Royal Caribbean International

MV Rhapsody of the Seas

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Operator: Royal Caribbean International
Year Built / Last Refurbished: 1997 / 2007
Length / Tonnage: 915 / 78,491
Number of Cabins / Passengers: 999 / 1,998
Officers / Crew: Norwegian / International
Operating Area: Mexico, Hawaii, Alaska and Westerrn Caribbean

The American songwriter Harold Arlen said it in a mouthful....."You've got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative..." Royal Caribbean International, formerly known as Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, is a true success story in the shark eat shark world of modern day cruise ship operators.

It all started with a dream of some experienced Miami shipping men and it came to reality through the hard work and unchanging visions of a second generation. It's hard to imagine when you look at ships like the Rhapsody of the Seas and consider that her owners are expecting a pair of twins that will come in at some 55,000 TONS MORE THAN THIS 75,000 TON GIANT that it all began with 5000 rust buckets like the 1927 built EVANGELINE and YARMOUTH. Veterans of short haul coastal trades linking Boston and New York with Nova Scotia, these ships ended their careers in the three and four day market along with fellow veteran, the FLORIDA of 1930. These were the ships, with their $54.00 per person minimum fare for the three nighter (and actually, in terms of buying power, a three night Florida to Bahamas cruise is cheaper today!!!) to the Bahamas that began it all...the successful regular cruises from South Florida, which was and is a style of cruising fundamentally, though certainly not totally, different than routine cruises from New York, the west coast, or Europe. The idea of cruising from South Florida quickly began to attract increasing numbers of vacation seekers, happy to begin a cruise in warm weather and relieved to avoid sailing past often ferocious waters off Cape Hatteras.

Putting together a consortium of three Norwegian shipping companies, men like Ed Stephan got Royal Caribbean going in 1970, when they took delivery of the first of their new breed, the SONG OF NORWAY. She was followed the next year by the NORDIC PRINCE and their identical sister, SUN VIKING brought up the rear in 1972. Admittedly, the old guard, used to a wide range of public rooms, cabins of various sizes and decor, and European hotel crews, did not quickly take these ships to their bosom, and veteran cruise passengers fond of the stricter formality of another style stayed away. I still don't know anyone who liked their "ravioli sized" cabins. It's been uphill towards the Rhapsody of the Seas ever since.....these new RCI giants are dandy...and since the old guard whose favorite ships are longer gone than they are, their opinion of the first trio should not stand in your way of looking at what these new ships are.....an improvement over their predecessors in every way.

It is always our intention to provide an individual review for each ship. However, there are not enough differences between this ship and the GRANDEUR or ENCHANTMENT OF THE SEAS to warrant such, and all comments made from those reviews are equally valid for this ship....because Royal Caribbean International wants it that way. They want you to remember the company, but not a specific ship. A cruise and not a unique travel experience. That said, TravelPage readers can understand why our reviews for other new and newish Royal Caribbean ships read so similarly.

For such a large vessel, rarely carrying fewer than 2000 passengers during peak season, the Rhapsody of the Seas has an amazing array of lounges. For intimate ambience, consider the Crown and Anchor Club which is turned into a cigar smoking room during the evening, and the Explorer's Club....both rooms are quiet havens, well away from boisterous nightlife. The ship has a card room and library one deck below, also ideal for peaceful reflection. Now on to the livelier spaces. The main show room is not a lounge...it's a theater, without windows, and it has terrific sight lines from virtually every seat, an excellent sound and light system and a complex stage that rivals anything seen on Broadway...and best of all....it's comfortable! The largest lounge aboard is the aft situated show lounge, comfortably fitted with sofas, large chairs, a dance floor with bandstand and a bar. Nearby is my favorite nocturnal haunt, the Schooner Bar, with magnificent floor to ceiling windows and oh so soft lighting.... here's where a top notch pianist will entertain your musical requests each night.

Cleverly located near the dining room entrance, the Champagne Terrace is a pleasant space, perfect for that pre dinner cocktail and dance.....and they serve hot appetizers nightly! The Dining Room, a magnificently muted (color, decor and NOISE wise) has, like it or not, both smoking and non smoking sections. To many, the most important public room on any ship is the casino.....Rhapsody of the Seas' will not disappoint, as it offers blackjack, roulette, craps, Caribbean Stud Poker and slot machines aplenty. And finally, there's Royal Caribbean's signature room.....the Viking Crown Lounge....high atop the ship and terraced for unobstructed views of the pool areas below. Let me tell you how easy it is to find seating in any of the lounges....the only traffic bottleneck I saw was during the shops' opening hours, which understandably drew large crowds to a seemingly endless array of sale items (prices for shipboard souvenirs seemed high, and the quality less than imposing). So, to sum it up, no matter what your mood is at any moment, the Rhapsody of the Seas has a place for you.

The dinner service was leisurely, personable, and a pleasure. Though not a concern to everyone, the quality of the food has slipped......all of it was edible, but exciting it was not. The sommelier we had deftly navigated us through the wine list. The Windjammer cafe offers a limited but capable breakfast and lunch.... with stand alone circular buffet bars for hot foods, cold foods, salads and desserts, so that lines are minimal. During lunch, there's a choice of five hot entrees with a "roast du jour". .From 6:30pm to 9:30pm, the cafe offers casual dinner dining. There's an outdoor covered area, both port and starboard, with ceiling fans and pleasant varnished wood banquettes and chairs, for al fresco diners.

I'm a man who thinks that a great dinner party is one with 50 Benedictine monks who've pledged silence, so I wasn't looking forward to an RCI dining tradition....singing waiters...but I've been foiled again....because on this cruise ship, the singing works, and in fact, it's a welcome vote of good cheer to all....there were no sappy speeches coming from a lounge lizard cruise director, inviting us to drown ourselves in overactive tear ducts for our cruise had come to a close.....there weren't any cues to put our arms around our table companions and pledge eternal friendship....and blessedly, there were no insistent instructions to clap ourselves silly for waiter, busboy, pastry chef.... their parents, grandparents, and so on and so forth. And when the waiters did sing, it never disrupted the service...it was cute, quick and lots of fun.

The minimum grade cabins are AMAZING!!!! At just under 160 square feet, but through ingenious design, these cabins sport some of the best storage space I've ever seen. No less than 14 drawers, a 53" long closet (with 24 wooden hangars) and oodles of shelves for toiletries, books and what nots are fitted in each room. The lighting in each cabin offers maximum charm, with a noticeable lack of harsh fluorescence. Wooded accented walls, full length mirrors, cheerful and colorful artwork, curtains and carpets add a warmth to the living space. Each standard cabin has a loveseat or easy chair. Lower beds can be arranged as french twins (queen sized bed). Electric outlets for 120 volts and 230 volts are cleverly arranged at the desk for the ever popular lap top computer, cd player, or whatnot.

Category "D" cabins are similarly equipped but offer a small private veranda. There are a handful of these cabins located aft, and any added vibration felt from the engines might be overlooked if you are a fantail fan....the ship's wake and the gentle rolling ocean can be hypnotizing! Outside Bridge Deck cabins come in 5 sizes, big, bigger, bigger yet, huge and cavernous. All are considered suites, and all have the requisite luxuries....mini refrigerators, sitting areas, verandas, large bathrooms with tubs, and more storage space than two people could fill on a seven day cruise. RCI, thinking of family travelers, has outfitted four suites in category AA to accommodate up to eight people. I saw every type of cabin on this ship......and there wasn't a single one I wouldn't have been happy occupying.

Anyone who wants "it all".....night life, quiet life, romantic spots.....should be pleased with the Rhapsody of the Seas. I saw all age groups, many nationalities, many income brackets....everyone seemed to have a great time. It's my opinion that whenever a ship carries this many passengers, you're bound to find pleasant company. I do offer this caveat....if your primary concern is formal service, you should consider looking elsewhere....pretension does not go over well on this ship.

Rhapsody of the Seas will spends the colder months based out of Los Angeles where she makes seven day cruises to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico - Mazatlan, Mexico - Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Besides her one time spring and fall Panama Canal cruises, she summers in Alaska offering one week trips from Vancouver cruising the Inside Passage and the stopping at Ketchikan, Alaska - Juneau, Alaska - Skagway, Alaska - Sitka, Alaska - Hubbard Glacier (Cruising) - Seward, Alaska. For fans of lots of days at sea, RHAPSODY goes over to Hawaii once during the spring and again during the fall. Of course, those cruises call at the Big Island, Maui and Kauai as well as Oahu.

Back to Harold Arlen's musical thought....positives and negatives...

I'm for hygiene and all, but must the friendly attendants in the Windjammer Cafe wear rubber surgical gloves? Or was the liver on the steam table recently extracted from one of the passengers? I really wish the waiters did not feel compelled to hint, beg or flat out ask their charges to mark "excellent" on the comment cards. I cut off our waiter mid speech, because I'm not comfortable with people groveling ....and the craziest thing of all was that he was wasting his breath on us....because his work WAS EXCELLENT and there was absolutely no need to bring up the matter.

Tables for two in the Dining Room are as rare as two headed cows.....and your travel agent would have to be a Merlin the Magician to get one for you in advance. If you beg long enough, there's a chance the maitre'd or his assistant will triumphantly announce that they will build a table just for you.....but actually, this is a come on....you see, the table they "built" for us always exists as a table for two.....they just want you to feel that they've gone that extra mile.

The cruise director has absolutely no business, during his debarkation talk, intimating that the suggested tips of $3.00 per person per day for the waiter and the room steward and $1.50 a day to the bus boy are the MINIMUM suggested tips....these figures are in line with the standards by which most cruise lines operate. The cruise director ought to be muzzled for this tacky infraction of good taste.

And speaking of the cruise director, on the plus side, he kept his public announcements to a minimum....but the REPEATED pleas to come to bingo became tedious. AND, his staff, with one exception, wasn't the most personable group I've encountered....having said that, with over 2000 passengers aboard, one cannot expect them to become your best "bud"....but a smile and hello when in an elevator or passing on deck couldn't have hurt.

I know standards of American service have changed over the years....and some people might view good service as being a bar waiter passing by your deck chair every 5 minutes (no exaggeration) doing his best imitation of a stadium hot dog vendor trying to get you to buy his wares.... but would it be so difficult to have these hard working staff position themselves at strategic locations on deck where they could be summoned as needed? On the opposite side of the coin, some bars were severely understaffed, and no amount of arm waving could summon the attention of the few wait people.

The amount and variety of deck space on Rhapsody of the Seas is magnificent....only during peak sunning hours would a late riser have to hunt a little while to find a deck chair (and only if that someone required a pool side chaise). And here's another pleasant crowd pleaser....the windows along the side of the ship in the pool area slide open to prevent the lido from becoming a human slow roast pit. And even in the most oppressive of Caribbean sunshine, there are tons and tons of large soft beach towels available to mop off the sweat.

Our room steward was the first, in many many cruises, to refill, without being asked, ice in the champagne bucket......a shining example of how the room stewards consider the smallest details while servicing the cabin.

The Rhapsody of the Seas is a seagoing Levittown....a FULL SERVICE RESORT, with facilities, food and entertainment to appeal to all age groups, all income brackets, and a bevy of nationalities. The various departments are operated in a non traditional seagoing way...it's designed to operate as a resort....the fact that it floats is, to most, a pleasant bonus, but I believe that to RCI, it's not a requisite. Because the line has broken the distinction between a pleasure ship and a land based resort, RCI makes first timers, cruise novices, and hardened cruise veterans comfortable....it's a vacation product that does not intimidate.