Rhapsody of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Great Destination or stops. The staffs (windjammer & fine dining) are great. The food is okay. The room is great. The tender process is not well organize. The shows are boring

This was my first time on a cruise and I was so happy that I chose Royal Caribbean! The Rhapsody of the Seas is a small ship in comparison to some others but it offered just as much if it more! The facilities were immaculate and the staff was a always attentive and ready to help make your experience an enjoyable one. If I ever decide to take as another cruise, I will choose Royal Caribbean.

Although the ship was much smaller than the Royal Caribbean cruises we had been on earlier, we eventually adapted.  Our stateroom was wonderful.  There were two adults and three kids in one suite, and I was worried that we would be on top of one another, but we actually had plenty of space and privacy for everyone. 

The pools were too small for the number of people on board, and there were no separate areas for kids.  Our last ship had water slides for the kids.  It was hard to find a place to land. 

Our dining service was excellent. 

Overall cruise is comfortable, food is ok for a cruise. Activity wise, is Royal Caribbean, so expect low key, middle age activities. Not for young or teens. Shore excursions were good and guides are knowledgable. Only exception is Rome/Vatican where there is not a planned visit to St Peter's Basilica, even though description says it was. It was never even planned. Disappointed. Be careful if you planned and or booked through agency, I was told gratuities were charged in original payment and Royal Caribbean charged me again!! 

Rhapsody of the Seas by Royal Caribbean was our fist cruise and the bar has been set very high! Every expectation was met or exceeded whilst onboard. Our experience would not have been as pleasant without all the hard working crew members, especially Belando, Leo, and Kadek. These three men worked tirelessly to see that we had a great voyage. They were personable, professional, and always one step ahead of our every "need." My wife and I are interested in making a Royal Caribbean cruise an annual outing now. So, in short, we can't wait for the next cruise!

My wife and I celebrated our 15th anniversary aboard the Rhapsody of the Seas and had an incredible time.

The good:

- The staff is absolutely amazing.  Fabio in guest services, Karen in the Shore Excursions team, and even Bennett our stateroom attendant, were all excellent and went way above and beyond to answer any question and fulfill any request we had.

- The shore excursions were awesome.  A bit pricey but you'll get that on any cruise you go on, but there was a wide variety of unique opportunities (like kayaking around Santorini) to choose from to fit every taste and physical ability.  Would recommend booking early like we did however, as many of the ones we went on were sold out before the cruise even started.

- The specialty restaurants (Giovanni's, Chops Grille and Izumi) were spectacular with amazing food and waitstaff to match.

- Though older, the ship was very well maintained and extremely clean.

- The headliner shows offered on board were awesome and catered to many different age groups.

The bad:

- It is one of the smaller ships in the RC fleet so don't anticipate many of the amenities that other, newer ships have to offer.  That said, there are only two pools, each of which are not very big.  One of them was adult-only, but inside in a solarium.  If you wanted to be outside, there is only one pool area and on days at sea you better reserve your deck chair well before 9am or you'll be waiting a looong time for one to open up.

- The RC singers for their evening shows were awful.  Most of their "lead" vocalists were often off-tune or very pitchy such that we only attended the first of three shows featuring the RC singers and dancers.  Many audience members left during the first performance of the cruise.

In summary, though Rhapsody isn't the newest ship in the fleet, it was a teriffic host for an amazing cruise.  The destinations combined with the incredible staff of this ship made for an unforgettable experience!

JH

The ports of call that we docked at were great. Only 2 ports we had to be tendered at meaning you have to wait for hours to get off the ship. As soon as you board they are trying to get even more money from you. It becomes quite tiresome. After our cruise we saw that they had charged us twice for everything. I will not take a cruise with them again.

We chose this cruise for the ports and good prior experience with Royal Caribbean.  While the ports were excellent, this is a smaller ship and a bit boring.  While I do not rock climb and would never "ride the waves" on their newer ships, I found there was little entertainment except that of the evening show and even that was poorly timed at 7 & 9 pm.  Many passengers obviously enjoyed themselves but I believe it was partially due to the 3-2-1 package of free beverages that they chose.  Being boringly sober, I memorized the same episode of Castle I fell asleep to nightly (I tried watching The Mentalist, only shown in German, but hadn't seen it frequently enough to remember the plot). 

The balcony cabin was a decent size but the balcony unusually small.  Two small sitting upright chairs and a small table was all that would fit.  Royal Caribbean seems to have given up any pretense of luxury such as small lotion, shampoo, or conditioner bottles.  One soap dispenser was in the shower and even that became empty - our cabin attendant forgot to refill it.  The beds were hard and it took 3 days to get the egg crate we requested when first meeting the cabin attendant (yes, we tipped him generously).

There are movies shown on the deck but no blankets, hot chocolate, or other amenities were provided like Princess does.  In short, what made the vacation was the fact that in an 11 night cruise, we were only at sea 2 days.  No port lecturers, other than shopping, were given and there were few interesting daytime activities.  Pricing on computer services were the most outrageous I've seen.

Like many cruise lines, Royal Caribbean seems to be pushing "My Time" dining.  I booked early in January and could not get late seating.  The food was basic and the service decent.  The daily newsletter had little sense of reality in that it had the dining places and times listed incorrectly on port days, said that a port (shopping) lecture on Mykonos and Crete (in the title) would talk about Rhodes and Santorini, and told us we would depart the ship on June 20.  Our cruise ended on July 2.

Overall, this was a decent cruise.  The agenda was the best thing about it, good time on the stops and enough to do a good job in the respective ports / cities.  Food was not good overall.  Service of food attendants was good; but like the rest of the cruise were constantly trying to sell you upgraded food, drinks, etc.

The best way to see this area is by boat, specifically a cruise line. Very unique and wonderful area but difficult to navigate without a localized means of travel. The boat, the food, and the people are all very good. Every port of call is new and different and there are many.

This was a wonderful cruise with a great itinerary. The RCI cruise staff put much effort into making sure that all of your needs are met. The wait staff and room attendant were very attentive. The quality and value of the cruise-offered tours I took exceeded my expectations. The entertainment was adequate for the size of this ship. I was impressed by the music talent in the lounge areas, but wish there was more variety in the movie selections in the afternoons and evenings. The specialty restaurants and main restaurant were very good. I didn't get around to trying the spa or seeing any of the main shows. It was great that RCI offered shipwide unlimited wifi access at a package price for the entire trip. However, it was entirely too expensive for merely checking email and light surfing. The speed was also quite slow, so I doubt any one person was going to eat up the bandwidth by watching movie online.  Overall, it was an excellent trip. I am ready to go again!

Please note that I took the 11 Night Aegean Sea Exploration (Istanbul Roundtrip) cruise: Istanbul, Turkey; At Sea; Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey; Bodrum, Turkey; Rhodes, Greece; Santorini (Thira), Greece; Piraeus (Athens), Greece; Mykonos, Greece; Souda (Chania), Crete; At Sea; Istanbul, Turkey.  I did NOT take the Black Sea cruise.

The ports visited were fantastic.  The ship was beautiful, but we were disappointed with the main courses at lunch in the WIndjammer buffet and dinner in the main dining room.

We got a family Ocean view room which provided extra room and closet space which was a great plus.

Royal Caribbean did a great job of boading the ship and handing the entry and return at all of the ports visited which included two ports in Turkey after leaving from Istanbul and four islands in Greece -- Santirini (our favorite for natural beauty), Rhodes, Mykinos, and Creete as well as Athens.

Our agent at United.Com did not get us some of the perks that other crusiers in similar Ocean View cabins were offered such as Buy One Get One Free on Beverage Package and Internet Usage.

All of the excursion tour guides were excellent.  We booked a number of excursions through United.Com that used ShoreExcursionGroup to link with local companies.  As promised, most of these tours had smaller groups (about 12 average) which provided an improved experience (and lower price) than the excursions booked through Royal Caribbean.  Our best two guides were TheoDora in Athens and Selcuk Ersan in Istanbul.

Excellent cruise overall.  The destinations are fantastic.  India is a little tough to get into with all the paperwork, and you thought it was complete once you got your Visa...so wrong.  However even with the additional bureaucracy India is worth the visit, just be patient you will get ashore.  

When you get to Dubai, take your own tour At the Top, it will cost you more then the ships excursions but you will be glad you paid the extra money http://www.burjkhalifa.ae/en/observationdeck/ticketinformation.aspx  "At the Top, Burj Khalifa SKY Ticket"

This is my third time visiting Australia, only this one aboard the Rhapsody of the Seas to Cairns.  I'm now back home to the US but memories in Cairns, Brisbane, Gold Coast tour will probably never be forgotten.

It's sad to know the Rhapsody will depart for good Australian Water.  We have a lot of fun on this ship in Deck 4&5 Centrum, Deck 6 Shopping Center and Deck 9 Park Café and Forward All You Can Eat Restaurant.  I should mention here my time working out in the Fitness Center back Aft including wonderful experience in the sauna room.  Food in the Dining Room is OK but thanks to the great services of two waiters (names I already forget) at table #232 our group of 11 persons (Vietnamese Navy Veterans & spouses) had a wonderful time aboard ship after our reunion in Sydney.

We look forward to be on the future Royal Caribbean cruise! 

We were quite disappointed in the overall experience aboard the Rhapsody. Unfortunately for Royal Caribbean we had just come off of a Holland American cruise that offered excellence across the board from service to food quality and selection to entertainment and activities available.

    On the Rhapsody the food quality was below average with a poor variety of selections. The circular layout of the buffet area was extremely poor with no directionality to the traffic flow resulting in chaos in trying to view and select food and proceed in any sort of orderly fashion through the area. The selections in the main dining room were very limited unless seafood was your objective, however this was the one area where the service was acceptable. The staff of the casino was almost non existent with hours passing without seeing someone serving drinks. The quality of the entertainment varied widely from very poor on two occasions to average on most evenings with only one or two evenings providing good entertainment. Late night food service was almost non existent with only one very small location open offering one selection only on the three evenings we visited.

    The one positive I will offer was the actions and adjustments made by the Captain in negotiating our path through hurricane Marsha. His decisions and actions kept the ship in the least vulnerable position and best sea conditions possible under difficult weather conditions.

    Having 15 cruises under our belt with Carnival, Norwegian and now Holland America, It would be unlikely that we would select another Royal Caribbean cruise if other options were available.

My family and I had a great time in Alaska.  A must see in your lifetime.  Rhapsody of the Seas was a great ship to do it on.  The size was perfect.  Our staterooms were always clean.  The stateroom attendant was courteous and very willing to please.  The waiter and assistant waiter were great.  If I had to say anything it would be a personal suggestion. I wish that some of the dishes had a bit less sauce on them because I can't digest heavy sauces so lunch was a bit difficult for me.  Otherwise I will most definitely  take another cruises by Royal Caribbean.  This was our third time using Royal Caribbean.

General liked the cruise.  Room was smaller than some other ships.  Didn't like the upper  bunk.  Other ship's 3rd bed is a couch that opens, Some food was delicious and other's so-so.

I was traveling with family group of 8  from age 17 to 85. Everyone had a great time plenty to do for everyone. This was our 5th trip on Royal. Ship was a good size for the ports and the glacier. The food was ok but not many choices of restaurants (there are the 3 restaurants for extra $'s).  We have had better food on other ships. Rooms that sleep 3 or 4 are pull down berths, we had 3 sharing a room that were over the age of 70 so that was a little changeling. The room attendants were wonderful. The dinning room waiter was ok the assistant was wonderful and took good care of us even when working in the Windjammer. The Cruise director staff did a great.

The Alaska cruise aboard the Rhapsody of the Seas was a wonderful Alaska experience.  The Glacier we saw was Dawes Glacier on Endicott Arm due to water levels.  The Captain managed to turn the ship 360 degrees in a channel that was very tight (so tight that my husband didn't believe me when I told him the Captain said that he would rotate the ship) so that we could get lovely views of the glacier from all over the ship. The Captain was very friendly and present, and alerted us to whales whenever there was a good sighting. We were very lucky with the weather, very little rain, only the morning in Skagway, and lovely summer temps and sun.  Victoria is a wonderful city, very colorful and welcoming with flowers everywhere.  We only walked around the city, and were very pleased with the visit.  It was a lovely cruise.

This cruise provides wonderful opportunities to visit and experience the beautiful scenery of Alaska and Victoria. It has great food and entertainment while on this ship.