We joined the ship (Sapphire Princess) about twelve o’clock at the new Singapore cruise terminal and were quickly booked in and were soon ensconced in our balcony cabin on Aloa deck (12). After a quick lunch in the horizon court we went to the promenade deck ready for our lifeboat drill, with our muster station in one of the restaurants with comfortable chairs there wasn’t any hardships. Our cabin was well appointed with tea making facilities and complimentary water. One drawback it only had US type sockets so remember to get an adapter for your I-Pad. We found plenty of storage space with a huge walk in wardrobe, a cupboard with shelving and you safe. The room had a 32”!! Inch flat screen TV with plenty of channels, you also had access the loads of movies some were pretty recent.

We used the Horizon buffet for breakfast and had no trouble being an early riser but come eight o’clock the four seating areas were bursting at the seams especially on port days with people hurrying to catch their tours, if you waited till later when they had gone there were plenty of seats. The Itinerary was Ko Samui, Bangkok, Vietnam, Singapore, Penang, Langawi and Kuala Lumpa with three sea days. Having travelled the part of the world before we only took one tour this was to KL a place we’d been through but never visited. We took the KL highlights stopping at most of the tourist sites, the main stop for us was the Petronas twin towers most people were laying on the ground which was the only way to get a good photo as it seemed impossible to tilt your head back far enough. The rest we stayed in the local area, in Vietnam they laid on a free local shuttle to a nearby town and market which we enjoyed, there was less bureaucracy here than I expected despite it being a communist country.

The port which caused most dismay was Singapore, because we have lived here in the past we decided to stay on board and have a leisurely day. But no because we had entered Singaporean waters we ALL had to leave the ship and go through immigration again. To save queuing we were told to meet in one of the lounges and would be escorted through, we left at half past nine, first we had to leave Singapore through the security scanners and immigration the taken around the terminal to a waiting area where we stay at least half an hour then when most of the incoming passengers had boarded we went through the whole process again. First the security scanners, remember we hadn’t left the terminal building, then queue up and leave Singapore again, we got back on board just after twelve a complete morning wasted, next time we’ll just leave the ship and have a walk around and come back in with the new passengers it’ll be quicker. Read more