Quick Review: Rhapsody of the Seas, January 2020

Sunset in Key West

Happy 2020 to all!  The holidays are over and we are back cruising.  We have just returned from a 7 day trip on Rhapsody of the Seas from Tampa, FL.  Tampa is our current home town so this was an easy one, and the price could not be beat (under $1,300 for two people in an inside cabin).  Boy, it's nice to be able to cruise during the "off season" when prices are reasonable.  This cruise featured stops in Key West, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, and Costa Maya.

Being that we are about 30 minutes from the port, we arrived bright and early around 10AM.  Check-in was smooth and painless and we sat in the wait area until we were able to board by about 10:30.  The weather in Tampa was a little iffy so we found a spot to camp inside and wait for lunch.  On a side note, we heard from several people that the porters lad left a lot of luggage out and exposed when the clouds opened up and many people received wet luggage.  To their credit, Royal Caribbean, gave many free laundry service to cover that even though, technically, it's not their responsibility as the porters work for the port and not the cruise line.  Nice gesture from them there to take care of their passengers.

Basic inside cabin

Our cabin for this cruise was a basic inside cabin for 2 and it was sufficient for our needs.  Really only sleeping and getting cleaned up/dressed in there.  Bed was a bit of a torture device, but we lived through it.  Other than that, the cabin was basic but did the job.  Only real annoyance is that on this older ship, they don't have the "phone booth" type shower with the hard sliding door, but instead, there was a small square shower with a shower curtain.  That darn shower curtain would continually stick to me while showering which was both comical and annoying.

Leaving Tampa was "interesting".  As soon as we pulled away from the pier, the captain announced we would be returning to dock due to a medical emergency.  Guess someone had to be taken off the ship.  That has to be terrible, having a medical emergency before the ship has even left.  So we pulled away and went forward to the next berth where we came back alongside the pier and offloaded the passenger, delaying us about 30 - 45 minutes.  I hope the person was OK and had travel insurance.

This was our 2nd trip on Rhapsody and she's a nice ship, not the newest, but she's in pretty good shape.  Seems like she had some touch ups done since our last trip on her in 2018.  She doesn't have the "WOW factor" of the newer ships and there isn't a ton to do, but she'll do just fine if you want some R&R.  The ship choices leaving from Tampa are limited to what can fit under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.  So it's usually a Vision Class or Radiance Class from Tampa.

Dining wise on this trip, we hit the main dining room on the first night and had dinner there.  It wasn't bad but we did decide to eat the rest of the week in the Windjammer.  Most of our meals in the Windjammer on this trip were pretty  good.  Lunch was the usual fare but no complaints there and they had some kind of "live station" each night at dinner, cooking Asian food, Pasta, Seafood, etc.  And one night, we found freshly made donuts….yummy.

Our first stop was the next day (Sunday) in Key West.  We've been there before by car (long drive) but never on a ship.  Key West is a fun, interesting place and a nice stop for a day on a ship.  We docked at about 11AM right downtown but getting off the ship was a bit of a hassle.  There is only one gangway available and even on a smaller ship like Rhapsody, it created some long lines.  On top of that, there appeared to be some kind of emergency that required an ambulance which held the line up as well.  It was quite cool for FL (mid to high 60s) but fairly comfortable to walk around town.  We strolled along Duval St. and found a nice place to grab some lunch then headed back to the ship for the afternoon.  

Busy day in Grand Cayman

Our first sea day was the following day (Monday) and we just relaxed by the pool.  Tuesday, we arrived in Grand Cayman.  I really like Grand Cayman, but the fact that everyone has to tender there, really kills my enthusiasm for the place.  More often than not, we decide to just stay on the ship and avoid the hassle of tendering.  That's exactly what we did here.  It was a busy day too with at least 4 other ships there at the same time. 

Wednesday morning we found ourselves at our 3rd stop, Cozumel, docked next to the very pretty and huge MSC Seaside.  First time seeing her up close.  Looks like a nice ship.  Again, we decided to stay onboard and take advantage of the quiet as we've been to Cozumel quite a few times before.  We were tempted to get off as this was the first time I can remember being docked at this location, more downtown.  Normally Royal Caribbean ships dock at a different location.  We were told by some friends we met on board that they went to a great little restaurant on the main street there not far from where we were docked and had a wonderful lunch and listened to some live music.  I don't recall the name but it's a "thatched" type building with 2 levels right there on the main drag.  Oh well, maybe next time. 

Our final stop was supposed to be Costa Maya on day 6 (Thursday), but the seas were rough and it was very windy.  At the last minute, the captain made an announcement and called it off.  Interestingly, we could see that there were at least 2 other ships docked there, one of which was an Oasis Class ship.  We heard a rumor that another ship arrived early and got our berth forcing us to use one that was going to be difficult to get to because of the high winds and sea conditions.  We would have had to maneuver around that ship to dock so, for safety reasons, the captain decided to make it a sea day.  Not a big loss, unless you had an excursion planned.  That's really the main thing to do in Costa Maya.  Sea conditions remained pretty rough and the sea sickness bags were out for the rest of the cruise due to the ship moving around so much.

Entertainment wise there wasn't a ton of stuff to do on board.  We played some trivia, won some, lost some.  Didn't see any shows but we did enjoy the live bands both in the Centrum and by the pool.  Service onboard was great, as usual.

That's about it for this one.  We have 2 more sailings coming up in the next few months.  First will be our 4th voyage on Harmony of the Seas in March, then we'll be on Adventure of the Seas in April.  I'm sure there will be more to come after that.  Reviews will follow shortly after.

Hits:

• Price
• Convenience
• Meals in Windjammer
• Live bands were good

Misses:

• Weather conditions later in the week
• Missing a port of call
• Older ship, not a ton to do