Day 4: Sunday, March 1, 2026

Opinion of Quantum class: meh.  The whole ship seems to be designed so you can't see you are on the ocean.  The main public decks (4 and 5) might not have external decks.  We haven't looked hard yet…BUT there's the only OBVIOUS door leading outside is on Deck 5 outside the theater.  The only spaces where we've seen windows to the outside are the MDR, two70, and small windows in Boleros.  Otherwise everything is just a bunch of enclosed spaces.  It is still much better than the shopping mall feel of Freedom class, but there's just not anything that really stands out.  The worst thing is that Schooner, in particular, feels more like a classroom than a comfy bar.  Too many rows: a row of high tables with stools; another row of a single long high table with stools either side; 4 rows of 6-wide seating, etc.  A big hunk of Bolero's has the same problem, although Bolero’s was a bit more comfy.  The Music Hall comes closest to the right vibe, but it is too big a space overall to feel “warm".

Another complaint which we've heard echoed: the elevators.  There are 2 banks for 5 elevators fore and mid.  The midship set is literally 20’ feet (max) from our stateroom door – which is a HUGE win.  But they take FOREVER to arrive, and once they arrive they close their doors really quickly.  We'll see a couple of elevators apparently parked on 4^th floor, unmoving for the 90-120 seconds we're waiting.  We'll have elevators pass without stopping.  We’ll have elevators that refuse to rise to our floor, making multiple trips up/down just above or below us.  They just seem to have a strange algorithm in operation.  And we know we're not being fragile flowers because this is a common topic from others.  Weird.

We had a couple of morning trivia events, including Cartoon Characters 21/35 (30 wins) and Sports 18/20 (20).  We also read during the Scavenger Hunt.  Teams have only 15 minutes to try to gather up to 40 items on a list before returning to show off.  The activity staffer running it was quite funny and we learned that being present for the final 15 minutes can be entertaining.

Lunch: DAS: burger/fries, EMS: Honey Garlic Chicken (mostly just “Chicken")  Desserts: Oreo Cake (red/red – just a lot of white cream with soggy cookie crumbles); Raspberry Pound Cake (yellow/green – at last it had an opinion re: flavor).  At dinner we both added a Desert Pear Marg to our meal.  A lovely lavender shade, but otherwise not much.  It was fine but not something we'll repeat.

Post-lunch we returned to cabin to dress for outside and spent time on pool deck just chilling and planning to let the bar waiter bring us stuff as we read and relaxed.  Never actually saw bar waiters at all, so I went to the Pool Bar and got me a Mai Tai (drink of the day and very good) and brought E her request of “something frozen with strawberry in it" and got something with strawberry, mango, and peach with rum and ice.  We sat on the non-sun side of the pool deck - which was actually quite nice – for a couple of hours reading before returning to the cabin to nap and relax (more) before dinner.  In truth, our butts were getting sore from the pool chairs we had been sitting on.

Shows: The Generational Showdown (not the correct name) is intended to be two teams of 5, one of 7-12 year olds and the other 45+ who compete to answer questions more suited for “the other" group.  So kids had name as many B&W movies as they could in 5 seconds while the older group had to name Disney movies.  Sadly, the audience was too small so they had to expand the kid group with a 17 and 20 year old.  The overall lack of energy in the room didn't help things along and we actually pulled out our tablets midway through and paid more attention to those than the show.

The Perfect Couple is intended for 18+ only and, like Love and Marriage, starts with auditions on-stage to find those willing to be bold.  One couple got selected when they mimed a blow job to the prompt “show us how excited you are to greet your partner at the airport after they return from a 30 day trip”.  That's the vibe.  It's crass and low-brow, but we enjoyed it as we'd never seen it before.  I suspect that, again like Love & Marriage, if you've seen it once you've seen them all – but it does move at a faster pace than L&M and I'd probably be OK with watching it live again, whereas we only watch L&M on the in-room TV replay if it happens to show up.