Let me start by saying that IF there is a next cruise on Royal Caribbean it will make us Diamond level Crown and Anchor members and it hurts to give RCL a three on this review but we have noticed a steady decline in the involvement of upper management in what their guests would like. Our cabin was clean and comfortable and Gloria, our attendant was wonderful. Our waiter, Brendon and assistant, Aurelien, were also great. Muno and all of the dining room management were great.Abbey, who we met as a spectacular bartender on the Brilliance was wonderful again but under utilized by putting her in the disco late at night. She was great in the Centrum on Brilliance and I'm sure would have excelled on the Rhapsody. The ship, although very small was recently refurbished and looked very nice. Herein lie the problems. The food was less than mediocre and I blame that on the Director of food services. Granted, cruise ship food is not supposed to be 5 star but this was inconsistent and tasteless at best. I would expect the powers to be know this and really don't care. After buying the liquor package, we found the bar and lounge hours to be lacking. For example, after a day ashore, my wife and I returned to the ship around two thirty only to find that the only bar open was back out in the heat at the pool bar. Are you kidding?? It's a Cruise ship and you can't go to a single inside bar to sit in air conditioning and have a beer until almost four o'clock.In addition, the Cruise Compass listed the bars and their hours but guess what. If they were slow they closed early no matter what was in print. On several occasions, we asked for Mojitos to be told "we are waiting for some mint". It's almost as if the mindset was..."we have their money so the hell with them". Fire the Hotel manager and Food and Beverage manager on this ship, they stink!!

New paragraph: When we docked at Key West, we docked at the Navy facility not the cruise ship dock and were instructed not to take any pictures until we were off the shuttle which we had to get a ticket with a number on it by standing in line.(no charge for the shuttle..woohoo!) We got to Key West late morning and by the time we were allowed off the ship, we only had a few hours to enjoy this wonderful port.I don't know why the rush since the next day was a sea day. The ports were as follows..Key West, great, Cozumel, OK, Belize, a hovel and depressing and Costa Maya, very nice. This bring up a point and in view of the recent tragedy on a Royal Caribbean shore excursion, I will try to be sensitive.Our hearts, thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and families of this horrible event. Having said that, I hardly imagine that the Royal Caribbean hierarchy ever ride on these tour buses. I make that statement after riding on a RCL endorsed tour bus in Belize which was filthy, had a windshield with both halves cracked clear through, had several seats that only reclined and would not lock so you sat erect with no back support. My seat had a seat cover with no cushion so I sat on a bar, had a broken armrest with exposed sharp metal and only stayed in the recline position. More "we got their money" attitude. (the bus was full so I had to sit there).

The Crown and Anchor event was a joke. They were only interested in paying brief homage to a few old farts that had a million days at sea and basically ignored every one else. There were a lot of negative comments walking out and many actually left in the middle which was a little rude also. Let me recap if I may. The rank and file crew members were wonderful as was the lower level management. The ship itself was immaculate and decorated well. The big gripe is with the obvious "we don't care attitude by upper level management and the Board of Directors of Royal Caribbean. We have taken eight cruises with them in a little over three years and if I had to give them a word of advise it would be that while surveys are important, have focus group meeting of RCL cruisers to really find out what people think. Sorry to be so long winded.