We woke up early in the morning to catch our flight back to Sydney. We had given ourselves about 45 minutes to get to the airport, but given that it was Saturday morning, there was no traffic and we got to the airport early. We checked in for our Virgin Australia flight and wandered around the airport and had some expensive airport food for breakfast. We got on the plane for the short flight to Sydney. On the flight, when the beverage cart came around, I asked for a Coke Zero and was offered a Pepsi Max instead. I gratefully accepted the small "half can" and took a sip. The kids asked for the same. Imagine my surprise when the attendant asked me for $9 for the beverages. Ouch! I sheepishly handed my credit card over. You would think that my Air New Zealand experience would have inured me to these surprises. I learn slow, I guess. And maybe I just had warped expectations given that the newspaper trumpeted the fact that Virgin Australia had just taken over Qantas in the rankings as Australia's favorite airline.
We got to Sydney and were about to take a cab when I decided to specifically ask about the "CityLink" train service and found there was a direct train from the airport terminal to Circular Quay and it cost about $16 for me and $11 for the kids (here, you buy one ticket for multiple kids under 15). I wish we had known about this earlier. It was very quick and very convenient. Future Sydney visitors - if your hotel is in the city and close to a train station, the CityLink is clearly the best option. The whole ride took less than 20 minutes and dropped us a few minutes from the Park Hyatt. When we got to the hotel, I asked if we could get a room facing the harbour again and was told that we could upgrade to a harbour room, which is a much larger room for an upgrade price of $405 a night. I politely declined. Then she paused and seemed to read something on her screen and told me that she could give us a harbour facing room on the first floor if I'd be okay with the first floor instead of the higher floor I had requested. I willingly agreed and was told the room would be available only early in the afternoon. The kids and I headed out to The Rocks area and found ourselves in the middle of an open-air fair. The weather was spectacular (in the low 70s) and we enjoyed walking around the fair, sampling foods (I genuinely felt a little sick after bravely insisting the hot sauce guy give me his hottest sauce and then swallowing the generous portion he poured on to a chip), and buying some souvenirs.
We came back to the hotel, rested a while and decided to take the ferry to Darling Harbour. We saw an ad saying they have fireworks on Saturday nights and thought it would give us an excuse to see the harbour. We took the ferry over and walked all over the beautiful board walk along the harbour. We found a food court and I tried an Oprto chicken burger with chilli sauce, Sheila chose an Oporto BLT, and Jay had an Iddly Sambaar at the Indian stall. The fireworks were much better than we expected and it was a great ending to the evening.
We woke up early in the morning to catch our flight back to Sydney. We had given ourselves about 45 minutes to get to the airport, but given that it was Saturday morning, there was no traffic and we got to the airport early. We checked in for our Virgin Australia flight and wandered around the airport and had some expensive airport food for breakfast. We got on the plane for the short flight to Sydney. On the flight, when the beverage cart came around, I asked for a Coke Zero and was offered a Pepsi Max instead. I gratefully accepted the small "half can" and took a sip. The kids asked for the same. Imagine my surprise when the attendant asked me for $9 for the beverages. Ouch! I sheepishly handed my credit card over. You would think that my Air New Zealand experience would have inured me to these surprises. I learn slow, I guess. And maybe I just had warped expectations given that the newspaper trumpeted the fact that Virgin Australia had just taken over Qantas in the rankings as Australia's favorite airline.
We got to Sydney and were about to take a cab when I decided to specifically ask about the "CityLink" train service and found there was a direct train from the airport terminal to Circular Quay and it cost about $16 for me and $11 for the kids (here, you buy one ticket for multiple kids under 15). I wish we had known about this earlier. It was very quick and very convenient. Future Sydney visitors - if your hotel is in the city and close to a train station, the CityLink is clearly the best option. The whole ride took less than 20 minutes and dropped us a few minutes from the Park Hyatt. When we got to the hotel, I asked if we could get a room facing the harbour again and was told that we could upgrade to a harbour room, which is a much larger room for an upgrade price of $405 a night. I politely declined. Then she paused and seemed to read something on her screen and told me that she could give us a harbour facing room on the first floor if I'd be okay with the first floor instead of the higher floor I had requested. I willingly agreed and was told the room would be available only early in the afternoon. The kids and I headed out to The Rocks area and found ourselves in the middle of an open-air fair. The weather was spectacular (in the low 70s) and we enjoyed walking around the fair, sampling foods (I genuinely felt a little sick after bravely insisting the hot sauce guy give me his hottest sauce and then swallowing the generous portion he poured on to a chip), and buying some souvenirs.
No comments:
Post a Comment