Entertainment on Royal Caribbean

Yes, I’m still catching up on our amazing 18 day Repositioning Cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Rhapsody of the Seas. Repositioning cruises occur when a cruise line decides to move their ship from one destination/itinerary to another.

In this case, RC was moving their Rhapsody of the Seas ship from a winter itinerary in Australia all the way to Alaska for the summer cruise season! For us, this meant we could hit up an amazing discounted deal for a nearly 3-week cruise that took us through the South Pacific all the way to Hawaii (some cruisers continued on to Alaska). Our itinerary started in Sydney, Australia and went to New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, American Samoa, and of course, Hawaii!

Of course, of major concern was how entertained our 3 children would be onboard a ship for that long (ages 8, 5 and nearly 3). Fortunately, entertainment for the kids turned out to be a cinch—thanks to the amazing Royal Caribbean Kid’s Clubs aboard the Rhapsody of the Seas! If you are considering cruising with RC, you’ll want to check out the above link for the previous post I did about the various activities and clubs for all ages!

If our kids hadn’t insisted on being in the Kid’s Program for most of the day, they would have found nearly a daily opportunity to watch a movie at the outdoor pool. They had a good variety of movies, including adult flicks in the late morning, and often a kid’s flick in the afternoon. The only bummer was that RC perhaps hadn’t stocked enough movies for an 18-day itinerary, and therefore repeated movies frequently on our trip.

They also showed movies such as The Hobbit and other new releases in their big indoor “Broadway Melodies Theater” where their major performances took place.

Nearly every evening a big production took place in the theater. About once or twice a week we’d get to see a production for the Rhapsody of the Seas cast (Broadway hits, oldies, etc), and on the other evenings they had guest entertainers that ranged from country, to classical piano, to opera, to magic shows, comedians, etc.

In fact, our favorite performer unexpectedly turned out to be an Australian country singer who sang Neil Diamond and old classics like “American Pie”. I hate country, but this guy was incredibly entertaining and high-energy—we couldn’t help but love him!  In fact, the ship invited him to do a second evening performance after the first one had everyone raving and in stitches at the same time (he was funny)!  I wish I knew his name so I could give him accolades for being one of the best performers I have ever seen!

In addition to performances in the main performance hall, they also had performers throughout the ship in the small cafes (a cappella groups, stringed instruments, jazz groups, etc).

In the Centrum they often hosted dance lessons, and had unique aerial performances that spanned the open area 6+ floors high!

The sociable Canadian Captain of the ship even made an appearance in the Centrum to sing some hits for the passengers.

On the pool deck during lunchtime there was usually a live band, and on special evenings they had additional guests such as the Polynesian dancers that joined us on the last 5-day sailing portion of our trip.

During that long duration at sea, the ship planned some special events that included a midnight dance party and buffet.

The kids begged to go, so we finally relented. They ended up dancing for more than an hour, and our little Ethan was especially highlighted as an active dancer on the video reel that they then played on the ship staterooms for the rest of the cruise!  (we didn’t tell them about a similar party that happened only a few nights later…one super late night was enough for us “old folks”!)

Of course, other kinds of adult entertainment abounded—and included daily itineraries with activities such as Nintendo Wii Open Play, Shuffleboard Competitions, Table Tennis, Quiz Games, Bingo, Pool Volleyball competitions, Belly Flops Contests, and the list went on! If you enjoy playing casino games, there were also options available, including a เว็บบาคาร่าที่คนเล่นเยอะที่สุด, adding to the excitement of the activities.

Overall, we certainly didn’t find ourselves bored on the 18-day cruise.  Surprisingly enough, I rarely found time to read or work on the computer, as I thought I would!

You can enjoy a 4 minute video here of some of the activities we enjoyed throughout the ship: