This was our family's first cruise, and we chose Royal Caribbean's Rhapsody of the Seas because we live just north of Houston and wanted to cruise out of Galveston. Our party included two adults (late 30's) and 3 kids (ages 11, 8 and 4). Because we have three kids, we had two staterooms with a connecting door between which we left open. We decided against having balconies because we worried about the four year old on a balcony, but we did have ocean view rooms, which were quite nice.

Embarkation was very simple. It did take my husband a long time to park the car, but the waiting room was comfortable, and, as soon as he arrived back at the terminal, we were on our way. We had printed out our Set Sail passes online so it was quite easy to move through the line and check in. We arrived in Galveston around noon and were on the ship by 12:40. We walked around for a little while and were allowed into our staterooms at 1:00. We ate a buffet lunch in the Windjammer, then walked around awhile longer checking out the different public rooms. At 4:00, we had the mandatory muster drill which was quick and smooth.

Our staterooms had an connecting door, which we left open. It was locked when we first arrived, but our stateroom attendant unlocked it for us while we were at dinner. The kids had a room with twin beds and a pull down bed. They took turns sleeping on the pull down bed, which they all thought was quite cool. The attendant cleaned our room twice a day. At the evening cleaning, he left a different towel animal each night. Read more