Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Yeah yeah. I finally found time to organise and upload our cruise photos. We took hundreds of pics! First time we brought our dslr on a holiday, so we happily snapped away. Keke. Well, I'm just going to post a few photos here but will share more about the experience.
The cruise turned out to be better than what we expected, not that I can clearly say what I was expecting. It's just that we felt very happy, relaxed and satisfied about the whole experience.
1) Food - The food was overall delicious and value for $$. There were two nice dining rooms, Windjammer and Aquarius to choose from. We had continental buffet breakfast everyday which had quite a good variety of food. You can also order ala carte items to your liking. I especially love all the desserts onboard! I wanted to try everything! Waha. For dinner, we usually had a 3-course dinner with an appetizer, a main course followed by dessert.
2) Facilities - There was a wide range of facilities on board. Gym, swimming pool, jacuzzis, suana, steam bath, kids adventure park, arcade, many many lounges and bars, art gallery, shopping gallery, theatre, casino and even a rock wall! We signed up for the rock climbing but alas it was closed afterwards due to strong winds. Made me lose my chance of climbing a 200ft wall when you are amidst the wide oceans. Keke. You could also pay to enjoy services like spas, pedi/medi, hair services and even facials or teeth whitening. Waha. For jw and me, we spent most time in the casino, taking turns to go at night. Keke. But can you imagine, we won over US$800 altogether. Yay. Both of us on lucky streaks. Helps to cover abit of the expenses. Keke.
3) Programs - There were plenty of tours to choose from for each port that we visit. And even when we were at sea, there were always activities on board and you seldom will feel bored or have nothing to do. We went for swing dance and salsa classes, aizhen and I went for scrapbooking, we took part in team trivia, I did a sudoku challenge, we played bingo (jw won 100 bucks at bingo, the lucky boy!!!), there were many dance parties and there was even a Mr Sexy Legs competition. Keke. There were also two formal nights out of the seven nights, and people would take efforts to dress up and it really built up the atmosphere on board. You can even see some in tuxedos and evening gowns! Even the very very old ah mas would also dress nice nice though they were on walking sticks. Really motivating. =) I also loved the shows we got to watch every night in the theatre, from juggling shows to magic shows to broadway. I especially love broadway and all the dancing!
Oh, and we loved this program called the Love and Marriage game show whereby they get couples up stage and they ask you questions about your partner (partner in backstage) and then your partner comes back in to reveal the answers and sometimes things get really hilarious. Believe it or not, jw and I actually tried to audition to go up and we almost almost got chosen! Waha. Good thing we didn't though, cos' Angel got cranky halfway and it was a live recorded gameshow. Goodness knows how I will handle the situation if she acts up in the middle of the recording.
Anyway, there were many interesting questions such as "If there's one thing about your wife you can make bigger, and one thing smaller, what will it be?", "On your wife's side of the family, who will you least like to bring on a cruise?", "What is your wife's bra size?", "Where was the strangest place you had sex?", "What's the first thing your hubby touches when he wakes up in the morn?", "What's your hubby's most annoying habit?" etc and sometimes the answers the pple give are really tickling. =) We loved the oldest couple who were married for 57 years already!
4) Staff - As for the staff on board, really, they were marvellous. Jw and choo were especially blown away by the stateroom attendants who tidied up our room seemingly few times a day. Not only promptly, but they also did a good job and were detailed for example they would fold our new towels into a different animal everyday. Hee. The cruise director was also very friendly, funny and spoke perfect English. We had 777 crew members who came from 62 countries, so it was as if you can see a united nations gathering on board. =) Not only were the crew friendly, many of the guests were very spontaneous, helpful and friendly too. Angel was the 2nd youngest amongst the near 2300 guests on board, and boy she was a hit with the other guests! Alot of them remember her (I mean, there were not that many Asians on board in the first place) and they would hold her hand, tickle her, take photos with her, or a few even kissed her! Haha. She was a super happy baby on board and she greeted almost everyone with big smiles which was why they liked her so much.
Alritey. I seem to be writing an essay. Wahaha. Anyway, now for the pics taken at the different ports of call.
Day 2, 2nd Aug, Helsinki, Finland
In a sense, Helsinki reminded me abit of Oslo in Norway, just that we preferred Helsinki over Oslo somehow. Sometimes, it really depends on if you visit the correct places. For example, we chose to go to the market square which was a happening place (kinda like the Midsommer leaf market in Sweden), the Uspenski cathedral on the hill, had our lunch at a Finnish restaurant and took a 1.5hr breezy boat ride. It was overall quite a nice experience. We even bumped into a Singaporean lady who was a vendor at the market square and started chatting all about Singapore. Nice to find tong2 xiang1 in foreign land.
At the Market Square
The Uspenski cathedral and its interior
Angel's new knitted strawberry hat. I love it!
Enjoying the breeze on the boat ride
Day 3, 3rd Aug, St Petersburg, Russia
St Petersburg was the highlight of the trip. It was the only port where we would stop for an entire day from 7am to 11pm whereas at the rest, we usually had only half a day. Well, we could easily see why it was the highlight. It was really a beautiful place with lotsa of magnificent buildings and architecture. We chose to go on a 3hr walking tour in the morning and watch a Russian folkloric song and dance in the evening. The good thing about going on a cruise is that you could return to your stateroom in btw and take a nice good nap and meal before setting off again. You also don't need to bring much barang barang, all you need is your Sea Pass card, your passport, and the baby pram and baby stuff, plus your all important Camera. Keke.
At the Winter Palace in Palace Square. Hermitage Musuem (third largest museum in the world) is also located here! Note: There's no aircon inside though. Apparently there's no aircon anywhere here becos' it's not supposed to be as hot so people do not install aircons.
The tall Alexander Column in Palace Square
The famous statue of Peter the Great
The magnificent and colourful domed Church of Spilled Blood
View along the pretty canal. Did you know that St Petersburg is known as the "Venice of the North"?
Enjoying the night in the theatre watching folkloric song and dance which turned out to be better than expected
Day 5, 5th Aug, Riga, Latvia
If we have to pick a 'black horse' from this trip, it would definitely be Riga. This was a place we were unsure of because we haven heard of it much and we didn't know anything about it beforehand. However, we visited this place which was like its old town and spent an enjoyable half a day there. We got a map from the tourist information and realised that there were over 10 buildings which were points of interest and so we made our way one by one, taking nice photos along the way. It seemed to be a relaxed, laid back kind of town and we quite liked the ambience and experience.
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The wooden horse
The interesting statue consisting of 4 animals
What an ad!
The famous Monument of Freedom
Which is real and which is not? Waha
An enjoyable lunch. Jw had a huge pork shank while I had steak and chicken wings.
Nice buildings around the town
The cathouse
Hello baby! You're awake!
Nice bridge and sea
The famous House of the Blackheads
Day 6, 6th Aug, Gdansk, Poland
It was our first trip to Poland and instead of exploring Gydnia which seemed to have a nice shopping street, we took a cab to Gdansk which was like another pretty old town with nice architecture. Gdansk was more crowded and happening than Riga though and there were roadside stalls everywhere. This was our 4th port of call already! Wow. As how things go when you have a baby, we took our leisure time walking around instead of rushing around to cover more spots. Well, we did walk a distance to find the all loved KFC which was super yummy, crispy and not that ex (as compared to cphg, not sg!). =)
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The pretty but crowded street in Gdansk
The famous statue of Neptune
Seems like Popeye and Olive
Ooooo.. Little Anders is so muscular!
The pretty riverside and the viking ship
We saw people bungee jumping. And one was so 'hum ji' that he/she withdrew when reached the top. Made everyone wait in vain. =)
We love coffee breaks!
I like the stained glass look. Nothing beats Notre Dame though.
At the Golden Gate
This gate counts the number of passersby
The much desired KFC
Enjoying our swirl ice cream before we depart
Day 7, 7th Aug, Visby, Sweden
Our last port of call was in Visby which jw had already been before. It was probably the most leisure and slow afternoon we took throughout the cruise. Instead of sightseeing, we mainly did some shopping in Cubus, Dressman, Kappahl, the roadside stalls in the square and had lunch in McDonalds. Keke. Quite a good way to end off the last day of the cruise actually. I'm so going to miss the cruise!
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It was raining so our dear angel had to be behind the rain cover
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We bought couple wristband watches and couple necklaces from the 'pasar malam'. Keke. Some things never change yeah.
Byebye Visby! We are going home!
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So that you go. My summary of our one week cruise along Baltic Sea. This is maybe just a summary of my thoughts and experience, but it's jolly well one of my longest blog entries ever. =)
Dear, thanks for bringing us on the wonderful cruise. Though we had silly disputes (like how to dance salsa steps!!!) as usual, this was one of my most fun, relaxed and happy holidays. Of cos, it being our first cruise with Angel makes it all the more special. Hope you had tonnes of fun too, I know you did! Hee.
Well, till the next post! This took me hours! Need to go zzz with Angel liaoz. Tata!!
~Summer~ 6:21 AM