Royal caribbean has been the only line that i have sailed on and it didn't fail to disappoint this time round! To celebrate my mum's 50th birthday, my dad initiated a family cruise with all our relatives. There were the children, as young as 7 to 30 years old and then the parents. We decided to cruise somewhere a bit nearer to home, somewhere that was familiar to all of us and so we chose a 4 night on Mariner of the Seas to Malaysia.
Itinerary:
Day 1- Singapore depart at 5pm
Day 2- Port Klang, arrive at 8am, depart at 5pm
Day 3- Langkawi, arrive at 7am, depart at 5pm
Day 4- Sea day
Day 5- Arrive Singapore at 7am
Day 1: Embarking
Arriving at the new Marina Bay Cruise Center at 11, we waited a while for all our relatives to arrive (about 28 of us). I took a couple of shots of Explorer of the Seas on display, it was a great model i have to admit.
Didn't realize i had taken some of Costa Serena.
As everyone arrived, we went to check in and collect our Sea Pass cards. Service was rather slow there, which i did not expect as it is a bigger terminal and opened for around half a year. Especially because we were suite guests, we would have expected better service from the crew, but then again, the ground crew is not related to the cruise line staff.
Once we collected our Sea Pass cards, immigration was a lot quicker so that made up for loss time. Here is a glimpse of the terminal and the queues for Sea Pass cards.
After everything was completed, it was noon. We boarded the ship and was escorted by the suite concierge manager, how strangely her name was Marine Wang, Marine on Mariner. hehe :D (my fail attempt at jokes). She brought us to our cabin (Royal Suite) 1620 on deck 10 and showed us around. It is probably the best room i have seen on ship so far. All my relatives came to our room to take a tour. (its actually that big that you can 'tour' the room. Soon after, we went to go grab a bite at the windjammer. I must say one of the largest crowds i saw on that ship was at the windjammer during embarking. It was so full that both giovanni's table and Chopes Grille had to open up seating to serve guests. People were standing, holding their plates and eating or sitting on a couch. That made it feel a bit like a flea market. Here's a few shots of our suite:
(Main Entrance)
(Seperate bedroom with full size King bed)
(Walk In Wardrobe)
(Triple or quadruple a normal size balcony)
We rounded of the evening after watching the departure out of Singapore with a few rounds of table tennis and mini golf. I cannot describe the amazing scenery that just glided past me especially the greenish-blue water.
(Port of Singapore to the left)
(Better view of port)
(Sailing past Sentosa)
Due to the kids being party animals, we would normally sleep no earlier than 2. With the Cafe Promenade open 24 hours, there was always time to sit down and grab a bite with friends or family.
Day 2- Port Klang
We all woke up around 10:30-11. We didn't plan to get off the ship at Port Klang, because there is nothing to see or do in an hour and a half drive radius. The nearest place of attraction was Kuala Lumpur, and just to go shopping for 4 hours and taking a bus ride of 2 hours both ways was not worth it.
Lunch was arranged at 12 in Giovanni's Table. To be honest i didn't think this was as good as the Portofino's on Liberty of the Seas. Even though thats a huge comparison to make, i expected a bit more having been to Chopes Grille and Portofino. Firstly what i realized was that service was relatively slow (maybe that could have just been for our large table of 27 or so) but it took almost 45 minutes for startes to come out and another half an hour for the main courses to arrive. The food as well was a bit disappointing as some of the soups had the same texture as soups served in the Windjammer. Although there were a few dishes that did stand out amongst our palates. One being the lasagna, if you ever do go to this restaurant on this ship or maybe even any ship, the Lasagna is amazing and comes in nicely sized portions. Sadly i do not have any photos of much of the food i ate this trip. The next cruise vacation will have more, i promise :P. That extremely long lunch lasted till about 2:30.
My cousins and I chilled out in the solarium hot tubs and they were the best. The ship was pretty at that time cause many senior travelers got off to go shopping and so we basically had most of the ship to ourselves. It was wonderful being able to put your head down with your body submerged in water and to relax. I nearly fell asleep because it was so peaceful. Just to give you an idea of how empty the ship was at port, this is a picture of the main pool area.
(Empty lounge chairs and barely anyone in the pools)
Most of this day, we spent our time at the fuel, playing games such as taboo and just dance. Boy was that tiring, it looks so easy and then you realize that you're doing it all wrong. So that went on for quite a while.
Our Main Dining Room seating time was at 6:30 at the Top Hat and Tails Dining Room on deck 4, and that was extremely early for me as i usually eat at 8-8:30 on a daily basis so that resulted in us having 2 meals a day with supper of course. As this night was formal night, a lot of us started washing up and getting dressed at 5, so our day was actually pretty short.
At 5pm we departed Port Klang on our way headed for Langkawi. That evening the sunset was just incredible, the colours so different from normal sunsets, sort of a purple-ish pink and crimson sort of colour. With the clouds just over the horizon it really made it look spectacular.
Both these photos were taken outside the Main Dining Room.
Day 3- Langkawi
We selected a private tour of a fruit farm and mangrove tour in Langkawi. I woke up at about 6:30 in the morning cause we needed to get off the ship by 8:30. I took a couple of shots of the sunrise in the morning and after looking back at it, it doesn't seem to be like Malaysia but like some islands in the Caribbean. It was so calm in the morning, a bit foggy which really made the scenery amazing.
These photos were taken from my balcony, don't they look awesome! Oh how I love nature :D
Leaving the ship i got some really nice shots of her. Mariner is such a beauty, would love to sail on her again.
We got of the ship at 4 and took a half an hour bus ride to a fruit farm. Most of the fruits we had seen before but there is one jackfruit which was huge. The size of it was so large that it almost looked like a distorted durian.
(Jackfruit)
Apart from looking at fruits, I was surprised to find out that there was a deer enclosure in the fruit farm! It's weird but it sure was interesting. We managed to feed a few cucumber and fruit sticks to them and admire them from a distance.
We had lunch at a Thai restaurant downtown. The food was quite good. I would rate it a 3/5 stars. It was surprising to see that we, a group of 30 people were their only customers in such a large restaurant. After lunch we headed over to take a mangrove and fish farm tour at the Kilim Geoforest Park. We also decided to stop by at the bat cave because it was on the way. It was an eye opener to hear and to see (or not see cause it was almost pitch black in some areas) that many bats in one area.
(Bat Cave)
Day 4- Sea Day
This was just a nice time to relax and to chill with my family. We woke up late at around lunch time and decided to have brunch at Johnny Rockets. Let me tell you, eating there is like eating at an all you can eat buffet. You pay per head, and order as much as you want. Of course this is on top of the 3 different types of fries they serve you. If i do recall correctly, i believe that drinks were chargeable.
At around 1-2 in the afternoon the event of most sexiest man alive competition was on. It was very enjoyable to watch what the contestants had to do in order to win over the judges hearts. It is especially thrilling to watch if your family member goes in and participates. I had my brother, and two of my cousins participate in it and boy was that embarrassing (in a good way of course).
(One of the contestants giving a lap dance to the judges)
The rest of the day was just us lazing around the solarium and main pool deck. Climbed the rock wall twice and then we had to get ready for dinner.
Dinner was in the Main Dining Room again. Our last night on Mariner was a blast. We played trivia games in our suite such as Taboo all the way till 4 the next day! We didn't get much sleep as we had to disembark at 8. All in all, it was a great trip, and a great family bonding experience!
If you have similar stories please do share with me, it will be really exciting to hear your experiences.
