South East Asia

As some of you know we visited south east Asia this January for 2 1/2 weeks and it was absolutely amazing. We elected to do this trip on a Celebrity cruise, we have cruised with them five times and really like the product and the opportunity this particular itinerary gave us to see 4 different countries (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand) in a relatively short time frame. Planning this ourselves would have been a logistical nightmare and we would have missed out on some really beautiful islands, cultures, and sights.

Because we saw so much and I tend to be a sucker for details, I'm going to write about the countries in separate posts so this doesn't get to long and so readers can reference countries of interest separately. This is an overview of getting there, the ship, and general impressions.

Getting to Asia was long, no surprise and nothing you can really do. We left Boston at 8am on January 3 and landed in Singapore at 12 noon on January 5. For anyone keeping score at home thats 52 hours, or what feels like 90 bagillion hours. Our actual time in the sky was 25 hours, but time zone changes made it ridiculous. We did have a little time in San Francisco before taking off for Hong Kong, then about 2 hours there before making our final flight to Singapore.

We choose Singapore Air from San Fran to Singapore, the plane was nice, the flight attendants very polished and well dressed, the food was decent and the wine was free. If I were to do this trip again, I would use miles and fly business class for free. (I learned a lot of tricks about frequent flyer miles on this vacation!)

Being in a plane that long didn't actually bother either of us to much, the entertainment system was fantastic, and we each had tons of books. Plus I can pretty much sleep anywhere so I was covered. They did wake us up for meal service a few times and found it very strange to be eating dumplings at 2:30 in the morning, but this was a new experience so we just went with it.

After landing in Singapore we went right to our hotel to shower. We choose the Mandarin Oriental for our stay. Words cannot describe how great this hotel was! We arrived too early to check in so up to a bar we went for drinks and a snack. The drinks were divine, my satay out of this world, and the service impeccable. Our waiter brought us newspapers and magazines, brought me a rose, and when we finished he went down to the front desk, checked us in to our room, had our luggage brought to the room, and delivered our keys to us in the restaurant. Bravo Mandarin!! Our next stop was the spa for massages, I'm happy to say i was completely impressed with the service here as well! They had tea, water, relaxation rooms, saunas, and a crazy shower you could indulge in after your massage. Perfection.
After that we both fell asleep around 6pm. Hey, adjusting to that time change is a huge challenge! Plus after all that spa pampering.... Zzzzzzzzz.

Here is a look at the Mandarin and the Bay in Singapore:

 

After waking up bright and early, we headed out to explore before heading to our ship. There is always something about the morning you are boarding, it's so exciting!! Once we got to the pier we checked in, got on board, got our welcome glass of champagne (well sparkling wine if we are being technical), then spent some time exploring our home for the next two weeks. We sailed on the Celebrity Millenium, a smaller, older ship which was recently refurbished. Overall I was very happy with the ship and the changes made, restaurants were added, bars were updated, and she was cosmetically prettied up with new carpets and shades. The crew, as always, was absolutely fantastic. Everyone on board was friendly, fun, and attentive.

We always book a suite when we cruise and this was no exception, we wanted space, a nice balcony, and a butler for our two week adventure! The best part of the suite we booked was definitely the bathroom, which, anyone who has been on a ship will tell you, is NOT usually the best part of any cabin. To illustrate why it's an amazing bathroom:

Boom. There ya go.



Here is a shot of the cabin (this photo cuts off about 1/2 of the room, it's huge):