We decided to book Royal Caribbean’s Rhapsody of the seas, for a seven day western Caribbean cruise. That’s where the story turns. First of all the lady at the terminal when we were boarding, could not find our sea pass cards. We waited at the counter for twenty minutes. Then as we were waiting in line to board the ship, we realized we were just about the only couple who still had their luggage because there were no signs directing us where to check our luggage. We were the second people in line to board the ship. Then we were stuck with our luggage until the rooms were ready for three hours. And this where the “fun” begins. We came to realize our air conditioning was not working and had have to maintenance come to fix it. Then we realize our speaker for the ship announcements in our state room, also did not work. Next we opened the curtains to see out of our window, we found the window to be very dirty which hindered our view. Then we noticed a thick buildup of salt on the interior of the window. And lastly to our horror, we found a toenail clipping on our window sill!!!! We stayed in room 3146 in the aft, and that was the biggest mistake we could have made. Directly above us, was the fourth floor dining room. We awoke to chopping, tables and chairs sliding and what sounded like elephant footsteps directly above our bed. This happened all through the night until then we were rudely awakened every time we got into a port, of what sounded like the ship being blended into a giant blender. The windows were shaking, our bed was moving, and we could not hear each other’s voices over the sound of complete chaos. We ended up sleeping during the day to make up for complete lack of sleep from all the noises this joke of a ship emitted.

Throughout the first sleepless nights, we never noticed how dirty our sheets were before we got into the bed. There was a blood stain on one of my pillow cases and stains of every color and size on our “white” sheets. The room attendant, completely did not care enough to change our sheets but proceeded to make the bed every night until we asked for new sheets. The only great experience we had aboard was our assistant waiter in the dining room- not to be confused with the subpar Windjammer cafe. We are first timer cruisers and last time cruisers on Royal Caribbean. Overall, this was the first and only vacation we have ever been on that we were more excited to go home, than to be on it. Beware of Rhapsody and Royal Caribbean’s overpriced shore excursions. It was honestly surprising to say that the port authority agents when we got to back Tampa were more helpful than the staff aboard the ship. The entertainment on the ship seemed very scripted and not genuine. It was outdated and geared for one age group- elderly. (We are in our early 20’s.) We were ready to go home after the second day. But as you all know when you’re on a cruise ship, you’re kinda stuck. We tried to make the most of our “vacation” but we’re highly disappointed. We spent entirely too much money on this cruise and could have spent the money elsewhere for a much better time.