off the rhapsody 5/20/07

[shallwechat]

hhhh. this was quite a trip. i have been on this ship 3 previous times and just loved it. this time i had a grand suite and was looking forward to a wonderful trip...it turned out to be not all that.

 

embarkation was wonderful. employees were friendly and everything went smooth.

 

i ordered the room decorated with 2 cakes to be in the room upon arrival. i received one cake sunday evening after i made 2 calls about them....i received the other on monday.

 

the dining room food was not good and the service left little to be desired. the first night we went we had to wait 40 minutes before they would take our order because the two other people at the table were not there. our orders were taken at 9:10 pm. we also waited 25 minutes for tea after we asked twice for it. i guess that turned out to be pretty good because the table next to us waited longer.

 

the windjammer food and staff was good. my cabin steward went above and beyond the call of duty and as far as i am concerned and she should get a promotion!

 

purser's desk help seemed to be helpful "because they had to be" but when it came down to it, they weren't. they were patronizing.

 

i filed two complaints on one incident because they kept telling me someone would contact me.....noone ever did.

 

my mother-in-law had a letter stating she would receive a complimentary bottle of champagne and was to call for it. when she did, she was told they were out of champagne, two days into the cruise. interesting enough, when my mother-in-law mentioned it to the cabin steward, she contacted her supervisor who had a bottle delivered in about 10 minutes.

 

cruise director was great! very friendly and i noticed many had a blast. i enjoyed my BIG balcony while a lot of the stuff was going on up top.

 

debarkation went smooth.

 

 

i have been on 12 cruises, 6 on royal caribbean. this ranked 11th out of 12th. only reason it didn't rank 12th was because at the bottom of the list is my cruise where the a/c went out on the ship for 3 days and the engines broke twice. ship was sent to australia. LOL

 

when i arrived home i called rccl and the lady told me, "well, we have been getting a lot of complaints on this ship, it doesn't surprise me". geees!

 

i still have faith in rccl and will be trying them again. 5 out of 6 ain't bad for them and all of the others i took were GREAT!

[eguiney]

I have been on the Rhapsody 3 previous time also and am going agian in 2 1/2 weeks (can I go tomorrow:confused: :D ). Like you I have enjoyed the 3 previous trips. I hope your experience was unique but I wonder if the service is sliding since she is leaving Galveston soon to be replaced by the floating city.

[petel]

We have had several great cruises on the Rhapsody. They are training a lot of new crew members for the up comming Asian season. So, I'm curious about the middle management role in how your situation was handled. Please, if you wouldn't mind, answer the following questions.

 

Who was the Guest Relations Manager?

 

Did you discuss your service in the dinning room with your head waiter or maître d'?

 

Who was the Executive Chef?

 

Did you speak to the Food & Beverage Manager about the champagne and especially about the person who told you that they were out of champagne?

 

We are sailing on Rhapsody August 12th. Can't wait. :)

 

Oh, one more question. Who is the Hotel Director? Did you chat with him/her?

[crazy 4 cruising]

hhhh. this was quite a trip. i have been on this ship 3 previous times and just loved it. this time i had a grand suite and was looking forward to a wonderful trip...it turned out to be not all that.

 

embarkation was wonderful. employees were friendly and everything went smooth.

 

i ordered the room decorated with 2 cakes to be in the room upon arrival. i received one cake sunday evening after i made 2 calls about them....i received the other on monday.

 

the dining room food was not good and the service left little to be desired. the first night we went we had to wait 40 minutes before they would take our order because the two other people at the table were not there. our orders were taken at 9:10 pm. we also waited 25 minutes for tea after we asked twice for it. i guess that turned out to be pretty good because the table next to us waited longer.

 

the windjammer food and staff was good. my cabin steward went above and beyond the call of duty and as far as i am concerned and she should get a promotion!

 

purser's desk help seemed to be helpful "because they had to be" but when it came down to it, they weren't. they were patronizing.

 

i filed two complaints on one incident because they kept telling me someone would contact me.....noone ever did.

 

my mother-in-law had a letter stating she would receive a complimentary bottle of champagne and was to call for it. when she did, she was told they were out of champagne, two days into the cruise. interesting enough, when my mother-in-law mentioned it to the cabin steward, she contacted her supervisor who had a bottle delivered in about 10 minutes.

 

cruise director was great! very friendly and i noticed many had a blast. i enjoyed my BIG balcony while a lot of the stuff was going on up top.

 

debarkation went smooth.

 

 

i have been on 12 cruises, 6 on royal caribbean. this ranked 11th out of 12th. only reason it didn't rank 12th was because at the bottom of the list is my cruise where the a/c went out on the ship for 3 days and the engines broke twice. ship was sent to australia. LOL

 

when i arrived home i called rccl and the lady told me, "well, we have been getting a lot of complaints on this ship, it doesn't surprise me". geees!

 

i still have faith in rccl and will be trying them again. 5 out of 6 ain't bad for them and all of the others i took were GREAT!

 

I am so sorry to hear this. we went April 22 & had a great cruise. I agree with Pete, theya re training ALOT of new staff as they want all of the front line people to be native Cantoneese and MAndarin (I think those ar ethe right languages) speakers. Our head waiter did tell us that he was having a terrible time with the new waiter/asst waiters taking directions. they just nod and smile and don't do what is asked--nto sure if it is a language thing or not. I wish I could go on Rhapsody 1 more time before she leaves, but just can't swing it.

[Mrsg324]

I leave on Sunday. I hope we don't have issues.

[vickiw0318]

We were on the week of 5/13. No problems whatsover. Okay, I lied - there was a brief problem with the toilet system the morning we left. I called and it was fixed by the time I returned to the cabin after breakfast. Our waiter wasn't the best I've ever had, but she was pleasant and competent. One evening we were the first at our table by quite a few minutes and she took our orders and had them in before everyone else showed up. She handled the late arrivals beautifully. Hopefully, the OP just had someone in training.

 

Anyway, I'd get back on on Sunday if I could.

[shallwechat]

this answer sounds like ignorance but here it goes!

 

i called and tried to speak with the head waiter but was told i needed to go to dining room....so i did, twice. he wasn't there both times and i left message there and at purser's desk and was told he would contact me....NEVER HEARD FROM HIM. ----i did notice on the second formal night (one of two nights the whole cruise we ate in dining room), the head waiter actually came and helped wait on our table, as if he knew things weren't right. the waiter kept asking, "how is my service, how is my service, i am sure it is good." he kept saying this before taking our order and it was an awkward situation. i did tell him i wasn't happy having to wait on people who were late to dinner and then he quit asking and just moved on.

 

as for the food & beverager manager, i don't know what went further with my mother-in-law.

 

as for the executive chef, i really didn't care because the food just wasn't that good and he wasn't going to change his cooking methods for me. i did find that there were more people in the windjammer than usual. the entertainment was really good and the food, although buffet style, was good and we enjoyed it.

 

as for the guest relations manager, it seemed the same three people worked the front desk although that is not so. LOL i did ask for a supervisor once and was told, "someone will be calling you", just as they did that morning when i complained the first time.

[wolfganghowell]

Chat - so sorry to hear of this. Each one sounds like a little annoyance but we all know how taken as a whole they are frustrating. Sounds like you tried to handle it the best way you could and that you found ways to still have a good time. It doesn't help of course but I know those poor waiters are really trained to turn in an entire table at once. You didn't say if your tablemates were friends but they contributed to the problem by coming late. I know we have learned to ALWAYS let our tablemates know if we are not joining in at dinner so the waiter doesn't wait for them. Since he might have been new, perhaps he was overcompensating by following the rules. Sounds too like there are language barriers for this transition period.

 

I am surprised that the phone person told you they heard a lot of negatives on Rhapsody. It's always had the image of being the ship with the most repeaters and the happiest passengers. The only negative experiences we ever had on the ship were other passengers but that's just part of life. :)

 

I also hear a lot on this board about RCCL being bad about their advance party orders whether it is cakes, alcohol or decorations. I think that must be a fleet wide problem.

 

On a brighter note, how were your ports? Any info to share? Here's to your 13th cruise being Lucky 13 and gaining the number one spot on your list!

[shallwechat]

wolfganghowell,

 

OK, here i go again. i typed this long reply and somehow it disappeared.

 

the heck with cruising for a while....disney is next. mickey mouse....here i come!

 

i think the lady with rccl was in a round-a-bout way telling me it was recent cruises that have had a lot of complaints. i have been on this ship 4 times and loved every minute of it! it was always above my expectations. that is why i am so disappointed. i spent a small fortune for this trip to be a graduation trip for my son....at least the grand suite was nice!

 

ports of call:

 

cozumel was usual.....shop and senor frogs. prices are higher than usual.

 

roatan...people are too grabby-feely. LOL i don't like people grabbing at me to buy things. the people are poor...dirt floors in the shops. many were friendly though and had good items. we didn't go far off the dock....i had been to this port before and was not comfortable here.

 

costa maya....nice shopping but i didn't find a whole lot of variety. didn't take any tours as i have been there done that at all the ports. we sat at the open air bar and watched the kids swim in the salt water pool.

 

progresso......well, i had been here before and hated it! there use to be a fish market in the middle of town that was HORRID. now it is a different story. it appears the people are trying to get their stuff together. the town has been cleaned up....the prices are much cheaper than anywhere else. we sat at an open air restaurant on the beach with great views. we dared to have nachos and none of us got sick. it was inexpensive and really tasty. example of prices: certain vanilla i wanted was 2/$20 in cozumel but progresso was 2/$14 for the exact same thing. liquor was $21 on ship, $22 in cozumel, $16.75 in progresso. i was very excited for the people of this little town....they have come a long way and really seem to be trying hard to work on tourism.

 

as for my tablemates...they had notified the dining room they were going to be late because the waiter told us they would be late....so we were like children and had to wait until they came. i didn't let them know in a "nice" way that we were held up 40 minutes because of them and that there was alternative dining in the windjammer. LOL

 

the waiters may be trained to wait on the entire table but he knew enough to know the service was slow because he kept saying, "how was my service, how was my service, it was good wasn't it?" he sounded like a parrot until i told him not acceptable as i didn't think waiting 40 minutes for tablemates was appropriate. i also don't think making a person wait 20 minutes for ice tea is "going by the rules". i did note that the other tables around us were not offered ice tea until they asked for it and one lady seemed to complain rather loudly about it. LOL

 

i found the passengers on this ship to be very nice. we met many friendly people....strangely enough...nicer than previous cruises on this ship.

 

i can't say i didn't have a good time because with my family, i can always find a way. going on a cruise with my 18-yr old son is always quite interesting. the entire situation was just not a good one considering it was one thing after another and everyone seem to keep making excuses. there were appropriate ways to handle the situations but noone knew what to do except pass it on to the next person.

[wolfganghowell]

Totally understand.

 

We went to Disneyworld last month and had a great time - hope you will too.

 

I also noticed the same thing on passengers on our last cruise. Funny....