On prior RCCL cruises (on older ships) we were always impressed by the crew's dedication to customer service. We were sold by RCCL that a newer ship would WOW us even more. When we heard the Quantum was coming to our area and had every new feature we could possibly want, and we'd be the 2nd real cruise, and the first Inaugural Bahamas cruise, we decided to pay more than usual to try out the Quantum. This ship tries to sell cruisers on having so many high tech features such as tablet based reservation systems and other new ideas like Dynamic Dining; but took away the focus on the customer.

The new techie features often didn't work - whoever wrote the dining reservation application would be better suited to creating IRS tax forms. Due to an application issue, the photos weren't properly linked to our cabin number, so we were asked to search through thousands of photos to find our own. They provided a wristwatch type of ID so you didn't need to carry around the seapass - but when you entered your room, you had to put the seapass in a slot to get the lights and outlets to work. The Northstar gondola arm only worked half the time - and when it was fixed, they forced people to wait in the cold 8am temperatures for up to 2 hours to get printed tickets for a later time of day and cut the ride time in half as a reward. The windjammer wouldn't even provide ice tea upon request before lunchtime.

There are only 4 restaurants included in the standard fare for dinner (plus the buffet), but they had exactly the same short menu every day and many of the items ended up being poor choices. Crew members seemed to be more interested in developing a relationship with their IPAD than taking care of their guests. Since they only saw each guest once per cruise for a meal, there seemed to be no incentive to provide excellent service since it was unlikely they'd get an extra cash tip for that single interaction. There were lots of excuses and apologies for all the problems, but nothing offered to make up for it. If you want to promote a union shop mentality in this cruise line, remember what happened to Detroit automakers in last quarter of the 20th century. Read more