Pre-cruise report #4 from the Quantum of the seas.

Ahoy,

This will be our final blog since most of you will be traveling tomorrow and we will get to see you on Monday. BTW, be sure to bundle up for Newark! It was 23 degrees today but the weather channel said it feels like 5. Brrr! You will surely enjoy the heat in the Caribbean.

Thanks are due to our web design team for formatting the blogs and inserting our photos to make it more interesting. We appreciate the positive feedback from our passengers.

Regarding the Card Player Cruises private tours... the Secret Harbour excursion still has availability. Our first vehicle for the St. Kitts tour filled up quickly, but we just got an email saying that we can have more vans if needed. Please let us know you want to book an excursion if you haven't already reserved a spot.

The seas are a bit rough again today so I took a seasick pill and feel great. The Captain has altered our route to go out farther west to avoid really rough water. It looks like the pattern for our trip next week will probably be similar to this voyage - waves the first two and last two sea days and smooth the rest of the time. Remember to take your seasick pill around noon on Feb. 2nd if you have motion sickness problems.
jan-fly

Jan is off enjoying the IFly (indoor sky diving).
Here is a picture of her in mid air.

Since I last wrote, we have tried several other dining rooms. Silk was excellent and is known for Asian cuisine. We shared the ribs and spring rolls for appetizers, and Chilean sea bass and teriyaki steak for entrees. There are lazy Susans on each table to enable sharing. The fried won tons were OUTSTANDING! For dessert, I had Yuzu sorbet and Jan had mango mousse. We really can't remember being more impressed with ship food than we have been on this cruise. Tonight we will be dining in Chic which I hear is great. Tomorrow night, I imagine we will order room service and watch the Super Bowl in the cabin.

breadWe didn't eat any bread the first week, then made a really big error on day eight. I tried the rye bread and am now hooked. They make paninis in the Windjammer, so I had a turkey and Swiss cheese panini on rye bread for lunch the past two days. Check out this photo of the homemade bread.

In the dining room, at dinner time, you do not need to stop by the host desk to be checked in - you can just ask any of the Head Waiters or Leads to show you to the tables reserved for CPC.

You will notice all the technology on the ship. Be sure to stop by the Bionic Bar and let a robot shake up a great drink for you. One small problem that I think will get better with time is the way the waiters take orders in the dining rooms. They use Ipads to record your order. This does enable the order to get to the kitchen quicker, but I think it takes away a little bit of the personalized service since the server is so busy pushing buttons on the Ipad that he or she doesn't make much eye contact. This is new for most of the attendants so it will get better once they learn how the system works and the food does come out quickly. You will love the Royal IQ, an app that should be downloaded on your smart phones. As mentioned in an earlier blog, Jan will be happy to help you learn your way around this site. I am still a dinosaur who hasn't joined the 21st century.

Today's North Star report: It is too cold today to wait in line. We have been by the staging area several times over the past few days and the line has been at least an hour long. We have talked to many people who waited in line and took the ride and no one thought it was a WOW experience, so I'm glad we didn't wait. We may be able to go with some of you next week if it works out.

seaplexThe Seaplex is huge and houses lots of activities like basketball, circus training, volleyball, trapeze, and bumper cars. Jan and I have spent so much time in our cabin watching the Australian Open this wEarl Turnereek that we haven't checked out these activities. We did go to the '70s party and had a great time dancing. We also saw two Headliner shows this week that were very good: Ron Lucas (a ventriloquist) and Earl Turner (one of my favorite singers/show men of all time.) We also spent some time with an interesting character.hippo

Good news, the Captain just announced over the loud speaker that we will be through the storm by 3 a.m. this morning and should have smooth seas tomorrow!

Some of you wrote and asked if there was anything we needed. The only thing I can think of is small bills. If you are near a bank, it would be helpful if you would change up some $100s for $1s, $5s, $10s, and $20s. The ship will help us as much as possible, but we don't want to keep asking for favors.

Okay, now is my best tip from our trip. I debated telling you about it, due to subject matter, but it will save you some of the worry and embarrassment that Jan and I had during the first few days of the trip. There is a flaw in the public toilet system, at least in the ladies restrooms. There is no way to manually flush the toilet... that's right, no handle, no button, etc. They are supposed to flush when you open the door, however many of them have a very long, delayed flush! There are ladies waiting in line to use the stall, but you don't really want to leave because they haven't flushed yet. It was a real cluster &%$#. We finally asked our group coordinator about this and she said the secret is to thrust your hip against the door handle once or twice. Jan actually does the hokey-pokey in the stall before opening the door. This seems to have solved the problem. For the men, our bathroom tip is don't be sitting down when you push flush in the bathroom in your cabin..,.you'll thank us later.

Final tip: The porters encourage you to check your luggage when you arrive at the port. Unless your luggage is extra large (more than 26"), it will fit through the security conveyor belt/x-ray machine and you can actually carry it on board with you. They don't like it, but Jan and I always insist on taking our luggage with us, and it is allowed. We like to unpack right away instead of potentially waiting for hours to get it delivered. That said, if you aren't in a hurry and appreciate the luxury of having it delivered and not having to carry it yourself, you should allow the porter to take your luggage.

Here are a few stats about the beautiful Quantum of the Seas:
Registry: Nassau, Bahamas
Built by: Meyer Werft in Papenburg, Germany
Tonnage: 168,666 gross tons
Length: 1,141 feet
Width: 136 feet
Draft: 28 feet
Guest capacity: 4,180 double occupancy, 4,905 max. capacity

We really look forward to your arrival on Monday. We always like greeting our returning passengers and meeting our first-time cruisers. We need our poker fix too! Please be sure to attend the welcome-aboard party on Monday at 5 p.m. in Boleros on Deck 4. You will get your name tags there, have a drink or two compliments of CPC, listen to some important announcements, and meet your fellow cruisers.