Rhapsody of the Seas Review

3.5 / 5.0
1,502 reviews

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Review for South America Cruise on Rhapsody of the Seas
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VermontyPython
6-10 Cruises • Age 30s

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Sail Date: Jan 2016
Cabin: Interior Stateroom
Brazillians sure know how to party in the Centrum!
One of about a million amazing buildings in Buenos Aires
Street art everywhere in both Buenos Aires and Montevideo.

In advance of our 7-night South American cruise sailing from Santos, I read a lot of reviews from Americans complaining about various aspects of this sailing. Mostly, they seemed upset that not everything in Santos, Brazil is as English-speaking, organized, and catered to their every whim as it would be in, say, Seattle. So let's talk about what it's like to do the sailing from Santos:

First, don't expect your fellow passengers to be speaking English. 90% plus of the passengers are Brazillian, and so most of the ship's activities are in Portuguese. That said, the entire crew speaks English (and most even speak Spanish), and I thought they did an excellent job balancing the languages. We even went to a small event that was supposed to be in all Portuguese, and they brought out additional staff to essentially simulcast it in English just for us. Cruisers are well advised to learn some basic Portuguese, including the essential phrase "eu não falo português." Shore excursions will be few and far between in English. Some are bilingual, and there are more excursions available in Portuguese than English. If you're just in it for the experience (i.e. sea lion island at Punte del Este), go for the Portuguese excursion! If the guide and passengers know you speak English, they will make sure you understand the important things.

Second, there are a lot of lines on this cruise. A weird amount. Lines form early, and they get really long. We checked in at the height of the process, and the line was pretty disorganized and long. That said, we rolled with it and figured it out. If you're worried, try to check in right at 10:30 AM. The line for the tender tickets in Punta del Este started like 45 minutes before they were supposed to be given out, and the line back to the ship's tenders was crazy long (we ended up leaving the port like an hour and a half late). So plan for lines.

Cabin Review

Interior Stateroom

Cabin Q

The interior state room was exactly what I expected based on other cruises. Cozy, but clean and easy enough to manage. Our state room attendant was excellent. Weird fact: the ESPN channel on this ship was broadcasting entire days of coverage from early July! It was pretty cool to see baseball and soccer games in January!

Port Reviews

Montevideo

Montevideo is definitely a tale of two cities. If you follow the walking tour exactly and stay in the touristy areas, it's charming and great. If you stray from the beaten path, it looks like a city that's seen some better days. We took a long walk up to the legislative palace, and passed a pretty equal amount of beautiful and depressing sights. Not as big, vibrant, or thriving as Buenos Aires, but still worth seeing.

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