MizReeney: Day 2 - Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas

Friday, December 25, 2015

Day 2 - Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas - Port Klang, Malaysia

Today is Christmas Day and this morning the ship was due to dock at Port Klang, Malaysia by 8am and Immigration is due to clear by 8.30am, so passengers can go down anytime after that. We opted not to sign up for any onshore excursions because a lot of the excursions seems to have an hour journey on the bus towards Kuala Lumpur. We've been to KL before so we didn't think it was necessary to go down and explore. Plus Caelyn really wanted to go to the Kids Adventure Ocean club.

We, actually Caelyn, was most excited about the "Children's Holiday Gift Giving with Santa" activity. So before breakfast we quickly went down to Studio B, the ice skating rink, and lined up to get a present from Santa. The queue was alright and we didn't have to wait very long, I guess because a lot of people would've been at breakfast or getting ready to go down for their shore excursions

The present was a pair of pink sunglasses with Royal Caribbean emblazoned on the side. Pretty cool present and it was really great that they separated the presents for girls and boys and also sorted according to age. So this is just one of the perks of cruising during Christmas.

So after that we went to breakfast at Windjammer and stuffed ourselves as usual. Just check out the food we had, no wonder I gained like 3kgs!

Top: Breakfast. Below: the Dock at Port Klang

From the restaurant window we had a clear view of the Dock that we were at. It was nice that there was a direct bridge linking us to the shore. However, as you can see, there's really nothing around the the Dock. We had hoped there would be some shops at least. But just one big white building.

After breakfast we went for a swim. This was our first dip in the pool and we were taken by surprise at how cold the water was..hehe. Not only that, it was salty as sea water!! Well later on we found out that it's so salty because it's water that's pumped in from the sea!! Only the jacuzzis were chlorinated fresh water.

After our swim we dropped Caelyn off at the kids club, the hubby and I went down to check out what's inside the terminal. FYI, the name of the terminal is Boustead Cruise Terminal, Pulau Indah, Port Klang Cruise Centre.

If you wanted to go on a shore excursion, make sure you book early, surprisingly they do get filled up very fast. My own personal opinion is that the shore excursions are pretty expensive. Dont forget that all pricing is also in US$. And in case you're wondering, below are some of the shore excursions you can find book (and prices at time of of our cruise):

1. Aeon Mall Transfer: Adults $15.75, Child $12.75
2. Kuala Lumpur Shopping: A $59.75, C $39.75
3. Makan-Makan and Shopping: A $39.75, C $29.75
4. A Day at Mid Valley Megamall: A $39.75, C $29.75
5. Kuala Lumpur on Your Own: A $39.75, C $29.75
6. Kuala Lumpur Light and Easy: A $59.75, C $39.75

Getting off the ship on your own is pretty simple. For Port Klang you can disembark from Deck4 and follow the foot bridge to the cruise terminal. The terminal is called and all you need to go down on and off the ship is your Sea Pass, so make sure you have this with you at all times.

If you are desperate for some free wifi connection then you definitely want to go down. There is one big empty hall for passengers to sit and connect to the free wifi. Good for loading up your photos onto your Social Media! Aside from free wifi you might want to go down to buy drinks and snacks from the little minimart.

If you decide not to go down there's also plenty of things to do onboard. You can play games at the arcade, go swimming, watch 2D, 3D movies or watch a movie on the big screen by the pool, and participate in some of the organised activities.

Ice Under the Big Top

Not long later we came back and just hung around the ship and picked Caelyn up for dinner. There's a show on that night that can't be missed, called Ice Under the Big Top. It's an awesome Ice Skating show, and we managed to sit in the front row. To us, it was probably the best performance show on the whole cruise.

That evening was also the formal dinner at the Dining Room because there was a Captain's Welcome Aboard Reception on the Promenade where we got to drink some free Bubbly and hear from the Captain himself and toast to him and the journey.