It's been on our wish list since we began our digital nomad lifestyle - working on a cruise ship.
Until recently, the internet on cruise ships was so painfully slow that it was impossible for us to even consider. Last year, Royal Caribbean came out with a new ship boasting internet speeds fast enough to stream Netflix. With a little help and convincing from Jen's mom, we decided to book our tickets and put the new ship to the test.
Here is the Quantum of the Seas, the most technologically advanced boat on the seas today:
Robot bartenders:
80 inch virtual balconies:
We flew to Newark, NJ and spent the next 11 nights floating toward Barcelona, Spain.
..but hey, wait.. weren't you already just in Spain?
Right.. yes we sure were, but since Jen’s parents and their friends were taking the cruise and celebrating their 65th birthdays, we decided to join in on the fun :)
Dom had done 1 cruise in the past and found it fairly... boring. Taking a cruise while working at the same time was quite a bit more hectic with trying to juggle everything in around work hours...
Activities: Bumper cars, ping pong, napkin folding class, iFly, FlowRider, volleyball, the shows (Mamma Mia, the Beatlemaniacs, Star Water, Sonic Odyssey, and Claire Vinkesteijn).
Plus 3 ports: Ponta Delgada, Portugal
Cartagena, Spain
Mallorca, Spain
And lastly all of the food, drinks, and socializing
It made for quite the busy trip, but overall we really enjoyed ourselves.
So, did the internet speeds stand up to the challenge? Sadly, no... it seems the technology is still new and they've still got a LOT of bugs to work out of their system. The internet wasn't anywhere close to what they claim - we think they must have tested Netflix when there was only 1 person on the ship!. If you just need to surf the internet and you have patience, it is much better in comparison to other cruise ships out there. However don't expect to be able to do any kind of streaming or have decent Skype calls.. we got lucky once or twice and managed to connect our calls, but often times we could barely even sign in.
