Why this DCL loving family loved loved loved our 1st RCL cruise on Rhapsody

Hi All,

On Saturday, with heavy hearts we disembarked from a wonderful 7 day cruise to Montenegro and the Greek Islands on board Rhapsody of the Seas. It was our first RC cruise after previously doing 4 Disney cruises and I guess I had low expectations in some ways as a result but I have to say it was fantastic from start to finish.

I am not doing a full trip report but I thought as I had read so much helpful info on CC that I would post all thehighlights of our cruise (in case they were helpful for anyone else) so here they are:

1) The Rhapsody is a lovely ship, yes she is older and has less bells and whistles than the newer ships, but I found everything to be clean and well maintained and areas such as the centrum and the solarium were really beautiful and very much comparable to Disney's Wonder and Magic.

2) Every member of staff we encountered was extremely polite and friendly and couldn't do enough to help. We had expected to feel a difference between Disney and RCI in service but they were absolutely comparable (even getting towel animals).

3) Thanks to research on cruise critic, I was lucky enough to get one of the coveted aft corner Junior Suites which was great as the balcony was amazing. We had 3 loungers and a table and chairs which suited the 4 of us brilliantly. It was like having a whole extra room and was the perfect place for watching as we sailed in and out of our ports.

4) The food in both the Windjammer and the Main Dining Room was great. We had MTD for the first time which we much preferred to the traditional dining we have had previously. I particularly loved that we could be finished dinner in an hour (as opposed to the 1.5-2 hrs that it sometimes tookon DCL) and that we never had to share with other people and that we could eat when it suited us. We didn't try the speciality dining as we found the MDR meals absolutely fine for us so figured we would save the money.

5) The adult only pool was wonderful. We swam on most days and it really suited us that it was 16 and above- rather than 18 like on Disney - as we have a 16 year old. It was never busy (though it does get hot with the glass roof) and was a great place to enjoy the delicious roast beef sandwiches and paninis from Park Café. Plus the bar there was never crowded unlike the noisy chaos of the mainpool which I did not spend any time in.

5) When I booked in January, we had a free deluxe beverage package for the adults in the room which was a great perk (we are from the UK so I am not sure if that is ever offered to US customers). I don't even drink alcohol but I loved knowing that I could drink as many virgin cocktails or other drinks as I wanted and we loved the freestyle coke machines on board. My husband definitely made use of the package! Normally the biggest bulk of our onboard spending is on drinks but on this cruise we actually only spent a total of £100 on board for the whole week which was brilliant (we did also have $300 dollars of onboard credit which we used towards the tips).

6) The ports were brilliant. We love Venice and it’s a wonderful place to stay both before and after the cruise (I highly recommend staying at the Savoia and Jolanda as it is so convenient for getting to and from the airport and the cruise terminal and is right next to St Mark’s Square plus it had a great buffet breakfast and the economy rooms are very reasonable at £100/night for a 4 star hotel). Kotor was stunning and the unexpected highlight of the ports. Corfu was ok and we didn’t get to disembark at Mykonos due to high winds which meant we couldn’t tender but it looked beautiful from what we could see of it. Personally, I found Athens a bit disappointing as it seemed to be full of graffiti but it was also in the middle of a heatwave and we couldn’t see the Acropolis so that may have had somethingto do with my negativity. We spent the day at the beach in Kephalonia (Argostoli) and the sea was lovely. We didn't do any organised port excursions but all the ports were easy enough to do on our own just using local taxis or walking.

There was only really one area that I was not as impressed with and that was the evening entertainment in the theatre (which was of a far lower standard than the Disney shows we have seen before). It wasn’t a huge deal as there was plenty of other things to do. I did also miss the cinema that they have on DCL as I am not a big fan of watching the films outdoors.

Overall, we are definitely RCI converts and now that my children are all grown up I think we will only be travelling with Royal Caribbean from now on. I have already been pricing up cruises for next year! Just got to figure out a way to pay for the 13 or 14 day Med cruise I want to go on now…

You're in for an amazing adventure as you try other ships in RCI's fleet...Enjoy and welcome to Royal :D

We were on the same cruise a couple of weeks ago and would backup everything you say. Found the visiting acts to be good for enterainment but the onboard acts were in the main just average. However loved the live music throughout the ship..

Thanks for the review. We were on the Rhapsody T/A and following Med. cruise in April. Have been on several RCI ships, enjoyed Rhapsody as much as any other in the fleet. Great staff, clean ship, etc.....Glad you liked your sailing, great itinerary

Thanks for the interesting comparison report.