Rhapsody of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

What a fantastic ship we enjoyed the art on show.The staff were so helpful, the ship was the smallest we have been on but nevertheless still a fantastic cruise, the best food we have ever had.

Although we had a nice time would not recommend this cruise as this is the worst cruise I have been on. My friend was looking forward to visiting Corfu.

Whilst we understood that the original itinerary was impossible, there was no reasonable explanation as to why the Greek Isles cruise that we had originally booked had now become a Greek Isle cruise! I understand that Royal Caribbean reserve the right to alter itineraries as it had to do during the recent hurricane season in America; the fact that this itinerary was almost completely and inexplicably changed, the only problem being fog on day 1 and the early part of day 2, in terms of customer satisfaction and customer retention was a bad call and appears to be something that Royal Caribbean has failed to address satisfactorily.

Just back off this lovely ship, I can honestly say this cruise was amazing. From the ports of call to the brilliant crew on board. Everyone was so happy and friendly, it made us smile soon as we boarded. The food was great, cabin kept spotlessly clean, thanks Arya our cabin steward. But a big shout out to waiting staff in the restaurant Churnadev and Marko for plying us with lots of food and wine. Also to the fabulous bar tenders in the Schooner Bar, Nitin, Mahon, Joe and Mary. Thank you for being so polite and friendly, nothing was too much trouble for these guys. Would we sail on the Rhapsody of the Seas again?? 100% yes. Keep up the good work!!

Food and service is great. Small ship, no fancy entertainment like other new ships. I won $400 credits from casino, so make sure you go play your free $5 in casino and you will be automatically enter into the raffle.

Cruise spoilt by dirty noisey room and by lack of any planning when they knew the ship was going to be delayed by fog. Good points was the food, entertainment, friendly staff, and Santorini

This was our first experience of a smaller ship, all our previous cruises were on Voyager class, and we loved the Rhapsody. There was a cosier community feel to it, having a lot of entertainment in the Centrum was much better than scattered around various bars. Our ocean view cabin was a good size, very clean and comfortable. The reason why I have not given five stars was breakfast in the main dining room on our first morning. Service was poor and the standard of food was not good, the cooked food on the buffet was disgraceful, overcooked and looking as if it had been there too long. We were disappointed as we had always enjoyed our mdr breakfast. From then on we had breakfast in the Windjammer, lots of selection and all very fresh. Dinner was excellent every night. We saw three of the shows, Piano Man, Pure Country and Ballroom Fever, all very good. No evidence of the ship being tired, they were constantly cleaning on the outside when we were in port. When we were at sea, there was always room wherever you went, both out on deck and in the Windjammer for lunch. Dinner was excellent every night.

Izumi Asian cuisine restaurant on the Rhapsody was deliscious! Loved it so much ate there 2x's. The food and the service were excellent! Very relaxing atmosphere.

The Rhapsody of the Seas is an old boat. The crew works hard and long hours. it's not a ship to sail on if you are looking for new and exciting, its more sedate. You will pay for almost everything you do on ship. Look at your bill constantly as you will pay gratuity on everything, not that the people serving don't deserve it, but how about letting me decide. There isn't much to do on this ship other than drink cook in the sun and spend money, so if thats your thing and you don't have high expectations, this is a boat for you.

Service staff were fabulous. Ship is a smaller older ship and a week was long enough on this class for us. Chops Grill was really enjoyable and staff were again friendly and warm. The Ship is older and some running repairs were happening during the week. Ship was clean, and adequate, bed was hard and not the best.

This was my first cruise, and despite the initial apprehension, it was more than I could've asked for. The staff are so genuine and kind, the food is incredible, and the boat had a "Bioshock-esque" vintage feel to it. The big tv outside had a bunch of dead pixels, and some elevator buttons were stuck. Two very minor complains on an otherwise amazing trip.

Well what can I say apart from what a fantastic holiday. RC Rhapsody was everything I could have expected and more. We had 2 days in Venice before boarding which was also a great experience. Boarding Rhapsody was painless and quick. Our rooms were ready early and our luggage was also delivered quickly. We dined in MDR and Windjammer, both very good. We also dined in Izumi which was well worth the extra money. We did get an offer one morning from the Windjammer of 25% off which was appreciated. We had purchased 3 deluxe drink packages and 2 soda packages which the only additional cost we encountered on any drinks was when we had some glasses of prossecco in the MDR one evening otherwise we enjoyed cocktails, spirits, lager and wine all included. The only gripe I do have is that the soda package does not include bottled water!! Staff were very attentive around the ships where drinks were concerned, again a gripe would be that plates were on occasion not cleared away quickly enough in Windjammer, but this was not a major problem. Our cabin attendant Nazareth was very obliging and rooms/beds always made. The entertainment was good but a slight let down to me on occasion. The cast were very good dancers and singers, I was disappointed that there were no acrobats in the cast, I did miss this. The brought in entertainment was not the best apart from our farewell night which was an Italian that made images with his hands through sillouet, amazing. We were sad that we could not tender into Mykonos, this was one we were really looking forward to seeing which was a major disappointment, but nothing could be done. Sea day it was then, however this is the only downside. There is just not enough to do on sea days with teenage children. We enjoyed all the stops and made the most of our time on land. We had a late flight back and so paid the extra to stay on board, we did not do much apart from relax but it was nice to do. We then left and got the water bus back to the airport which gave us a leisurly ride past Venice once again. On a whole, we would cruise Rhapsody again but it is looking a bit dated and does need a little bit of tlc. Looking forward to booking another cruise........

Many current reviews report that Rhapsody of the Seas is now a “very tired’ ship. In truth one would expect an element of this given the age of this ship. However, this 20 year old ship is generally well maintained and it is not the ‘tiredness” of the ship that disappointed us on this cruise but rather more the lack of service and drop in standards throughout. My wife & I have cruised with RCI previously - we have witnessed first hand a drop in service and overall standards - this due to obvious cost cutting and not enough staff. Also we experienecd 4 itinerary changes - Santorini, Jusadasi and Mykonos (x2) were dropped from our 14 nightc ruise. We do not think we will consider RCI again for a future cruise after this experience. P&O and NCL both of whom we have cruised with previosuly are a class ahead. We may try Celebrity (same company as RCI) as we have heard they are a step above the RCI fleet. Sorry RCI but you let us down this time.

We had a blast! You make your own experience. We met so many wonderful people- staff and guests. A great time! Staying in a suite was the icing on the cake. Get the drink package, well worth it even if you are not a big drinker, includes water, premium coffees and other perks. also, we got the picture package.

Cruised from Venice on this lovely ship. For anyone who is not keen on the really large ships this is an ideal choice. Staff are really attentive and friendly. I have also cruised in her sister ship, Vision of the Seas, and thoroughly enjoyed that ship as well

Loved this cruise especially Dubrovnik and Montenegro. They were the big surprise of the trip. Disappointed with Santorini which was too touristy and prices exaggerating. Cable car wait too long

From start to finish this was a fantastic cruise. We are counting down until our next!

Twas OK but...

Am not a first-time cruiser though this was my first time on an RC ship. 7 nights from Venice to Dubrovnik, Kotor, Santorini & Katakolon.

Positive aspects -

1. Enjoyable theatre entertainment that should appeal to most - the ships own singers/dancers were well-drilled and perfectly acceptable in their 3 appearances, a couple of gymnastic/comedy shows were pretty good and a Beatles tribute act were very good. The only show that didn't appeal was by some dizzy blonde pianist/singer who spent more time telling us all how wonderful she was than actually proving it - was so unimpressed that I cannot recall her name and cannot be bothered to look it up - she kept calling herself  "A Donny Lass" - while I assume this means she hails from South Yorkshire you can bet none of the non-UK patrons had a clue what she was on about - she was full of it unfortunately...

2. Great destinations - but only if you make your own way around - the shore excursion prices were horrendous. I accept that RC has to make a profit but, as an example,  $80 each for a Santorini Volcano/Cable Car trip that you could arrange yourself for $30 was by no means untypical - rip off... 

3. Solarium Pool - fabulous covered pool and nicely laid-out surrounds.

OK aspects -

1. Food - Windjammer Café had plenty of choice, but everything tasted quite samey and in one or two cases (e.g. undercooked gristly beef) was of poor quality. Desserts were reasonable albeit somewhat repetitive - crumble and custard for Days 1-3 was quite odd, followed on later days by bread & butter pudding and custard and the next day just bread pudding and custard. 

Negatives -

1. Haranguing! - as soon as you set foot on the ship you have to run a gauntlet of hawkers. This set the tone for much of the cruise - pay extra and you can have this that and the other, or don't pay extra and you can have just the ordinary. Sort of a Marks & Spencer situation versus Asda Basics range. No cruise is cheap so the starting point ought to be a better one than RC seem to provide - but no problem whatsoever if you bow to their hassling holding out of their hands out for more of your money - rip-off again...

2. Outrageous Queues! - I was staggered by the amount of time it took to get onboard and the constant lugging around of your own luggage. At the Airport you are shepherded on to a coach for the Port but then abandoned without direction. Get in the scrum to haul your own cases out of the underside of the coach and find your way to the badly-signed queue that you think is check-in, but in reality is only the queue to hand over your case. Then more trekking to another area where you espy a humongous queue to the actual check in. Must have stood in line for nearly an hour for a 2-minute process and was then packed off to yet another line for hand baggage examination before finally being allowed on the gangway. Airport to ship was around 2 hours, scuppering any chance of seeing Venice itself. But, guess what, if you were a "Crown and Anchor" (i.e. you've paid extra), you could skip through to another line where you wait barely a couple of minutes - rip-off yet again...

Overall then I say let the buyer beware. If you are a cruise-virgin then you may not be too disappointed because you have no comparison to make, but for me and the wife there will be no more RC cruising. They are not the least-expensive cruises, so why do we feel that we were given poor value-for-money versus other cruises we have taken...

Bottom line - be prepared to be ripped-off...

It definitely wasn't as good on Rhapsody of the seas as it was on Vision of the seas just a few months before. The quality of the overall cruise experience this time - food, entertainment etc appeared cheap and mediocre, which wasn't the case on Vision of the seas. We chose Royal Caribbean as they promise more superior cruise experience, but judging by this cruise, we may as well have been on MSC or Costa as far as the quality goes (and we would have saved a lot of money too).

The crew was very accommodating, Cabin was clean and Food was decent. The only downside was our Royal Carribean tour of Athens. Spent more time traveling to Athens than seeing it. It should have been 5 hours instead of 4. 

Do not buy the drink package service for drinks was in slow motion so you never get your money's worth plus you really have to be a big drinker to get your money's worth.