Day Eight – Sydney harbour

Today the ship is moored in Sydney harbour . Tenders have been provided for passengers to visit Sydney, but as we have a week there at the end of the cruise, we have decided to use today to fully explore the ship.

The Rhapsody is one of the older ships of the Royal Caribbean fleet and as such is comparatively small when compared to the new super ships. I believe that when full it will hold around 2500 passengers but we have been told that there are only 1900 on board at the moment. The fixtures and fittings in the Centrum are very ornate as the following photos will show.

The main feature that is different from the Sea Princess is the covered solarium area. This allows you to swim even in adverse weather conditions. For some reason it is decorated in a mock Egyptian style, I’m not sure of the significance of that!!

We haven't tried out the pool yet but the table tennis tables are in here and we have used these. The food on board so far has been first class although probably not up to the standards of Princess, in fairness it is too early to compare.Here are the buffet and main dining areas.

We are very pleased with the stateroom especially the balcony which Sylvia has been enjoying.

In the afternoon we took part in the Trivia quiz, but didn’t perform well.(MUST DO BETTER !!!!).After the compulsory muster drill at 5.30 the ship began to sail at 6.30 as we went to dinner. Two more couples were on the table. Jim & Pat from New Jersey and Isobel & her husband(difficult name to remember ) from the Azores.Will learn more about these on our travels.Once out of Sydney harbour the sea became quite choppy and during the night even more so. I have heard that the Tasman sea can be rough …….We have two more days of this!!!