Rhapsody of the Seas January 2, 2005, Stateroom #8088 JS (Junior Suite)

For a little background, we are a mid-30 something couple traveling with our 19 month old daughter. This was our second cruise; our first being on Celebrity's Infinity. I will be making some comparisons to the two experiences during this review.

Embarkation: Based on recommendations from Cruise Critic, we arrived at the pier between 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. after driving down from my in-laws in Houston. I dropped off my wife and daughter, found a porter, gave him the bags and went off to park at EZCruiseParking. When I arrived I found a line of about five cars waiting to park. At one point, I pulled out of line and said I had a reservation and wanted to park. It turned out that both Rhapsody of the Seas and Carnival's Elation had been delayed arriving into port due to heavy fog. I had to go back to the end of the line which had grown to about 15 at this point. We could not park until the passengers from the previous cruise had disembarked and driven their cars away. I waited an hour until I could park our car. I had no phone and no way of contacting my wife who also had no phone (after all we are on vacation). She was not pleased when I finally showed up, but she did have the tickets and passports. Read more