MizReeney: December 2015

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Thursday, December 24, 2015

Day 1 - Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas - 5 Night Spice of South East Asia Cruise

It has literally taken me forever to finish writing up this Blog, between packing to move houses and editing videos for our Vlogs on YouTube, and doing other household chores, I really have very little free time left. But Blogging does give me great joy, so no matter how long it takes, I know I'll complete my entries...eventually. So thanks in advance for reading, hope you enjoyed it!

Day 1 on Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas

We took this cruise on 24th December 2015 to 29th December 2015. It's only our second cruise ever and first time on a Royal Caribbean cruise, previously we'd been on Superstar Virgo. Our cruise is the Spice of South East Asia cruise, where we'll be making stops at Port Klang, Langkawi (both in Malaysia) and Phuket (Thailand).

On the day of our departure, we were so excited. Since we had never been on a Royal Caribbean cruise before we really didn't know what to expect. I did research a fair bit before our departure day and found that people said even though our departure info that was emailed to us stated that for our Stateroom we should be checking in at 3pm, we can actually check in earlier and go on the ship early and enjoy lunch and the other facilities. So we decided to arrive at the Cruise Centre at around 12noon. Our cruise was due to depart around 5pm and all passengers are required to be onboard by 4pm.

We weren't sure where the cruise centre was, and our family dropped us off at the wrong end so we had to walk quite a distance.

Walking to the Marina Bay Cruise Centre

Luggage

Upon arrival at the Cruise Centre, we made our way to the luggage check in area. A week or so before departure, they would've emailed you some info about checking in online and also attached luggage tags for you to print out. Save yourself some time and print them at home and attach them to your luggages. Once you've done that, all you have to do is drop off the luggage with the staff and that's it, your luggage will be delivered straight to your rooms.

Check In

After the luggage drop off, we went to the check in counter. I had read previous blogs saying how horrendous the lines are there for checking in and that it would take a few hours. Well actually for us, the lines were relatively short and the check in was a breeze! We managed to clear the customs and go on board by about 1.30pm.

On the Ship

Once on the ship, the kids are required to get this plastic wrist band that contained important information to help identify them in case of emergency. After that we went straight to our room to check things out. We had booked a Stateroom with Window so we were excited to see what the room looked like. When we opened our door though, we were shocked to find that they had given us 2 single beds instead of one king size bed as we requested. There's 3 of us, how are we supposed to sleep? After some time, we managed to call Housekeeping and explained to them the situation hoping that something could be done. Even with this mishap we were in awe of the room. The window was really big and the room in general was so spacious! It was nothing like the Superstar Virgo! There was even a seating area, a writing table and of our favourite features was the curtains that separated the living/sitting room with the sleeping area. It felt so cozy. Little did we also know that there was a 3rd bunk bed that they could open up and lower down from the ceiling! I really wasn't expecting that. Caelyn just loved sleeping on the bunk bed...or is it called Loft Bed? With her sleeping on the top, we had the whole king size bed to ourselves and it was so roomy.

For lunch on boarding day, the only restaurant that is open is the Windjammer. This is the buffet restaurant and I think almost every passenger that gets on board will head here. There was a long line and be prepared to share tables with other people.

Yummy Bread

There is also another place you can eat and that's the Promenade Cafe, but choices are limited. But if you get hungry anytime of the day, head over to this cafe, it has free water and food, all included in your cruise price! And the dessert served here is pretty good.

After lunch we just explored the ship a bit more and played a round of miniature gold on the top floor of the ship.

Then it was time for the mandatory safety drill. We were told that our luggage would arrive in our rooms at the latest by 9pm, but our luggage had arrived in our room before dinner.

There is also something called Cruise Compass that we get every day. It's basically a booklet that lists every activity and when it's on. We referred to it almost every hour and it was crucial in planning our day's activities.

There is so much to do on board, so much so till you run out of down time where you can just rest and relax as you're always chasing the next activity.

One thing that you simply can't miss is the Dreamworks Move It! Move It! Parade. It really is amazing that you can have a parade onboard a cruiseship. This is one show the kids will really really enjoy.

There is so much to see and do that would make this blog post too lengthy, so come and check out my video of our first day here to experience it through our eyes.

Stay tuned for Day 2 of our Cruise Diary when the ship docks at Port Klang!

Cruising Tips
Day 2 - Port Klang
Day 3 Cruise - Langkawi

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Saturday, December 19, 2015

Dinner at Kazokutei @ Bishan Junction8

Do you have a kid or kids who always eats the same food all the time? Well I do. My one will always choose Udon over anything else. I wonder if she'll one day get sick of it. Coz I sure am!!

So there's this restaurant at Bishan Junction8 Shopping Center called Kazokutei that sells authentic handmade Japanese udon. Price is pretty reasonable with most items being under $15.

The Udon served here is of the thinner variety. But even though it's thin it still retains the chewy texture that Udon is known for.

Baby girl had the Koku Udon ($7.90++). It's basically plain udon a hot seaweed soy broth with one slice of Japanese fish cake. The broth was tasty and comforting. You can add on a side dish to your meal for a price. She opted for the Chawanmushi ($3++), Japanese egg custard, which is her second or is it her first favourite food? I don't know, can't keep track. The Chawanmushi here is really good. It was smooth and savoury with a hint of umami which seemed to taste a bit like crab.

I opted for the Tsukemen ($12.90++) which is Udon served with a warm dipping sauce. You can choose from 3 different dipping sauces: Black Tonkatsu, Spicy Tonkatsu, or Nutty Miso. I opted for the spiciness and it was really good. It was spicy but not blow your head off spicy. The only thing I don't like is the layer of oil that coats your lips. With the udon there was some shredded sweet prom, 2 prawn tempura, half a marinated egg and some veggies.

The curious thing was that there was a free upsize for the Tsukemen Udon. You could choose from Medium, Large or XLarge which, if I remembered correctly was about 320g of noodles. So me being the glutton I am and Caelyn being the Udon lover, I chose the XLarge :) and um...it was a bit too much for us >_<.

Anyway service was good, friendly and welcoming and no doubt Carlyn will be asking us to eat there again...and again...and again.

Just look at this happy face...and the size of that bowl!

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Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Orchard Road Pedestrian Night - Christmas Edition 2015

The Orchard Road pedestrian night has been on once a month since late last year and I had always been meaning to go and check it out, but somehow never got a chance, until now. The 5th of Dec was the last day for the Pedestrian Night this year and I knew I had to set aside that night to go and check it out, especially because I also wanted to check out the beautiful Christmas lights. And it really didn't disappoint :)

If you do go to the Pedestrian Night and you're driving, you need to figure out where you're going to park. Factor in how long you're planning to stay there for, and if you stay until the end think about the bottleneck of cars all waiting to get out. Obviously avoid areas where entrance to the carparks are from the main Orchard Rd strip where the road will close since that would mean you'd really have to stay there till the end of the event where they'll reopen the roads again. For us we parked at Shaw Centre and it was a breeze getting out. Getting parking there was a little difficult, after many rounds we found empty lots but the space was very tight.

We started our walk from the front of Ion. There is a ton of free activities to do and entertainment to see. On that night we got free ice cream, free movie ticket and popcorn combo, free Coke, and free water all just by installing the Orchard Rd business app on your phone! The best way to see everything I think is to go down the centre of the road, then once you've reached the end go onto the footpath and go back the other way. There are also activities and buskers on the footpath for you to check out.

I'm not sure what the other nights are like, if it's anything like this night, I definitely will come back and check it out. But if you do want to attend just one Pedestrian Night, be sure not to miss out the one in December (that is, if this event continues next year).

If you've missed it this year, you can check out our night via the video below.

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