Video: Skydivers, robots and bumper cars on the good ship Quantum

The star of this video, Quantum of the Seas, is a billion-dollar cruise ship, dripping with new technology, introduced by Royal Caribbean in late 2014.

Outfitted with an observation pod that extends into the sky, a simulated skydiving chamber, bumper cars, robot bartenders, virtual balconies and fake waves for shipboard surfers, it spent the winter sailing between New Jersey and the Caribbean. Soon it will head to a new home port in Shanghai.

The engineering of the 16-deck, 2,090-cabin ship is remarkable, and the entertainment is pretty flashy, as you can see in the video. (There’s also a notable cameo appearance by New York Harbor’s Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.) But like so many heroes, Quantum has flaws. Those are mentioned in the video, and covered more thoroughly in this story, which details the eight days I spent aboard Quantum in February.

“A Minute Away” is a video series in which nothing much happens -- except you see the world, and hear it, and get a respite from workaday life. We’ve covered Machu Picchu, Red Square, the Yucatan, the Alamo, an Alaskan float plane and the reading room of the New York Public Library, among other places. Since early 2013, we’ve been adding a new minute every week (and some of those “minutes” are actually closer to 120 seconds. So if you’d prefer 100 minutes away, we’ve got more than enough here for you…