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New Year's on the Malaysian Peninsula: Live from the Sapphire Princess 30 Dec - 09 Ja

Croptop

By Croptop,
in Princess Cruises

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Croptop

Croptop

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Hi John, could you tell me if the mall that you go to on the shuttle at KL is very big, is it little shops or a department store, is there a supermarket there? Do you have to pay for the shuttle?

Keep enjoying, loving your posts

Pat

 

The mall was the Aeon Bukkit Tingi Shopping Centre. http://www.aeonretail.com.my

 

It's large in that there are 5 floors but only the first 3 floors were actually populated. The remaining 2 were boarded up.

 

There wee 2 department stores, a fairly decent amount of shops and a supermarket. The outer ring of each.floor was all restaurants.

 

The shuttle was US$16 round trip (you got a sticker so you could make multiple trips if you wanted without having to pay again).

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Croptop

Croptop

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Thanks John for the KL details. Do you know the numbers and nationalities aboard for this cruise?

Keep enjoying!

Pat

I have no idea what the actual numbers are but there sure seems to be a lot of Australians on the ship. I'll be honest, I don't know how someone even finds out what the actual demographics of the passengers is. Is it published somewhere?
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Croptop

Croptop

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Good progress reports...Do you or anyone else know when the bars open?We sail on Sapphire soon and am wondering if the bars are open during embarkation? We can start embarking at 1pm, will the bars be open then?

Marty

Bars will definitely be open when you start embarkation. There will be passengers that are starting the next leg of a B2B already onboard that will be using the bars.
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p0240

p0240

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I have no idea what the actual numbers are but there sure seems to be a lot of Australians on the ship. I'll be honest, I don't know how someone even finds out what the actual demographics of the passengers is. Is it published somewhere?

Often the cruise director or Captain will announce the numbers and countries represented on the cruise at one of their briefings.

Keep enjoying!

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Croptop

Croptop

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We arrived in Phuket just a little before 0900hrs and tender operations began shortly thereafter. In addition to the 6 ship's tenders there were 2 local tenders that held around 150 people or so aiding in ferrying people ashore. From 0900hrs to about 1100hrs, they operated on a ticket system. Passengers were filling the available spaces in the Wheelhouse bar, all three levels of the Piazza and the passageways in between. They made ship-wide announcements when they were ready for the next ticket group(s) so you could pretty much wait wherever you wanted. I opted to tuck myself into the a quiet corner of the ship's library and read my book and drink my coffee whilst I waited. I took it easy for the morning in order to avoid the mad rush of people heading ashore so I was in one of the last tender groups and ended up getting ashore around 1100hrs.

 

We landed on the east side of the island at the Phuket Deep Sea Port (Dolphin Dock) a couple of kilometres south of Chom Thong Village. Like most other ports on a cruise, the road was lined with stalls selling all sorts of trinkets and t-shirts and there was even a currency exchange tent. I ended up converting all of my Indonesian Rupiah and Malaysian Ringitts to Baht (at what was probably an atrocious exchange rate but I didn't have that much of either so I was just happy to consolidate it and have a bit of local currency).

 

Even if you haven't made any plans in advance you needn't worry about being able to find a cab. The number of drivers offering to take you to Phuket proper was plentiful and none of them were shy. For those of you who have cruised the Caribbean, think Jamaica. The experience was quite similar. Every 2m, another driver holding a laminated map of Phuket would approach you and ask where/what you had planned and how many were in your party. In my case, one of the drivers even followed me into the 7/11 across the street from the port exit offering to take me to a place for a massage or shopping.

 

"You like shopping? I'll take you shopping. Get something nice for your family, " he offered.

"I don't have a family. I'm alone."

"Get something for your girlfriend then."

"I don't have a girlfriend. I'm alone."

"I take you somewhere special. You get a massage. Maybe you meet a nice girl there."

<blink>

"Uh... no. No thanks. I just want to go for a run; stretch my legs. Thanks."

 

He left me alone after that. Without another glance, he shot back across the road to the port exit and when I last saw him, he was chattering away to another young couple.

 

I'll have to apologise to those of you who were asking about pricing. At one point, my persistent driver mentioned a price of US$20 (round trip) but I wasn't sure which place we were talking about at the time. When I asked how much it would be in Baht, I couldn't understand what he was telling me. He didn't offer me any pricing information on going to find me a girlfriend.

 

After that, my will to speak with more cab drivers was pretty much gone so I just got on with going for a run. I ran south along the main road for about 2.5 kms until I reached a resort area and the Phuket Aquarium (I was sweaty and gross, though, so I didn't go in although I'd have liked to). Then I turned around and headed back to the port area. For the runners out there, if you want to go for a run on Phuket, prepare to do hill repeats because Phuket is most definitely not flat.

 

By the time I got back to the port area, most of the taxis (and their aggressive drivers) were gone. So it would seem that if you delay going ashore for too long, you might find a taxi harder to find.

 

I hopped on the next available tender and went back to the ship to get cleaned up. By the time I was finished showering and grabbing a late lunch, it was already 1430hrs and since we were due to leave by 1700, I opted to just stay onboard and enjoy the peace and quiet of a nearly empty ship.

 

An interesting (to me; you probably won't care) side note: It would seem that at some point during the day yesterday (when we were in Penang) the ship suffered a power outage for an hour or two. Even after the power was restored, the ship's VOD system was offline for the rest of the day. Service was restored at some point during our stop in Phuket. We received a letter apologising for the inconvenience and a $25 credit on our shipboard account. I, personally, wasn't bothered by the outage at all but I'll take the reduction in my final bill.

 

So now we just have one sea day and then it's all over. Hopefully that cold weather bomb that's been blasting the eastern side of North America will have started clearing up before I get home.

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Croptop

Croptop

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Hi John, I also was wondering about the Wake bar and the access to it. Love reading your post. Thank you for doing it.
Hi John, you mentioned the Wake Bar . I didn’t see it listed in the patter. I know it’s under club fusion from looking at deck plans , but is it an actual bar?
It looks like an actual bar but it's quite small. When we were down there, it was not open and I haven't been down there since so I don't know if it's ever actually operating. It's a very tiny space with only a couple of small portholes looking out over the stern so it doesn't seem like it would be all that great a place to hang out.

 

Here are some photos:

d6f6cfef0502c9e6cca0fe735a2b4ec4.jpg34d8052eb11023cc9ac83f52a053198f.jpg7b6cb16bc5b1775ea4ecf8e00f519633.jpg

Edited by Croptop
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Katgoesonholiday

Katgoesonholiday

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The power outage in Penang happened around 1pm ish. My son was in the bathroom and thought his brother had turned out the lights to spook him!

 

They had back up power running pretty quickly and from a passengers point of view it only seemed to affect the elevators and charging our drinks - I’m sure there was more to it though!

 

We found the crew to be amazing. Our two younger sons have special needs and the wait staff in particular were wonderful at dealing with their quirks. We also found the photo gallery staff very friendly and always ready to chat and give advice.

 

The ship, however, was disappointing. It is in dire need of refurbishment. We had booked and prepaid the Ultimate Balcony Dining package but cancelled it after we saw our deck 9 minisuite balcony. It was rusty, the glass was cloudy, the surface was an unattractive blue rubberized mat that smelt funny, and Skywalkers collected condensation and rain and dumped it directly on our balcony in our own personal waterfall.

 

We were also periodically afflicted over the 21 night cruise with the noxious smell of sewerage in the aft section of the ship, including our cabin and Club Fusion, and near the Wheelhouse Bar. It was absolutely vile. We spoke to guest services and they said they would notify the deck supervisor. The smell went for a few days but came back again several more times throughout the cruise including yesterday. Others we spoke to also noticed it.

 

Speaking of smells, whoever thought it was a good idea to carpet parts of deck 14 & 15 should be made to lie on it on a hot day. It was almost always saturated with water and stunk. Ugh!

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Croptop

Croptop

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Just wanted to make one more quick post to talk about disembarkation day. Prior to this cruise all of my disembarkation experiences were confined to the bedlam that is Port Lauderdale and San Francisco.

 

Man, could both of those places learn from Singapore. Disembarkation there was orderly and almost, dare I say it, pleasant. Since I wasn't leaving Singapore until the following day, I chose a late disembarkation time. I was assigned Silver 6 with a meeting time of 0920hrs. In Ft. Lauderdale, that would leave me to a predicted disembarkation time of 0930-1000hrs and a pretty solid wait at customs (Nexus card notwithstanding).

 

By 0900hrs, all of the luggage was off if the ship and ready for claiming. Even though my group hadn't been called yet, I was told that I could head ashore if I wished so I did. I grabbed my luggage and was directed into what looked like a pretty solid lineup for clearing Singapore Customs. But it was actually two lines being carefully managed and they both moved steadily. That, coupled with the fact that customs was operating almost 20 booths had me clear of customs and in my way in less than 10 minutes.

 

Likewise, there didn't seem to be a giant mob of people trying to get cabs either. It was all just so... orderly.

 

I ended up choosing the MRT to get me to the airport and it really wasn't that bad. If you can handle dragging your suitcase around, give the MRT a try. It's great.

 

So that's it for my solo adventure to Asia. Thanks for following along and I'm sorry if I didn't do some of the activities or report on some of the things you were hoping for. Now it's back to the cold and snow of Ontario. But at least I've got my next cruise to looked forward to: a 15-day trip from L.A. to Hawaii and back in January of 2019.

 

Unless I book something sooner.

 

Man I hope I book something sooner.

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Australia08 "Live from...." Rare

Australia08

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The power outage in Penang happened around 1pm ish. My son was in the bathroom and thought his brother had turned out the lights to spook him!

 

They had back up power running pretty quickly and from a passengers point of view it only seemed to affect the elevators and charging our drinks - I’m sure there was more to it though!

 

We found the crew to be amazing. Our two younger sons have special needs and the wait staff in particular were wonderful at dealing with their quirks. We also found the photo gallery staff very friendly and always ready to chat and give advice.

 

The ship, however, was disappointing. It is in dire need of refurbishment. We had booked and prepaid the Ultimate Balcony Dining package but cancelled it after we saw our deck 9 minisuite balcony. It was rusty, the glass was cloudy, the surface was an unattractive blue rubberized mat that smelt funny, and Skywalkers collected condensation and rain and dumped it directly on our balcony in our own personal waterfall.

 

We were also periodically afflicted over the 21 night cruise with the noxious smell of sewerage in the aft section of the ship, including our cabin and Club Fusion, and near the Wheelhouse Bar. It was absolutely vile. We spoke to guest services and they said they would notify the deck supervisor. The smell went for a few days but came back again several more times throughout the cruise including yesterday. Others we spoke to also noticed it.

 

Speaking of smells, whoever thought it was a good idea to carpet parts of deck 14 & 15 should be made to lie on it on a hot day. It was almost always saturated with water and stunk. Ugh!

 

 

 

What cabin were you in?

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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Croptop

Croptop

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I enjoyed cruising with you through your thread.

 

I live near Toronto airport. Toronto is expecting rain/freezing rain Thursday Jan 11, turning cold with snow on Friday Jan 12 continuing into Saturday.

Thanks for the warning. (un)fortunately I arrived safe and sound today. The bedlam at Pearson was eye opening after the orderly Changi.
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