Rhapsody of the Seas - Greek Isles cruise - August 23-30, 2015 with lots of pics!

Just back from a wonderful 7-day Mediterranean cruise onboard the Rhapsody of the Seas and I wanted to post a review while the memories are still fresh. In summary – we had an amazing time! The ship was beautiful and very well maintained and we had a great time on her.

Background: About us – we are a mom-daughter cruising duo. I call my mom my cruising partner in crime as she's the only one of our family that enjoys cruising as much as I do. We are all crazy about travel, but the rest of the family prefers land travel, but we hope to convince them to see the error of their ways someday. I love land travel as well and do a lot of it, but its nice to mix it up with a cruise once in a way. We've done seven cruises so far – one of HAL, four on Carnival and now two on RCL.

Pre-cruise: We flew out from NYC three days ahead of time non-stop on United. The cruise was a 7-day round-trip out of Rome (Civitavecchia) visiting Santorini, Kusadasi, Bodrum and Crete. I've been to Rome twice so far and mom has been several more times with dad, so we decided to mix it up this time by spending three days in Naples and using it as a base to explore Capri and the Amalfi Coast.

We hired a private car service Roma Shuttle (http://www.romashuttle.com) for three rides, the first of which was to drive us from FCO airport to Naples. Let me say that Roma Shuttle were awesome! Since there were just two of us, we had new Mercedes sedans on all three rides, the drivers always arrived a few minutes early and drove so well and reliably. They really took all the stress out of making transfers. This was one trip where we were making various connections and lots could have gone wrong, but thanks to Roma Shuttle, it was all good. I had initially contacted Rome Cabs but they were booked up, but I'm so happy with Roma Shuttle, we will use them on all subsequent visits. The drive from FCO airport to Naples took about 2 ½ hours, including a 15 minute rest stop, and we arrived at about noon.

In Naples, we were staying at the Grand Hotel Vesuvio (http://www.vesuvio.it/en) which I highly recommend. Its located right on the waterfront along a pedestrian-only boulevard called the Via Partenope. Its right opposite the Castel Dell'Ovo and the Neapolitan waterfront with tons of restaurants and cafes right across the street and even more choices just down the road. We had heard so many stories about Naples being unsafe and truthfully, there are some gritty areas, but this area was incredibly nice and very safe to walk in, even at night, with a reassuring police presence. We had upgraded to a Deluxe Seaview room, which is larger (at least by European standards) and got a great room with direct views of the Castel, waterfront and Mt Vesuvius in the background! Here are some pics attached:

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Are you able to see the pics? Its been a year since I uploaded any pics and I think I forgot how to!

OK, think I got it now! Here are some shots of the lovely Neapolitan waterfront:

We spent the first day walking along the waterfront and tried out Zi Teresa (a waterfront restaurant) for dinner. Lovely food and it was so relaxing to sit and see all the sailboats coming into the marina for the night.

The next day, we took a cab (5 euros) to Molo Bevellero, the Naples cruise port to visit Capri. We had arranged a private tour through Tours of Capri (http://www.toursofcapri.com). They are highly recommended on TripAdvisor and I can see why. We had a wonderful guide Anna Maria who looked after us like we were her kids and ensured we had an amazing day. While their charges are not low, the prices are truly all-inclusive except for lunch, i.e., all ferry, boat cruise and chairlift charges are included, which makes it a good deal. We took the ferry over to Capri, it takes about 45 minutes. First up was the Blue Grotto which is hard to get into (only one trip out of four is successful due to the tides) but our luck was in and we got to see it from the inside. It was truly a very unique experience! Some pics are attached below:

Line up of boats waiting to enter the Grotto Azzura!

On our way!

Heavenly blue!

After the Blue Grotto, we had a lovely drive in an open-air taxi around Capri up to Anacapri driving along the Mama Mia road (also called the Oh My God road due to its crazy hairpin bends and jaw dropping views from every angle) and from there, we took the chairlift to the highest point of the island to see the Faraglioni Rocks.

We then headed back to the chairlift and then drove down to Capri to check out "the sitting room of the world" and shopping (of course!) before Anna Maria shepherded us back to catch the return ferry. Dinner that night was at the famous Antonio & Antonio in Naples (they claim to be the place where pizza was invented but since just about every place in Naples claims that, its difficult to verify). Regardless, the food was great!

Wow what stunning photos!! Looking forward to more! :D

Next day, we had a tour of the Amalfi Coast arranged through Viator (http://www.viator.com). Adriano was our driver-guide and we had a lovely day visiting Sorrento, Positano and Amalfi. We had visited these towns in 2012 and it was awesome to go back. Being just the two of us, we could customize the day however we wanted and took more time in Sorrento and Amalfi, both of which we love.

Dinner that night was at our hotel's rooftop restaurant Caruso (he was apparently a long term resident of the hotel in the last few years of his life) where we enjoyed great food and wine and better views.

Next day – August 23rd – embarkation day for the Rhapsody (damn, do we really have to go?) We sadly left Naples, and Roma Shuttle were there early (as usual) to pick us up for the drive to Civitavecchia. The drive took around 3 ½ hours including a rest stop and we rolled up to Civi at about 12:30 pm. Our driver first took us to a cambio exchange place near the port so I could get some more euros and it was then on to the ship. One of the few places I saw that had a decent exchange rate and I saw several crew members change and wire money here.

One tip – make sure if you have a car service that they are accredited to drive inside the secure port area at Civi. Ours was, but we saw several people using other car services and taxis being forced to get out at the secured area and walk the rest of the way, usually with heavy bags and in the blazing sun (it was incredibly hot throughout the cruise). For that reason alone, I would not recommend taking a taxi to Civi. Whereas our driver just showed his credentials and was able to drive us right up to the actual check in for the ship. Civi's check in is done under some kind of a large permanent tent which does have AC (ineffective) and restrooms (OK but not too clean). Not a great place, but actual check in was pretty fast and we were on the ship by 12:55 pm, about 15 minutes after we drove up.

Ship: The Rhapsody is beautiful! We just loved her color schemes. Yes, she's an older ship, but she's been very well refurbished and looks in great shape, so well maintained. We had been on a 4-day cruise to Cozumel on the Vision last year so we had some idea of what to expect but although she's a sister ship to the Vision, we liked the Rhapsody much better. She is a perfect size, not too big and pretty easy to walk through from one end to the other which you really appreciate after long hot days in port. There are some quirks she has (for instance, only the two bubble elevators go to Deck 11 where the Viking Crown Lounge and Concierge Club are), but once you figure those out, its quite straight forward. We also felt that she had a much smoother ride than the Vision.

Cabin: We had a GS on Deck 8 - #8508, aka the St Thomas suite. The suite was gorgeous! We have had equivalent suites on HAL and Carnival, but we felt this was the best of the bunch. The layout is really good with a large comfy sectional sofa and plenty of additional seating and the beds are very comfy with high quality mattresses and bedding. Tons of storage – we only used a fraction of what was provided, although in fairness, we are fairly light packers. The quality of the furniture and fixtures was high, we felt a notch or so above Carnival and at least two notches above HAL (when we sailed on the Westerdam in 2011, the sofas were sagging in the suite and the bathrooms had this molded plasticky surface, yuck). I had looked for photos of the Rhapsody GS's before sailing and couldn't find any, so I'm providing these pics below:

The best part about the cabin was the bathroom! Carnival GS suites also have nice bathrooms, but this was better with all marble cladding, and the big double sinks with mirrored medicine cabinets and the nice bathtub. It made getting ready a snap, sometimes we'd both be in there applying makeup and never got in each other's way. They also provided Gilchrist & Soames toiletries which were very nice – we had brought our own but just ended up using what they provided.

We also loved the big balcony that had two loungers plus a round table you could use for outdoor dining and two padded chairs. The best part was that the balcony was covered, as you can see in the pics, which provided good shading from the very hot Mediterranean sun.

Our stateroom attendant was Salvito from Goa, India and he was so nice! He was so quick to do our room, we'd literally go down to breakfast and return in 45 minutes and the room was done. We are pretty neat but still, that's impressive. And he always brought us tons of ice each day which we really needed and was very responsive to any requests we had.

First day was pretty much spent exploring the ship. We went up to the Concierge Lounge in the evening and met Analia from Argentina who was very sweet and looked after us throughout the cruise really well. I have to say that the Concierge Lounge was D-E-A-D throughout our cruise! Never saw more than 1-2 other people except for some reason on the last night – not sure if they just discovered it late or what. Our bar waiter was Jeffery who quickly learned our drink preferences and was very nice. While the lounge was much quieter than we expected, it was still fun to hang out there each evening for a while before dinner and chit-chat. It was quiet enough to play cards in there! I'm not sure if the Diamond Lounge was more happening – I debated asking Analia if we could go there one night just to see if it was more lively, but then figured she'd have to say no, so didn't ask.

First day was pretty much spent exploring the ship. We went up to the Concierge Lounge in the evening and met Analia from Argentina who was very sweet and looked after us throughout the cruise really well. I have to say that the Concierge Lounge was D-E-A-D throughout our cruise! Never saw more than 1-2 other people except for some reason on the last night – not sure if they just discovered it late or what. Our bar waiter was Jeffery who quickly learned our drink preferences and was very nice. While the lounge was much quieter than we expected, it was still fun to hang out there each evening for a while before dinner and chit-chat. It was quiet enough to play cards in there! I'm not sure if the Diamond Lounge was more happening – I debated asking Analia if we could go there one night just to see if it was more lively, but then figured she'd have to say no, so didn't ask.

 

 

 

Can you comment on anything they did special for gold card (suite) holders? Did the concierge ever contact you before the cruise? Could you eat lunch in chops?

Thanks!

Wow what stunning photos!! Looking forward to more! :D

Thanks! Lots more to come!

Great review and pics....looking forward to seeing the rest...

Can you comment on anything they did special for gold card (suite) holders? Did the concierge ever contact you before the cruise? Could you eat lunch in chops?

 

Thanks!

Hi - no, the concierge didn't contact me pre cruise. I had emailed and Diego responded, but the actual concierge on the cruise was Analia from Argentina who was very sweet and helpful. In terms of perks, we had all the usual like priority boarding, priority tendering, etc. RCL hosted a champagne brunch for the suite holders on the day of the Santorini port stop at Chops. It was very nice. Nothing else really - I had thought that similar to HAL, there might be a captain's party for the suite pax, but nothing. Chops is not open for breakfast on this ship.

Day 2 (sea day) was spent relaxing and lazing around. We aren't sun worshippers so were perfectly happy to relax on our lovely shaded balcony and catch a little bit of sun, while others were roasting in the sun near the pool. We saw some people by the end of the cruise who were practically orange – not attractive.

Day 3 – first port of call, Santorini! We had been before in 2010 for a wedding so were happy to go back. This is one of the few things I didn't like – we were only in port from 2 pm to 8 pm which is (a) the hottest part of the day and (b) ridiculously short. Although the ship arrived early at about 12:30, they only made the announcement that morning and by then, it was very short notice for those of us who had private tours booked to change the start times. I would have loved to push up the start time of our tour but the guide wasn't able to come earlier. And even though we had priority tendering, it still takes a while to get to the island, and you then have to wait in line for the cable car. We had booked a tour through Get Your Guide (http://www.getyourguide.com) and our driver-guide Fannis was terrific. He drove us all around the island, including to the highest point Pyrgos, and also took us to the Akrotiri ruins although we had very little time there. We enjoyed seeing Oia again and visited a winery, but our time in Fira was cut short due to the long lines for the return cable car. Overall, while we enjoyed Santorini, we really felt very rushed because of the short stop. RC needs to do something about it – the Norwegian Jade and an MSC ship were also in town and they had been there since the morning and were there for the whole day so why couldn't we? Here are some pics from Santorini:

And still more Santorini!

By the Akrotiri Peninisula

Sailing away from Santorini!

Day 4 – Kusadasi. We have been before on a land trip with our family when we visited Ephesus and Pamukkale so this time, we elected to not do anything and just walked around the port area. I did get a beautiful shawl and mom did some bag shopping so we were both happy girls! The shopkeepers are aggressive though - much more than what we remembered from our previous land trip in 2010. Best part was running into some friends who were on one of the Celebrity ships and were also in town that day. Kusadasi has a very pretty waterfront and we enjoyed a good local lunch.

Day 5 – Bodrum. We were excited for this port as we hadn't visited the Turquoise Riviera on our previous land trip to Turkey. We had arranged a tour through Viator who use a local agent Fez Travels. Our guide was Mehmet who was fantastic. First stop was St Peters Castle which was magnificent. Loved the overlay of the various historical periods – starting with the ancient Egyptians, then the Romans, the Knights of St John, and the Ottomans. The underwater museum is also fascinating. Mom is a history fan so she was thrilled and I appreciated how Mehmet went out of his way to ensure it was not too physically tiring for her (finding short cuts, having regular rest stops, etc.) It was very hot that day, close to 95 degrees! Some pics are below:

This was the re-creation of an ancient Egyptian ship that was shipwrecked!

Hi - no, the concierge didn't contact me pre cruise. I had emailed and Diego responded, but the actual concierge on the cruise was Analia from Argentina who was very sweet and helpful. In terms of perks, we had all the usual like priority boarding, priority tendering, etc. RCL hosted a champagne brunch for the suite holders on the day of the Santorini port stop at Chops. It was very nice. Nothing else really - I had thought that similar to HAL, there might be a captain's party for the suite pax, but nothing. Chops is not open for breakfast on this ship.

Ok great. Thank you. Do you remember who the diamond concierge was?

We then visited the Roman amphitheater, the windmills and finally enjoyed walking along the waterfront, seeing the marina, etc. Loved Bodrum. We definitely want to go back.

Sailing out of Bodrum was magical!

Ok great. Thank you. Do you remember who the diamond concierge was?

Sorry no idea - we are not Diamond.

Day 6 – Crete. Our ship was docked in Souda. We had a tour booked through Tours By Locals (http://www.toursbylocals.com). Elena was waiting for us as we emerged out of the port. She first drove us all around the southern part of the island, then took us to a wonderful medieval Greek Orthodox monastery which is still being used by the monks today.