Quantum of the Seas

Quantum of the Seas launched in 2014, the first of Royal Caribbean’s Quantum class. The 1141-foot-long ship holds over 4000 guests. Unusual onboard activities include a skydiving simulator, bumper cars, and the North Star, an observation pod that rises high above the deck for the ultimate view. There are 14 passenger decks, some just with staterooms and others with public areas. Passenger decks run from deck 3 to deck 16 with crew areas on the decks below. Unlike many cruise ships where deck 14 sits just above deck 12, this ship has a deck labeled as deck 13. After a season in the Caribbean the ship spent some years cruising Asia and currently alternates between Alaska and Australia.

stairway from the casino to the promenade

Royal’s app said that the only smoking areas on this ship were on a couple of outside decks and that there was no smoking allowed inside the ship in any public areas, staterooms, or balconies. Their daily onboard newsletter said that as well, but that’s basically false advertising because it doesn’t apply when sailing from USA ports where smoking is allowed in the casino. Unfortunately the casino on this ship is not only open at both ends, but also has a wide-open stairway going up to the promenade deck. Too bad other countries aren’t like Australia. None of the ships sailing from there are allowed to have any indoor smoking. Quantum did seem to have a better ventilation system than some ships which would clear up the smoke when the casino was unoccupied or didn’t have too many people smoking at once, but it wasn’t good enough to keep it from spreading while in heavy use.

a small portion of Quantum’s promenade

The promenade area has a variety of different shops, pubs, eateries, and music venues. The Promenade Cafe is free, but the Patisserie across the aisle has larger pastries and fancier drinks you have to pay for. Sorrento’s Pizza next to the Promenade Cafe is also free.

bumper cars in the seaplex

Quantum has a lot of places to go and a quite a variety of things to do. There’s an entertainment area called the SeaPlex that offers many ever-changing free activities. Sometimes the area hosted basketball or ping pong tournaments, but other times it might be set up for laser tag or even bumper cars. They could pretty much set it up for anything they wanted and have supplies for. The ship also offered the usual sort of cruise ship activities like trivia and music in other venues.

Two 70

Another place unique to this class of ship is a room with a wall of windows called Two 70 at the stern of the ship. That area is used for a featured show as well as for other activities. When there’s nothing going on there the windows have a great view of the wake and whatever else is behind the ship. The hallway leading to Two 7o had a wide-open central space with seating and a giant chandelier. There were a couple of eateries, a wine bar, and a few shops along the edges. Upstairs in Two 70 there was a small library and some balcony seating for the show.

the North Star rising above the ship

For a nominal fee the ship offered a couple other things unique to this ship class. One is the North Star, a viewing pod that rises 300 feet above the deck on a big metal arm. Best view ever from a cruise ship. It has windows all around and a control panel for the guide who takes people up in small groups that made reservations for that time slot.

Melissa in the iFLY skydiving simulator

Another different and interesting experience Quantum offers is the ifly skydiving simulator. It’s pretty much a vertical wind tunnel that lets you fly and is supposed to feel like you’re skydiving without having to actually jump out of a plane. I haven’t ever skydived for real so I have nothing to compare as to whether it feels similar or not. Either way it’s lots of fun.

Bionic Bar with robot bartenders

The ship has a mix of free and pay-extra eateries, but we thought the food at the free ones was plenty good enough and never tried any of the ones that cost extra. Like all cruise ships it also has quite a variety of bars. It even has a bionic bar, which looked to be an earlier version of the one found on Oasis class ships like Wonder of the Seas and Symphony of the Seas. The set-up was much the same, but the robots were bigger and less streamlined and the bottles hanging from the ceiling above them were set farther apart to accommodate the larger robots. It didn’t look like there were as many bottles there so the drink choices may have been more limited. There was no ordering pad on the counter like the newer ships have. That had to be done through a tablet in the hands of the person working there. Robots haven’t taken over yet, somebody still has to tend to them.

cascading pools in the solarium

Our favorite hangout was the solarium, which is always our favorite place on Royal and Celebrity ships. Having a solarium is one good reason to choose Celebrity or Royal Caribbean when booking a cruise. This one had a row of three cascading pools set one below the other between stairways down to the lower level with deck chairs at front-view windows. There were also a couple of hot tubs down at that level. The upper level had deck chairs too, as well as some covered pods, a bar, and the solarium bistro which was open during mealtimes and a good alternative when other places like the buffet were too crowded as well as being convenient if you happened to get hungry in the solarium when it was open. The solarium is an adults-only area enclosed in glass windows, which is a lot nicer than an outside deck on a cruise to Alaska, or any cruise if it’s cold or windy or you don’t want to fry outside in the sun. There was also an all-ages glassed in pool deck next door on this ship as well as an outside pool area behind that. About half the chairs had bright pink signs right on them saying not to save deck chairs, which seemed to work a lot better than just one sign at the entrance for keeping towels from occupying deck chairs all day with no people actually using those chairs ever in sight like happens often on cruise ships.

random people on the rock-climbing wall

Out on the outside decks there were other things to do like a rock-climbing wall and a flowrider. Alaska weather isn’t necessarily the best for outdoor things, but there were some warm days during our cruise and even on colder days there were people out there. The track on this ship is just the sort that is pretty much a painted line around the upper deck where everyone is going to walk to get from place to place anyway. It did not have the sort of promenade deck that goes all the way around, though there was a bit of space to get outside on the promenade on each side. One side had a smoking area, but that’s easily avoided by not going out on that side.

animals from 3 different elevators

The ship had some of the odd and ugly statues seemingly required in cruise ship decor here and there. It had some fancy decor too like the giant chandelier in the walkway to Two 70. Different venues around the ship each had their own unique look. Some of the elevators had a glass wall at the back with a view of more glass elevators across a little open area and a wall of butterflies going up one end. The elevators without a glass wall each had a different animal character on their back wall. Stairway art included a lot of birds and rabbits, but there was quite a mixture of other things there as well.

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