I was on the maiden voyage and it was a "Wow" experience all right, but not what USA Today reported in today's glowing review. From the 2-3 hour wait to get on the ship due to the total technological breakdown of Royal's high-tech "Smart Check-In" system, to the double-booking of our room, the failure to deliver luggage, the malfunctioning of almost every single aspect of the ship itself (the safes and fridges that couldn't be unlocked, the always out-of-service elevators, the ovens and toasters and Coke machines and ice cream machines that worked sporadically, the room air conditioning that couldn't be controlled, the new "smart" technology that made dinners last for hours, the long lines for every single thing on the ship), the piles of construction materials on our balcony and throughout the ship, and the hour and 1/2 disembarking process, this cruise was an unequivocal catastrophe. You expect some things to go wrong on any voyage, but not for most things to go wrong.

Even before the cruise, hours were spent trying to get reservations for the new Dynamic Dining program, only for them to be lost before we boarded. Nothing I'm reporting was unusual: we heard story after story of similar - and worse - experiences from other passengers. The next-to-last paragraph in this article is laughable at best and quite the opposite of what happened on the maiden voyage.

To give Royal their due, Quantum is undeniably beautiful. The crew, understaffed as they were, was hardworking and patient. Royal refunded a proportion of each stateroom's cost and all charges for the wifi that didn't work, and they offered a 25% future cruise discount. It was the least they could do after putting thousands of passengers on a ship that was not ready to sail.