10 Techie Things You Couldn’t Do On A Cruise Ship Until Now!

While we all anticipate Royal Caribbean’s NEW Quantum of the Seas‘ arrival in Bayonne, New Jersey this November, I’ve been blown away with the technology set up on-board the ship! As a techie/gamer, being on a ship like this would be HEAVEN! I’m fascinated by the technology I’ll be able to use aboard this ship while on vacation. Think of it… Being on vacation, but feeling totally at home NEVER SOUNDED SO DAMN GOOD!! However, be warned my fellow geeks, nerds, & techies, you can only pull this fantastic stuff off on Royal Caribbean’s “Quantum of the Seas”. There is no other ship that can provide us with the tech/gaming goodies we need to feel totally at home while being on vacay! Now that you’ve been made aware of this truth, we can boldly game & tech where no Techie or gamer has been able to tech or game before!

10 Techie Things You Couldn’t Do On A Cruise Ship Until Now!

1.  Stay Connected

Imagine being able to ask for a conference room and having a video conference with your client, office, or Call of Duty teammates (just kidding on the CoD teammates thing, but can you imagine how cool that would be??? Seriously!).  Powered with O3b Network technology, the band width aboard the Quantum of the Seas will be more than all other cruise ships combined. Travelers can stream video, share images to social media channels and Skype. For those of you that don’t necessarily know what O3b technology is, allow me to explain… Imagine yourself using fiber-quality internet connectivity powerful enough to provide seamless video whether it be by way of video conferencing, Skype, or streaming movies from a laptop, tablet, or smart-phablet? If we’re talking fiber-quality, then this is the type of stuff that can only be generally accessed sea-side… Not anymore with O3b baby! This can now be possible at sea by way of O3b Satellites placed in orbit 8062 kilometers or  5,009 miles from the Earth! It’s BETTER, FASTER, & CHEAPER!

2.  Walk Around with No Room Keys or Credit cards

WOW No More key-cards that can be lost and cause enough worry & frustration to wanna quit your vacay??? That’s right my fellow Geeks, Jedis, Wookies, & Vulcans: We have wrist bands, but not just any ordinary wrist band… Wristbands embedded with radio frequency identification technology that’ll serve as room keys and onboard charges for everything from cocktails and food to shore excursions. Best of all, they’re fun and are an extension of you!

3. Sidewalk to ship in 10 minutes

Think of Costco Self Checkout Lanes for a moment, and you’ll get a taste of how excited I am about this technology & not having to stand in ridiculously long pier lines waiting forever to board the ship and start my VACAY! Streamlined technology will now allow guests to check in online, upload a photo and receive digital boarding credentials.  Just scan your passport and documents and you can head straight to the ship.  No need to stand in line at the check-in counters unless you really want to.

4. Virtual Balcony Cabins

Think about an option where having to pay for a balcony cabin solely for the view is no longer necessary… No imagine being in an Interior Cabin pimped up with an 80-inch LED Screen showing a real-time view of what it would look like to have a balcony cabin in the same spot a balcony would’ve been built (Day or Night)… That’s right! The days of only having a picture ocean view window room is no longer your only option, kids!

5. Smart Concierge

Imagine being in a world where you don’t have to be constantly in your cabin waiting for your luggage to arrive or to actually having fun but having to curtail it in order to check to see if your luggage has arrived… Well, thanks to Royal Caribbean’s RFID Technology, the waiting for luggage Stops Now! We are now able to download our “Stateroom App” containing “My Folio” Info, Gratuities, Room Requests, and YES: Luggage Tracker! Luggage Tracker allows us to have all the fun in the world wherever we’re at without the worry of constantly having to leave the scene in order to check for our luggage. If you’re gonna check anything, check the app to see where in the in the process of check-in & receipt your luggage lies. Is it Checked In, Onboard, In Transit to Cabin, or Delivered? The app will let you know! Royal IQ can also be accessed from your tablet or laptop at home to book shore excursions, schedule spa appointments, and choose dining options. Furthermore, if you decide to change here or there while onboard the ship, you can by way of the onboard the ship’s Self-Service Royal IQ where you can make those changes.

6. The Bionic Bar!

Imagine arriving onboard the ship and you’re ready to order your first drink, but the bartender is taking someone else’s order… Wait a minute… There are still bartenders? That is so 20th Century…  Aboard the Quantum of the Seas, we have The Bionic Bar where you order your drink from a tablet and a robotic arm mixes it for you! But the fun doesn’t stop there, kids… While you’re waiting for your drink to be mixed by Robo-Tender, there’s another show going in the backdrop right next door at…

7. Two70

An immersive entertainment venue containing six (6) extra large LED screens operated by six (6) robotic arms that provides (at first) the illusion of watching the show on one large mega-screen only to find out the show isn’t so much as what you’re watching on screen as it is what’s about to happen with the screen, which is the one screen turning into a massive interactive sliding puzzle, consisting of six individual dancing screens.

8. Any Xbox One Gamers Onboard?

Unlike all the other cruise lines that provide Nintendo Wii U single person gaming because they they don’t have the bandwidth to stream multi-player or massive multiplayer games like Call of Duty Ghosts, Battlefield 4, Assassin’s Creed, & Forza Motorsport 5 onboard their ships, Royal Caribbean’s “Quantum of the Seas” provides it all in spades!

9. Movie Streaming

Who’s uses Flixster, Netflix, or Xfinity TV Go to stream your favorite movies and TV Shows? How cool would it be NOT to bring a portable DVD player with 50, 100, or 200 DVDs? Now you can aboard Royal Caribbean’s “Quantum of the Seas”! With RCCL’s partnership with O3b’s fiber-quality bandwidth technology, there will no longer be a need to lug around all that outdated tech with you. All you need is your tablet and subscriptions to all those glorious services that provide apps to stream your hundreds of favorite movies and TV Shows for you to watch on the fly anywhere on the ship anytime you want.

10. Smart Art & Next Generation Photo Gallery

Quantum of the Seas boasts an incredible art collection, including interactive art created by the world’s best digital and video artists.  Within the overall them of “What Makes Life Worth Living,” the SMART Art experieence is ship-wide and includes three types of digital media: video, interactive and kinetic. You will also be able to view all of your onboard photos on 22″ multi-touch screens.  No more standing in line and zero paper waste with tons of photos being printed that were never purchased by cruisers.  Here you print just want you want – making it the greenest photo operation at sea.

Worth Mentioning.…Happy Crew / Happy Guests

With all the technology being provided aboard Royal Caribbean’s “Quantum of the Seas”, we are happy to hear that the people that make all the difference in the world are also benefiting! The ship’s crew were given a tablet to keep for themselves in order to skype with their own families… That’s 40,000 crew members, which means 40,000 tablets were purchased by Royal Caribbean as a gift for them. Some of the crew members spend at least six (6) months away from their families leaving them with only a voice to cling to. Here’s to you Royal Caribbean for caring that much about your crew!

Watch Technology come to life onboard the Quantum of the Seas in this newly released video.

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