Ports of Call – Singapore (embarkation), Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City), Hong Kong, Xiamin, Korea (Seoul), and Beijing

Singapore and Embarkations: For those who have not been to Singapore, it is an awesome city, particularly if you like shopping and eating. There are multiple places to do both and you are only limited by your cash supply (or credit). My wife and I stayed at the Marina Bay Sands (you’ve seen the pictures, particularly of the infinity pool). It was a great hotel and the pool is as awesome as it looks. Since we were quite jet lagged after traveling 26 hours from Texas, we did not get out as much as we would have liked, but did get to Orchard street for a bit of shopping as well as to the Marina Bay Sands Mall. For the latter you will find every upscale store you can think of. We held off as we planned to shop in Hong Kong. We did try two great restaurants: Waku Ghin and Cut. Both are very expensive (Waki Ghin being crazy expensive), but both meals were incredibly good. Waku Ghin is more experience dining on a fixed menu and if you are the adventurous type, I recommend it. It is ranked as one of the top 50 restaurants in Asia for good reason. Cut (a Wolfgang Puck restaurant) is a steakhouse. Suffice it to say that I have now eaten the steak by which I will judge all others. I had a true Wagyu ribeye from Japan and while it didn’t look overly impressive on the plate (I like my meat plain without a bunch of sauces as I believe the meat should speak for itself), it was by far the tastiest and most tender piece of beef I’ve ever put in my mouth. Highly recommend going here if you love your meat.

On Sunday we checked out and headed to the pier which fortunately is only about a 10 minute cab ride from the Marina Bay Sands. As we were staying in a Sky Loft, we had the new Star Class Service and a Genie (more on this later). We were whisked to a special room where we met our Genie, Sunil, who was taking care of us and one other couple. He took care of all our paperwork, brought us our cruise cards, and escorted us on the ship past all the lines. Sweet. We also got to go straight to our room even though it was “technically” not time to allow us in (just a touch past noon). We dropped off our stuff and went to Coastal Kitchen (suite guests only) for lunch. As much as the food in the Windjammer is good and plentiful, I’m not a big fan of buffets or crowds, both of which are in abundance at the Windjammer. Read more