Greece and Israel trip

Item: Rhapsody of the Seas
Rating: 3.6
Author: sdstill

Rhapsody of the Seas Cruise Review

sdstill

Contributor Level: Purser

48 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 3

Overall rating:

3.6 out of 5

8 Night Greek Isles (Haifa Roundtrip)

Sail date: September 01, 2022

Ship: Rhapsody of the Seas

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 7524

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 2 years ago

Review summary

Cruise was fine, staff were very good. Haifa was awful.

Embarkation

1 out of 5

Mass chaos at Haifa. No signs, no directions, no communication and very rude people. Staff seemed to try but we’re overwhelmed by the crush of people at luggage drop off. Multiple long lines at different required stops prior to boarding. The boarding process was a mess and severely understaffed.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Food quality has really declined. Average buffet food in main dining room and edible in the Windjammer. Made reservations for my time dining in the main dining room prior to embarking and it worked very well

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Staff in main dining room and cabin steward were fantastic.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Ports of call

Santorini, Greece

2 out of 5

Extremely crowded. 1 1/2 hour wait for the cable car up and 2 hour wait to go back down. We walked the donkey trail down. Not a bad walk of 30 minutes. Problems with the weather led to cancelling tender operations for a couple of hours. Royal Caribbean handled the situation about as poorly as you could. No information, no crowd control, basically abandoned everyone in line in the heat to guess what was going on. Royal Caribbean should be ashamed of how poorly it was handled.

Thumbs Up 0

Haifa, Israel

1 out of 5

Took the train from Tel Aviv to the port and the train station was right at the port. Only embarked and disembarked here which was understaffed chaos.

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Ashdod, Israel

3 out of 5

Piraeus (Athens), Greece

5 out of 5

Rhodes, Greece

5 out of 5

Limassol, Cyprus

3 out of 5

Disembarkation

1 out of 5

The same chaos at embarkation carried on when we left the ship. Long lines and not enough staff.

4 Comments

sdstill 2 years ago

The price for the train was really inexpensive, $16.31 for two people from the university station to the station at the port in Haifa. I believe there is a train from the airport to Haifa, where you don’t have to change trains. We bought our tickets at the station with no problems. The Israeli Railway website has good information and is easy to use. Keep in mind the train does not run during the Jewish Sabbath. I highly recommend the train.

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Trollskogen 2 years ago

What’s the price for train Tel Aviv - Haifa? Can we buy tickets at the airport?

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AuntPinkie 2 years ago

Great itinerary! Sorry it wasn’t all you hoped!

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javawoody 2 years ago

Thanks for the review

Thumbs Up 1

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