Rhapsody of the Seas Review
Great bang for the buck (with a few nits to pick)
Rating by category
Additional details
Four years ago my husband and I took a repositioning cruise on RCCL's Vision of the Seas, from Rio to Lisbon. We had such a relaxing, wonderful time that this year we decided to repeat the experience, and take the repositioning cruise from Barcelona to Rio on RCCL's Rhapsody of the Seas. Overall, we had a good time — we were lucky to have been assigned a cabin in a quiet part of the ship, and our cabin attendant (Marly) was wonderful. But we should have had a better time.
Our biggest beef — forgive the pun — was with the Main Dining Room. We were quite taken aback at being made to feel like criminals every day because we requested a table for two. We were met with frowns, made to wait, told that the tables for two were "like gold," and asked if we wouldn't mind sharing a table for ten. Every day we had to go through this conversation, until finally we began eating in the Windjammer at night, just to get away from the uncomfortable way we were made to feel by the dining room's keeper of the gate.
These repositioning cruises are bargains, and I've read many reviews from people complaining about being nickled-and-dimed once on board. But it's not the nickle-and-diming that rankled my husband and me, it was the aggressive hustling, either by representatives of the specialty restaurants who interrupted our meals in the main dining room to try and get us to reserve with them, or the guy who interrupted our lunch with a breezy, "I see you're drinking wine, we have a wine-tasting today, it's just a small fee . . ." It was hustle, hustle, hustle, everywhere we turned, and I don't remember that from Vision of the Seas.
Cabin Review
Panoramic Ocean View Stateroom
We were lucky to have been assigned a cabin in a quiet part of the ship, and our cabin attendant (Marly) was wonderful.
Port Reviews
Seville
My husband and I prefer to explore on our own, and this is very doable in Cadiz as the town is within minutes of the port on foot. So we enjoyed a few hours of browsing in the shops and visiting some of the main sights.
Lisbon
We always enjoy Lisbon, even in the few hours one has in a port visit. Easy to see that a return visit, with more time, is in order.
Rio de Janeiro
This is where my husband and I left the ship. I rated "terrible" not for the city, which is spectacularly beautiful, and not because RCCL did anything wrong, I rated "terrible" because passengers were disgorged into an ongoing construction site. We had to walk a great distance through the construction just to get to the port taxi line, which was in a dark, dank, warehouse-type building. There were dozens upon dozens of people ahead of us, no one was helping first-timers, or non-Portuguese speakers, the signage was non-existent -- my heart went out to those getting off in Rio for the first time in their lives and experiencing this absolute mess. My husband and I live in Brazil, so we left the line, went in another direction, hailed a regular cab on the street and got where we had to go. But I continue to think about those fellow passengers we left in the warehouse. A terrible introduction to Rio, and that's the city government's fault.