Saturday-Monday, March 10-12, 2012:
I spent Saturday morning getting ready to go—packing and checking
and double-checking my lists to make sure that I didn’t forget anything. My two fears on previous cruises has been
forgetting something and not getting my luggage, and this time was no different.
Packing for this particular cruise had been a challenge
since I needed to pack for two seasons. We
would experience both summer time temps with the highs in the upper 90s along
with high humidity, and winter weather with projected lows down to the 30s! I cross-packed putting half my summer clothes
and half my winter clothes in separate suitcases, and also dividing my daytime
casual clothes and evening clothes (both smart casual and formal) between the
two checked bags just in case one of them didn’t make it. I also had my carry-on suitcase and my laptop
bag—four items altogether! I usually
claim I don’t over pack, but I suspect that this time, I just may have.
I took a Southwest flight to San Francisco where I would meet my
parents. I had booked this portion
independently from the cruise, so when I arrived, I had to collect my checked
luggage from the domestic terminal, then head to the international terminal. This really turned out to be quite easy even
with all the luggage.
My parents were driving to San Francisco and leaving their
car at the hotel we would stay at when we came back. They then took the hotel shuttle to the
airport’s international terminal where we met up. We arrived extremely early since we planned
to have dinner at the airport before boarding for the flight to Hong Kong. Unfortunately, we couldn’t check our luggage
in until 9:00 pm, so we pushed the luggage carts loaded down with all the suitcases
to dinner. At 8:30 pm, we headed toward
the check in desk, checked in all our luggage, then headed through security to
the gate, where we had a 3-hour wait—we definitely arrived way too early (but
better early than late).
Finally boarded the plane at 11:15pm and settled in for the
very, very long flight to Hong Kong where we
would change planes. We flew Cathay
Pacific, which I recommend—the service was very good, the food was pretty good
for airline food, and the seating wasn’t too bad for economy (more space between
rows than many of the airlines I’ve flown with). Once the plane took off, we each took a mild sleeping
pill hoping that the medication along with staying up so late on a very long
day would knock us all out for at least 8 hours! No such luck—I think I slept maybe 4
hours. Throughout the rest of the
flight, I dozed off and on, and I think my parents did too, but none of us got
the hoped for 8-hours of sleep. Other
than being a long 14-hours, the flight was uneventful and we landed in Hong
Kong at around 6:30am Hong Kong time.
Once we arrived, we joined the long lines at immigration,
then headed to baggage claim hoping that all the luggage arrived. It did—thank goodness! Customs was as easy as walking through the
“Nothing to Declare” doors. The Princess
Cruise Line representative was waiting right outside customs to take us to our
hotel.
We arrived at the hotel Princess had booked for us, Swissotel
the Stamford, and checked in. Determined
to stay awake and try to adjust to the time change, we wandered around the
hotel and found it was connected to an entire shopping mall underneath. We spent the afternoon exploring. Singapore is a very modern city and
almost everyone speaks English.
I had a very light dinner of soup and afterward we headed
back to the hotel, made plans to meet at 9:00am the next morning, and said good
night. I was sound asleep well before
9:00 that night.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
I woke up at 1:30am, but did manage to get back to sleep
until a little after 4:00am. Feeling
much better now that I had been able to get some sleep, I took a shower and got
dressed. At a little after 5:00am, my Dad
called to see if I was awake—guess he knows me pretty well since he knew that
I’d be up. He too had been up for a
while and had taken a walk, and found a McDonalds near the hotel, and offered
to bring me back a cup of coffee. In
just a few minutes, he delivered coffee to me in my room—what a wonderful father
I have!!
We ended up having breakfast at McDonalds a little after
7:00am. The hotel restaurants are all
extremely expensive ($38 per person for breakfast), so we decided that an egg
mcmuffin was just fine. The weather was
very nice so we ate outside. While enjoying
our breakfast, and the much needed coffee, I struck up a conversation with two
folks who are from Vancouver, turns out they are also on the cruise with us.
After breakfast, we took a walk to the marina area of
town. We spent all morning exploring
Singapore, admiring the wonderful architecture (which I found absolutely
beautiful), and taking pictures. Singapore is a
very modern city, very clean, and the people friendly. I wish I had arrived a few days earlier so I
would have more time to explore this city.
We headed back to the hotel in the afternoon and met up with
friends of my parents, Harold and Yasuko, who had also booked this cruise and
had arrived at the hotel late last night.
By mid afternoon, we were tired, but once again forced ourselves to stay
awake so we could get our days and nights straight.
At 4:00pm, we went up to the hotel’s fourth floor (which was
the convention center), and registered for the cruise. Princess had arranged to check all of us in
at the hotel to cut down on the check-in process at the Cruise Center Had we not booked the hotel and transfers
through Princess, we would have had to go to the Cruise Center to check in on
embarkation day, then take a bus to the Container Dock where the ship would be
moored. Instead, we checked in at the
hotel the day before, and the Princess bus transfer would take us directly to
the ship (without the additional stop at the Cruise Center). We were also instructed to have our checked
luggage ready for pick up in our hotel room by 8:00am and they would be
transferred directly to the ship, so we wouldn’t have to lug them around with
us. My parents and I were originally
scheduled for the 1:00pm bus, but we were able to get that changed to the
11:30am bus since we were given expedited boarding when we were upgraded to a
full suite.
Yes, we were upgraded to a suite! My parents originally had booked a minisuite
and I had booked my usual inside cabin.
A few days before we left, I got a call from Princess saying the cruise
was overbooked and asking if my parents and I would consider “doubling up.” In return, Princess would upgrade us to a
full suite, refund my solo supplement, and give each of us an additional $500
on-board credit. I quickly called my
dad, discussed it with him, and we agreed we could share a suite. This would probably be the only time we would
be able to experience staying in a suite and we jumped at the chance.
After checking in, we met the Bonners and had dinner in the
shopping mall under the hotel. On the
way back to the hotel, we stopped by Ben and Jerry’s for ice cream.
While sitting there, Betty and Fred walked by and recognized
my mother—they all live in the same town.
Betty and Fred were also booked on this cruise. We haven’t even boarded yet, and already we
are meeting people we would most likely see several times over the next 16
days.
Calling it another early night (probably due to the jet
lag), we headed back to the hotel and to our rooms. My parents and I arranged to meet for
breakfast again the next morning.
Tomorrow, we board the beautiful Diamond Princess and begin
our Southeast Asia and China odyssey.
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