Departure from Singapore, 3/11/24 Monday

Today we get up and have breakfast. New highlights in Indian Food. Coffee Bao, Samosa & Idly with Tomato Chutney! I could get used to this! Breakfast of Champions! For any of you adventurous types, this food is Heaven on Earth!

Today we choose to kick back in the hotel until time to head for the ship. Our legs are tired and we feel we have visited the important sites in Singapore. So I catch up on some photo editing and before we know it, it is time to check out. Elee has called our taxi driver that brought us from the airport (yes, taxi drivers give you their personal numbers and love it when you call them for a ride!

So Hafiz picks us up and takes us to the ship terminal. We pay him and tip him well! Then we walk through the terminal and catch a few photos of the ship as we approach it!

We only have to roll our luggage a couple hundred feet, and compliments to a luggage cart, it is easy. They look at my passport and get my room number and the luggage is checked in! Then we walk to check ourselves in. This turns out to be the absolute easiest cruise ship check in we have ever experienced! Within 10 minutes we are on the ship! We go to our room and a porter is there to put our luggage into our room.

We should introduce you to the ship that will be our home for the next two months! Come with us as we explore the ship! The first thing we notice makes us roar with laughter! The same carpeting that was on our 2020 World Cruise is here! We nicknamed it ‘Covid Carpeting’ because of the pattern on it!

We start by going up to the top on Deck 14 and walking around. This is the walking track of the ship and the best views without windows. Singapore is interesting from this perspective!

In the front of the ship is the “Observatory”, which is the all night disco and bar! We get a Singapore Sling to accompany us on our exploratory journey!

Then down to Deck 12 and walk around again. Here we are on the pool deck and the buffet restaurant along with the custom coffee shop, the pizza and ice cream shops as well as the premiere restaurant, the ‘Sea & Grass’. And finally, the Bridge, which is closed to passengers without special permission.

Deck 11, all cabins and suites. Deck 10, more cabins and in the very front of the ship there is an open deck for observing wildlife and views coming into ports!

Deck 9 & Deck 8, both filled with cabins. In the back of the ship there are open viewing balconies mainly for guests staying on those floors. Ooh, the front half of Deck 8 has an interesting bar called the “Purple Turtle Pub” lounge! We will spend a lot of time here as you will learn. LOL.

Deck 7… The main entertainment deck. In the front of the ship is the “Palladium Theatre”, accessed on both Deck 7 and 8 (Balcony).

The back of Deck 7 is the “Buckingham Restaurant” where most of our meals will be served. In the Buckingham is the ‘Captain’s Table’ where special meals can be had at premium prices! In between the Buckingham and the Palladium are “Raffles Bar”, “Botanical Lounge” (both piano bars) and forward of that is the top level of the “Center Court” with seating and stairwells that lead down to Deck 6 and Deck 5 for midship entertainment!

The middle is open so all 3 floors can enjoy whatever entertainment is taking place! Deck 6… More fun places! Including our cabin! Here you will also find the “Casino” for gambling on sea days, Aces & Eights card room and “Kapoor’s” where most art classes are held. Behind that are cabins. Deck 5 has Reception next to the Center Court where the midship entertainment occurs, Dicken’s Bar and Destination Experiences where you can book future cruises.

The back of Deck 5 and below are cabins. If you wish to use the Gym or have a reason to go to the Medical Center, those, along with the Spa, are on Deck 2, down in the bowels of the ship! Deck 3 is Crew Cabins, you have to have a special key for that deck! I check my steps and have 5000 just from exploring the ship!

We go to our room and unpack most of our stuff. Then I walk into a lounge on Deck 7 and, lo and behold, here is an old friend from our RTW 2020 Cruise! Hello Ann! We catch up and Elee joins us. We knew she was on the ship already. She is headed out to see the Light Show that Elee and I saw 2 nights ago in the Garden By The Sea.

We go into the “Buckingham Restaurant” (The main restaurant on the ship) and have dinner. Tonight is ‘Open Seating’ which means you sit where you like. On a regular basis, we will have assigned seating with assigned table mates. We will see how that works out. We have had good and poor results with that in the past. The good thing is, we know we can choose to change tables if we don’t get along with our table mates!

After dinner, we go into one of the local lounges that offers a trivia game. We commonly enter trivia games, even not being very adept at them. And, as usual, we only get 4 of 15 questions correct! But it was fun! We will have to get a team together with a couple Brits included as these trivia games are geared towards British trivia! (It is a British ship, after all!) But it’s all in good fun and we meet some Aussies at the table next to us! Meeting new friends is one of life’s great pleasures!

The act that follows the trivia is a music trio. We attempt to listen but they have their amps set too loud and there is an uncomfortable echo factor in the room. So we go in search of another form of entertainment. We find ‘the Botanical Lounge, a lounge with a piano player and violin player that are much quieter and interesting to listen to. Alas, they only play for an hour! Must be a good gig if you can get it! We find out later that they move around the ship playing an hour here, an hour there and likely play 6 to 8 hours each day at the least!

We contemplate ending our evening when we spot another old friend from our 2020 RTW Cruise and we visit with Ron for a short while and catch up.

We agree to meet up the next day and we all head for our rooms.

Goodnight All!