I was a sixteen-year-old novice sailor when I joined my first ship, the RMS Britannic, the last of the White Star Liners. Not much had changed for the passengers since the same company’s RMS Titanic met its tragic end. Progress was slow back then. The Britannic completed her Atlantic voyages with several weeks sailing through Mediterranean ports. Many of our populous municipalities on the Coast would have been fishing villages then.
The progress in cruising since then has been astounding. To be honest, I prefer the old ways but I can’t stop the progress. When passengers boarded these ocean-going greyhounds, a long and grueling check-in and boarding process had to be completed long before one was shown to the cabin.
Then let’s book a cruise on Royal Caribbean International’s latest cruise ship, the Quantum of the Seas. What comparisons can be made between the two periods? The RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Britannic was just over 700 feet long and weighed just over 27,000 tons. The RCCL Quantum Class ocean liners are twice the length and weigh 168,000 tons, seven times the weight of the White Star ocean liner.
It’s best not to think about the many hours it took to finally retrieve your luggage and make it to one’s cabin on yesterday’s super liners. Today, RCCL promises its 4,000 boarding passengers that their luggage will be stowed and they will be in their cabins within 10 minutes of arrival. Airports take note. There will be no pipelines that take you on board. You register online. There are no lines to join, and you won’t wait in a long line to have your ID verified, paperwork completed, and stateroom keys collected. You take a selfie, upload it to the online check-in website, fill in your passport details and print your boarding pass. Show this to security and proceed to your cabin.
His is a hotel type card key but he also gets a WOWband bracelet. It covers all your needs, including purchases on board. It’s waterproof, so wear it when you splash around in any of the many pools and hot tubs on the liner. There is no escape from the office or Facebook. The liner uses a new type of near-Earth satellite. Internet access is guaranteed anywhere on the ship; there are no dead ends.
The ship’s staff are equipped with tablets, not the kind you get from the drugstore for aches and pains, but handheld computers that take care of every need. A Royal iQ app and an Android device allow you to plan, change schedules such as spa appointments, dinner reservations, shore excursions, etc. The cabins have USB charging ports.
There are 45 iQ stations that interact with your WOWband. They access everything and everyone, including their friends on board. The ocean liners also have two robotic waiters. Use your tablet to order cocktails, these are mixed and delivered by robots. Suddenly, a voyage on the RMS Titanic looks pretty enticing.