Chinatown

 Explored Chinatown again today.

There is a new starbuck restaurant at the junction of Smith street and Trengganu street. Its interesting as it is housed in a historical shop house.

There is some upgrading work at Smith street. Hope it will rejuvenate the area.

Glad that the Chinatown Heritage Centre is reopened again.

Love Chinatown as it is so accessible.  The exit from Chinatown MRT station faced the Pagoda street which the Chinatown Heritage Centre is located.

The shops and stalls along the streets are mainly souvenir shops to attract the tourists.

Chinatown complex will undergo renovation next year from March for around 3 months.

There is a wet market in the basement 

Many food stalls on the 2nd level.

Buddha tooth relic temple is a must visit with 3 level exhibits from 2nd level.

The tourist centre is just located adjacent to the Buddha tooth relic temple and the Chinatown complex. 

Sun Halo

Pulling out this photo taken last year as there was so much talk of the sun halo captured by many today. Indeed it was a spectaculàr sight representing hope. I took this with the crown of the trees showing crown shyness. I like the photo so much that I sent this to my students. Reminding them hope comes with every effort made.

NUS Geography Challenge 2025

Happy to hear that our team got into the semi-finals this year. They have done well in their team component. Kayla and Hao lin attained the bronze award. Addrick and Ashley participation. 

It was still a feat with around 476 students from 119 school.

They carried out two field studies for their creative component. They had fun working together in creating the infographics and applying their geographical investigation.

At the Discovery Centre in Punggol to learn more about landuse planning in the area.

The team. 

Individual component results

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x5A08_gdCVNozdPWeetm5KST_RZBrg6k/view?usp=sharing

Semi-finalists results

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16OWTkokiUvXq5ra_dXBbdIC9MCw8G8C2/view?usp=sharing

The team gotten into the Semi-finals on 29 March. They started the geotrail from URA and ended at NUS. The 7 stations for geotrail 2025.

They had fun at the stations.

OCA 2024

Gratitude to my colleague for the nomination and blessed to be awarded the Outstanding Contribution Award 2024 (OCA) Role Model award. 🫰🙏

Anthem of the seas Dec 2024

We originally booked a 12N cruise from Australia for Dec 2025 on Anthem of the Seas but decided to cancel it. However, RC would only allow us to change the sailing date for a change fee of 150 per pax or I will lose all my deposit. Thus we opted to change to this 3N cruise on a ocean view balcony. I realised that the shows were fully booked as well as the early check-in slots so I bid for the royalup and gotten a grand suite (sky class) with a bid of 640 per pax. With a grand suite I will be able to get priority embarkation as well as priority seating in the theatre.  A price I am willing to pay as I love RC mainly for the shows and cocktails. Will be doing a 6 hour private tour of Penang too mainly for food and shopping. 

Check-in was smooth as I reached Marina Bay Cruise Centre at 10.30am, check in my luggage and queued to get through security at 11am. Glad I royalup to grand suite. We were allowed through the security check after the star class so were the first to go up the gangway as star class came in big families and took a longer time at the check-in. Surprised there was no collection of passport.  First cruise which passports were not collected.

We were the first to be up in Windjammer on deck 14.  The spread and quality of food is good. The view from the window seat is awesome.

Nice view from Windjammer. 

Decided to go for another round of lunch at Coastal Kitchen next to Windjammer which is opened for suite guests. It was very quiet. The bread was not as tasty as the Blu restaurant in Celebrity Solstice and the coffee is still as diluted. The server David is so good at introducing the menu to us. Edward is so hospitable too.

The braised beef was very good. So soft and like what David said will melt in your mouth. Still prefer the escargot compared to scallop but still good. The spilt pea soup is much better than the soup in Windjammer. The royal cheese cake is superb and cream brulee average. 

Went to our muster station for safety briefing by Katrina from Scotland

 We went to check out deck 4 as our room would be ready only at 1pm.

Checked out our room which is a Grand suite with large balcony 7634 at 1pm. The sea pass were placed outside our room.

The room has 2 big wardrobes. 2 doors out to the balcony and also 2 doors to the toilet. There are two sinks but wished they separated the toilet and bathtub area like Spectrum of the Seas. Overall, it's quite spacious. Our luggage only arrived at 3pm.

The living room was separated from the bedroom by the partition with TV on both sides.

Checked out the concierge lounge which was empty. The door is opened by taping the sea pass.

Sad to say the coffee was not as good as Voyager of the Seas lounge.

I went back to the room and ate some of the fruits in the room.

Saw a letter from Gilda, our concierge, on the desk.  Glad to have her as she helped us a lot in the trip e.g. telling us where to go for the shows and escorting us in priority disembarkation.

Exploring the ship. Deck 5

Sailed away from Marina Bay cruise centre.

Dinner at Wonderland. We have already booked and paid for it precruise at around SGD 68 per pax.

I had Cheshire Cat Cosmo and hubby have white Rabbit-Rita cocktail (extra charge).I had Cheshire Cat Cosmo and hubby have white Rabbit-Rita cocktail.

The desserts especially the world is good. Forbidden apple wows by the presentation but too sourish for hubby.

Awesome show Spectra's Cabaret at Two70 theatre. RC shows are still the best.

Could not resist going for a second round of food at Windjammer. The Satay, desserts and crackers were good.

Watched Funny Bones at Royal theatre. This is definitely better than magic shows. One of the guys is from UK and the other Japan. Surprised they teamed up so well. Laughters filled the theatre.

We went to Brass and Rock Pub to see the guitarist, Phil James, from the 'We will rock you' show on day 3 perform. Grabbed the pizza from nearby Sorrento which is complimentary for all the guests. Good music with Good pizza and beer.

Day 2

We woke up very late as we slept late the day before. Ordered room service for breakfast.

Explored deck 15

The arcade was quite crowded.

Laser tag game. Too old for that but looked fun.

Rock climbing.

Seemed to be the most popular activity at flowrider.

iFly 

Decided to take a ride on the Northern Star. It was free when I was on the Quantum of the Seas. For this ride we had to pay USD40 each for the extended ride.

Took the cocktails at the bar while waiting.

The promenade cafe.

Grabbed a Cappuccino from Starbuck. The coffee was diluted and not fragrant too.

Our room steward had already cleaned the room and made an animal out of a towel on the bed.

We could see that we are nearing Penang.

Celebrity Millennium was already at the Swettenham pier.

We went down to deck 3 and queued outside the casino before we were allowed to.go down to the gangway on level 2.

Finally landed in Penang. View of our ship at Swettenham pier. There was no need for our passport and no check at the immigration. 

Our ship looked so amazing at the pier.

Our first stop was Chowastra market but realised that the food stalls were all closed as they open only in the morning. Even the very nice peanut candy wrapped in popiah skin was closed. 

Went to Lorong Selamat Char Kway Teow.  We visited the stall many years ago and indeed the food were still great. Ordered the ice kacang, char kway teow, fried oysters and cuttlefish with kang Kong. Bought some of the home made snacks too.

Visited the Peranakan Museum. Had a very humorous and informative in-house guide Stanley who is a Baba himself.

Went to Gurney Plaza for shopping. Bought some T-shirts for my son.

Went to Armenian Street to revisit the street art. Managed to take a few photos with the street art on a trishaw ride before it rained heavily.

We decided to go back to the ship earlier as we were drenched by the sudden rain. 

Hubby wanted congee so we went to Windjammer for dinner. There was indeed plain congee with condiments such as chicken floss, salted egg, peanuts etc. There is also a live station for stir fry bee hoon. The fried bee hoon from the live station is good. You choose your own ingredients and the staff will stir fry for you.  Hubby took more food. He said the curry fish is good but not so for the rendang chicken.

Watched the Tap Factory at 9.45pm. Amazing show with percussion, urban tap dance, acrobats and comedy. RC shows are always top notch!

Sailed away from Penang earlier than 11pm. Beautiful night with the city dazzling under the lights.

Very different from previous cruises in which the cruise ship keep our passports. Now we can go down to Penang even without our passport. No custom check at all. 😅

Ordered room service for supper. Complimentary for suite guests. Decided to wake up late and going to miss breakfast tomorrow. 

Love the fries and cheesecake. Grateful for the tomato juice too as it was not in the menu. Ordered my favourite banana and hubby ordered the chocolate chip cookies and tea as well. Luckily the potato chips came in a package as we can keep it first. 

Day 3

It was sea day so we woke up late again. Went to the Windjammer as it closed late at 11am.

Decided to give the pools a pass. Nowhere to swim at the Solarium. The indoor and outdoor pools were too crowded. Missed the suite pool for suite guests in Genting Dream and the beautiful aft pools on Sapphire Princess.

Beautiful view of the seas at Two70 in the aft. The library is on the upper deck.

Gotten a plate of fruits in Windjammer as Coastal Kitchen is opened only at 12 pm, and we were there 11 plus.  Actually, the spread of food is not bad either with many options. Amazing how they transform from breakfast to lunch in less than an hour. As mentioned glad to meet new friends onboard. Met Dewi and her friend. 

The lunch menu at Coastal Kitchen.

Average Lentil soup.

The awesome roasted chicken which was so juicy and tender. Sauce was delicious too.

Average dessert. 

Took a picture with Joseph who served us in Coastal Kitchen today.

Jochelle and Edward were always so hospitable and welcoming at Coastal Kitchen.

David served us on day 1. Very humorous guy from Peru.

Amazing show at Royal theatre. Been looking to the show We will rock you. It did not disappoint. Amazing show which was almost 2hour long.

Decided to try the main dining room today and the food was so good hubby can't stop praising it. It was the Italy night menu tonight and the waiters even performed a dance.

We had the minestrone soup. I also ordered the crab sushi as appetiser. Our waiter even brought the tiger shrimp which is not on the menu. I had lasagne and hubby had the lobster and beef (the only one chargeable at USD35.

For desert I had tiramisu and hubby fruit platter.

The head waiter also introduced us a very nice crispy rice ball with mushroom.

I took watermelon margarita and hubby pineapple guava sangria.

Picture with the head waiter. Met the head waiter Yathendra again. We took a survey in Windjammer with him earlier.

Our waiter Surachai wore the same reading glass as hubby. Hubby bought the reading glass from a pharmacy in Thailand .

There was a sales on Deck 4 outside Boleros. Bought a bag at USD 90.88 and 3 perfumes at USD99.

While we were leaving Boleros husband took the menu with  his bag. Luckily I asked him what he had gotten in his hand. 

Watched the Tropical Fusion at Boleros. 

Ashley was so kind to demonstrate how she used the steel pan to create the music. Amazing.

Piano and vocal by Todd Edwards at Schooner Bar.

Went back to Boleros to watch Tropical Fusion play Bob Mailey songs.

Took photo with Tropical Fusion who are from Barnados, a small island in Carribean.

Ordered room service before 1am as tomorrow is disembarkation day otherwise it is available 24 hours. The plain chicken wings were so delicious. Hot and crunchy. Ordered the hotdogs again except that we also added the beef bolognese sauce. Also ordered the fruit platters including banana. Ordered hot chocolate and forgot to order the juices. Potato chips are good to munch while watching a movie. 

Day 4

Approaching Singapore and the ship just docked at 7am.

Glad that we managed to get the grand suite cos we had priority in disembarkation and was the first to disembark avoiding the crowd. Our concierge Gilda Li was on deck 5 to assist us in priority disembarkation. We were first to disembark.

So glad we made this 15th cruise. Simply love cruises.

https://lilyleeevents.blogspot.com/2019/01/cruises.html?m=1