Royal Caribbean Cruise: 10 days to Hawaii
This October, I went on a 10-day cruise to Hawaii on board the Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas.
A quick overview of my cruise:
- Dates: October 3 – 13, 2022
- Cost: $1500 CAD per person (basic cruise fare)
- Itinerary: Vancouver, Victoria, 5 days at sea, 2 days Maui, 2 days Honolulu (one-way)
- Cruise line: Royal Caribbean
- Ship: Quantum of the Seas
- Cabin: Balcony, 8th floor
- Packages purchased: Unlimited dining package ($250 CAD), surf & zoom for 1 device (wifi – almost $300 USD)
It was a really fun and memorable trip with 6 of my close friends and we tried our best to take advantage of everything that was free the ship had to offer. Here’s everything we did and ate for 10 days!
Related: The last cruise I went on was an 8-day cruise to Alaska with Holland America. Read more.
About my cruise
Originally, my friend was going to hold a wedding ceremony on the cruise and then embark to Hawaii for her honeymoon. (Side note: you do not have to be a cruise passenger to attend a wedding ceremony on a cruise). The wedding ceremony didn’t work out, but my boyfriend and I decided not to cancel our cruise fare because we bought our tickets for quite cheap during covid when no cruise ships were sailing or departing.
How much did the cruise cost?
My total cruise fare was $1,500 CAD (includes taxes) for a balcony stateroom and was purchased back in 2021 with a refundable deposit. This cruise fare includes my 10-day accommodation in a balcony room, unlimited food (excludes specialty restaurants and cafes), basic beverages (ex. water, tea, coffee, juice, etc.), and free activities and facilities on the cruise. This roughly comes up to $150 per day which is a really great deal.
What was the cruise itinerary?
Our 10-day voyage departed from Vancouver port on October 3. The schedule:
- 1 day stop in Victoria
- 5 days at sea rip
- 2 day stop in Maui
- 2 day stop in Honolulu
- Gtfo in Honolulu
Yes, this means on the last day of the cruise you get off and you are in Honolulu. We had to arrange our own flights from Honolulu back to Vancouver and decided to stay in Honolulu for 1 more week. Our one-way direct flight costed us around $250 CAD per person (set up your Google price alerts for good deals!).
Which ship was it?
Our ship was the Quantum of the Seas. It is a huge ship and can fit 4,900 guests and 1,500 crew members. There is a total of 16 decks and over 2,000 state rooms. Of course, there are tons of activities and facilities as well – think of it like a mini city out at sea!
What were the covid precautions?
As a reminder, we boarded the cruise in October of 2022 and there were still some covid protocols we had to follow. For example, since our cruise was 10 days, we had to present a negative covid test (could be a free one from the drugstore and a photo of the results will do). I believe if your cruise is less than 9 days, you do not need to be tested at all. Masks did not need to be worn inside the cruise at all, but crew members always wore a mask and had pinned buttons of what their faces look like, their name, and the country they are from.
Please note that these were just the rules we had to follow at the time. I have no idea what is required anymore.
How did the check-in work?
I downloaded the Royal Caribbean mobile app before our departure date and was able to check in online via the app for both me and my cabin partner. It was really easy to upload our documents and complete the covid screening test.
You will also receive a luggage tag you can print out. I highly recommend you print this out and attach it to your luggage before you actually arrive at the port. Otherwise, you will need to line up for a luggage tag at the port (saves a lot of time!). If your luggage has tags, you just give it to the workers/designated area and line up for boarding. Your luggages will be delivered to your stateroom in a few hours. You can keep smaller luggages with you if you do not want to check it in. Note: there is a free drop off and pick-up area at the port if you have a driver.
The in-person check in was quite quick. They scan your passports, look at your covid test and take your photo. After a few more check-in points, you are standing in the ship and welcomed by crew members. Next, you have to complete your safety briefing. You can also do this via the app (we did it while we were waiting in line) – you watch a few videos and just click accept. If you do not complete the safety briefing in the app, you can do it in-person and a crew member will actually talk to you/demonstrate safety procedures at your designated muster point. Note: the safety briefing is mandatory.
After this, you are basically free to explore the ship! You have your room key card and can enter your cabin room and drop off some items if you wish.
Note: if you have any special passes like the key or if you are a premium guest or have some sort of membership, the check in process will look different/be faster than what we experienced.
What did the balcony stateroom look like?
We stayed in the balcony room, which is just under 200 sq ft. We chose the king bed orientation, but you can also have 2 separate beds instead. You have a little washroom with a sink, toilet and shower (no hair conditioner though!). We really like having the desk/sofa area as we don’t always want to sit or lie down on the bed throughout the day. The balcony is small but can fit 2 chairs and a small table.
Overall, we liked our room and thought it was enough space for the 2 of us. All of our friends got a balcony stateroom, and we could fit 6 adults comfortably in any of our rooms at one time to hang out.
Our cabin number was 8278 on the 8th floor. We chose the 8th floor after much consideration because it is the middle floor (there is a total of 16 floors) and we tried to choose a room that was more in the middle of the ship for less sea-sickness.
One cool thing I want to mention is that if you want to save money and get an interior room with no windows, the Quantum of the Sea actually has a cool tech feature that will project a live video of outside onto your wall, making it look like you have a (virtual) window in your room.
Things to do on Quantum of the Seas
There are lots of free and paid activities you can do on the ship. Here is everything we tried!
Ripcord iFly
This is a skydiving stimulator! We signed up for a free session of 1 minute of free flying via the Royal Caribbean app. On days when the iFly is docked at a port, it is free and registrations for free sessions are live the day before so make sure you get a chance to book it if you want to try it for free. Otherwise, you can pay to try it.
The session includes safety briefing, suits and mask, and an instructor who will be with you inside the stimulator so you are not actually flying on your own and doing crazy tricks.
Even so, I was a little nervous to try it! It was a lot of fun and I saw a lot of elderly people who are 70+ years old try it as well.
Rock climbing
The rock climbing wall is also free and anyone over 6+ years old can participate. The height is 40 feet off the ground and they have beginner and advanced routes. No reservation is necessary!
Seaplex
The Seaplex is an interactive area with video games, gymnasium, ping pong tables and a hot dog stand. It is right next to the arcade and is meant for kids and teens. They transform this area into multiple events for different fun and games.
For example, they had multiple sports tournaments here – ping pong, 3v3 basketball, volleyball, and dodgeball. They have different variations of these tournamets as well – family, kids/teens, adults – so all ages and groups can play and it would be relatively fair.
Laser tag
On a few of the nights, they turned the gymnasium into a laser tag! They blog up this giant inflatable maze and separate you into 2 teams. It is fun but no age restriction, so expect to be playing with a lot of children.
Bumper cars
The bumper cars was a lot of fun! You get around 5 minutes of actual driving time so the line moves fast. All ages are welcome and the bumper cars are not very fast but still fun to chase your friends around.
North Star
The North Star is a giant arm/carousel kinda bubble that moves high up above the cruise ship and around a bit so you can see a view. It costs $40 USD extra and you have to reserve a time. But I do believe it may be free on days we are docked (also requires a reservation via the app).
Everyone tries to reserve it for sunset time, but we messed up and with the time zone differences during our trip, it was pitch black when we went on lol. Definitely not worth the price with no view, so I recommend getting any daytime view if you are to do it. Overall, it’s just sight seeing so not sure if it’s that fun. If you are out at sea, you will basically see the endless sea. And if you are docked, you will see the city/port around you.
Flowrider
The flowrider is a surfing stimulator (except it’s not like surfing at all lol). It is free so you just need to line up. They start you off with a boogie board first and you need to sign a waver and be generally healthy in order to participate. There will be 2 workers there to guide you and teach you how to do tricks.
If you want to stand and surf, you need to pass their “test”. The test means you can surf from side to side without falling off. If you complete this, you get a wristband and can come back and surf any time. If you fail this test twice, they will not give you a wristband and you can only do the boogie board.
Solarium
The solarium is an adults only pool at the front of the ship. It has windows everywhere so has a great view of the ocean and is a very relaxing area. There is also a bar (of course) so you can enjoy a beverage and surround yourself in a pool that doesn’t have screaming children.
Other pools
There are 2 other pools on the cruise – one indoor and one outdoor on the deck. Both allow children so that is the only difference between these 2 pools and the solarium.
At the outdoor deck pool, they will also have live music and outdoor movie nights.
Shows
There is a different show every night on the cruise! I think the shows are worth it and there are usually 2 sessions a night (one at 8pm and one at 10pm) so depending on what time you eat dinner, you should be able to make at least one of the showings. Most of the shows are located in the music hall, which is a giant theatre.
We watched the following shows (ranked by our favourite):
- Juggler – he was so funny!
- Sonic Odyssey – this is Royal Caribbean’s main show on the last night of the cruise. There are dancers, musicians and singers.
- Singer/band – she also performed at the night club
- Comedian – he was just ok, definitely more aimed for an older audience
- Singer/comedian – he impersonated celebrities, singers and actors. I did not think he was that funny at all (again aimed towards much older audience). His perception of young music is Gangnam Style, which is already over 10 years old.
Casino
There is a casino on the 3rd floor and they are only open during live sea days (not open during port days). They have some tournaments for blackjack or poker, but the casino takes a large cut of it. The max. you can win is probably around $500 USD or so.
I think the jackpot for winning bingo is higher than this lol. Oh yeah, they also have bingo tournaments and the older folks get REALLY into that.
Fitness center
There is a gym so you can work off all that food you are eating on the cruise. It has all the equipment you need but can be a little difficult to exercise depending on how much swelling you have on the cruise.
I also didn’t really see many people here at the gym lol. Most of the people are the performers from the shows.
The fitness center has classes and fitness training services for additional pricing.
Spa
Of course there is a spa on the cruise as well. Our friend actually won a raffle and got $250 USD credit towards a spa service! Even though the $250 is free, you still need to pay 18% gratuity.
We didn’t participate in any spa services so I can’t comment much on it. Prices seemed really high.
Two70 Lounge
Royal Caribbean spent a shit ton of money on this 2-floor lounge area. They host seminars and shows here using movable tech and screens. The area is quite cool and they have a mini library in the back, so if you are working on the boat, this would be a nice area to focus.
Overall, the show was just ok. I wasn’t too impressed (this is mostly due to the performance though, not the venue) and was worried the giant screens would actually fall on the dancers! lol
Shopping
There is a shopping plaza with a few shops. They have luxury beauty brands, even a few purses and jewelry. There are a few days where they have stands out too so random stuff like hats, accessories and other stuff. We attended a few events from the jewelry stores that offered free champagne lol. There is also a port store with huge bottles of liquor, but you only receive them on the last day of your cruise.
Note that anything you buy on the cruise is tax free though!
Art auction
There is an ongoing art auction on the cruise where you can bid on paintings. Paintings do include tax and you have to pay for shipping to your home. Paintings can range from $100 to thousands USD.
Where to eat on The Quantum of the Seas
Our basic cruise fare includes a few free unlimited dining options.
Main dining hall
Every cabin gets a default dining hall time. We chose the earlier time slot at 5pm, but the other option is 8pm. We chose 5pm because we didn’t want it to coincide with show times just in case we wanted to watch something at 8pm. If you want to dine with other folks outside of your cabin, you will need to make separate reservations through guest services, or just line up at the dining hall and they will seat you.
There are 3 dining halls on the ship. You are usually assigned to one so you will usually sit in that room every time you come in. You will also see the same 2 servers helping you in the dining hall, whether you come for lunch or dinner service.
Our dining hall had a weird “Asian” theme to it, or I like to call… more like Alice in Wonderland. Seats were bright red and velvet and there are Asian-style lanterns in the ceiling. I actually prefer the other dining halls more because they looked more modern.
The dining hall serves breakfast, lunch (only at sea days) and dinner. Breakfast ends around 9am so it was hard for us to make it because we like to sleep in until 9:30 or 10am. The dining hall is a formal sit-down and expect to sit here for almost 2 hours, even if you are just here for lunch.
Short food review
They have a menu at the dining hall. The classics section do not change, but the non-classic sections of the menu are different every day (may be repeated if your cruise is long).
You can order unlimited food, so technically you can order 3 mains and 2 desserts if that’s what you wish, but usually people order 3 courses. It’s a lot of food for lunch and dinner to have 3 courses!
Overall, I thought the dining hall food was just ok. There are some items that are better than others (ex. don’t order anything “Asian” style lol). Generally the cuisine is almost always western. There is always a steak option of some sort and a fish option. Salads, pastas, breads, soups, etc.
Formal nights
We had 2 nights that were formal nights – you are encouraged to dress up in business casual attire for your dinner. For the formal nights, we enjoyed dining in the dining hall more because their regular menu had more special items like prime rib or lobster.
Windjammer
This is the buffet on the 14th floor. They have longer hours of dining so if you want a late breakfast (after 9am) or craving something to eat around 2 or 3pm, Windjammer is still available. Some of the stations are standard (fruit, salads, etc.) but they do try to change up the main station every now and then – one day it may be Mexican themed with tacos, and another day it may be a meat roast.
We usually come to Windjammer for breakfast because we cannot wake up before 9am to make it to the dining hall. Breakfast is almost the same every day.
Side tip, you can fill up your water bottles here!
Dog house
This is the hot dog stand in the Seaplex. I never tried it but it is there for a fun quick snack.
Cafe promenade
This cafe is open pretty late (until midnight). It has a few selections of sandwiches and desserts (all the desserts taste bad on the cruise), and has coffee, water and tea for you to fill up on. I would only come here if the dining hall and windjammer are closed.
La Patisserie
This is a little dessert/pastry shop across from Cafe promeade. It is al le carte pricing and is not included in your cruise fare, so if you order coffee or any food items from here, you will be charged.
Sorrento’s Pizza
Sorrento’s Pizza is opened the latest until 1am, so if you’re dancing in the night club, this may be your only option. Pizza is free and unlimited so I can see drunk people coming here late at night (lol us). The pizzas were average to slightly below average and small individual sized, but when there are no options we don’t care.
Cafe @ Two70
The cafe at Two70 is mostly free, although their Starbucks-related items are not. They have fresher ingredients and better tasting items for bagels and salads. I find this to be a healthier alternative to anything else on the cruise.
Specialty dining
There are 4 specialty dining restaurants on the Quantum of the Seas. We actually bought the unlimited dining package because it was on sale for around $250 CAD and that’s how much we sometimes spend on just 1 meal for us lol. I highly recommend getting a specialty dining package (either unlimited or a few days) so you can check out the restaurants because most of them do taste better than the dining hall or Windjammer. You also get 40% off wine at specialty restaurants with the unlimited dining package.
Note that specialty restaurants do need to be booked, for the most part. So you can’t just walk in like the dining hall unless they are not busy.
Jamie’s Italian
This was our favourite specialty restaurant out of the 4. Read my full review here.
Wonderland
This was the most unique restaurant we’ve been to – they try to experiment with food science and create very whimsical dishes. Read my full review here.
Chops Grille
This restaurant is a steakhouse so if you are a meat-lover, they have tons of steak options to choose from. Most fancy and most “bang for your buck” option. Read my full review here.
Izumi
The only sushi option on the cruise – spoiler alert it wasn’t good lol. Read my full review here.
Final thoughts
We enjoyed our 10-day cruise on the Royal Caribbean Quantum of the Seas. It is a huge ship, but after 10 days we felt really comfortable and at home with the ship. Returning to our cabin room felt like “coming home”.
We thought our cabin was a big enough space for us and never felt claustrophobic. We didn’t actually spend too much time on our balcony, but it was nice to have it there and we could breathe in fresh air and look outside.
I hated that the washroom amenities didn’t have separate shampoo and conditioner. They had a joint shampoo and body wash (what even is that??). We ended up purchasing conditioner on the boat because our hair was getting really damaged with all the pool usage.
It took us a long time to hook our HDMI cable from the room TV to our laptop so we could watch Netflix. The TV mount makes it almost impossible to stick your hand in. Wish they would let us do this more easily. The shows available in the TV look like they are from the 90’s – very grainy and old. There is absolutely nothing to watch at all.
On another note, we paid almost $300 USD for 10 days of wifi and even though it is so outrageously expensive, I still have to say I don’t regret getting it because even with so many activities and so many friends we had on the boat, we were still bored.
Activities are 30 mins to 1 hour, and even if you eat twice for 2 hours, you still have the whole rest of your day. The days at sea are quite boring. We also really wanted the wifi to message each other/find each other. They do have telephones in the room you can dial for free to connect with another cabin, but if the person you are trying to reach are not inside their room, you won’t be able to talk to them. There is an option to message other cruise passengers in the app for like $2-3 USD, but that would only be messaging within the Royal Caribbean app.
The Royal Caribbean app was actually pretty good. You get to use it without paying for wifi and can see the day’s schedule – what shows are happening, what activities are available, etc. You have the option to make reservations for things too so that is nice. And with the time zone changes, it accurately tells you what day it is and what time it is.
The staff were amazing – always friendly and helpful – although very obvious that they will be nicer to you if you tip them. Because we ate at specialty restaurants so often, we actually didn’t get to see our dining hall servers too often and they told us they were sad about that lol.
On another note about staff, I do want to mention that there were a few instances where people thought we were crew members. I think this is because we are young and maybe Asian (almost 70-80% of crew are from Asian countries like the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia etc.), but it’s a weird feeling. We received a few instances of these not only from other cruise passengers, but other crew members as well (we were misdirected to get off in a place where only staff get off lol).
Being on such a along cruise as a younger person may not be ideal. A lot of the activities are geared towards the older folks (ex. bingo night, water aerobics, art gallery auctions) and it was rare to see a group of young people hanging out together like our group.
Alcohol wise, we had a few friends who purchased the unlimited drinks package so they had unlimited alcoholic beverages during their cruise. We purchased several drinks and it was actually quite fun to have a cocktail by the pool. Our favourite drinks were the pina colada and the blue hawaiin. You can also bring around 2 bottles of wine per cabin, so we had 6 bottles of wine between 6 friends.
In terms of sea-sickness, most of us did get sea sick except for me. The route to Hawaii is through open waters so it’s definitely more rough than if you were to do an interior passage to Alaska, where bodies of land are kind of shielding you from the big waves. The swelling was significant and there were days where it felt like I was walking around like a drunk person, kind of bobbing up and down. It feels stronger in the front and backs of the boats, as well as the top floor. They offer free gravol in the medical center.
If you get seasick easily, you should probably think twice about going on such a long cruise and you may also want to rethink getting packages like the dining or drinking beverage because you may find yourself without an appetite on days you are seasick.
Cruises are supposed to be relaxing and luxurious and I do admit that we got both of those things from this cruise. 10 days is pretty long but we made it through! I don’t mind going on future cruises, but I would probably choose one that isn’t so long or an itinerary that has more stops so I can at least get off and do something else. And I would definitely purchase the wifi beforehand because we clearly cannot live without wifi. I would also look into cruises or trips that have a younger crowd. I found this one to have a lot of eldery and families, although a lot of children probably get dumped at the daycare floors while the adults go enjoy the facilities.
Stay tuned for my travel recap on Maui and Honolulu coming up next! Thanks for reading such a lot post and hope this has helped anyone who is considering going on a cruise with Royal Caribbean.
Sincerely, Loewe
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