Quantum of the Seas: North Star - At Sea in High Winds 12/11/14

Offering 360º views over the ship and out to sea, the North Star is a one of a kind new feature onboard the Quantum of the Seas. Built as a glass gondola on the end of a 135 foot long crane it is capable of lifting 14 passengers vertically to a height of over 300 feet. While in port they are limited to simply going up and down but while out to sea the crane can be rotated to hold the gondola off the side of the ship for a rare sailing view of your own ship. The North Star typically operates all day with a short break to reset the reservations in the afternoon on sea days with tickets distributed at 9am and 4pm. On port days it usually operates 9-11 and then 4pm to late with tickets usually not required. This video was filmed at 4:15PM on 12/11/14 during the ships 11th day of the it's inaugural 11 night Southern Caribbean sailing while headed back north to Bayonne. At this time it was off the Chesapeake Bay and while the seas were not too rough she was enduring high winds that prevented North Star from operating. This was the first ride of the day and one of possibly only two that occurred. When attempting to operate North Star's wind instruments were detecting winds in excess of the allowed safe conditions for operations so the system was automatically locking the crane arm down every time they attempted to run it. To get around this they had to run a manual override in order to force the crane arm to be released. The seas were not rough so it wasn't rocking, but the winds resulted in a very noisy, shaky and swaying ride aboard the North Star.