We were looking for an easy getaway cruise for a birthday celebration and living close to Tampa this fit our needs. Did not know what to expect because we know that Tampa does not get ships from the cream of the crop. The ship was a little dated but very clean and the condition exceeded my expectations. I thought the main dining room was only average and the specialty restaurants were good but not great. The exception was the Chef's Table which was fantastic. It was well worth the price with great food, plenty of wine, and a brief description of each of the 5 courses by the Chef. It was the perfect birthday dinner. Entertainment was ok and the production shows also exceeded my expectations. We had been to all the ports before with the exception of Costa Maya. This port was a tourist trap designed by the cruise industry and simply a place to stop in my opinion. On our port visit there were 2 of the mega ships so a total of 12,000 cruise passengers which totally overpowered the place. No room to walk much less spend anytime in the shops. We got back to the ship as quickly as possible and would never spend a minute in the place again. The only recommendation is to plan ahead and take a taxi to another part of the port and get away from the pier area. Read Less

The ship itself is very confusing. Theater aft, dining forward. I was always lost. Our interior cabin was comfortable and we had plenty of room. Lots of closet space and drawers. Entree choices were blah. Starters and desserts were fabulous. I had the refreshment package. Premium bottled water was no name purified via reverse osmosis. Yuck. No Starbucks. Coffee stand with very limited choices but their cookies and donuts were very good. I had a hard time getting a “mocktail” at first. Ronaldo brought me luscious virgin mojitos. The entertainment was top notch. The Productions shows were very nice. New looking costumes. The comedians were hilarious!!! We didn’t like the Celine Dion tribute, she hardly sang any Celine songs? She was a good singer though. The Adult Quest game was an absolute riot! I haven’t laughed that hard in a lot no, love no time. I think I’ll stick to larger ships. Read Less

We chose this cruise because we had gone on this 2 years ago and loved it. All in all it is a wonderful cruise, but this time around we brought more friends and kids. The Kids Club was great for the young ones, but only our two teens (13 years old) showed up to Teen Club and that is not enough to do anything that is planned for the teens. I did give the manager ideas on how to promote and maybe even update the arcade for the teens, but there really wasn't anything for our kids to do at night. The Teen Club said they could come up, but it is hard to do any activity with just two of them. There were 11 teens on this cruise, but Teen Club was never promoted at poolside to get the kids motivated. I even had to move the barrier so they could play ping pong one evening. The movies played on deck at night were really not kid appropriate and would have liked to have seen something geared to them somewhere on the ship and even have popcorn. The late night snacks were not all desirable and eating hot dogs and pizza every night for snacks got a little old on about day 3. I was a little disappointed by the change in some shore excursions especially the H2O snorkeling in Belize was changed to another company and I was very disappointed. There were too many people, the water was too rough where we were taken in the Reef, and we didn't get to see anything but coral and a couple fish. All in all we had a great time with friends and family and the service is impeccable as always, but the minor details about the teens and shore excursion were my biggest complaints. I will not be going on the Rhapsody again as I feel my kids have outgrown this ship after this vacation. We need something where all family members have something to do at any given time. Read Less

My wife and I recently cruised on the Rhapsody of the Seas, to date this has been the smallest cruise ship we have sailed on. I can honestly say I think it may be a new favourite! I enjoyed the smaller ship and not having thousands of people! For us cruising has always been about the ship firstly and where it is going secondly! Since this smaller ship was able to get into a few ports we had not been to previously like Belize and Roatan it was a great trip! We found that the ships crew was very helpful and the food was very good! We decided on this trip to try the Chef's Table and I must say it did not disappoint! The food was fantastic and the wine pairing was excellent. I learned a lot about picking wines, and as a person that does not drink much, it was very informative! We also took a Sushi making course in Izumi and that was fantastic! I cant wait to try those recipes and make some sushi at home! Read Less

My friend and I chose this cruise because it was a great time to get away from the cold up north where we live. When we arrived, the boarding process was simple and easy and with very little trouble. That was great! We had excellent service, both in our room with the attendant as well as in all of the dining rooms. And while I think the crew does a good job of trying to control germs by squirting our hands when we go to the buffet with sanitizer, there's probably a bit more they could do to prevent illness. The problem is you have hundreds of people handling the tongs to load up their plates at the buffet. I did not see the tongs getting changed at all common or were there latex gloves available for our use if we wanted that extra layer of protection. Nor were there any paper napkins available that we could use to wrap around the tongs. And unfortunately in my case, I started getting sick with a cold on day four or five of the cruise. I'm almost certain it is from the buffet. I was way too far along into the cruise for it to have had anything to do with the plane. You also have a lot of people using the gym and not wiping down the equipment and the hand grips afterwards. I highly doubt that the gym staff does this at the end of the day. Actually they should be doing it once an hour, but I saw no such activity in the gym while I was there. There are Santa wipes available 4 cruisers to use, and I of course used them before and after using the equipment. But they need more signage in the gym and enforcement of this rule. When I went down to the medical clinic for some medicine, I was told I would have to pay for it, even though I contracted the illness from the ship. They didn't care that I had purchased medical insurance through Royal Caribbean; the medical staff said they had 'no idea' about any of that. So my advice to future cruisers is to take cold and flu medication with you even though you hopefully won't need it. and don't purchase her Cruise insurance through the cruise line. Instead, go online and purchase something independently, for a lower rate and probably greater coverage. I'd also recommend not booking your excursions through the cruise line. You can easily go through TripAdvisor/Viator if you want to book something ahead of time, or just get off the ship and wander around and look for some other excursions that are similar what the ship has. You will pay a lot less for them when you do it that way. if you do a little research ahead of time online through TripAdvisor, you will know what these different excursions normally book for, and you may be able to negotiate down to a lower rate. Overall I thought the food was very good on board. Did not go to any of the specialty restaurants. If you're a coffee drinker, it is well worth purchasing the fancy coffee card for $30 for 15 drinks. We definitely got our money's worth with that one! On the flip side, alcoholic drinks were very expensive so we have waited most of them. We were able to stick to our bottles of wine and then have some drinks when we went into port. I think the all-you-can-drink packages are outrageous at $50 a day per person. While I did have a good experience overall, it's unlikely I will ever do a cruise again because of the horrible cold I contracted aboard. I'm in day 12, and it has moved down into my chest which never happens. It's just not worth risking my health in the future. Read Less

This was our 3rd Royal Caribbean cruise in 14 months. We chose this cruise because of departure city and also we had not been to three of the four ports. (Cozumel was common for all three our RC cruises.) This was the first time my wife and I had been on any kind of vacation by ourselves in almost 43 years! We enjoyed our time together The ship is getting long in the tooth, very outdated and in need of remodeling. If I had to choose three great things it would be the #1 Dining Room staff, #2 Dining Room food #3 well.....maybe just two great things. If I had to choose three horrid things they would be #1 Cigarette smoke coming out of the Casino (We got very creative avoiding this horrible smell as we went to the Theater and to our 4th Deck Dining Room) #2 The absolutely horrible internet service. (We purchased to the Voom and Surf and could not so much as stay online for more that two to three minutes at a time. There were times I could even connect to the wifi even though it showed a strong strength! Any kind of streaming was impossible. I could not even upload a 12 second video on Facebook.) #3 If you are going to have hot tubs at least make sure they work! The two in the Solarium were just hot water tubs, no jets, no bubbles no nothing!) I know I said three things but I have to add a fourth! I can not let this go to me this is just bad.... #4 REPLACE THE BULB IN THE LEFT PROJECTOR IN THE THEATER! Talk about bad imaging! Literally looked terrible. Even the magician/comedian joked about how his hands looked jaundiced! The theater entertainment cast/dancers were okay. The ballroom dancing couple were very professional. The headliners were better (Dean Austin, a comedian, was funny, The Modern Gentlemen, a quartet that used to sing for Frankie Valli was very entertaining, Jason Bishop, a magician/comedian did some great close up magic and his patter was hilarious and then there was Michelle Balan whose routine was very short but she was funny.) We did the Port Pass excursion in Costa Maya through RC. The Chocolate Factory tour was cheesy but interesting, The Aviary was fantastic! We don't drink so we didn't do the Tequila Tour. You also got three drinks of your choice and use of the pool area. We also took the RC All-In-One excursion. It was okay but we were all crammed onto very tiny buses that made riding very uncomfortable. We also we at the back and looking through windows that were covered with those pictures you can see from the outside which made watching the scenery from the inside very difficult. You could shoot pictures through the windows. I feel we did get our money's worth in both of these RC excursions. Our room steward seemed to just do the minimum required. On other cruises we were called by name on the first day, brought ice twice a day and got more than three towel animals. Our room was kept clean. Read Less

We wanted to see the reef off Belize. It was amazing! Embarkation and disembarking was easy. Airport transfers went well. The ship is smaller than many but looks great. The smaller size worked in our favor.We had smaller groups and enjoyed the extra space. MDR was very nice. We tried all the specialty restaurants. Chops was super steak place. Liked Giovanni's table a lot. Izumi was very interesting. We also tried The Chef's Table after recommendations we got on other cruises. Only 4 couples. Met by wine expert with champagne in hand. He took us to the chef who told us about the menu. We learned about each course as it was served along with the wines hat accompanied each of the 5 courses. We met some very nice people and enjoyed every part of the evening. We were given a half empty bottle of the Chablis we liked so much. We finished that bottle on our veranda the next day as the sun went down.This was a great experience, we will do again. The group Up and Up entertained each night. Great singer with small group behind her. Singers and Dancers in Theater were excellent. Not the big productions you get on the mega ships but talented players. Meet 'n Greet was great. Only 10 tables and 10 gifts to be given away. We got a bucket of stuff from the Casino, loved it. Trips: Snorkeling off Belize amazing, still lots of coral and brightly colored fish. Coral is dying across the world but what is left here is a great experience. Even saw a Lion Fish that is a new species that is also killing off the coral. Service was excellent in each venue and in our room. Room 7036 is a Spacious Oceanview Veranda. Tight space but all we needed as a base. Terry kept the place clean despite our efforts. We are Diamond Plus cruisers. We went to the lounge for the private diamond party for free drinks every night. It was crowded and the group continues to grow. We plan to go to the Schooner Lounge next time and play Trivia Games. We can get the same free drinks there. We are both over 65 and have cruised more that 20 times. This cruise is a good one. Read Less

This was a college break escape cruise, just for me. Embarkation went smoothly and I was in my cabin by 1:00. Cabin was comfortable but very dated. Great bed but several drawers that were stuck, woodwork with the finish scraped off and drapes that really needed to be replaced. The ship's public areas seemed in good shape. Good mix of age groups on board. Some of the best entertainment was watching the large group of frat boys 'cavorting' around the pool. The main dining room and the buffet were both better than I expected. Good variety in the buffet. Very tasty selections and excellent service in the main restaurant. The entertainment was spotty. Only 2 MainStage shows, fair quality. The rest of the evenings were solo acts that were lacking in interest. The guitarist, pianists and combos around the ship were quite good. Lively casino with a good selection of slots and table games. Over all a relaxing cruise. Read Less

We booked this cruise as our yearly family vacation. The cruise ship, the staff, the food, the ports of call were all amazing and everyone had an awesome time. Our waiters were absolutely fantastic. Mohamed and Prem made certain our family was taken care of from the moment we sat down, until the dessert plates cleared. We were all treated like royalty. They entertained us and practically became family. They were even able to get the worlds pickiest eater, my daughter, to eat every day. The only bad part of the trip was having to leave the last day. And finally Elvis. Without a doubt the greatest cruise director EVER!!!!!!! He absolutely knows how to get people of all ages involved and makes certain everyone has a great time. The 70's night was insane. The staff and he rocked that place and everyone in that room was dancing. Until we meet again. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!!. Read Less

We were first time cruisers and wanted a nice getaway! Everything on the ship was nice and clean, except a lingering smell. There really not much to do except drink and eat. The booze was plentiful and the main dining room was what we looked forward to nightly. Maria, Joe,and Eric were phenominal and catered to our every need. The assortment of different dishes each night was unbelievable. The shows were less than enthusiastic, with the shows being not shows. They were more like High School shows with people who spoke poor English. The singing shows were also hard to decipher the words. The comedian was very funny and gave us all a laugh without using profanity. We traveled with my niece and her boyfriend. The cruise ports were not very new, since they were built to be tourist traps. The same as any town in Mexico only 5 times the price for food and souvenirs.The days at sea were nice and calming. Read Less