Our ship was Royal Caribbean Rhapsody of the Seas. Although older than most ships in the fleet, it offered everything we wanted.

First of all, I liked that there were only about 2,000 passengers on board. Every once in a while we started recognizing people just walking around. In addition to the gym with treadmills, machines and weights, an outdoor track wrapped around the upper deck above the pool area.

Although the teen program wasn’t very exciting as there were only 40 teens on board, the ship had great inter-generational activities. Our children had fun playing trivia games with the grandparents several times. One of my daughters and I played a “Finish the Lyrics” in the lobby atrium in front of a large crowd. At the end of the week, she and her grandmother participated in a flash mob also in the lobby.

The room wasn’t as luxurious as the Disney cruise we had previously taken. The first being that we chose to be more economical and not get a room with a balcony or on an upper level. To be honest, we didn’t spend much time in the room and when we did, we had plenty of room. The only times it was tight was unpacking and packing.

Most days it was easy to find a spot by the pool. Additionally, the adult pool was in a solarium next to the spa on the same level. My favorite lunch spot was also in this solarium. I planted myself on the adult deck to read books and relax. I guess I was too busy relaxing to take a picture of the solarium area!

Our waiters were terrific and I thought the food was very good. There were plenty of selections to keep everyone happy. One of my daughters really liked the choices of cold soups and she expanded her palette. Also, it was easy that there was only one main sit-down dining room. Every previous cruise (except for Disney) was like this and it made the evenings easy.

One night, we had a date night at one of the specialty restaurants. It was fabulous and our view was amazing. That same night, the captain got on the loudspeaker to announce the beautiful sunset.