Quantum of the Seas in Sitka
Walking into our deck 3 ocean view cabin for the first time on Quantum of the Seas, the first thing we noticed was that there was no outline in the ceiling of a drop-down bunk. Normally when booking a room for 4 people you expect to see at least one, maybe two. There’s always the usual main bed that can either be kept as one or split into two, then often there’s two bunks that drop down from the ceiling unless it’s an older ship where they fold down from the wall. Sometimes there’s just one bunk and a couch that makes into the 4th bed, but this room just had the bed and the couch.
it’s sort of a trundle bed except both sides are the same height
It turned out that the way they made room for 4 people was that instead of turning into a single bed, the couch had a pull-out that turned it into a double bed. Not what we were expecting, but at least there was room enough for everyone to sleep. We had already decided to give mom and Linda the beds while Barbara and I took whatever alternate sleeping arrangements the ship provided. Initially the main bed was set up as one, but the steward split it into two with a little nightstand in between. The couch on the other hand only made one bed. They set it up sort of like a lot of the hotels in Europe with separate blankets for each person except that instead of the European style sleeping bag sort of thing these were a quilt and sheet folded over for each person providing at least a bit of separation.
even with the bed put away there’s not a lot of space
When the bed was pulled out there was only a very small aisle between it and the desk and drawers next to it. You couldn’t fully open the drawers and refrigerator or slide the chair out from under the desk. It also took up nearly all the space under the window. Which was fine at night when everyone was asleep, but not in the daytime if we were to have full use of our stateroom. After the first morning’s cleaning we came back to the room to find the bed still set up. We couldn’t find our steward, but came across the one at the next section of rooms down the hall. She put the bed away for us. Even though the room was a decent size, there’s not a lot of space for 4 people even with the bed folded back into the couch, and no space to do anything with it out.
couch
We thought the steward was just being lazy, but later on when we walked past the two stewards together she told him to “splain your guests.” It turned out he had not put the bed away because corporate in all their great wisdom decided that since they only have stewards on one daily cleaning now they are not supposed to enter the rooms a second time, which means if they put the bed up they won’t be able to put it back down. That’s a policy sure to cause a lot of stewards not to get any tips as well as a lot of unhappy guests. Luckily our steward put the bed away in the mornings after that and came in at night to put it back out for us. Maybe because he knew we’d have done it ourselves after we saw how it was done since we’d watched the other steward put it away, or maybe just to be nice. We tipped him well for it. Apparently nobody in corporate who makes that sort of stupid decision has ever stayed in one of those cabins with more than two people. If they had they would insist that the stewards put the beds away in the daytime.
cabin on Quantum of the Seas
With the bed out of the way it was a nice room. It had plenty of storage with lots of drawers, two closets, and 4 good-sized cubbies above the beds. Even though there was some spare bedding stored under the main beds we found space enough under there for all 4 of our suitcases. Between the drawers, closets, cubbies, and some shelves in the bathroom everyone found somewhere to put all of their things.
teapot in the cabin
There was a teapot in the cabin, something I’ve only seen once previously, on P&O, which is a British line. I’ve not seen them on any other Royal ship I’ve been on, but perhaps the Quantum had them because it originally sailed in China. Like the Brits, Chinese people do like their tea. That’s definitely a nice addition to the cabin. It did not have any tea with it like P&O did, but it’s easy enough to get some teabags from the buffet. It also only started out with only 2 cups, but they’re easy to snag from the buffet as well.
magnets have a lot of uses on cruise ships
All of the other Royal ships we’ve been on had a magnet for the door that said sleeping off the adventure on one side and something about being out enjoying the day or some such thing on the other. Their way of saying do not disturb and cleaning service please. I had wondered for years sailing on other lines why they just had a cardboard door tag instead of using a magnet since the doors are always magnetic so was happy at least one line was clever enough to realize that.
2 closets and cubbies above the beds
Instead of the usual 2-way magnet, Quantum’s was blank on one side and said sleeping off the adventure on the other. It had no way to indicate to the steward when everyone was out of the room. With 4 people coming and going it must have been nearly impossible for him to know when to clean ours. The first few days we’d go to breakfast and come back and it wouldn’t be done so we’d go somewhere else, but in the meantime people might individually go back for this or that so if he saw someone go in and didn’t see them come back out he’d think the room was occupied. One day it wasn’t even done by lunchtime. Finally I got smart and hung a little note on the door held up by one of my own magnets that said room available for cleaning. It was done when we got back from breakfast that day, and with the help of the note every day after. They are doing both the stewards and the guests a disservice by not having a way of letting the steward know when the room is open. The one magnet lets him know when not to go in, but absence of it doesn’t mean nobody is there. People often don’t put those out, leaving the steward to guess if the room is empty or not.
desk with teapot
Bad decisions at the corporate level seemed to be a thing with this ship. Like allowing smoking in a casino that is not only open on both ends, but also with an open stairway directly into the promenade when it is sailing out of American ports even though the app and their daily newsletter both said smoking was not allowed anywhere inside the ship. Nowhere did that specify it meant only in Australia. Said casino was not that far from our cabin and smoke did sometimes come down the hallway so a cabin on a different deck would be a better choice on this ship if you don’t like tobacco smoke and are not sailing out of Australia. Corporate to Quantum kind of reminded me of Voyager in the Star Trek series because if there was a bad decision to be made Captain Janeway always seemed to make it.
clothesline on the wall
I used to think all cruise ships had the sort of clothesline that you can pull across the shower until Symphony of the Seas didn’t have one. Quantum didn’t either, but Wonder did so it’s not like Royal Caribbean has dropped them altogether. Wonder is newer than Symphony and Quantum so maybe they dropped them for awhile, but got too many complaints and added them back in. Or else they just leave them off some ships for reasons unknown. After all even if you never wash a thing, that clothesline still comes in mighty handy when you need somewhere to hang wet swimming suits, which is a pretty common thing to have on a cruise ship. Luckily I had brought a line and some hook magnets to hang it up with.
bathroom shelves
Cruise ship shower walls are often even more magnetic than the regular walls because on many ships the magnets can hold more weight in the shower than they can out in the room. I thought it would be a secondary line because there might not be room enough for everyone’s wet swimsuit on the tiny shower line, but it ended up being our only line. It went in the shower when things were drippy wet, and zig-zagged out on the wall in the cabin if stuff was just a bit damp. We did need to use the shower for showering sometimes after all. Speaking of the shower, it was a good thing we’d all brought our own bath products because all that they provided was an all-in-one shampoo/body wash and nobody wanted to use that. There was no conditioner either.
electronics need somewhere to plug in
Quantum is a new enough ship to have more than just the one outlet some older ships have. It also had some USB ports. My plug that turns one outlet into 3 and clock with a couple USB ports still came in handy when lots of people wanted to charge something all at once though. Royal’s standard size staterooms are larger than what you find on some other cruiselines so that’s always a bonus. Overall our cabin worked out fine with 4 people in it. We did intentionally book near public restrooms just in case someone needed a bathroom while another person was using it, which came in handy sometimes.
towel animal
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