Very Disappointing

If I could give this category -10 I would! We arrived at Venice Marco Polo Airport just after 11am and were informed that Rhapsody of the Seas had not yet docked due to foggy conditions so our luggage would be taken directly to the port and we were to be taken for lunch at a hotel and then transported to the port. We were brought to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Padua where we were given a basic meal. The staff of the hotel are to be commended for the outstanding and methodical way that they handled the extremely high volume of passengers they received. We were then taken to the port where we found that the ship had still not docked but were given no other information. Apparently Royal Caribbean thought that it would be a good idea to send out email updates to passengers informing them of the situation which was ill advised as I, like many other passengers, had no access to emails. I have only now learned from the review above that free wireless was available - obviously a well kept secret! The ground staff appeared to be very disorganised with no contingency plan for dealing with the imminent arrival of almost 2500 passengers en masse. By chance we learned that they were handing out health declaration forms and allocating letters of the alphabet with the intention that this would be used to control embarkation. We were allocated letter J although we had been there for hours. Bags containing a baguette, piece of fruit, and bottled water were being randomly distributed but there did not seem to be enough to go round. Bottles of water were also distributed and we managed to obtain one of these between the two of us. When check-in finally opened we waited patiently in anticipation that the filtered embarkation would be methodical and orderly but it was clear from the outset that this was not the case; as a result people were not abiding by the letters and were joining queues completely at random. It soon became very apparent that many of the ground staff had gone off duty, leaving the desk staff to deal with the passengers and an announcement was made that the filtered embarkation system was being abandoned. It was now a free for all with insufficient staff dealing with check-in, more than half the desks remained empty. Also priority embarkation queues appeared to be exceptionally long. There were about 4 desks dealing with the priority lines and loyalty members from Platinum to Diamond Plus were being channelled through one line. The priority check-in system broke down completely and became totally haphazard. We stood in line for 3 hours before being given a further bottle of water but no food and were finally processed at approximately 10.15pm. I think if this had been my first experience of cruising, I would be unlikely to consider a second cruise!

The food in the Windjammer good and varied but not open long enough. The Park Cafe served a limited selection of food. The Main Dining room was fine - if you have cruised more than a couple of times with Royal Caribbean, the menu is fairly similar. We didn't use any of the specialty restaurants - though it wasn't due to a lack of hard selling!

Rhapsody is one of the smaller ships in the Royal Caribbean fleet - that's why we like it! We didn't use the fitness centre but everything else was fine - no problem getting a lounger!

I don't think any ship can have a 5 star rating on entertainment - everyone's tastes are so different! Did we enjoy it? - mostly yes with some acts that didn't interest us - the Moondogs (a Beatles tribute act) were excellent. The music in the Centrum was very loud at times and, because the space is so open (which is another feature that we actually like!) it kinda took over every deck level so sometimes it was hard to find a place just to sit, chill & chat.

The staff never fail to do their best to make sure your cruise is 5 star. Every one that we met were very pleasant, courteous and gave excellent service. Our two waiters, Noel & David in the MDR were absolute gentlemen, we loved the great service with a beautiful smile Rhiana Esguerra in the R Bar and, not forgetting our 2 diamond stars Yulia & Thaddeus!

We love the smaller ships and hope that Royal Caribbean keep a good stock of them in their fleet - not everyone wants to sail on a mega ship! Cleaning and maintenance is always in evidence and there is no question that Rhapsody is in good hands.

We had stayed in this cabin before and it was perfectly adequate for our needs, plenty of storage space. Choice of TV channels very poor (with no facility for checking your account - time for an upgrade there!). Bathroom and shower were fine but I HATE shower curtains!!!! We didn't see much of our cabin steward.

At least we disembarked easier than our embarkation debacle!