Royal Caribbean Rhapsody of the Seas 22.7.17 - Day Zero

[Dinglebert]

Many thanks for taking the time to get to this report.

This was our first cruise. It won't be our last.

The Background

Just over 19 years ago our oldest was born. We decided at the time we would both save £20 a month and when he left primary school we would go to Walt Disney World using the savings. It was obviously a long term plan but we stuck by it. That was until...

until an airline group just plain got their computers wrong one weekend early 2009. Some of you may remember the glitch of all glitches. It lasted over a weekend. At the time I don't think we thought it would be honoured when they turned up on Monday morning and discovered what had happened. However it was.

My memory of the glitch is slightly hazy but in short you had to book a flight via the Austrailain website for the group of Air Lines which included Air France, KLM, Delta. There were a number of dates all mainly around March - June where the flights were being sold without including taxes and other charges.

I know we bought 5 returns London to Orlando via Minneapolis on the outward journey and Detroit on the return for the grand total of just over £600. We could have had LA for £800 or Hawaii for £1100 for the 5 of us. So a return flight for £120 each.

We grabbed it. They honoured it. Off we went a year and a bit early for 10 days over the Easter of 2009. Now some of you will have spotted the 5 tickets. Yes another two children had come along.

We loved the trip to Orlando. We did Disney and Universal. It was busy but fun. So much so that we went back the next year in 2010 when Thomson came up with just under £2500 for us all late June staying in a Condo.

We never did get another cheap deal but back we went every two years until last year. We no longer do the parks, apart from the water ones for relaxation. I enjoy the freedom of having a villa or condo. Driving to a restaurant, having a pool, basically the whole holiday.

However, the rest of the family said enough is enough. We want to do something different next time. Indeed the oldest, then 18 declared he wouldn't be going again anywhere.

The Planning

I really couldn't see us doing a beach holiday. Over the years we have been to all the usual places for a couple of weeks and while I enjoyed most of them most of the time, they no longer appealed. So a cruise was the chosen option. Four of us in two cabins. What could be hard to plan about that.

What I hadn't been aware of was the wonderful world of cruise pricing. The headline price is never the price. It doesn't come close. We search around for dates we could do and Royal Caribbean was the cruise line of choice as their dates fitted and frankly we had around £150 of Tesco vouchers I could turn into £450 of Royal Caribbean money. At the time they were running a free flight promotion and the only ship which had Edinburgh flights still left was the Rhapsody of the Seas leaving from Venice on the 22nd July 2017. Our decision was made for us really. Looking at the various deals which took place since I have found that the price never really changes they just do different offers to make the price some to the same.

As I said I knew nothing about cruising. The size of ships, what to expect were all a bit of a mystery. I watched some (lots of youtube videos) to get a bit of a picture. Some of it put me off like the belly flop competition (how wrong I was) other bits I was excited by.

We went for two inside cabins. They were next to each other but not connected. They were mid-ships on deck floor next to the centrum and R bar. As it turned out they were a really good choice. Seconds away from the communal ares but we could hear no noise when we were in them.

On reflection it was the right choice for our first cruise. The extra for a port hole wasn't worth it given the length of time we spent in the room. I do think if we had had a balcony we would have spent far longer sitting there. However, there were a great many places to sit and watch the world go by.

I didn't take the alcohol drinks package. If I was going to then definately buy it before the cruise the price onboard was considerably more expensive at $55 plus tax a day. Everything as 18% added to it. The bar prices are not cheap at $7 for a pint and $12/14 for cocktails and glasses of wine. However our cruise had stops everyday apart from day 7 and I didn't think I could drink $55 of alcohol everyday for 7 days. Actually I knew I could drink it but that it wouldn't have been a good idea. The OH doesn't drink much at all. As it turned out they do push the package for the first couple of days then it disappears. They did offer on day four a 10 pints of beer card for $49 which I took.

The Cruise

Day One - Sail from Venice
Day Two - Kotor in Montenegro
Day Three - Corfu
Day Four - Athens
Day Five - Mykonos
Day Six - Kefalonia
Day Seven - At Sea
Day Eight - Home time from Venice.

To sum up

Its two adults, two children (17 + 13) off for the their cruise leaving the 19 year old at home looking after the dog and cat

[Smilesonfaces]

Will look forward to reading about your trip. We are going on Harmony of the Seas with teens so will be interested in how you get on.
Hope you had a great time ! L

[Dinglebert]

Originally Posted by Smilesonfaces

Will look forward to reading about your trip. We are going on Harmony of the Seas with teens so will be interested in how you get on.
Hope you had a great time ! L

See more...

The truth is we had the best holiday we have had for years. We loved it. It was only a week but felt like a fortnight given the number of places we visited.

[spenners]

Looking forward to reading your report

[ILoveDaveLamb]

I am in and in awe about your glitch btw. I thought had got some good deals over the years, but that knocks them out if the water! Reading along x

[Cutiepie]

Good start, looking forward to reading more. We are looking at the RCI Independence of the Seas for next summer, cruising with a 13 & 11 year old

[DisneyNikki]

We love cruising too. Looking forward to reading along. )))

[stecee]

Looking forward to reading it.