Royal Caribbean International
Rhapsody of the Seas Cruise Review
Western Caribbean

Amy
Age: 34
Occupation: Admin Assistant
Number of Cruises: 3
Sailing Date: September 3rd, 2006

Rhapsody Pros:
1.Bigger and newer ship
2.Preferred dinner seating accommodated for our family of 9, professional wait staff
3.My mother had no trouble getting around in her scooter – almost the whole ship was accessible
4.Very friendly staff (if you do enough activities, you can really get to know them (British Becky))
5.The food in the Edelweiss was absolutely wonderful (try the Scallop Risotto)
6.Numerous activities to choose from (including, greeting card and scrap booking workshops that they provide to you)
7.The trivia and name that tune were FUN, FUN, FUN and fair for everyone
8.Easy ship to navigate
9.Adult only pool and hot tubs
10.Many lifts (nominal wait time, unless the teenagers get in and press every floor)
11.Our mini fridges were not waiting in the room as I had ordered, but one quick call and they were down well within a 30 minute window
12.We had them take out the chair and small round coffee table, so we could have more room (they accommodated this request promptly and with courtesy)
13.Perhaps it was the time of year and even though we provided 3 of them, there were not a lot of children scurrying about.
14.We had inside staterooms on deck 3, all I can say is that is the best sleep I’ve had in I don’t know when. When I sleep I like it dark and cold and that’s just what I got. I kept the air conditioner on the lowest setting and brought my small fan for white noise. It was pitch dark and I slept a lot on this cruise, usually at least one 2-4 hour nap per day. The stateroom was small but well appointed.
15.They had a very good selection on the TV (first run movies and old TV like, I Dream of Jeanie and Gilligan’s Island).
16.In the Edelweiss, you could get 2 different entrees if you so desired. Our family ordered pretty much one of everything and passed it around; if we really liked something we’d order more (Scallop Risotto).
17.Excellent choice of excursions.
18.Park at the EZ Cruise Parking Lot on Santa Fe (you can Google the name and find the URL).
Rhapsody Cons:
1.The entire 3rd deck smelled of raw sewage, it got better as the cruise went along, but my mother’s stateroom and my stateroom bathroom smelled almost entirely of raw sewage for days. They did come to fix it but the smell came back so I decided not to ask again. This was a MAJOR deal for me (I’m very sensitive to smells); I did leave this information on their guest satisfaction survey.
2.The food in the Windjammer was the quality of The Golden Corral, at best. To be honest I was a little frightened of some of the selections and somehow I only ate French fries and bread…not my idea a balanced meal.
3.I also noticed that they recycled the desserts: for instance, one day for lunch they served a chocolate pecan pie and a cheesecake with orange flavoring on the top for dessert in the Windjammer, the next evening in the Edelweiss they had a sampler dessert plate and one of samples was the orange cheesecake and the other was the chocolate pecan pie in a mold. All they did was rename them and try to pass them off as fresh desserts. I don’t blame them for trying to utilize all of the food stuffs, but to insult the diner’s intelligence, well it irked me.
4.One day in the Edelweiss for open seating lunch, they refused (yes I said refused) to accommodate our family. Some family members got down a tad before the others and like I said we’re a family of 9, so we need a whole table to ourselves. Well they had seated 2 other couples at this table and then sat down 3 of our family members with them, I explained that the others were on their way down right then and that we needed a larger table and asked very nicely if we could just move to an open table right beside the one they wanted to seat us at. Their idea of accommodating was to move one of the couples and squeeze 2 more chairs in at the already cramped table because of my mother’s wheelchair scooter. I asked kindly again if we could just move to the next table and I was told that they have a process and we couldn’t be moved. I along with several family members simply walked out and went up to the Windjammer.
5. Very slow debarkation (but that’s normal I think).



 

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