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Is Quantum worth it for Alaska?


Nox

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Hello! My husband and I are considering an Alaskan cruise next year for our fifteenth wedding anniversary. We went on Royal for our honeymoon and our first anniversary.

I'm looking at the various July 2023 sailings, and I see the following ships available:

Enchantment
Radiance
Quantum

I know Quantum is a massive ship and there is a lot to do. The prices are 200-300 more per person for Quantum versus Enchantment and Radiance. My concern is - do you even have time to explore/enjoy all of the things to do on Quantum for this price difference to be worth it? We have never been on an Alaskan itinerary, so I feel like we will want to explore the different ports of call and it will leave us little time to actually benefit from all of the extracurriculars on the ship itself.

I see many Roll Call threads with Ovation in Alaska, which I plan to follow, but I wondered if anyone has any insight or opinion on this?

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Quantum class ships are a little more suited for a cooler/rainier climate than many others.  I have no idea how the smaller class ships that you mentioned are outfitted for the Alaska climate.  Is it worth it for YOU.  That is really too hard of a question for us/anybody to answer.  It's really up to you and what you are looking for in a cruise.  What are you looking for in a cruise, dinning options, shows, spa, and/or just a larger ship.  In my opinion, a Quantum class ship offers much more than the smaller ships but offers less than the Oasis class ships, the bigger the better for me.  I like lots of options in entertainment, food, shopping (for my wife.  Happy wife, happy life), just space to walk around and explore, etc.  I also like to walk and walk hard for at least 3.5 miles a day.  The walking track on the Quantum and Oasis Class ships offer that without having to walk around in a small circle SEVERAL TIMES and on a track that is less cluttered.

JMHO  

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We did Alaska on the Radiance of the Seas in Jun-Jul 2017 and loved it.  The smaller ship allowed the captain to get closer to the glacier and pivot the ship 360 degrees...Don't think he could get as close on a bigger ship.  This year we are going back on the Serenade of the Seas and can't wait.

 

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Our first cruise was to Alaska on Radiance ots. I think an Alaskan cruise ,you tend to spend more time off the ships and on excursions so you may not have the time to take in all the extras on a bigger ship. I agree with Psycho and Barb about the glacier aspect and the smaller ships can go into tighter ports in general which may give you more or better options for ports of call. Have been on the big ships and do enjoy them but when we do another Alaskan cruise I will pick a small ship.

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I'm booked on Quantum for Alaska in May. We honestly chose it because we were limited on time options and it worked the best with our schedules. Also, we found a GREAT deal for it on the Costco travel website (so maybe worth checking there if you are a Costco member). I'm excited because there are a lot of indoor options on the top deck (like the inclosed adult solarium) plus 270 on a lower deck which has huge windows. Honestly I would have been find with a smaller ship as well.

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I’ve done Alaska cruises on both radiance and ovation. As another poster said, on Radiance you can get much closer to glaciers and do a full turn so both sides of the ship can enjoy listening to the creaking glaciers. On ovation I was SO disappointed how far away we were and the lack of time spent at the glacier; the ship was just too large to get any closer safely. However, also as others have said, the venues on Ovation, like the shows and the cafe in Two70 are amazing, as well as iFly, and the Seaplex. We spent many many hours hiking the Alaska wilderness while in port (hiking upper Dewey lake is the hardest hike I’ve ever done and I live in the mountains of Utah) and found that there was still plenty of time to explore and enjoy the ship venues on sea days. Some day I’d like to take my 4 kids and personally will be choosing ovation or quantum when we go. 

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7 hours ago, jay1021 said:

Quantum class ships are a little more suited for a cooler/rainier climate than many others.  I have no idea how the smaller class ships that you mentioned are outfitted for the Alaska climate.  Is it worth it for YOU.  That is really too hard of a question for us/anybody to answer.  It's really up to you and what you are looking for in a cruise.  What are you looking for in a cruise, dinning options, shows, spa, and/or just a larger ship.  In my opinion, a Quantum class ship offers much more than the smaller ships but offers less than the Oasis class ships, the bigger the better for me.  I like lots of options in entertainment, food, shopping (for my wife.  Happy wife, happy life), just space to walk around and explore, etc.  I also like to walk and walk hard for at least 3.5 miles a day.  The walking track on the Quantum and Oasis Class ships offer that without having to walk around in a small circle SEVERAL TIMES and on a track that is less cluttered.

JMHO  

BTW, you did mention the Quantum.  I didn't mean to mention it  as a smaller class ship.  

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14 hours ago, Luly said:

I’ve done Alaska cruises on both radiance and ovation. As another poster said, on Radiance you can get much closer to glaciers and do a full turn so both sides of the ship can enjoy listening to the creaking glaciers. On ovation I was SO disappointed how far away we were and the lack of time spent at the glacier; the ship was just too large to get any closer safely. However, also as others have said, the venues on Ovation, like the shows and the cafe in Two70 are amazing, as well as iFly, and the Seaplex. We spent many many hours hiking the Alaska wilderness while in port (hiking upper Dewey lake is the hardest hike I’ve ever done and I live in the mountains of Utah) and found that there was still plenty of time to explore and enjoy the ship venues on sea days. Some day I’d like to take my 4 kids and personally will be choosing ovation or quantum when we go. 

Upper Dewey is on my list for when we go back to Alaska. I did the AB trail but had to turn back before I reached the actual summit because the fog at the top was too thick and I kept losing sight of the blazes. Still a gorgeous but ridiculously hard hike.

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Having been on both types in Alaska, I personally prefer the Radiance-class ships over the Quantum-class ships.  I had originally booked Serenade for our May Alaska trip, and was seriously disappointed to switch it to Quantum.  I just couldn't find a way to get us to Vancouver without it costing $4k, so I switched to leaving out of Seattle.

I'm trying to get excited about our upcoming cruise and I'm struggling.

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1 hour ago, SpeedNoodles said:I just couldn't find a way to get us to Vancouver without it costing $4k, so I switched to leaving out of Seattle.

 

1 hour ago, SpeedNoodles said:

 I just couldn't find a way to get us to Vancouver without it costing $4k, so I switched to leaving out of Seattle.

It’s only 145 miles from Seattle to Vancouver and a nice train ride

 

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Well we chose Radiance for this May simply because we wanted to add a 3 night land tour to Denali before the cruise. Can’t do that with the closed loop cruise. 

Radiance gives you an extra port AND she spends more hours in port because she doesn’t have to circle back to the original port. 

We expect to be off the ship most of the time and expect to be TIRED when we get back onboard. 
 

I’ll report back in June if we didn’t like the ship but we’ve sailed RC small ships before (Song of America, Monarch and Sovereign) so actually looking forward to going “back in time” to how cruising used to be before the mega ships. 

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