you spell it is uh... W W O R Q
last name, G U I

Royal Caribbean 12-16 December
Wednesday, 28 December 2011 @ 8:41 pm
Ok lol, it's been a super long time since I touched my blog...
kinda due to the exams, no mood, nothing much to talk about, etc..


Anyways, it's the last week of the holidays already.. like wtf, so fast :(
Spent the first week of my holidays away on vacation on the Royal Caribbean : Legend of The Seas cruise
Wasted my second week away rotting at home due to food poisoning and diarrhea... effed up
And finally, after fully recovering from it yesterday (a week of diarrhea, that's f*cked up), I lost about 3kg... just by rotting at home and not eating much due to loss of appetite.. I duno whether I should be happy or sad.. lol

I then went to play soccer yesterday and it felt so good, to finally release all those toxins built up in my body over the past two weeks, where I have not been exercising, especially the second week where I rotted at home doing nothing.

Okay, time to blog about the trip I had on board the Royal Caribbean.

Here is an overview:

It was a pretty decent luxury cruise liner - decent food, decent ambiance, decent services, etc... Those were the bits that made me enjoy the stay.


Some things that didn't make me enjoy my stay were its facilities, like the swimming pool - it was so small, it could barely allow you any space to swim, let alone accommodate several people.. The arcade was a joke too, it was around the size of my room - For those who have been to my room, you should know how small that is for an arcade right... it only had a guitar hero machine, 2-4 racing car machines, and some toy-catching machines.. that's all I'm serious..


Other things I didn't like either were its under-18 curfew policy. Bloody hell, they had this curfew for anyone under 18 before 1am.. Seriously, I think the ship crew should revise this scheme to below 13, or at most below 16... what the hell man, they're taking precautions way too seriously, people below 18 practically have no freedom after 1am..

For example, my cousin and I may be hungry after 1am, and we want to get some supper, but because of the curfew, we can't ... wtf right, I think anyone above 16 should be old enough to take care of him or herself la, why must be 18 and above.. I seriously wanna complain about that policy they have.

But luckily, me and my cousin looked 18 :P , so we kinda cheated our way through the curfew staff many times, who were patrolling around the decks after 1am.. we almost got caught, just once.. when this China staff walked past us and asked us to stop, and gave us the guai lan smile, asking if we're 18 already or not.. of course, we weren't so stupid to tell the truth, so we lied, saying we just turned 18.. he could've asked us to show him our SeaPass cards (everyone was issued one, sorta like a personal identification card to be used as a cardkey and for other various uses on board), but he didn't, we then walked off with a huge sigh of relief.

After that, I told my sis about the incident and she said " Haha, I think you tell them you 21 they also believe lor " ... HAHAHA, I kinda agreed with her, because I followed them into the casino and played da-xiao with them without any of the staff questioning me.. we won 120 USD on the first night, partially thanks to me. But then they lost it all on the second night... F*ck man seriously -.- luck wasn't on their side...

But the ship had many live shows and events that assured your stay wouldn't be a boring one. It had magic shows, movie screenings, acrobatics, singing sessions... and many more... they had activities throughout the whole day, for each and every day. We played Bingo too, read more to find out.


Basically, that was an overview of the experiences I had on board, now time to go into the details


Day 1 - Assimilation
Did some last minute packing in the morning before setting off for Harbourfront Ferry Terminal at around noon. Took a cab and reached there around 12+ p.m , then settled the immigration and customs stuff, and went on board the ship. We'd gotten balcony rooms, decent view & scenery, the breeze felt kinda nice when the ship started sailing.






This is an example of the list of activities that were available everyday, it was never boring to be on that ship. And look at the bottom right of the list, that's the bloody curfew I'm talking about...fucked up man, referring to us as ' Junior ' cruisers. Go to hell seriously (click to enlarge)



And this was the Bingo I was talking about, haha. Get 5 holes punched, horizontally,vertically or diagonally, and you win (unfortunately, we didn't, as you can see...) Each ticket costed us 16 USD(that's the currency they use on the ship) ...and there were at least a hundred people playing as well, which meant they'd made at least $1600 each time there was a Bingo session. Profitable I guess ..



Nightfall was soon approaching and we had to head for dinner soon. Along the way to the restaurant, we strolled down the corridors of the ship and enjoyed the sunset and the soothing breeze that caressed our faces .


My sisters, lol

Me and my cousin

Our dinner table
My appetizer, salad


My main course, pasta . It was horribly tasteless. This was the only dish I complained about. The following nights' dishes were much better.


My sister's salmon, I think it was o_o



After the dinner, we headed to the upper decks to stroll around to digest our food and enjoy the breeze. The swimming pool was there, and I managed to take a photo. Take a look for yourself how small it is..


Went back to our room afterwards to rest for awhile, before my cousin and I 'loitered' (because we're under 18 -.-) around for supper later.
That was pretty much what happened on Day 1





Day 2 - Port Klang, Malaysia
We had to wake up early because the ship docked at Port Klang, at the Northern part of Malaysia, for Malaysians to get on board. We wanted to take the opportunity to get on land, so we got down considerably early, around 11am, and then took a cab to town for lunch. We tried out this famous Bak Kut Teh stall that the taxi driver recommended us. It was about a half-hour drive to town and we alighted at a shopping mall.

Their Bak Kut Teh was very unique. Very different from Singapore's one. Their's was more of a broth rather than soup, it was slightly thicker than soup. Typing this is making me hungry now, lol


We had to get back on the ship by 4p.m, so we had plenty of time to do some shopping first. I wanted to buy a pair of skinnies but they didn't have my size. Sad :(
There was a Daiso mart there too, and everything there was sold for 5RM. I don't know if they were having a clearance sale or what, but literally EVERYTHING was sold for 5RM.. wow, haha
I bought a pair of table tennis rackets and a long grab-stick that helps you grab things that are not within your reach. Forgot to take picture, but you can roughly imagine what I'm trying to illustrate.


Malaysian products are super cheap man. I went to Popular later to buy a deck of cards for only 2RM, and it was of good quality. Smooth and polished surface, not those super cheap quality ones. Awesome shit man. We then got a cab back to the port again to return back on board the ship.

Some pics of the ship from outside





We then returned to our rooms to slack and wait for dinner. I took out my laptop to play Pokemon at first (LOL) , because there was no wifi, duh .. You had to pay like 30 USD for the wifi .. total rip-off.. but then my cousin's dad got us the Maxis broadband internet card, so we could go online while we were still in Malaysia. (Thailand was the next destination)
Unfortunately, we could only stay connected to the signal for about an hour before it grew weaker and weaker, and then finally stopping, presumably cause we were leaving Malaysia's satellite range and entering Thailand's one.


Playing pokemon / using internet in the middle of the ocean

likaboss



I can't believed I was actually engrossed in playing Pokemon, LOL. I played on until 7+ p.m, and took a nap until it was time for dinner.


Caesar salad

After dinner, we headed for some acrobatics show. It was okay, a guy and a girl doing acrobatics on a suspended hula hoop. Again, no pics =\
Argghhh regret not taking more pics, because without the pics, I can't remember in detail what I did there -.-
Anyway, my sisters and I went into the casino after watching the acrobatics. The da-xiao table caught our eye, or rather - their eye. So I just sat with them and watched them play. We started with $200 USD and left with $320 USD. So we split the winnings among us, meaning each of us won $40 .. but they had to lose it all the following night.. -.- as mentioned earlier ..


Can't remember what I did after leaving the casino. If I'm not wrong, we went drinking, yes. Baileys and peanuts to accompany an exit from the casino was great.
We then went back to our room to rest for awhile before my cousin, his Primary 3 brother and I, would head out to the upper decks to play table tennis with the table tennis rackets I bought, lol. And it was nearing 1am, and the staff told us to ALL to go back to our rooms. I'm guessing he assumed we were under 18 too.


And I was right, because when we brought him back to the room and came out again, we encountered the same staff who asked us to go back previously.. He then stopped and asked us if we're 18, with the guai lan smile. I mentioned this earlier already.


We then headed for the arcade to play guitar hero lol as we had nothing to do. We were not bad, considering it was the first time we had touched GH since ages. Haha. We ended off the night with supper before heading back to our rooms for a good night's rest.




Day 3 - Phuket Thailand
Could afford to wake up slightly later for this day because we had until 9p.m to venture onto Phuket, Thailand. The passengers on board were given tender* tickets so that our departure onto Phuket would be less messy and more organised. *Tender refers to smaller boats to ferry passengers in and out of the main ship*.



We were told to assemble in the lounge.




We saw this beautifully carved glass model of the ship




This is my spastic Pri 3 cousin



Our tender boat


View of Phuket from the tender boat


Full view of the ship as the tender boat sailed away from it


From left to right : Cousin, me , another cousin(from Malaysia), guy cousin's dad and guy cousin's brother



A 10-15 minute sail and we reached Phuket bay.




The water is so clear it's almost transparent



Motorcycles everywhere




Roadside stalls everywhere as well


We took a tuk-tuk , the traditional form of taxi in Thailand, and made our way to the main shopping district further in land. We settled down in an air-conditioned shopping mall to our relief, cause it was so frikking hot that time. It was around 3p.m, when the sun was at its hottest. Only my cousin and I went shopping, the rest especially the girls, were attracted by massage shops all over the mall. Traditional Thai massage, it can't get any better than that.


I didn't want to join them because honestly, I felt that shopping was more worth it because we don't get to go to Thailand so often, and partly because we're guys too.. we don't crave for massages. So my cousin and I went around shopping for clothes that were not available in Singapore. I bought a football jersey(fake of course) for myself, and another for my friend(I'm such a nice person :) at $18 SGD each. Althought it's fake, but the quality was surprisingly good, and it looked very original. The Thais know sure know to produce imitation goods.


Then bought 5 more guai-lan tees, like the ones I bought in Bangkok back in 2009 when I went there on a competition with the Maris Alumni Wind Ensemble. Such shirts are definitely not available in SG, that's why it was definitely more worth it to shop rather than have a massage there.. even though the massage rates there were super cheap .. at like $20 SGD per hour
In SG, it's like $50 per hour AT LEAST .


We came across this shop that specialised in metal art & craft. It was so damn bloody cool !




I stare into your soul ~ !


It was soon getting late and we had dinner at the mall itself, before getting a ride on a tuk-tuk again back to the bay to get back on board the ship.


Beautifully lit coastline of Phuket


Outside of the ship, at night



Went back to our rooms and slacked after a tiring day. I was feeling quite sea-sick on this day, perhaps cause I was tired. I went to the arcade later with my cousin to play GH again, and I could barely concentrate cause I was quite nauseous. We quickly played through one or two songs and went back to our rooms to have some proper rest. No supper that night as I was feeling nauseous, lol.



Day 4 - Full day on board
This was our last day to spend time on the ship and just unwind, enjoy the activities, chill out, and basically cherish the last day on the ship. I explored any remaining areas of the ship I haven't explored yet, while my cousin took the opportunity to go rock climbing (yes, there's a rock climbing wall on the ship), but it was the noob wall la. Nothing compared to OBC rock wall or any school's rock wall.
Spent the last dinner with a bang. It was our farewell dinner, and we had to part with our personal waiters for the 4 nights who have been serving us with genuine interest. Our waiter was called Mario, he's a Pinoy, friendly guy he was. The other was a Chinese female whom we expressed gratitude towards as well.


Afterwards, the whole staff roster gathered to sing us Christmas songs. It was a heartwarming experience and it felt abit sad to part with Mario and the ship itself.



That was the final night of the cruise vacation and I went back to the room and started packing my luggage to return home the following day.




Day 5 - Home sweet home!

Had to wake up damn early, like 6 or 7 + cause the ship returned back to Habourfront Ferry Terminal at around 8am. We then had breakfast at the terminal and cabbed home, only to relish the memories of that 5-day cruise trip. But nevertheless, home sweet home!