We arrived in Seattle from JFK and were taken by town car to our hotel the Marriott Waterfront. This was the perfect spot for us, as we had little time in Seattle to spend. The sky was blue, and the sun was shining. The hotel is lovely and we were lucky enough to get concierge included in the room. There were 8 of us going on this cruise...my husband Michael and myself, Michael's Mom, my sister in law Lisa and her husband Pat and their 13 year old son Kieth, Michael's two older brothers, Alan and Kenny. The rest of the group (aside from DH and I) flew in from Philadelphia.

We enjoyed the closeness of Pike's Market... it was a great place that we could have spent hours at. There is an elevator to the Market adjacent to the hotel. We ate that night at the Bell Street Diner on Pier 66. Good food and great service...book ahead! This place fills up!

In the morning, we went to Pike's Market again, and then Seattle Shuttle picked us up. We were literally 10 minutes away from the ship. The Rhapsody is a pretty ship. She is older and well kept. Arriving at the gate, we were checked in quickly and then I was almost run over by a man pulling his suitcase. He didn't even turn around to say, "Sorry"...His wife just looked at me and said "A woman would never do that"...OK??? Anyhow, we then got onto the ship and looked around. We toured the spa and the pool area and went for lunch in the Windjammer. The food was great. The only complaint here is that we had to eat on the lawn chairs as there were not enough tables to sit at. If we were there earlier, we probably wouldn't have had the problem. It was the same problem on the Legend of the Seas. I did take note that the servers are really trying hard to seat all people. I thought that was a nice touch. Read more