Friday, February 10, 2012

Cruising to Phuket (Y)

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............with my family! ^^

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&Here's the Legend of the Sea~~~~ :D
ps: Obviously, it's the largest ship in the picture!

HIHIHI!
I'm unwillingly back to the small dot! ^^ In case you didn't know, I've spent my week cruising to Phuket and now back. ;)

Could have blogged once I touched down but I was at work. Yes, work...............
I must be awarded the most hardworking idiot in the world because I arrived in Singapore this morning and ended my day with work instead of just getting the day off. ><

Deadlines...

ANYWAYS! Here's my virgin cruise experience. :)
(With ALOT of pictures!)



Usually, people's impression or feedback about a cruise experience is how boring it is...

Cruise?
It's boring.
There's nothing much to do.
It's really boring.
They serve average food and repeated menu everyday.
(Not really. :/)
It's extremely boring.
It's not really like a holiday at all.
Everything is small.
It's boring.

Well, usually.

And as unusual and weird as I always am, I'm gonna say it ain't that bad~ In fact, I had fun and would like to go again!!! :3

Maybe because it's my first cruising experience or maybe just me being easily satisfied as always. xD Truth is, I brought an empty mind to this short getaway and happily brought back a mind full of good memories! ^^

This experience is actually pretty refreshing. 103% enjoyed my time.

It's different from other holiday trips, to say the least.
No rushing.
Not much spending.
Not much land transport. (depends on you)
Not much decision to make.
No time wasted.
No waiting here and there for people. (Tour vacation)
&At least, it's away from work. xP

I didn't exactly participated in the activities, mostly just relaxing my time on the Cruise with my lovely family~ :)

Okay, enough ranting. Gonna caption with the pictures I took! ^^

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DAY ONE: Exploring the Legend!

Though I've only slept for 3hours the night before, I was still really excited as I slowly pack my luggage and got ready. Kindda zombie-d for the rest of the day though.

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Waiting for the cab!

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Was sunny that morning but I'm not gonna complain because Phuket is so much worse!

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TADAAAAA!
Royal Caribbean's Legend of The Sea! :D

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Checking in out luggages!

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Me: "Show me your excited face!"
&That's the face she gave. tsk.

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Filling up immigration forms!

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Walking in!

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Double checking our room number!
Parents shared a room while sis and I shared another. Connected rooms ftw~~~

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Look of our room from our door.

The room is small. In fact, you might even get intimidated by the space of the room. Hmmm. Maybe not. I shadnt exaggerate.. lol.

For me, I actually find it rather cozy and nice. Small yet sufficient. Truth be told, I actually feel more comfortable in our Cruise room then the huge luxurious hotel rooms. Maybe because it's something different.
Bed super comfy. Deep sleep with no dreams! Until the fourth morning when I snoozed. :/

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THE CLEAN TOILET!

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Sissy looking out~

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Initially thought this was going to be our view and got rather... sian-ed~

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Until we set sail AND THIS IS IT.
WOOT. Can stare outside our window for hours!!!!

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First meal for the day!
ps: I have no idea why but I took pictures of our food EVERY SINGLE TIME. Zz

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I really like the pasta! :)
But I wasn't feeling very well to enjoy fully.

There's a fine dining restaurant and a normal eating place. Our first meal was food from the normal eating place. You'll see the difference in the presentation. ^^ The food differs daily in the fine dining restaurant and as for the normal eating place, the food isn't the same everyday but they have similarities. :) It's definitely much more worth it to eat in the fine dining restaurant but try eating western cuisines everyday. You'll get sick of it. Lol.

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Signing up for Wifi! Didn't use it in the end.

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Mum checking on Sugar.

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Spot Sugar!

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@The library!

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:)

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When you see it................
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I have no idea what's Asian dresscode!

I'm ignorant, am I?

Sister says it's like.... Kimono, Hanbok and Chinese traditional costumes and all...

Really?

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Boats that'll save us if anything happens!

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The Casino!

Casino is dead boring. I have no idea how adults can stand sitting infront of a machine, inserting coins/dollars into it and pressing buttons in hope lady luck is there and they'll win money.
It's like..... children's  arcade. But much much much more boring, and sucks more money from you. Unless you're lucky and more money(than you putting in) vomits out.

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Our tumbler of unlimited soft drinks!
A promotion on the first day~ Pay a sum for the tumbler and a sticker on our seapass.
With those, we can get unlimited refills of any soft drinks we want~ Cool or what!
Not expensive too. :)

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They only sail at 5pm so we had like 3 hours before departing.

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Sister and I as our parents went for massage!

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Whenever you see a queue, there's FREE stuff! Hahahaha.

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We were one of them too. hehehe.
I was worried and kept asking if it's really free though. Silly me.

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Salty sausage, instant-pizza tasting pizza, french fries tasting fries.

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Is this considered sunset? No right? LOL.
We saw a rainbow though! ^^

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Really breezy~

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We moving yo!
You don't really feel the move.
Was rocky only on the last few days though. And the higher you are, the rockier it is.

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POLLUTION ALERT!!!!!!!
Random~

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Free Ice-cream!!!!!!!!

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The Ukelele group!

Spotted them while getting our icecream. Super cute of them to play the Ukelele and sing together. Could easily spot them throughout the Cruise trip... They are super sing-y and all...

In the Cruise, there's like 700+ Crew of 50 over nationalities serving us 1300++ guests of 47 nationalities. Darn cool. Imagine the different type of people on the cruise you have a chance bumping into!! #justsaying

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I was laughing at my sister when she did hers.
But look at mine. I'm no better. hahahah.

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Check out my shoes! So un-matchy. hurrrr.
Changed so we could go into the fine dining restaurant. :)

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Live band everyday!!!!!!

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Check out the crowd enjoying the music. :)

Legend is like the happiest place to be! Everyone's smiling and greeting you. So.much.positive.vibe.I.can't.even......................................................

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Our first fine dining dinner.

Dinner was rather horrible. The atmosphere.

We initially thought we would be sitting together.
Well, we were. But, we were also seated with 4 other guests(2 couples). It was so so so awkward!! Fine dining is rather slow so it was even worse. During the time waiting for our food and all.... Our table was super quiet. Uncomfortable talking  to our parents too, because we were seated in a line.

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Our table.
I was horrified to know that we will be on the table every single night if we choose to dine here.
Like "Are you kidding me?!! Awkward dinner daily?!"

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How to talk to my dad comfortably if I'm sitting beside my mum????

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Corn soup!

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THIS IS REALLY GOOD.
Doesn't exactly taste like beef.

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Too sweet but nice too.

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Those without captions are food of my sister's or my mum's. :)

&So, dinner concluded with dessert and tea. It's really interesting and refreshing how fine dining is. How the waitress would go through the menu and recommend the food, how they would go to your side to take orders or pour water for us or give us bread or give us pepper or just answer to our needs!, it was slow though. heeeeeeeeeee.


OH YA! The awkward atmosphere only happened on the first night though.
Change, is the only thing that's constant, isn't it? ;)

I guess mum kindda broke the ice near the end of dinner. Well, both of us. ><
Tea and coffee are served last. Mum and I ordered tea. Our teabags came and we waited for them to pour hot water for us. Then......... we realize the hot water was beside our cup all the while!!!!!!!!!! Hahahaha. We totally didn't notice the waiter placing it!

And then, one of the Uncle laughed before we all left for the night.

Rushed out after dinner for the first show!

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Too engrossed to take pictures.

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&Then, we ended the night enjoying some good music by this pianist and some liqueur. :)

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CHECK OUT THE VIEW AT NIGHT.
Yes, pitch black!
Didn't know I could see Weishan everynight. HEHEHE.
kidding!

Before I end the first day, here's pictures of the Cruise! :D

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Picture of it at dock!

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Outdoor pool!

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Indoor pool~~~
I swear, I didn't have the intention to snap this girl!!!

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Directory of the ship!
There's 13 levels.

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The Centrum!

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I expected it to be rather big like from the TVs.... but it isn't.

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Shopping mall!

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Photo Gallery!

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The library!

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6racks of this~~~ Not bad.

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Yes, it's payable~

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The spa my parents went for massage~

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END OF DAY ONE^^

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DAY TWO: Port Klang+Formal Night!

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I LOVEEEE THE HARSHBROWN!!!

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Breakfast~

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Love the apply strudel!

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:)

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Walking out to port Klang. Sister stayed in to do her schoolwork~

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Port Klang!
There's nothing much there. And their wifi zone has really.............. lousy wifi.

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Check out the balcony rooms!
Said to be best for smokers so they can smoke outside.
Maybe balcony rooms aren't practical for cruising in our country. TOO DARN HOT EVERYDAY. Lol.

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Wind so strong!

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Yes, I watched this again. :)

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Nice atmosphere right right right?
Well, CHECK OUT THE HUGE SCREEN!!!!

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It's so big I can't even...............

Yes, obviously I'm being lame.

This picture here, reminded me about Jasmine. As mentioned, we coincidentally went for the same cruise. I didn't take any pictures with her (WHY DIDN'T WE!!!), but I bumped into her every single day! Even before boarding the cruise, I spotted her daughter's dress and then her daughter, then her husband~~~ Later saw her and waved "hello&bye" when she went to check in and we were still filling in the immigration forms~

Her younger daughter toooooo cute!! Didn't get to interact much with her elder sister though....

Oh ya, this picture~ Had the longest conversation with Jasmine in this theater for the entire trip. Hahaha.

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Back for some rest!

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Dad and I definitely enjoyed the trip. :)

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I like this shot! :)

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Chilling with some good music and cheap Ben&Jerry's icecream!!

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Oh ya, it was formal night!
It was only early evening and half of the cruisers were nicely dressed already!!!

For fine dining, there were two seatings. One at 5:45pm and the other at 8:15pm. Every room is allocated a time and a table~~~ So yeah, half of the cruisers were getting all prep-up for their dinner while sister and I were still in our t-shirt and shorts. So.out.of.place!

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Back in our room to change and check out what's on our bed!

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Elephant? Lol.
And our daily compass!

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It's something that introduces the daily activities. You'll get this every evening, if I'm not wrong. :)

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All dressed up and ready for awkward dinner!

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Dad look super good in this kindda dressing. I guess all guys do.
He kept mentioning how the next time he's gonna look like that would be our wedding. :O

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Happy faces!

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Polaroids we took! ^^

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Escargots!

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This beef fillet is super good too!

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LOVED THIS.
But I couldn't finish it.

I think their kindda dinner is too much for Asian stomach. My parents were asking for Chinese fooooooood on the second day already! And every meal is too filling for sister and I. I got sick of western cuisine on the last day though. Thank goodness it only happened on the last day. Hahaha.

So, dinner that night wasn't awkward at all anymore. My parents and one of the couples had a common topic. Chinese Food. HAHAHA. The other couple just listened and laughed along here and there. :)

Laughter filled dinner. I enjoyed myself and found myself looking forward to the next dinner.

Bestfriends already. Waiting for our food weren't dreadful anymore~

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Some musical after dinner!

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Drunkard of the family and her brandy+gingle ale~~~

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I LOVE THIS MAN.
Gordon~ He's darn funny.

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:)

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Disco night! It's like clubbing but auntie/uncle-fied.

Accompanied sister to study in the card & mah jong room. It was damn noisy! Even when I full blast my "Running Man" I could still hear them yell and all. Them referring to a few China men and a group of Filipinos/Indonesians~

The turn off for the night was the China man smoking IN THE ROOM and making us all second-hand smoker~

I wanted to leave but there was the only place with proper table for her to study. :/ & guess what,,,,

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IT WAS A NO-SMOKING ROOM. >:(

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DAY THREE: Phuket!

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Woke up to an awesome view. :)

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Went to normal eating place for some pasteries before we went to try out our first fine dining lunch!

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What a life~
Eating with a beautiful view behind.

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Seafood/Clam chowder!
Really nice....

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So-so only..........

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The boat we took to Phuket~

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They had to stop somewhere near because the Ocean was shallow and all~ So we had to shutter boat down to Phuket~

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Could have went for Free&Easy but we bought tour packages!
The cheapest!

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Bus number 30!

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Walking over to Phuket!
Kindda scary, never a fan of walking on planks.

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Our bus's blue fishy!

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Spot Legend's photographer!

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Bus 30~ Sightseeing and shopping tour.

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Super sunny!

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There were a lot of Caucasians suntanning in the 32degree Celsius weather. :O
They mad.

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Guess what they're doing!
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Manicure and Pedicure!

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Has their tuk tuk always look like this? :/

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First stop!
Also the only stop I took a lot of pictures...

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Uhm... Random.

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Lol. My sister too cute!

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Second stop~ Temple!

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All these random shots because the lighting was good and I think they turn out nice. ^^

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The coconut's really sweet! ;)

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Some cashew nut factory~

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They look so ugly. Lol.

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Our tour guide!

She's a Thai and I think she speaks rather good English. Obviously not perfect fluent English but I got her says~ There were people behind that were being assholes though. Correcting her blonze like... thrice? Darn annoying.

But, I like it when she say "People usually go to the temple to make a witch. And when the witch come true, the temple become very respectful.." I'm not teasing. My sis and I just find it really cute. hehehe.

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Shopping mall!
There's Dorothy Perkins which we didn't have time to check out~

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Dinner!
Too hungry to take any shots~

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Our ship!

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&A stingray for that night! :D

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Magic show!!!!!

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&A poolside party after the show. :)

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Bread bread, and more bread!
My family is kindda obsessed with their bread because of the butter~
The butter's really nice but I'm not that into bread. :/
Yanling's heaven. HAHAHA.

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Everyone so high!

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DAY FOUR: They do awesome closures!

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Breakfast~
Potato soup!

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DIY Salad. Really nice.

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The patty is good. But I couldn't finish the rest. hurrrr.

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Passport collection.
Couldn't believe we were so close to the end of good times. :((

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Moving out for the noon's activity~~
Rock and Roll Class Reunion!

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SO CUTE RIGHT ZOMG.
He's so funneh~~~~ Yeah, baby~

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Dancing~

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Check out the couples behind!
So sweeeeeet,

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Guess the right diamond!
We were so close to winning! -,-

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Thereafter, we went for Bingo!

Their bingo's so different. Instead of any lines crossed, or full house, theirs go by the lines of B and O. Meaning you'll go 'Bingo!' only when your B and O are crossed. My mum was ONE NUMBER away from Bingo-ing but damn another guy was luckier. Grrrrr.

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Then it was yet another musical!
I love one of the singers!
Jonathan's his name I think.
Like his voice, like his looks and like his moves too! ^^

After the show, Gordon came out again and then he showed us some video with some of the Cruisers appearing and then,  a representation of the crew went on stage. I think almost all the crew members went on stage though. loll.

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So heartwarming~~~ :')

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:)

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&then, it was our last dinner together with our new bestfriends!

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TADAAAA! hehehehe.
Told you we became bestfriends!

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Pumpkin soup! NICE!

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Gave us extra spring roll.
Darn full by the time I was done with starters.

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Wrong choice!
Some tempura thingy~ It's just fried fish and prawn lo!

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Was too full for dessert.

The show wasn't the only closure for the cruise~ They did a great closure for fine dining too! Parade and then sang three songs! So sweet of them. :')

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See the back!

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Our funny Waitress.
We all thought she's a Filipino or Indonesian. But turns out she's an Indian!

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"Take a picture of me and my sisters"
So cute!
&She actually said I'm 18/19~ A lie or not, it's a plus for her still. Hiakhiakhiak.

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&With our assistant waiter. :)

Tried to end the night early because I had work the next day (today) but end up having difficulties sleeping.
Darn.

Woke up at 5:45am and went for breakfast before going home to nap a while, pick Sugar up from Petopia and then home!

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Breakfast...
Not loving the harshbrowns I had this morning.

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Gathering to wait for our turn!

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It was rather noisy in the departure lounge.
How can anyone be happy in this room preparing to go home????

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Getting our luggages before going home~

- THE END -
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Okay, I have to be honest....
Not that cruise isn't a wee bit boring though.

Imagine staying(obviously, stuck 98% of the time) in a small place with thousands of strangers, scheduled activities that you may or may not(also, can or cannot) join, movies(you may or may not have watched) screened once a night, production shows(may or may not have seats) every night, and that's about it. (Yes, mostly nights.)
&There's nothing else to do already.................... Oh wait. Except eat and walk around the place which could be done exploring in a day. :D lol.

For shopaholics, this is definitely not the type of holiday you should ever consider~~~ ;)

As for me, this is a getaway... Not so much of a vacation. So, it's more than just good enough for me. ♥

In fact, I was in the mood to laze around; sleep in late from lounge-ing all night long, wake up super late and go for brunch before laying on the bench in the upper deck smelling the sea, hearing the waves, relaxing while getting a tann, thinking about random things and just....... stone. :)

Been there, done that~ hehehe.

The only sad thing about my lazing mood is that I wake up late. :/ Was really interested in this charitable event "Walk-a-wish" that happened at 9-ish on the fourth morning. Missed it because I was with the Zz monster. :'(

Would have ended this getaway on meaningful note. Le Sigh~

So here you have it, my first cruising experience. ^^ hehehehehe. Prolly the last overseas trip this year. Sobs!

Hope not. *fingers crossed*


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Okay, I'm ending this entry with my selfshots for the trip. xD

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