Quantum of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

THE DYNAMIC DINING JUST DOES NOT WORK WITH THIS MANY PEOPLE ABOARD A SHIP. I LIKED THE PRIOR PROCESS 'WHERE RESERVATIONS WERE MADE MONTHS BEFORE SAILING' AT TWO SEATING'S , IN THE DINING ROOM FOR EITHER BREAKFAST, LUNCH, OR DINNER, WHERE YOU HAD TO DRESS UP AT LEAST BUSINESS CASUAL. THE WINDJAMMER IS FOR THE TEE-SHIRTS AND THE FLIP-FLOP DRESSED PEOPLE. WE HAD TO MAKE RESERVATIONS TO GET INTO ALL THE COMPLIMENTARY RESTAURANTS, AND STILL WAITED IN LINE 1 TO 2 HOURS TO GET IN. THE ENTERTAINMENT HAD TO HAVE RESERVATIONS, WHICH WERE 'ALWAYS BOOKED UP' AND DUE TO THE LONG WAITS TO GET INTO THE RESTAURANTS, WHEN WE COULD SEE A SHOW, WE NEVER WERE ABLE TO FINISH DINNER IN TIME TO SEE THE SHOWS ON TIME. THERE ARE TOO MANY PEOPLE ON THE SHIP WITH FAR TOO FEW STAFF TO SERVICE THE GUESTS. WAITING IN LINES WAS THE WORST FOR HOURS. THIS IS MY FIRST VACATION I HAD IN 20 YEARS. RC HAS TO COME UP WITH A BETTER PLAN FOR THE DINING . I DON'T THINK YOU SHOULD HAVE TO PAY AT THE OTHER RESTAURANTS WHICH OUTNUMBERED THE COMPLIMENTARY DINING AREAS. YOU PAY ENOUGH FOR GOING ON THE CRUISE....RC WILL NOT GET MY BUSINESS AGAIN. THIS WAS A SHAM AND THEY TOOK MY MONEY WITHOUT DELIVERING TO ME FOR WHAT I PAID FOR. I ONLY GOT TO SEE TWO SHOWS. THAT IS NOT FAR. I AM PISS. I SHOULD GET MY MONEY BACK..............

My husband and I had stayed in an Ocean view room with a balcony. It was great!. Great food, entertainment, crew. Ship very clean. The entire trip was wonderful. We stayed on the ship for the most part. No problems. Did Atlantis tour and was surprised to find out that it was a tour of two of three acquariums,( fish, sharks etc.) not the resort as we expected. Cruise was a little pricey compared to most,  but so worth it, new cruise, smart cruise ship. All the restaurants were great! I just wish the cruise would have told us that they had a time to stop sales of pictures. We wanted to purchase our pictures but they stopped the sale. I would definitely highly recommend this cruise ship to others and would like to go again.

The Haywards

Our Recent RC Cruise from Hell

the travel agency was great…however, they have no clue as to how awful this new ship REALLY is……. besides all the hype about Quantum of the Seas…..…very very sad

I took other cruises with RC…I'm done…the staff on ship (whenever you could find them) have no power to do or correct anything, or to make anything right..…just awful! All they say is, " it’s a corporate matter"

well, for example there was never a place to sit for a meal, and when you found a place, after waiting for over 45 minutes to eat cold food, as NOTHING was ever hot food, there were dirty dishes remaining in the lounge areas, no matter where you went for over 3 hours every day…..CLEANING IS NOT A CORPORATE MATTER!

there is NOT enough staff to deal with the 1000's of people sardined into that can of a ship they put us in

If RC does not contact me, this is going to become VERY DETAILED from many people……. and going viral

they better get this can of a ship to China fast, it’s a disgrace to us and financially to RC

RC in the past WAS GREAT, and I recommended MANY to cruise with RC over the years…never again!!!!!!!!

This trip was total "bait and switch" as too many problems are on this ship…even had drinks in the dining room spilt all over my travel companion……..I want my money back

Michael K. Carroll

I am usually balanced in my reviews, but this was the WORST cruise I ever took!!! If I could get my money back...I would! The flagship of the fleet??? Its garbage. I am done with RC, filthy ship, no service, way too little staff, cold food, constantly running out of cups, ice, tea, soda. Everything handled by computer and systems were "constantly down", staff were confused, the entire experience is awful. Always huge waiting lines FOR HOURS. Filthy public areas. Not a single person I spoke to was happy, never cruising RC again. An awful Christmas trip, I had 180 people go on this trip from all over the USA, I'm embarrassed!

*** Edited 1/9/15 by Community Manager to Comply with our Community Guidelines ***

Once aboard the Quantum I began comparing it to the Oasis with its Central Park theme its beautiful Carousel and a bar that took you from one floor to another while you sipped your drink. I looked for the spacious and beautiful promenade that made you feel like you were entering a five star hotel. I looked for the greeters like the ones on the Oasis who welcomed you on board and the staff who smiled and made your transition from life on land to life on sea as smooth as possible.  After all, I was sailing on the same line that owned and managed the Oasis and the Allure of the seas and this ship was bigger so it had to be better - right? Wrong!!! None of what I was looking for was there.

When we got on board my wife and I found ourselves standing above The Royal Esplanade the Quantum's version of the Oasis promenade. It was beautiful but something was wrong and I couldn't quite figure out what it was. The Esplanade was spacious and bright but then it hit me. This Promenade looked like our shopping mall back home complete with kiosks running down the middle. "Oh my God," I said to my wife. "We are vacationing in a mall. I hate shopping malls." My initial reaction turned out to be correct as day after day hawkers tried to entice passengers to sample and view their wares and crowds of shoppers blocked passage as they pushed and shoved to secure bargains. Each time we were not docked the Esplanade turned into Black Friday at Targets, Feline's basement in Boston and Canal Street in New York City. This scene sucked the class from the ship.

My first order of business when I got on board was to change a dinner reservation. We discovered months before sailing the Quantum would not have a main dining room and if you wanted anything other than buffet food while on board you had to make a dinner reservation for one of the four complimentary restaurants or one of the "for fee" specialty restaurants, on-line, prior to boarding; a task that would tax the computer skills of many people I know. The days were gone when the only dining decision you had to make was whether you wanted the first or second seating for dinner. I had completed all reservations weeks before boarding  but wanted to cancel one restaurant and book another.

When I tried to change the reservation by telephone a few days before sailing I was informed that it had to done by Guest Services aboard ship. With that in mind  after my wife and I boarded we went straight to Guest Services; a room filled with electronic tablets and agents showing passengers how to "do it themselves" using the electronic tablets provided. Is this what is meant by a Smart Ship, I thought ? When I finally got to speak to an agent I was told he couldn't help us. He told us to go to an agent at one of the four free restaurants to make the change. When we found the restaurant we were greeted by a long line of disgruntled passengers  waiting for a frustrated reservation specialist struggling to complete a single dinner reservation using a "Smart Ship" reservation system that was obviously not cooperating. As a retired Information Technology Management Consultant for twenty years I concluded during the cruise that the software which defines this ship as a Smart Ship was as flawed as the ObamaCare rollout - but I digress. A 30 minute wait on line resulted in my being told that I was on the wrong line. The frustrated staff member who appeared on the verge of tears told me I had to make the change at the specialty restaurant of my choice. I navigated my way through this huge vessel and finally found the specialty restaurant. Total time to change a dinner reservation on board was one hour.

After the first day and a number of other incidents it became obvious that we were taking part in the testing of a new Royal Caribbean business model; one that contained a whole new set of standards for cruising. My guess is that this new model calls for replacing staff with technology, utilizing the ships prime real estate for profit, slowly moving customers from free dining to paid dining and cutting costs by cutting amenities for guests. This begs the question is Royal Caribbean trying to become the Spirit Airlines of the cruising industry?

The most significant change RC made was to not include a main dining room on the Quantum. This change known as Dynamic Dining now requires passengers to be responsible for securing their own dinner reservations. Reservations are also required for shows. For a seven night cruise a passenger is required to make as many as 14 different reservations on- line prior to boarding. This would tax the computer skills of most people I know but if it isn't done passengers may very well find themselves waiting on a very long line outside a restaurant for dinner at 9:00 pm. They will also be on standby  for all shows and may not get in. One passenger told me they should rename the ship Reservations of the Sea. Dynamic Dining is most definitely not working.

It became a bit depressing to hear passengers and crew complain about the cruise. One night as my family and I waited on a long line forty minutes past our reservation time at The Grande Restaurant we could hear those around us say, "never again on this ship", "this dining system is broken," " this ship is too much work and too stressful." At times crew members said to me "there is not enough staff on board and we are exhausted " and "none of us want to be on this ship."  I can honestly say I had not heard one positive comment during the entire cruise.

There were other incidents that I could recall to demonstrate the negative effects RCs new model has on travelers but I will stop and move on to the positives. There are a lot of positives.

There is no question the ship is beautiful. The rooms are large by cruising standards, very clean and well serviced. The check-in process at the dock in Bayonne is the best I've ever experienced. The food is good and plentiful and an improvement over other RC ships. There is more than enough space and lounges for everyone to sit around the pools. The staff works hard and does the best they can with what they have.

Without a doubt the most memorable part of the cruise was what the ship did for its passengers on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. They pulled out all the stops to make it a wonderful holiday. They provided free champagne, cookies and eggnog, a Santa Claus and elves, Christmas gifts for everyone between the ages of one and seventeen, Christmas Carols sung by the staff in the Esplanade, a fun parade with fabulous costumes and the most beautiful Midnight Mass my wife and I ever attended. Thank you for that.

In summary, the Quantum of the Seas is geared toward a certain demographic of which I am not a member. Many of the other passengers I spoke to feel they don't belong either. It's geared toward those who don't mind losing the main dining room, who don't care about the pampering we older cruisers are used to and who go on a cruise to gamble and shop. That doesn't define us.

Will I ever sail the Quantum again? Probably not. I understand the Oasis may also move to Dynamic Dining. If so, I will cross that ship off my list as well.

The cruise was good.  The ship is simply beautiful with lots of things to do.  The solarium area was beautiful and could accommodate more people.  Customer service in some areas could have been better.  The staff was not as friendly as I am accustomed to on previous Royal cruises.  Some of the kinks were not all worked out.  Even with all the online check in, the process was confusing at the port. After we left the check in, we did not find our key waiting for us outside our room, which was the procedure and we had to go to guest services.  The overall experience was good.  

We just got back from an 8 night cruise on the quantum of the seas.  I have been on many cruise with 5 different cruise lines. This was one of the poorest ones I have been on.  The quality of food on the free restaurants was awful.  The restaurants we had to pay for were very good.  I wonder if they do that on purpose?  We were on an 8 night cruise, they had shows for only 5 of those nights.  All the cruises I have ever been on had shows every night of the cruise.  We were at sea for 4 full days and 2 half days and there was no musice anywhere on board during the day or things going on during the day around the ship.  It will be a long time before I go on royal carribean again.

To say we were excited for the Quantum of the Seas was an understatement. As Loyal Royal Caribbean Diamond Members, we are very used to the WOW of Royal. I went on this cruise with no expectation of getting off the boat as the Bahamas is not the best port no matter where you are. We looked forward to enjoying the boat.

Overall the ship felt very closed in and windy. We've sailed on Voyager class ships so it had nothing to do with the size of the ship rather the over all floor plan. But honestly, I could live with that since we enjoyed the north star, indoor sky diving, and lots of Trivia.  The worst part of the cruise which was truly unsatisfying was the Dynamic dining. You basically could not eat at a complimentary table served restaurant without a reservation and even if you did have a reservation there was always a wait of 10-20 minutes. After waiting on line and finally being seated the service was slow and the food quality wasn't that great. I ate at the Windjammer 3 or 4 days of my cruise this time around because of that. I felt that Royal was forcing me to eat at the restaurants that had a fee because the Italian restaurant Jamie Olivers for $15 a head for lunch was amazing. It was great service, great food, and a pleasure.

I truly hope that Dynamic dining does not catch on to the other ships because I may need to change cruise lines if thats the case.

I would have rated our recent Quantum experience a five star, EXCEPT for the UNDERSTAFFING of the restaurants. The waiters/waitresses were excellent but they can only do that much. In some restaurants, we have one waiter for 2-3 tables. In other ships, there is the head waiter, waiter, assistant waiter. The variety of the menus is very limited. Otherwise, everything was wonderful. The shows- Star Water and Sonic Odyssey were out of this world--just magnificent.

I did not see a lot of "happy employees' faces". Maybe, they are overworked and could not put a smile on their faces anymore. Just remember, happy employees means good business.

GREAT Ship.  Really fun.  Well designed.  Lots of "initial" problems which I am sure R.C. will work out.

1) Limited food options.  Yes!  Lots of great restuarants but each one only has one menu.  So the max you can really enjoy is twice.  I have contacted R.C. about this and encouraged them to add addtional menus.  Hopefully they will.

2) Very limited vegetarian options on the menus.  I have contacted R.C. about this.

We were fortunate to book last minute Thanksgiving cruise on the new Quantum.  It was the inaugural trip.  The maiden voyage was from Germany to the United States.  

While the ship is quite nice, they had so many problems of things going wrong.  The elevators playing with passengers by not stopping at the floors they pushed, soot from the engines landing on me and my balcony (my suite was in the middle of the rear of the ship) to name a few.  The idea of just speciality restaurants seems that it would be a good idea, but it is hard to get reservations for when you want unless you have done that in advance.  The food at the Windjammer is laid out beautifully but not very tasty.  Although the breads and cookies were very good.  There was not enough variety of cooked vegetables.  Because of the weather on this trip, some activities were closed.  We had rain and wind for the first three days.  We could not go to cococay because the tenders could not come out to the ship because of the wind and choppy water.  I would take this trip again because I like leaving from NJ but I would do it when the weather is more predictable.  Also when it would be cheaper.  It is tough to pay so much for a suite when you are the guinea pig.  The price will be less in the weeks to follow.

Brilliantly planned minus cyclone wax great fun worth it

Loved the criuse. Did Trivia. Won yellow marker WOW. Hush party is a must do. Should have been in Two7 theatre(not in esplanade ) Go and see everything

Overall was a great cruise..food was great.. ports where great..only downside was not many masks was worn . Was alot of coughing around the ship and the eating area's and restaurants I went too

We had two ports cancelled which was a huge bummer. Had these ports not been cancelled I believe our experience would have been much better. Unfortunately we visited the same port twice, which we didn't enjoy and got bored very quickly.

The ship itself, was great. I didn’t care for the entertainment on this cruise. The last show, Sonic Odyssey was actually decent, but it was at the end of the cruise. We had 5 days at sea with boring programs. The activities and shows seem to lack for some reason and I just can’t put my finger on why. Chips and Jamie’s were both a bust but Izumi was great (as usual). Main Dining Room wasn’t bad and Sorrento’s staff were always smiling. I didn’t use my coffee card completely and couldn’t even give away coffee 🤣. Everyone had coffee cards on the ship. I love Quantum class ships but this cruise (because of entertainment & activities) fell below RCCL standards if you ask me.

It was a great cruise. Piece of advice the water to Alaska rougher than going to the Caribbean.... so pack motion sickness meds . Some of our party needed it. I didn't think it was bad. But definitely felt the boat rocking more. I was glad our room was more in the middle of the boat. So it was calmer than in my sister room. It was at the front.

Due to one of the engines not working. Our itinerary was changed, and we did not see everything advertised. We also got into Victoria late which made us have to miss our original excursion and go on another one. As far as the timing of this cruise, it should not even go so late in September as many of our excursions had to be cancelled. We did not see the Alaska we had seen in so many photos and videos—just rain, fog and grey skies! Someone we met who had been on 4 previous Royal Carribbean tours, said the cruise to Alaska was her worse. I have written RC two times, but no reply.

Great cruise, the last one of the season for Quantum, wife didn't want to leave the ship.

Will I do Alaska again? Probably not. Will I sail with Royal Caribbean again? Most definitely

Staff Amazing food was beautiful especially in main dining room