A long review of our first RC cruise on "Rhapsody" last week

My wife and I returned last week from our first Royal Caribbean cruise which was on “Rhapsody of the Seas” – a 7 night round trip from Venice calling at Kotor,Corfu, Athens, Mykonos and Argostoli.

I am pleased to report that we had an outstanding cruise (we have done many cruises on other lines) and thoroughly enjoyed (nearly all of) the Royal Caribbean experience. Most aspects of the cruise were top notch including thefood, service and ship itself.

Before I comment in detail, just to add that we stayed in Lake Garda for three days before the cruise along with about 40 others who were on the same TA package organised in the United Kingdom – we met a lovely couple on the first day of the holiday and ended up eating with them every night at the Lake Garda hotel and then onboard the ship.

EMBARKATION– extremely smooth and quick being onboard within an hour of us arriving at Venice Santa Lucia train station on our transfer from Lake Garda! All very efficient and we walked straight onto the ship once through security.

SHIP– we loved “Rhapsody” which was a perfect size ship for us and pleasantly “old fashioned” which is meant as a compliment. Being of a certain age we are not keen on the larger Royal ships with dodgem cars/ice skating rinks etc and the increased number of passengers, although we appreciate they are great for families etc.

Although20 years old the ship is in immaculate condition everywhere and its stunning 7deck Centrum is more to our taste than the Boardwalk on the larger ships (whichI have been over on day visits).

The theatre is very comfortable with excellent sight lines and the second entertainment lounge at the aft of the ship is a traditional room which we liked very much.

There are plenty of bars although we exclusively used the Schooner Bar, which we found quite delightful, so we stayed put there! I was not too keen on the Viking Crown Lounge at the top of the ship which was quite small with, for us,very uncomfortable looking chairs – I am sure many people enjoyed it but for us the Schooner Bar ticked all the boxes, particularly with its nautical theme.

Weare not keen on the pool area on any ship (see later re: noise) but as they goit was an attractive area. Throughout the open decks there are numerous areaswith sunbeds and we never had a problem getting one when we wished.

CABIN– we were in a Junior Suite on deck 8 which was very well appointed with allthe usual facilities plus a two seater sofa and two armchairs. It had a very nice balcony where we spent a lot of time. The bathroom was fine with an effective shower over a bath tub and throughout the cabin there was a large amountof storage space. As reported in other reviews there was a small amount of noise overhead from the Park Café area but we chose the cabin to be away fromthe main activities on the deck above so it really was nothing to worry about –and the limited nose we heard was only when on the balcony. The cabin itself was extremely quiet at all times of day.

AsI said, the cabin was excellent but I feel describing it as a “Deluxe Balcony”would be more appropriate than “Junior Suite” as in truth it is a large balcony cabin and there are no benefits which are akin to suites. I appreciate this is really just a play on words though.

Wewere extremely well looked after by Georgiana who seemed to anticipate our every wish and when we would be out of the cabin for cleaning purposes. An excellent Room Attendant and lovely person.

MAIN DINING ROOM – we were on My Time Dining and had booked our times in advance for each evening. The friends we made in Lake Garda were also on My Time dining but with no times booked – the most helpful Elena in charge of table allocation kindly linked the bookings and we were able to dine together every evening at our required time.

And the help she gave went beyond that as, after the excellent service on the first night, we asked if it would be possible to sit with the same servers everynight and she duly obliged. So we had the benefits of the same servers knowing our preferences (and having our drinks waiting for us!) on arrival in the dining room.

A special mention to our marvellous waiter Vladimir, surely a Maître D’ in the making with his sheer presence and skills, plus his Assistant Frank who was equally helpful.

And now the food………….this was a major surprise in all honesty as it was outstandingly good in all respects. The surprise element was that in having been on several cruises with other major lines in recent years the portion sizes on most ships have diminished, as has the choice of dishes. None of this was evident here with around a dozen starters and the same number of main courses and desserts.

The food itself was of excellent quality and being someone who likes their food really hot (in temperature, not spiciness) I was delighted to see that it met my wishes. We were prepared to try one of the speciality restaurants but did not do so in view of the quality in the main dining room – and the service.

It is true to say that the tables are fairly cramped in the main dining room but ours was in a good position at the edge of the overhang looking down to the lower floor of the restaurant and we were well away from the waiter’s service station.

WINDJAMMERBUFFET – we were extremely impressed at the buffet area and ate every breakfast and lunch there. We were always able to get a table, albeit often sharing, which was fine, and the food selection was outstandingly good. It was also well laid out and as easy as it can be with a buffet to find everything.

There were a couple of matters which helped considerably – cold soft drinks were laid out at serving stations to be picked up and this was a big time saving rather than waiting for people to pour the drinks themselves. The other thing was that at breakfast, toast was being continually prepared and was available for collection rather than doing it yourself.

There were numerous waiters hovering around always offering to get more tea, coffee or soft drinks for you and the offer of top ups served at your table helped reduce the number of people walking around.

There were also announcements made when the buffet was full politely asking guests to leave when they had finished their meals to allow others to take their tables – this worked well as we have often seen people remain in the buffet for a long while after finishing the meal on other ships therefore blocking tables.

ENTERTAINMENT– we saw a couple of the production shows which were of good quality, although being fans of “live” musical theatre were not keen on the use of pre-recorded music for the shows. The live band in the other entertainment venue were very good. We did not attend all of the entertainment on board but it seemed to be extremely well received including the many activities in the Centrum.

The timing of some of the shows was very poor – for example on embarkation day there was only one performance of the “Welcome Aboard” show at 1945 when at least half the ship were dining.

PORTS– we chose this itinerary as we had been to most of the ports before and just wanted relaxing ambles around the towns rather than going on any shore excursions. Kotor is a lovely town and we were also delighted to go back to Mykonos for the first time in nearly 30 years. There was a lack of information and help given to people like us who only wanted to stroll around, particularly at Piraeus where we were continually given wrong information onboard about bus service sinto town. We have been to the Acropolis twice and just wanted to go to the town of Piraeus, eventually finding a taxi which took us to a delightful harbour area.

WI-FI– I had pre-purchased the drinks package (for me only) and Voom. The internet worked very well including on the balcony of our cabin with just the very occasional break in service. Very pleased with it.

DRINKS PACKAGE – also worked well and I had no difficulty in getting bottles of bee rleft unopened for me to have in the cabin later. Although I never asked for two alcoholic, or indeed soft drinks, at the same time knowing that is not possible (for reasons of sharing) I was always allowed to have a bottle of water to take back to the cabin if requested, in addition to an alcoholic drink.

GRIPES – the only criticism we had of the whole cruise was the incessant noise everywhere – it was very difficult to find anywhere to sit and have a quiet chat due to the level of background noise everywhere. It may be this is the same on all Royal ships but at times it became quite annoying. The worst example was one afternoon (when in Piraeus and the ship was nearly empty) and we decided to get a sunbed around the pool area. There were only a dozen or so people in the area and, understandably no activities going on, but the music blared out at ridiculously high levels. Several passengers including ourselves made repeated requests for it to be turned down to no avail. I was left with the impression that the music everywhere is largely for the benefit of the crew as every passenger we spoke to did not like it (other, of course, than when it was an integral part of a poolside activity).

SUMMARY– an excellent cruise (great weather), loved the ship, food, service, ports and would happily repeat it. We may well go on another Royal cruise on either Rhapsody or one of the other Vision class ships as we found the size and number of passengers just right.

Thank You for the lovely and informative review. I very much enjoy reading others impressions of r.c. ships. I do agree with you about the noise level. It does seem to be loud all of the time on every ship i have been on. I do love loud music but, every once in a while i would like to be able to hold a conversation without having to say "what?"

Thanks for the thorough review. We are booked on a Caribbean cruise on Rhapsody this spring. Our first Vision class.

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Thanks for the review. We've been on most of the Vision class ships but not Rhapsody. But, we'll be on her in April. Quiet spots can be hard to find. I do like the promenade on Vision class ships as it goes all the way around and it is a nice quiet spot to sit and read.

The Rhapsody is for sale and will soon follow the path of the Legend and the Splendour.

Thanks for the review. We've been on most of the Vision class ships but not Rhapsody. But, we'll be on her in April. Quiet spots can be hard to find. I do like the promenade on Vision class ships as it goes all the way around and it is a nice quiet spot to sit and read.

 

The Rhapsody is for sale and will soon follow the path of the Legend and the Splendour.

Why do you say that she is for sale? That are just rumours based on advertisements by brokers for many older ships that are not initiated by the owners.

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Thanks for sharing your experience.

We had a similar experience with the loud music around the pool and the same unsuccessful request to turn it down a bit.