Cabins to avoid on Rhapsody of the Seas

Hope this will be of help to those thinking of booking on this ship in the future. (we sailed on her first in October 2008, recently on the April 12 2010 Hawaii cruise).

Deck 2; avoid cabin 2587 in particular. We endured three sleepless nights due to banging of metal pipes constantly, day and night, so were unable to have afternoon catch up sleeps. There would be approximately 10 minutes of so of silence, then a sequence of 4 - 10 clanging noises - this went on 24/7 without stop. Finally at 3am of the third night of no sleep we were allowed to move to the "emergency" cabin (my husband has a chronic medical condition and lack of sleep for 72 hours was exacerbating this condition).

Deck 3: avoid cabins 3087, 3085, 3083 if you like going to bed early, as they are directly below the Centrum champagne bar's band area and huge speakers and these bands go till midnight each night, with the loudest band of the day (which varies) beginning at 10pm through to midnight. Also, cabin 3087 abuts the cascading fountain so at various times it sounds like a gushing river running right next door!

3087 was we were told the emergency cabin, so it was in pretty poor shape overall - broken hinges on cupboard doors, broken light switch, and best of all.... two large blood stains on the mattress protector, plus other stains of unidentifiable material!

On our December 2008 cruise our daughter experienced the very same problem she had Cabin #2586 after 3 days and many complaints to the purser they were lucky enough to be moved to a Junior Suite.....sad they couldn't be a lot more charitable to you.....hope you are sending in a letter of complaint think it's warranted.....cheers Shiona

Hi LOTR, nice to 'see' you again. Those stains are absolutely disgusting, particularly in this day and age, with all the OH&S concerns.

Wondered though what you thought of the ROS Hawaii? Worth going on? Did you do the Hawaii to Sydney bit?

Cheers,

Jen

Hi LOTR, nice to 'see' you again. Those stains are absolutely disgusting, particularly in this day and age, with all the OH&S concerns.

 

Wondered though what you thought of the ROS Hawaii? Worth going on? Did you do the Hawaii to Sydney bit?

 

Cheers,

Jen

Jen, I really don't think I can answer that fairly, owing to the pretty abysmal time we had on the ship, which was so sad after our trip on her in Oct 08. I have put a review on the cruise critic site, so it should hopefully be up to look at in a day or two.

So many people seemed to be having a good time ... we did the April 12 to Hawaii via Tahiti cruise. I honestly will not sail with Royal Caribbean again as I have lost faith with them. You might remember we had an issue with them prior to sailing last time which was resolved only after we threatened to publish in a newspaper.

This time we found the ship standards have slipped since our Oct 08 cruise e.g Windjammer had stained chairs, lounges and carpet, some staff across various areas were in obvious need of customer service lessons, some amenities e.g deckchairs, are losing bits of plastic, some were broken.... overall a real downer of a cruise.

We had reason to write a letter to the Cruise Director (she was always asking for feedback) but did not get a reply and, of real interest, was that we did not receive a Guest Survey in our cabin on our last evening (I wonder why):eek:

We only wish we had flown directly to Hawaii!!

Having said that, we did find a couple of exceptionally professional caring staff who tried to help us but we also found some very unprofessional and arrogant crew.

My gut answer to you would be to try and do a similar trip on a different line but, if you were happy with Rhapsody (as we were first time round) good luck and it would probably pay to get the best cabin you can afford!!

We also found that the great things on offer last cruise, like the daily 2 for 1 cocktails, did not occur this time around (because of the good exchange rate, we heard).

Cheers to you both, and whatever you decide, have a wonderful next cruise.

So sorry to hear you had such a bad experience - those pictures of the stained mattress are just awful!!

This is so vastly different to the experience we had on Rhapsody in January, everything was so wonderful, its hard to believe its the same ship! The service was outstanding, without exception, food excellent, everything looked spotless.

I guess if everything goes well and there are no problems it can be wonderful, but hopefully the experience you had is not the norm. I would definitely be writing a letter to RC and taking this further....and include the photos of the bed.... would be interesting to see what their response is.

So sorry to hear you had such a bad experience - those pictures of the stained mattress are just awful!!

 

This is so vastly different to the experience we had on Rhapsody in January, everything was so wonderful, its hard to believe its the same ship! The service was outstanding, without exception, food excellent, everything looked spotless.

I guess if everything goes well and there are no problems it can be wonderful, but hopefully the experience you had is not the norm. I would definitely be writing a letter to RC and taking this further....and include the photos of the bed.... would be interesting to see what their response is.

thanks for your words....

we rebooked on Rhapsody as we had had such a great time in Oct 08... we will probably write to the HQ but doubt we will get a response.

The point of this thread was to alert those thinking of Deck 2 to be very careful of the area surrounding 2587 and to also avoid the three cabins on Deck 3 mentioned, unless you are a nightowl, which we aren't, especially 16 nights in a row!

That's not good at all.

What was your cabin attendants response to the mattress protector?

Jillybean

Woaaah! thats grose! haha

You didn't call the reception right away though, they surely would have changed that right? :|

Jen, I really don't think I can answer that fairly, owing to the pretty abysmal time we had on the ship, which was so sad after our trip on her in Oct 08. I have put a review on the cruise critic site, so it should hopefully be up to look at in a day or two.

 

So many people seemed to be having a good time ... we did the April 12 to Hawaii via Tahiti cruise. I honestly will not sail with Royal Caribbean again as I have lost faith with them. You might remember we had an issue with them prior to sailing last time which was resolved only after we threatened to publish in a newspaper.

 

This time we found the ship standards have slipped since our Oct 08 cruise e.g Windjammer had stained chairs, lounges and carpet, some staff across various areas were in obvious need of customer service lessons, some amenities e.g deckchairs, are losing bits of plastic, some were broken.... overall a real downer of a cruise.

 

We had reason to write a letter to the Cruise Director (she was always asking for feedback) but did not get a reply and, of real interest, was that we did not receive a Guest Survey in our cabin on our last evening (I wonder why):eek:

 

We only wish we had flown directly to Hawaii!!

 

Having said that, we did find a couple of exceptionally professional caring staff who tried to help us but we also found some very unprofessional and arrogant crew.

 

My gut answer to you would be to try and do a similar trip on a different line but, if you were happy with Rhapsody (as we were first time round) good luck and it would probably pay to get the best cabin you can afford!!

 

We also found that the great things on offer last cruise, like the daily 2 for 1 cocktails, did not occur this time around (because of the good exchange rate, we heard).

 

Cheers to you both, and whatever you decide, have a wonderful next cruise.

.

Wow... How long before you noticed the bed problems.. Seepage thru sheets when you got in? :eek: Or did you you strip the bed yourself next morning and notice?

Worries us now whether next time we have to start our vacation by making beds up ourselves..:confused:

.

.

S and P

Hi Eve and close neighbour, :)

Glad you made it back to Sydney with no problems.

Me and my big fat mouth about your cabin. Last time I offer any advice lol :p.

I noticed a drop in standards in some areas too. We did find out that alot of the crew were on their first ever contract on a ship. Though most of the time, they were the good ones!!:eek:

I was less than impressed with our Dining Room waiters. The service was sooo slow, and were always the last ones served, even though the other couple at our table were Diamond Plus members.

Our Head Waiter was good. I think he saw us 'twiddling our thumbs' for the food a few times.

I must say though, I think the food in the Dining Room had improved vastly on last year. Though I must say I was quite disappointed in the Windjammer's variety, especially at Dinner time. Breakfast was fine there, lunch was hit and miss.

Jamie, the same steward as yours, was great. He always parked his trolley outside our cabin, so was easy to grab.:p Don't worry, we didn't receive a Survey either??:confused: I went to the Pursers Desk and got one, and noted down my cabin number.

My thoughts.....The cruise itself was okay. The ship itself is okay, but is in need of a spruce up. The carpet in the Windjammer looked tatty, but I suppose with 2,000 feet walking over it every day, it would look rather tatty.

Also Eve....did you notice that awful smell in the centrum the last few days?? Thank goodness it did not make it down to the cabins!! It seemed to stop on Deck 4.

Crew....Very hot and cold. Some would bend over backwards for you, and others made it as though they were doing you a favour. Our Assistant Waiter from our last cruise was still there. Li is fantastic!! She is still friendly and bubbly as ever. Emily and Ting Ting at Guest Services were still friendly as ever.

Anyway...I better go. Will do more when I get home.....26 hours of travelling ahead today!!:rolleyes:

Eve,

Just read your review in the Reviews section. The guy on the door at the Windjammer...was that the guy with brown hair and quite loud? I did not like him at all. The girl from Romania was always nice and polite.

Did you get any of the Purser's details that 'helped' you? I'd be interested to see who 'Purser 1' was??

Sorry to hear you guys had problems on your cruise, but it is a change from the norm :(. Usually it's P&O that is getting bagged here.

So sorry to hear of your problems, the cleanliness issue was absolutely disgraceful :eek:. I hope this was an isolated problem and they are going to let their standards slip. You certainly deserve some form of compensation. Please let us know what happens.:)

Sandy, don't worry about him, something is wrong there:(. The other day I posted something and he replied with the single word 'matchs' :confused::confused:I still have no idea what that means.

Jenny

Hah Bella, I don't think anyone else knows either - it's all 'gobbledygook' or else weird threats. :rolleyes:

I hope the trouble with the Rhapsody is sorted out. I've only seen good reviews - maybe it's just the new crew. It certainly would have been very disappointing for the above cruisers.

Hi Jarrod, we had a wonderful time in Hawaii (thank goodness!!)

The guy who gave me grief in the Windjammer was a very young guy with a very odd manner, who needs taking in hand and taught how to talk to customers!

The purser who was delightful and compassionate was a young South Korean lady, whose name escapes me, but we wrote a letter of commendation to her while still on the cruise and she came up a few days later, delighted with it, so that was one nice thing that occurred (we also gave her the lovely flowers from Raiatea, too).

We have written a letter and will email it off next week to ensure it gets to the appropriate people around 10am on their Monday... we don't expect anything other than a generic 'sorry for that, hope your next cruise is better' response!!!!!!!!!!!!

But we had to do it because it was such a disappointment, the whole trip. All we wanted to do was to get off.

And the chronic fatigue affected P's diabetes, too, which we of course mentioned.

Anyway, another bonus was the chats I had with you, great to talk to you but sorry I was not my usual happy smiley self...

Will advise this forum of any answer we might get.

I won't be going on the RCL forum anymore though... I was absolutely flamed by people on that... they made me feel so bad.

There were some who applauded me in letting people know of the incidents but as stated above, some on there were very rude to me.

Thanks to all on this P&O forum who have been much nicer to me... if I ever cruise again, I will be looking at P&O/Princess

Hah Bella, I don't think anyone else knows either - it's all 'gobbledygook' or else weird threats. :rolleyes:

 

I hope the trouble with the Rhapsody is sorted out. I've only seen good reviews - maybe it's just the new crew. It certainly would have been very disappointing for the above cruisers.

Ummm me too Sandy...reckon they should have it all sorted by February..Glad to see our beloved cabin 7152 doesnt fall into this list.

I had seen quite a few bad reviews on Rhapsody and it was actually 99% of the people on this page that reassured me that she was wonderful, i hope she`s not slipping again:cool:

Hi Jarrod, we had a wonderful time in Hawaii (thank goodness!!)

 

The guy who gave me grief in the Windjammer was a very young guy with a very odd manner, who needs taking in hand and taught how to talk to customers!

 

The purser who was delightful and compassionate was a young South Korean lady, whose name escapes me, but we wrote a letter of commendation to her while still on the cruise and she came up a few days later, delighted with it, so that was one nice thing that occurred (we also gave her the lovely flowers from Raiatea, too).

 

We have written a letter and will email it off next week to ensure it gets to the appropriate people around 10am on their Monday... we don't expect anything other than a generic 'sorry for that, hope your next cruise is better' response!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

But we had to do it because it was such a disappointment, the whole trip. All we wanted to do was to get off.

 

And the chronic fatigue affected P's diabetes, too, which we of course mentioned.

 

Anyway, another bonus was the chats I had with you, great to talk to you but sorry I was not my usual happy smiley self...

 

Will advise this forum of any answer we might get.

 

I won't be going on the RCL forum anymore though... I was absolutely flamed by people on that... they made me feel so bad.

 

There were some who applauded me in letting people know of the incidents but as stated above, some on there were very rude to me.

 

Thanks to all on this P&O forum who have been much nicer to me... if I ever cruise again, I will be looking at P&O/Princess

I feel for you, and there is no excuse for lack of hygiene anywhere on a ship, but can I just say please give Royal Caribbean another try. You can't always right off a whole company because of a one off unfortunate situation and experience.

Jillybean:)

Hope this will be of help to those thinking of booking on this ship in the future. (we sailed on her first in October 2008, recently on the April 12 2010 Hawaii cruise).

 

Deck 2; avoid cabin 2587 in particular. We endured three sleepless nights due to banging of metal pipes constantly, day and night, so were unable to have afternoon catch up sleeps. There would be approximately 10 minutes of so of silence, then a sequence of 4 - 10 clanging noises - this went on 24/7 without stop. Finally at 3am of the third night of no sleep we were allowed to move to the "emergency" cabin (my husband has a chronic medical condition and lack of sleep for 72 hours was exacerbating this condition).

 

Deck 3: avoid cabins 3087, 3085, 3083 if you like going to bed early, as they are directly below the Centrum champagne bar's band area and huge speakers and these bands go till midnight each night, with the loudest band of the day (which varies) beginning at 10pm through to midnight. Also, cabin 3087 abuts the cascading fountain so at various times it sounds like a gushing river running right next door!

 

3087 was we were told the emergency cabin, so it was in pretty poor shape overall - broken hinges on cupboard doors, broken light switch, and best of all.... two large blood stains on the mattress protector, plus other stains of unidentifiable material!

 

Hi Folks Wondering if there is a update on these cabins.

anyone recently been on Rhapsody.

I am looking at bookuing a group later this year out of Australia.

Miystic

If you are booking for later this year they you shouldn't have any issue with the bedding or furnishings - I understand that the refurbishment that is happening shortly will include replacement of all bedding and furniture. HOwever not sure how much structural stuff they will do - as always check your cabin offerings on the map to try and find if it is near anything that might be noisy.

Hi Heard on board in November that the main part of the refurb was going to be installing three specialty eateries. I believe one is going in the Solarium and another in the conference room but not sure where the third is going. Didn't hear of any furniture or bedding being replaced but if the photos are anything to go by they certainly need to look at it. We ahd no problems and had a cabin on the 2nd level

Yuk I certainly would not be sleeping on a blood stained mattress. I am so sorry you were flamed pity it seems that people can only post fourable reviews which makes you wonder doesn't it. You would think people were smart enough to sort out the silly complaints like over friendly shower curtains from serious short comings like yukky mattresses. You should feel free to review your cruise as you found it.

Sue

p.s. Hi Mystic drop me a line

I did send a email. Did you receive it Sue.

My email is still the same.

Gwen:p

Dreamy and I have sailed on Rhapsody twice in recent years, both times in a Junior Suite. 8038 was a great experience, very easy navigation to all areas and an excellent room attendant.

The next cruise was in 8022 and we learn't the hard way not to be immediately below the pool area. Most mornings we were woken by housekeeping on the pool deck above, uncomfortably well before gym time and breakfast.

Our next cruise is Concierge Class on Celebrity Century and we selected deck 9, purposely 2 decks below the pool, sandwiched between 2 totally residential decks to insulate from entertainment decks.

I'm expecting this to be an excellent choice and I hope the explanation of our reasoning process assists others with their choice of cabin.

That is just terrible. I will be sailing on her soon

I think I'll just avoid Royal Caribbean altogether so I don't have any of these cabin issues. LOL! Might be easier. :D