Angela Edwards

Age: 41
Occupation: Education
Number of Cruises: 1
Cruise Line: Royal Carribean
Ship: Rhapsody of the Seas
Sailing Date: June 13th, 2004
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

This cruise was for our 23rd wedding anniversary. What A vacation! This is the first vacation I have ever had that was truely a vacation. It was wonderful! The Rhapsody was beautiful,it had everything to do and more. The crew was great. I don't think I heard the word "no" the entire trip. They worked so hard to please everyone and were so friendly and helpful. The food was awesome! Everything from gormet to burgers and pizza. I especially enjoyed the Edelweiss dining room, the service and the food was spectacular. Everything was so well organized. I also enjoyed the Windjammer cafe, the food was great. Everywhere on this ship the food was great. Room service was great. I know I have said this over again, but I was so impressed. The quality of the food and service on this ship was equal to a stay in a luxury hotel and a 5 star resturant. I also loved the room service, which I used for my wakeup call in the mornings. I am a coffee drinker, and was worried about getting good coffee. I read a cruise review before my cruise and someone said the coffee was not good and was too weak. Well, I'm not sure they were on the Rhapsody, because the coffee was very good. There was so much to do on this ship that we could not do it all in 7 nights. The shows were great. I really enjoyed them. During the day life by the pool side was also very intertaining. There was games or live music and even if you didn't get involved in the games it was intertaining just watching. The pool side did get crowded and it was hard to find a lounge chair, but after the first day we just went early and got chairs. I loved the solarium pool, mainly because it was for adults. However, there are always adults who don't follow the rules or read the signs and just had to bring thier kids to the solarium pool. Now, I didn't take my children on this trip. This was our anniversary trip, therefore I didn't appreciate these people bringing kids to the adult area. But this only happened once so, I can't really complain too much.

When we were boarding the ship (which was simple, well organized and much quicker than I expected) I saw a lot of children and said to my husband you know if I had wanted to be with children it would be my own. But to my surprise I hardly saw any children because they were so occupied in the childrens places. This also impressed me so that I told my friend , who has 6 children that this was the perfect vacation for her! Another thing that I was so impressed with was the security on this ship. I went out on deck one night about 2 am, just for some air and to look at the water. I was alone on this deck and got a little uneasy at first but someone spoke to me and it was security, just walking by at 2am so I felt very secure on this ship. One thing I was not impressed with was disembarking the ship. The wait was long to get to customs, this would not have been so bad had we been able to stay in our room a little longer instead of staying in the Broadway Melodies Theatre for so long before getting to customs. The line was long but went fairly quick to get through customs.

The ports of call were so much fun! Key West-We walked a lot, and saw a lot.
We didn' book anything here, but I wished we had. Tip: If not booking an excursion, rent a scooter or one of the little buggy type cars to tool around in because it is hot! We still had a blast!

Grand Cayman: We booked a snorkel excursion. Everything is very organized and the boat picked us up at the dock. We had never snokeled before. It was so easy and the fish and the coral were so beautiful pictures do not do this justice. I felt like I was on the dicovery channel! I had so much fun.

We then took a taxi($3.00) to seven mile beach and sunbathed and swam. The water is so beautiful there and we had a great time.

Cozumel: This was also beautiful water, beaches, snorkeling was breathtaking here. We went to the market downtown by taxi($3.00) and shopped and ate lunch. Everything was cheap and I even bargained my way into 2 solid silver bracelets for less than the price they wanted for 1! We then sunbathed and snorkeled at the beach, which was so much fun.

tips: Look at your daily planner everynight and make a schedule if you want to do as much as possible. If you enjoy great food do not take clothes that just fit! Don't waste your time going to the meetings about the ports, they are just about shopping, unless you are on this trip to buy duty free alcohol or diamonds it's a waste of time. Order the drink of the day and keep the glass. Don't over pack and over shop for this cruise you will find most everyone is casual, with the exception of formal nights. I mean t-shirts and shorts, very comfortable. Plan to stay at a hotel the night before in Galveston, that will let you leave your car for the week. We stayed at the Hilton on the seawall, and they kept our car in a lot with security and took us and our luggange by air conditioned bus to the ship. This was free. If they are booked try a smoking room, at the Hilton you wouldn't know it was a smoking room if they did'nt say so. Walk through the windjammer cafe before eating so that you can see everything they have to offer before you go through the buffet. Get a prescription from your doctor for a patch for seasickness, We own 2 boats and have been on the water alot and the first night I was so dizzy and could have gotten sick but I took dramamine and was ok, but I noticed a lot of people wearing these very small patches and enquired about them and was told that they were a prescription patch. This came on me so fast, I didn't know why I was so dizzy for so long and found out that this was seasickness.

Overall: We will definatly cruise with Royal Carribean again. I would not even mind going on the Rhapsody again. Because there was so much to do that we could not do it all in 7 nights. Everyone was so friendly on this cruise that it was hard to believe. They acted like they knew you already. Our stateroom attendant was so effecient. This was by far the best money we have ever spent and will do this again!
 

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