My Review of Rhapsody - South Pacific Cruise

[yamcrzr]

Absolutely awesome review - love the detail.....

 

Cheers

Sharon

[cotton93]

Great review Jason, we also had a fantastic time and thoroughly enjoyed meeting you all. :D

 

Must add our cabin steward was very good, always addressed us by name anytime he saw us which was at least a couple of times a day.

 

Have to agree those drinks were powerful, found that to be the case on all our Royal Caribbean cruises. :)

[cazz0069]

Great review Jason, we also had a fantastic time and thoroughly enjoyed meeting you all. :D

 

Must add our cabin steward was very good, always addressed us by name anytime he saw us which was at least a couple of times a day.

 

Have to agree those drinks were powerful, found that to be the case on all our Royal Caribbean cruises. :)

 

Hey Merrilyn, It was great to meet you guys too. Good to see you have a few cruises to look forward too :)

[megsie]

Loved reading your review. We loved the way the shows worked in with the dining times on the Rhapsody in comparison with Dawn Princess. There was always seating available as well. On NYE cruise Mario D'Andrea, now from Las Vegas but we remembered him from our younger days around the dances and clubs in Newcastle. He was guitarist/vocalist and received a huge standing ovation and did a couple of encores. After the show he did a meet and greet outside theatre - very personable and a great show.:) As much as we love Rhapsody we're booked on Radiance 2012.

[sherri3802]

Great review.

Just loved that video because a picture really is worth a thousand words. It looked excellent, especially the size of that balcony.

I was especially interested to read the comparisons between princess and this ship as I have been wondering which ship to try next.:D

[subaru94]

Cazz thank you so much for your review, felt I was there and already know the ship, we are going on her in 6 weeks time for the first time and can't wait, loved reading about the ship, the staff sound amazing, can't think of any questions at the moment felt like you have covered everything.

[cazz0069]

Cazz thank you so much for your review, felt I was there and already know the ship, we are going on her in 6 weeks time for the first time and can't wait, loved reading about the ship, the staff sound amazing, can't think of any questions at the moment felt like you have covered everything.

 

No worries...You will really love her. Its hard not too! What i meant to mention is that because we got over 25 people on our roll call (39 to be precise) RCL put on a meet and mingle, which the cruise director and staff attended, there were prizes and raffles and it was even catered for, so be sure you register for a meet and mingle. :)

[Sandielle]

Great review Jas. I enjoyed every bit of it. :)

[cazz0069]

Great review Jas. I enjoyed every bit of it. :)

 

Thanks Sandi. How impressive does your clock look right now? Lucky duck! :)

[tassie cruiser]

Great review Jas.... loved reading, bought back memories..:D Rhapsody is a beautiful ship, that's for sure.... We are cruising on Pacific Pearl at Easter so think I will miss the beautiful atrium etc..... have a feeling it will be quite different, but as said by others a cruise is what you make of it, if the staff are great and great people onboard, who could go wrong, but still very excited. Diamond Princess at end of year, so looking forward as well.... Fiona :)

[cazz0069]

Great review Jas.... loved reading, bought back memories..:D Rhapsody is a beautiful ship, that's for sure.... We are cruising on Pacific Pearl at Easter so think I will miss the beautiful atrium etc..... have a feeling it will be quite different, but as said by others a cruise is what you make of it, if the staff are great and great people onboard, who could go wrong, but still very excited. Diamond Princess at end of year, so looking forward as well.... Fiona :)

 

I would love to do the Diamond one day :)

[rkmw]

I would love to do the Diamond one day :)

 

Jas is you like the rhapsody you'll love the diamond better

[anderss22]

I would love to do the Diamond one day :)

 

If you go on Diamond then we are coming!:D

[barnsey1802]

Hi guys,

 

Thanks for the great review. I haven't got to go on the Rhapsody yet, but it's definitely on my radar for the future. Would love to do the Hawaii to Sydney one day. Rhapsody or Radiance, I don't mind which.:)

 

We are also going on the Diamond later this year...(Fiona made me):D

 

Should join us NYE at sea is awesome.....:):cool:

 

Deidre.

[cazz0069]

Hi guys,

 

Thanks for the great review. I haven't got to go on the Rhapsody yet, but it's definitely on my radar for the future. Would love to do the Hawaii to Sydney one day. Rhapsody or Radiance, I don't mind which.:)

 

We are also going on the Diamond later this year...(Fiona made me):D

 

Should join us NYE at sea is awesome.....:):cool:

 

Deidre.

 

Diamond is definetly on the list to do one of these day. Eric is not keen to fly to Bangkok to pick it up. And as we have already done NZ, it may be a little while. You really will love Rhpasody Diedre..Put it on your list! :)

[rugbypopsie]

Diamond is definetly on the list to do one of these day. Eric is not keen to fly to Bangkok to pick it up. And as we have already done NZ, it may be a little while. You really will love Rhpasody Diedre..Put it on your list! :)

 

If you are interested in doing the Diamond re positioning from Asia..keep an eye on the roll call..you will see just how active a roll call can be and what they are planning.

 

Also keep watch on the prices around June which is when there were some specials..for the last two years the sailing has sold out so I would not hesitate too long.

 

It is currently leaving from Singapore not Bangkok so slightly less flying time. We got Jetstar to Singapore last year for $463.

[Hard-habit-to-break]

Thankyou so much for the review. We are hoping to go on Rhapsody in November to do Tropical QLD for 11 nights. Only other ship we have been on is the Volendam (HAL) so pleased to read a review and try to compare to what we know.

[cazz0069]

If you are interested in doing the Diamond re positioning from Asia..keep an eye on the roll call..you will see just how active a roll call can be and what they are planning.

 

Also keep watch on the prices around June which is when there were some specials..for the last two years the sailing has sold out so I would not hesitate too long.

 

It is currently leaving from Singapore not Bangkok so slightly less flying time. We got Jetstar to Singapore last year for $463.

 

Sue, i know about the amazing prices it gets, especially for a mini suite. Its just a bad time of year for us. One day......*sigh* :)

[anderss22]

Sue, i know about the amazing prices it gets, especially for a mini suite. Its just a bad time of year for us. One day......*sigh* :)

 

Did you see the cruise I sent you yesterday on Diamond. You can pick it up in Sydney and then it goes up the coast of Australia to Bali, Vietnam and Thailand, then back to Singapore and then you can fly home.

[takeout]

Your review was fantastic Jas really looking forward to 4th Apr now

[cazz0069]

Your review was fantastic Jas really looking forward to 4th Apr now

 

Havent got long to go Sean, you`ll have a ball!!! :)

[deano75]

(Some people were quoted $50) but how many people were there in the group that were quoted $50?

 

How many people were there in the other group that were quoted for $20?

 

 

 

 

.

 

 

My wife Robyn and I were on this cruise with Jason. We has a taxi for 5 hours and it cost us $110 Australian.

[deano75]

Food: RCL doesnt have a speciality restaurant, so really the only places to eat are the Edelweiss Restaurant and the Windjammer. Theres also the Solarium Cafe but thats really just snacks like Pizza and very bland burgers (i think this is also the hangout when people get the munchies after a night at the Viking Club lounge) Food is always a plenty! Dont be afraid to ask your waiter for 2nds or 3rd or even a couple of each courses. There really is alot of choice. One thing that was really dissapointing was the lack of or more to the point the non existance of Lobster and Bombe Alaska on the last formal night. I hang for these nights on cruises, and even the Fairstar did it, so the fact RCL dont offer it really let it down. Be sure to check out wine packages, i know online you can pick a package but if you are like us and like your Aussie and NZ wines, then wait till your onboard and you can purchase a passage thats made up of entirely those. A 10 bottle package cost us $287. Overall i am going to have to say Princess wins the challenge in relation to better food. The mere fact that they give you the Lobster and Bombe means they win but after alot of ummmming and arrrring i did find that the overall quality and presenation of the food were not up to the standard of Princess.

 

Staff: The staff really do make a cruise and as previously mentioned there were some amazing staff that just made our cruise so enjoyable. Make friends with the bar staff, get in their good books and they make you the most fantastic drinks often with far more booze in it then what the recipe requires. Our cabin steward although friendly rarely spoke to us, didnt introduce himself, and was barely seen. Although he did his job adequately, he didnt do anything that really endeared himself to us. Everything was done to the bare minimum. We were lucky we dont expect much, but i heard someone else complaining that there cabin steward just wasnt available so make of it what you will.

 

Entertainment: As i mentioned before, unlike Princess, RCL on takes advantage of one of its theatres for productions. All shows will be in the Broadway Melodies Theatre. We had some great performers. We had 2 magicians, A Pianist, A Celine Dion Impersonater (the only performer i have ever seen who got a standing ovation on a cruise) She was truly amazing, singing exactly like her, and also doing her accent while remaining in character and talking to the audience. About 30 minutes into the show she breaks character and talks to the audience as herself telling us she won a TV show in the UK where people impersonate their idols. She truly was fantastic. So you can imagine my disgust when 2 old biddies at breakfast were saying how bad she was they had to walk out....They are so lucky their rolling walkers aren't permanently imbeded in their backsides, they made me so mad. I pointed out to them that had they stuck around they would have witnessed the standing ovation. The other one mentioned that she never had never heard any of Celines songs so maybe that was why they didnt like it. At this point Eric had to restrain me from force feeding them their rolling walkers. The final show, was very special with 2 of the cruise staff serenading the audience, followed by a very funny juggler and an amazing acrobatic show. It concluded with the dancers singing some type of goodbye song, followed by all the heads of staff, including the captain and various waiters, bar staff, room attendants etc walking on to the stage waving goodbye...It was a lovely goodbye which admittedly got me a little choked up. Overall i was really happy with the entertainment. Just remember if you miss a show unlike Princess, you dont get a chance to see it again. All shows are on twice a night. Our 12 night cruise saw only 2 Broadway productions, all the rest were guests.

 

Overall: So as you can see we had an amazing time. We had seas that were calmer than my grandmother on a glass of red and half a white valium which i am so grateful for. I cant recommend enough the importance of registering for a roll call. What a chance to make some amazing friends which we did. As the cruise was coming to an end Eric and i tried to way the pros and cons of Princess and RCL and trust me it was really hard. RCL certainly comes out on top in relation to the ship itself Rhapsody is truly a marvel. I challenge anyone to say why this ship isnt just the best that Oz has on offer. But having said that i think Princess some things better. But each to his own i say. Without a doubt i have missed something here, so as i think of it i will add, otherwise ask away and jolt my memory if there is something i have not covered.

 

 

Well done Jas 10/10 from me..... Being on this cruise with you I can say you have hit the nail on the head! No need for me to do one now:D Did you mention room service food...... thats free!