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Now there is something about knowing you are getting off the boat that just makes you want to jump off quickly. I was really sad leaving the ship, but at the same time I guess I knew it was over and wanted to go see Singapore as I had never been there either. There is also a difference between excitement and just pure moronic behavior. I think I was in the second category this morning. For some reason the body clock demanded I leap out of bed at 5am of all times and look out the window. Yes we were pulling into Singapore, but seriously? 5am? Did I really care that much? Well I guess excitement shared is better than standing alone, so I forced my husband to wake up and come and look at the very dark skys, but lights of Singapore. Needless to say, he wasn’t particularly impressed.
Now it was once again humid outside. I really need to research into a lense that doesn’t fog up the minute I take it outside in humidity! I tried taking some photos, but it wasn’t the best lighting, the sun wasn’t even considering waking up yet. My excitement clearly wasn’t
contagious. From our balcony, we had the perfect view of the new Terminal, and it was pushed overly that we were to be the first people to dock using it. I was expecting a right fanfare when we were to depart then, especially considering the welcome we received in all the Malaysian Ports! It was pretty cool that we also could see in the distance the Singapore Eye as well as a portion of the Marina Bay Sands where we would be heading later today for a Chocolate Bar experience with Roberta & Co.
The docking part went well, the connection everything to the ship didn’t necessarily go too smoothly. By the looks of things getting the luggage off wasn’t as easy as they had imagined and there were a few teething issues. It was breakfast time anyway, and by the looks of it they were running out of milk and scratching the bottom of the barrel to feed us all this morning. Instead of the never ending supplies of everything, it looked like things were starting to run out. That all being said I was still able to have my usual breakfast without any dramas, so it wasn’t
a problem at all.
With the whole tipping thing, the previous night we handed out our envelopes to the various people. Our room attendant received a reasonable tip from us (or at least I think it was), because we simply adored him. Honestly we wanted to put our dining tips in for our attendant, because we didn’t really go into the main dining room that often during the cruise, so the whole pre-paid system might need some tweaking so the right people get the appropriate money. We left our room and there was to be no turning back. It was such a strange thing walking past some people’s rooms as I’m not sure what they were doing in them, but the rubbish they left everywhere was a bit bad. The rooms had bins in them, so couldn’t see why some people felt they didn’t have to use them. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want that type of a job.
We headed on down to the Café, our favorite little stop. Robert opted out of going to the breakfast with me, I think he just wanted to catch up on the sleep I rudely didn’t let him get earlier,
so he grabbed a bite to eat there. We had the most hilarious encounter with one of the ladies on the tour the previous day, and I don’t think I’ve blushed so much in my life with what she was telling us. High 5 to her, but my husband I think was ready to trade me in by the end of her stories! We said our goodbyes to some of the lovely friends we made along the way, and sat down with our English buddies as we waited for permission to leave the boat. Them keeping hold of our passports was really a method of keeping us all hostage. We were to be in the group 16 leaving the ship, which I think was due to get off about 8am or just beforehand.
There were so many delays it seemed. It was really frustrating; especially knowing you could be off exploring this new destination. I think an hour and half past our expected departure time we were finally led to get our passports. This ended up being a very simple task, but then there was a road block of people all just standing in a line that didn’t move
to get off. The systems had crashed and it took a while to get everything back up and running. By the time we finally got off the boat, all the celebrations for our arrival had packed up, and to think we were by no means the last ones getting off or anything! It was a touch disappointing. Going through their customs wasn’t too bad, then we travelled down an escalator to our luggage collection. At the base of the escalators we received a “special” pack for being the first travelers to use the terminal. It wasn’t very exciting, a Royal Caribbean sponsored postcard of the terminal. In that aspect Malaysia rocks, and definitely made you want to return I guess. The luggage collection area was huge, and the bags were all nice and easily set out so finding your bag was a piece of cake. There were people running around with free drinks for us all as a welcome gift I think.
Getting out of the terminal, you walked into a wall of people all lining up at the taxi bays with again very little movement. We were encouraged to walk away from this area and go and board
one of the buses that was taking passengers over to the Marina Bay Sands complex to move some of the congestion away from the port and make it easier for us to get taxi’s. Now this worked perfectly. Due to the fact everyone had luggage they couldn’t take full buses over, and I thought it was funny that one person got off to discover their luggage was left back at the terminal, so it was a round trip for them! As if you get on a bus without making sure your bags get put on!
When we got to the Marina Bay complex, we walked into the shopping side of things to withdraw some funds out of the ATM, before going straight to the taxi bay. We would return here later that night, so there was no point in lugging around two very heavy suitcases when we didn’t need to. Oh in regard to the suitcases I think getting off the ship must have added a big of weight to it all, as it seemed everyone was now going to struggle when they had to lift our cases. I was fully prepared to lift my own, but apparently it’s
not something people do.
We made our way over to our Hotel for the next two nights. It was the Royal Plaza on Scotts Road. Our Taxi driver was lovely and just excited to have more foreigners in his vehicle. He gave us a mini tour on the way. As for the streets, I’m not sure if he was just driving around in circles or if they have a few one way roads in the city, because it just seemed an odd sort of way to get to our hotel almost literally going in circles. Maybe it was just to bump up the fare, either way it didn’t bother me too much.
Arriving at the hotel, we made our way in and it was quite a busy reception desk. We eventually made it to a free receptionist and our luggage was taken away to be put in storage by one of the luggage men, who gave us a ticket. Considering we had arrived well before midday, we were wanting to get out and about and visit the city, before dropping back later to freshen up then head off for the Marina Bay.
When we got to the
desk, the girl who took our names suddenly took to the telephone and was saying something to someone else. A suited man then came over and was looking at our booking. I had wondered what on earth I had done wrong. I had an email confirmation that everything was fine, so couldn’t understand what the mistake might be. We were then informed that due to booking Club deluxe room we were going to be whisked away to the Royal Club Lounge for “Priority Check in”. Oh man! I suddenly freaked out wondering what on earth I had gotten us into. There is also nothing that makes you feel grottier as a traveler wearing everyday clothes then being told you are going up to some “lounge”. Honestly I would have been quite happy checking in with the rest of the “plebs” like a normal person, and I guess it made me feel really uncomfortable being dragged upstairs as though we were some VIP’s. It was funny, but still quite an odd experience. I kept thinking the entire time, are they for real?
Up in the “priority lounge” we were greeted with a drink of our choice while we sat and
they processed our booking. Our room was immediately available, and due to having put our bags into storage they would organize the “butler” to bring them straight up to us. We were taken to our room and really for all the fuss they were giving us, it wasn’t that amazing or anything. It was a nice room, smaller than what we had on both the boat and in Dubai. It had a kind of cold feel to it, possibly a well working air conditioner. Before long the butler did bring us our bags, and I had to laugh at the poor guy, he did seem to struggle with our bags. I know they were heavy, but they weren’t “that” heavy!
One of the best features of our room was the free mini bar. It was to be re-filled at 1pm daily, so whatever we took out now would be replenished later. Robert helped himself for the beer they gave us, and the bottled water came in really handy. The other awesome thing about the room was that we received Loccitane toiletries in the shower and bathroom. Oh I was in a serious essential oil heaven here people!
We
decided before too long that it was definitely time to hit the road. We were given a map and told that the Botanic Gardens were close by, so thought it might be nice to take a stroll down to have a look around. With being so close to Orchard Road, we wandered along that to the gardens. I thought it was funny that we saw none other than Roberta & Co on a sight seeing bus while we were wandering along the streets. Honestly I should have made a bet earlier with my husband that we would bump into them, because I thought it was a given! After walking for what seemed forever, it was then discovered that I had in fact turned the wrong way, and we had been walking away from the gardens I wanted to see so much. Due to the fact that we were near the Dhoby Ghaut MRT line we opted instead to go and visit the Little India District. It was quite interesting going to where you catch the train one direction went to China Town, the other little India, and it seemed that it was a very race orientated divide as to who
was jumping on which train.
When we got out at little India, it was boiling. We ended up buying a coke to get some fluids into us. There was a market we stumbled across where the top floor was clothing heaven. One of the items I really wanted to purchase was an Indian Saree. The prices were really cheap however there were way too many for me to pick from. It was just too confusing and I didn’t know what size to pick and I’m just the world’s most hopeless shopper!It was amazing looking around the area, however the centre of this first floor was open and you could see down into the open fish market below. The smell was revolting. We had to move away from the area. I did get game and when I gave in the towel and resound myself that and Indian Saree would join the Venice Mask as one of the impossible tasks of Kylie, we attempted to walk through the meat stalls. I don’t know if it was the smell, or the sight of all the bits and bobs of meat they just had laying out in the open, the birds flying around
or the blood and other goo we saw, but my stomach started heaving and we had to flee the market. It was all very fun. We tried wandering around a bit longer then decided maybe we might go back to the hotel, wash up then head off to the Marina Bay Sands early and catch a bite to eat.
I think we got to the Marina Bay a touch too early. We had completed a whole circuit of the shopping complex before too long then had a heck of a lot of time to spare. So what to do when you don’t really have anything to do …. Eat! We made our way over to their little food court. First impressions were I want to go back to the Petronas towers! I just wanted something light to got the husband to order the chicken satay sticks for me. I think he had this two meats and one salad option. Now the interesting thing with his meal was as nice as the food all looked, it was stone cold. I’m not sure why they would do that with chicken and other things, but it was really horrible. It was worse
considering you are expecting a hot meal. My satay as far as they go was I guess passable, but on second impressions, I really wanted to head back to those Petronas towers food court!
We made our way outside of the complex and I went a bit water lily crazy. They were just so pretty and nothing like flowers in a reflective surface to entice me to rattle off several photos! We kind of watched the sun set. Honestly I have no perception of which way is up anymore, so as to where the sun set I don’t have a clue. I wouldn’t be able to pick North if my life depended on it here!
It was slowly getting towards 8pm, so we head over to the Chocolate bar to see if we were going to be eating alone, or if in fact Roberta, Ed & Jeff would join us. We were in luck. Due to getting there early we had to wait about ten minutes before being permitted to head up to the 57
th floor. When we received permission we were told that the restaurant wasn’t quite ready but we were able to feel free looking around.
The interesting thing with this booking was that when we the experience we were told that we would only get a glimpse of the swimming pool area and this meant that others pulled out, as it was to be an expensive night. Upon arriving to the top we had a perfect view of the swimming pool through a roof to floor window. Talk about having us completed excited. Little did we realize that if a few minutes we would actually walk past that entire area! They really in the email communications gave us no idea of how much of the top floor we were able to see. Talk about underselling themselves.
We had a complete ball up the top. Looking over to the harbor we could see the Voyager sitting in the dock. It was to be leaving later that night. We went right up to the pool, and should have just ditched the Chocolate bar and gone for a swim instead! I’m sure we would have been caught if we had tried this.
We eventually remembered we were there to go into the restaurant. We reluctantly made our way in. Being directed to our seats I guess
this was when the lack of service started. Our table was shown to us and then the waiter just walked away. Sitting there looking at each other we wondered what we were supposed to do now. They eventually came back and asked if we would like anything to drink, and water was requested for the entire table. We had to ask how the night was to proceed, and they informed us if we just went up and helped ourselves to plates and help ourselves. It was I guess simple enough, it just would have been nice to have had an introduction. It then seemed that people were individually asked if they would like a hot beverage. They were brought back to the table in dribs and drabs. Having read on their website about the unique Rosemary Infused Cappuccino that was offered to diners, I requested one of these as they just sounded interesting. I’m not sure where they got this waiter from for the day but he had no idea as to what I was talking about. I stated that it was advertised on their website, and he still looked at me clueless, stating he would go and find out
what I was talking about. He did return later and said that no one had heard about it previously. Um, well then why advertise it on the company’s website already? He did offer to bring some rosewater so that I could have a rose infused cappuccino …. Ok, might as well give it a whirl I guess. I’m willing to try anything once.
As far as the actual chocolate bar went, there were so many things to choose from. I think I forgot to actually read what I was taking, as I just collected a plate of what looked prettiest first. Some were divine others a touch hit or miss, but it was fun, as everyone stated what they liked best. From my second plate I had to try one each of there macaroons, however by then I was all chocolated out and it kind of destroyed the flavour of them having so much chocolate. There was a section of plain fruit available which was a lovely break up of the rest of the rich food.
It was late into our dining experience that we were asked if we wanted to try their lava cakes which would be
brought out individually for us all. Now these would have been perfect with a dollop of cream on the side, or a small scoop of vanilla ice cream, just to tone it down a touch. This however wasn’t provided so it was a real struggle to get through it.
It was as they collected these plates we were then offered some of their different flavoured chocolate ice creams. I think it would have been better to have been offered both of these at the same time, instead of such very long intervals between them. One of our group ordered some ice cream but it didn’t arrive for over half an hour, and I think they had just forgotten about it, and we had all completed our dining experience and just wanted to pay the bill and leave. None of the staff were anywhere to be seen. So we made our way to the counter.
It was only then someone re-appeared and asked us to return to our table and the bills will be brought to us. We all decided wrongly to attempt to pay for the night by credit card. They went off with our credit card and
we just sat there waiting. After fifteen to twenty minutes we were getting very nervous that our cards hadn’t been returned to us, so sent one of our party off to see what was going on. It was then that a waiter returned with them to apologize apparently their system was down and they were having a bit of trouble trying to re-boot it. I thought it was a bit rude because of how long it had been taking that they didn’t actually come and explain this to us. It was another ten minutes before we saw anyone else, and it was at that time we had decided between ourselves that the whole thing was just a joke and we would pay cash. It seemed every time we went to speak to a waiter they would just run off. We eventually tracked one down to let them know the change of plans and then got told that it was suddenly working again and would just be a sec.
For paying about $40 Singapore per person being in a five star hotel, I just don’t feel we got service that was really worthy of any type of restaurant. It was
a poor experience and if I had just been with my husband the night would have been a complete waste of time and money. The company we shared the night with made the night worth it. (not saying my husbands company isn’t worth anything, just that I wouldn’t spend that much money for an experience with him for that type of service). It definitely was a huge difference compared to the service we had received on the boat and in Dubai. I wouldn’t recommend anyone go up to that restaurant until they fix things.
After such a long day, we ended up catching the train back part of the way with our friends, before saying our farewells to them. We were to see them again probably in the morning as we were all doing a breakfast tour of the Singapore Zoo, we had all booked through the same company, so imagined we would be together at any rate. Looking forward to the Zoo day.
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John McGean
non-member comment
Nice work!
Love your blog, Kylie. Very thorough and well written! I'll be looking forward to more posts. Enjoyed meeting you both on the cruise and on the great shore excursion you organized.