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Just Returned From Alaska/Rhapsody

purplehair

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purplehair

purplehair

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I just returned Friday night from Alaska on Rhapsody of the Seas. We had a wonderful time, the weather was fabulous, cool with lots of sunshine in every port. The ship was great, the food was great and all the ports were great fun also. Stayed very busy and saw a lot. I will answer questions if any one has them. One thing I will comment on was the Royal Caribbean singers and dancers, they were the best I've seen on any of my previous cruises. This crew really has some talent.

We stayed at the Mayflower Park Hotel in Seattle pre cruise. This place is wonderful! The staff is very friendly and accomadating. it's very centrally located we walked everywhere and took the monorail. The hotel is connected to Westlake Center and the monorail station. I would definately stay there again.:D

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xangav

xangav

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So glad you had a good cruise. I hope we have the same weather when we go in a few weeks. I was hoping you could tell us what you did in Prince Rupert? Haven't been able to get too much info from previous cruisers. Most have said that we should take a ship excursion so I am very curious what you did there. Thanks in advance. :)

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purplehair

purplehair

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We were also told to do an organized excursion, but elected to do our own thing. As you get off the ship there is an information booth by the pier they can give you a map. We walked to the left of the ship towards Cow Bay. There are a few shops there with local artisan goods, then we continued around to the Sunken Gardens which is behind the courthouse. We walked on to the waterfront area to the Rotary Waterfront Park, we were told this was a good place to see whales however we thought it was much to busy with boat traffic to see any. We then went back up the hill into the downtown area, into the mall. Don't waste time here, very bad. We then found the city hall building to view a statue of Charles Melville Hays, he founded the city of Prince Rupert , he worked for the railroad and after going to England to raise money for the town he died on the Titanic. Very interesting we thought. There is a maritime park in front of the ship up the hill. Prince Rupert is a great place to see bald eagles, there is a group of trees near the ship where I sat and watched them fly in and out of the trees usually 10-15 at a time. We felt you really didn't need the organized tour, we had a good time just walking around. I don't think Prince Rupert has been a cruise stop for too long, my research today tells me about 4 years. Because of that they are not set up as most cruise ports as far as all the touristy cruise ship owned stores etc. It's bigger than I thought it would be and as we were leaving in the afternoon we saw a huge container port area and a huge grain export area, which I found out today is wheat. They were loading the wheat onto a ship as we were leaving. I thought it was an interesting place.

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lizzy77

lizzy77

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I always find it so amazing how some people's opinions can be so different. I had just read the reviews about Rhapsody in Alaska and most were not very kind. So glad you had a great time. You know it is always what you make of a cruise.:)

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minnow12

minnow12

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lizzy77. There are always going to be some cruisers who find fault with every little thing. We just returned from Alaska on the Rhapsody and had a fabulous time. The crew was the friendliest ever, the food was great, the entertainment was wonderful and Alaska was beautiful. What more could you ask for?

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purplehair

purplehair

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Lizzy77, That is so true. I read those reviews and sat there with a puzzled look on my face. People do have a right to their opinion, but my experience was fabulous! I also agree with the last post. The ship was beautiful, the food was good, the shows were great and Alaska is absolutely GORGEOUS. What more could you ask for? I wish I had that scenery today to look at, those snow capped mountains and the cool weather. I live in Jacksonville Florida so needless to say the heat and humidity knocked me down the minute I walked out of the airport at 11:00 pm. Would love some of the Alaska weather here!!!!!:o

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Bonnie Voyager

Bonnie Voyager

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I was thinking about booking this same cruise for next summer. Does anyone have thoughts on whether I should book a portside or Starboard cabin? Or does it not matter? Also, I am looking at either late June or early August (can't do July). Any opinions as to the best time to go between those two choices? Thanks for any help! :D

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PC2

PC2

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Glad you had a great time, also and thanks for your mini review. We are on the 8/22 cruise and I have a few questions, if you don't mind. How did you get from the airport to your hotel? What did you see when you were in Seattle? We are going in on the 20th and staying at the Waterfront Marriott and going back there after the cruise to the 31st. I want to take the Underground Tour, the Duck Tour and of course Pikes Market. I am planning on calling a Town car Service, Executive, to pick us up at the baggage claim area and take us to the hotel. We booked tours from the ship for Juneau and Skagway but figure we will do Prince Rupert on our own, also.

 

Thanks, and can't wait to read your review.

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vickiw0318

vickiw0318

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Bonnie, we have aft cabin 8088 (port side) booked for September. My thinking was that it didn't much matter on the first sea day which side of the ship we were on. However, most of the rest of the time, we'll be headed south, so we'd then be on the "coast" side of the ship. We'll have a wonderful view of both shorelines while we are in the inside passage.

 

(As you no doubt know, the wraparound corner afts on the Vision and Rhapsody are amazing. I've had 7152 before on a cruise with my daughter and it was like having a whole other cabin outside.)

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springtxbill

springtxbill

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Missed all of you at both of the Meet & Mingles. If the other cruises were anything like this one, there could not be any complaints. I would guess some would complain about not going to Tracy Arm. But I think that a Captain that could get you within 700 ft of another glacier rather than 7 miles from Tracy Arm just makes it even better.

 

Lani was very nice and helpful.

 

We had booked the halibut fishing thru the ship at Prince Rupert, but when we checked in that morning at the pier they told us and another couple that one of the boats had blown an engine the night before, so we would get our money back. We were able to book our own and ended up with limits including one of around 80 lbs. Don't know how the ships boats did, but our guy said they only go a very short way where the fishing is not that great. We also paid about $120 less for the two of us than thru the ship.:)

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purplehair

purplehair

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PC2, Either side of the ship is fine, you are able to see things from both sides. I pre arranged transport from the airport to the hotel through Shuttle Express. They have a website and you can make the reservation right from there. There was five of us and it was $12. per person. I made a round trip reservation so we would have transportation from the ship back to the airport, it was the same $12. per person. Having the reservation kept us from waiting for our turn at the ship. Since we were staying overnight I had arranged through Shuttle Express a point to point reservation from the hotel to the ship, they suggested a Limo, which was the better price $100. for the five of us. It was fun to ride in the limo but the pier was only about three to four miles from the hotel, so it was a short ride for the money. Since you are staying at the Marriott you will need a cab or something to the ship it's not walking distance with luggage etc. We were originally going to stay there until I found out for sure the ship leaves from Terminal 30. The pier by the Marriott is Pier 66. I also liked the Mayflower Park for it's location, a little more centrally located. Just depends what your there to do.

 

We were scheduled to do the Underground Tour but we had to wait a unusually long tome at the airport for one of our parties luggage, so by the time we got to the hotel we didn't have time to make it to the tour. Our flight got in at 10:45 am, we got to the hotel at 1:45 pm. The hotel is only 20 minutes from the airport. We were scheduled to do the Duck Tour at 5 pm so we just freshened up, went into West Lake Center had a snack, took the monorail to the Space Needle hung out there for a little bit, then went on the Duck Tour. You will have fun on the Duck Tour. After riding the monorail back to the hotel we walked across the street to Macy's and broused around before walking over to Wild Ginger where we had dinner. Very highly recommended!!! If you do walk around at night be prepared for some of the homeless to approach you. Just keep walking.

On Friday morning we walked to Pikes Market, we had breakfast at Lowell's, very good. I enjoyed the market, the flowers are so beautiful and so cheap. There are some local artisan crafts, jewelry and other things. Most everything was really nice. We made our way back to the hotel by noon the limo was coming at 12:30.

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PC2

PC2

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PC2, Either side of the ship is fine, you are able to see things from both sides. I pre arranged transport from the airport to the hotel through Shuttle Express. They have a website and you can make the reservation right from there. There was five of us and it was $12. per person. I made a round trip reservation so we would have transportation from the ship back to the airport, it was the same $12. per person. Having the reservation kept us from waiting for our turn at the ship. Since we were staying overnight I had arranged through Shuttle Express a point to point reservation from the hotel to the ship, they suggested a Limo, which was the better price $100. for the five of us. It was fun to ride in the limo but the pier was only about three to four miles from the hotel, so it was a short ride for the money. Since you are staying at the Marriott you will need a cab or something to the ship it's not walking distance with luggage etc. We were originally going to stay there until I found out for sure the ship leaves from Terminal 30. The pier by the Marriott is Pier 66. I also liked the Mayflower Park for it's location, a little more centrally located. Just depends what your there to do.

 

We were scheduled to do the Underground Tour but we had to wait a unusually long tome at the airport for one of our parties luggage, so by the time we got to the hotel we didn't have time to make it to the tour. Our flight got in at 10:45 am, we got to the hotel at 1:45 pm. The hotel is only 20 minutes from the airport. We were scheduled to do the Duck Tour at 5 pm so we just freshened up, went into West Lake Center had a snack, took the monorail to the Space Needle hung out there for a little bit, then went on the Duck Tour. You will have fun on the Duck Tour. After riding the monorail back to the hotel we walked across the street to Macy's and broused around before walking over to Wild Ginger where we had dinner. Very highly recommended!!! If you do walk around at night be prepared for some of the homeless to approach you. Just keep walking.

On Friday morning we walked to Pikes Market, we had breakfast at Lowell's, very good. I enjoyed the market, the flowers are so beautiful and so cheap. There are some local artisan crafts, jewelry and other things. Most everything was really nice. We made our way back to the hotel by noon the limo was coming at 12:30.

 

Thanks a lot for the info.

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wrp96

wrp96

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So glad you had a great time on her as well.:D Yeah, those reviews have had me shaking my head - of course, after listening to one lady on my cruise talk about how "horrible" ours was, I'm not really surprised.

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rubrrick

rubrrick

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I just received a wonderful note from the GSM on the Rhapsody, who is a friend. Today she was in Juneau, and took in the Taku Glacier via float plane. She said that last weeks trip was wonderful weather, whereas this week has been misty and wet. That is Alaska in a nutshell. One week great weather........and the next........not so nice.

 

If anyone is staying over in Seattle and wants to experience a different and wonderful breakfast or brunch........I highly recommend the 13 Coins restaurant, located by the Seattle Times building off of Boren and Denny, just outside of downtown. It's a cab ride, but well worth the experience.

 

Rick

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