''Quantum of the Seas'' is a currently operated by

Royal Caribbean International Royal Caribbean International (RCI), also formerly known as Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL), is a cruise line brand founded in 1968 in Norway and organised as a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group since 1997. Based in Miami, Flo ...

and is the

lead ship The lead ship, name ship, or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to naval ships and large civilian vessels. Large ships are very complex and may ...

of her class. At her time of delivery in 2014, ''Quantum of the Seas'' was the third largest cruise ship in the world by gross tonnage. She is currently deployed to serve the Alaskan cruise market.

History

Planning and construction

On 11 February 2011, Royal Caribbean announced that it had ordered the first of a new class of ships from the

Meyer Werft Meyer Werft is one of the major German shipyards, headquartered in Papenburg at the river Ems. Founded in 1795 and starting with small wooden vessels, today Meyer Werft is a builder of luxury passenger ships. 700 ships of different types have be ...

shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, scheduled to be delivered by Fall 2014. At the time, the project was code-named "Project Sunshine". Later that year, two 20.5-megawatt

ABB ABB Ltd. is a Swedish- Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The company was formed in 1988 when Sweden's Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA) and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie merged to crea ...

Azipod XO propulsion units were ordered for the ship. Meyer Werft performed the steel cutting for the ship on 31 January 2013, the same day it was announced that the new ship would be named ''Quantum of the Seas'', making her the lead vessel of the ''Quantum'' class. ''Quantum of the Seas'' had her keel laid down on 2 August 2013. She was floated out from the shipyard on 9 August 2014. Her River Ems conveyance began on 21 September 2014 and her sea trials began three days later, on 24 September.

Delivery and christening

''Quantum of the Seas'' was delivered to Royal Caribbean on 28 October 2014, at a cost of US$935 million (). The ship was christened by

Kristin Chenoweth Kristin Dawn Chenoweth (; born Kristi Dawn Chenoweth; July 24, 1968)Kristin Cheno ...

on 14 November 2014 at

Cape Liberty Cruise Port The Cape Liberty Cruise Port is one of three trans-Atlantic passenger terminals in the Port of New York and New Jersey. It is located in Bayonne, New Jersey at the north side of the long pier of the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor, a former military ...

in Bayonne, New Jersey.

Service history

''Quantum of the Seas'' spent her inaugural 2014–2015 season sailing from Cape Liberty on 7-to-12-night itineraries to the Caribbean and

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...

before she was re-deployed to China. She embarked on her 53-day eastward re-positioning cruise from Cape Liberty to

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

in May 2015. In June 2015, the ship commenced operating cruises from Shanghai on 3-to-8-night itineraries to Japan and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

year-round until moving to

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popu ...

upon the arrival of '' Spectrum of the Seas'' in Shanghai in mid-2019. Beginning in November 2019, ''Quantum of the Seas'' was scheduled to operate seasonally in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

from

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

for six months each year until 2024 and rotate between homeporting in Tianjin and Singapore year-round. However, in March 2020, Royal Caribbean announced a re-deployment of ''Quantum of the Seas'' to

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

for summer 2021, sailing week-long itineraries from

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, marking her debut in the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the We ...

. In 2020, due to the worldwide

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, sailings were suspended, on various dates in the various regions, by all cruise lines. As of 12 January 2021, a report indicated that all Royal Caribbean sailings had been suspended until 30 April, except for ''Quantum of the Seas''. This vessel had resumed sailing in

in December 2020, "with the local government's CruiseSafe Certification ... hat meetsthe comprehensive health and safety requirements developed by the Singapore government".

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quantum of the Seas Ships of Royal Caribbean International 2014 ships Cruise ships involved in the COVID-19 pandemic Ships built in Papenburg