Mariner of the Seas From Singapore 10/22/15- Complete Picture Review!

[gapearl]

You sound like the perfect contestant for Amazing race. I don't miss an episode. Your experiences traveling around the world would definitely be an advantage. Hopefully you'll have the chance one day. I'll definitely be watching.

 

Fingers crossed one day I will. That would truly be the trip of a life time, and they might give me a million dollars to take it. :D

 

I'm so enjoying your review! We had a couple of days in Singapore coming up after our cruise in the spring, so am taking notes for what to do!

 

Question: are you telling us prices in USD or Singapore $? Either way, it's pricey, but if the latter than just a little less painful.

 

Hi Critter! Everything is in Singapore dollars, except for the price of the hotel and apartment. The $72 a night is US, and the MBS price was US. In Singapore dollars, the hotel was more like S$515. :eek: I'm glad this is helping you with your planning. :)

 

Slight correction, Chijmes is actually a former convent. A few of the buildings around that area are actually old schools that have been restored.

 

Anyway, cool trip report so far and I'm looking forward to the rest.

 

Oops! Thanks for the correction. :o

[cruiserinsg]

Fingers crossed one day I will. That would truly be the trip of a life time, and they might give me a million dollars to take it. :D

 

 

 

Hi Critter! Everything is in Singapore dollars, except for the price of the hotel and apartment. The $72 a night is US, and the MBS price was US. In Singapore dollars, the hotel was more like S$515. :eek: I'm glad this is helping you with your planning. :)

 

 

 

Oops! Thanks for the correction. :o

 

More specific for your future reference, it used to be the Convent of Holy Infant Jesus. A Catholic School for girls doing their Secondary schooling (Junior High and High School in the US definition).

 

Looking forward to your opinion on the Mariner. :) Want to meet again on the Ovation sailing from Dubai? Haha.

 

BTW you ordered Pradthai in Singapore. Did you ordered that in Phuket too?

 

Oh yes, about one third of the people living in Singapore are Foreigners.

[gapearl]

Singapore- Day 4

 

I had been going and going nonstop for the last few days, so today would be my day to relax under the sun and work on my tan, since I'm so pale. :p One of the reasons I love staying in residential areas when I travel is because I love immersing myself in the local culture and observing every day life. Today was garbage pickup day. The trash collectors in Singapore work hard! They have to physically pick up the can and dump it themselves. The cans are smaller, about half the size of what we have in the US, but still that's a lot of work.

 

I took the MRT to Harborfront and bought a $4 ticket on the Sentosa Express to Sentosa Island. There are other ways to get to the island, such as walking across on the boardwalk (free now, will be a charge starting Jan. 1) or taking the cable car for $29.

There are three stops on the tram. I took the tram all the way to the third stop and would eventually make my way back up through the other two later.

 

The cable car.

 

 

The arrival sign in Sentosa.

 

I had done my research in advance on Sentosa's beaches and knew I wanted to go to Siloso Beach as that's where the beach bars and restaurants are located. Palawan Beach was more of a family beach, and Tanjong Beach seems to be a little empty.

 

[gapearl]

Some of the restaurants on Siloso Beach.

 

 

Take a ride on this lift.

 

 

 

I stopped at Coastes and got settled in there for the day. A lounger and umbrella rental was $20 and that includes two free iced teas. Please don't revoke my southern girl card, but I don't like tea. At all. Not iced tea, not hot tea, not even sweet tea. I'm sure I'm the only person in the south that doesn't drink tea. I asked if I could substitute the tea for a soda or bottle of water, but there are no substitutions. They have free wifi, so of course I had to upload a few pictures of my view to make everyone back home jealous when they woke up.

 

 

 

[gapearl]

There were a lot of cargo ships out in the distance.

 

 

More beach pictures.

 

 

 

 

Beach selfie!

 

 

You can't beat having lunch like this.

 

[gapearl]

Coastes has some mixed reviews on Trip Advisor with a lot of people complaining about rude staff and bad service. I found all of the employees to be very pleasant and didn't have any issues, that is until I was leaving. Coastes is very pet friendly. There was a family with two small dogs walking around. One of the dogs decided to take a poop in the middle of the restaurant. No one from the family made any kind of effort to clean up the mess, and no one from the staff made any effort to ask them to. They just looked on with disgust like the rest of us. I was turned off from this place at that point but I was leaving so it really didn't matter.

 

Lounge beds.

 

 

Some of the restaurant pics.

 

 

 

The food and drink prices were in the $15-20 price range.

 

 

 

[gapearl]

There's a free trolley that runs between all the beaches. I took it over to Palawan Beach, where you can visit the southernmost point of continental Asia.

 

Palawan Beach.

 

 

 

 

 

[Setting sail for fun]

Amazing, amazing!

[gapearl]

The bridge that takes you over to the southernmost point.

 

 

 

I made it!

 

 

What a great view from the top.

 

 

 

[gapearl]

Back on the Sentosa Express, I headed to Imbiah Station, the second stop. There you will find the Merlion Plaza. There are some small shops and a few fast food and ice cream places.

 

 

This group of teen boys asked me to take a picture. I thought they were asking me to take their picture, but no they wanted one with me. Ummm, ok. They were nice kids but giggling awfully hard after. I wonder if I was the object of some inside joke of theirs. If it was posted somewhere out there in social media land, I hope it was a least with a good hashtag like #OMGIjustmetBeyonce, and not something like #lookatthischicksbadhairday.

 

 

You can pay to go up to the top.

 

[gapearl]

Speaking of bad hair days, the humidity in Singapore is ridiculous, and that's coming from someone who lives in the kind of humidity where my glasses fog up in the summer when I walk into my garage. I slept with my balcony door open at the Marina Bay Sands and woke up with my hair looking like Don King's. Ladies, bring lots of anti-frizz stuff.

 

The final stop was Waterfront Station, where you have access to Universal Studios and the island's resorts. I had dinner here at Malaysia Food Street, which is a group of restaurants offering different types of (you guessed it) Malaysian cuisine. The clay pot chicken and rice was very flavorful!

 

 

They've got the good stuff over here! Garrett's cheddar/caramel popcorn mix = crack.

 

Inside Malaysia Food Street.

 

 

My clay pot chicken and rice.

 

That's it for tonight! Tomorrow I'll wrap up Singapore (yes there's more LOL) and get to day one of the cruise as well. Thanks to everyone reading for following along as I relive my adventure!

[lalenalei]

Awesome! Thanks for all the ideas! Even more excited to visit Singapore after seeing the photos. I think I'll pass on the fish spa though haha.

[Baseball fan]

Love your review! It has been over 10 years since I was in Singapore. We too had a Singapore Sling,(it was expensive then but a must do), ate at the amazing hawker stands, went to the Singapore Museum (they had a Faberge egg exhibit), etc. I cannot wait for more of your review, including Hong Kong.

[cruiserinsg]

Love your review! It has been over 10 years since I was in Singapore. We too had a Singapore Sling,(it was expensive then but a must do), ate at the amazing hawker stands, went to the Singapore Museum (they had a Faberge egg exhibit), etc. I cannot wait for more of your review, including Hong Kong.

 

Local lingo = Hawker Centres, Coffee Shop or Food Court :)

[cruiserinsg]

 

That's it for tonight! Tomorrow I'll wrap up Singapore (yes there's more LOL) and get to day one of the cruise as well. Thanks to everyone reading for following along as I relive my adventure!

 

Our STPB (Singapore Tourist Promotion Board) should reward you with a 7 nights stay in Singapore :) at MBS :D

[cruiserinsg]

Awesome! Thanks for all the ideas! Even more excited to visit Singapore after seeing the photos. I think I'll pass on the fish spa though haha.

 

Prepare good walking shoes or sandals :)

[swim13]

Love, love, love this review! Definitely interested in Singapore! :)

[gambler]

Loving your review. Never been there, probably never will so living it with you. Thank-you

[verohar]

What a class act you are!! To respond to everyone's comments with personalization!

 

Your review is worthy of dollars. Have you thought of being a travel blogger?

 

We will be cruising in Singapore next year, and your pictures and comments are not only informative, but entertaining. We have friends in Atlanta that we are trying to convince to "see the world" and travel with us. I am sending them a link to your review as, hopefully, motivation to get their butts in gear!

 

(By the way, we have had the same occurrence of people wanting to take our picture with them. At first we found it strange, but now we have almost come to expect it when traveling to what we consider exotic locales. It just means that they find that YOU are the exotic one!)

 

Can't wait to hear more. With the amount of details and pictures you provide, this is going to be a long thread! Thanks for all the work.

[verohar]

Da!!!! I see you are a travel blogger! Ok, the profession suits you!

[WaveSplasher]

Awesome Review of Singapore

 

Welcome to Singapore by the way. Glad you enjoyed your time here. :)

 

Waiting eagerly for your Mariner Review as we will be going on it in a months time.

Edited November 11, 2015 by WaveSplasher

[Baseball fan]

Local lingo = Hawker Centres, Coffee Shop or Food Court :)

 

 

Thank you! That was some of the best food.

[gapearl]

More specific for your future reference, it used to be the Convent of Holy Infant Jesus. A Catholic School for girls doing their Secondary schooling (Junior High and High School in the US definition).

 

Looking forward to your opinion on the Mariner. :) Want to meet again on the Ovation sailing from Dubai? Haha.

 

BTW you ordered Pradthai in Singapore. Did you ordered that in Phuket too?

 

Oh yes, about one third of the people living in Singapore are Foreigners.

 

I looked up the price of the Ovation cruise and was like :eek:! I might have to pass lol.

 

Yes I ordered Pad Thai in Phuket. I actually ordered two entrees at the restaurant because they were so cheap! :D

 

Amazing, amazing!

 

Thank you so much!

[gapearl]

Awesome! Thanks for all the ideas! Even more excited to visit Singapore after seeing the photos. I think I'll pass on the fish spa though haha.

 

Mahalo! :) Go ahead and give the fish spa a try.

 

Love your review! It has been over 10 years since I was in Singapore. We too had a Singapore Sling,(it was expensive then but a must do), ate at the amazing hawker stands, went to the Singapore Museum (they had a Faberge egg exhibit), etc. I cannot wait for more of your review, including Hong Kong.

 

Thank you! Singapore really is an amazing place. I wish the museum had some special exhibits when I was there. I have so much more to come. :)

[gapearl]

Our STPB (Singapore Tourist Promotion Board) should reward you with a 7 nights stay in Singapore :) at MBS :D

 

I think they should too! :D People on the Carnival boards always say they should give me a free cruise because of my reviews.

 

Prepare good walking shoes or sandals :)

 

Yes! You will do a lot of walking! I wish I had worn a pedometer every day.