This was my first cruise and I chose Royal Carribean (RC) because I have heard good reviews of RC and also because I came across a road show at Punggol Waterwaypoint and the price was quite reasonable.
As this was my first time on a cruise trip and I'm bringing parents as well, I wanna ensure that everything went smoothly and I did not miss out anything. I did some homework and here I'll share some things to note for first timers.
- A month plus before the sail date, RC sent an email to me to ask me to do online check in for all passengers. Online check in was to be done at least 4 days before the sail date. At the last part of the online check in, they will ask if you wanted to provide your credit card details to link your Seapass card. I didn't want to provide my credit card details at this junction, hence, I chose cash first. On the sail date when I reached the Cruise Terminal, I then passed my credit card to the staff at the check in counter to link to the Seapass card.
- Seapass card is very important when on board the cruise. It acts as your ID, because your passport will be kept by the cruise when you board. It is also your room key and all the expenses you incurred on the ship will be charged to the Seapass card, which will then be billed to the credit card you used to link to the Seapass card. Of course, you can also pay by cash if you do not want to link your credit card, however, you need to pay in US dollars and the day before the last day of the cruise, a statement indicating all the expenses you incurred on your Seapass card will be sent to your room and you will need to go to the counter to queue and make the payment.
- RC will email you the time you need to reach the Cruise Terminal before your sail date according to your Deck number. This is to help facilitate the check in process.
- All pricing on board are in US Dollars.
- The ship do not have free WIFI. You will need to purchase to have WIFI service.
- Passengers are not allowed to bring fresh food on board.
- I brought my own water bottles to the cruise because the cafe to refill the water was quite far from my room. Do note that RC do not provide mineral water in the rooms, you have to buy the mineral water from them and it's not cheap. There's a kettle in the room but I find it troublesome to have to wait for the water to cool before I can drink it.
- There's a fire drill before the ship sail. There will be an announcement to inform all passengers to proceed to your designated deck and location. Show your Seapass card to the staff and they will direct you to your designated location. Approach the staff when you reach your designated location to them to take your attendance.
- Room Attendants will provide the activities sheet for the next day and any information that you need to know in your room.
- The day before the last day of the cruise, passengers will need to collect the passports at the designated location. Information on this will be put in your room. Bring along the Seapass card to collect the passport.
Ok! Enough of the admin stuff! Let's start on my journey!
Day 1
Our room, the promenade stateroom at Deck 6 has a window that has views of the Royal Promenade. The room was cosy, small but not cramp and it was tidy and clean.
Level 5, Royal Promenade, is a shopping street with some shops selling bags like Coach etc, there were also watches, perfume, skincare sales. The scale was quite small though. At times, there were lucky draws going on here.
At 5pm, there's a parade at the Royal Promenade and we watched it from the comfort of our room!
Dinner you can choose to eat at the buffet place, Windjammer at level 11, or enjoy courses dining at the Main Dining Room. For the courses dining at the Main Dining Room, your Seapass card will indicate the table number allocated to you for your dinner.
The servers at the Main Dining Room were friendly and provided great service. Food wise, I find western food a lot nicer than Asian ones. Those Asian food that we ordered were a tad disappointing, but western food tasted fine. Oh, and if one serving isn't enough for you, you may keep ordering. It's sort of like a 'buffet'!
After dinner, it's time for show! For the ice skating show 'Ice Under the Big Top', we have to go for the show timing allocated to us. If you do not want the timing allocated, you have to be on waiting list for the timing you wanted. This show was fantastic! Do not miss it!
*For breakfast and lunch, choices of having buffet at Level 11 Windjammer, or courses meal at the Main Dining Room were available. However, do check out the opening timing Windjammer and Main Dining Room as the timing were different.
Other than Windjammer and the Main Dining Room, Cafe Promenade located at level 5 operates 24 hrs and they have snacks and drinks throughout the 24 hrs. This was where I fill up my water bottles too! Another 2 places the Arctic Zone, which serves soft-serve ice cream and Dog House which serves hotdog buns are located at Level 11 near the pools, and they operate from 1130am to 630pm.
Some restaurants on the ship (the servers will usually go around advertising for their restaurants) and some items on the menu require additional costs. They will indicate on the menu for those items that are charged.
Day 2
The ship arrived at Port Klang and was here from 7am to 7pm. We didn't follow the excursion arranged by RC to KL as additional charges was required and we wanted to enjoy the facilities on the ship while there were lesser people on board. Nonetheless, we did walk to the Port Klang Terminal and took picture of the ship.
Today, we spent some time explored around the ship and had a great time using the pools and Jacuzzi. There's also gym on the ship. Good to hit the gym since we kept eating on the ship hahaha.
2 beautiful sunset photos here!
The featured show tonight was a magic show. This show was free seating, unlike the Ice on the Big Top. The magic show was entertaining as well! After the magic show, we immediately proceeded to the pool deck as there's a dance party on the pool deck! However, there's too many people and the space was quite limited so hmmm. that's the downside.
There's a surprise when we returned to our room tonight. Other than a very tidy room, there's this little towel doggie sitting on my bed.
Day 3
This morning, hubby woke up early to take some photos of the orangy sunrise! Pretty!
We signed up for a tour at 24 USD per person to see the 3-storey kitchen of the Main Dining Room to understand how the crew members served the 3000+ passengers on board for each meal. It was definitely an eye-opener! Through the tour, we understand the hardship of the crew members, they work for 7 months every day on board the ship and are given 2 months to go back home. We also see how hectic it was in the kitchen to prepare food for 3000+ passengers. It made me appreciate them more. We also learnt that the fridge on the ship was so big that it can store food to feed 5000 people for a total of 15 days!
Other than the tour, they also provided buffet brunch with specialties food and unlimited champagne.
On the last night of the cruise, there's a Gala Dinner in the main dining room. The attire advised was formal wear and we dressed up for the night.
In the midst of the dinner, the servers at the Main Dining Room gathered together to give all the passengers a thank you speech and sang the song ‘月亮代表我的心’ for us. After the song, 4 of the servers even danced 'Gangnam Style'! It was so entertaining! Really thank them for providing great service and go to the extend of providing a great show!
After the dinner, we went back the room to pack our luggage first. As for checked-in luggage, we were supposed to stick the luggage tag to the luggage and put it outside our room between 7pm to 10pm the day before. Then the next day we just depart the ship and collect our luggage in the Cruise Terminal. Guess what! We had a little surprise again when we were back in the room!
Of course, if you wanted to carry your own luggage is also ok, just refer to the instructions on the sheet of paper given to you in your room on the last second day to see what time you should leave the ship.
The featured show for the last night was a dance and singing show. It was entertaining too! Followed by a Disco party on the Royal Promenade. It was a fun night!
Day 4
We had our breakfast in the morning and we had to vacate the rooms by 930am. According to the instructions on the paper, we were allocated to depart the ship at 1010am.
I was reluctant to end this cruise tour. This was my first cruise and I had a nice experience with RC. As for the food, hmmm.. don't put too high expectations, the western food are fine. Think for my next cruise, will try their newer and bigger ships when they sail to Singapore.
A big thank you to the crew members for providing great shows, great service and friendliness.
Ciao! For now!
As this was my first time on a cruise trip and I'm bringing parents as well, I wanna ensure that everything went smoothly and I did not miss out anything. I did some homework and here I'll share some things to note for first timers.
- A month plus before the sail date, RC sent an email to me to ask me to do online check in for all passengers. Online check in was to be done at least 4 days before the sail date. At the last part of the online check in, they will ask if you wanted to provide your credit card details to link your Seapass card. I didn't want to provide my credit card details at this junction, hence, I chose cash first. On the sail date when I reached the Cruise Terminal, I then passed my credit card to the staff at the check in counter to link to the Seapass card.
- Seapass card is very important when on board the cruise. It acts as your ID, because your passport will be kept by the cruise when you board. It is also your room key and all the expenses you incurred on the ship will be charged to the Seapass card, which will then be billed to the credit card you used to link to the Seapass card. Of course, you can also pay by cash if you do not want to link your credit card, however, you need to pay in US dollars and the day before the last day of the cruise, a statement indicating all the expenses you incurred on your Seapass card will be sent to your room and you will need to go to the counter to queue and make the payment.
- RC will email you the time you need to reach the Cruise Terminal before your sail date according to your Deck number. This is to help facilitate the check in process.
- All pricing on board are in US Dollars.
- The ship do not have free WIFI. You will need to purchase to have WIFI service.
- Passengers are not allowed to bring fresh food on board.
- I brought my own water bottles to the cruise because the cafe to refill the water was quite far from my room. Do note that RC do not provide mineral water in the rooms, you have to buy the mineral water from them and it's not cheap. There's a kettle in the room but I find it troublesome to have to wait for the water to cool before I can drink it.
- There's a fire drill before the ship sail. There will be an announcement to inform all passengers to proceed to your designated deck and location. Show your Seapass card to the staff and they will direct you to your designated location. Approach the staff when you reach your designated location to them to take your attendance.
- Room Attendants will provide the activities sheet for the next day and any information that you need to know in your room.
- The day before the last day of the cruise, passengers will need to collect the passports at the designated location. Information on this will be put in your room. Bring along the Seapass card to collect the passport.
Ok! Enough of the admin stuff! Let's start on my journey!
Day 1
 |
| Boarding |
 |
| View of Marina Bay from the ship |
Level 5, Royal Promenade, is a shopping street with some shops selling bags like Coach etc, there were also watches, perfume, skincare sales. The scale was quite small though. At times, there were lucky draws going on here.
At 5pm, there's a parade at the Royal Promenade and we watched it from the comfort of our room!
 |
| Ship started sailing |
 |
| Lucky Draw! But we didn't win anything :( |
The servers at the Main Dining Room were friendly and provided great service. Food wise, I find western food a lot nicer than Asian ones. Those Asian food that we ordered were a tad disappointing, but western food tasted fine. Oh, and if one serving isn't enough for you, you may keep ordering. It's sort of like a 'buffet'!
 |
| Butter garlic with scallops and garlic bread |
 |
| Prime Ribs with mash potatoes and vegetables |
*For breakfast and lunch, choices of having buffet at Level 11 Windjammer, or courses meal at the Main Dining Room were available. However, do check out the opening timing Windjammer and Main Dining Room as the timing were different.
Other than Windjammer and the Main Dining Room, Cafe Promenade located at level 5 operates 24 hrs and they have snacks and drinks throughout the 24 hrs. This was where I fill up my water bottles too! Another 2 places the Arctic Zone, which serves soft-serve ice cream and Dog House which serves hotdog buns are located at Level 11 near the pools, and they operate from 1130am to 630pm.
Some restaurants on the ship (the servers will usually go around advertising for their restaurants) and some items on the menu require additional costs. They will indicate on the menu for those items that are charged.
Day 2
The ship arrived at Port Klang and was here from 7am to 7pm. We didn't follow the excursion arranged by RC to KL as additional charges was required and we wanted to enjoy the facilities on the ship while there were lesser people on board. Nonetheless, we did walk to the Port Klang Terminal and took picture of the ship.
Today, we spent some time explored around the ship and had a great time using the pools and Jacuzzi. There's also gym on the ship. Good to hit the gym since we kept eating on the ship hahaha.
2 beautiful sunset photos here!
 |
| Did I mention that there's a big screen on the pool deck screening movies |
The featured show tonight was a magic show. This show was free seating, unlike the Ice on the Big Top. The magic show was entertaining as well! After the magic show, we immediately proceeded to the pool deck as there's a dance party on the pool deck! However, there's too many people and the space was quite limited so hmmm. that's the downside.
There's a surprise when we returned to our room tonight. Other than a very tidy room, there's this little towel doggie sitting on my bed.
Day 3
This morning, hubby woke up early to take some photos of the orangy sunrise! Pretty!
We signed up for a tour at 24 USD per person to see the 3-storey kitchen of the Main Dining Room to understand how the crew members served the 3000+ passengers on board for each meal. It was definitely an eye-opener! Through the tour, we understand the hardship of the crew members, they work for 7 months every day on board the ship and are given 2 months to go back home. We also see how hectic it was in the kitchen to prepare food for 3000+ passengers. It made me appreciate them more. We also learnt that the fridge on the ship was so big that it can store food to feed 5000 people for a total of 15 days!
 |
| Our guide for the tour |
 |
| Chocolate cake!! |
Other than the tour, they also provided buffet brunch with specialties food and unlimited champagne.
On the last night of the cruise, there's a Gala Dinner in the main dining room. The attire advised was formal wear and we dressed up for the night.
In the midst of the dinner, the servers at the Main Dining Room gathered together to give all the passengers a thank you speech and sang the song ‘月亮代表我的心’ for us. After the song, 4 of the servers even danced 'Gangnam Style'! It was so entertaining! Really thank them for providing great service and go to the extend of providing a great show!
 |
| Servers gather to sing the song for us! The Main Dining Room looks so grand right! |
After the dinner, we went back the room to pack our luggage first. As for checked-in luggage, we were supposed to stick the luggage tag to the luggage and put it outside our room between 7pm to 10pm the day before. Then the next day we just depart the ship and collect our luggage in the Cruise Terminal. Guess what! We had a little surprise again when we were back in the room!
 |
| Hello! Monkey! |
The featured show for the last night was a dance and singing show. It was entertaining too! Followed by a Disco party on the Royal Promenade. It was a fun night!
Day 4
We had our breakfast in the morning and we had to vacate the rooms by 930am. According to the instructions on the paper, we were allocated to depart the ship at 1010am.
I was reluctant to end this cruise tour. This was my first cruise and I had a nice experience with RC. As for the food, hmmm.. don't put too high expectations, the western food are fine. Think for my next cruise, will try their newer and bigger ships when they sail to Singapore.
A big thank you to the crew members for providing great shows, great service and friendliness.
Ciao! For now!
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