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Rhapsody of the seas Greek Islands 25 Aug - 1-Sep , semi live blog


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Day 5 – Mykonos

7:30 am was the time we arrived to Mykonos, its not that I woke up to see its I just learn about it later. We took our time as we did not have any tour planned (Lesson learned) so we slept awhile, eat breakfast at the WJ and went down to the small city. This was the second tendering port during the cruise but since we left after 10 AM it was with zero lines , very nicely handled by RC team comparing to the previous tendering in Kotor which was more crowded. No tickets were required for the tendering boats. The boat leaves us around 50 M (150 F  for the US readers who refuse to follow the rest of the world and adapt the very logic metric system) from the city so it was very convenient to just walk around. We did not have special plans for Mykonos so we just started to walk between the narrow passages, the small city is beautiful all the building are paint white with some blue and red on top of the churches, the street are very clean and we were lucky with the weather that was very good.

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We went all the way up to take some pictures of the bay and to try and balance all the calories we are eating on board the ship. The view from the heal is amazing, although the electric wires are in the way of some of the pictures, how so not thoughtful of Mykonos electric company.

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We did our way down and seat in one of the coffee shops near the port, we drank the local Greek coffee (again, its exactly like Turkish coffee, but do not dare to say it in Greece) added to it some cold coffee which we saw everyone else are drinking. Word of advice, Mykonos is very expensive , almost twice than Athens.

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We decide to go back to the ship and eat lunch. My spouse went to the SPA and booked some of the massage offers they had yesterday I  stayed at the room to answer some of the working related email as I needed to escalate some of the issues (work never ends), I think its better to do it like that and not to return home and have thousands of emails waiting for me to handle but this is only my opinion.

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After some rest we went to the MDR for our 6 PM dinner ,the table was full again and we  were happy to see everyone , interesting discussions and  sharing experiences from the day. It was Lasagna night, we enjoyed it ,four  of the people at the table ordered the fish , all of them gave it back and ask to replace to the lasagna as they said the fish was very dry and salty. For dessert almost, everyone ordered the Tiramisu beside me that ordered the Tiramisu and the cheese plate ? The tiramisu was  excellent.

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after dinner we went  to the high tier event , around 60 people attend the event and almost all the officers were there. No pinnacles on this cruise, in total only 600 C&A are sailing this week.   Post the event we went to see the headliner show , it was some magic show but it all seem the same as other magic shows we saw on board of other ships so we went out at the middle (good we seated near the exit), next we went to the 70 show (I periscope part of it), visit the Casino (no jackpot this time ) and conclude the day at the park café eating pizza.  

 

 

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OK, I recognize the scallops carpaccio, Maine lobster salad, and I think the garlic truffle tagliatelle from my own Chef's table back in April. Interesting that they keep at least parts of the menu going for so long, and it seems across the entire fleet.

What is that steak entree you have there? Filet mignon? And how awesome they gave you a special birthday dessert! Was that off-menu, or the provided menu selection with the writing added?

And the most important question -- what wines were served, and how did you like them? ?

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19 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

OK, I recognize the scallops carpaccio, Maine lobster salad, and I think the garlic truffle tagliatelle from my own Chef's table back in April. Interesting that they keep at least parts of the menu going for so long, and it seems across the entire fleet.

What is that steak entree you have there? Filet mignon? And how awesome they gave you a special birthday dessert! Was that off-menu, or the provided menu selection with the writing added?

And the most important question -- what wines were served, and how did you like them? ?

Well the wines were from Germany , France and  US  do not remember everything now will try to recall later.

The maon dish was amazing filet mignon, the dessert was the wanderland one and they addedd to that chocolate strawberry and of her small cakes , the birthday cheese cake was not on the menue

Oh and I loved all the wines 

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Day 6 – Argostoli

Arriving at 11 to Argostoli , I like the fact they let us sleep more although it leave us less time at port. Noting special to say about the morning it was the usual ritual of WJ, morning emails, getting organized and off to the port. The port is right near the city so we just went and started and look around, The city is more modern than some of the pervious ports with wide streets and nice lagoon.

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 By the way we learned that the word lagoon came from Latin word of Lacuna as the people near Venezia were fleeing from enmities out of the main land into the Venice area as it was water surrounded and empty=Lacuna , to avoid their  enemy invasion. It was quite hot weather so perfect for whoever wanted to go to the beach and I guess many did. After a while we found some nice restaurant to eat our lunch, some variety of Greek cold palter which was good for small bytes as we had big dinner later.

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 Post lunch we went back to the ship to enjoy laying in the sun and gain some color, so people back home will know we did not lie going for a vacation ?. Some rest and getting organized to the last official night. This time we had reservations to the Chef Table to celebrate my birthday. We reserved it online which might been a mistake as they did offer special prices on board. The Chef restaurant was very nice experience, we were joining a group of cruisers from Ireland, 3 couples which all are old time friends (over 25 years) that cruise together. It was very nice conversions and allot of loughs, we were lucky to share the table with them. The food and wine was very good , I loved the pasta with real truffles and the filet minion was the best I was eating (for sure over the RC ships), we got to taste six kind of wine , and when I say tasting I mean full glass of each wine (which added to the party ambient). The dessert was the chocolate ball from wonderland and some other small dessert that follow it (not that anyone could eat anything else). The waiter which  was also the sommelier was very funny and give excellent explanation and tips about the wine. The chef came out between each dish to explain how it was done. I do recommended to try this experience at least once, just take into consideration that it took us about 4 hours to finish the dinner although we did not feel it as time passed very fast.

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We missed the quest game (yes they brought the quest to Europe, yeaaaahh , I hope it’s going to be now in all Europe routes. Post dinner , we listen to some music and went to sleep as such dinner can make you very tiered . Tomorrow we are at sea.  

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Day 7 and 8 (Sea day and disembarkation) 

So every good thing must end I guess, Day 7 came quite fast , I love sea days , no need to plan anything beside , well to leave some time to pack. Lucky for us we were told we need to leave the suitcase no later than 11 (its usually 10). As we did not had special plans we did a last tour at the ship , spend some time on the sundecks (which was quite pack but still we could find places , and yes many chair were empty for hours with books and towels). It was a perfect sea day from weather perspective, during most of out port days we had some rain for 30 minutes +/- but during the sea day the sun was out all the time. Dinner was again in the MDR , it was the last day to see our wonderful table companion , I feel lucky we got this table as we really enjoy the conversions. During this meal we took some pictures, shared emails. We said goodbye to the Casino and the Casino bar (who provide us with few drinks during this cruise) and went to sleep around 11 PM , I found out that one of the key making the disembarkation easier is to : try to sleep early, avoid to many drinks before going to sleep and pack early so it will not bother us. Before going to sleep I found our cabin attended and gave him extra cash gratitude as I think he did the extra mile.

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Our disembarkation was schedule to 9 AM ad included airport transfer so we had time to eat quick breakfast, get out from the room around 8:20 and waiting for our number to be called. It was a rainy morning but not that bad. As our flight was schedule for 6 PM we considered two options for the day , the first was to use RC program “stay a while” which allows you, for a payment to stay on the ship until 1 or 3 PM , use the different facilities and eat lunch at the WJ. We thought about it and we were not sure we really want to stay and watch all the happy people that just got boarded the ship and have full 7 day to enjoy it. The second option (and the one we choose) was to get to the airport, rent a car and drive to the nearest city mail for few hours of shopping with lunch break at a local restaurant. So, we went down to the port, collect our luggage  and catch the transfer, we did not have to wait too long and the bus left to the airport with 10 people, it was about 15 minutes ride. At the airport the bus leaves you at a parking lot which you need to walk around 10 -15 minutes to get to the gates (take it into consideration if you consider this) . we dropped our suitcases at the luggage storage service (7 Euros per suitcase as I booked a small car and did not know if it will have enough space for the luggage) and collect our car. All in all, it cost us the same as if we used the stay awhile program but allow us more flexibility to do whatever we wanted. Flight back went without any major issues and we arrived back at home safely ,  starting another week and to countdown our days before our next cruise.

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So what I think about the Rhapsody?:

It was our first cruise on a Vision class ship and we had some doubts  (small ship , older ship etc) , the ship itself looks good, It is well maintained although you can find here and there some places which might need to be refreshed.

Service – Service on the ship is very good and maybe even better than other ships we sailed at the past. Facilities dose not feel crowd, we always found place to seat at the WJ and the Centrum during major events was not crowded more than the promenaded during same events. MDR services was very good and quite fast.

Ports - The ability to get to ports which bigger ships can not attend is a major plus for sure, I loved Mykonos, Kotor and Athens will try to visit them again.

Food – food quality in the MDR was usually good , some of the dishes were better than I was eaten on other ships, Chef table was amazing , we did not tried other special restaurant.

Off hours food – Here I Think RC could have done much better, the only facility offers food after 9 PM is the park cafe were you can get small salads, Pizza and hot dogs , some cookies were also offered. Most of the days it was open only until 12 AM and on some days until 2 AM , offering mainly Pizza.  I think RC  should offer bigger variety  and leave it open longer. The area near the cafe was packed with people that were looking for something to eat. In one or two of the nights the place around the cafe was quite a mess with allot of used cups and dirty plates.

Entertainment – Although they do not have Broadway shows on board they offered something almost every day, we saw one headliner show and one home production , it was nice. Live music was easy to find, and the Centrum was always offered something.

Casino – Small comparing to the other ships but not very small, it has some new  slot machines installed , six to eight gaming tables (4 BJ ,1 3 card poker, 1 roulette   and 1 Caribbean Poker. Most of the times it was not too busy, 3 $ games were offered many times.

Cruise Director / Events manager – The CD is Elvis from Chile and EM is Paulo from Italy (who looks to me exactly like the Austin powers character) , it was their first cruise together but they had good chemistry. I think both did good job , Elvis could been seen everywhere and they both organized nice events. The fact they added the Quest plus the love and marriage game show to  a European cruise   was a big plus.

So, Based on our experience would we try another cruise with a vision class?  I will say yes, if it is an interesting route or we can get a good deal on it.  I think RC doing good job maintaining Rhapsody and if you are not comparing it all the time to the bigger classes she is doing not bad at all.

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

That’s it for this blog, as always II enjoyed sharing the experience. I would like to thank my spouse for her patient ,  for all the times I took the internet to update the blog, asking her to wait with the food before I am taking the pictures and leaving the lights on late at night to finish sending the updates ?

 

Thank you , until next time.

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Bonus post - Real Hummus  recipe (not RC Hummus)

As promised I am adding a real Hummus recipe , although it take much more time than go to the supermarket and buy ready made one I Guarantee fresh homemade Hummus is much more tasty and healthier.

The main missing integrates In so called “Hummus” in many restaurants is the Tehina (sesame paste) You can get one in every middle eastern grocery shop  or in many Natural food stores, I even found it once in Walmart.

What you will need :

Two cups of chickpeas (dry ones, not from a can)

One cup of raw tehina/tahini

One Lemon

One onion

5-6 Garlic clove

Salt/pepper

Olive oil.

Preparations:

The secret for a good Hummus is to  first soak it in water for at least 24 hours. So we will put the Chickpeas in a bowl and rains it. We will add water to the bowl, enough to cover the chickpeas grains. The water should be replaced every 6 to 8 hours. In places like Florida its better to put the bowl of chickpeas in the refrigerator. After 24 hours we rinse again the chickpeas few times. Now we are ready to cook.

Cooking

Put the chickpeas inside cooking pan/pot and add water (around 5 cm/2 inches above the chickpeas level) add the garlic cloves (peeled) and the onion. once the water is boiled reduce the hit, remove the foam that was created during the process using a spoon. From time to time , using a small sieve, remove the shells which are separated from the chickpeas. The Chickpeas should be cooked for around 1 to two hours , it is ready when you take out one grain and can smash it easily in your hands. As fresher the Chickpeas are the shorter time they need to be cooked , some people add  a spoon of sodium carbonate to expedite the process , its possible , I try to avoid it.

Once it is ready , remove the onion and move the Chickpeas with some of the cooking water to a food processor or a blender  Grind the Chickpea and the garlic until getting smooth paste.

Let the Hummus cool a while before mixing it with the tehina as tehina very sensitive to hit. Once the Hummus is chilled you can bring it back to the food processor/blender and slowly add the tehina, lemon Juice from one lemon , salt and pepper and a spoon/two spoons  of olive oil.

That’s its, now you have real Hummus , Enjoy.

 The prepared Hummus can be kept in the refrigerator for up to two days but if its left more than that it mean : or you do not like Hummus or something went wrong with the process ?.

If you want to reduce the preparation time for the future, you can cook more Chickpeas and freeze them before processing it. Once you take them our from the freezer you can grain them with the tehina and lemon/salt.

There is also possibility  to use a pre cooked chickpeas from a can , but then you need to rinse it very well and the taste will not be the same (but still better than many other places).

 

 

 

 

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