Rhapsody of the seas Greek Islands live(ish) blog!

[Cruisingcouple22]

Rhapsody blog

Hi all! So I’m back again! After recently sailing around the eastern med on symphony we are now on a cruise around Athens and the Greek island on rhapsody. So it’s going to be a bit of s change! This is also the smallest ship we have ever sailed on (we are big ship fans!) so are a bit worried we won’t have enough to do. There is only one sea day so I’m sure it’ll be great, beats being at work at least 😁

 

So we picked up the boat in Venice, a short 1hr50min from Gatwick. If you zoomed in you can see Rhapsody and a Costa ship somewhere in there! 

 

 We had booked transfers through Royal Caribbean but weren’t that impressed with them. They cost £55 for two people and we had to wait at the airport for about an hour then drag our suitcase to what seemed like the furthest car park! Then the bus sat for 10 minutes before leaving. Once on the move it was easy and dropped us right by the bag drop though.

We’ve been through Venice before and caught the local bus which go every half an hour and cost about €5 each (that was a few years ago though) and picks up up right outside. More of a trip at the port end though so it depends what you prefer. 

Once we dropped off the bags it was a breeze and we were on the ship in 10 minutes. You immediately notice that there’s no royal promenade, but this means there’s a lot more natural light and views outside from most places on the ship, so good first impressions! 

We spent the afternoon sorting out some dining (Izumi and Chops) and exploring the ship. We really enjoyed the eygptian themed solarium. We grabbed some lunch in the windjammer, which was busy as you’d expect on embarkation day, but easily found a table for 2. Food was pretty good with a nice selection.

[Cruisingcouple22]

We caught sail away up and deck. The top decks were packed but there was a quiet spot outside just forward of the solarium, there was only two other people there. Venice is probably my favourite port to sail in and out of and going past St Marks square is awesome.  

 

The views you get down the canal are beautiful too. I took a time lapse video from our ocean view and I’ll try and put it on YouTube.

 

After that it was dinner time and today was Izumi. We tried this on Navigator last year and were really impressed. We got the BOGO 1st/2nd night dining package so get $35 each to spend, which was aplenty of food.

We got spring rolls, poke tacos, lobster and tenderloin hot rock, tempura lobster rolls and soft shell crab rolls and it was all delicious.

So much so that we’ve booked to come back for lunch on the sea day! After that we had planned to go to the show but the early morning start (4am!) took its toll so we went back to the cabin to sleep. First day done and looking forward to the rest!

 

[sgmn]

Looking forward to your review. We have Rapsody booked out of Venice next Summer so will follow with interest

[depplep]

We just got off Rhapsody a week ago. Looking forward to your take.

[Cruisingcouple22]

Thanks for the comments everyone. We are really enjoying it so far. Sorry about the slow rate of updates, my phone signal has been a bit intermittent! 

 

Day 2 Kotor, Montenegro 

 

We weren’t due to arrive until one today so we had a nice relaxing morning.  Started off with a bit of the steam and sauna, which are free on this ship, and then a nice relax in the hot tub.

In between we grabbed some tickets for the tendering today. I got there about 15 minutes before they started handing them out, but judging by the people in front of me people started queueing about half and hour early.

They started handing them out 5 minutes early and I got tender number 5 so not too bad. 

We headed to the windjammer for breakfast and it was packed! No seats inside at 0950, but there were plenty outside and it was a nice morning so it worked out well.

We’d considered walking up to the fort, but the 1500 steps made us think twice 😂

[Cruisingcouple22]

 

 

We spent the rest of the morning relaxing and looking around the shops before grabbing some lunch on the windjammer. The ship arrived at the tender point about 1300, and they started general tenders about half past. I think they started shore excursion tenders earlier than this though. We got on ours at about 1400 so it definitely worth getting in the queue early. The ride over to Kotor took about 5 minutes and was very smooth. As you would expect there were a number of taxi drivers offering here services, but they were a lot pushier than most other ports, and followed people for quite some way trying to make a sale. 

We’d decided we were just going to have a walk around the old town here. 

The town is beautiful and is famous for there cats, among other things. There are hundreds around, but there appear pretty well looked after by tourists and some locals.

We walked along the walls of the city and through some of the churches. We found a fantastic bazar in the walls of an old monastery that had some lovely gifts. 

We spent a few hours wandering the town and then headed back to the ship, there was no queue for a tender back at about 5 o’clock.

this is an Oceania ship, couldn’t get a view of rhapsody! 

[nelblu]

I agree, Venice is the most beautiful city to sail in/out.  Was watching AccuWeather this weekend and they showed a clip of terrible flooding in the city almost to people knees.  Did you notice any damage and did it impact you.  They built huge flood gates and wonder why this happened.

[Ontario Cruiser]

Was your drink in the hot tub glass or plastic? Hopefully plastic

We will be on her December 8th OntarioCruiser

[little britain]

Hi, how much are they charging for Surf wifi on board please? There is a deal for £7.89pd in the precruise planner.  

Also how are the specialty restaurants - full or not?  They want over £25 for Giovannis in the planner which I think is a little excessive!

Going on her in a few weeks so interesting to see what you think and how the weather is!!!

TIA.

Edited November 6, 2018 by little britain

[Jax129]

great start to your review!  Thanks you!

[ptod]

Not sure if my favorite photo so far has been the sunrise, drink in the hot tub or all the sleeping cats.  All look great!

 

How early can you steam and sauna in the morning?

 

If you happen to catch any karaoke sessions, could you note the catalog versions or just take a photo of the books?  Taking 6 newbies on the Rhapsody NYE cruise and they all want to sing their hearts out.  TIA

 

....and now we return to the adventure already in progress...... have a great time!

[Alter Ego]

Enjoying your review - so far, I think it’s the same as mine from September (although I hope you have better weather- we missed two of our three Greek islands!)

 

I was surprised by Rhapsody’s Wi-Fi - when it worked, I found that it worked very well.  At least, for what I needed.  It just didn’t always work!

 

Have a great rest of your cruise!

[LuCruise]

Following along.  We tend to pick the bigger ships but always interested in seeing other ships as well.  Enjoy your cruise!

[JohninDC]

Please keep it coming - great review so far.

[Biker19]

5 hours ago, Cruisingcouple22 said:

We’d considered walking up to the fort, but the 1500 steps made us think twice 😂

It's good for you and some nice places to take a break.

[Cruisingcouple22]

Back onboard we relaxed in the solarium and played some cards (we have a game called monopoly deal, like the board game but MUCH shorter and less likely to cause family feuds!) and watched the sunset. There was an Oceania ship in port with us today that left before us and it was beautiful to watch in the dark. And the lights on the walk up to the fort in Kotor looked stunning too. 

Dinner tonight was in chips grille. It was good but not the best steak I’ve had here. The starters were tasty, tuna tartare, crab cake and bacon and I love the Mac and cheese!

We were too full for dessert so took in back to the room.

We didn’t fancy the show this evening (ballroom fever) so headed to the pool deck to watch Avengers infinity wars. We couldn’t find blankets so made do with some towels instead, but it was a mild night. Clocks go forward tonight so we headed off the bed after that so we weren’t too tired tomorrow for Corfu 😀

[voyager70]

Loving your review, looking forward for more!  We were on Rhapsody to Alaska back in 2012 and thought she was a great little ship.

 

[cruise wizard]

I am following along - we are doing a B2B on Rhapsody in June next year. Like you said - cruising out of Venice is magical. Two years ago we stopped in Kotor and took a taxi for a tour of where Games of Thrones is shot - the roads are narrow and about 1.5 cars in width and it is a 2 way road!!!!! 

[Nettee]

5 hours ago, Cruisingcouple22 said:

We headed to the windjammer for breakfast and it was packed! No seats inside at 0950, but there were plenty outside and it was a nice morning

 

Is there outside seating for the Windjammer on Rhapsody?  Would love to see a picture if so.  Great review. 

[lks1512]

We are taking this cruise next June as well.  It is our first cruise on Royal Caribbean.  I am generally a fan of smaller ships (I say this having never been on a really large one!), so I think this will suit my family well!  So excited to see your posts! We were thinking of doing the climb in Kotor. 

[cruise wizard]

6 minutes ago, lks1512 said:

We are taking this cruise next June as well.  It is our first cruise on Royal Caribbean.  I am generally a fan of smaller ships (I say this having never been on a really large one!), so I think this will suit my family well!  So excited to see your posts! We were thinking of doing the climb in Kotor. 

 

Yes we are on the 6/22 sailing with you - this is the second half of our B2B. Looking forward to seeing you there............and on the Meet & Mingle thread also.

[Cruisingcouple22]

17 hours ago, nelblu said:

I agree, Venice is the most beautiful city to sail in/out.  Was watching AccuWeather this weekend and they showed a clip of terrible flooding in the city almost to people knees.  Did you notice any damage and did it impact you.  They built huge flood gates and wonder why this happened.

I know, I saw some photos of it the weekend before we got on the ship and was a bit worried but didn’t notice any problems between the airport and the ship. We have a bit of time in Venice on the way back so will keep an eye out then. 

[Cruisingcouple22]

16 hours ago, Ontario Cruiser said:

Was your drink in the hot tub glass or plastic? Hopefully plastic

We will be on her December 8th OntarioCruiser

Yep, definitely plastic! The are pretty good ones though 😀

[Cruisingcouple22]

Day 3 Corfu 

We had a relatively slow morning this morning.

 

The ship docked about nine so we headed to the windjammer then and got off the ship about 0945. They have a bus which takes you the 500m to the port building, and they have a swipe card turnstile system to get into and out of the port, the only place we’ve seen this! Royal Caribbean had a bus you could get for 12 USD each but we decided to walk to town. It was really nice weather, not too hot, and the walk is along the waterside most of the way. It took about 25 minutes to get to the old town, and another 20 to get to the old fort which is probably the furthest tourist thing you’d go to.

There were cats everywhere again. This itinerary is not for you if you are allergic! The fort cost €3 to get into and has some amazing views over the bay, but there’s not much historical information we could find.

Corfu’s music school is based here though, so it was very nice wandering around parts of the island to some wonderful melodies! After the fort we walked back through town and did a bit of shopping. It was really interesting to see some British staples (such as marks and Spencer’s) on a Greek island! Obviously a strong ex-pat community here.

[Cruisingcouple22]

12 hours ago, Nettee said:

 

Is there outside seating for the Windjammer on Rhapsody?  Would love to see a picture if so.  Great review. 

Kind of, it’s in between the pool and the windjammer. They have a coffee and water station here. It’s covered by deck 10 so not like the outside bit at the back of the Quantum class