Ok, I'm back. I'm (almost) rested. I have pictures.
I don't really have a report or an organized set of notes. So I'm just going to spew my observations all over you in no particular order.
Three things before I get to the ship itself. First, the Quantum is only in the US for a few months. In the Spring of 2015, it's being re-positioned to its permanent home port in China. So if you want to sail on it, you better make your reservation soon. But if you can't get to Bayonne before it leaves permanently, Royal Caribbean's next new ship -- the Anthem of the Seas -- will be permanently home ported in Bayonne beginning in the Fall of 2015. So you'll be able to get the same experience starting in just about a year from now. (In between, I believe the Liberty of the Seas will be stationed in NJ.)
Second, if you've ever sailed from Bayonne, you may remember the lousy terminal there and the fact that you had to take a shuttle bus from the terminal to the ship. RCCL has completed its new terminal, which allows passengers to board the ship directly from the building, eliminating the shuttle. There is nothing special or interesting about the new terminal. It's essentially a big clean concrete warehouse, with virtually no decor at all. But at least you don't have to drag your carry-on luggage onto a bus. (There is a complimentary shuttle bus from the parking lot to the terminal. But I think it's probably close enough that you could walk it on a nice day, so you don't necessarily have to get on a bus.)
Third, Royal Caribbean is promoting the Quantum as the first "smartship", so naturally, there is a smartphone app for the Quantum, similar to the one that DCL uses for the Fantasy. I didn't use it on this trip. My smartphone is apparently a piece of **** with no memory. But I did see other people using it and they didn't seem to be having any problems.
Ok, the ship is, in a word, amazing. It's really, really cool with fantastic features for all ages of traveler. It has the trademark Royal Promenade, although on the Quantum, it's called the Royal Esplanade. It takes up 2 decks and has shops, a couple of lounges, the Promenade Cafe, and an "Alice in Wonderland"-themed restaurant. The Guest Services desk has electronic tablets that can be used to check or make dining and theater reservations, etc.
My stateroom was a standard balcony room and slept a maximum of two people. On the down side, I have to say that it felt a bit tight. It definitely felt smaller than my room on the Explorer last month, let alone by DCL standards. On the up side, there was a tremendous amount of storage space: drawers in the dresser and desk, overhead storage over the couch and bed, two full closets, compartments in the bedside stands, and the high beds (to make it easy to fit the suitcases under them). Also, the shower seemed to be bigger than the Explorer's, which was actually really nice. The balcony was pretty standard.
Other cool features include the North Star, which is a hydraulic arm that lifts a gondola high above the ship's top deck to give passengers a really cool view of the ship. It can rotate 360° so that it actually moves off to the side of the ship. When I rode it, we were still in port in NJ and apparently the port regulations don't allow the North Star to rotate, so I just went up and then came back down; but it was pretty cool. There is also the SeaPlex which includes a large area for bumper cars or roller skating or ping-pong tournaments, etc. There's the usual rock wall, but the coolest thing to me was the RipCord facility, which is a skydiving training unit. You put on helmet and goggles, and then you enter a big wind chamber with fans that lift you so you feel like your skydiving. It was awesome.
There are, of course, a million bars and restaurants but we only had two nights, so I only got to try a few of the restaurants. There is a Windjammer buffet, as is usual for RCL ships. But this Windjammer is designed much more like Cabanas, with "stations" of different types of food and no distinct lines. This created some traffic pattern problems, as you might expect, until people got used to it. I didn't actually eat in Windjammer, but the selections looked to be much better than those that we saw on Explorer last month. Instead, I had my first lunch at two70 Cafe. two70 is one of the main lounges on the ship and there's a cafe there that serves sandwiches, paninis, wraps and salads. Kind of a bigger version of Goofy's Galley. The chicken Caesar salad was great and I also had a teriyaki chicken wrap that was just ok and not very teriyaki-ish. They also serve coffee drinks there and small desserts (I had a peanut butter cupcake, but I couldn't get the cup off of the cupcake, so I ate it with a fork).
For dinner, I ate at Silk, which is an Asian-themed upcharge restaurant. The service was an issue (more on that later), but the food was very good; glazed chicken wings, shrimp pockets, chicken skewers for appetizers and sake-glazed salmon for my entree, then an amazing chocolate tart with fortune cookie crust for dessert.
I missed breakfast the following morning because I worked out and all the restaurants (except Windjammer) were closed by the time I got done. But I got a muffin at the Cafe Prominade, which held me until lunch. Lunch at the American Icon Grill was just ok. The service was an issue (more on that later) but the food was also pretty disappointing. I had a mac and cheese appetizer, which was served lukewarm, but tasted ok. I wanted the bacon cheeseburger for lunch. I asked for it medium but was told that all the burgers are prepared well done. I said I'd really like it not well done if possible and the server said he would tell the chef. So how did it come out? Well done shoe leather. Another person at my table also ordered the bacon cheeseburger but asked for it without the bun. It came out without the bun -- or the bacon. The server brought a whole plate of bacon after she pointed out that it was missing. So he made it right, but it was just odd. Another person at the table ordered a grilled chicken sandwich. It probably tasted fine, but the only thing that any of us could talk about was the GALLON of mayonnaise that was on the sandwich. She scraped a ton of mayo off the bun, but even so, there was still too much on the chicken itself. It was not a good dining experience for our table.
For dinner, I ate at Chic, which is another of the complimentary restaurants. It has a nice atmosphere, but I am having a hard time trying to come up with a description for its theming. My server here was excellent and the food was also very very good. I had the "modern" caesar salad (the romaine lettuce is not chopped; it's just two romaine hearts with the caesar dressing on it and HUGE croutons) and the crab cake (YUMMO!!) for my appetizers and potato-crusted Icelandic cod for my entree. The salad was fine, but the rest was terrific. For dessert, I had the chocolate gelato on a soft cookie. Good, but nothing amazing.
For breakfast on disembarkation day, I was back at the American Icon Grill. They have a bit more of a menu than DCL does on the final morning. They actually have Eggs Benedict on the menu for the last breakfast. I got a pretty boring scrambled eggs, bacon and hash browns. But the eggs were actually prepared great and not runny at all (which I hate!).
So that's the food. Overall very good, with the notable disappointment of lunch at American Icon. There are several other restaurants that I didn't get to try: Wonderland (the one with the Alice theme); a Jamie Oliver restaurant (which I was told was fantastic); Devinly Decadence (operated by Devin somebody, who was on The Biggest Loser); an English pub themed restaurant; and Johnny Rockets (a la cart menu, as opposed to the all-you-can-eat with a cover charge on the Explorer).
Ok, the service. In a word, terrible. At dinner in Silk, I hailed the server to tell him "I think we're ready to order" -- TWICE. After giving our order for lunch at the American Icon, our server apparently disappeared because two different people came to the table with our order, but had no idea who was supposed to get which plate. Then, when the server was told about the excess mayo, he brought over a supervisor (so far, so good). We told the supervisor the situation and got a blank stare. I honestly expected him to say "What would you like me to do about it?" It was bizarre. The guy clearly had not been trained on what to do in that situation. I didn't stay for dessert (because I was going to inspect the rest of the stateroom categories), but I was told later that the rest of the table waited a half hour to receive their dessert orders. At our final breakfast, the assistant server came around to offer coffee, but I wanted juice instead. A few other people also asked for juice, but it never came. I had to ask for it again after the meal was delivered to the table.
Like the other Royal ships, there is lots of artwork on board. They have even adapted HDTVs to display moving artwork. The theme in the Esplinade is butterflies, so the TVs have butterflies flying down the corridor. None of the artwork is interactive, like you see on the Dream or Fantasy, but it's interesting. Most of the art is themed around "positive life forces". Lots of references to hope or courage, etc. Some of it is just wierd, but that's not unusual.
Mama Mia is one of the two signature shows onboard. I didn't go, because I'm not a Broadway musical kind of guy; but I was told that it was phenomenal. The other show is called Starwater. It was impressive, but very wierd. Lots of dancing, a little singing, and no discernible story. Cool effects, though; including performers descending from the ceiling to perform gymnastic moves using pulley systems, video screens that literally dance as part of the show, and a very innovative stage with lifts that rise from below the stage and parts of the stage itself that move up and down to form bridges. I guess that's hard to describe, but it was pretty cool. I left the Starwater show trying to decide if it was cool and cutting-edge or just stupid and artsy to be smarter-than-thou.
The live bands on board are fantastic. I saw a Bruce Springsteen tribute band and they were unbelievably good. There's also a Bon Jovi tribute, which I didn't see but was told that it was very good as well.
Ok, that's a whole lot more than I meant to write, so I'll just finish by saying that disembarkation was much easier than our experience on the Explorer last month. But that may be because the ship was only half-full, with only about 2,000 passengers (mostly media). So that's it and I'll post some pictures in the next day or two, if anyone is interested.
