Rhapsody review 12/10 - 12/17

[Mcmflow]

If you have any questions let me know and I'll try to reply soon. I know there is a lot that I left out, but it would take forever to write and remember it all. :)

 

Day 1

Ok, on to the trip. We ate at IHOP and headed on our way, it was really quick, only took about 3.5 hours at the most. We got to the pier at 12:15, and went to the EZCRUISE parking lot, they were a little disorganized, but after about 10 minutes we were at the terminal and on our way up to check in. Waited in line for about 5 minutes, and headed up to the ship. We were on the ship at about 12:45 and went and started taking some pictures since we could not get in the room until 1:00. We headed back down at 1:00 and Checked out the room, and headed back up to take more pictures of different things that we didn’t get to take earlier. We also went down and checked out our dining room table. It was a table for 6 on the lower level of the dining room right next to some kind of prep station.

We next headed to the Windjammer and got something to eat. There was some really good ‘Texas Chili’, and roast beef. This was along with all the normal buffet food, hamburgers, hot dogs, a couple of pasta side dishes, a couple of kinds of potato’s usually, salad, small sandwiches that were really good as well. There were also some days that would have tacos and some that would have surprisingly good fajitas. Of course the tortillas were some time a little dried out because someone would leave the warmer open. The hamburgers were ok, nothing to special, hotdogs were good, except they were kind of plain, not much to put on them. And there was always about 6-10 different kinds of sweets/deserts to eat as well. They usually very good.

We explored more around the ship after that, until the muster drill. That went smoothly, and then we headed back up to watch as we left the port. Unfortunately it was cold and very windy at this point, so we stayed up there long enough to tell our families when to be looking at the Galveston Web cams to see the ship going by.

Then we headed to the room and got ready for dinner. When we went up to dinner, we showed someone what our table number was and he directed us to the table we saw earlier when we boarded. About 20 minutes into dinner, our waitress came by and asked to look at everyone’s sea pass card. Apparently they switched the table numbers, and the table next to us was now 138, and the one we were at was 140. The other couple that was suppose to be there showed up and that’s why she was seeing who was in the wrong place. She let us stay there since we had already been talking with our tablemates. We had taken a picture of our table earlier, so when we looked at the picture again later, the table #’s had been moved from earlier. Not sure why though.

We explored more until it was show time. We had a comedian the first night, he was ok. He had some funny stuff and some just ok stuff.

Day2 At Sea

We woke up and went to the Windjammer for breakfast. It had the usual stuff. 2 different kinds of scrambled eggs, bacon, a couple kinds of sausage, a couple kinds or potato’s, cereal, oatmeal, grits, plain omelets, and different stuff you could put on top of them. We ended up usually getting the plain scrambled eggs and putting stuff from the omelets bar on them. There were also usually two kinds of pancakes, waffles, French toast, and about 6 or 7 toppings that you could choose from. There were also bagels, toast, and English muffins. Along with other kinds of pastries and things like that. The donuts had a dark chocolate icing on them, so I wasn’t crazy about them, and never got to try the white icing to see what it was like.

We then walked around outside for a while, but it was pretty windy most of the day and rained lightly off and on all day. The water was a little rough, but nothing to bad. They had the sickness bags out, but never noticed anyone taking any of them. I did hear of a couple of people being sick, but all in all the movement on the ship wasn’t that bad, one or two big waves the whole trip.

We went to the shopping show that was put on by the ship and that was informative. The people that bought the coupon books all seemed to think they were worth the $20 that they paid for them, however we did not buy one.

We did a couple of activities during the day, but can’t really remember what they were now. That night the show was really good. It was a group called Mosaic. They made entire songs music and all with their voices.

This was the first Formal night.

Day3 At Sea

The weather and sea was about the same today. Highlights were the Men’s sexy leg comp, that had been moved to that day because it was raining on Day 2. Also the Belly Flop comp.

The show this night was ‘Pure Country’ put on by the ships singer and dancers. It was an enjoyable show even if your not a big fan of country music.

Day 4 Jamaica

We can out of our room and up to eat to find a very sunny morning, and there was land! We ate and got ready for our excursion. Ocho Rios Highlights was the name of it I think. It took you down Fern Gully, To Dunns River Falls and Shaw Park Gardens. We enjoyed this excursion. Fern Gully was just a drive up and down a road, and I had something else pictured in my mind, but it was a pretty drive for the vegetation. However you see some of the run down areas along the way. Shaw Park was very nice, lots of good picture taking there. Dunns River Falls was really nice. About half of our bus decided to climb it. We had ages anywhere from 5 to 65 climbing. It wasn’t that difficult to climb, the biggest problem we found was, sometimes you can’t see where you are stepping, so your next step might be 12 inches further down than you expect so there is potential to fall. I think almost everyone fell at some point, but no one got hurt, I’m sure there were some bruises later though.

I had read numerous times how pushy the merchants were there. In fact our bus driver and tour guide warned us “they will try to put stuff in your hands or around your neck, just say no and keep walking”. However we didn’t have much problem, lots of calling us over to the shops but that’s about it. However a family of 4 that was on our excursion the next day in Grand Cayman told us, they had a lot of trouble with them. They said they were grabbing their arms and pulling them into the shops.

We ate at Margaritaville, food and margarita were very good. Prices were a little higher than Chili’s or some place like that you might go to.

That night we had a juggler/comedian. The juggling was good, a little boring at times, but his comedy rounded out the show. He asked for a kid to volunteer, he was going to juggle the kid also. Well he got a hyper kid that was happy to be up on stage and he was dancing all over the place. It made for an even funnier show.

From this point on the rest of the time the water was pretty smooth, not much movement on the ship.

Day 5 Grand Cayman

We ate and went to wait for our excursion group to leave. Tendering was a pretty smooth process. I don’t know if it was any different for anyone that wasn’t on an excursion and had to get the tender tickets, but for us it was really good. Both coming and going.

Our excursion was the Semi Sub and butterfly farm. The Semi sub was a lot bigger and more spacious than I had thought it would be so that was nice. If you started to get sick or anything, you could go up on deck also, so that makes it nice if anyone suffers from claustrophobia. It also had a bathroom on board. We were able to see two ship wrecks and also quite a few fish. They also go outside of the sub and feed the fish and bring them by your window so you can get a good picture.

The butterfly farm was really interesting, the guide told you all about them, and showed them in different life cycles in the emergence box. We were able to get lots of good pictures there.

We tendered back with no problems and it was quick. As the ship was getting ready to leave, we had turned around and were pointing away from the island when we stopped. There was a tender that had 3 people on it that pulled up and I assume that’s why we stopped because those people were coming to get back on, of course they were late though.

That night we had the Piano Man show put on by the singers and dancers from the ship. It was a good show, not as good as the Pure Country show though. I was expecting this one to be better but it was not in my opinion.

This was the second Formal night, and Lobster was served. DW and another tablemate asked for seconds. They were told it would be a few minutes. They came out before desert, and both DW and tablemate thought the second ones were even better than the first.

Day 6 Cozumel

We awoke to rainy weather, light for the most part. We didn’t have any excursions planned or anything so we just took it easy, ate got off the ship, took a cab to the forum shops and worked our way back down just doing a little bit of shopping. We ate on the ship for lunch as well.

We were pretty tired from getting up early, staying up late all week, so we took a long nap before dinner that night. We also ended up skipping the show that night because we were tired. It was Bozer from Grease and Sha Na Na. Our tablemates said it was a really good show. One of the few they were excited about.

Day 7 At Sea

This was a very nice day. We lounged around outside soaking up the sun. There were also lots of activities going on that we enjoyed here and there.

The show this night was a group that started off with a kind of puppet show that was made to look like everything was kind of floating and moving by it’s self. You could not see any strings or people moving them, and it was all in glow in the dark kind of stuff, I can’t think of the right word right now. After that part of the show, they came out and did some dancing and playing the drums. Also some stuff with these rope things with wooden balls on the end, that would make tapping noise when they hit the stage, and there were some tricks done with whips also. It was a good visual show as well as a little bit of comedy.

The next morning when we were ready to get off, we realized that we were not near any land you could see, because of the thick fog. The port authority was not allowing any ships to come in, until the fog lifted. So we ended up docking at 10:00, and they started letting people off around 11:00.

Overall review

We had a great time, and thought everything was nice. The ship was in good shape for the most part. We came across a couple of chairs in a lounge that were partially broken, but that was about it. of The carpet in the elevators was worn, but that was all we noticed. The beds were not soft, but we didn’t think they were bad. We slept fine and had no complaints as far as that goes.

We had read about some people noticing vibration and some people not. The first day we noticed a little vibration in one of the lounges, but never noticed it again. However at our dining table there was vibration the whole time we were there. It wasn’t so bad that it bothered you, unless you were focusing on it. We ate lunch one day in the dining room and did not notice any vibration at that table, so it must have just been something about that spot.

The food in the dining room was always good. The Windjammer, was about like golden coral or something like that. It was good, but nothing special. The few nights we walking through there after dinner, it looked like the selections there were similar to what they were serving in the dining room that night. There were at least two cookouts that I can think of, and both of those were really good.

[johnlcruise]

Thank you for taking the time to report on your excellent trip.

Sounds like you had a super time.

I love the Rhapsody and hope to sail her again.

[lovetexas]

your trip sounds pretty much great- except for the weather which can't be helped-:confused:

what kind of room did you stay in? we are going in august and i am still worrying about the room-

did you see any kids aboard?

i guess you were off kid season

thanks

:p

[Mcmflow]

your trip sounds pretty much great- except for the weather which can't be helped-:confused:

what kind of room did you stay in? we are going in august and i am still worrying about the room-

did you see any kids aboard?

i guess you were off kid season

thanks

:p

 

Yes we had a great time. Even with the weather there were times you were able to go out and enjoy the outside.

We stayed in an inside cabin on Deck 2. It was small, but it was fine for what we needed it for...get ready in the mornings, a nap every once in a while, and sleeping at night. Unless you think you will spend a lot of time in your room, it was perfect.

There wern't many kids, they said there was about 120 if I remember correctly. They were all fine, no problems there. Like you said though it wasn't a time there typically are a lot of kids. They said the nexxt two weeks would have 500-600 kids because of the holidays.

Hope this helps