Reader Review – Rhapsody of the Seas
HELLO JOHN I followed your blog carefully every day as you were on board “Rhapsody” just before our cruise and your comments were so helpful. I found the ship to have one of the happiest environments – and I have cruised extensively – different lengths – different destinations, different size and class of ships. she looked absolutely gorgeous in the Centrum – all decked out for Christmas !!
“Rhapsody” was spotless, our cabin was gorgeous and the staff could not have been more friendlier !!!! Surprisingly the passengers came from all over the world. Brazil, France, Canada, Mexico, USA and not as many of Australians that we expected considering it was an 18-day cruise Sydney Sydney around new Zealand. Don’t get me wrong we met great people and had many long and interesting conversations.
The entertainment was excellent – Rhonda Burchmore superb, Martin Lass, Danny Elliot, rat pack, Darren Williams etc. etc. But the one criticism that i have was that of the entertainment and activity crew. to put it bluntly they were useless !! We had rough days where it was impossible to go on deck – they had absolutely no imput in organising something for the passengers. We literally left the dining areas found a comfortable stable seat and just chatted to fellow passengers – until the next meal.
One afternoon we went to the movies and all the activity staff we in the theatre watching the movie!!!!
I also missed aqua aerobic classes – which we had on many other cruises !!!!
The standard of the food was wonderful – except for the quality of the meats at the outdoor bbq’s. dreadful!! and the ships shops ! well we saved our husbands money. the variety was of a very poor quality – and they had a captured market!!!!
There was not enough depth stock – and considering the ships are from miami we would have expected spectacular stock.
personally i felt they sent all the oddments and leftovers – they have to lift their game in merchandising.!!!
We are great fans of cruising and RCL and we loved New Zealand despite the lousy weather. I really learned a lot about the maori culture and became very respectful of their history.
On a final note – unfortunately one of our group was hospitalized for the last 3 days of the cruise – with a respiratory problem. The hospital was spotless, with very good facilities — excellent doctors and nursing staff.
John i read your blogs constantly – keep up your superb reporting and we would love to do a cruise with you and Sandra one day !!!!!
Warmest regards
Adele Baker – Sydney Australia
John Pond: And I would love to do a cruise with you Adele. Watch out for my review in the next issue of Cruise Passenger Magazine out in March. I agree totally with all your comments, especially about cruise staff.
John Pond, Editor at Sea – Cruise Passenger Magazine 
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Thanks so much for the review. At Cruise Passenger we are looking to get as much independent feedback from fellow cruisers as possible. We want fellow readers to get the real story from those on the water.
We are launching a competition in March that will award all our readers for submitting reviews. We would love to hear more from you…Look out for the competition. In the mean time tell us what your favourite cruise was and why?
Happy Cruising!