Many people have the impression that cruise is boring and expensive. In fact, me too, before this trip, that is. I often thought that the cost of a 4d3n cruise to Malaysia could actually bring me to week-long short trips like Hong Kong and Taiwan! So I chose to fly to those places instead of cruise.
1.5 years before our actual cruise, hubby and I walked past a Royal Carribean roadshow and decided to sign up for a 8d7n cruise on their Quantum of the Seas, one of their largest in the fleet. Yes, we planned our trips that far ahead. And it was also because they were running a promo with the 2nd person paying only $1! At that time, I was not even pregnant. So, we had alot of ‘what ifs‘ to the staff. What if I get pregnant, would I be allowed on board? What if I already have a child by then, can I add a ticket for him or her?
Important: Do note that you will not be allowed on board if you are more than 6 months pregnant. Babies need to be at least 6 months old to board too!
Fortunately, our baby came out early enough to board the cruise with us! The moment she was born, we called Royal Carribean to buy tickets for her and my parents. That’s because, under our promotion price, we can’t just add another ticket to room-in with us. We need to pay for another room. Children and seniors have discounted tickets too!
The day of our cruise finally arrived. It was the first cruise for all of us! We were so excited! And school has already started, so the first impression we had was that there were very few kids!
We had checked in online days before our trip. So, the check in process at the Marina Bay Cruise Centre was really easy. Once we alighted from the taxi, there were staff to take over our luggage as we had already printed the tags beforehand. We were then grouped into smaller groups to clear the immigration and boarded the cruise within 30mins of arriving at the centre! Once on board, we handed our passports to the cruise staff for safekeeping. From now on, all we needed were our sea passes, equivalent to our IDs! It’s used to access rooms, identification for dining/show reservations and of course, payment!
Our first goal was to find lunch. We were directed straight to Deck 14 for our buffet lunch. There was already a crowd but we still managed to get a good seat by the glass.
By the time we were done, our rooms were ready. I was really excited to check out our rooms! The rooms were much more spacious than I had imagined! Not only did they come with a balcony (albeit restricted view), there was even a sofa area which I had not expected! Toilet was reasonably spacious too! The housekeeping staff offered a baby crib for our baby. But after she had set it up at the sofa area, we figured that our baby would not be sleeping in it and requested she keep it instead.
There was also a compulsory emergency drill for all passengers on Day 1. We had to gather at our allocated area and watched an emergency briefing video together. For us, our allocated area was inside a restaurant.
We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the cruise and finding out their various locations. We had tea at the Cafe 270. Hubby also bought me the non-alcoholic drink package which came into very good use during the entire trip. I could go in to any restaurants/cafes and get a non-alcoholic drink for free! As the cruise was still docked, duty free shops and the casino was not in operation. Hence, it was the perfect time for photos, especially in the empty casino!
Cafe 270 
Giving their darlings a call 
Being silly 
Very comfy sofa area at the upper deck for a show 
Jackpot! 
The casino is all ours!
That night, we had dinner at the main dining room. When we made our reservation at the road show, the staff had already helped to book a table for us at 5.30pm every day. A table has been allocated to us. Therefore, we could just walk in to our table every evening. That’s absolutely convenient, isn’t it?!
That night, we also went for a special stand up comedy for the 1st night of our trip! The host actually listed down the number of guests from each country and it was then I realise we Singaporeans are the minority! There were only 600plus of us while the country with the most guests on board are the Australians! There were close to 2000 of them because it was still their school holidays!
By the time we were done with dinner, our luggage were finally outside our rooms. However, 1 was missing. We later learnt that it was stuck at the security area at deck 2 because we had brought in a kettle which was not allowed. Well, perhaps it was stated somewhere and we did not read the restrictions carefully. After handing the kettle to them for safekeeping until the last day, we were allowed to collect our luggage. Now we had no choice but to use the kettle they provided in the room, or collect hot water at the dining places!
Baby slept through shows and we could walk around with her in the carrier
Perrine Travels 