Sitka Cruise Port

Posted on December 8, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Quantum of the Seas in Sitka

The first time I had a port stop in Sitka it was a tender port. The ship anchored near town with a short tender ride to the city. You could get great ship views from the top of Castle Hill. The next time it had a dock, but not in town. They called it the old cruise ship dock. It’s 5 or 6 miles from the city. There wasn’t much there. It was mainly a boatyard filled with a lot of old boats abandoned or undergoing repairs. There was a tent building with a motley assortment of old busses parked next to it, a few of which were used for shuttling passengers to town.

view of the port building from the dock

The ships still dock out there on Halibut Point Road, but other than a couple old boats sitting on the shore the remains of the old boatyard are gone. There’s a big fancy new building and new shuttle busses to go along with it.

the last remaining old boats onshore by Sitka cruise dock

Now it’s called Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal. The dock holds two ships. A constant stream of busses shuttles passengers to town. The free ride takes about 15 minutes to or from town. The lines can get long, but they move quickly. As soon as one bus leaves another takes its place.

entryway to the port building

Approaching the building from the dock you may come across offerings of last-minute things to do. Ours was the second ship in and we waited for the crowd to thin before disembarking so there wasn’t much left by the time we went by, but there were signs from a few things that had been there earlier. The new building has shops, restrooms, and wifi.

visitor’s center at the shuttle stop

Shuttles stop in town by the visitor’s center. There were more signs lined up outside with various things to do, but these too had nearly all filled their tours with just a couple pricey things left among the otherwise abandoned row of signs. We didn’t go inside the visitor center. There may have been options of things to do there, but since we didn’t check it out I can’t say for sure. There are plenty of things you can walk to from the shuttle stop. Walking tour maps of Sitka are readily available online.

Mount Edgecumbe view by the fish hatchery

Views near the waterfront are dominated by Mount Edgecumbe, a formerly dormant volcano that has started to show signs of activity. It hasn’t erupted in centuries and doesn’t appear ready to do so anytime soon, but they are monitoring magma movement and gas.

map of tourist attractions in Sitka

Sitka’s biggest tourist attractions are Fortress of the Bear, which is 5 miles outside of town and not in the same direction as the port, and the Alaska Raptor Center, which is within walking distance of the shuttle stop. Both are available in shore excursions from the ship. On previous trips they were also available last minute on shore, but we didn’t see anything for them on the most recent visit. You wouldn’t really need an excursion to get to the raptor center since it’s within walking distance, but Fortress of the Bear is a long way out on a road with no shoulders so that’s not one you can walk to on your own.

Saint Michael’s church

The closest attraction to the shuttle stop is an old Russian church. There’s a lot of Russian influence in Sitka as the Russians controlled the town for a time, but the original occupants of the area were Tlingit. There are other churches in town, and an old Russian Cemetary which is also a draw for tourists. There are lots of little shops near the old Russian church.

the sea walk has excellent views

The sea walk takes people a short walk – less than a mile- along the scenic shoreline to the National Historic Park, which has trails through the woods with totem poles along the way and a building with some Tlingit artifacts and exhibits, a short film, and restrooms.

Sitka Sound Science Center

On the way to the totem park you pass by the Sitka Sound Science Center, which has a fish hatchery and some small aquariums. I recognized the building when we walked by from an excursion on a previous visit called Birds, Bears, & Barnacles, which went there as well as the raptor center and Fortress of the Bear.

playground by the sea walk

The sea walk has views of the volcano as well as of the sea. It passes by a boat harbor, a playground, and a dock that you can walk out on.

view of the port from the ship

There’s enough to do in Sitka that you can find something worth seeing even if you don’t have any excursions booked or find any available last minute.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2023

 

Posted in Alaska, Port Cities, Ports of Call, Quantum of the Seas, Royal Caribbean | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Holland America Noordam

Posted on December 1, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Holland America Noordam

Holland America is known for having mid-size ships. They aren’t tiny expedition vessels, nor are they enormous mega-ships like some other cruise lines have. Holland America’s largest ships are the Pinnacle Class consisting of the Koningsdam, Nieuw Statendam, and their newest ship, the latest itineration of a ship called Rotterdam. Names of Holland America ships are re-used for new ships as older ones of that name retire. The previous Rotterdam was a much smaller ship. These three ships carry 2650 passengers and are just over 983 feet long and nearly 115 feet wide, which is big for Holland America, but far smaller than the largest cruise ships in the world. The Noordam is smaller at 936 feet long and 105 feet wide with a passenger capacity of 1972 people.

atrium centerpiece

Holland America Noordam is one of their directionally named ships. Sister ships of the Vista class are the Oosterdam, Westerdam, and Zuiderdam. P&O’s Arcadia is also of that same ship design. Noordam began service in 2006 and is the 4th ship to carry the name Noordam.  It’s also the 4th of the current line of directionally named ships. As the name sounds, Noordam is North. Westerdam is obviously west, Oosterdam east and Zuiderdam south. The atrium centerpiece appears to be the original. I haven’t previously been on the Noordam, but my last time on the Oosterdam it still had its original crystal globe that though not exactly similar to the Noordam’s centerpiece, the style resembles it enough for it to be original. Unfortunately the Westerdam’s original crystal sailing ship centerpiece (which was the most beautiful centerpiece of the three ships) had been replaced by an ugly gray spiral the last time we were on that ship.

views from the glass elevator

There are 11 passenger decks on the Noordam. 5 of these have at least some public spaces, 3 of which are fully public areas. 5 are filled entirely with cabins, other than the bridge at the front of deck 8. That only adds up to 10 because deck 11 isn’t a full-length deck across the entire ship, just a small section at each end with an observation deck at the front and sports courts at the rear. The center of the ship has glass elevators on either side which have a seaview on the upper decks, but when the elevator gets down to the lower decks it looks out on walls painted with birds, then lower down fish. The carpet on the floor in the elevator is changed daily so it always says what day of the week it is.

Lido Pool

Noordam has two pools, the largest of which is the Lido Pool. This pool has a retractable roof making it usable in cold weather as well as warm.

Billboard Onboard piano bar

The ship was refurbished in 2019 with upgrades to cabins and some entertainment areas, and the addition of the Billboard Onboard piano bar to the music walk area. Just before our cruise they added a new library to the Explorations Cafe, and on our boarding day the onboard internet system was upgraded to starlink.

top deck showing some of the radomes – big white balls for radar and sattellite equipment.

We left the port in San Deigo a couple hours late waiting for the starlink installation to be completed, but it was well worth it for better internet service, assuming people can connect – which was an issue for a lot of people at the beginning of this cruise until they got the new system fully working.  It took a couple days before they got the system completely working, but once it was fully up and running it was the fastest internet we’ve ever had offshore. The internet got an upgrade, but there’s no longer any public computers onboard so anyone who didn’t bring their own device is now out of luck for internet use. Phones work for most things, but there are some things that worked on my computer that did not work on John’s iphone.

Library at the Explorer’s Cafe

The Explorer’s Lounge library remodel gave it the fanciest library I’ve seen recently on a cruise ship. Long ago ships all had a whole library room with cabinets of books and games, but lately it’s usually just one or two cabinets full of random old books on most of the ships we’ve sailed on. Noordam now has a series of shelves with new books, each shelf a different section for things like mystery, fiction, and young adults among others. There’s even a book exchange shelf where people who still bring physical books when they travel can trade in books they’ve finished reading for something different. The library seemed quite popular both with the books to check out and the book exchange. We just used it as a place to hide ducks since we use the kindle app on our phones for reading. Unfortunately some passengers were not careful with the ship’s brand-new books, just dumping them haphazardly in random places or throwing them in the hallway outside their cabin door for the crew to find when they finished reading rather than returning them to the book drop as they were supposed to.

ship model Christmas tree ornament

This is the first ship we’ve been on since covid that did not add hand washing sinks at the entry to the buffet. They also did not have anyone there to make sure people used the available hand sanitizer as they entered, another first since covid. They did however have ship model Christmas tree ornaments in the ship’s shop, which is the one thing I always look for there.

aft pool

One really nice thing about a lot of Holland America ships is having the only passenger smoking section under a little covered area outside on a top back deck on one side of the aft pool so the ship sails out of the smoke as it moves forward. There’s no indoor smoking and if you want to avoid it entirely just don’t go out on that back deck. We only ventured out there for a couple scheduled activities we wanted to attend or occasionally for the view off the back.

outside promenade deck

Another nice thing is having an outside promenade deck that goes all the way around the ship, which is a nice place both to get some exercise and to see what is outside. You can see in any direction other than forward from the promenade because it is closed-in as it passes around the bow. The best forward view is from the Crow’s Nest lounge on deck 10, which has floor-to-ceiling windows across the bow. There is an open bow on deck 4, but that is only available to passengers when sailing through particularly scenic places.

ship art on a ship

Holland America’s app started out more functional than some, but still had room for improvement. Apparently they were aware of that because at one point it said it had been updated to add new features and improve function, after which it quit working at all for a bit until they got that settled. When it worked for food it has daily menus, but does not say what time the venue is open so you have to go to the paper copy for that info. It also only gave menus for the current day so no option to look ahead and see where the worst menu is if you want to book a specialty restaurant sometime. It’s even less informative about the bars. Basically it just lets you know they exist. Some might say what deck they’re on, but not the specific location and others not even that. No menu of what sort of drinks are available either even though some specialty drinks are only served at one specific bar. This is the first ship we’ve been on in awhile that leaves a paper copy of the daily events in the room without having to ask for it, though it is significantly smaller than they used to be. The app does make an alert sound when you get a chat message, which is quite useful. Seems like an obvious thing to have, but when we were on Quantum of the Seas only the one person of our group with an apple watch got an alert, not any of the rest of us using phones.

games at the Crow’s Nest

There are no self-serve guest laundries on the Noordam, but they did offer a laundry special of unlimited laundry service for a bit over $200 for the 34-day cruise. For cruise ship laundry service that’s a bargain price, but still nowhere near as cheap as washing it yourself in the cabin. Other than inside rooms that just have a shower, all the other cabins on the Noordam have bathtubs so there is a bit more hanging space to dry laundry than on most cruise ships. That helps since the amount of laundry that can be washed at one time is limited by the amount of space you have to hang it to dry. I do bring extra laundry lines. Luckily there was structure on both ends of the tub to tie them to since the walls above the bathtub were not magnetic enough to hold a hook with wet clothes on the line. On some ships the shower is more magnetic than the cabin walls, but this one was the opposite.

promenade deck porthole

If you haven’t got a cabin with a window or balcony near the front of the ship, the large oval portholes on the promenade deck near the bow are a good place to watch for flying fish. I did one day see one from a window at the Lido buffet, which is at the back of the ship so it is possible to see them even if you aren’t at the front. On long ocean voyages flying fish are the most likely wildlife to see other than when near ports where birds are common and marine mammals might be spotted. We saw dolphins in Hawaii right near the ship, whales nearby in French Polynesia, and turtles and pelicans in Brisbane.

the Diamonds

Entertainment wasn’t the best on this voyage. There were no production shows. They did not even seem to have a cast onboard. Many of their guest entertainers were not all that entertaining, though they did have a few that excelled like the xylosynth guy. Some of the comedians were OK, others not at all. The first one practically assaulted someone who tried to leave the show early, leaving the stage and running up the aisle to grab the guy as he walked out the door. Some of the singers like a girl group from Australia called the Diamonds were good enough to listen to the whole show and even go back for the second one, but others were not even worth staying for one full show. We always picked easy out seats at the back of the balcony where we could slip out virtually unnoticed if the show wasn’t any good.

heated ceramic chairs in the spa’s thermal suite

Scheduled daily activities were also somewhat lacking in things we had interest in, and often if there was more than one thing we’d like they were all scheduled at the same time with nothing else of interest the rest of the day. Not everyone felt that way though as the things that were offered had more appeal to them. Luckily we are good at entertaining ourselves. We did splurge and book the thermal suite at the spa, which gives access for the entire cruise to the facilities there. This class of ship has a nice hydropool and heated ceramic chairs. The thermal suite also includes steam rooms. Not that many people booked it so it was never crowded and sometimes nobody else would be there at all.

pork dinner (not exactly per the description because substitutions are allowed)

The food was generally good, though gluten free dessert options were somewhat lacking. I tend to avoid most seafood, but John said the fish was better prepared and cooked to the correct doneness on this ship than most. That can change over time with a different chef and kitchen crew though. Dining room dress codes have gotten more casual over the years. Shorts, beach flip-flops, and jeans full of holes still aren’t allowed at dinner time though.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2023
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Thanksgiving on a Cruise Ship

Posted on November 23, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Meraviglia in Costa Maya

Apparently booking a bunch of cabins with extended family and cruising together over Thanksgiving is a big thing with a lot of people. We’ve had cruises that started or ended just before or after Thanksgiving before, but this was the first one that actually fell on the holiday. The ship was at or near capacity so everything was crowded. There were lots of large family groups. About a quarter of the passengers were children. Booking the next cruise after the Thanksgiving one might be a good way to avoid crowds though. Our 11-day cruise on MSC Meraviglia turned out to be a 7-day Thanksgiving cruise with a 4-day back-to-back cruise tagged on at the end, though we had booked it as one cruise. The 4-day bit at the end had less than a quarter of the number of people with only about 1000 passengers onboard. The shorter length of that cruise might have been part of it, but also being just after the holiday made it a less-popular time for a lot of people. Previous cruises we’ve taken just before or after the holiday were not that crowded either.

turkey on Carnival Breeze

We had one memorable Thanksgiving spent in a hotel in Miami between cruises, but had never actually been on a ship for Thanksgiving before our cruise on the MSC Meraviglia. The Thanksgiving spent in a Miami hotel is memorable not just for being between cruises, but also because there had been a big storm and there was no internet within a wide swath of the hotel. We had to walk a mile or so to a Burger King or McDonalds to have internet access during the few days we were there. On Thanksgiving everything was closed so our Thanksgiving dinner that year consisted of microwave macaroni & cheese in our hotel room. There hadn’t been any Thanksgiving decorations on the Carnival ship we’d just got off of during our sailing, but as we were leaving the port we saw they had just put up a giant blow-up turkey for the next cruise.

turkey dinner

We weren’t sure if there would be anything special for Thanksgiving on the Meraviglia since MSC is not an American cruise line, but turkey was indeed on the menu that day and they had a formal night in honor of the holiday as well.

Costa Maya snorkel boat

We had a port stop in Costa Maya, Mexico on Thanksgiving, and spent the morning snorkeling. At lunchtime we found the crew had put up a fancy display with watermelon and other fruit carvings, napkins folded to look like flowers, and a Happy Thanksgiving cake at the entrance to the buffet.

cake and fruit carvings at the buffet

The crew did put up a lot of decorations around the ship while everyone was out in port for the day, but the decorations mainly consisted of Christmas trees in various places around the ship.

cake at the dining room

There was a Thanksgiving cake at the entry to the dining room at dinner time, which looked a lot like the one up at the buffet, but with a neater job done on the frosting and without the carved fruit or fancy folded napkins. Special happenings for the day included a kid’s Thanksgiving parade and music in one of the lounges labeled as music for a Thanksgiving celebration. We did not attend either of those events. The dinner tables were set up fancy with napkins folded to resemble turkeys.

dining table set-up on Thanksgiving

The main thing that would make a Thanksgiving cruise special would be getting together with family for all the folks that made that sailing in large family groups. The dining room was more crowded that night than any other night of the cruise, with all the tables filled rather than many empty ones as most nights when a lot of people chose to eat elsewhere. Some of the tables that are usually slightly separated into a line of tables for 2 or 4 were pushed together into one long table to accommodate large family groups.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2023

 

 

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Busch Gardens

Posted on November 17, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Busch Gardens sign nowhere near the entrance

Our original plans included a one-night stay in Tampa after our cruise on Celebrity Constellation, which was supposed to be followed by boarding Royal Caribbean Serenade of the Seas the next day. We booked at a La Quinta specifically because it had guest laundries and the plan for our day on shore was to do all our laundry between cruises and take the covid test for the next cruise that was still required before boarding any cruise ship at that time. Several days before we were to disembark the Constellation we got the news that Serenade of the Seas was cancelling all future cruises for the next couple months, starting with ours.

statues

With people cancelling cruises right and left at that time due to covid or the inability to get there due to their flight having been cancelled, we thought Celebrity would bend over backwards to make deals with anyone wishing to stay onboard for the next cruise as the ship would likely sail less than half full again. It holds over 2000 passengers and had just 700 for our sailing. We were wrong about that though. They weren’t willing to do anything other than what was already available on the internet to anyone who may or may not be able to get there. We could actually have booked that sailing for less online through Vacations to Go than onboard through the onboard future cruise staff. Even through Vacations to Go it was not any sort of bargain though. It was not even remotely a good deal at a price considerably higher than what we’d paid for the cruise we were on at the time, so we just decided to go home.

animals at Busch Gardens

We could only get a nonstop flight either too early to get to the airport from the time people are allowed to disembark the ship or not until late in the evening where we wouldn’t get home until the middle of the night and it’s a very long drive home from the airport. At the time nonstop was the only way to go to prevent the possibility of getting stuck at some random airport if the second flight of the journey got cancelled. We decided to just keep the already booked hotel in Tampa and fly out the next morning. The hotel just happened to be across the street from Busch Gardens. Since we no longer needed to prepare for the next cruise and it was right there we decided we might as well go.

roller coaster up close – taken from the ride’s exit path

It’s cheaper to buy the tickets online than it is to buy them from the park when you get there, plus you avoid the ticket line. For $25 less than the entry price per person at the gate the online ticket also included a free meal. Free food is a great bonus considering the price of food in the park. The free meal was redeemable in several locations within the park.

flamingos

At the one we went to if you didn’t have the free meal ticket a meal consisting of one meat, one side, and one drink cost $45 for pre-made cafeteria food from warming bins or cold trays depending on the item. That was also what was included in the free meal. They had other things you could add, but they all cost extra. The portions were generally not very big. Even with the online discount tickets aren’t cheap, but still $70 less per person than buying it at the gate and then purchasing that minimal meal inside. (There is cheaper – and one would hope better – food at some of the many little stands.)

roller coaster

I hadn’t been to Busch Gardens in many years before this trip and mainly remembered it having a lot of big crazy roller coasters. It does have a lot of those, but it also has so much more.

the first roller coaster we rode

Unfortunately not everything was open, but there was still a lot to do. A couple of the roller coasters were not up and running and some of the other things were closed too.

roller coaster

Our hotel was right across the street, but from a totally fenced off side of the park. We could see roller coasters out our window, but the entrance was on the opposite side. We had to go to the end of that block, cross the street, walk past the entire park including a parking area, turn another corner, and walk a short distance down that block to gain access so a pretty long walk to get to something that was right there.

view from the top of a roller coaster that looked mellow, but was actually very jarring with jolts and jerks on every corner

The park is divided up into a variety of sections so you can’t just go straight from one roller coaster to the next. There might be a couple within the same area, but then you have to walk to another area to find another one. There are other things to do in each area. I suppose that keeps the lines shorter since people are busy walking from one area to another rather than just heading straight into the next line. We were there pretty early and the lines were very short, but later in the day after more people arrived lines for things got longer, though nowhere near where they would be in peak season.

carousel (not in the little kid ride section)

There’s a whole section of little rides for small children. There’s a few child-friendly things in other areas of the park too, though like other things not all of it was open.

Sesame Street topiary

There are plants throughout the park, and some actual small gardens.

no way

One crazy looking ride goes up a giant pole and then drops down, first facing the people downward before it drops, then springing them upright again before it quite gets to the bottom. A lot of people got off that ride and then had to search for their shoes that fell off while they were on it. A couple months after we were there a teenage boy fell off a ride similar to the drop one at a different park and died. I have to be careful what I ride due to motion sickness issues and that one was a definite no. Some of the roller coasters are fine, but the ones that spin people around too much or the one with sudden changes from forward to backward are not anything I would do because I really hate barfing and that’s what they’d cause.

train

There’s also a train, which people can ride around to see various animals and the location of some of the roller coasters, or they can use it as transportation between one station or the other. It actually has 3 stations, but one of them was closed so it was just stopping at 2.

roller coaster over a train station (taken from inside the train)

You don’t have to get off at any particular station so once you are on it you can ride it around as many times as you want. It takes awhile to make a full circuit though.

zebra seen from the train

There are some animal exhibits in different locations in the park, with the majority of them in a big area where the train goes through. You can see quite a lot of different animals from the train. People can also pay extra to ride in the back of a safari truck on dirt roads that crisscross through the area and get closer to some of the animals than the train, which mainly skirts the edge.

meerkat

A paved trail goes by some animal exhibits that you don’t see from the train or truck. One of them was meerkats. It was mainly meerkat holes. Only one meerkat came out of a hole while we were there. It was much smaller than they look on the TV show Meerkat Manor. It must have been a young one because it was far smaller than the 9-14 inches adult meerkats grow to.

water ride – we did not go on it remembering from a previous visit it can get you really wet and the day was too cold to walk around in wet clothes. You have to pay to use the squirt guns to shoot at these people now and nobody was using them so it wasn’t as bad as it could be, but the ride can get unlucky people sitting in the wrong place wet on its own – and the wrong place could be anywhere depending on how the raft turns.

Busch Gardens has 10 roller coasters, 2 drop rides, 2 water rides, and some other rides. In addition to the little rides for small children there are also some play areas. There’s an ice skating show in the Moroccan Palace and for the little ones a couple Sesame Street shows. Besides the safari, there are other behind-the-scenes type animal tours people can book to have a closer look at some of the park’s animals. There are gift shops scattered throughout the park, but none of the roller coasters we went on exited directly through a gift shop like so many attractions do these days.

giraffes

It was a nice way to spend a day. Even with some things closed there was still more than enough to do there to fill a day. It would take more than one day to see and do everything.

elephant

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Food on MSC Meraviglia

Posted on November 10, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Meraviglia at Ocean Cay

Food on MSC Meraviglia is definitely far better for people who are not on any sort of special diet. They have plenty of food available, and the food is good – it’s just a bit tough if you need any alterations. Most cruise ships will take pre-orders in the dining room for people with special diets and then make that food for them the next day altering it as needed such as using gluten-free flours or non-dairy products.

pork dinner

Options for special diets were far more limited on the Meraviglia. They didn’t take any pre-orders or make any gluten-free items in-house. Their solution was to bring out a menu with only the items that already don’t contain gluten, dairy, or whatever it is a person needs to avoid marked as possible options. From those limited choices they then removed any offending items like sauces or gravy that contained anything not on that person’s diet. Some of our meals came entirely with no sauces or toppings at all, but others at least had a sauce on the meat that appeared corn-starch based. I don’t know if that was the standard sauce for those meals or not. The food we had generally tasted good even with the lack of choices and sauces.

gluten free cake

They did have delicious-looking gluten-free cake as a dessert option, but it was covered in whipped cream and came thawed from a freezer so it was not something they could leave off and therefore not an option if dairy is also an issue. For me whipped cream and milk that isn’t lactose free are the biggest offenders, causing nearly instant gastric distress whereas I can handle small amounts of butter, cheese, or even sour cream if I don’t eat it every day. I’m also OK with small amounts of gluten, though too much will upset my stomach. Dairy doesn’t bother John, but he also has problems with too much gluten, though it is more inflammatory issues rather than stomach upset for him.

gluten and dairy free tapioca dessert with fruit sauce

The only gluten and dairy free option they had for dessert was a tapioca thing that was OK when they put a fruit sauce on it, but not something anyone would want for dessert every night and pretty tasteless when served plain. Sorbet should have been an option, but our waiter said the sorbet on the dining room menu had dairy listed as an ingredient, which means it wasn’t actually real sorbet. The dining room did not offer up any of the actual sorbet from the gelato shop as an alternative even for people whom they had no decent desserts available for. Going to the shop and paying for it was the only way to get that.

Meriviglia’s take on pecan pie – a normal on-menu dessert

Cruise ship waiters and other food service personnel have no understanding of limited tolerance to gluten or lactose. To them it is all or nothing. Either you’re like a celiac or else you don’t have a gluten problem, and issues with lactose comes across as totally dairy free. Which meant every night without fail the starch accompanying my dinner was a baked potato with nothing on it, and nothing available to put on it unless it was one of the days where the meat had some sauce and there was actually enough to scrape off a spoonful or two. The good thing about it was that my vegetables did not come drowning in butter the way they are often served on cruise ships.

turkey dinner

Besides not making any gluten free pancakes or anything, it was also impossible even to get a simple piece of gluten free toast at breakfast in the dining room. As usual the waiters did not understand that there is a difference between celiac, allergy, and tolerance. We’re just limited tolerance where toasting it in the same toaster as other bread isn’t an issue, unlike a celiac whose food can’t touch anything that touched something with gluten in it.  Gluten free toast has not been a problem on other cruise ships, but then again most of them will also make some gluten free items like pancakes and desserts in house where this one did not. Neither did Wonder of the Seas which we went on just prior to Meraviglia so I hope it was just a quirk of these two ships and not a new cost-cutting trend with all of them.

buffet breakfast

There was no gluten-free section in the buffet either, but we really didn’t expect one having only previously seen an entire gluten-free section on a couple of Royal Caribbean’s ships. Most ships will have gluten-free items available somewhere in the buffet, and this one sort of did that. The pancake and waffle station had frozen gluten free rolls or croissants they’d warm up on request. They did not have a microwave anywhere at the buffet to warm them though so by the time they went to the dining room and back it took at least 10 minutes to get them. There were always plenty of items that were not the sort of thing that has gluten or dairy anyway so they were suitable for people with tolerance issues rather than severe allergies or celiac disease. The pizza station in the buffet said the only way to get gluten free pizza is through room service. They would not make any there.

buffet lunch

They did not make anything gluten free at all on this ship. Any gluten free breads they had were pre-made, frozen, and individually packaged so they could heat it and hand it to you without ever removing it from the bag. Which would insure it didn’t touch anything else – a good precaution for celiacs, which as previously mentioned they assumed everyone asking for gluten-free products was.

chicken and salad at the buffet

For most people the buffet had lots of choices. The station that made pancakes and waffles also had a selection of sweet rolls and pastries, There was another bread station with muffins, bagels, toast, and that sort of thing. And lots of stations offering eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, and other breakfast fare. They had a make-it-while-you-wait omlet station, one with fruit, and oatmeal, grits, or cold cereal. They also had rice and congee and a few other breakfast items unfamiliar to most Americans that some of the guests from other countries prefer.

the buffet had a great salad bar

At lunch and dinner the buffet had quite a variety of things to choose from. I always like the many options available on cruise ship salad bars, and this one did not disappoint. There were also plenty of the sort of things that naturally don’t contain gluten or dairy so by avoiding those that do it was easy to find a decent meal there. Dessert not so much.

tostada

Other than the dining room, buffet, and hamburgers/hot dogs/pizza & ice cream by the pool all of the eateries on this ship cost extra and required reservations. We tried the taco place one night when the dinner menu had nothing to offer us but the same rotisserie chicken we’d already had twice. It was good chicken, but it is nice to have something different sometimes. Food at the taco place was either a la carte or $17 for all you can eat. The individual items were mostly low priced, but also quite tiny. The food was quite good, but the service very slow in spite of the fact that there were only two other tables with customers – and they never refilled our water.

sorry, there’s no reservations available

All specialty restaurants required reservations, including the taco place. There could be nobody in there at all, yet they wouldn’t let you in without a reservation – and if you tried to make one on the app while standing there looking into a completely empty restaurant it would say none were available. We probably would have gone there again if we had been able to get in a second time. They could have made a lot more money in that place if they got rid of the reservations and just let people come in and eat as long as there were tables open. The same table that would only get a couple seatings per night with the reservation system would probably turn over at least 5 or 6 times in an evening rather than sitting there empty most of the time. Even more if they sped up their service.

sorbet at the gelato shop

The gelato place next door to the taco place on the other hand was not only generous with their servings, but also one you could just walk up to and order. It was a bit pricey and their topping offerings did not include any ice cream sauces, but they did have several flavors of sorbet to choose from as well as the gelato. The sorbet there was real sorbet without any dairy in it. It was also delicious.

chocolate snail at the chocolate shop

Across the way from the tacos and gelato, the chocolate shop on the promenade had homemade chocolates and fancy coffees (also tea or hot chocolate). Of course none of it came cheap. They did offer some non-dairy milk options and their hot chocolate was quite good.

teppanyaki place

We did not try the steak house, teppanyaki, sushi, or seafood place. Prices for those ranged from $30-$90 per person. Better rates were available in specialty dining packages of 3-5 meals, but they only sold a limited quantity of those packages and reservations on the package had to be made in person for each place rather than on the app as could be done when booking individual restaurants. Booking anything in-person meant waiting in a long very slow line for the one person who handled reservations for everything that didn’t work on the app, which was a lot of things hence the long slow line. We probably would have booked the 3-meal package if we could have made the individual reservations for each place on the app, but it wasn’t worth waiting in that line so we skipped it. (Calling for reservations was not an option either since nobody ever answered those calls.)

pork skewer appetizer

For a person without any special dietary needs, the dining room had great food and lots of choices. We probably would have been better off not to have mentioned having any issues and just ordering carefully since our problems are just limited tolerance to things rather than anything that causes severe reactions.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2023
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North Star on Quantum of the Seas

Posted on November 3, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

North Star on Quantum of the Seas

Unique to Royal Caribbean’s Quantum Class cruise ships, the North Star is a viewing pod that rises 300 feet in the air above the top deck of the ship for the best 360-degree view at sea. It’s a glass bubble somewhat resembling one pod of a giant Ferris wheel – only bigger, attached to an arm that not only rises up and down, but also circles from one side of the ship to the other.

North Star in down position

We knew we wanted to try it before the cruise even started. The app said it had to be booked onboard, but when it finally appeared in the available activities for the cruise on Royal’s website it said all times were booked full. Luckily the app was right and we were able to book it onboard. My niece Melissa suggested going up at sunset, which sounded like a good time for great views.

sunset at sea

We booked a time for the next day that coincided with sunset of the day we booked it, only to find out the next day when we actually had our ride that the ship had gone far enough north that the sun set over an hour later. The time we booked was the last time open that day so we wouldn’t have been able to schedule a later one and see the sunset from way up there anyway. There were people waiting to go when we came down so it wasn’t that it didn’t run any later, just that other people had already booked that time. It was starting to set while we were up there and went down shortly after we were done so we got some sunset photos, just from the deck rather than up high.

waiting area for the North Star

Check-in is on the top deck next to the pod. There’s a small waiting area with a bit of seating to hang out in while waiting for the group ahead to finish. When it’s time you take stairs or if needed an elevator up to the boarding level, where only people whose turn it is for the ride are allowed to go.

our group of 6 in the pod

This is an awesome experience. The glass bubble holds up to 12 passengers as well as a guide. The somewhat oval pod has a metal floor surrounded by glass walls. There’s no seats, but a metal railing runs around the inside at a height convenient for most people who are inclined to do so to grab. People can move about the enclosure as they please, taking any photos desired.

view of the arm holding the pod from inside the pod

You can see the view off into the horizon as well as an aerial view of the ship. It rises on a long arm that brings it out over the edge of the ship as it rises until the arm goes straight up, then out over the other side on the way back down.

the guide and the other people in the pod

There were four other people besides our group of six. The pod was pretty spacious and never felt crowded. Everyone had space enough to move around and take photos from all different directions.

disgusting smoke trail

Unfortunately at the time of our ride the ship was spewing massive amounts of thick brown smoke, the likes of which I have never seen coming out of a cruise ship smokestack before or since, not even on that same ship. Hopefully it was not as toxic as it looked since it left a trail behind the ship that went on for miles. This definitely marred the view in that direction, though that is probably the least of any worries that trail of smoke caused. We did not see that coming from the ship at any other time on our cruise when we went up to the top deck. Just that day. The smoke was plainly visible from the top deck too so it’s not like it could only be seen from the pod. If that is something this ship does on a regular basis and not just a one-off it definitely should be required to undergo some repairs as nobody should be allowed to emit that much pollution no matter who they are.

looking down on the ship

Other than the smoke, the view from up there is fantastic as you can see everything for miles around. You can also look down onto the ship for an aerial view you’d never get anywhere else.

guide and his control panel inside the pod

The guide warned us not to touch his control panel, and to be careful not to bump into it while taking photos.

looking down to the ship and sea from the pod

It does cost a bit extra to go up the North Star, but not a lot. They have different prices for different amounts of time in the ride. Ours was $19 per person for the extended experience, which I would guess by the titles was the medium length one since they also had standard and premium. There may be some complimentary rides available in port or on boarding day.

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Gluten Free Mini Rum Cake Bites

Posted on October 27, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

mini rum cake bites

Easy Gluten Free Mini Rum Cake Bites

Grease 10 muffin cups in muffin pan. Heat oven to 350 F.

Topping

3 Tablespoons butter (for dairy free use plant butter)

2 Tablespoons rum

3 Tablespoons brown sugar

Melt butter, remove from heat, stir in brown sugar, then rum. Divide evenly into prepared pan.

Cake

1 egg

½ cup Gluten Free 1-1 flour (I use Namaste)

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

2 Tablespoons almond flour

½ Tablespoon cornstarch

½ teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons liquid vegetable oil

1 ½ Tablespoons rum

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup any type of milk

Beat egg in mixing bowl, blend in rest of ingredients. Divide evenly into prepared pan. There will just be a small portion of dough for each cake. Bake 15-16 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean at 350 degrees F. Drizzle top (soon to be bottom) of each cake with about 1/4 to 1 teaspoon rum per cake according to your taste as soon as they come out of the oven. When you finish drizzling, run a knife around the edge of each cake cup to prevent cakes from sticking to the pan. Place cookie sheet over pan, invert, and lift off cupcake pan. Makes 10 little cakes.

mini pecan rum cake bites

For pecan rum cakes add 1/2 cup chopped pecans in the topping.

coconut mini rum cake bites

For coconut rum cakes add 1/2 cup coconut in the topping, stir 1/2 cup coconut into the dough, and use coconut milk and coconut rum. Use melted coconut oil instead of the liquid vegetable oil.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2023

 

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Entertainment on Celebrity Constellation

Posted on October 20, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Celebrity Constellation in Bonaire

Celebrity Constellation had entertainment in the form of live bands scattered around the ship playing at various bars or by the pool at different times of the day. The outdoor movie screen usually had a couple different movies each day, some with a second showing available. There were a variety of scheduled activities each day and sometimes parties. The main entertainment was of course the nightly shows.

The first night’s show was a family-friendly comedian. He was pretty good other than making fun of Carnival cruise passengers, which the audience didn’t seem to appreciate. We’re not the only ones who sail with other lines. I wonder who he makes fun of on Carnival’s ships? Carnival used to be our go-to line, but we haven’t sailed there recently because most of the other lines are more restrictive with smoking and Carnival’s ships have gotten way to smokey for me. Not because passengers there are a bunch of criminals as implied in his routine.

cruise ship show

On the second night the ship’s own cast put on one of their production shows, a pretty typical cruise ship show with singers and dancers. The best dance act had a lot of lifts and acrobatics. The show included two aerialists who performed just with ribbon, no ring. A male went first by himself using both ribbons, then his female partner joined him using one ribbon each. They performed together, mostly but not always in contact with one another. Our first cruise on Celebrity several years ago was the first time we had seen an aerialist on a cruise ship. They seem to be becoming more common on cruise ships now and are usually included in Celebrity’s production shows, and often on other lines now too.

Broadway Boys

Night three’s show was the Broadway Boys, an outside act of 4 former Broadway performers who now do their own thing. In this case singing way way-way off Broadway on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. The show consisted of tunes originating on Broadway that made their way out into the world and shows that started out elsewhere and worked their way into Broadway. Stage lighting effects have come a long way from what they once were in terms of enhancing the show, but they still manage to shine the lights blindingly out into the crowd no matter where you sit. Not that there was a crowd. With the ship at significantly less than half capacity (more crew than passengers that sailing) nothing was crowded. And yet, in a theater lightly sprinkled with people and open seats all over the place, – nearly all the seats were open – a group of 4 managed to wander in 15 minutes after the show started and plop down right in front of us. Or at least the tallest guy in the group did. If they had moved along another couple feet before sitting or gone down one row (all of the rows in front of us were totally empty) they would have been out of the way. With the top of his head apparently not enough for blocking the view, he even raised his arms up above his head to clap at the end of the first song after he sat down. At least he didn’t do that through the whole show. Social distancing anyone? Yeah, they could have sat just about anywhere else and had nothing but open seats all around them. This cruise was taken shortly after cruising resumed following the covid pandemic so ships were only sailing at about half capacity. Between several storms around the country cancelling multiple flights just before that cruise and other flights cancelled due to lack of crew nearly half the people booked for the cruise didn’t make it so passengers were very sparse.

Night four had a trumpet player. Whether it was him or the microphone turned up way too high, whenever he played the trumpet it was earsplittingly loud. So loud it hurt our ears and we walked out on his second song. We weren’t the only ones. We ran into other people just outside the theater who left for the same reason. We could still hear it for quite a way down the hall into the shop area of the ship. We went to one of the bars that had a singer and guitar duo who played at a much lower volume and listened to them and watched some other passengers dancing instead. The music was nice and some of the passengers were pretty good dancers. The microphone in the theater was overly loud on most of the shows, but the trumpet was the worst of all as he played right into it.

Rock City aerialist

Night five brought a production show called Rock City with the ship’s cast of singers, dancers, acrobats, and an aerialist. Most of the songs are familiar to anyone old enough to have grown up with them, which is probably the majority of the people onboard since Celebrity generally caters to an older crowd.  Though still less than a third full, the audience had the most people we’d seen at a show on that cruise. Only the male aerialist performed in this show, his female partner was nowhere to be seen. The last couple numbers had boys in skirts with 3 of the acrobatic type dancers.

fiddle player from New Zealand

The show night six was a fiddle player from New Zealand, with 8 years playing in Lord of the Dance and world tours under her belt. She had a lively show with a variety of music, and sense enough to stay away from the microphone in the center of the stage unless she wanted to say something so she didn’t blast everyone out of the theater like the trumpet player did. Maybe she had seen his show.

Company Men

Night 7 was a quartet of singers called the Company Men. Our stateroom steward said they were staying in the section of cabins he takes care of, and that they are really nice guys. They all had very good voices. Their schtick in the show was song mashups, so bits and pieces of a bunch of songs, but never a complete song other than that they put the bits and pieces together to make their song. We’d have preferred whole songs, but it’s their show and they do their thing.

cabaret show

Night 8 brought a Broadway Cabaret production show with the ship’s orchestra and singers. It would have been better if the volume had been turned down a bit from people in distant cabins wearing earplugs could probably hear it to something a little more reasonable. Sometimes things are too quiet to understand the words, this was quite the opposite. Too loud to hear many individual words. It seems like whoever was in charge of the theater sound system on that ship has a hearing problem they are unaware of and turned the volume up so high people with hearing aids take them out and still think it’s too loud. Seriously, we talked to another passenger who actually did that.

dueling pianos

On night 9 there was a piano duo billed as man vs women pianos. They both played very well. The guy was the better singer of the two. Their show would have been really good if they’d have stuck to playing songs, but they ruined it with their fake bickering over whether Billy Joel or Elton John is best and whether men or women are better piano players. They played songs or parts of songs from a variety of piano greats of the past few decades.

Night 10 the Company Men were supposed to perform again. Instead of the usual ship’s orchestra for background music they had pre-recorded music for this show, but their computer system crashed. They got a couple songs out before, and did one acapella after, but then ended the show early and said to come back for the late show in hopes they’d have it fixed by then. They were actually quite good acapella but didn’t want to do the entire rest of the show that way. This time they had done whole songs rather than bits and pieces in a mashup so it would have been better than the previous one they had.

opera singer

The last night’s show was a singer who had previously been a sub for a variety of parts in Les Misérables. Pretty much everything he sang sounded like opera, whether it was supposed to or not. Even an Evanescence song. Which I suppose is fine of you like opera. (Not a fan.)

acrobatic dancers in the Rock City show

Overall the entertainment on the ship was good, but as far as the theater goes turning down the microphone would have made it a whole lot better.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2023
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Neighborhoods on Wonder of the Seas

Posted on October 13, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Wonder of the Seas in Saint Martin

It’s not surprising that a cruise ship as big as Wonder of the Seas is divided up into what Royal Caribbean refers to as neighborhoods. Other than self-contained areas like the Boardwalk, Central Park, and the Royal Promenade, it’s not always obvious where one neighborhood ends and the next begins, or sometimes exactly which one a particular feature belongs to, but on paper it does give somewhat of a guide to what to find onboard and where to find it. The neighborhoods all refer to public spaces on the ship, not to the areas where passenger cabins are located. Strangely enough since food is a huge part of cruising there is not a Food Zone. Perhaps that is because there are eateries scattered about most of the public areas of the ship with the main dining room on decks 3, 4, & 5 and the buffet on deck 15.

ice show

Entertainment Place

Entertainment Place is found on deck 4. The theater sits at the front of the ship. It extends up to deck 5 and down to deck 3. This is where stage shows and singing & dancing production shows are found, similar to what most cruise ships have, but certainly not the only shows to be found on this ship. Deck 4 also has a comedy club called The Attic where comedians perform their act on a small stage. It’s home to the Diamond Club, a lounge reserved only for guests at the highest levels of Royal Caribbean’s loyalty program. Next door sits the Golden Room which was originally intended to be a high roller casino for the Chinese cruise ship market, but since the ship was not sailing in China it was used as a small non-smoking casino that most people onboard probably didn’t know existed instead. The ice-skating arena sits at the center of the ship, with an art gallery hallway running along one side outside of the ice area, linking the main casino to the rest of Entertainment Place. Besides ice shows the skating arena is sometimes used for things like glow-in-the-dark laser tag. It may sometimes have open skating sessions for passengers as the ice arena did on Explorer of the Seas, but there weren’t any during our cruise. Maybe that was a pre-covid thing or just for the smaller ships as there weren’t any during our cruise on Symphony of the Seas either. The large smokey casino is on the other side of the skating rink bordering the main dining room. There’s a set of elevators between the casino and dining room, and restrooms just outside of the casino. There is a music hall on deck 8 & 9, a card room on deck 14, and the AquaTheater is not in that area either so not all of the entertainment is located within the Entertainment Place area of deck 4.

Royal Promenade

Royal Promenade

The Royal Promenade located on deck 5 is designed to look somewhat like a city street with shops along the sides and apartments rising above, though in this case the “apartment” windows actually belong to promenade view inside cabins on the deck just above the Royal Promenade. Although there isn’t any actual car traffic, it does have a car sitting out in the middle of the promenade and some car-themed decor mainly centered around Route 66. One of the bars along the promenade called Boleros has a bench made from part of a car.

car on the promenade

The promenade is also home to guest services and some eateries as well as shops and the Bionic Bar – where the bartenders are robots. It is also sometimes home to the Rising Tide Bar, which is a bar on an open elevator that sometimes rises up to Central Park. Free food is available at Sorrentos Pizza and Cafe Promenade, though specialty coffee and tea at the cafe cost extra. The pizza place made gluten free pizza on request, but the cafe had nothing gluten free. It did not have any hot chocolate either, though that could be found down the way at Starbucks, who did have non-dairy options. There’s also a place called Spotlight Karaoke, which probably should be part of Entertainment Place, but apparently the promenade is where they had room for it.

the outside promenade deck on Royal’s Oasis class ships is the best cruise ship track ever

The outside promenade deck, which runs around the outside of deck 5, is set up as an awesome track. It is not part of the promenade neighborhood, but rather goes along with the gym for fitness.

spa treatment room

Vitality Spa & Fitness

Although spa and fitness are included in the same neighborhood, they are not on the same deck. Both are at the bow with the spa on deck 5 and the fitness center on deck 6 – other than the aforementioned track which runs along the outer edge of deck 5. The spa has a thermal suite as well as a variety of treatment rooms for things like massages, teeth whitening, seaweed body wraps, and acupuncture.

gym

There’s also a beauty salon where services include haircuts, up-doos, and manicures. While most spa treatments are a one-time thing, you can book use of the thermal suite for the entire cruise, though this one charged extra for use of the thermal suite’s hot tub. The fitness center has a plethora of fitness equipment and also offers classes including yoga and Pilates.

the ultimate abyss slides end on the boardwalk

Boardwalk

The Boardwalk is found at the back of deck 6. It is an outside area surrounded on three sides by the interior of the ship. The top is open to the sky and the back is mostly open, though it does have some structure surrounding the AquaTheater at the very back of the boardwalk. The entrance to the boardwalk is a set of giant sliding glass doors just behind the aft elevator bay. A series of stand-alone carousel horses in various states of completement lead the way to the carousel, which has some other animals besides horses. Passengers of all ages can ride the carousel for free whenever it is open. Shops, a bar, and eateries line the outer edges of the boardwalk, with staterooms rising above to the top of the ship, a few with windows on deck 7, and balconies from deck 8 and above.

water show

At the very back of the rows of rooms each side from deck 8 up has one suite with balconies that wrap around so they have views of both the AquaTheater and the ocean. Eateries on the boardwalk include the Dog House, which has hot dogs at no additional charge, and Johnny Rockets where the burgers and shakes cost extra, but breakfast is free. Between them are a couple shops, one of which is a candy store. The other entire side is taken up by Playmakers, a sports bar and arcade. Outside of Johnny Rockets there’s a colorful climbing area for small children. The landing for the 10-deck Ultimate Abyss dry slides sits at the center back of the Boardwalk, just in front of the AquaTheater. The AquaTheater puts on an impressive water show which includes aerialists as well as dancers and divers. The rock climbing walls tower above the back of the boardwalk, with their entry platforms on deck 7, though you can get there from this level by stairway.

garden and pathway in Central Park

Central Park

Central Park is another open area on the inside of the ship, located as the name indicates in the center. The park is on deck 8, and like the boardwalk it has inside balcony cabins rising above it on higher decks. We stayed in one of those cabins and liked it a lot more than we thought we would before we went on our cruise. There are gardens with live plants, and some plants growing on walls under an overhead walkway where there aren’t any cabins. Pathways wind between the gardens.

elephant sculpture in the garden

There are a couple of structures resembling greenhouses that are actually skylights to the Royal Promenade. The third greenhouse-like structure is where the Rising Tide Bar sits when it is at the garden level. Looking down on them from above the shape of the three structures together somewhat resembles a very large fish, eel, or perhaps sea monster undulating up and down through the deck. Here too the edges have shops and eateries. Most of the eateries at this level are pay-extra, other than the Park Cafe where the food is free. There’s also one small bar and some places to sit. Deck 9 has interior cabins with windows above the park and the balconies start on deck 10.

kids climbing thing on the boardwalk

Youth Zone

Youth Zone is where the kid’s club areas are on deck 14, which is really deck 13 since there is no deck numbered 13 on this ship, and on deck 16. Royal has separate programs for varying age groups starting at age 3. The age groups are 3-5, 6-8, and 9-11. There are also activities for teenagers divided by age to 12-14 and 15-17. The kids’ area called Adventure Ocean is located at the front of deck 14. The teen area called Social 100 is just back of center on the port side of deck 16. Children’s activities include things like crafts, art, science, scavenger hunts, games, stories, and themed parties. There’s an arcade not far from the teen area on the other side of the ship.

waterslides on the pool deck

Pool & Sports Zone

The pool and sports zone is mainly found at the front and back of deck 15 and the back of deck 16. The very front of deck 15 houses the glassed-in adults only solarium, which also has a bit extending down to deck 14. This area has its own hot tubs, bar, and even a free bistro, which is a great place to go for lunch as it tends not to be as crowded as some of the other food venues. There are of course many deck chairs in the area as well as a towel station. The forward elevator bay sits between the solarium and the open deck. The pool deck of course has even more deck chairs, some of which sit in the shallows of the beach pool on the starboard side of the ship.

beach pool

The entrance to the ship’s 3 waterslides lies near the beach pool. There’s a lot of stairs to climb to get to the top of the slides. There’s an open area in the center of the pool deck looking down on Central Park. On the port side there’s a splash park with waterslides for small children called Splashaway Bay. The outdoor movie screen sits at the front end of the open area over Central Park. Behind that you find the Lime & Coconut Bar, followed by main pools on both sides of the ship. Beyond the aft elevators there’s a pay-extra eatery called The Mason Jar on the starboard side, and the Windjammer Buffet on both sides. At the back of deck 15 there’s a flowrider on the port side and a playground for small children called Wonder Playscape starboard. A ramp alongside the playground leads to deck 16, though the kids can also get up to that deck inside the playground which is on both levels.

octopus at the mini golf

A mini-golf course called Wonder Dunes sits just forward of the playground on deck 16. It’s very well decorated with lots of whimsical features and a giant octopus that can be seen from shore, but they seem to have put more thought into how the course looks than they did into actual playability of the holes. The port side across from Wonder Dunes has a sports court, and in the center a zipline goes across the open area over the Boardwalk. The entrance to the zipline is near the stern, which also has a bar called the Wipe Out Bar – maybe people head there after unsuccessful tries on the flow rider? Behind that bar at the very back of the ship there’s a giant purple anglerfish with stairways inside that serves as the entrance to the 10-deck Ultimate Abyss dry slides.

suite sundeck (internet photo)

Suite Class Neighborhood

Oasis Class ships built prior to Wonder just have 7 neighborhoods, but Wonder added an 8th one with the Suite Class Neighborhood, which is of course only for people who are staying in suites – and junior suites don’t count. This area is located on decks 17 and 18, where suites are the only staterooms to be found. Suite guests can hang out there without having to associate with the peons from smaller quarters on the rest of the ship. They have their own bar, sundeck, and plunge pool at the front of deck 17. In the back section of that deck, along with the grand suites, there’s a lounge just for suite guests and their own private dining room called the Coastal Kitchen. The front and back sections of deck 17 are not connected because those decks don’t run the full length of the ship. Deck 18 is just over the back section of deck 17 and has another sundeck in the midst of some fancy suites including two one-of-a-kind enormous suites, the Ultimate Family Suite, which is two-decks high, sleeps up to 10 people, and has a slide from the upper to lower levels and other family-friendly amenities like its own air hockey and ping-pong tables, and the Royal Loft Suite, also two decks high. It has more square footage, but only sleeps 6. There are also crown loft suites and owners suites in that area, but none of them are one-of-a-kind.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2023
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Cruise Ship Cabins on Quantum of the Seas

Posted on October 6, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Quantum of the Seas in Icy Strait Point

Like all major cruise ships, Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas has a variety of staterooms and suites to choose from. From budget saving inside cabins to spacious suites, there’s something to suit every cruiser. There’s a total of 2094 rooms which includes 125 suites, 1446 balcony cabins, 148 oceanview, 375 inside (some with virtual balconies) and 28 studios. Most are 180-200 square feet, with the majority of balconies at 55 square feet. The major categories are interior, oceanview, balcony, and suite. Other than suites that vary considerably, the major differences between sub-categories of other cabins is usually their location within the ship or whether anything may be blocking all or part of the view. Generally cabins higher on the ship and closer to the center are considered more desirable and therefore more expensive, but if you are prone to seasickness lower down and close to the center has the least movement. Checking the deck plans before booking is a good way to see if there are any cabins within a category that are bigger than normal or have an extra-large balcony. Those are often found in corners or curved areas of the ship.

inside studio

Studio cabins are the smallest at about 100-120 square feet, with the smaller size for the interior which are listed as 101 square feet and the larger for the balcony studios at 119. Although intended for just one person, they have full sized beds. Some are adjacent to a larger cabin with connecting doors so that they can be used either as a separate cabin or as an extra bedroom to the larger cabin. Solo cabins on Quantum include interior with virtual view and balcony cabins. The virtual view is a real-time video window so the occupant can see what’s outside and whether it is day or night even though they are in an interior cabin. It is separate from the TV and there is a curtain that can be drawn over the video window, or it can be turned off. The biggest advantage of booking a studio cabin for solo cruisers is avoiding the single supplement that comes with rooms intended for two that can be as high as the cost of having a second person in the room.

interior cabin with virtual balcony

Interior cabins on Quantum pretty much all have virtual balconies, which is a live-feed view of the outside same as in the interior studio staterooms. Standard size is generally 166 square feet, with accessible cabins at 256 square feet. Accessible cabins are usually the biggest in any cabin category on all the cruise ships. There are even a few connecting inside cabins available for people who want closer connections to their traveling companions than just being next door. Connecting cabins are handy if you are with the people on the other side, but best avoided when possible if you are not traveling with them because even though that door stays locked on both sides if you are not traveling with those people, you can hear the people in the next room through that door a lot more easily than through a standard wall. Interior cabins hold 2-4 people depending on the stateroom.

oceanview cabin

Oceanview cabins are mostly located on the outer edges of deck 3. These are standard-sized ocean view cabins at 182 square feet. Some of the higher decks have spacious ocean view cabins at the front, which are listed as 214 square feet on Royal’s website, but if you could snag one of the corner rooms they look considerably larger in the deck plans. Oceanview cabins hold up to 4 people depending on the designated number for each particular room.

it’s sort of a trundle bed except both sides are the same height

We stayed in one with 4 people and discovered that instead of two bunks or one bunk and a couch bed, this ship uses a pull-out in the couch that turns it into a double bed. There was plenty of storage for all 4 people because in addition to two closets and 6 drawers, there were also 4 pretty spacious wall-mounted cubbies above the beds and couch. Once again connecting cabins are something to look out for whether it is because you want to book two together or want to avoid the noise of neighbors you’re not with.

accessible oceanview cabin

Accessible cabins are usually larger than other cabins of the same category. The ones on Quantum were definitely more spacious than the standard oceanview cabins.

bathroom in accessible oceanview cabin

It’s not only the cabin area that’s more spacious in accessible cabins. The bathroom here is more than double the size of the bathrooms in the standard cabins. The shower is level with the floor for roll-in access for wheelchair users, unlike standard cabin showers with a rim you have to step over on the way in. Normally that larger shower means a longer clothesline that pulls out from the side of the shower, but Quantum did not have a clothesline in the shower. It was also lacking for toiletries, having just a combo shampoo/body wash and no conditioner. We had to ask for washclothes as well.

balcony cabin

Standard balcony cabins are 198 square feet with 55 square foot balconies. Though listed as larger, the main difference we noticed between our oceanview cabin and my nieces’ balcony cabin was the balcony instead of the window. It had the exact same furnishings, but in the oceanview the couch was up next to the framework around the window, which was wide enough to sit in the window. The balcony cabin had a bit of space between the couch and sliding door. There are a bunch on deck 6 listed as having obstructed views and among those as well as any of the other decks if you choose your cabin carefully using the deck plans there are some with bigger balconies and the same category listing as others with regular sized balconies. Cabins on Quantum came equipped with teapots, something I had only seen previously on P&O. There wasn’t any tea in the cabin, but teabags are easy to come by in the Lido buffet.

standard balcony

The standard balcony was pretty much average size as far as cruise ship balconies go. It did have a little table, which some ships don’t.

accessible balcony cabin

Like the accessible oceanview cabins, the accessible balcony cabins were quite spacious in comparison to the standard room.

royal loft suite

Suites come in quite a variety of shapes and sizes ranging from 267 square foot Junior Suites that are pretty much just extra-large balcony cabins up to the 1640 square foot two-story Royal Loft Suite. In between there’s also the two-story Owner’s Loft Suite, Grand Loft Suites and Sky Loft Suites and single story one and two-bedroom Grand Suites. Some of the larger suites have balconies that are considerably bigger than whole entire ordinary staterooms. Bathrooms in the suites are of course much bigger and fancier than those found in other staterooms as well. Other than junior suites which pretty much just get priority boarding, the larger suites also come with perks that you don’t get with regular cabins like access to the suite lounge and sundeck, free room service, in-suite dining with dining room menu items, reserved seating for shows, concierge service, backstage tour, and double loyalty points.

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