Quantum of the Seas Takes High Tech to the Waves

Quantum of the Seas is the newest and most advanced vessel in the Royal Caribbean line. Designed to provide all of the traditional creature comforts of a luxury vessel, the $1 billion ship is engineered to create the most energy efficient and environmentally safe pleasure ship in the world.

Main Attractions

In addition to its three swimming pools, a kid’s water park, a full service spa, basketball courts, jazz club, fitness center and shopping mall, the ship adds a few distinctive wrinkles. The stern of the ship includes a rock climbing wall, Ripcord by iFly indoor skydiving, a bump ‘em car circuit and a Wave Lock Flowrider surfing simulator.

The NorthStar Observation Tower on the top deck lifts a seven ton glass capsule (like the individual compartments of the London Eye) atop a 40+ yard crane so up to 14 guests can ascend 300 feet over the ship to look out over the Atlantic.

Royal Caribbean wants the world to know Quantum of the Seas is the world’s first self-christened “smart ship.” There’s a ship wide, user sensitive wifi network, along with more affordable cabins below the water line that use high-def screens to simulate an ocean view by simulcasting live imagery from outboard cameras.

Bionic bartenders on the ship’s main promenade. The two robotic arms mix rail drinks and original recipes ordered via tablet. With the necessary liquor suspended overhead and mixers waiting on an automatic fountain, the droid drink slingers can shake, stir and deliver an extensive selection of cocktails.

Environmental Focus

Registered in the Bahamas where she’ll be in service most of the time, Quantum of the Seas is the third largest vessel in the Royal Caribbean fleet. More than 50 yards wide and three football fields long, all 168,000 tons of Quantum cuts through the waves at a cruising speed of 22 knots (about 25 mph) thanks to twin diesel electric engines and their combined 83,000 horsepower.

To maximize fuel efficiency, special jets below the waterline pump out a steady stream of bubbles to coat the bow and allow the hull to slide through the sea more smoothly. Those bubble jets and the hull’s bow thrusters are specially covered so stray marine life can’t be pulled into the works — guaranteeing the safety of a wayward fish and preventing potential underwater stowaways from tagging along and invading a destination’s marine ecosystem.

The ship burns diesel fuel oil, but, the diesel exhaust leaving the ship’s stacks is screened and filter scrubbed back to breathable air quality before it wafts into the sky.

Can the Garbage

Even at full capacity, with almost 5,000 passengers and more than 1,000 crew members aboard, not a single piece of waste comes off Quantum of the Seas. With the obvious exceptions of the passengers, their belongings and any vehicles aboard, everything leaving the vessel is collected, cleaned, processed and sent to off-vessel locations to be repurposed and reintroduced into the world.

In the ships’s engineering sections on the lower decks, an expansive recycling center receives, sorts and redirects waste flowing in from the 18 onboard restaurants and assorted bars. All glass is separated from plastic and sorted by color — with the entire compartmentalized mass stored until the ship docks. Once in port, all glass and plastic leaves the ship, earmarked for recycling.

With all of those restaurants in operation, including the cruise ship staple of a 24 hour buffet, food waste piles up faster than any other refuse onboard. Quantum packs onboard incinerators that burn that material into high grade ash that’s eventually shipped to concrete factories to be transformed into road surfacing. So, passengers can one day drive home over the burned remains of the chicken carcass they enjoyed in the blue waters off Nassau.

Now that this ship is in service, it sets the green bar high for environmentally aware cruises, and the travelers having a good time aboard her probably never realize it.

You can take in some of the sights aboard Quantum of the Seas in the gallery below.