Iluvcruising2

More videos.

On food, this dish is called Hor Fun. I enjoyed this for supper at a local coffee shop. It is rice noodles.

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Having breakfast at the Ghim Moh food center, which has been recently renovated. Cooked food hawker centers - one of our national treasures.

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This is a traditional bakery called Ng Kim Lee, located right opposite one entrance to the new Beauty World Downtown line station. Yummy cakes.

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This restaurant is called SPIZE casual dining at the new Temasek Club along Rifle Range road. Good food at reasonable prices.

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Very soon, China will come up with their own cruise line.

Iluvcruising2

 

Thank you so much for posting your wonderful videos :)

 

I'm booked in YC on Preziosa next year - can't wait! :D

I have plenty more videos and pictures which are on the review thread for MSC (see my signature link). Enjoy!

DISEMBARKATION DAY

Yes, today, we disembark. We spent 7 nights on the MSC Preziosa and had a wonderful time. We will miss the Yacht Club, for sure This morning, before breakfast, I lined up some of the Straits Times on the table for a goodbye photo.

We had a light breakfast at the Top Sail lounge.

After that, back to our cabin and doing some last minute packing before we leave. Out in the balcony, I watch some ferry reversing into port (at the ferry terminal).

I make a video while on the balcony. Time to say goodbye!

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Recall near the start of the review, I made an embarkation video. Now, I make a disembarkation video. We met our butler at a pre-arranged time at the Concierge so that he could lead us off the ship. There were a few other couples with us. This video shows us disembarking, collecting our luggage and then heading out to the terminal building taxi stand to take a taxi to the Genoa airport. We could fit the 4 of us plus our luggage into a standard taxi quite easily. The airport was nearby, at most 15 minutes. The cost of the ride was about 25 Euros. Goodbye MSC Preziosa!

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Soon it was time for dinner. It would be our very last dinner for this cruise. SOB! It had been a wonderful cruise and eating in the Yacht Club restaurant had been a wonderful treat. The sight that greeted us as we entered the restaurant.

We were early and we were ushered to our usual table and served by the same waiter who had served us wonderfully for 7 nights.

I am going to enjoy this wine this evening!

Here is the video I made of the dinner. I remember that it was a good dinner and I felt sad! Anyway, there is nothing to be sad about. Privileged that we could go on this cruise. Thank God for the opportunity and all honour and glory goes to Him!

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Some still pictures. This must have been the lamb.

And some dessert!

Later in the evening, after dinner, I went to the Top Sail lounge and got this. Last time for this cruise. Farewell MSC Preziosa!

If I may contribute some content, here are some videos from my recent sailing on the MSC Preziosa YC. The full review link in my signature.

The Top Sail lounge and One Pool bar area is an incredible perk. The following videos show you why.

I am having drinks and snacks after dinner.

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After our day in Palermo, we return to the YC and head to the One Pool Bar for some food and drink. Here is what I ate.

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On the Preziosa, they do afternoon tea, everyday, 5pm to 6pm.

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Yet another day, I have snacks and drinks at the lounge.

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What are the selection of drinks, you may be wondering? This video tells you the answer. (at least for MSC Preziosa)

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If you are wondering what is available in the in-room mini-bar, wonder no more. (all complimentary)

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Oh boy did we have lots of fun with the mini-bar.

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Consider the Yacht Club. :):)

Sounds like a very different cruise. Thanks for the report.

Enjoy! We sailed on the Adventure out of Southampton and we had a wonderful time.

Iluvcruising2 - what a great review, I was browsing through the Voyager pages and stumbled across this.

 

We are sailing on 11th October from Hong Kong to Singapore and just thought I'd have a quick look at your pictures, but got hooked and read the whole review.

 

At the end of the cruise, we have 3.5 days in Singapore - would you mind sharing your thoughts on what we should see or do.

 

Travelling from Aberdeen, Scotland so could be a long time till we back in your area.

 

Thanks :D

Forgot to mention that we visit Hong Kong now and then and I have put up some pictures/videos of what we did in Hong Kong on this blog post - http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/p/hong-kong-and-macau-2015.html

Have a great cruise!

Looks to be fun. We were on the Jade a couple of years back and had a wonderful time. That was our first and only cruise with NCL so far. Looking forward to read the rest of your review.

Still in the cabin. I start to look at the brochures and Yacht Club handbook. The Preziosa was 139,400GT.

The ship had 1,751 cabins, with 69 in the Yacht Club.

Map of the YC decks.

Oh! They had room service breakfast. Well, it never occurred to us to order Room Service. We much preferred going to the Top Sail or restaurant to grab a bite.

But since I found the breakfast order pamphlet, I made a video of it so that you can see what is available. The choices are continental.

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Since last year, I travel with my Go Pro Hero 4 Session (the very small one).

But with an added piece of equipment, you got to think about when you use it as well as the follow-up video editing etc. I am into making videos so I enjoy having the additional footage coming from a Go Pro.

I bring along a computer laptop to download the videos every other day because the memory card will fill up very fast especially if you let the video recording run.

Here are some videos I made using Go Pro footage, which would have been very hard (if not impossible) to do with normal cameras as we were touring.

Taking the water slide on the MSC Preziosa.

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Boarding a Ryanair flight in London Stansted.

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Caught this footage of illegal street vendors packing up and running away before a police patrol came - this was in Barcelona.

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Boarding the MSC Preziosa Yacht Club.

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Ahh, the memories.

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Thank you very much for making such a great review with lovely photos and nice videos. Very nice to see that you love the MSC Yacht Club, it's a great product at sea. Thanks for the tips regarding Notre Dame in Marseille. We have been there several times with MSC but have never been to the Notre Dame but we will go the next year when we visitt the city with the brand new MSC Meraviglia. Will you return to MSC and the Yacht Club?

 

Here are some photos from our sailaway in Marseille on the MSC Preziosa back in September 2013 when the ship was brand new:

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Thanks for the photos!

Yes, we would return to MSC to sail the Yacht Club again. In fact, we have been checking out the itineraries, but so far haven't found anything suitable for our schedules.

Enjoy your cruise! :)

Taking a momentary break away from the Singapore discussion:

 

I just booked through Choice Air business class for my late August cruise.

 

MSP to Athens

Venice back to MSP

 

Each ticket came out to less than $2600 which I consider a VERY good deal especially considering that it is still peak season. The tickets are flexible and fully refundable should our plans change or the cruise switch its departure port (already this voyage had changed from Istanbul.)

 

They are ticketed on American airlines. I had also found that price using AA vacations (using them to book the hotel) but the ticket had more restrictions.

Sounds good. What plane does American use for these flights?

There was one year we tried Celebrity and I must say that our cruise was enhanced by the fact that we had reciprocal Elite status (as we were Royal Diamond). The evening cocktail hour and morning coffee were good.

http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/2013/12/celebrity-silhouette-elite-social.html

That said, we didn't book this Celebrity cruise just because we would have gotten Elite status. The price was reasonable and the itinerary was attractive.

Well put: the benefits given as "loyalty" rewards are generally pretty trivial. Sure, all other things being equal, getting some free internet time or laundry service is nice; but timing, itinerary and fares generally far outweigh such goodies. Of course, there are certain aspects of given lines which appeal (or repel), such as decor, activity level, demographic, etc. so there remains some logic in staying with certain lines --- but it always should be for what seems to be offered on a given itinerary rather than reaping such minor benefits.

The benefits of Diamond on Royal is something I don't find trivial. Access to the D-lounge is a wonderful perk.

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But I do agree that other factors must be taken into consideration too. For that reason, we have been sailing with various cruise lines, though my upcoming cruise will be with Royal.

Thereafter, I went to watch the sailaway. And I was not the only one. A good number of passengers had the same idea.

Some pictures of the ship as I waited for sailaway.

A couple of swimmers.

And the horn sounds! The sailaway had begun. And a song comes through the loudspeakers. Fun.

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I go back to my cabin. And this letter was waiting for me. Sob. Can I stay on?

Oh cool. SIA used to call it the Raffles Class but no longer, now it is just Business class.

 

Yep, I know that, was just seeing if anyone else would catch it :)

 

From which airport are you flying to Singapore from? Unless you are not flying to Singapore...

 

LAX to Tokyo this May for a SilverSea cruise back to Alaska - and yes, we already have a Book the Cook dinner planned (Crabcakes if I remember).

 

This will truly be a trip of a lifetime for us - first class (OK business) all the way! I don't think I've ever fallen asleep on an airplane and this might be no exception but I can eat and drink! At 6'2" at least I can stretch out. I found a lot of info about Singapore Air at airreview dot com.

 

Jim

I hope you have an awesome flight and thanks for flying Singapore Airlines!

You can eat? Tell you a trick - after you finish your main course, ask the stewardess very nicely (smile) and say that you are really so hungry and you could do with another main and you really wanted to try something on the main menu (i.e. non book the cook, they typically have 3 choices).

If they have extra, they might be able to offer you another main. I heard that they do load additional main courses (sometimes). And also, I have observed on my business travel that a fair number of pax do not eat (assuming it is a red-eye). I have flown a couple of times out of Singapore (red-eye flights) and once in the air, the passenger goes to sleep and puts the do-not-disturb sign on.

A couple of times I couldn't finish my main meal and the very nice stewardess was most kind to ask if I wanted to try something else and whether the food was ok. My response was it was ok, I was just too stuffed!

As for drinks - it is pretty much free-flow. Just keep asking. But please don't get yourself (too) drunk. The stewardesses are lovely to look but don't even think about it..... :p (I have a good number of cabin crew friends)

So, yeah, just a thought for you - live it up!

This was meal service on a flight I enjoyed - Moscow to Singapore.

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Grand Hotel Savoia is good but you'll have to pay for convenience and luxury.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Genoa. We originally booked a Family Room and were pleased to get a complimentary upgrade to an Executive Room. I am an IHG member but I hardly stay with them, so they won't be upgrading me because of any status as I am in their lowest rung. I remember the rate we got the room (through IHG website) was very competitive. I made a video of our experience.

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The hotel is located on a quieter side of town, hence its price.

It is approx 15 minutes to walk to the cruise terminal. We dragged our luggage and walked.

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Royal Plaza on Scotts is an independent hotel and not affiliated to any chain. So it has to work doubly hard and price itself competitively to get tourists. I think it is owned by the Sultan of Brunei (or his family).

The location is not bad and the hotel is well reviewed by all who have stayed there.

This video gives you an idea of what the area looks like.

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Now I recall, Super Mario was on this cruise too!

The math shows that Super Mario probably spends the vast majority of his time at sea. Amazing.

I recall seeing Super Mario on the Voyager of the Seas when the ship first came to Singapore. I believe he was on the same Singapore to Shanghai cruise as we were back in 2012 - http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1656116

We just booked a "Raffles Class" seat and am excited as the reviews all positive - 11 hr flight, our first on SIA.

 

JK

Oh cool. SIA used to call it the Raffles Class but no longer, now it is just Business class.

From which airport are you flying to Singapore from? Unless you are not flying to Singapore (as SIA operates Houston-Moscow as well as Barcelona to San Paulo Brazil)

Anyway, do note that Business and First class passengers can enjoy the 'Book the Cook' service. One of the most famous dishes would be the Lobster Thermidor. You can see me enjoying this dish in the earlier videos I posted.

Also, I like to have my meals in bed mode.

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This video shows you how to turn your seat into a bed. It is not automatic. But if this is your first time, ask the cabin crew to help you. By now, I know what to do so I prefer to do it myself.

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I'm a closet poet, though not a very good one. But still, enjoy the Ode to Satay @ 35,000 feet.

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The long-haul business class is in a 1-2-1 configuration. When I fly, I always try to choose a window seat on the left side of the plane so that I can watch the landing into Singapore, if the aircraft approaches Changi from the South (which usually is the case, though sometimes they land from the north which means you can't see much either side)

Example of what you can see during landing.

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