Rhapsody of the Seas 4/9-4/16 review part 2

Well here is part 2 with part 3 to follow...

Cruising the seas:

Unfortunately we had very rough seas at times especially on Monday. Many people were seasick including my wife. It was so bad in fact that they had seasick bags at every stairwell. My wife made it to the formal dinner and lasted about 5 minutes until she had to leave. The winds were 35-40 miles per hour for about the first day and a half and made it difficult to be on the pool deck it was actually chilly. The winds stayed with us until the ship sailed with the wind not against it. We had high winds until Wednesday. The best days of the cruise were Wednesday and Saturday when we could enjoy being on the pool deck. We only had a little rain while we were at Key West.

Ports:

Key West-This ship docks here. We took our boys to see Ripley’s Believe it or Not. They loved this exhibit. My daughter went shopping with my Wife’s aunt and had a good time. We went walking around town then headed to Mallory Square to watch the Sunset festivities-(do not miss). At sail away (around midnight) they had a deck party on board with a BBQ ,Mexican food, fruits, deserts & tropical drinks. Again it was very windy and cool on deck.

Grand Cayman-We had to tender at this port and the crew had trouble loading the tender due to rough seas. We were planning to take the pirate cruise but the water was still pretty rough-my wife took one look at the pirate ship bouncing in the waves and she turned green. We went to Seven Mile Beach instead. This beach is beautiful. The water is crystal clear and a was slightly cold which was fine since it was pretty hot. My daughter went snorkeling with my brother at the beach. A word of warning the sun is very strong in the Caymans our suntan lotion (SPF30) was no match for it and we all received a bad sunburn, This night was also our 2nd formal dinner (Lobster night)…and also the night they had the Midnight buffet. We looked at it but we were still stuffed from dinner.

Cozumel-The Rhapsody of the Seas was able to dock at International pier. This was great-only one ship at a time can dock in Cozumel. We were planning to go to Paradise Beach but everyone was not ready to go back into the sun. My boys stayed onboard and enjoyed Adventure Ocean. Everyone else went shopping in Cozumel. It was overcast while we were in port.

Adventure Ocean-Our boys loved the kids program onboard. Many activities including science projects, ball playing, scavenger hunts. They even offered a dining with the kids program on three nights. Our boys made several friends. The program for my daughter is much less structured-for the 12-14 yr olds they have activities planned but some were cancelled if not enough people showed up. She made friends the first day at the get together so they hanged out together. Because it was a smaller group they did get to do some things not normally on the schedule such as a behind the scenes look at the theater and even got to help prepare & deliver some room service. We gave my daughter a two way radio so she can let us know where she was at all times. They also had a small video game arcade onboard that was very expensive to use. Tip: If your kids like to drink soda purchase the Soda card for them-its about $32 including tip. This will be much cheaper then buying them individually ($1.75 a can).

Fellow passengers: A very nice group. I would say the mix was probably 60% Texans, 30% Mexicans and 10% from everywhere else. This time period was also a popular time to vacation from Mexico. The people were all very nice. Most of the Mexicans were from Monterey or Mexico City. Since this was spring break for many areas in the country (not Texas) there were a nice amount of kids onboard. No real behavior problems to note. With the exception of three teenagers who would run in elevators and press all the buttons and we even heard of other people complaining that these teenagers would remove their do not disturb signs and knock on cabin doors. I didn’t see this. Otherwise we saw no other real problems.

Gambling:

The casino was very nice 5 cent slots $5 blackjack-we didn’t play too much. I did hear someone won $5000 on the slots during our cruise. We did play bingo three times and didn’t win anything the Jackpot was over $7000 and was won on the last day by a couple from Mexico. Bingo can get expensive it cost us $35 a session.

more to come soon...

Gambling:

The casino was very nice 5 cent slots $5 blackjack-we didn’t play too much. I did hear someone won $5000 on the slots during our cruise. We did play bingo three times and didn’t win anything the Jackpot was over $7000 and was won on the last day by a couple from Mexico. Bingo can get expensive it cost us $35 a session.

more to come soon...

Thanks for your review, enjoyed it! Was wondering if there is an age limit on bingo? Can teens play? I thought it might be fun (once! :) ) to take my son, he's 16...

A word of warning the sun is very strong in the Caymans our suntan lotion (SPF30) was no match for it and we all received a bad sunburn, This night was also our 2nd formal dinner (Lobster night)…and also the night they had the Midnight buffet.

We have a saying about being 'red as a lobster' from sunburn. I had to smile because on Lobster night, I think you may have looked like lobsters with your sunburn.

Thanks for the reminder that we need good coverage from the sun.