After an easy cab ride to the airport and easy flight to Sydney on Sunday, we walked to the airport hotel, explored our dining options (bleak – McDonalds, KFC or Krispy Kreme within walking distance), chose the $2 menu at Mickey D’s and went back to hang out at the hotel with wine and beer purchased in the lobby – that’s a great option!
Monday morning we hopped a cab and off loaded our luggage at the Rhapsody a little after 10am. Since our boarding time was noon, we wandered about Sydney for a bit, bought supplies then headed to the ship. This is the first time we’ve been on this class ship, so after lunch in the buffet (at the front of the ship!), we explore our new home for the next 11 days. It’s a nice compact ship (particularly just being off the Solstice), only 11 decks, with an open centrum and what we call a backwards ship: the buffet is all the way forward and the gym is all the way aft, both on deck 9. Rhapsody has just been refurbished, so all the public areas are lovely – Greek themed art, lots of marble and stone work, nice upholstery, etc.
We make our way to our cabin, all the way aft, corner balcony (it is HUGE and awesome – and the views of the harbor bridge make it even better here in Sydney).
The cabin is really large too – bigger than the Solstice and with much better cabinet and closet space. The bathroom is new, carpet and sofa too with wood floor in the entry area – the rest of the cabin has not been updated, so the vanity, while spacious, is a bit beat up. The amenities aren’t anywhere as nice as Celebrity, but it will serve our purposes quite nicely for this cruise.
After our exploration, we find our bags (they are organizing in the hallway, so we just take them to the room!), unpack and go outside for another walk and more supplies. Back aboard, we go upstairs to 
the pool bar for our first drink of the cruise. And while there, notice that there are TONS of children on this ship. We’ve not even sailed and the pool is already clogged with kids. What’s up with that? Aren’t they supposed to be in school? There were tons of cabins left about 2 months before we sailed, so we suspect that RCL dumped them cheaply on the Aussie market – thus the kids. And the Aussies! Oh my. We’re just people watching at the bar – and the piercings, hats, tattoos, clothes. Yikes. Royal Alabama Line. This should be interesting! We’re already strategizing: We’re not pool people, so that’s fine. We have our huge balcony where we can get sun/fresh air and watch the wake. We have the Diamond lounge for breakfast and cocktails. We can hide! We’re good.
Lifeboat drill. Gym. Watch the P&O ship sail out under the bridge and past the Opera house.
Shower. Diamond lounge. There are only 70 of us that can access the lounge, tucked back in the corner of one of the showrooms. It’s card access only and we have hors d’oeurves, drinks and our own bar server (Samuel) and Concierge (Karen – a doll!). Very peaceful and relaxing in here – different from Celebrity’s lounge in that its so small and not centered around a bar – armchairs, cocktail tables, more groupings for social interaction – but it will be a nice respite every night.
Dinner comes and we watch in awe as the parade of badly dressed people winds past our table. Flip flops, shorts, poorly matched plaids, t-shirts…dress code? Not enforced here obviously!
Dinner service is good, we luckily have been placed with a great wait staff team. We ask for their section going forward and keep our fingers crossed we can get them. After dinner, we retreat to our balcony to watch sailaway. Can’t get a better view than this!
We spend the rest of the night on our balcony, watching Sydney fade into the darkness as we begin the 2nd stage of our great Down Under odyssey!
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