Royal Caribbean Spectrum of the Seas coming to Singapore in October 2022: All you need to know

Royal Caribbean has announced that Spectrum of the Seas will commence sailings from Singapore in October 2022, marking the ship’s first return since 2019. 

Unlike the incumbent Quantum of the Seas (which will wrap up its cruise to nowhere schedule in April 2022), Spectrum will offer 3/4/5/7/9-night Southeast Asia getaway cruises. This effectively means that Royal is betting on ports opening up by 3Q 2022. 

Overview: Spectrum of the Seas

Spectrum of the Seas undertook her maiden voyage in 2019, having been designed specifically for the China and Asia market. Although she’s roughly the same size as Quantum (169,379 gross tonnage versus Quantum’s 168,666), Spectrum part of a more modern class known as the Quantum Ultra. 

The ship has capacity for 5,622 guests and 1,551 crew, spread across 16 decks. Here’s an infographic provided by Royal Caribbean (you can tell what market the ship was designed for, based on the comparisons they make). 

A total of 2,137 staterooms are available, split into 142 suites and 1,995 regular cabins. Suites are divided into the following categories:

Regular cabins are split into:

• 1,487 Balcony staterooms
• 142 Oceanview staterooms
• 366 Interior staterooms

Here’s what guests can look forward to, according to the press release:

Quantum veterans will spot familiar attractions like FlowRider, North Star, iFly, and venues such as SeaPlex and Two70. 

However, there are some differences to take note of. While Quantum splits the main dining room into four different venues (American Icon Grill, Chic, Silk and The Grande), Spectrum has a single large venue simply called the Main Dining Room.

Suites guests on Quantum enjoy access to the exclusive Concierge Club, but Spectrum takes that one step further by having a Suites-only area of the ship, located at the forward end of decks 13 through 16. This has a special restaurant, lounge and outdoor space, together with a shopping outlet. 

In other nods to its Asian audience, Boleros has been replaced by Star Moment (a karaoke joint hopefully more Teo Heng than lup sup KTV), Harp and Horn pub has been replaced by a tea room called Leaf and Bean, and new specialty restaurants like Teppanyaki and Sichuan Red join classics like Wonderland and Chops Grille. 

For a detailed review of the Spectrum experience (from 2019), refer to the link. Additional reviews can be found here and here. 

Sailing dates

Spectrum will be offering 3/4/5/7/9-night Southeast Asia getaway cruises, with departure dates running from 21 October 2022 to 6 April 2023. 

The inaugural cruise on 21 October 2022 will be a 5-night Spice of SE Asia itinerary visiting Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Phuket. 

It won’t be cheap

While Spectrum sounds exciting, would-be cruisers should know that it’ll cost you a fair bit more than Quantum. I’m sure some of it boils down to the fact that cruises to somewhere are more expensive to operate than cruises to nowhere, but to illustrate, a 4-night Spectrum cruise in December 2022 starts from:

• S$1,372 for an Interior stateroom
• S$1,364 for an Ocean View stateroom (don’t ask me why this is cheaper)
• S$1,712 for a Balcony stateroom
• S$2,664 for a Silver Junior suite
• S$3,204 for a Golden Balcony suite
• S$5,904 for a Grand suite

For comparison, I paid the following for 4-night cruises to nowhere on Quantum:

• January 2021: S$2,257 for a Grand Suite
• March 2021: S$1,274 for a Balcony stateroom
• January 2022: S$1,655 for a Grand Suite

HSBC and AIA are offering discounts on cruises to nowhere with Quantum, but these discounts do not currently apply to Spectrum sailings. It’s possible they may add them later, but for now, what you see is what you pay. 

Remember that you can enjoy US$50-250 of onboard credit if you hold a minimum of 100 Royal Caribbean shares (NYSE: RCL). 

Cruise with Confidence does not apply to Spectrum sailings

Under Royal Caribbean’s Cruise with Confidence programme, guests can cancel their sailings up to 48 hours prior and receive a 100% Future Cruise Credit valid for bookings by 30 April 2022 and sailing by 31 December 2022, or one year from the original sailing date (whichever is later).

However, Cruise with Confidence covers bookings made by 31 October 2021, with sail dates up till 30 April 2022. This means it will not apply to Spectrum sailings, which will be subject to regular cancellation policies. 

These are summarised below:

Conclusion

Those who have sailed on Quantum and expect a totally brand new experience on Spectrum might be disappointed, because the two ships do share many features and architectural similarities. In fact, you can argue that Spectrum would be slightly worse for non-suite guests because they lose access to the solarium, one of my favourite places onboard. 

But I do believe that actually sailing somewhere adds a whole new dimension to a cruise, and provided you’re willing to forgo suite privileges, regular staterooms are at a somewhat reasonable premium to Quantum. 

For more resources on cruising, refer to the links below:

• Full Review: Royal Caribbean Cruise to Nowhere
• Full review: World Dream Cruise to Nowhere
• Ultimate Cruise to Nowhere Showdown: Dream Cruises vs Royal Caribbean
• Sealions (Milelion Cruise Society)

Will you be booking a Spectrum of the Seas cruise?