Rhapsody 6/13/04 - Quick Review

Background - 6 people, 3 adults, 3 teens. My 6th RCL cruise.

Embarkation-Not awful, long lines but moved pretty quickly.

Cabin - Had an M category on deck 7 (my first inside) which was well laid out, plenty of storage. Had to call maintenance re: non-flushing commode - was fixed in a couple hours.

Cabin attendant - Did a fine job. Never introduced himself but cabin was thouroughly cleaned every day and turned down in evening with requisite towel animals.

Bar service - great as always.

Windjammer - YUCK. If I had to eat there for every meal I'd starve. Not looking for gourmet, but edible would have been nice. Especially bad at lunch on port days. Dirty cups & utensils, sticky tables,etc.

Solarium Cafe - Pretty good pizza, burgers, dogs and fries.

Dining room - Excellent service but lackluster food. Presented nicely but bland and tasteless. Had beef tenderloin, prime rib, New York Strip, Ravioli, Chicken Marsala - none were as good as a Lean Cuisine. Literally had to saw the New York Strip. Wine and bar service in dining room was spotty.

Passengers - Mostly Texans, fun crowd. Lots of teens on Senior Trips (well behaved). Pleasantly surprised by lack of rude, smoking europeans as on Miami cruises. Unpleasently surprised by Dining room dress - shorts, wife beaters, jeans, bathing suits all at dinner. Apparently dress code not enforced at all on this ship. Expected it to be more casual than most cruises but hardly expected people to be dressed like they were cleaning the garage!

Shows - Pretty good, comedienne Craig Carmean was awesome, other comedienne so-so, juggler so-so, magician pretty good, singer was okay and production show was pretty good.

Casino - the usual, pretty tight slots, impossible to get a drink in there.

Miscellaneous - one of our party had to visit doctor on board a couple of times - seemed to get excellent care.

Liked - pizza, solarium, shows, drinks

Disliked - Dining room food and Key West port

Hated - Windjammer food, spa staff and those annoying announcements every 12 seconds. Stop already.

Summary - Of six RCL cruises, probably one of my least favorites. I'd be reluctant to go again. As I said, the people and crew on this ship are fabulous, but the cost cutting measures RCL has implemented last couple of years really are showing, especially in the poor quality of food.

Turkey in the tropics - Grand Princess 11/20/04

I am getting more and more concerned .Cost cutting when you pay almost 10,000.$ (total) for a 7 day cruise only to have poor quality food.

*crud*

I am starting to get so discouraged.

The Rhapsody was so fabulous 4 and 5 years ago when we sailed.

Alaska (my BIG 50)Serenade of the Seas

I'm very sorry you didn't enjoy your cruise as much as you have in the past. I do hope your next one is close to perfect.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Rhapsody! 12-5-04

Sorry that you did not enjoy Rhapsody. You seem to be in the minority with your opinion. We were on Rhapsody last November and had a great time. We considered it the best cruise we had been on. Sinse then we went to Holland America and will now go back to RCCL. We have already booked Rhapsody for next April.

Kevin