Queensland Cruise – Day 1

Well, we are onboard and rather excited to be heading out on another cruise. This time we’ve left the girls behind so it should be nice and relaxing.

We left home just after 11am and Dad was kind enough to drive us to the terminal at the Rocks. We arrived around 1pm and were quickly through security. There was a bit of line up for check in but when I told the guy we were in a junior suite he quickly directed us to this line – which had no-one waiting.

A few minutes later we were in possession of our room keys and after a photo stop we were walking the gangway onto Rhapsody of the Seas. As I looked around I said to Kevin it was just like coming home as this is the sister ship to Granduer and Vision which we have sailed on before.

We headed to our room and were very impressed. We got a great deal on a Junior Suite. It’s huge!! And our balcony is almost as big as our room. We are totally traveling in style this cruise :-).

I had ordered some chocolate strawberries as an Anniversary present for Kevin and they were already in the room when we arrrived. They disappeared pretty quickly and were delicious.

As we were getting hungry we headed to Windjammers buffet to get some lunch. I had salad and a roll. It’s certainly interesting no longer being able to eat a lot of food. We went and booked our tours and strolled around the decks. The gym looks nice but I’m not that excited about the classes on offer.We headed back to Windjammers for a cup of tea and shared a sample of deserts.

Back to our room we managed to collect our lugguage so I got unpacked. There is SOOOO much storage space. I think even if we had the girls we’d still have spare space.

We relaxed for a bit, reading through the cruise literature then headed out in search of Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream – which we enjoyed while looking out over the opera house.

Another walk around the ship and a stop to pick up some tea bags (there is only Earl Grey in our cabin) and back to the cabin.

Time for a cup of tea and to upload photos and start on this post. I’ll have to get it posted before we leave Sydney Harbour as we’re at sea for the next two days.

At 5.15pm we attended muster (a life raft drill) and were pleasantly surprised that we didn’t need to wear our life jackets – though it always makes for a fun photo. It was hot and long but it’s done and over.

We then went to the bar to collect our cocktails ready for sailaway.Kevin had a mudslide and I had a virgin pina colada.

We opted to skip dinner in the dining room and watch sailaway from our room. Unfortunately we were supposed to leave at 6pm (dinner time) but didn’t cast off ropes until 7.15pm.

It was well worth the wait though and sailaway was another magical experience.