This is a review of a cruise we took Christmas week 2014 on Quantum of the Seas. Our family of 5 has been on five cruises prior to this one – four Disney, one HAL. We have also never before cruised on such a large ship, having generally sailed on ships in the 2,000-2,600 passenger range.

The experience began before we even came onto the ship. Our reservations were made through a TA which meant that we couldn’t make any changes online. Due to the dynamic dining system on Quantum, each dinner and each show must be separately reserved. RCL’s web site is difficult to navigate and necessitated hours on the phone in order to lock in our reservations. Unfortunately, as will be revealed, that time was mostly wasted due to the crashing of the ship’s reservation systems. We also downloaded the “Royal iQ” app on our phones before boarding, which we were told would allow us to access reservations, text each other, etc. while on board.

Boarding at Cape Liberty went relatively well for us. The key is that there are staff with iPads wandering about and, if you have pre-registered online and you can catch a staff member, the process is smooth. We were on the ship in less than 10 minutes. Read more