Royal Caribbean
Rhapsody of the Seas
Western Caribbean

Bob

Age: 59
Occupation: Retired
Number of Cruises: 1

This was our first cruise and after the many stories that our cruise savvy friends told us, our expectations were high. Those expectations were met and exceeded!

The Rhapsody of the Seas is beautiful and extremely clean, the crew and staff are warm, friendly, and seemed to enjoy the company of the passengers. Having worked for 30 years in a customer service industry I can really appreciate this responsiveness. Kudos to the staff and crew of the Rhapsody.

We were in balcony room 7050. Our room attendants did a great job of keeping it clean, the ice bucket always full, and of course provided us with a towel animal every night. I appreciated have a mini-safe and mini-refrigerator in our room. While on the balcony one morning I actually saw flying fish. Awesome! The only negative comment I have about our room is that I found the mattress to be way too hard.

The food overall was outstanding. We usually ate breakfast and lunch in the Windjammer Café and we were impressed with the selection and quality of the meals. My only negative comment here would be the bakery goods, pass on the donuts and danish. By the way, the view from the Windjammer Cafe is beautiful.

We always ate dinner in the Edelweiss Dining Room where everyone was serenaded by live music performed by Rosario Strings, a duo on classical guitar and electric violin. Every meal taken here was absolutely outstanding. Our waiter Agnelo and assistant waiter Shamir could not have been more attentive. This was 5 star service at its best. I ate more food that I should have but the extra pounds were worth it.

The two pools on the ship were smaller than I expected but the one in the Solarium never seemed to be crowded. An issue Royal Caribbean needs to address is the tile floor in the Solarium. While they do have a little sign warning of a slippery floor, someone is going to break a hip or other body part someday, if it already hasn’t happened. Walking on this floor is like walking on ice. I personally saw an older gentleman have his feet slip out from under him and he hit the deck quite hard. I thought for sure he was injured but he said he was alright and got up and moved on. I could tell his pride was injured.

Shipboard entertainment was outstanding. My wife and I still laugh about the game “Quest” that we played in Shall We Dance Lounge. The shows in the Broadway Melodies Theater ranged from very good to outstanding. If you ever get the chance to see the high energy act of the Knudsen Brothers, DON’T MISS IT!! Daytime activities ranged from horse racing to belly flop contests. I have nothing negative to say about the entertainment and again, kudos to cruise director Dan Dan the Party Man.

Our ports of call were Key West, Fl., Georgetown, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel, Mexico and we enjoyed all three. At Key West we did the pub crawl consisting of 5 pubs. Three of the pubs were great, two were dumps. In Grand Cayman with went on the Atlantis Submarine and it was truly awesome. My only negative is that in Cozumel, three cruise ships arrived in port at almost the same time. Because of this trying to get ground transportation from our port was an absolute nightmare.

The casino was actually better than I expected and the slot machines seemed to be quite a bit looser the first few days of the cruise. The two 5 dollar blackjack tables were always crowded and the 10 and 25 dollar blackjack always had open seats as did the Let it Ride and Caribbean Stud tables. During the cruise they had a Blackjack tournament and a Slots tournament.

Embarking and disembarking from the ship was always smooth and easy. There were so many positive aspects of this cruise that they far outweighed my negative comments.

Next time I cruise I want to go on one of the larger RCCL ships for purposes of comparison. Also, I’ll diet off 15 pounds so that on the next ship I’ll be able to eat like a pig.

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