Spectrum from Singapore March 25, 2024, 3 nights

[mugtech]

         My wife and I took the Spectrum for 3 nights out of Singapore.  We previously took two cruises out of Cape Liberty on Anthem, so the layout was familiar.  We had taken Norwegian and Princess out of Singapore, so we knew the routine in Singapore.  The difference these days is having to submit e travel info to get into Singapore.  We had employees from Singapore do them for us, even they got one wrong.  We did it online the night before, said we were ready to go, but got rejected at the cruise terminal.  Allow yourself extra time, for even though you took a cruise round trip fron Singapore, you need to go through it all again to get off the ship.

         The Spectrum of the Seas was a great ship on which to spend time, a longer cruise would have been preferred.  Our inside cabin, 9303, was the largest ibside we have ever had on any ship.  The door was not opposite a balcony cabin, but rather was on a short hallway with two other inside cabins.

          The only time it felt crowded was the usual boarding day buffet traffic jam.  There were 5,129 passengers on board including 800 children.  It was a very Asian cruise, the number 5 nationality on the ship was over 600 from the Philippines, not counting my wife, a duel citizen traveling on her USA passport. 4th was India, then Malaysia, then Indonesia.  The largest group was from Singapore with over 1,200 on board.  More on food and entertainment in a few hours, lunch tine here on South Bridge Road in Singapore.

[sgmn]

We did a four night cruise in February from Singapore.  Sounds similar to ours. Over 5000 on board and 1000 children (Malaysian school holidays). 

Mostly, as expected, Singaporeans and Malaysian citizens. 

Wonderful cruise to Penang and Phuket, wish we could have had longer on board. 

The indoor family pool was packed with young children and the main pool also very busy. 

Bars very quiet,  just a handful there at any time. 

Found entertainment to be good. Loved Silk Road in Two70

 

We had issues with the Singapore Arrival card. I scanned our passports in the app but it read the 0's as O's . On arrival the e-gates wouldn't work because of this and we had to queue and go through the manned channel. 

On arrival back into Singapore after the cruise I went in and edited the scan to correct digit and all well. 

 

I hope you enjoy the rest of your trip and looking forward to hearing more 

Edited March 28 by sgmn

[mugtech]

           We went to all three shows in the theatre, enjoyed them all.  There were no reservations required, but there were many reserved seats in the first three rows in the middle down front.  I would advise getting there at least twenty minutes before show time for seats below, even the balcony was full 5 minutes before the shows started.  I speak of early shows, there were two shows every night, plenty of kids at the early show.

             The show the first night was the effectors, about 4 super heroes and their fight against crash and his gang.  Started with film animation and then the life performers took over.  The music and special effects were amusing, trite story line, butvwell done in 45 minutes time.

            The second night featured pengfei su doing juggling, magic, kung fu and comedy.  Quite the variety show, done very well and i'm not much of a juggling or magic fan.  Worth seeing once.

             The third night was showgirl! Past. Present. Future.  It was the most extravagant song and dance show i ever saw on a ship.  Featured a can can number and other historical classics.  It was very well done.

             We did not attend any shows in the two 70, heard a lot of good reports about the silk road, the only show requiring reservations.  There was a different show there the second night, do not remember the name.  Also did not get to music hall, usually saw good bands there on anthem, often tribute bands.  There was bingo in music hall one night, bands the other nights.  This is a reason why three daysbon spectrum is just not enough.

            Henry played piano in different venues, when we saw him at lunch time in the schooner bar he was playing all requests, kniws a variety of types of music, did it all so well, the 45 minutes went fast.

            Dan camelo played guitar at the leaf and bean coffee house, also showed a wide variety of different types of music, found him very relaxing.

            Had fun playing trivia with sergio from mexico, he made up his own trivia questions, not using the standard "name the 7 dwarfs" type of rci trivia.  Did true or false trivia without paper and pencil, you stood up if the statement was true and remained seated if it was false.  He did 6 of these in 30 minutes, gradually eliminating players with each question.  Got to win a game because i knew the capital of honduras.  Sorry my tablet is only allowing me to put capital letters at the beginning of sentences.  Please digest this info while i prepare to write about food on spectrum of the seas.

[mugtech]

          The good thing about a 3 day cruise is that it is too short to get bored with the food selections.  We very much enjoyed the great variety of asian food avalable at all meals.  My wife was surprised, first time she had congee for breakfast on a ship.

          The first night we did the mdr at our assigned time of 5 pm.  A little early, but with a 7 pm show, worked out ok.  I especially like the mdr because every night they have a vegan starter, main course and dessert.  Makes ordering easy and it was very good, as it was previously in 2023 on liberty and explorer.  There were plenty of other choices.

           The second night, while we were docked in penang, we ate at sechuan red.  At lunch we were offered a 50% discount for dinner that night by ariel from the philippines.  Perhaps he spotted my wife or heard her speaking ilocano.  We had been debating whether to go to a pay extra restaurant on such a short cruise, but 50% helped make up our minds.  The spicy sea scallops i had were excellent, got a side dish of garlic broccoli, very good.  The wife enjoyed her lobster with noodles, and we both got started with hot and sour soup.  We both agreed it was the best food we ever had on a cruise.  Therevwas only one other table of 4 guests in sichuan red between 6pm and 7:30 pm.

           The last night we did windjammer and enjoyed the wide variety available, as there had been at lunch every day.  We are hoping to book spectrum for a longer cruise in the next two years.