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Quantum Class Solarium access - Asian rules


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So I've discovered to my disappointment that Solarium access on Quantum for my Jan 2020 cruise out of Singapore is restricted to suite guests and diamond members only. Apparently this is a rule for Asian sailings (along with paying for North Star and Ripcord).

For anyone with experience aboard Q Class ships, is there a security point of some sort before entering the Solarium? Not that I wish to break any rules of course, but if I happened to accidentally wander into an area I'm not supposed to be....Oops, silly me.

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36 minutes ago, KWofPerth said:

 Apparently this is a rule for Asian sailings (along with paying for North Star and Ripcord).

I think for a Singapore sailing you will not be paying for North Star, etc. The fees are for China departures.

As for Solarium access, it may or may not be limited (via Seapass) to suite guests, Diamond and above, and high rollers -- I think this is also only on China sailings but can't confirm.

You may be ok! ? 

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16 minutes ago, KristiZ said:

I think for a Singapore sailing you will not be paying for North Star, etc. The fees are for China departures.

As for Solarium access, it may or may not be limited (via Seapass) to suite guests, Diamond and above, and high rollers -- I think this is also only on China sailings but can't confirm.

You may be ok! ? 

Unfortunately I've had it confirmed by RCI themselves ?

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27 minutes ago, KristiZ said:

Interesting. That will be quite a change then, and contrary to their published stuff. Of course, that's happened before!

Hopefully the person you talked to was crazy ? Or maybe Royal will change their minds again. Lots can happen in 6 months!

I questioned them on why this information was not made known at the time of booking. Here's the response -

Please know that access to Solarium on Quantum of the Seas is limited to guests sailing on Junior Suite and above and Crown & Anchor Society Diamond and above members.

My apologies but if you booked a different type of room we are not really required to read all the list of benefits a Suite guest would have, unless you ask for it.

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1 hour ago, KWofPerth said:

My apologies but if you booked a different type of room we are not really required to read all the list of benefits a Suite guest would have, unless you ask for it.

Hmm, not a fan of that response.

Yes its a benefit for suite guests for this sailing but when you compare it to sailings out of any other ports its actually a restriction and really should be getting flagged. People are not going to know this and will assume that access to facilities on board would be the same as if they sailed out of USA/UK/Europe which they may have done previously and would not be aware that the Asian sailing are fundamentally different in ways, not just with regards to the Solarium 

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22 minutes ago, cmdrfrag said:

Hmm, not a fan of that response.

Yes its a benefit for suite guests for this sailing but when you compare it to sailings out of any other ports its actually a restriction and really should be getting flagged. People are not going to know this and will assume that access to facilities on board would be the same as if they sailed out of USA/UK/Europe which they may have done previously and would not be aware that the Asian sailing are fundamentally different in ways, not just with regards to the Solarium 

Precisely

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It has been mentioned before and is known from exposure on these message boards. 

Part of the problem is limited participation from that region on Western based forums such as this one.  Up to this point it appears to been limited to Quantum OTS.  Ovation OTS held on to it's ways after leaving Sydney for Singapore while it seems Quantum held on to it's way after leaving China for Singapore.  

In China they do charge for everything on board.  I had an interesting discussion with a hotel director about China based cruises since he had spent 9 contracts in that region before coming to Alaska on Ovation in May.  No free North Star rides is just the start.  However this business model suits the market in China or so he explained to me.  It's accepted as normal.  Or perhaps they just don't know any different since that is what Royal does in China.

 

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1 hour ago, twangster said:

It has been mentioned before and is known from exposure on these message boards. 

Part of the problem is limited participation from that region on Western based forums such as this one.  Up to this point it appears to been limited to Quantum OTS.  Ovation OTS held on to it's ways after leaving Sydney for Singapore while it seems Quantum held on to it's way after leaving China for Singapore.  

In China they do charge for everything on board.  I had an interesting discussion with a hotel director about China based cruises since he had spent 9 contracts in that region before coming to Alaska on Ovation in May.  No free North Star rides is just the start.  However this business model suits the market in China or so he explained to me.  It's accepted as normal.  Or perhaps they just don't know any different since that is what Royal does in China.

 

What else do they charge for Twangster?

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5 minutes ago, KWofPerth said:

What else do they charge for Twangster?

In the words of the crew member I spoke with... "If you stand still long enough they'll charge something for you too".  

As I understand it the business model they went with in China was created by Dr. Zinan Liu and it's based on cultural norms for China.  This is what separates Royal from other cruise lines that failed in China.  Instead of just taking a Western product and sending it to China they started from scratch and created something unique to that area based on norms for that area.

In reality what does that mean?  Unfortunately I don't know specifics about what exactly they charge for beyond North Star which was the start of my conversation with crew.

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3 hours ago, twangster said:

In the words of the crew member I spoke with... "If you stand still long enough they'll charge something for you too".  

As I understand it the business model they went with in China was created by Dr. Zinan Liu and it's based on cultural norms for China.  This is what separates Royal from other cruise lines that failed in China.  Instead of just taking a Western product and sending it to China they started from scratch and created something unique to that area based on norms for that area.

In reality what does that mean?  Unfortunately I don't know specifics about what exactly they charge for beyond North Star which was the start of my conversation with crew.

This is a very interesting model to charge for everything.  From what I've seen, the cruises on Spectrum of the Seas are extremely reasonable (just the lowest list price which is probably for an interior/non inclusive area such as a suite) for a brand new ship but I guess that is part of the business model over there.  It seems the best thing to do is to call RC and ask all the questions about what is/isn't included, particularly your must haves.

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If this model would lower prices on North American based cruises I think I could support that model. As much as I like the mostly all inclusive nature of cruising there are many amenities that we just don't use and we are fine with paying for those that we do use. For example we dont enjoy the hustle and bustle and the noise of the mian dining rooms so we choose to eat at the specialty dining spaces or order room service. Both come with a fee and we happily pay those fees. I wonder what it would cost to have the choice not to pay for the MDR? 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 6/20/2019 at 7:57 AM, KWofPerth said:

Unfortunately I've had it confirmed by RCI themselves ?

Hi. I had been reading these stories too but when I had a Twitter chat with Royal Caribbean they told me that access to the Solarium was only restricted on mainland China sailings but "once the ship leaves China or is sailing from China to Singapore it goes back to normal Solarium adult only access as in no longer exclusive to Suite guests" 

 

We're sailing from Hong Kong to Singapore in February 2020. 

Edited by Paullee
Left out quotation marks.
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On 6/20/2019 at 11:30 PM, whenismynextcruise said:

If this model would lower prices on North American based cruises I think I could support that model. As much as I like the mostly all inclusive nature of cruising there are many amenities that we just don't use and we are fine with paying for those that we do use. For example we dont enjoy the hustle and bustle and the noise of the mian dining rooms so we choose to eat at the specialty dining spaces or order room service. Both come with a fee and we happily pay those fees. I wonder what it would cost to have the choice not to pay for the MDR? 

The budgetisation of cruises would be a reason for me not to travel. 

 

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On 7/18/2019 at 12:48 AM, Paullee said:

Hi. I had been reading these stories too but when I had a Twitter chat with Royal Caribbean they told me that access to the Solarium was only restricted on mainland China sailings but "once the ship leaves China or is sailing from China to Singapore it goes back to normal Solarium adult only access as in no longer exclusive to Suite guests" 

 

We're sailing from Hong Kong to Singapore in February 2020. 

I hope your info is right but I have my doubts. We shall see, fingers crossed!

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  • 1 month later...
On 7/21/2019 at 12:06 PM, KWofPerth said:

I hope your info is right but I have my doubts. We shall see, fingers crossed!

 

On 7/17/2019 at 5:48 PM, Paullee said:

Hi. I had been reading these stories too but when I had a Twitter chat with Royal Caribbean they told me that access to the Solarium was only restricted on mainland China sailings but "once the ship leaves China or is sailing from China to Singapore it goes back to normal Solarium adult only access as in no longer exclusive to Suite guests" 

 

We're sailing from Hong Kong to Singapore in February 2020. 

So if your departing from Singapore to Beijing the solarium will be off limits for Emerald and below?

Or is it just in Chinese waters?

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I have read a lot about the cruises out of Singapore on other cruise blog sites.  If you notice on RCCL's site they are described as "culturally enriching".  That's code for "don't expect your normal cruise experience".  None of the European or Australian cruises are described in that fashion. 

The cruises out of Singapore are geared towards the Chinese markets.  I've heard that the No-Smoking except in certain areas is not enforced.  The first language spoken on the ship is Mandarin.  And I've heard the Chinese passengers can seem quite rude as they push & shove their way onto overcrowded elevators, into the buffet lines, etc.   It's not that they're intentionally being rude.  It's just their culture, but as Americans, we're not used to that.

My husband and I had booked a cruise out of Singapore and then cancelled it after we read about all of that.  We still may eventually try one as we'd love to see Japan and Southeast Asia.  We just decided that wasn't the experience we wanted for a big anniversary celebration vacation.

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

On 9/10/2019 at 12:57 AM, Stephanie said:

I have read a lot about the cruises out of Singapore on other cruise blog sites.  If you notice on RCCL's site they are described as "culturally enriching".  That's code for "don't expect your normal cruise experience".  None of the European or Australian cruises are described in that fashion. 

The cruises out of Singapore are geared towards the Chinese markets.  I've heard that the No-Smoking except in certain areas is not enforced.  The first language spoken on the ship is Mandarin.  And I've heard the Chinese passengers can seem quite rude as they push & shove their way onto overcrowded elevators, into the buffet lines, etc.   It's not that they're intentionally being rude.  It's just their culture, but as Americans, we're not used to that.

My husband and I had booked a cruise out of Singapore and then cancelled it after we read about all of that.  We still may eventually try one as we'd love to see Japan and Southeast Asia.  We just decided that wasn't the experience we wanted for a big anniversary celebration vacation.

Sorry you had to cancel the booking.. I would be disappointed too.

I'm from Singapore, and our working language is English. It will be unfortunate if cruises out of Singapore indeed targets Mainland Chinese pax instead of Singaporeans and its neighbours. We wouldn't want to board a cruise only to eat Chinese food (that we can get plenty of in Singapore) or be immediately transported to China fighting for survival onboard.

The lack of Solarium access will be a deal breaker for me. I'll try to get some clarity from RCCL's Singapore office before booking my cruise this week, fingers crossed!

 

By the way, a Japanese cruise sounds amazing. Imagine a polite, socially-aware, and orderly crowd!

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25 minutes ago, khun.samo said:

 

Sorry you had to cancel the booking.. I would be disappointed too.

I'm from Singapore, and our working language is English. It will be unfortunate if cruises out of Singapore indeed targets Mainland Chinese pax instead of Singaporeans and its neighbours. We wouldn't want to board a cruise only to eat Chinese food (that we can get plenty of in Singapore) or be immediately transported to China fighting for survival onboard.

The lack of Solarium access will be a deal breaker for me. I'll try to get some clarity from RCCL's Singapore office before booking my cruise this week, fingers crossed!

 

By the way, a Japanese cruise sounds amazing. Imagine a polite, socially-aware, and orderly crowd!

If you are interested, @Traveler will be blogging soon from Spectrum.  He is sailing the Japan itinerary.  I am sure it will be like all his other blogs, very informative and unbiased.  Have a look:

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/15611-best-of-japan-cruise-spectrum-of-the-seas-october-1-8-2019-a-new-experience/

 

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  • 4 months later...

Hi, we have just booked a cruise on Quantum from Singapore, accepting that it is an “immersive” experience. I wonder whether anyone had any tips about anything we should expect or do differently from a ‘normal’ RCI experience.  We are happy to try this different culture, just don’t want to offend !

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The bulk of passengers on my recent Quantum cruise were Westerners. However, it was not described as a "culturally immersive" cruise, so maybe yours will be different. I don't know why some cruises out of Singapore are designated as such, maybe it's just that they expect more Chinese clients to book on certain dates?? 

Regardless, I don't think you need to stress about offending anyone. It's a cruise, everyone is having a good time. You'll be fine ?

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