rccl-rhapsodynj013198

Name: Nicole Julian
Email: julia003@tc.umn.edu
Age: 26
Occupation: Research Assistant
NumberOfCruises: 1
TravelAgent: No
Ship: RoyalCaribbean-Rhapsody
SailingDate: 1/31/98
Itinerary: Southern Caribbean
FoodDiningRoom: 98
CruiseDirector: 98
CabinComfort: 85
FoodRoomService: 95
CruiseStaff: 95
CabinAmenities: 90
FoodLidoDeck: 80
DiningRoomService: 99
CabinQuietness: 95
FoodMidnightBuffets: 90
CabinSteward: 75
ShoreExcVariety: 99
FoodVariety: 94
DeckService: 95
ShoreExcValue: 80
GoodForHoneymoon: 95
CasinoStaff: 99
PrivateIsland:
GoodForFamilies: 99
LoungeService: 90
TenderService: 90
GoodForSeniors: 90
BeautySalonStaff: 85
EntertainmentLounges: 100
WheelchairAccess:
ExerciseFacilities: 90
EntertShowLounge: 80
OverallPortsofCall: 95
BeautySalon: 79
EntertainmentPoolside: 100
CruiseActivities: 100
Casino: 90
AirSeaProgram: 100
MedicalFacilities:
ShipCleanliness: 90
EmbarkDisembark: 99
DiscoNightclubs: 95
DeckSpace: 90
Stabilization: 80
ShopsOnBoard: 95
SpaceRatio: 95
OverallCruiseValue: 99
Submit: Submit Review
Date: 24 Feb 1998
Time: 15:40:51
Remote Name: 160.94.197.174
Remote User:

Comments

Rhapsody of the Seas January 31st-February 7th Royal Caribbean

Background Info: Three in our group (including myself) had never cruised before. Our fourth group member has sailed on most lines and likes RCI
the best. We picked the Rhapsody because she was new and the itinerary seemed a little more exotic, being to the Southern Caribbean. We booked
our cruise in June or July and impatiently anticipated the big day!

Embarkation: We flew from Minneapolis to San Juan the day of sailing, with a plane change in Chicago. We arrived at about 4:30 local time. We
quickly found the RCCL reps (they hang out down by baggage claim) and they took us to our bus and off we went. We were at the pier within 15
minutes. Everything went smoothly while checking in.

The Cabin: The four of us decided to travel economically and stayed in a category M quad inside stateroom on deck 8, # 8531 midship forward. We
weren’t the lightest of packers, and a few extra storage spaces would have been nice, but we made do. The room was actually quite comfortable,
and deck 8 is a great location. The only noise we heard was the Calypso Band once in a while because the pool deck is on deck 9. Other than that, it
was very quiet. We never heard our neighbors (or even saw them for that matter). The bathroom is small, but it works. It is decorated nice in a soft
peach color. The towels are large and very fluffy and soft. I used the complimentary shampoo a couple of times when I forgot mine and it was fine.

First Impressions: Wow! The Rhapsody is *gorgeous* and most of us couldn’t believe we were on a cruise ship, being first-timers and all. The
Centrum is very impressive and it was a treat to ride in the glass elevators so you could see all the Centrum’s beauty. The weather was very nice the
first night and it was fun to be on the pool deck for the Welcome Aboard party. The Calypso band ‘Blue Orchid’ was good and the whole atmosphere
was very festive.

The Dining Room and Food: The first night we discovered our table was for 4, and we had requested a large table, so we were able to get that
changed right away. Although we were 2nd seating, the first night we ate early, being very hungry after a long day of travel and missing the
welcome aboard buffet. We were seated at a large table by a window and had a nice view of San Juan while we dined. The Edelweiss Dining Room is
very beautiful. Our major complaint about it, however, was it was very NOISY. At our regular table of 10, we could barely hear the person sitting next
to us, let alone across the table, so conversations were impossible as a group. Luckily, we sat in different places each night and were able to talk to
most of the people at the table at least once. Dinner every night was very good. Our waiter, Edwin of the Philippines, and assistant waiter Simon of
Hungary, were always eager to please. We missed eating in the dining room one night, but made up for it by ordering room service (from the dinner
menu). Caribbean night featured Lobster tails, and everyone at our table that wanted to had 2. The filet mignon for the Captain’s Gala Dinner was
superb, and seconds were available for that, too. I had the Prime Rib on two nights (American Night and International Night) and it was delicious
both times. The appetizers were always interesting and tasty, the salads were small, but always crisp. I only had soup twice, but both times it was
excellent (French Onion at dinner and Corn Chowder at lunch). The bread on this ship was heavenly. Always different (at dinner), always fresh and
tasting wonderful. The desserts were *too* good. I usually accompanied mine with the sherbet offered that day. The ice cream and sherbets are
some of the best I have ever tasted, especially the Pistachio. Eating in the dining room was always the superior choice by far. The Windjammer was
often leftovers or just uninteresting. The casual dining option is in the Windjammer, but you could not order Lobster there on Caribbean night, I
noticed. We didn’t make it to too many afternoon teas, but when we did, we were usually starving and didn’t care what the food tasted like. It was
never bad, though. The midnight buffets were all good, especially on Wednesday for the Gala Buffet. Very impressive--the desserts were
phenomenal!! The galley tour was interesting, too, and those 2 buffets were in the dining room, so it included full service at the table for beverages.
We used room service fairly often, and except for a mix-up the first morning, it was very good. The Solarium Pool Café was an excellent alternative
for afternoon snacks. The pizza was OK, but the chicken sandwiches were very good, and the fries were the BEST! They are seasoned and very
YUMMY! I think I had some every day:) Overall, we ate constantly and enjoyed every minute of it!!

The Cabin Steward: (warning!! Rather long!!) This was probably the worst part of our cruise. Sue, our veteran cruiser, had raved about her cabin
stewards on previous cruises, but ours was nothing to rave about. Although we didn’t learn until the end that it was his 2nd week on the job, we
were still not impressed. It took him a long time to get to our room and when he did, it was never done up very special. After talking to others at our
table, who raved about their cabin stewards and what they did for them (like interesting p.j. folding, decorating their pillows, etc) we were even more
disappointed. He did respond efficiently to any requests, but he didn’t have any of those cabin steward tricks up his sleeve. When it came time to do
our comment and rating cards, we expressed our opinion on the matter, thinking an honest review would help improve his performance. Boy was
that a mistake. We worked on the comments before dinner, then left the card on a bed, under a suitcase, with a bunch of other papers. While we
were at dinner, Cabin guy (I won’t give his name) came in to take down our beds, etc, and in the process, found the comment card and read it!!!! We
had voted that his rating would be a fair and then we explained in the comments. Well, one of our group members returned to the cabin to find him
there and he cornered her in the room and begged her to change the rating or he would be demoted. He actually frightened her a little bit. Now the
rest of us were even more upset by this and by the fact that he read the card in the first place!! But, we wilted under a tremendous feeling of guilt
(albeit irrational) and got a new card (had to make up a reason for that because they are very obsessive about the rating cards) and filled out a
new rating for him. We changed it to good. Gave no comments.

Sea Days: The days at sea are jam-packed with activities, so you could never be bored. The first sea day we did a lot of exploring, attended a
perfume lecture (very good), got some sun, participated in Aqua Fun in the Solarium Pool for ShipShape dollars, and just had a fun time. The bar
service on the pool and sports decks is very good. I never had a hard time finding a good deck chair, but I never wanted to be pool side either. On
the second sea day, we all participated in the horse racing (lost), and I spent most of the day just tanning and swimming in the pool. The pools are
fun to be in, especially when the ship rocks and creates waves in the pool. The Solarium Pool is more notorious for this. Great fun! The new pool
hours are now 7am to 10pm for the outside pool, 7am to 7 pm for the Solarium Pool and hot tubs, and 7am til 8pm for the outside hot tubs. They all
used to be 7 am til 7 pm only.

Seasickness: The first day of sailing, the ship rocked slightly, and it took a while to get used to the movement. The second sea day was a little
rougher, with 8’ to 13’ seas. Two of the cabin-mates were sick that morning. Take Dramamine or wear a wristband if you are at all prone to motion
sickness. They couldn’t fill the Solarium Pool on the 2nd sea day because it was too rough. A crew member told me that the high winds we were
experiencing had a lot to do with the movement, and not the waves.

Spa and Beauty Salon: Several of had an Alpha treatment (aromatherapy and music) and a foot and ankle massage. They were both OK. They do
not have enough people working there, so sometimes you were forgotten.

Viking crown lounge: This is a nice place for a drink before dinner. Margarita’s are on sale and they also serve chips, salsa, and guacamole from
5-8pm. You could always hear the music from there in the Centrum late at night.

Casino/gambling: I only played slots one night. If you want to win, play the first night because there were more decent payouts that night. Better
odds. Many were winning big at the tables, too, all week. Someone on our cruise did win $10,000 on the slots one night, though. Lucky!! I never
played the Bingo.

Entertainment: Music was present through-out the ship all day, and that was very nice. I only made it to one show, ‘In the Heat of the Night’ with the
Wave Revue Dancers. Do not go to this!!!! Unless you enjoy low quality and cheesy singing and dancing. Others enjoyed the magician and comedian
the 2nd night, and Bowser from Sha Na Na also had a good show, I heard. (I ended up sitting next to him on a van taxi ride on St Thomas later in
the week).

Ports of call:

(Camcorder tip: put your camcorder in a sealed plastic bag for ten minutes after you go outside. The humidity may cause condensation problems with
your camera if the temperature difference is too great, leaving your camera unusable for an hour)

Aruba: This island is a big rock with a lot of cactus and wind. No green. It was very windy and it was hard to even sit in the sand at a beach. In the
morning, 2 of us went horseback riding (we arranged the tour ourselves at the tourist info booth at the pier). It was a beautiful ride, but very scary at
times. We went up and down some steep hills and I feared for my life a couple of times! We rode to the Natural Pool and had time to do a little
swimming and snorkeling there, before heading back to the ranch. We saw many goats along the way and several wild parrots. In the afternoon, our
other 2 group members had rented a car, so we drove to Baby Beach, where I snorkeled a little bit, and then we drove north to see the Natural
Bridge. We got there kind of late, so no one was around, and it was rather eerie. But it was beautiful and worth the trip. We got back to Oranjestad
just as darkness was setting in, so we returned the car and went back to the ship. Only 1 in our group went back into Oranjestad after dinner, and
she went to a bar called Cheers, where a lot of the crew go to party if they have the night off. She said it was a good time.

Curaçao- This island we enjoyed a lot. We spent the late morning and early afternoon shopping in town. Nothing special, except for a very good local
craft shop close to the pier. We then hailed a taxi driver, who took us to her son’s favorite beach, the Seaquarium beach. It was beautiful and very
clean. We spent a very relaxing afternoon there, sunning, swimming, and shell-hunting. Our taxi driver came back for us, and she took us back to
the floating bridge, where we had to get out and walk back to the ship, another 20 minutes or so. Our taxi driver was very nice and she gave us
information on the people and way of life in Curaçao.

St. Maarten/St. Martin- We were delayed in the morning getting on the tenders because another ship was in our anchor spot when we arrived. I
guess it took awhile for the other ship to be convinced that they were in our way, so we didn’t get off the ship until 10:30. This cut into our shopping
time a little bit. St. Maarten was our big shopping destination. We all bought jewelry including a gold bracelet, pearls, a tennis bracelet,
diamond/sapphire earrings, and a garnet. I also bought some t-shirts and other souvenirs. Then 3 of us headed for Orient Beach on the French
side. Since we got there late, we decided not to rent a chair for $6.00 each and an umbrella for $1.00. We just threw our stuff on the sand and kept
an eye on it from the water. It was a hot day and the swim felt great. Nudity was present on this beach, but all the shore excursion info RCI gave us
warned us about that numerous times. We didn’t really care. Overall, we enjoyed St. Maarten/Martin very much. The tender ride back to the ship was
quite bouncy. In fact, the seas were a little rough that day and the Dawn Princess did not even stay because of it. We learned in St Thomas that one
of their lifeboats fell down, as a cable snapped in the rough seas. I noticed it when she was docked in St Thomas. And since the Rhapsody is
anchored closer to shore than the Dawn, their small tenders couldn’t handle the rough seas so they left. They went to St. Barths instead, and one
couple we talked said it was fabulous. They were not disappointed at all.

St. Thomas/St. John- I spent the morning on my own as the others in my group went downtown to shop. I decided to stay near the pier, as I wanted
to go to Paradise Point. I took the tram ride up at about 9 am. It was BEAUTIFUL. I am so glad I decided to do that. I got some great video on the
way up and once I arrived at the top. The views are fabulous. I strongly recommend it. I spent about 40 minutes up there, taking pictures, taking
videos, and looking in the gift shops. On the way down I had a tram all to myself, so that was fun. In the afternoon, we made the long journey to St.
John and trunk bay via the Red Hook Ferry to Cruz Bay. Once there, I did some power-snorkeling as we were short on time. The fish were beautiful,
and the surrounding area was just heavenly. Next time, I will go straight to St John and spend the day there.

Interesting happenings: On Wednesday afternoon (at sea) we heard ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA to the sports deck. Well, I knew from a previous review
that that means medical emergency. We later learned that a woman was discovered unconscious. There were a lot of rumors going around, but it
was most likely a heart attack or stroke. At dinner that evening, the captain came on the PAS and told us she was gravely ill, and had to be
evacuated to the US as soon as possible. So we made a detour and headed north to St. Croix. We pulled into St. Croix about midnight, and docked
right across from Carnival’s Destiny. The patient was evacuated from the ship to a waiting ambulance. She would then be flown to Ft. Lauderdale, as
San Juan was having a horrendous storm that night. It was quite a sight, because almost everyone was on deck watching the events unfold, and the
Destiny passengers were on their decks and balconies watching us. They were actually quite obnoxious during the whole ordeal, whereas the
atmosphere on the Rhapsody was pretty somber.

Disembarkation: No problems here. We had a late flight, so we did not get off the ship until after 10 am. Spent the time on the pool deck relaxing and
taking last minute pictures and video.

Final impressions: This was a wonderful cruise, and I can say I am now ‘hooked’. I have already booked for next year on the Enchantment Western
Caribbean, again with a group of 4.

E-mail any specific questions to: julia003@tc.umn.edu

Nicole

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