My hubby and I just returned from the Rhapsody of the Seas cruise from Aug 13-20. I wanted to share our transportation choices since they were by far the cheapest and were easy to use. We arrived in Seattle the day before and chose a nice cheap downtown hotel (sixth ave. inn - great!). It was within 15 minutes walking to Pikes Place and the Space Needle. Walking around is easy and pretty much every downtown hotel is convenient. We took the light rail from the airport into downtown and then walked 4-5 blocks to our hotel. We were fine with 3 rolling bags. It's a bit of a walk through the airport garage to get to the light rail station but you stay covered if there was rain. The light rail was $2.50 a person so it couldn't be beat and took 45 minutes to get to downtown. There are shuttles which would be quicker if you need that but we were in no hurry since we had the entire afternoon to explore Seattle. We then reserved the Shuttle Express shuttle for $9 per person to take us to the pier the next day at 12:30. We got to the pier at 1:15 (had to pick up other people) and were on the boat by 2:00. Super easy, had no wait to put our luggage through the x-ray while Holland had a long ling for that and then another long line to check in. The check in line moved quickly and Royal had a lot of employees checking people in and it was a very smooth and painless process. From the pier back to the airport we reserved with Seattle Express for $12 per person and since we again were in no rush to get to the airport, this was a good choice. Royal's shuttle was $26 per person but there were a few buses and so if you're in more of a rush to catch a plane that would be better. Shuttle Express was $18 per person but we were very happy with Seattle Express.

First, I don't think we could have had better weather - no rain , no fog and sun in every port! Since we had such great weather, my review is probably a little biased because cruising to Alaska is all about the scenery! My husband and I are in our late 20s so we knew we would be surrounded by 'old' people but we really were there to explore a beautiful state and enjoy the our surroundings. There was probably around 15-20 couples less than 30 years old so we didn't do much socializing. We were placed at a table with a mother and son and the son was going into med school so he was around our age and a family of 4 with 2 teenage boys. We aren't super outgoing anyway, but had some great dinners talking with our fellow diners.

This was my 2nd cruise to Alaska and my husband's 1st cruise period. I read the older reviews saying the ship is old and dated and it is around 13 years old, but everything was very clean and nice in my opinion. I assume all cruise ships have 'tacky' dEcor in some capacity so the age of the ship didn't bother me. It was big enough for us and had enough areas that you could easily find somewhere to sit and enjoy the scenery. We chose to save our money and went with an inside cabin on the 7th deck, towards the front of the boat. Apparently our hall lead to the officer quarters so there were numerous times we saw the captain and ship director in the hallway. We were above the theater and thought this might be a problem but since we stayed up past 10 every night anyway, we never were bothered by noise/music from the theater. I don't think we missed anything by not having a balcony since we basically just slept and showered in our room. There are so many areas to sit in (inside) that you can stay warm and look out. Maybe it would have been nice for privacy and such to have a balcony but we were glad we were able to use the saved money on excursions instead. Read more