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Review: Rhapsody 14 nt Round th Horn, 28 FEB thru 13 MAR

aviator1945

By aviator1945,
in Royal Caribbean International

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aviator1945

aviator1945

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Review of Rhapsody 14 Night Round the Horn Cruise, 28 FEB through 13 MAR 2016

 

This is an attempt to tell the story of our 14 night cruise from Valparaiso, Chile to Buenos Aires, Argentina on the beautiful Rhapsody of the Seas. It's only our second visit to South America; the first one was a business trip twelve years ago to Brazil for a week.

 

Regrettably, I can't promise that this review will be in "live" format, since from reading recent reviews from the ship, it appears that her wifi hasn't (yet) been upgraded to the VOOM standard, like on some of the other RCI cruise liners. Expect that I will be trying to post instalments of this review from land based wifi, when available. As DW and I are Diamond members of C&A, we will get one day each of free (and most likely slow) ship's wifi, which we'll take advantage of during sea days, although I have no idea of how good the satellite connection might be.

 

Rhapsody is one of the smaller (and older) ships in the RCI fleet, built in 1997 in France. She is one of six sisters in the Vision Class, weighing in at around 78000 gross tons. For DW and myself this will be our first cruise on her; we have previously sailed on most of her Vision Class sisters.

 

Our previous cruise, however, was on a TA crossing on Allure last autumn, where we tried out her new VOOM internet. It was fantastic; only on one day in the middle of the ocean was there some degradation of the satellite signal, but on eleven of twelve days the speed was comparable to what we have at home.

 

 

PRE-CRUISE DAY 1, THURSDAY 25 FEB: Travel from Madrid to Santiago de Chile

 

Around midnight we boarded an Iberia Airbus A340-600 in Madrid for a 13 hr and 20 min flight to Santiago. For me it was an extra bit of a treat, as I had never before travelled in that variant of the A340, which incidentally is the world's longest (but not largest) passenger aircraft, longer even than the superjumbo A380.

 

The flight was fairly smooth and uneventful, except for the final 90 minutes when at times the flight suffered from moderate turbulence, possibly coming from mountain wave activity spreading from the Andes. We arrived in Santiago just before 10 am, and found ourselves setting our watches back four hours to cater for the time difference between Western Europe and Chile. Later during the cruise there will be no need to set our watches again, since all the places we will visit are in the same time zone.

 

From when we stepped off the aircraft until we checked in to the ibis Providencia it took only two hours, thanks to a good portion of luck and a superfast taxi driver. Your mileage may vary...... The ibis is an Accor Hotel, a French-owned chain with many properties carrying a number of varying brands, some very cheap and others very pricey in different parts of the world, although only a few in North America. The ibis brand is in the budget category with relatively small but spanking clean rooms; it's one of our favorites, after having stayed with them many times do in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Wifi is good and also free for guests staying at the hotel.

 

Thursday afternoon found us relaxing after our long overnight flight, ready to tackle hop on hop off sightseeing the following day.

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relaxatsea

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Thanks so much! We are following avidly, since we will board the Rhapsody on March 13 in Buenos Aires after you disembark. Our cruise will be just like yours, but in reverse, so we are extremely interested to see what you think of the ship and the itinerary.

 

This is a cruise of a lifetime for us, and we are very excited!

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aviator1945

aviator1945

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Pre-Cruise Day 2, Friday 26 FEB: Sightseeing in Santiago

 

We had breakfast in the hotel restaurant, called the ibis Kitchen. A standard buffet featuring among other items scrambled eggs made from real eggs (no powdered mix!), numerous kinds of bread, real butter (thankfully, margarine was nowhere to be seen!), cheese and cold cuts, various pastries and juices. Really tasty! Was not included in the room rate, but at USD 5 pp I would say that it was still a bargain. The Kitchen was also open later during the day for lunch as well as for dinner. Nearby the hotel there are also a number of inexpensive eateries that serve a fixed menu at a lower price than the hotel, but all things considered we feel that the unlimited hotel breakfast is a better deal, since we can eat a later lunch and skip dinner.

 

After breakfast we took a leisurely stroll through the Providencia district to the Costanera Center, which features a tall skyscraper, the top of which is said to offer the most far reaching view in all of South America. In the Costanera Center we exchanged our hop on hop off voucher for bus tickets. After a 15 minute wait our red doubledecker bus showed up.

 

First we headed east on Avenida Presidente Kennedy to Parque Arauco, a large shopping area located in an upscale suburb of the city. The Andes mountains were clearly visible, reminding us that much of Chile is located along the Pacific Rim Ring of Fire, with frequent earthquakes. None today, though.

 

Next, our bus brought us via the Sheraton to Patio Bellavista with its upmarket eateries and souvenir stores. Just a short distance away was the Santiago Metropolitan Park, one of the largest urban parks in the world. In the park is a funicular railway, which stops at the National Zoo on its way up to the summit of the park.

 

Next stop was at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, said to be the oldest such museum in South America, devoted mainly to Chilean art. From this location the bus wound its way very slowly through the Old Town, with the very congested traffic in this area contributing to the delay of the tour. In fact, walking along the route of the bus would have been faster, so we would recommend alighting from the bus at the museum and walking via Plaza de Armas, Plaza de la Constitition, Paseo Bulnes and rejoining the bus at Santa Lucia. Due to my legs not being in such good shape, we elected to remain on board the bus, thereby missing a number of good photo opportunities and interesting shops along the way. Special for today at Plaza de la Constitition was some kind of State Visit from Brazil, with honor guards parading to military music that we could see and hear from a distance.

 

We continued on the bus through the Providencia district. We were told that tomorrow night (FEB 27) Lionel Richie would be giving a concert at the Movistar Arena. But by that time we'll already be in Valparaiso. Wouldn't want to miss our cruise!

 

Before returning to Costanera Center we passed through another couple of upscale areas, El Golf and Isidora Goyenechea.

 

By the time we were off the bus, we had spent nearly two and a half hours on board, mainly due to heavy traffic. DW and I found our way to the Santiago Hard Rock Cafe, located in the Costanera Center, for a belated celebration of my birthday which actually took place last week. The menu was quite different from what HRC offers in Europe and North America (they didn't have my favorite [Cobbs Salad]😕so I had to make do with a sirloin steak, while DW chose Chilean Salmon).

 

Back to the hotel again, this time by taxi. On our way up to our room, the front desk staff advised that a vehicle would be collecting us tomorrow for the two hour journey to Valparaiso.

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BEENSAILING

BEENSAILING

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We are on same cruise with you. We have been enjoying several pre cruise days here in Santiago. Great city! And we spent some time on a walking tour with a family from Canada who will be on the cruise. Just a coincidence. The walking tour is Tours for Tips. Check their website. We went on the afternoon walk the day we arrived. It was a great first introduction to the city for me. 2nd day we did hop on hop off. Rode the bus entire way around and then went back to the funicular - for those of spending time in Santiago the hop on hop off is a wonderful way to see this beautiful city. And the funicular is a must do! 3rd day here we did a fun and delicious all day tour to three wineries and had such nice fellow travelers in the van. Three people from Australia - the married couple had just finished a 3 week Holland America cruise which included Antarctica. The photos were amazing. South America has always been on my "bucket list" and i and so glad we had many days to spend in here Santiago before sail away. PS - their subway system can help you avoid the street traffic. Need Chilean pesos to buy tix. Not expensive...No "oyster" tix like in London. No two/three day passes. No cost to transfer in between the different lines. Saturday shall be a day of resting from all the wines we drank.

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aviator1945

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PRE-CRUISE DAY 3, SATURDAY 27 FEB: OFF TO VALPARAISO

 

This morning we had an early breakfast along the same procedure as yesterday, before packing the last few of our things in order to be ready for the ride to Valparaiso.

 

Maurizio, our driver, arrived exactly on time at 11:00 am outside the hotel, and we were soon on our way out of Santiago. We used the expressway all the way, a four lane highway with a speed limit of 120 kmh (75 mph) in most places, enforced by numerous police patrols. Two sets of toll booths each charged us CLP 2700. We arrived in Valparaiso sooner than we had expected, after only 90 minutes of driving from city center to city center.

 

When we entered the ibis Valparaiso hotel we were surprised to see how many people had already shown up in the lobby for checkin. It turned out that there was only one line serving us, and at nearly ten minutes per reservation it took us over an hour of standing in line before we were assigned a room. I suspect that a number of the guests that arrived ahead of us came more or less directly from overnight flights from Europe and North America. In any case the hotel staff were friendly, if also a bit overwhelmed by the crowd of guests.

 

After this somewhat crowded arrival we just left our bags in our room and went out to briefly discover Valparaiso. Our hotel was located in a building that also served as the port railway station for the line to Viña del Mar, a resort not very far from here. We found a vendor of Valparaiso souvenirs and had soon purchased a few mementos from here. Next, we went in towards Plaza Sotomayor and El Monumento a Los Heroes de Iquique, which commemorates a naval battle between Chile and Peru in 1879.

 

Walking up the plaza we were soon solicited by a number of waiters from various eateries in the neighborhood. As we were in fact hungry, we decided to take one of them up on his offer and followed him to his restaurant, Las Delicias Porteñas. I ordered Lomo a lo pobre and DW had fried shrimp. As the restaurant was crowded, we had to wait a good long while for our food, not a problem though, since there was an excellent wifi connection by which we could kill some time. Eventually the food was served, and it was ok. After the meal we strolled around Plaza Sotomayor and had ourselves a brief snack at the Starbucks cafe there.

 

On our way back to the hotel we noticed that more and more local people were gathering with their families in celebration of the weekend. We went down to the dockside to watch the folks enjoying themselves. Finally we went back to our room and prepared ourselves for the big event tomorrow. We had been assigned a room facing the docks in the harbor; if we're lucky we might wake up tomorrow morning at the sight of the Rhapsody through our window. Time will soon tell!

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aviator1945

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CRUISE DAY 1, SUNDAY 28 FEB: SAILAWAY!

 

She's here!!! Our Rhapsody arrived in Valparaiso in the middle of the night, and already she's being bunkered in preparation for our departure. Let's hope that the port agent and other concerned parties will set in motion procedures that will enable a smooth boarding experience for us all. Having checked MarineTraffic.com, it appears that the ship is docked quite a distance away from what seems to be the Passenger Terminal on the map, so it is likely that the procedures mentioned in various CC reviews of RCI and other cruises will be implemented today as well. This would involve having the various formalities done in the terminal and later being taken by bus to the ship some distance away. And for us guests, it is essential that we manage our expectations, keeping in mind that cruise embarkation with 2000+ guests is not an everyday occurrence here, like it would be in FLL, for example. So patience will need to be the order of the day for us all. At least Mother Nature is doing her best, with a weather forecast calling for sunny, cloudless skies with a temperature at boarding time of around 21 degrees Celsius (70 degrees Fahrenheit) and southwesterly winds between 10 and 15 knots.

 

As for DW and myself, we'll be having an early hotel breakfast, eventually taking a taxi to the Passenger Terminal, all while managing our expectations.

 

This is our final post from Valparaiso. You'll hopefully hear from us next time that we have access to land based wifi, which will be on Day 3 from Puerto Montt (at the earliest) or possibly not until later in Punta Arenas. Hope y'all are having a good weekend!

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