We chose this cruise because of the Itinerary. With the end point being Brazil, this offered us an opportunity to extend our vacation and see some additional sights (i.e.: Rio De Janeiro, Iguazu Falls. The logistics for getting to the embarkation and disembarkation points can be very expensive. A shuttle trip of 1 1/2-2hrs is needed in Valparaiso Chile and Santos, Brazil.
Overall Rhapsody ...
It is a very nice cruise for the price. We really liked the itinerary. It was a truly international cruise with many cruisers from US, Canada, Europe, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico. Meeting people from variety of nations was the most enjoyable experience.
Obviously, many of us were disappointed as we could not got to Cape Horn and Puerto Madryn due to bad weather. The RCL is promising 15% ...
The ship is still beautiful, my only negative towards the ship is that they have taken away bar space & other venue space to cater for the totally unnecessary paid Restaurants.(Which we never have & never will use !!!)
The embarkation was an absolute debacle & people were lined up in the hot sun for at least 2 hours before they even got close to getting inside the shed, let alone checked in. ...
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, ...
Four years ago my husband and I took a repositioning cruise on RCCL's Vision of the Seas, from Rio to Lisbon. We had such a relaxing, wonderful time that this year we decided to repeat the experience, and take the repositioning cruise from Barcelona to Rio on RCCL's Rhapsody of the Seas. Overall, we had a good time — we were lucky to have been assigned a cabin in a quiet part of the ship, and our ...
This was the 3rd RCI cruise of the year for my wife and I, the others were on the Allure and the Explorer. We were concerned that this Vision class ship might be too small in comparison to the others and we were a bit concerned as to how stable it would be crossing the Atlantic to Brazil as my wife suffers if the seas are rough. It was actually fine. The worst bit turned out to be between ...
We have sailed several times with RCL and are currently Platinum level members. Our most recent 30 day sailing aboard Mariner of the Seas from Los Angeles to Sao Paulo Brazil left us wondering what happened to RCL's high level commitment to quality of service and overall client experience. The ship itself is beautiful and well appointed. The Royal Promenade is awesome and how often do you have a ...
We board the Vision of the Seas in Santos ( located about 50 min from Sao Paulo). Embarkation started on schedule and we were able to board the vessel at 11:30 ( staterooms were ready by 13:00).The windjammer cafe ( lunch buffet ) opened at 12:00 for the early embarked guests. Our stateroom , an outside stateroom on deck 2 was clean and spacious. Tough the beds were placed separately and the ...
Royal Caribbean, Vision of the Seas- December 14-18, 2009 By Ken Burdett
This cruise embarked from Sao Paulo (Santos), Brazil. The port was not at all streamlined. There was a building to check your baggage and another (about 200 yards down the street) for passenger check in. Then you had to board a bus to go to another terminal about 800 yards away. Of course this is not RCCL's fault, just ...
PRE-CRUISE: I elected to stay in Santiago for 3 days prior to the cruise. I chose a 4 star hotel that gave me a very reasonable rate and a large room. On the down side it was not too close to restaurants. I found the people of Chile very accommodating, although it would have been easier for me if I spoke a little Spanish. Most places I went shopping accepted USD or credit cards. Before I left ...