The Last 1 ½ Days of Annual Leaves (Unencrypted)

It’s annual leaves well spent :) Definitely better than my last year’s, when I donated two days to the bank because I don’t know what to do with the leaves.

For some reasons (one is to try out the encryption method), the post is encrypted from this section onwards! Haha!

Welcome onboard to the world of Royal Caribbean International – The nation of Why Not :)

Day1: Friday, 9th Dec 2011: Singapore

I woke up 5 minutes earlier than usual. I showered, got ready, and left home at around 9.45am. We took the Bus 145 all the way to Harbourfront, did the check-in, and went for last minutes shopping at G2000 before finally boarding to the awesome Legend of the Seas.

Vivocity on a Friday Morning - No single soul

Our Lovely Ship! - Royal Caribbean International Legend of the Seas

The Eleven Decks in Details

First stop was Windjammer Buffet. My first free food onboard and I wasn’t missing a single moment. I took almost everything and well, my plate was full before I was even through half of the buffet table. I was full after the first plate, and finally decided to pass the second round. I have another 10 buffet chances, anyway :p

Windjammer - First Meal onboard

Our room was ready at 1pm. After checking in, we went to explore the ship. It was a bit confusing at first, but we’re the ship expert at the end of the cruise =) My favorite place was definitely Level 9; where buffet, pools, snacks, spas, fitness center are all in one level.

Royal Caribbean & Star Cruise side by side

Deck 11 - Viking Room

Deck 5 - Romeo & Juliet Dining Room

Deck 4 - Casino!

First time I see that it's actually allowed to take pic in a Casino

Before the starts of the cruise, there was a mandatory mustering at 3.30pm. It’s basically about ship safety, something similar to the airplane’s routine before flying off. It’s held outside the lobby. Weather wasn’t that hot but warm enough to make me sweat in the 45 minutes outside. We were basically standing there waiting for our room number to be called. I played “The Sims – Free Play” for the last time before I lost the data connection on the high seas.

The Mustering Place

At 4.30pm, the shipped departed from Singapore. We watched until it left the Singapore harbor, then proceed to have some snacks, then continued with dinner at 5.45pm at Romeo and Juliet. The dinner was in fine dining setting, with two waiters dedicated to serve your table. I was instantly in love with the place. Free fine dining for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? This is too good to be true! Plus you can continue with the buffet spread, incase the fine dining didn’t satisfy you. My heart skipped a beat.

View from the deck 9

View from the deck 10

Our 24 hrs snacks

First dinner @ Romeo and Juliet

First Appetizer - High Class Gado-Gado!

After a sinful dinner, we proceed to “That’s Entertainment” for our welcome show: “The invitation to dance”. Our cruise director, Gordon, was a superb entertainer. The show was filled with professional singing and dancing for the full hour. After show, we went to Anchor’s Aweigh to watch some dance lesson, then decide to call it a day. We went back to the room, watched “True Grit”, and fell asleep before we finished the movie.

That's Entertainment

View in the evening

Day 2: Saturday, 10th Dec 2011: Penang

We planned to wake up at 6am to have continental breakfast at the deck. For some reason, our alarm failed us and we only awake at 8am. We showered, and it was soon 9.30am when we finally went out from the room. We paid a visit to Windjammer to have a light breakfast before kicking off with the itinerary of the day.

Breakfast facing the sea

We went to deck 9 for a fun mini golf, then spent sometime watching wall climbing before deciding I might be too old for that challenge. We went to Fitness Center to run off some calories before proceeding for lunch.

The Wall Climbing!

Running with sea view! It actually made me a bit dizzy @.@

Lunch was at Romeo and Juliet. It was a full course with soup, salad, main course, and of course, dessert. By the time we finished dessert, the ship has come to a full stop and there we were at… Penang!

Winson's Salad Mix - Best Salad ever!

As soon as we stepped out from the ship, we started to hear familiar dialect, our beloved hokkien! Even Indian was speaking to us in hokkien. We took a cab to Komtar complex for RM 15, then shopped at Giant buying some necessities. After shopping, we decided to do our own sightseeing and have a slow walk back to the ship. Along the way, we had the famous Ice Khacang, Char Kuey Teow, and yes, Laksa. We reached back our ship at around 5.30pm, just nice to had a quick shower before going for dinner.

Penang Char Kuey Teao

Penang Laksa

Penang Financial District!

The food for dinner was good, but I can’t really finish most of it. I guess it’s expected after my greedy snacking T_T After dinner, we proceed to theatre for the show of the day – Ballet performance and Magic show. That’s the show I love the most. After show, Winson wasn’t feeling really well, so we decided to rest earlier for the day.

At the Main Lounge

Cute Towel-Made Animal! Actually I can't figure out what it is

Day 3: Sunday, 11th Dec 2011: Malacca

Thanks to my love for food, I managed to wake up early on the day. We went to our favorite R and J for breakfast.

My Omelet!

After breakfast, we went to Deck 9 and tried out all the different pool – outdoor, indoor; chill, warm, hot. The whirlpool was really relaxing. I didn’t feel like coming out even after half an hour. We went back to room at around 10am, showered, then went for early lunch. After lunch, we sit at the lounge area listening to live music while waiting for the excursion ferry to come and pick us up for Malacca.

Endless Live Performances

We reached at around 2.30pm. Lucky for us, the drop off place was around the attraction areas. We went to the usual tourist place – Christ Church and St Paul Church, then proceed to Jonker Street for some sourvenir shopping + chendol. It was around 6pm when we finally reached back the ship, and yeah, it was soon time for dinner!

The Must-Take-Picture Place in Malacca

I was conscious that it’s the last dinner in the ship, and my mood was kind of mix at that time. As the waiters performed and said good-bye to us, I almost felt like buying another ticket for another week.

The Farewell Performance from all the waiters

After the sad good-bye at dining table, we proceed to have another farewell at the entertainment center. The show today was all about singing. As expected, the last part was a farewell from the cruise director and all the crews in Legend of the seas. The show finished at around 10pm, and I wasn’t in the mood to sleep at all. So I went to take my last supper of Pizza and fries, then went back to room and finished our movie “True Grit”. The movie was really good (even though Brat Pit was really on side role in the movie). After movie and packing, we finally slept at around 12am. 

Day 4: Monday, 12th Dec 2011: Singapore

We woke up at around 6am, freshen ourselves, and then went for our last meal in the ship. We had it at R and J. I’m impressed that the services are good till the end, even when we all know that the gratitude has been given the day before. I had the big breakfast, and then left the ship at around 7.30am. The off boarding was a smooth painless experience. We strolled through sheltered, trolley friendly walk all the way from the ship to bus stop. We grabbed the today’s newspaper, then took a bus back home.

The journey ended there, but the memories will always stay. In the afternoon, I returned to be a slave in office T_T

The Daily Reading throughout the 3 days - Cruise Compass

Prolog: The experience was better than expectation =) While reading the facilities and itinerary, I was worried that there are not enough things to keep us occupied. As it turned out, well, there were really not many activities! :p but the services were so superb, it’s so hard to complain about anything. They made sitting at the lobby felt like a first class entertainment with live bands and free food all around. Basically, you’re the prince and princess for the whole 4 Days 3 Nights. Thanks Royal Carribbean for such a wonderful journey. Thanks Winson for planning this out :)