Livish from the Solstice Singapore to Sydney, maybe more

[abbydancer2003]

Mega trip Day 0

 

We’re off on what I’ve dubbed our first Mega Trip.  Today we go to Singapore for a few days and then board the Solstice for 41 days.  Singapore to Sydney, Sydney to Honolulu, and Honolulu to Vancouver.  I will bel sort of live for the first leg, and I’ll be honest, I’m torn about the second two since @Jim_Iain is boarding in Sydney, and he’s the best at live threads.  I want to be him when I grow up, so I don’t know if I should continue.  

 

Anyway, we’re currently in the SFO United Club.  We are eligible for the Polaris lounge, but they close at 11 and it was 10:40 when we got there.  It took a while because we got to security and Glen didn’t have Pre-check so he went back.  We had arrived at the airport at about 10:15, and the ANA counter had just opened.  Because we were past restaurant times, they did give us a voucher for some in the international terminal, but we’d grabbed a quick dinner before we left, so weren’t hungry.

 

So for this opening a quick overview - we arrive in Singapore on Saturday evening, where we will go to our hotel, the JW Marriott and likely have dinner in the lounge.  We then have 3 days, with plans for each evening with Cruise Critic friends.  On Wednesday we board the Solstice.

 

We’d booked all three cruises at different times (in reverse order), all sky suites, but changes on each cruise.  The first cruise was an Aqua Sky. Suite, because that was booked last and that was all they had.  The other two are Sunset Skys.  A few months ago, I was able to get the same room for cruise 2 and 3.  However, they would not downgrade me to a Sunset without losing perks.  I might have tried again if our same room became available, but it didn’t. 

 

I wasn’t looking forward to being under the buffet, so for grins, I bid medium bids on both Celebrity Suites and Royal Suites.  (I didn’t bother with Penthouse).  To my surprise, the Royal came through a month before the cruise.  

 

The fun part?  Glen still thinks we’re in a sky suite.  It’s been a bit tricky, but so far so good. Fortunately, he doesn’t pay much attention to room numbers.  

 

So that’s it for now.  We have 5+ hours in Haneda, so I’ll let you all know about the flight then.

 

 

 

[sheeng]

See you onboard or on Nadi tour! We are on the direct United flight out of SFO and staying 2 nights Hilton Orchard. Safe travels!

 

Sheila.

 

[Beachlover1989]

Excited to follow along with you on an exciting cruise! For cruises 2 and 3, you could make all your comments on Jim’s thread - he always welcomes that!

[JackE]

Excited to follow along Abby! We're booked on the Singapore to Yokohama cruise in two years, so very interested in your Singapore stay. 

 

Safe travels, can't wait to meet you guys this August in Southampton.

 

Jack 

[cruisingxpert]

Looking forward to hearing your reports and as @Beachlover said, you could just continue by adding your thoughts to his thread.  I will be joining the Honolulu Vancouver portion

 

Safe travels!

[mahdnc]

7 hours ago, abbydancer2003 said:

Mega trip Day 0

 

We’re off on what I’ve dubbed our first Mega Trip.  Today we go to Singapore for a few days and then board the Solstice for 41 days.  Singapore to Sydney, Sydney to Honolulu, and Honolulu to Vancouver.  I will bel sort of live for the first leg, and I’ll be honest, I’m torn about the second two since @Jim_Iain is boarding in Sydney, and he’s the best at live threads.  I want to be him when I grow up, so I don’t know if I should continue.  

 

Anyway, we’re currently in the SFO United Club.  We are eligible for the Polaris lounge, but they close at 11 and it was 10:40 when we got there.  It took a while because we got to security and Glen didn’t have Pre-check so he went back.  We had arrived at the airport at about 10:15, and the ANA counter had just opened.  Because we were past restaurant times, they did give us a voucher for some in the international terminal, but we’d grabbed a quick dinner before we left, so weren’t hungry.

 

So for this opening a quick overview - we arrive in Singapore on Saturday evening, where we will go to our hotel, the JW Marriott and likely have dinner in the lounge.  We then have 3 days, with plans for each evening with Cruise Critic friends.  On Wednesday we board the Solstice.

 

We’d booked all three cruises at different times (in reverse order), all sky suites, but changes on each cruise.  The first cruise was an Aqua Sky. Suite, because that was booked last and that was all they had.  The other two are Sunset Skys.  A few months ago, I was able to get the same room for cruise 2 and 3.  However, they would not downgrade me to a Sunset without losing perks.  I might have tried again if our same room became available, but it didn’t. 

 

I wasn’t looking forward to being under the buffet, so for grins, I bid medium bids on both Celebrity Suites and Royal Suites.  (I didn’t bother with Penthouse).  To my surprise, the Royal came through a month before the cruise.  

 

The fun part?  Glen still thinks we’re in a sky suite.  It’s been a bit tricky, but so far so good. Fortunately, he doesn’t pay much attention to room numbers.  

 

So that’s it for now.  We have 5+ hours in Haneda, so I’ll let you all know about the flight then.

 

 

 

 

Have an awesome cruise.  It is worth having your own live thread or simply adding on to Jim_Iain's because you will have different perspectives, experiences, and shore excursions.  Have fun.

[Jim_Iain]

Have fun Abby -  See you in Sydney in a couple weeks.    

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, mahdnc said:

 

Have an awesome cruise.  It is worth having your own live thread or simply adding on to Jim_Iain's because you will have different perspectives, experiences, and shore excursions.  Have fun.

 

I'm sure Abby and I can do some tag teaming.     She lives close to me and we have met up at Starbucks for coffee.  

[mahdnc]

25 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I'm sure Abby and I can do some tag teaming.     She lives close to me and we have met up at Starbucks for coffee.  

 

Well then, it will be a "can't miss" reading for sure.

[Stem to Stern]

Congrats on your successful MoveUp bid.

I love surprises.

Thanks for taking us along.

[StartrainDD]

Have a wonderful trip Abby & Glen!  I want to see the photo of Glen when you lead him to the Royal Suite!

[abbydancer2003]

2 hours ago, StartrainDD said:

Have a wonderful trip Abby & Glen!  I want to see the photo of Glen when you lead him to the Royal Suite!

Thanks - made it to Tokyo, and so far he hasn't asked about anything except weights in the room.  I asked the shoreside concierge if maybe they could do it.

[juanrod]

I am so excited for another @abbydancer2003 review and looking forward to @Jim_Iain joining in Sydney.   We couldn’t make solstice work with our time off from Honolulu to Vancouver so are on ovation of the seas following behind.  Enjoy your trip 

[dlh015]

Woo-Hoo...and it's off you go once again!!

 

Glad to tag along of course!!

 

Have a great cruise!!

[Larwos]

We’re just about to board Singapore airlines from Melbourne at 6am. Our Uber arrived at 4am. 
a tip for anyone thinking they’ll grab a v coffee closer to the gate lounge 20 - ther aren’t any. Grab one at Hudsons before going through customs or Cafe Sola or Brunettiis on the way through. Luckily I ate a little and had a cuppa before leaving home, but poor husband didn’t. 
 

where are you staying in Singapore. We’re at Hilton Orchard and are looking forward to sightseeing. 
 

your long cruise sounds wonderful!  We get off in Sydney. 

[Manitobeens]

Just off the Edge and in the airport heading for Singapore, looking forward to the cruise.😁

[abbydancer2003]

After going to bed early yesteday, I waited until today to get the next one.   Without further ado:

 

Megatrip day 0 continued.

 

After leaving the UA lounge, we headed back to the international terminal.  We parked ourselves at the gate, and then I took a walk to look at the gate art.  G9 had my favorite

 

I also stopped at a to go food restaurant to use the vouchers ANA gave us because the Polaris lounge wasn’t servicing food this late.  I got some stuff from Kara’s cupcake store, caramel corn and marshmallows, which will probably go home with us.

 

The plane is a 777. Ana allows 30 minutes for boarding.  I wasn’t optimistic, but they did start a couple of minutes early and managed to get the plane boarded and to leave early.  When it was our turn, I settled into my business class seat.  Better seat storage than United, I think.

 

There was no dinner served, but the do offer a couple small “amuse bouches” with their after takeoff beverages.  In this case it was smoked salmon on toast, and a small caprese salad.

 

After that I watched a move - Hunger Games - The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which is the prequel to the main series.  I then tried to sleep for a while, with limited success.  I gave up after a while and watched a second movie - Anatomy of a Fall.  During that movie they did serve breakfast.  I had scrambled eggs and it came with bacon (let’s just say it’s hard to do bacon on a plane) and potatoes.  It wasn’t bad overall.  The credit on the move were rolling as we landed, almost 1 hour early.  We were at the gate at about 3:55 am.  

 

We gathered our stuff, headed off the plane, and followed the signs to International transfers.  There were 2 different areas for that.  We were in terminal 3, and there was an area for that and one for shuttle to terminal 2.  A sign in front of the terminal 2 area, included our flight to Singapore.  

 

We headed down a nonworking escalator to the transfer area, and there was no one there but a security guard.  He indicated that the shuttle didn’t start until 5 am.  So we had an hour.

 

We went back upstairs, and parked ourselves on a bench near the escalators.  Glen pulled out his iPad, and I took a walk.

 

 

I walked through the entire arrivals terminal, and there is nothing there except gates.  

 

Finally, at about 4:50, we headed back to the shuttle area.  There was a departure board there, and it indicated that our flight was in terminal 3, which was where we were.  So two signs in conflict.  We asked the airport employee, who’d arrived since we were last there, and she confirmed terminal 2.  

 

At about 4:55 we boarded a shuttle bus.  I’d say there were 7-10 people, and probably half had come from our flight.  It took a good 20 minutes to get to terminal 2, definitely not walkable, as it seemed to be in a completely different part of the airport.    Once there we had to do a security screening, and then found the ANA lounge nearby.  We checked in and settled in for a long wait, since we have to leave to board at about 10:15.  The agent at checkin did confirm we were in right terminal, at least.

 

Once we arrived, it was sunrise.

 

 

Japan is known as the land of the Rising Sun, and that’s their flag, so there you go.

 

At about 7:30 I decided to take a shower.  They do have showers there, and they are pretty well equipped.  They have toothbrushes, combs, and a blow dryer.  It was very nice, and really helped my overall disposition.  

 

Throughout our 5 hour stay, we enjoyed some of their snacks.  I did try a noodle bowl and Glen had some ANA special curry.  I tried it - it was good, but too spicy for me.  

 

At 10:15 we headed to the gate, and it was indeed in that terminal and near the lounge (2 floors down).  The plane is a 787, two class plane.  We boarded, and the seating area wasn’t quite as nice as we’d had on the first flight, but we still had lay flats.  We left about 1 minute late, but were still projected to arrive about 30 minutes early.

 

On this flight, I started with Wonka, the movie about the beginnings of Willie Wonka.  I enjoyed it.  After that, I thought about the original Hunger Games, but after about 10 minutes, decided I didn’t have enough concentration for that.  I started Frozen 2, a favorite, and slept through some of that.

 

If you’ve seen it, you know that Christophe is the best boyfriend ever.  When he sweeps Anna up and rescues her, he doesn’t ask her why she left, he just asks what she needs him to do.  

 

I then watched the Jonny Depp version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was fun and different than the first.  Note that Wonka used a lot of music from the 1971 original, this only had music by the Oompa-Loompas.  

 

I had the map on for the last 30 minutes of the flight.

 

We did arrive about 30 minutes early, but it seemed to take forever to get to the gate, since were were on the furthest gate on the back side of the airport.  We  were, however, pretty close to the arrival area.  Fun fact:  Unless you’re connecting, you’re an international arrival, and all connections are international.  There are no domestic flights in Singapore.

 

There weren’t a lot of people in the arrivals area, and we quickly got to the two part passport scan area.  First, you scan your passport, look at the camera and, if your arrival card is done, you pass to the next scan.  On this one, they scan your thumb, and take a picture - apparently that registers you in Singapore.  It took a few tries for my picture but eventually we got it.    I did later get an email that said I could come and go for 3 months.

 

Our bags came quickly and we headed through nothing to declare.  I then couldn’t find a person with a sign with our name.  Fortunately I have have What’sApp contact with the company, and the airport has wifi.  It took about 10 minutes, but we did connect with our friendly driver.  We followed him to the area next to the garage, and waited while he got his car.

 

We were soon on our way into the city.  We had a friendly chat with him, and he recommended we go to the top of the Swiss Hotel for a picture.  We might do that later.

 

After about 25 minutes, we arrived at the JW Marriott South Beach.  It wasn’t here the last time we were here, so we decided to try it for the location, as it’s near lots of stuff.  It only took a few minutes to check in, and we had a slight upgrade to a deluxe room.  The room is big, and the bathroom is huge, but there are some practicality issues.  Before I leave, I’ll show some pictures.  

 

We were very tired, so instead of going out for dinner, we went to the lounge.  It had a a very nice cook to order section of soup and noodles, as well as chicken katsu don.  They also had cheese and crackers, some fruit and bread. 

 

I had the chicken katsu, but they had to make it twice, since they hot sauce they use has fish flakes and I’d said no fish (hate it).  It was pretty good, and about all I wanted.  Glen opted for noodles.

 

After that it was was around 8:30, so we headed to the room, and called it a night.  I ended up going to bed around 10:15.  

 

I figured from the time the first plane left until we cleared customs in Singapore it was 25 hours of travel, so a very necessary early night.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 24 by abbydancer2003

[mahdnc]

SIN is an impressive airport. Good point about no domestic flights! 
 

We stayed five nights at the JW Marriott in Singapore in December. It was nice. I’m curious to see what impracticalities you found there. The buildings were not originally supposed to be a hotel. They were supposed to be residences (and there are residential units there). Perhaps that might explain some things like the long and narrow check in lobby on the ground floor. The location of the hotel is nice as are the views…

Edited March 24 by mahdnc

[abbydancer2003]

Hi,

 

Yesterday - I was going to post but my computer decided to freeze for a while.  It's better now, and here is Sunday.

 

Mega Trip - Day 1

 

Today is our first of 3 full days in Singapore.  This is our second time here, as in 2015 we did a long weekend here (combination mileage run and hope to meet a friend here).  So, we don’t need to try to see everything, although we do have some plans.

 

Our plan for today was to visit the national Museum, since it was being remodeled last time, and their main history exhibit was in the basement.  Also, we’re meeting Jodi and Rich from our roll call to go to the Night Safari.

 

We did sleep some last night, and woke up around 8 this morning.  We took our time getting dressed, and at about 9:15 we headed to their lounge for breakfast.  It was very busy, but they offer both Asian and Western food.  In addition they had a guy making egg dishes, which I know you’d never see in a US lounge.  I ordered an omelette, and also had bacon and potatoes.  They don’t have brewed coffee, so you have to order espresso drinks from the staff.  I flagged someone down and got a latte, which is the only espresso drink I like (An Americano is not the same as regular coffee).

 

After breakfast we decided to walk to the museum.  This is just out of our hotel.

 

 

The walk was pretty nice, with many tree shaded areas.  We passed Raffles Hotel, and churches.

 

 

We got to the museum at about 10:45.  We had some Singapore money that we wanted to use, so we were directed into the museum through a vestibule, and rather the long way.  There was a guy coming in about the same time as us, and he didn’t like doing that.  We didn’t care.

 

It was 15.00 SN for each of us, so not bad.  The gentleman at the entrance suggested we first go to the basement, where they have an exhibit about plastic.  Ok.  

 

We headed to the basement, and it was indeed all about plastic.  It started with a kids area including this sign.

 

 

I liked that it started with wakey wakey.  It shows we use a lot of plastic.

 

They also had a wall display of the different kinds of plastics.  I’m sure everyone has seen the triangles on plastic things with a number between 1 and 7.  Now I know what they all are.  

 

Next was the main exhibit which was a history of plastics, lots of examples of things made of plastic, and finally a room about recycling.  US doesn’t do very well.

 

I can now say I know more about plastic than I ever wanted to.

 

We next went up to the main exhibit in the museum, the history gallery. 

 

 

This is very detailed, and very well done, and you could probably spend a day here if you wanted to read everything.  Here are a few things we saw.

 

This is a rickshaw that was used in the 19th century

 

 

This is a bell that was cast by the Paul Revere foundry (we learned in Boston that he wasn’t the only rider that night, but his name was the only one that rhymed with hear.). This was presented to the Church of St. Andrew by Maria Revere Balestier,  Rever’s daughter.  She was married to the first American Consul in Singapore.

 

The history gallery is very detailed and you could potential spend a day there.  We spent about 2 hours.  It does trace the history of Singapore to the present.

 

After we finished there we went to the third floor where they had their dome.  It was an art installation about the forest, and then a photo exhibit of trees of Singapore.

 

Walking into the the dome, you walk across a bridge.  This is on either side.

 

After that, you walk down the spiral of the dome, with a fanciful animated forest.

 

I'm reasonably certain neon pink deer do not exist in real forests.

 

After that, we left the museum and walked back to the hotel.  It is so very hot here that we needed to get back to the AC for a while.  I did stop by the tea and had a small sandwich. 

 

Tonight we’re off to the night safari.  We’re meeting people from our roll call, Jodi and Rich at our hotel lobby just before 6pm.  Our concierges here have arranged for a cab to take us there.  

 

At 5:45 we headed to the lobby, and they were waiting, so we decided to go then.  It took about 30 minutes, and our driver was very friendly, telling us things about life in Singapore.  (It’s pretty regimented here).  Since we were last here, there have been significant changes to the route in.  Now you’re in underground garages going to all the different parks, back in 2015, you would just pull up to the front of the park you wanted.

 

We waited in line and at about 6:40 we entered the park.  First up we stopped at the amphitheater (their term) to get tickets for the 8:30 “Creatures of the Night” show (Rocky Horror Picture Show comes to mind).  

 

Following that we got in line for the tram that takes you around the park.  It took about 25 minutes for our turn, but we spent the time chatting with Jodi and Rich.  They live about 40 miles from us I think.  

 

Here are some animals we saw on the tram.  

 

Random horned animal

 

These are female lions.  Sorry it’s blurry, the tram was moving.

 

Can’t see a zoo without elephants.

 

After the tram, we had some time til the show, so Jodi and Rich waited and Glen and I walked a trail.  The problem is that after dark it’s sometimes hard to see the animals if they’re not moving.  Glen was a little better at it then I was, but by using my camera on the phone, I could locate the creature and then watch.  We did watch them feed a small cat - a fisher cat.  

 

At around 8 we got a text that people were lining up, so we walked back and joined them.  We were eventually let into the auditorium, there was bench seating and we got seats about 8 rows up and center.  

 

The host presented different animals, and snapped pictures of them close up.

 

This is a turkey vulture.  I believe it’s a North American bird.  Next up were some owls, and then other small creatures such as foxes.  

 

The porcupine was the finale.  It was only about a 25 minute show, but we enjoyed it.

 

After that, everyone was ready to go.  It’s still very hot.  We walked back to where were dropped off and found the cab line.  There was a cab that could hold 4 waiting, so off we went.  The driver dropped us off and then continued on to drop Jodi and Rich.  We’ll see them tomorrow at Gardens by the Bay.

 

In the hotel we asked the concierges about any restaurants that we open that had inside seating.  There’s a restaurant across from the hotel, in what they call South Beach (it’s sort of a mall with mostly bars and restaurants), called Harrys.  They’re open until at least 11.  I had a burger, Glen had fish and chips.  They were both pretty good.  After that we walked back to the room and called it a night.

[hcat]

Long travel journey but now off to a great start !  Hope to follow along...

 

 

[Jim_Iain]

Hope you are having fun in Singapore... 

[abbydancer2003]

Megatrip Day 2 Singapore Monday 1

 

We have been waking up early, but taking our time getting ready for the day.  Today we hit breakfast around 9:15.  It’s nice but if you want any coffee, it’s served and espresso roast, so I get lattes.  There is a guy making pretty good cheese omelettes, so I had another one today.

 

We don’t have plans today until 1:30, so we decided to check out the local mall.  ‘Before we left I took some pictures of the room, so, as promised, here are my comments.

 

The bed.  Notice the room is very narrow?

 

The desk.  There is a lot of space between the bed and the desk, and nothing there.  This makes for very limited countertop storage for backpacks.  (There was however, a lot of closet space).

 

The entrance to the bathroom.  Separate toilet and shower stall.  On the left, you can see the small counter area.  That’s all there is.  

 

And the dead space next to the limited counter.  I don’t get it.  I forgot to get a picture of the shower, but it’s very deep and the controls are at the far wall.  It’s a rain shower midway, and, as you turn it on, it’s cold water and you have to hug the wall to not get cold.  Also the shampoo etc are on the far wall, so to use them, you have to go away from the water.  That’ was the biggest impracticality.  

 

Anyway, it was off to the the mall.  Lots of shops I knew and lots of food shops. 

 

Our next plan was to meet our new friends Brenda and Robin at Raffles for tea.  We/ve been chatting online for months, so it was really nice to meet in person.  When we arrived in Singapore on Saturday night, I got. A message from the manager of the tea that they weren’t doing their regular tea, but their cherry blossom festival tea.  However they were going to honor the regular tea price, but couldn’t accommodate gluten free or vegan.  I had learned that Brenda is allergic to all things from the sea., so I asked her about that.  Her response was that they could do different desserts, because they use fish gel in the desserts.  (Huh?).  I then asked about the savories, which seemed to come from a sushi restaurant.  

 

I’d stopped by yesterday, and explained all that to the manager (it’s across the street from our hotel) and thought she understood.  The result was sort of.

 

We met them there, and when the food came out both Brenda and I had fish stuff.  They said it was crabmeat, which is not fish.  So they took that away and gave us eggs and small roast beef  sandwiches.  The sandwiches were Ok.  The desserts though, were the same for all, meaning they had fish gel.  

They were, however, very pretty.  They did make Brenda  a couple extra, and in the end they didn’t charge for her.  So it was all good.  

 

As far as tea at Raffles goes, you go for the ambiance.  They food is mediocre.

 

We were supposed to only have 1.5 hours, but they let us stay until we were almost late to get to our next venue.  We were meeting Jodi and Rich at Gardens by the Bay at 4:30.  Our original plan was to walk, but it was very hot, so we decided to take a cab.  We ended up being a few minutes early. And met them at the entrance.  

 

We’d purchased tickets to the Skywalk and to the Cloud Forest/Flower Dome.  We first went to the sky walk, but it was crowed with a school group from, apparently, Taiwan. Every time it looked like the line was getting shorter, another batch of those kids would show up, so we gave up and went to the cloud forest.  

 

It’s a dome that contains a waterfall, and lots of plants that can be seen in the cloud forests of the world.

 

You can go up an elevator and do a walk down that takes you behind the big waterfall and shows you others.

 

 

 

In addition to the waterfall there are several gardens, including this glass one by Dale Chiholy.

 

This is a view down from the Cloud walk. 

 

There were also gardens along the way.

 

Overall, it was very well done.

 

Next, we went back to the sky walk, and the line was shorter, with no school groups arriving.

 

Marine Bay Sands hotel from the skywalk.

 

This is a rather large interesting plant from the skywalk.  It looks like a small cabbage plant from here.

 

The base of one of the SuperTrees.  They are the image of the Gardens.

 

The Singapore Flyer from the skywalk.

 

It was about 7:15 when we finished, so we decided to stick around for the the light show at the Super Trees.  We found a spot to sit and wait. 

 

The show was set to opera, in the US it would be Bon Jovi or something.

 

The lights were very pretty.

 

The show was about 15 minutes give or take.  After the show, Jodi and Rich decided to get a cab back, and we decided to check out the hawker food courts here.  We ended up walking to the far end of the garden, to a court called Sayta by the Bay.  Glen had some chicken and rice, and I had some Satay.  

 

After that, we headed back to the taxi line.  It was short, but we noticed a lot of people to talking to the drives, and not getting in.  I asked a driver the price and it was 2.5 times what we paid going over.  I do have the Grab app, but I couldn’t figure out where they wanted me to meet them, so we decided to walk.  

 

To get to our hotel, we had to cross the Singapore River.  This is the Helix bridge, the pedestrian bridge across.  It was about 2 kilometers, so I was pretty wiped at the end.  

 

We got back to the hotel and collapsed.  Tomorrow is our last full day in Singapore.

 

 

 

[mahdnc]

I did remember the odd shower configuration in our room as well.  However our room was not narrow.  If you had breakfast at the executive lounge, hopefully you discovered the Quiet Area to eat (no kids).  The lounge was large enough that it took us a couple of days before we found it.  

 

Awesome that you had tea at Raffles.

[abbydancer2003]

Mega trip - day 3 Singapore 3 -Tuesday 1

 

Today was to be a low key day, as I have a final to take.  I’ve been taking a US History class, and this is finals week.  The test was supposed to be open on the 26 and 27.  My first thought was great, as I could finish it before getting on the ship.  But due to the tine difference, it would open around midnight on the night of the 26th, so I’d pretty much have to do it on the ship.  I emailed the teacher, and he was happy to open it from the 25-26 for me.  So it opened at Midnight between Monday and Tuesday for me.

 

We began by going to breakfast.  I took my folder of teachers lectures with me, because for tests, I do best if I reread them.  There were a lot for this class, so it took about 2 hours.  After that, I went back to the room to take the test, which was 25 multiple choice questions, and 5 essay questions (you only do your choice of two essays).  We have 2.5 hours for it.  

 

I did get 24/25 multiple choice correct.  He’ll have to grade the essays, but there are some advantages to being a highly educated older person, rather than a 19 year old community college student.  

 

After that we decided to take a walk.  The Merlion statue was just over 1 kilometer away and about a 15-20 minute walk.  Seems doable.  

 

About a block from the hotel is a major intersection.  In order to cross, you can go to a pedestrian underpass.  What’s nice is that it’s air conditioned.  We crossed that, and came up near the “Esplanade Theaters.”.  There’s a cool water feature in front.

 

 

 

After that, you cross a bridge and there you are.

 

We noticed some food stands nearby, so thought maybe we’d get something, but nothing appealed.  Again, the heat made it difficult.  

 

So we walked back.  On the way, a group of young girls in matching tee shirts asked us to take their picture.  Glen was happy to oblige.  Apparently, they’re a school from Thailand.  

 

Once back at the hotel, we stopped by the lounge for their high tea. I had a little bit of food, including something they called a Chicken Fluff Bun.  It was OK.  

 

Our next event was a dinner with our friends plus two others from our roll call.  We decided to go to a steak restaurant that apparently is related (franchised maybe) to a chain in Paris and New York that we like, called L’entrecote.  It’s about a 20 minute walk, but an easy metro ride.  We’d been told that we can use our phones for metro, so that should be easy and quick.

 

Our reservation was at 7:30, and Google maps said it was a 7 minute train ride.  So we figured that 40 minutes should be enough to get there early.

 

Wrong.  First, it turns out the station at our hotel, doesn’t hose the line that goes to the Customs House (where the restaurant is) - for that, you have to walk through the mall to a different station (at least it’s underground and air conditioned).  Next we had to find the right track for our destination, and get into the system.  (My phone had some issues, so it took a couple of minutes).  

 

The train itself came quickly and we only went two stops.  Once out of the train, however, we had to find exit J as that was where google maps told us to get off.   J was a fairly long walk from the train, and so it took us a total of 35 minutes to get there.

 

We found the restaurant with 5 minutes to spare, and we were the last there.  They had us at an outside table, and apparently Singapore hasn’t discovered the misters that they have in Arizona.

 

I asked about moving inside, and, while it was a small inside, they were able to accommodate us.  

 

A bit about the restaurant.  It’s got one menu item - steak frites, with a simple salad.  They have a secret sauce on it that’s really good.  All they ask when you order is how you want your steak done.  

 

The salad was good, but a little underdressed.  The steak was also good, but the sauce wasn’t quite right, and I can’t put my finger on what’s different.  It was a very pleasant evening in any case.

 

Originally, since it said a 20 minute walk, we thought we’d walk back.  Jodi and Rich were at a hotel by the Merlion and that was on the way, so we decided to walk back with them.  It turns out that their hotel had a sister hotel by the restaurant, and there was an underground tunnel linking them, so we waked back to their hotel with them.

 

Once there, it was a little confusing trying to figure out how to get to the Merlion to get back, so we just used map routing.  We walked a slightly different route, but ultimately ended up at the theater where we took our underground tunnel under the intersection.  We did get to watch some young men showing off their breakdancing skills.

 

We were back at the hotel by 10, did some packing and called it a night.  Luggage tags went on, as tomorrow, we meet the Solstice.

[Norwaylady]

This is a great sailing🙌🏻🥰 Cheers to a great start of your journey🥂

Have a great time! 
 

looking forward for more pictures and activities from you guys😎⚓️