Hi everyone, I'm really excited to announce our next live-blog experience as we get ready for a cruise aboard Quantum of the Seas for a 2-night preview cruise.

Photo by Royal Caribbean

It is my hope to provide to you a daily look at what this cruise is like and share my experiences with each of you.  This means I will try to post photos every day along with a written report of how things are going (internet permitting).

If you're new to our live blogs, check out the live blogs we did for Navigator of the Seas and Jewel of the Seas last year for an idea of what's in store for you. I'm hoping to give our readers a daily look into what we did that day, what was good/not good and what we have planned for the next day.  

For this cruise, it's a 2-night preview of Quantum of the Seas.  Royal Caribbean has invited me to sample what this new ship has to offer right before she embarks on her inaugural voyages.  It's an exciting opportunity to see this new ship in action as well as get access to a number of people in Royal Caribbean who are responsible for making Quantum of the Seas a reality.

This cruise will depart from Cape Liberty in Bayonne, New Jersey on Wednesday, November 12th.  Living in Connecticut, I will be driving to the port bright and early that morning.  I'm sure my excitement will not permit me much sleep the night before but I'll need to get every minute of sleep I can that night because the following 48 hours will be a whirlwind.

If you've read this blog at any length, you've probably seen a plethora of blog posts and coverage all about Quantum of the Seas.  Going on this cruise will be great for the blog because it will provide ample subject matter to provide reviews on later.  Restaurants, onboard activities and shows are just the beginning of what Quantum of the Seas offers.

Photo by Royal Caribbean

The cruise has no stops, so it will be a 2-night cruise to no where but there will be so much going on onboard the ship that I'm not sure I will even notice.  I've been quietly jotting down ideas for all the aspects of this brand new ship I want to explore and experience myself.  Deep down I know I cannot come close to experiencing it all in 2 nights but that doesn't mean I wont be trying!

I really want to explore the restaurants and common areas onboard the ship.  I think people are always interested in knowing what each of these is like, so my goal is to do as much walking as I can to experience everything and see it all.  One decision I already made is what I'm not seeing: Mama Mia.  Given I only have two nights and I'll be back on Quantum in March, I feel justified in skipping the show this time because it will get me more time to see more of the ship.

I'll also be going on this cruise solo.  We are expecting our second child later this winter and so, my wife is too far long to go on the cruise.  As you might imagine she is quite jealous that I get to go.  Interestingly, this will be my first cruise solo and it will be interesting to see how the experience compares to going with my family.

Photo by Royal Caribbean

Of course, I hope you will be joining for me on this cruise virtually. If you have any questions for me while I’m onboard, comment in the post below, email or twitter me, and I’ll do my best to answer. 

I've already used the online check-in and reserved a time at 10:45am - 11:15am to arrive.  I'm still planning on arriving closer to 10am because I'm quite excited but it will be fun to see how this all works out.

My itinerary

Next update should be when I arrive in Bayonne on Wednesday, November 12 in the morning.  Stay tuned for all of the live blog updates right here and on Twitter by following @theRCLblog.

Royal Caribbean's newest cruise ship is home.  Quantum of the Seas pulled into New York harbor this morning, marking her arrival to her homeport of Cape Liberty, New Jersey.

Photo by Royal Caribbean

Quantum of the Seas will call Bayonne home for the next six months, offering cruises to the Bahamas and Caribbean during her time there.

Quantum of the Seas passed under the Verazzano bridge and past the Statue of Liberty in the early morning hours of Monday before heading into the newly refurbished Cape Liberty port.

Royal Caribbean will christen the new ship on Friday, where the ship's godmother, Kristin Chenoweth, will be present.  Regular cruises will commence starting November 18.

Unlike anything on land or at sea, Quantum of the Seas' North Star offers guests the ability to view the world from over 300 feet above sea level providing unparalleled 360-degree views.

Hope you had a great week (maybe one week closer to your next Royal Caribbean cruise?) and you had a chance to keep up with what's new with Royal Caribbean this week. But if not, here's a roundup of this week's news.

Royal Caribbean News

Here's what happened in the world of Royal Caribbean this week

• Royal Caribbean changed how it prices its unlimited alcohol packages.
• Quantum of the Seas suffered a few tech issues on its first day.
• A giant wave hit Explorer of the Seas.
• Quantum of the Seas began her trans-Atlantic voyage home.
• Royal Caribbean will roll out RFID WOWbands over the several years to the rest of the fleet.
• We offered first time cruisers a look at the differences between Royal Caribbean ships.
• Our look back at Royal Caribbean's (soon to be) extinct restaurants.

Quantum of the Seas coverage

We're knee-deep in Quantum of the Seas coverage, so if you missed any of it, here's a quick run down of what happened this week

• Five beautiful Quantum of the Seas photos in Southampton
• Videos
  • SeaPlex on Quantum of the Seas
  • An inside look at Quantum of the Seas' bridge
  • Virtual Balconies
  • Skydiving on Quantum of the Seas
  • Quantum of the Seas' historic maiden voyage
  • Royal Caribbean's final touches on Quantum of the Seas

Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast

The sixty-sixth episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is available that is all about booking shore excursions.

Matt previews his cruise this week on Quantum of the Seas and discusses what his plans are for his short trip and what he hopes to see and do.

Please feel free to subscribe via iTunes or RSS, and head over to rate and review the podcast on iTunes if you can! We’d appreciate it.

Royal Caribbean Around the Internet

Travel Shop Girl reviewed her Oasis of the Seas balcony stateroom.

Yahoo! Lifestyle shared how much fun they had on Quantum of the Seas.

Gizmodo shared a look at how the virtual balconies work.

Royal Caribbean has found a gold mine in offering its passengers unlimited alcohol packages but has recently changed the package pricing.  To be exact, the packages are now priced without gratuity.

At first glance, it look like Royal Caribbean lowered the prices across all of its unlimited alcohol and non-alcoholic drink packages by about $10 per day.

New unlimited package pricing

Old unlimited package pricing

The truth is, the packages are still about the same price.  The difference is Royal Caribbean has separated out the package price from the automatic gratuity included when you buy the package.  

We priced out the Premium Drink package in Royal Caribbean's Cruise Planner to confirm the changes and you can see the package price along with an additional service charge.

With the new pricing, the real package prices have changed by a few dollars.  We calculated the prices via the Cruise Planner for an upcoming cruise we had booked and here's what we found.

• Royal Replenish package: $21.85 per person, per day ($1.85 increase)
• Select drink package: $40.25 per person, per day ($0.25 increase)
• Premium drink package: $56.35 per person, per day ($1.35 increase)
• Ultimate drink package: $63.25 per person, per day ($1.75 decrease)

I love time lapse videos and today we've got a brand new one from our friend Marian Krueger that encompasses walking the entire length of Oasis of the Seas in just 22 minutes.

Enjoy this (accelerated) look at Oasis!

Check out this new video by Royal Caribbean that takes a look at all the fun activities found in the SeaPlex on Quantum of the Seas.

From bumper cars to circus school, SeaPlex brings out the playful side of guests. 

When you're trying to pick the right Royal Caribbean cruise for you, there's a lot to choose from.  Royal Caribbean currently has 26 ships in its fleet and that's a lot to choose from.  Let's discuss what the differences (and similarities) are and which one is great for you.

Royal Caribbean ships do vary considerably in size, from ships that can handle around 2000 passengers to ships that top out over 5000 passengers.  

Ship Class

The first thing to understand are the classes of ships. Royal Caribbean has 7 classes of ships in active service to choose from.  

• Quantum
• Oasis
• Freedom
• Voyager
• Radiance
• Vision

Ship classes are categories of ships that have a very similar size, amenities and layout.  Think of ship classes like car models.  Every Ford Mustang for any given year is based on the same build, but individual cars can have slightly different options.

By looking first at ship classes, you get to more easily see key differences between the ships.  Each class is fairly unique but you will notice similarities too.

Understanding the what each ship offers is important.  Even among sibling ships, there are some differences. For example, Liberty of the Seas offers a Broadway show whereas none of its sibling ships have one.

The differences between ships used to be much larger but Royal Caribbean embarked upon a fleet-wide refurbishment in the last few years to bring innovations first developed for the Oasis-class onto older ships in the fleet.  To be honest, the changes have breathed new life into these older ships and now the differences between all ships has been greatly reduced.

Ship age

That brings up ship age.  The tendency in the cruising industry is to build bigger ships each time, so typically the smaller ships are also the older ships.  That's not always the case but generally speaking, the last few classes of Royal Caribbean ships (Quantum, Oasis, Freedom, Voyager) are signifigantly bigger than the older classes of ships. 

The newest class of ships are Quantum, Oasis and Freedom class. The oldest is the Vision class.

Of course, age doesn't tell the whole story. In fact, many Royal Caribbean fans will tell you the older ships are their favorite ships. Smaller ships offer a much more intimate cruise experience and they often have things the larger ships do not, like more vantage points to the ocean.

Newer cruise ships have more of the fancier and newer technologies, which can factor into your decision but the recent fleet-wide refurbishment mentioned earlier did help quite a bit in "leveling the playing field".

You shouldn't make your decision based purely on ship age but it's a key difference between the ships.

What you should pay attention to

When picking the right ship for you, look at these key factors

Ammenities for your group

Each Royal Caribbean ship offers a lot to do but if the hyped up features don't interest you, then it may not be perfect for you.  Oasis of the Seas offers zip lining, Broadway shows, a surf simulator and over a dozen restaurants but if all you want to do is enjoy pool time and read, then perhaps it's more than you need.

Likewise, if you've got children, the newer ships in the fleet have larger and newer kids club facilities that will be a better fit.  Look at the features each ship has and see which are relevant most to you.

Price

I love the newest ships Royal Caribbean rolls out, but if I can get a similar cruise on a smaller ship for a fraction of the cost, then I'll gladly take it.  

Pricing fluxuates a lot but newer ships command a higher price, so if there's a deal to be found, then consider that option too.  You shouldn't let price solely dictate which ship you pick, but it's a powerful factor.

Where it's going

One advantage smaller Royal Caribbean ships have over larger ones is they can go to many ports the big ones cannot.  

Many ports in Europe, Asia and the Pacific can't handle the new mega-cruise ships Royal Caribbean has built so if you have your heart set on certain ports of call, make sure the ship you pick can get you there.

If it's Friday, that means it is time to share some more awesome photos our readers have sent in of their Royal Caribbean cruise vacations!  As always, we want your photos too, so send us your best Royal Caribbean photos so we can share it with the world.

We begin this week with a photo by Ken Slusser of an aft view from the port side bridge wing during his All Access Tour on ALlure of the Seas.  Must be nice to have this be your "office".

Here's another tour photo, this one by Phil Catarella of appetizers being prepared on Allure of the Seas during his galley tour.  Is it wrong for me to "test" the food being prepared? You know...for safety.

Here's a timely shot of the fall foliage along the coast of Quebec, Canada during John Siegmund's Legend of the Seas cruise this year.  Beautiful!

Mary sent us this photo of Radiance of the Seas docked in Vancouver and ready to go.  Looks like the perfect way to see Alaska!

Lastly, here's a photo by Paul Jordan of Navigator of the Seas in Cozumel.  Yo quiero un Navigator of the Seas crucero!

Thanks to everyone who sent in their photos this week.  Be sure to send your photos in as well by using this form.

Speaking at the CruiseWorld conference, Royal Caribbean President Adam Goldstein indicated the rollout of its new RFID wristbands, known as WOWbands, will take several years before they are available across all of Royal Caribbean's ships.

While the RFID technology behind the WOWbands are fairly simple, the new shipboard property management system that the WOWbands rely on takes much more time to install.

EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT WOWBANDS

WOWbands will be added ship by ship, although we do not have any indication as of yet which ship will get WOWbands next.