Hello! Mr. Editor here, hijacking the blog for a five-part mini series!
Recently, I had the opportunity to go on a cruise with my family. It was a 5D4N cruise onboard the Mariner of the Seas. To start off, here is some quick information about the ship:
Ship Stats:
- Gross Tonnage (read: how big is the ship) - 138,000
- Length (read: length) - 1,020 ft
- Max Beam (read: width) - 157.5 ft
- Draft (read: amount of ship under the sea level) - 29 ft
- Cruising speed (read: average speed) - 22 knots
Facilities:
- 10 Pools and Whirlpools
- 17 Bars, Clubs and Lounges
- Casino
- VitalitySM Spa
- Rock Climbing Wall
- Ice Skating Rink
- Mini Golf Course
- Basketball Court
- Jogging Track
- Roller Skating Track
Full Deck Plan:
Day 1 - To Singapore
So because the boarding time was pretty early, we took a bus down to Singapore the weekend before. I don't have anything to write about the bus ride because I was asleep about 98.73% of the time!I do have this to say though! There is a stark difference between the Singapore side customs and Malaysia side customs. If Malaysia side customs is a mamak, then Singapore side customs is a 5 star restaurant! And to think that this difference is separated by only 1km worth of bridge.
Finally, after five hours of travel, we had reached Singapore! The weather as we travelled down was overcast, but it was drizzling here. And so the bus made its way to Novena; the disembarkation point. By the way, road names here are quite interesting. It’s a mix of languages like Ballistier Road and Jalan Remaja.
For dinner, we headed out nearby to a banana leaf restaurant. At first sight, it looks just like a normal banana leaf restaurant. But the type of food served is slightly different than the ones in Malaysia. Here, briyani rice is standard fare and the papadams is unlimited! The papadams were also not tiny fist-sized, but were bigger than my face!
After dinner, we went to see the Christmas lights on Orchard Road. I thought that the decorations this time was not really grand or flashy. Anyways, I was wondering why there was quite a jam building up along the road, with numerous cars double and sometimes triple parked on the side. Turns out that there was an ERP toll about 500m in front and the toll will close at 8pm. I checked the clock and it showed 7:56pm. When uncle passed the toll, it was 7:59pm! Pass it one minute later and he would have saved $1! Wasted.
Day 2 - Holland Village
The next day, we went out for a little sightseeing with my cousin. She brought us to this area called Holland Village. I’m sure you all are thinking that Holland Village refers to the country Holland but it’s actually not! This area was actually named after the architect who designed the area; Hugh Holland.
Locality Map
Info stand where I found out what Holland Village was named after
Can you spot Starbucks?
Beautiful tiled stone bench. Really.
Close-up of the tiled stone bench. Photobombed by my finger.
Other than a small park area, there were only the usual shops and restaurants here. As lunch time approached, we stopped at this Mexican restaurant to cool down and eat. We ordered nachos and several other dishes that I don’t know their names. But the other dishes aren’t important. What’s important is the nachos. They were awesome. Especially when eaten together with its dips: guacamole, sour cream and tomato salsa.
Forgot to take picture of the food. So here is a fan with Mexican flag colours.
After lunch, we took a train to Bueno Vista which was one stop away and headed to Star Vista. This mall sports an open air concept where individual stores have their own air conditioning only. The walkways are open air. So modern! And eco-friendly!
Transparent escalator. So there are huge wheels inside escalators!
Found outside the train station. I count EIGHT cameras.
Open air seating space similar to Taylor Lakeside's courtyard
Left escalator for males, right for females and center for aliens!
Well that's it for Day 1 & 2. The next post will be about cruise day 1! Stay tuned!
-Mr Editor -
Merry Christmas!
-Mr Editor -
Ps: This Christmas, the blog got updated with snow effect! The effect even reacts to mouse gestures. Try moving your mouse to see the snow falling in different directions! If you're not on a computer then you may not see the effect. So do check out the snow effect on a computer!
There are also small changes to the general look of the blog; such as the font, and the blog name position up top. Mr Editor also temporarily changed the white background to pink so that the snow effect can be seen more easily. The code can be found here and the BSD license here.
Merry Christmas!
