’s medical records to make a claim. I'm tired of wasting time on this horrible experience. I will longer sail Royal Caribbean.

Embarkation

1 out of 5
Terrible

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

2 out of 5
Food mediocre at best, definitely down hill since 2020. Windjammer super crowded with long lines everywhere.

Onboard Activities

2 out of 5
Fitness center was good, rock climbing closed and too cold and crowded for pools.

Entertainment

2 out of 5
Nothing spectacular.

Children's Programs

4 out of 5
Children enjoyed the ship.

Service and Staff

1 out of 5
Room service nonexistent , first couple of nights, mildly got better as the trip went on. Ship understaffed.

Ship Quality

1 out of 5
Nothing special, just a giant ship with nothing spectacular standing out.

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5
Cabin was ok, what we expected. Room service horrible.

Ports of call

Seattle, Washington

3 out of 5

Icy Strait Point (Hoonah), Alaska

4 out of 5

Sitka, Alaska

4 out of 5

CRUISE ENDICOTT ARM & DAWES GLACIER Did not visit port

Port cancelled due to not arriving in time

Juneau, Alaska

3 out of 5

Victoria, British Columbia Did not visit port

Port cancelled due to wind

Disembarkation

4 out of 5
Elevators are horrible on the ship but other than that we got off the ship quickly.
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