Sept 15-25 Rhapsody Greek Isle Cruise

[alfaeric]

Normally, I do a one part review- but I wanted to get this started with one part about the ship and one part about the itinerary. And the latter will require some more info that I have stored somewhere else.

 

So we just got back from Rome yesterday on our 10 night Greek Isle cruise on the Rhapsody, with stops in Chania, Crete; Mykonos; Ephesus, Turkey; Athens; Olympia (the close highlight); and Naples.

 

Great trip- in our top 3 of all trips. Interestingly enough, one of our other favorites happened to be on this ship, too- Alaska last summer.

 

This part will review the ship.

 

Starting with our cabin- one of the very desired wrap around balcony aft cabins- 8596. It's not a balcony as much as it's a terrace. It's HUGE. We had 5 chairs and a table out there- 3 recliners and 2 normal chairs. And on an itinerary like this or Alaska- where there is a lot to see while sailing- it's totally worth it. Being a normal JS- its the same cost as every single other JS's on the ship. But that balcony. Wow.

 

It's not as if this cabin does not have it's issues- on this class of ship- there are a lot of vibrations in the aft. We could feel the ship speed up on the first night, and have felt the rough seas on other trips. The nominal level of vibration may put off a lot of others- but for some reason, it helps me sleep really well. The style is the old bleached oak style- but when you spend so much time outside- that does not matter at all.

 

The ship overall is in really good condition. Is there rust? Yea- I have yet to see a ship w/o it. But there is a little more on this one, sure. If one is looking to nit pick- I'm quite sure you will find things. Since we were there to enjoy the trip- I was never looking to find things to nit pick over. Sorry if that's what you are looking for in this review.

 

The re-do of the Centrum for the aerial show is really great- the R-Bar and deck 4's layout looks really good.

 

And the R-Bar- we met a bartender we met on a previous cruise- Fillipe. What a great guy- who celebrated his first on board birthday on our trip. It's really great to see crew we met on other ships.

 

This trip was the first we got to have a meal with an officer as a D+ perk- and we ate with Julio Gomez- who we had also met on a previous cruise! It was really great to get to know him better- especially as he was ONLY on this one sailing, filling in due to a family emergency.

 

I know the Ship's shows are not for everyone, but we really enjoy them a lot. And since we managed to meet many of the cast prior to their first show (first show EVER on this ship), we enjoyed them even more. The singers and dancers are all really nice people, and their energy showed in their performances- even to an empty theater.

 

Never had dinner in the MDR. Ate most breakfasts in the WJ- we liked it. Had great dinners in Chops and Giovanni's. Both were made better by getting a 20 year old bottle of wine while in Rome.

 

20 years meant a lot- as this trip celebrated our 20th anniversary. And my wife surprised me with a renewal ceremony. Which turned out REALLY great. Just the two of us- two photographers, and two other crew. Really special event. Since it was early in the day, we dressed early (like 2pm) for Formal night, and stayed that way all day- including my wife carrying a bouquet of flowers all night. BTW, they were very real. As were the 4 others for the ceremony that ended up in our cabin. Man, that smelled great for the last two days.

 

I'll have to get the specific names of all who were there for the ceremony- as they were all great- and ALL of the pictures turned out great. Amazing.

 

We also got to know the Activities director Enzo and the Loyalty Ambassador Diane, who were both happy to see and talk to us for the entire trip.

 

So, ship wise, the trip was really great. Not including the amazing ceremony- the ship part was that good. The ceremony took it over the top.

 

But most will sail this cruise thanks to the itinerary. And it WILL NOT DISAPPOINT. Man, what a trip. That will come later today- as I have a lot of specific people to note at some of the ports.

[ITCruiser94]

I was onboard Rhapsody in August for a shorter version of your cruise but I was in the same cabin! I agree with everything you said about the ship and the cabin, it was a really nice cruise and I'm happy about the fact that things are not changed in this period

[alfaeric]

I was onboard Rhapsody in August for a shorter version of your cruise but I was in the same cabin! I agree with everything you said about the ship and the cabin, it was a really nice cruise and I'm happy about the fact that things are not changed in this period

 

We talked to a few of the crew- they seemed to think that your great on board experience, in spite of so few crew speaking Italian, was very common.

 

Enzo told us that there were only 3 staff members who spoke Italian.

 

So it was great to hear you had such a great trip!

[alfaeric]

Part 2, the itinerary.

 

The cruise started in Rome, where we arrived 3 days early to tour around. We saw the Colosseum, Forum, Vatican (and the Pope), and wandered around a whole lot. Hard to be specific on something- there's just so much to do in Rome that can be specific to a person.

 

For transportation to the port, we thought we'd be brave (and cheap) and take the train. For all of 5 Euros each, we got to the port to the minuet on time. Amazing. Then trying to be even cheaper, we walked to the rest of the port- not a great idea- as we got really lost. Thankfully, one of the other port busses took us over to the correct location.

 

First day was at sea- we sailed between Sicily and Italy. Pretty cool.

 

Day two was Crete, where we took the cheap bus to Chania. When there, we walked from one end of the port bay all the way around to the lighthouse side. Very pretty, and made us nice and hungry. Not knowing where to eat, we just looked and tried to find someone, when one of the hawkers did the line "your table is right over here"- and we were hungry, and just sat. Great decision- as the food, and better yet, the people serving us were really great. We talked a lot with what we thought was the son of the owner, about Chania, the people, and the food. Got a long so well, that he brought over nice cold Raki- which is like ouzo (but not spicy). And when we left, he introduced his mom to us. Montastrini Taverna. And they have a Greek Website.

 

Day 3- Mykonos. We planned on walking around (again) and maybe spending some time on the beach. But it was a little cold and windy to get into the water. So it was just wandering around. We found a great jeweler right under one of the windmills- Anima Mykonos. Great guy, but I'm not sure how long he will be there- he was not optimistic about the future. Good stuff he has. We ate at a small off the bay restaurant called Maria.

 

Day 4- Kusadasi, Turkey. Which is the closest port to the amazing site of Ephesus. For this stop, DW did some work on Trip Advisor, and found Ephesus Port Tours. For this trip, we got a drive and a guide for the day- totally worth it. Our guide ****m taught us a lot about Turkey, it's background, and the current culture.

 

The first stop was the Virgin Mary's home- which was "found" in the 19th century, and decided by the Vatican to be the home. One can get some holy water from the site.

 

Second stop was Ephesus. Wow, what a site. This was a very old city, and is referenced in the Bible. Huge, too. Being that it was abandoned, as opposed to build on over and over again- most of the parts of the city are still around. So it's now a big archeological site, that will get MUCH MUCH bigger. ****m took us to the entire site, which was easy to do since it was just 3 of us.

 

Next was a rug making demo and then lunch. Then a stop at the Temple of Artemis.

 

Cost was just 175 Euros! Seemed like a good deal for an individual deal compared to the large group ship excursions. Again, Ephesus Port Tours.

 

Day 5- Santorini. This day was mostly a hike from Feria to Oia. 12km of hiking was amazing but exhausting. So we ate at a nice little cafe in Oia called Skiza. Then took the very cheap bus back to Feria and walked down to the ship instead of taking the cable car. Saw a LOT of tiny resorts along the cliffs. We want to head back for a very relaxing trip.

 

Day 6- Athens. I'd say Piraeus, but it's actually more of a part of Athens, it's so close. For this stop, we got a tip from a cruiser we met at a M&M to try George's Taxi for a driver and a tour guide for the day. And it was George who did the driving! His card had taxigreece, privatetoursathens, shareatouringreece, and athenslimo dot com as the many websites. George was great- and explained that they have a couple of cars, a couple of small mini-vans, and one larger van. They can do a lot in Athens for you.

 

We only had one site in mind- The Acropolis. So all cities have an acropolis in ancient Greece, but this is the Acropolis of all of them. Of course, the Parthenon is the highlight of this, but there are a few other sites. However, the skies decided to not agree, and as we huddled under Nike, the skies opened up. After a stop, we got to the top, and did our best to see what we could but Zeus was not happy, and there was lighting all around the city. Being that this was one of the highest points in Athens, it was a little nerve wracking. After getting down, George took us to the Acropolis Museum to dry off and warm up. Very cool- as there's either original or replicas of all the carvings on the top of the Parthenon that you really can't see from the ground up there. At the Museum, they are almost at eye level.

 

After seeing all of that, George them drove us around to see more of Athens- the old Forum, the 1898 Olympic stadium, great views from the top of other hills (there are 7), and a few other Temple ruins that are included in the price of the Acropolis entry.

 

Even after all of that, and the traffic in Athens, George got us back to the ship in plenty of time. Can't wait to be back there to have him give us another tour. 230 Euros for all day. Well worth it.

 

Day 7 was Katakolon- which is a close port to Olympia, where the ancient games were held. For this port, we did the ship tour to Olympia and the Mercouri Estate winery. We had a great tour guide for the bus, who did a great job explaining the site of Olympia. And we ran the track that is in the stadium. :)

 

Winery tour was really nice, and we did want to buy some. But we were already super tight on luggage. For sure, we will be looking for Greek wines around here- similar grapes, but different grounds and processing means they taste different. Then there are the unique grapes for Greece.

 

All in all, Greece was a great place to visit- especially the people. All of them were super friendly, all spoke English, and all of them were happy to help us learn a little Greek. BTW, if you have a strong science background- you will be capable of saying some of the words- phonetically.

 

Day 8 at sea (where we got renewed)

 

Day 9- Naples. Originally we were going to just wander, then thought about going to Pompei. Based on a few crew members, just decided to take the train down to see the sites. But when we were going to leave the ship, the skies opened up. So much for those plans.

 

Back to original plan. Many have complained about Naples and waking around- that its dirty, boring, and pickpockets, etc etc. We didn't find that Naples. After heading to the Spanish quarter, we started Rick Steves walking tour- and really enjoyed it. Getting back into the Spanish Quarter neighborhood- it seemed far more real Naples than anywhere else. Small shops making shoes, or upholstering furniture, or making gloves, or processing rabbit leather. Very cool.

 

Be adventurous, walk around. Eat pizza (it IS Naples, afterall).

 

So that's not 10 days- but all of you know that the official day one is embarkation day.

 

We did return to Rome for two more days- where we went to a very interesting DaVinci exhibit- which was an interesting comparison to what Archimedes did in Greece at least 1500 years before. And then a visit to the Museo di Liberazione- which is really cool if you are into WWII history.

 

This itinerary would be great even if you hated the ship. Really great.

[RedHeadTexan]

Great review of an awesome cruise! :D

 

Lisa