"Live" Coral Princess, 32 Days, Oct 17th to Nov 17th, Singapore-Asia-Los Angeles (+Week in Singapore pre-cruise)

NownZen · October 12

1 hour ago, waltd said:

Just another question. Do the taxis drop you off at the beginning of the walkway? When do you drop off your luggage before you do the walk? We are of that certain age. LOL

The cabs go into the bottom floor of the terminal. The is one of those snaking lines to get to the drop off.

If you go by MRT there is the #400 bus that goes to the luggage dropoff.

NownZen · October 12

In case this applies to anyone here

kiwimum · October 12

2 hours ago, NownZen said:

We arrived yesterday and got settled into our hotel. Then went down to see the cruise terminal. As leck57 said, the MRT is great. We got a three day pass for $S29. The cruise terminal is the end of the NS line at stop 28. That services both the ferries and the cruise terminal. However it is about 1/3 mile to the terminal on a covered walkway which is probably better for a different age group than we are. The Geeling Dawn and a Celebrity ship were at the two berths. The terminal reminds me of Canada Place in Vancouver. There is a ramp to the second floor for taxis but there is also a ground floor stop for luggage dropoff.

The walk to the terminal was pretty with lots of flowering bushes. There were a lot of people heading to the ships with carry on size suitcases.

We will probably take a cab Thursday.

We are not sailing out of the Marina Bay terminal?

NownZen · October 12

3 minutes ago, kiwimum said:

We are not sailing out of the Marina Bay terminal?

Yes we are sailing from the Marina Bay Cruise terminal ( not the Marina Bay Ferry terminal). The Harborfront is at the end of the NE line. Marina Bay cruise terminal is at the end of the NS line.

leck57 · October 12

30 minutes ago, NownZen said:

Yes we are sailing from the Marina Bay Cruise terminal ( not the Marina Bay Ferry terminal). The Harborfront is at the end of the NE line. Marina Bay cruise terminal is at the end of the NS line.

You really have got the hang of the MRT. Even referring to the lines 😃. If you go through one of the stations where you can change lines i always marvel at the amount of excavation that must have taken place. For some interchanges you might walk quite a few minutes and then change levels, all this underground. I like going up front ofvthe first carriage and looking ahead. All our trains here have drivers so their system is a novelty.

Edited October 12 by leck57

NownZen · October 12

1 minute ago, leck57 said:

You really have got the hang of the MRT. Even referring to the lines 😃. If you go through one of the stations where you can change lines i always marvel at the amount of excavation that must have taken place. For some interchanges you might walk quite a few minutes and then change levels, all this underground. I like going up front ofvthe first carriage and looking ahead. All our trains here have drivers so their system is a novelty.

There are a lot of artifacts of the rapid expansion of the lines here. At Dhobi Ghout station, at one point there is a long escalator down so you can walk over to another long escalator up. Presumably the walk across the hall is under a line.

We generally want to see how the locals go about their lives. So we prefer to eat at the local hawker centers as well.

1emerald1 · October 12

Just in case you haven't heard the Dodger's won tonight and play the Mets at home this Sunday!!

leck57 · October 12

28 minutes ago, NownZen said:

There are a lot of artifacts of the rapid expansion of the lines here. At Dhobi Ghout station, at one point there is a long escalator down so you can walk over to another long escalator up. Presumably the walk across the hall is under a line.

We generally want to see how the locals go about their lives. So we prefer to eat at the local hawker centers as well.

Yep, changed at Dhobi many times. We also eat at Hawker centres a lot as well. Have you caught the cable car over to Sentosa yet? We stayed on Sentosa once but found it too touristy but it's well worth a wander, and Fort Siloso is over there as well.

NownZen · October 12

20 minutes ago, leck57 said:

Yep, changed at Dhobi many times. We also eat at Hawker centres a lot as well. Have you caught the cable car over to Sentosa yet? We stayed on Sentosa once but found it too touristy but it's well worth a wander, and Fort Siloso is over there as well.

We did the cable cable maybe thirty years ago. Great fun. I agree about Sentosa. It was nice to see before all the changes.

We have our list of things to do this week. Last year we did not get very far on it. After the rain, we are headed to the Botanic Garden and the Orchid Garden.

LACruiser88 · October 12

Today was a rainy, humid, and fun day! We did the HoHo bus, both the Yellow and Red routes. We visited Little India, Chinatown and various other areas. Due to the humidity, Debbie did not allow me to take her photo today.

@leck57 Thank you so much for your Lau Pa Sat Hawker Centre recommendation! The food there was GREAT! And, we found it to be very clean, organized, and inexpensive. One of the best casual meals we have had in a very long time. We are definitely going back!

Grilled Fish in a Garlic Sauce

Crab Fried Rice

Tiger Beer

Edited October 12 by LACruiser88

leck57 · October 12

32 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

Today was a rainy, humid, and fun day! We did the HoHo bus, both the Yellow and Red routes. We visited Little India, Chinatown and various other areas. Due to the humidity, Debbie did not allow me to take her photo today.

@leck57 Thank you so much for your Lau Pa Sat Hawker Centre recommendation! The food there was GREAT! And, we found it to be very clean, organized, and inexpensive. One of the best casual meals we have had in a very long time. We are definitely going back!

Grilled Fish in a Garlic Sauce

Crab Fried Rice

Tiger Beer

Pleased you liked it. I can almost taste that Tiger beer from here.

Don't know how much time you have but if you like a night stroll in the cooler time of the day, the walk from Clarke Quay along the river walk to the Merlion is excellent. There you get a great night view over to Marina Bay Sands.

NownZen · October 12

Went to the Botanic garden today. The rain made the temperature very comfortable. There is so much to see. My favorite is the swiss fountain with a rock that rotates by the water. It weights about 1200 pounds and you can change the orientation and then watch it go back to its preferred orientation.

It took awhile to go anywhere as we did not want any of them to feel left out if we did not take their picture. Also there were very few other people so it was our job to feed the bugs.

The pictures are the fountain, a torch ginger and a dragonfly (about 3/4"). Also a jungle fowl. Chickens originated in South East Asia.

suzyed · October 12

On 9/30/2024 at 5:59 AM, LACruiser88 said:

We are spoiled using Blacklane. We use them worldwide on our airport arrivals. 🙂

We used the taxi from the airport to our hotel and the driver was great. He even gave us his card so we can call him and get him to take us to the ship on the 17th!
Do we know which dock we are boarding from?

suzyed · October 12

We arrived Friday morning at 5am. Had to wait on our room to be ready but we hung out by the pool, had breakfast when the restaurant in our hotel opened at 7am. and then waited until noon when our room was ready. Napped for a few hours and then walked to Clarke Quay area for dinner at Paradise Seafood where we had the enormous Chili Crab!
We spotted Brewerkz while we were walking back to our hotel!
Btw, love the location for our hotel.
Today we took a "Grab" to the airport to see some of the sights and had lunch and then back to the hotel for more naps before dinner at "Kees" restaurant in our hotel.

LACruiser88 · October 12

1 hour ago, suzyed said:

Do we know which dock we are boarding from?

Marina Bay Cruise Terminal

mtnesterz · October 12

On 10/11/2024 at 4:24 AM, LACruiser88 said:

We decided to walk the 3 miles back to our hotel along Orchard Road...

Walk 3 miles in Singapore heat and humidity? I'm impressed! That's really an accomplishment

LACruiser88 · October 12

I wanted to add from our day yesterday that we have found the city to be very walkable. We like to walk and have been known to put in 10 miles in a day. The only detriment to that here is the humidity.

Yesterday, we left the HoHo bus (Red Line) in Chinatown and walked to the Merlion in 20 minutes. During that walk we passed by the Lau Pa Sat Hawker Centre. After some photos we walked back to the Hawker Centre for dinner.

After dinner, as we walked out of the Hawker Centre we found several taxi's waiting outside. We jumped into one and returned to our hotel.

Last night, we fell asleep fairly easy (after a couple glasses of wine in the hotel bar). But, we both awoke at 2:30 am. Oh well, tonight is a good night for a Lunesta!

After breakfast today, our plan is to walk to the Botanical Gardens, which is only about a 15 minute walk from the hotel.

LACruiser88 · October 12

7 minutes ago, mtnesterz said:

Walk 3 miles in Singapore heat and humidity? I'm impressed! That's really an accomplishment

All of our clothes were drenched in sweat by the time we reached the hotel. A great way to work off lunch and thank God for Hokas!

Yehootu · October 12

52 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

, we both awoke at 2:30 am.

We've been making it to 0300. I get up at 0400 in LGB so not too far off. Hokas are the only shoes my flat feet can stand.

LACruiser88 · October 13

Breakfast was again amazing and a feast! I'll have to walk at least 10 miles to burn it off! 😵‍💫

A cappuccino to start

The specialty items are changed everyday. Below are what we had this morning...

I had a Raspberry Danish, WOW!

Kids have their own pastry station...

wintrev · October 13

LaCruiser88

Am enjoying reading your latest blog and looking forward to your many adventures ahead.

We have just returned from Singapore after arriving on the Coral. Was sad and happy to get off as Covid was beginning to appear with me being one of the unfortunate people to succumb to it. Hopefully the crew have managed to avoid it but with the amount of workers boarding as we were disembarking they are catering to nearly a full ship of people who may bring it to them also.

We loved Singapore for all the same reasons you have mentioned and spent fun times catching the MRT to get around. The heat and humidity were tough going but I found it the hardest being still unwell.

La Pau Sat is the best! We were staying at the Dao by Dorsett just down the road from it so we ate there most nights.

The breakfast pictures are great and I was able to show hubby as we were served pretty much along the same lines at our apartment/hotel and now he understands that this is the custom. He still managed to get his scrambled eggs each morning so was happy. Have you seen if they are serving Aloe Vera Yoghurt at your hotel? We were surprised at such a flavour but our friend tried it and said it was not bad.

Hope you enjoy your remaining time in Singapore - there is just so much to see and do that one visit is not enough.

leck57 · October 13

4 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

After breakfast today, our plan is to walk to the Botanical Gardens, which is only about a 15 minute walk from the hotel.

I thought your hotel was in the Orchard Rd area. If so, I think the Gardens are much more than 15 minutes unless you are at the top end of Orchard.

Edited October 13 by leck57

LACruiser88 · October 13

@WintrHawk So sorry to hear about your covid experience. We each have had it several times, all involving our travels. Luckily, we only had minor symptoms.

Yes, we saw the Aloe Vera yogurt at breakfast. Maybe I'll give it a try. 🤷‍♂️

LACruiser88 · October 13

1 hour ago, leck57 said:

I thought your hotel was in the Orchard Rd area. If so, I think the Gardens are much more than 15 minutes unless you are at the top end of Orchard.

Yes, we are at the end of Orchard Rd. We just returned from the Gardens dripping wet like swamp rats! It took us 20 minutes each way to/from the Tanglin gate. We are brisk walkers!

We had a great time, photos and details to come later after we hydrate ourselves in the pool! 🥵

LACruiser88 · October 13

After breakfast, we made our 20 minute walk to the Botanic Gardens.

For our many law enforcement pals, we walked past the Interpol Headquarters on the way.

To say I was in heaven at the Gardens is an understatement! Debbie not so much, but she indulges my greenthumb activities. As an avid gardener, Plumeria grower, and Orchid hobbyist, I could have camped out in the gardens for days!

As I was taking a photo of the swan sculpture in Swan Lake, I noticed a huge Monitor lizard sunning himself at the base of the sculpture. We waited him out for a few minutes until he decided to go into the water.