SE Asia Travel Part 8

by Elizabeth

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Sea Day! and Singapore!

An 'at sea' day on a cruise...wow, sounds maybe a bit boring? or filled with 'I'm going to load up on spa treatments and soaking in the hot tub' kind of day? Well, there's a lot of possibilities on an 'at-sea' day.

First of all, it's an ideal morning to sleep in and order a room-service breakfast, relax on your own private balcony with coffee, knowing there's no rush to disembark for excursions or shore time. There are usually many activities planned around the ship for these days to satisfy some need for interaction or, you can hibernate, poking your head out for sustenance when you feel like it.

On our Day 8 at-sea day, we generally bummed around, ate a leisurely breakfast with family, then headed up to the upper forward deck where there was a large lounge.

Here we played a few rounds of Bingo.

Enthusiastic crew called the Bingo games, and though we did not win, it was an entertaining interaction with a large crowd.

After Bingo, and for the remainder of the day, we relaxed in our cabin. Having had some laundry done, we were able to re-organize our belongings and neaten up a bit. A brisk walk around the upper decks yielded some great views of a wide open sea as well as the oil rigs and shipping vessels we are beginning to see.

There was more Bingo, dance lessons, talks with the captain, casino gambling options, and in the evening, karaoke, shows in the main auditorium and a variety of bars with live music to relax in.

Then...Singapore! On December 8th, 2023, the Norwegian Cruise Line moored and berthed at the Marina Bay Cruise Center, a modern pier cruise center built and opened in 2012. Noel had visited Singapore about five times earlier in his naval career, and in 2001 was the last time before transferring to the Fleet Reserve. Singapore is one of the US Navy's frequently visited ports when transiting Malacca Straits onto the Indian Ocean or returning from the usual deployment route to the Indochina Sea and, eventually, the Pacific Ocean.

A highly anticipated port, we had decided on a hop-on-hop-off bus tour as our excursion in hopes of seeing a few highlighted spots while also being able to take in the city by double-decker bus. The ship was to spend less than 16 hours on the pier and the cruise line told us to return to the boat by 7 pm. When we were out from the immigration check, we did what we could to spend at least 8 hours touring Singapore.

Disembarkation was a bit delayed here, which was a disappointment as it cut into the time we had to explore this great city. Like several other ports, Singapore requires an e-immigration form to be completed in advance of presenting at the port. Apparently hundreds of folks had not completed this, and upon arrival at the port authority immigration checkpoint, the process essentially slowed to a halt.

Eventually, we got going but it was at least a 1-2 hour delay. The bus service was plugged in as soon as we were able to clear the port customs, and off we went.

The Hop On Hop Off bus tour would provide us the perfect introduction to the city and the best photo opportunities of iconic landmarks from the open top deck of the bus. The Bus tour has two yellow and red routes with frequency stops of about 25-30 minutes at several city bus stop locations. The red route tours the cultural variety and distinctive architecture of Little India and Chinatown. The yellow route tour, on the other hand, blends with the iconic landmarks of Orchard Road shopping hot spots. Michelle, Charles, and Jonathan took the red route tour, and we chose the yellow route because of Noel's familiarity with Orchard Road.

One of our first stops on the Yellow Line was the Gardens by the Bay near Marina Bay Sands, with its iconic tall flower apparatus that is lit up at night.

This park may have been better at night but we were able to take in much of the botanical garden space which was beautiful. There were other opportunities to see ticketed attractions such as the Avatar Experience, Cloud Forest, Flower Dome, Floral Fantasy, the OCBC Skyway, and the Supertree Observatory...but we didn't feel as though we wanted to spend the entire day here.

The Yellow line then took us through the city center and eventually through the entrance to the Botanic Gardens, which was a refreshing and lovely site from the upper open-air deck of the bus.

We next got off the bus at Orchard Center, a large shopping hub that had the feel of Vegas meets New York. Large, high-end stores with smaller indoor malls with every kind of shopping you could ask for.

Noel reminisced about when he was in the military, strolling to familiar places like the MRT stops, fancy malls, and restaurants. He also noticed a Footworks Reflexology Wellness Center, and since he had been experiencing tenderness and soreness in his left foot for quite some time, he had to get massage treatment there. And so we did. We spent about an hour in the wellness center, and it did not disappoint. It was a slightly painful yet effective massage. Worth the money and was a much-needed treatment. After the shenanigans of getting our foot massage, we explored the area and looked for a decent lunch restaurant. Several hours later, we returned to the Marina Bay cruise center and got back on a bus that would bring us back to the meeting point to bring us back to the port. In addition to the foot treatment that day, we also had spa appointments that evening on the ship and didn't want to miss that!

After our hour-long massage treatments, we opted for a sushi dinner (the best food of the cruise!) and later relaxed with cocktails while listening to more karaoke contestants.

Our short stay in Singapore did not do the city justice. We wanted to visit the Marina Bay Sands Hotel at the bay front, the Helix Bridge, the Raffles Hotel, Singapore Flyer, Chinatown, and Bugis Street, among many other places to visit while in Singapore. It may be on our list to revisit Singapore soon.