Rhapsody of the Seas.
Class: Vision
Built: 1996/1997 Chantiers de l' Atlantique (Saint-Nazaire, France)
Registry: --
Entered service: May 19 1997 (Maiden Voyage)
Status: in service.
Tonnage: 78,491 gross register tons
Length: 915 feet
Beam: 105.6 feet
Draft: 25 feet
Decks: 11
Speed: 22 knots (25.3 mph)
Crew: 765
Passengers: 2,435
Notes:
The fifth unit in the six ship Vision class. As with the final four units in
the class, Rhapsody is not designed for speed. Thus her size and internal layout
is much more akin to the pre-Voyager class ships of the Royal Caribbean fleet.
Rhapsody of the Seas can be recognized compared to her sisters by how the Royal
Caribbean logo is attached to the main stack which is seperate from the Viking
Crown Lounge and aft of it as in the first two units. The second two units have
the logo son a sponsor just ahead of the stack, which is also detached from
and aft of the Viking Crown Lounge. The Vision class also introduced a single
dinning room concept to the newest ships in the fleet. Rather than two identical
rooms isolated on seperate decks, you have a single room, with a large open
space overlooking the Captains table and main floor, spread over two decks.
This would evolve into three decks on the Voyager class.
The Vision class also introduced mini-golf to Royal Caribbean ships. As originally
equiped, Rhapsody was equiped with four tender boats, with a capacity of 140
each. They also functioned as lifeboats.
Dinning room is named the "Edelweiss Dinning Room." (decks 4 and 5.)
The theater is named "Broadway Melodies Theatre."