RC Falls from Grace

RC once was the premier in cruise lines, from food quality to ship excellence. Rhapsody was without proper maintenance, rust throughout, banisters sadly worn and chipped, paint sloppily administered with many many paint drips on stairways, jogging track and walkways. Lounge areas have many many upholstered chairs worn down to the wood. Embarrassing. 2 star old hotel appearance.

Dining room (Edelweiss) was excellent food each night. Open cafe (Windjammer) was a range of very good to embarrassing. Cold and dried out sausages, pancakes that were flattened and flavorless and desserts that seemed made of consistently low quality or limitrd flavor ingredients. A few ok desserts, but generally low quality. Not the food one came to expect from RC in years past.

Service was excellent throughout the ship, but no better than every other cruise line with the exception of Costa, which is horrible.

Entertainment: Bands and musicians were very good. Shows were hit and miss. First routine of RC dancers (western night) came off as a gay Broadway /cowboy mishmash. From then on we avoided. "A Night with Adele " was well done performance by guest singer (Mary Jo as I recall).

Inroom movies were frustrating. Only 2 movies all day, 3 hrs apart. Next day, 2 new movies. No ability to choose (only one channel for movies) so cruise days were disappointing. Large deck screen is nice, but often only showed the same movies all day long.

Ping pong tables (2) needed repair. Exercise room is good, but dated. Deck areas had plenty of lounges.

Stateroom interior, of which we purchased the largest option in the class, was the smallest stateroom we have seen on Any cruise line (Holland, NCL, Celebrity, Costa, Previous RC). And it was worn out and very unimpressive with exposed wood and large rust issues in the bathroom.