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Published: November 19th 2019
Sunday morning, we were up early having planned with Mary to do the Sentosa Island cable car before boarding the ship. Marg and I went to a beaut little bakery (Vietnamese?) just behind the Lavender MRT Station. We had sampled lots of their fine food over the past two days. Then, into a cab from the hotel to the starting point for the journey, likely to take about an hour return.
We struck a good taxi driver again who pointed out many historical buildings as we wound our way across the central area of Singapore. Once again, $9.00 was a cheap fare for the three of us.
Once onto the cable car, we had great views of Singapore Harbour, hundreds of freight ships at anchor, interesting buildings, and as expected our first look at the Pacific Dawn after it had left the dry dock.
Marg and Mary quickly spotted how green the upper deck was, and once on board later in the day, we found that the artificial grass, tatty last time we cruised, had been fully replaced. They also noted there was something different by the kids water park. Splash shields had been added, and it looked
Sentosa Cable Car
Ships at anchor on a misty morning.like some other tidying up around the pools and bar. This again was all confirmed once aboard.
We didn't get off the cable cars at Sentosa, and returned after changing cable car lines to the waterfront precinct where we would return later to board the ship.
After loosing our way a couple of times, we found the MRT station and a short ride and a change of train had us back at The Boss Hotel where we found David engrossed in whatever it was he was reading.
As we left the cable car, one of the P & O staff asked if we were boarding Pacific Dawn. We confirmed that we were but our times were still a couple of hours away. He said, don't worry, come ASAP, which we did.
Julie and Eric took the MRT, and since there wasn't a people mover at the hotel, David & Mary took one taxi, and Marg & I took another. Lesson for beginners in Singapore! There are two overseas cruise terminals in Singapore. Despite telling the driver that we wanted the cruise terminal by the Sentosa cable car, he took us to the other terminal. However, before
Sentosa Cable Car
We are heading straight for a sky scraper. he could stop we said wrong terminal. He quickly had us back on track and to the correct terminal. We were lucky. We spoke to others in the departure lounge who also went to the wrong terminal, but didn't know. Bags off loaded and then when they got to the security gate, were advised they were in the wrong place. So they had to call another taxi.
By the time we got to the baggage hand in point, there was disorganised chaos with people, baggage, taxis, buses, all jostling to move. We had been in the queue about 5 minutes when two young me approached with a baggage trolley and a sign P&O Pacific Dawn. Their English not good, and us a little confused were uncertain if this was free and legit. Well, it was and quite quickly our bags were lined up in the correct place, and they escorted us across the baggage area to the ticket and embarkation area. Talk about queue jumping. Things went well through this process until we got to those thumb print scanners. I had been put in one queue and Marg on the adjacent. I was through quick smart, but Marg was
Sentosa Cable Car
Luckily there was a hole straight through which also had a station. in trouble again. So this time, the officer tried to read her iris images with a bright light which made her eyes stream. Meanwhile, the officers wanted me to leave that area and board. I said no, so they found me a seat while I waited for Marg - 20 mins??
I'm not sure if they were satisfied or just gave up and she was dismissed 'Go now'. She did!
From then, it was all plain sailing getting to our cabin and unpacking our bags which had already arrived.
We chatted to one of the P & O officers as we walked along the terminal to the ship, His advice is to never dispute what a Singapore Customs Officer says. One of the crew came back to the ship from Malaysia where the immigration officer accidentally stamped her passport as 'visitor' instead of 'Crew.' She was rejected on the spot. A taxi was organised to take her back to Malaysia, get the passport correctly stamped, and hop in the taxi again back to the ship.
We asked if the dry dock time had meant there was a big change over in crew for the cruise. Only
Sentosa Cable Car
There she is, crisp white Pacific Dawn. 15 changes out of about 700 crew. One change was the Captain. Apparently most stayed on board doing whatever it was found for them to do while the engineers and other trades had completed their tasks. We heard that on one night, the aircon was shut down while electrical motor updates were installed. Many slept up on deck rather than in stuffy cabins.
All love Boat devotees think of the departures with loved ones waving farewell, throwing streamers, and then into party mode. It's not like that. No rellies waving, no streamers, just local lights sounds and smells to se us on our way, which coincided with our dinner booking in the Waterfront Restaurant. I had never eaten Sword Fish, so that was my choice for the night. I think others had that also. The food was well prepared and served, tasty, could have done with a few more vegetables. By and large, the food quality remained good. As this was the longest cruise we had been on dawn, we found the Waterfront menu seemed to coincide with the day of the week.
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
I'm waiting to see when you were advised that P&O went belly up...
and what then happened to you! I hope you made it safely all the way to Australia.