Wonderful Caribean Cruise.
Rhapsody of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 1 cruise (first)
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 37
7 Night Western Caribbean (Tampa Roundtrip)
Sail date: December 24, 2017
Ship: Rhapsody of the Seas
Cabin type: Inside
Cabin number: 3065
Traveled as: Family (young children)
Reviewed: 6 years ago
Review summary
Overall, we all enjoyed the cruise. While the Rhapsody is not one of their larger ships, we were grateful for the size. It amazed me that we were on a ship with over 2000 other people and often times found ourselves alone or almost alone when on deck, shopping, etc. The casino had great tables and the slots are fairly generous. I did attend one art auction, which was a total snooze. Their auctioneer was mediocre at best. It was our first cruise, so it was a learning experience. My son with asperger's was able to find some nice quiet places to hang out (the viking lounge during the day, and behind solarium there is a group of chairs back there that is quite secluded). The one activity that all the kids loved was snorkeling in a couple of the ports. We opted to purchase our own masks (we got the full-faced ones for $20/ea) from Amazon and were glad we did. Loved the fact that the Park Cafe in the solarium was open later than all other food venues and their food was great. We will definitely go on another cruise with RC.Embarkation
It was hectic, long, and exhausting. We did not get our picture taken while entering the ship, which was disappointing. The centrum area was set up with vendors in a way that was not easy to navigate and bottle necked the flow of incoming passengers. Got to be a better way to set this up.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
The food was excellent in both the Windjammer and Edelweiss. We found breakfast to be much more relaxing at Edelweiss than trying to fight everyone at Windjammer. They offer most of the same food, there is plenty of seating and the wait for made to order was insignificant. Izumi Japanese restaurant was nice, but expensive. A less expensive option to experience their cuisine would have been to do their sushi making class. My advise, skip the specialty restaurants. Everything you want is either at Windjammer or Edelweiss. Park Cafe was a hidden gem that we gratefully enjoyed at all hours of the day.
Onboard Activities
We enjoyed being able to watch the movies at night and play shuffleboard with the kiddos.
Entertainment
Eh. We had two cruise directors, Elvis and Casey. Casey was definitely more engaging than Elvis as far as activities (and he's very funny). The stage acts were okay at best. We have seen better performances at Cedar Point to be honest and the wardrobe is laughably outdated.
Children's Programs
Again, eh. The arcade is not great at all. Very expensive, limited games and the games that are there are pretty stupid. The teen club was enjoyed most by our 12 year old. The 15 and 17 year olds thought it was "dumb". My 12 year old was not happy when an advertised event did not happen and I don't blame him. If you put an event on the calendar, then you should do it.
Service and Staff
The service received in all the restaurants was impeccable. We had Vlad and Jose and couldn't have asked for better service.
Our room attendant, Avalon was fantastic. He knew our names (and there was 8 of us) before we even left port and our rooms were always magically taken care (I swear he stalked us to see when we left our rooms).
Now for the bad news. Do not expect help from the security staff. There is a language barrier for one and two, just plain lack of understanding the urgency of some situations. We had an incident where we could not find our twelve year old. I spoke the security guard closest to where we had last seen him and rather than calling it in, he advised me to go all the way down to Guest Services, tell them who in turn would call security. That is unacceptable, period. He had a radio on him that could have been easily utilized. Time is precious when looking for a child. I chose not to waste time and continued looking in the area. I found him, but I do suggest for families with children to bring a walkie-talkie or some other type of communication device.
Ship Quality
Perfect. Every area was always being cleaned or was already clean.
Cabin / Stateroom
The cabin was larger than I expected and well laid out. There was plenty of storage for clothing, etc. The only downside for us was the soap dispenser was not working in our shower so we had to keep asking for shampoo and soap.
Ship tip
With these ports of call, I would not use an off-board excursion company. We found timing to be tight at many of the ports when we factored in the distance to activities from the ship and time to tender back to the ship.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
This was a tough one due to tendering and time at port. We did do some shopping, but it was fairly expensive and overly crowded. Next time we go, we will definitely go to Stingray City as other passengers spoke very highly of this excursion.
This was probably our favorite port as there was plenty of time. This was not a tendered port and we were able to do two excursions and shop while there. This is a great place to snorkel, but choose carefully. Definitely want to avoid large groups and over visited snorkeling areas. Word of advice, bring ones, not fives and tens and keep them separated in groups of five. Much easier to bargain when not pulling out a huge wad of cash and you will be able to bargain shop. We also found that if the shop had a computer, they were not as willing to haggle. The smaller, family owned shops were much more willing to deal.
Tendered Port. Beautiful area, but once out of town, you are in no-man's land. We chose to do an RC excursion vs. directly booking with a local company. RC uses local companies (we had Chukka) which is good. We had a driver who was great which is important. We did the cave tour which was beautiful. We did have to carry our own tubes which wasn't bad as the walk to the caves was fairly short. We were late getting out of port because of passengers getting delayed coming back from an excursion. I mention this only because the only reason we waited was because it was an excursion booked through RC. Had it been a direct book, the ship absolutely would not have waited for them and they would have had to figure out how to catch back up with the ship. Not something I want to try and figure out in a country where I do not know the language.
This was a quick day unless you want to get up at zero-dark-thirty. We did not. We chose to get up at 8, leaving us just enough time to visit the port. It is not tendered, so getting on and off the ship was easy. The port has plenty of shopping and there is a dolphin experience ($$$$) and a sting ray snorkel area ($12/adults, $10/kids). Word of advice, bring ones, not fives and tens and keep them separated in groups of five. Much easier to bargain when not pulling out a huge wad of cash and you will be able to bargain shop.
Disembarkation
We chose a later disembark time, which I probably will not do again for a couple of reasons. There is nothing to do and they start shutting down areas of the ship. My advice? Get everything ready to go night before then in the morning head up to Edelweiss for breakfast. Once your done eating breakfast, go grab your stuff from your cabin and disembark.