Given my bronchitis, we downscaled our plans for turnaround day in Singapore. G said that if we did just one thing he’d be happy. Well, unless you count watching Monday Night Football on a Tuesday morning in our cabin as one thing, we didn’t even do that.
I slept well but there is no sugar coating the fact that my breathing difficulties and bad cough continue. Hard to know the source, of course; I still suspect the hot humid air/ cold air conditioning rotation, and there are a lot of chesty coughs on the Sapphire Princess right now. This started our final day in Dubai as a simple cold and I really haven’t been completely well since then. Fortunately, until today, I’ve been able to say it hasn’t slowed us down in the ports. We do have one more turnaround day. But still…this isn’t how I planned to spend our limited time in Singapore.
We let the first of the disembarking masses get through the Horizon Court Buffet before we went there for breakfast. One of our favorite Thai waiters is going home today for two months. I’m thrilled for him, and especially happy that his flight will be easy and short; they are used to flying for two days half way around the world at the end of their contracts. And speaking of flights, I am actually quite relieved that we are not flying directly home to the US from Singapore. The connections we’ve been hearing about from our fellow passengers sound absolutely brutal. 38 hours to get home due to long layovers en route? No thank you! Our flight from China to Hawaii won’t be a cakewalk, but it’s not in those leagues.
After breakfast, G picked up our passports and Singapore Landing Cards from the Administration Department in the Internet Café and we returned to the room to get the day bag with our local currency, credit card, sunscreen, etc. And that is where our plan started to fall apart. As if G needed additional proof that I was not feeling my best, I started a coughing fit that sounded positively tuberculotic. In a (hopefully) temporary delay to the start of our day, the TV was turned on and we laid back down. The Saints and Panthers were in the beginning of the second quarter, and, though the game was certainly not pretty, the NFL season is getting more interesting even for those of us with no dog in the fight (sigh). I was happy with the Saints win, and some texts from home told me my guys were, too. G, I think, was just happy to watch an NFL game without the signal going out as it so often does on sea days.
It wasn’t a great game but it came down to the wire, and we continued to watch far longer than we originally intended . When it ended at 12:30pm our time, that really put an end to any outside plans. All on board time was 3pm, with at least 30 minutes needed to get through both sides of Singapore immigration. Instead we went to a nearly empty International Dining Room and sat at a table for two for that embarkation day lunch we love so much, and, while we were there, I used Princess@Sea to book our excursion for Kuala Lumpur. I turned my passport back in at Guest Services; G did go off the ship to walk around the shops in the terminal and use the WiFi.
It wasn’t until lunch today that we realized that we don’t arrive in our first port of Penang, Malaysia until 3pm tomorrow. 3pm to 9pm; that’s an interesting schedule for a mid-sized Malaysian city when sunset is at 6pm. It was our lunch waiter who set us straight. They know exactly how many hours this ship will not be in port this cruise…because those are the hours they really get run ragged on these short itineraries. Everyone wants to sample everything at least once.
It’s always so interesting to get our first glimpse of the passengers getting on for a new cruise, but never more than when it’s a three-day cruise. The ship is packed, with nearly 3100 passengers on board (it usually has about 2700)! We heard there were over 400 kids coming on, and, at first glance there are at least that many. The general demographic skews hugely Asian with some Americans and Australians, and fewer Canadians and Brits. But the major difference this cruise is that 2/3 of the passengers are actually from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan and China, which has not been the case to date. The number of Americans (including Asian Americans) is less than half the number of Singaporeans.
I guess that isn’t a surprise.
There are several family groups on board, many cultures and norms and languages. Those who seem to take notes on the behavior of fellow passengers might find plenty to record here, but that is not how we roll. We learned many years ago that to enjoy cruising with over 4000 people (including crew) for months at a time, we needed to take a severely myopic approach to our fellow passengers. (I find sitting in the dark in our closet with my ear buds in to be an effective coping mechanism, too.) ;-)
I showered during muster drill (no surprise there) and, at 5pm went back to the Medical Center to rent a nebulizer for a few days. It’s what I need right now, and I slept much better last night after using it during my appointment late in the day. Yesterday, I had sat in a back room in the Medical Center with the nebulizer mask on my face, when the liquid medication started to run low and sputter, and without even thinking about it, I began tap-tapping with my index finger on the dispenser while I was reading my book. This ensures every last bit of medication is inhaled. Dr. Salome (from South Africa) came in to check on me and laughed. “This isn’t your first time, is it?” No, not hardly, but thankfully it’s the first time in eight years.
I’ll take a moment to comment on the nationalities of the medical providers on board. The Senior Doctor, as I said, is from South Africa (they usually are). Two of the nurses who have helped me are from Malaysia, but “beautiful villages in the north, not crazy Kuala Lumpur”. A third medical professional checked on me last night; he was clearly American. When I asked, he said he was from Iowa. That’s like a neighbor!!
We were quite excited to receive a voucher for dinner at a specialty restaurant this cruise in lieu of a Most Traveled Guest event. G left the choice of restaurant up to me, but I know how much he loves a good steak, and we booked a reservation for the Sterling Steakhouse for tonight. On the Sapphire Princess, while there is a separate Sabatini’s Restaurant, the Sterling Steakhouse uses a closed-off back corner of the Horizon Court Buffet and alternates with the Crab Shack. What it lacks in ambience it more than makes up for in views, especially as we sailed away from Singapore. We enjoyed a red, red sunset over the Strait of Malacca. We also enjoyed chatting with Headwaiter Marius from Romania who had been on the Pacific Princess last year and knew all the same people we do.
An island off the coast of Sumatra in the distance
A sort of sunset...
...which turned red as it progressed.
We went to the performance in the Princess Theater by comedian/musician Steve Womack. Cruise Director Marius had just told us about the passenger demographics skewing young and Asian, and poor Steve Womack is an older British comedian with even older jokes. His guitar and vocal skills were good, though, but I left feeling it had to have been the worst case of miscasting in the history of entertainment.
When we returned to the cabin, a bottle of Veuve Cliquot champagne had been delivered in an ice bucket, a gift for being MTP, and a letter from the Captains Circle host with two drink vouchers in lieu of a Captains Circle party was in the cabin. I like how all these things are handled on these short cruises. (I would have liked staying in Singapore for three days, too, but considering how I feel, I’m glad to be recuperating in the cocoon that is a cruise ship).
I’ve been typing as I nebulize, and it’s nearing the end. Time for that tap tapping again, and that requires an index finger which means no more typing on my iPhone. Good night!