Quick Rhapsody of the Seas Oct 21 Venice 7 day review

The Wife and I just came back from a very nice 7 day cruise out of venice. Just a quick review and recommendations from the trip. Day 1 Arrived in Venice at 9AM and did a quick self tour around Venice. Took the ATVO express bus for 13 euros and left our bags at a bag drop in Piazzale Roma for 7 euro. Then rode the vaporetto down the grand canal to san marco square and back. 8 euros each way. Took the people mover to the cruiseship dock for 1.50 euro. Looks like you can also walk and it didn't look that long. Embarkation from Venice was easy. Carried on our luggage with no line at about 2pm.

Day 2 Arrived in Dubrovnik at 11am. Needed the late arrival to rest from the previous red eye flight in and a sleepless night before we left courtesy of my 2 year old. Next time I'm not going to be cheap and just get a hotel the day before a cruise. Paid $12 for the bus ride there and back through the cruise line. Im sure there is cheaper ways in but i was too lazy to figure it out and paid. Walked the wall which was 15 euros and really worth the views of the city and ocean. A good way to really get good pictures and a birds eye view of the city. Walked to the cable car but it was very pricy to go up so opted out. Had lunch at a pasta place which wasent very good.

Day 3 Arrived in Kotor at 8am. Tendered in to the old town. There was a hop on hop off bus that looked interesting and took you to the other little towns around. I think it was 20 euros. We just did our own thing and walked around the old town and had lunch at this place on the water with a nice view of the mountains and town called Gallion. It was pasta and pretty good but a little pricy. Sail out of Kotor is nice with the mountains all around.

Day 4 Sea day. Up until this day it was smooth as glass the ride but got a little choppy on the sea day. Captain opted to travel on the protected sides of the islands to minimize the rough conditions.

Day 5 Arrived Santorini at 7am and paid for the Cruise lines bus transfer to Oia and back to Fira with the cable car ride down. I almost never pay for the cruise lines tours because they are ridiculously expensive but this one i did because it gave you a private tender to a dock where a bus takes you straight to Oia for 2 hours and then back to Fira. Im glad i did because when we got there early and no one was there. It was great for pictures. When we left everyone else was arriving and it was packed. Had lunch at a gyro stand off the main street that was cheap and good. Took the cable car down and it was a 1 hour wait to go down at around 2pm. Talking to some other travelers who walked down, they said it wasn't too bad and took 25 minutes. Others say its not worth walking down. I saw it from above and would just walk down next time.

Day 6 Arrived in Katakolon at 10am. I recommend if you just want to go to olympia and check out the archeological site or museum with no tour and on your own, do not pay for the cruise lines transfer option. You can walk out and there is a tour bus you can take 10 euros which will drive you there and back. It costs $44 on the ship for the same thing. You do have to wait 30 minutes for the bus to fill up. You stay for 2 hours. The archeological site and museum is 12 euros. Theres a nice downtown olympia area that has shops and food next to the site. Got back to Katakolon and had lunch at a cheap gyro grill place that looks like the crew members eat at too. It was really good and cheap, I recommend it. Its on the main street next to the port.

Day 7 Sea day

Day 8 Arrived in Venice and walked off the ship at 9am where there was no lines and no customs unlike at most of the other ports.

For the flight to venice we took air canada rouge and i don't recommend it. theres no leg room and no entertainment. They say to download the app to watch movies on your iPad but it is very slow and the movies kept stopping. The regular Air Canada flight was fine. Apparntely Its only the Air Canada Rouge that flies into venice not mainline Air Canada. If you have any other ship questions let me know.

Nice info on how to go around the ports on your own and still enjoy the sites!

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Thanks for sharing your experience, and the tip for Santorini.

Thanks so much for the info. We just booked this trip for next October. How cool or warm was your weather?

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mostly cool 55-60 most of the trip except Dubrovnik, Santorini and katakolon were in the 70’s.

Thanks for the info on the ports of Katakolon and Kotor. Good to know you can access the town easily on your own. We loved the Rhapsody of the Seas, so quaint, easy to navigate, the Atrium is the centre of activity, such a lovely atmosphere. No ten mile walks to get anywhere like on the Allure. Also, the bus from the airport to Piazza Roma is so easy to use and cheap. We like to spend at least a couple of nights in Venice pre-cruise. Helps with jet lag. If you are there again, Hilton Garden Inn Venice Mestre San Giuliano is not far from the Airport. Actually the airport bus will pass right by the hotel (there are two buses one that stops and one that does not (you were on the express); or you could use the shuttle that the Hilton provides. The city bus stops right in front of the hotel and we usually buy a two day pass which gives us unlimited bus and water bus rides which you can take all over Venice and its canals and also to Lido, Murano and Burano Islands. Fabulous. Yeah, I am with you with Air Rouge. A terrible aircraft which flies to Venice. We are considering Rhapsody again for next July or August as it sails again out of Venice for 6 and 7 days, however, we will add Paris on first so that we can escape from Rouge. Truly Luthansa is no better = them with the summer strikes, but anything is better than Rouge on a 7 hour flight. To Florida, Ok, we can squish on in but Europe no way. We did Santorini on our own. Got off at 7:15 am, took the city bus to Oia and spend two hours there before the cruise tours arrived. The cost $2.50 each on way. 20 minutes total to get there after taking the funicular up. Don't take the donkeys down ever. Tried that years ago with my kids (teens) and it was sloppy and stinky.

Sounds like you had a great cruise. Thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts.....:):):)

Bob

Is it too chilly this time of year? We are booked for 10/27/18

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Thanks for the review. We have an 8 day out of Venice booked on rhapsody for June next year with 3 days in Venice pre cruise. We have to fly from Dublin into Treviso airport so it is a bus into piazzale Roma then a water taxi to the hotel.

We have never been on a ship as small as rhapsody before - how did you find the food , entertainment etc?

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The weather was mostly cool. But in Dubrovnik it was warm enough to go into the water. Saw someone swimming in the ocean. The ship is medium sized. It didn’t feel small by any means. Although I have never been on a mega size ship before, I feel like the ship size is big enough. It did feel like the Buffett was always crowded most of the time during all hours. Maybe the seating setup is not as good. The main theatre has a lot less seats than other similar sized ships, but the seats are bigger and more loungy. Gym seemed smaller than normal, but this ship is older so maybe back when this ship was built, gyms were not as popular as today. Entertainment was your standard fare. None of the broadway style shows like the big ships have. All the perfect couple, newlyweds not soo newlyweds, dance/sing to a song game shows etc. Personely I feel I like Norwegians shows better. It’s a personal thing but I actually like the crude/silly game shows and crude late night comedy. There was no magic or comedy show. I prefer the more late night white out party’s Norwegian has. RCL seemed more toned down and reserved. Not as many people wanting to participate in the shows like on Norwegian. A lot of times they had to randomly pull people from the audience. The dance parties were not as well attended as on Norwegian. They did have a cool flags of the world show representing all the nations of the crew members. A lot of crew recognition singing and dancing in the main dining room to recognize all the hard working crew members. I appreciate them being recognized because no body works as hard and gives you such great service than cruiseline crew members. All in all though, I was still entertained the whole cruise and was happy with it. Food was good. Actually thought it was slightly better than Norwegian but not as good as Holland America. Coffee was horrible almost undrinkable. But main dinning room was pretty good for cruise standards.

We are used to the size of the ship because we live in Baltimore and have cruised her sister ship, the Grandeur. Going on her again in a few weeks

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