Keeping amused on the sea days and visiting Hong Kong

We now have 2 sea days with us docking in Hong Kong at 8pm on the second day. We have decided to spend the first day exploring the ship and after another leisurely breakfast (sadly once again we were sat with people that did nothing but whine! "The service on this ship is terrible! I even have to go to the bar and order my own drinks!") we head up to the sports deck and have a game of mini golf, it was lots of fun and there were a lot of people up there enjoying it is well. Nathan beat me so I reserved the right for a rematch ;)

Then down to the video arcade where we played air hockey, Time Crisis, some crazy quad bike racing game and played Guitar Hero :)

We decided to treat ourselves to one of the specialty restaurants for lunch and chose Giovanni's Table, an Italian retaurant. For a cover charge of $15pp you can order whatever you like from the 3 courses available. The menu sounded wonderful and we were looking forward to some good italian and ordered 3 entrees to share: antipasti, cured beef and caprese salad. Nathan wasn't a fan of the anitpasti when the anchovies leaked into almost everything else on the plate and I was disappointed that the cured beef was 3 slices the size of the palm of my hand and so thin they were see through on a HUGE bowl of arugula. The caprese was excellent though as the mozzerella and the aged balsamic they use on the ship is lovely.

We followed this with 4 mains dishes to share: Mushroom Risotto, Baked Jumbo Shrimp, Chicken Breast stuffed with Ricotta and Spinach and wrapped in Prosciutto and Veal Meatballs in a rich Tomato Sauce.
This might sound like a LOT of food but the serves were very small, 4 prawns in the shrimp dish, 2 small pieces of chicken and 2 meatballs! Sort of lucky though as the meatballs were horrible! And the rich tomato sauce ended up being nothing but chopped tomatoes, very disappointing.
Moving on to dessert and the cannoli was a good choice but overall I wouldn't spend the money again. $15pp is very cheap but when you consider we had already prepaid a meal for lunch it certainly wasn't good value as the main dining room food that is included has been excellent.

Today was also the first ice skating show, Ice Under the Big Top so straight after lunch we went to join the line as it was first come, first served. When we couldn't find the end of the line we figured we would just go back to our cabin and check out the 2^nd showing instead ;)

Back in the cabin I thought it would be nice to lay down and relax a little....and of course Nathan and I immediately fell asleep but luckily woke up 15 minutes before we were meant to queue for the 2^nd show! I held our spot and Nathan headed off to get us hot chocolates :)
We managed to get front row seats and the ice skating show was brilliant!! I forgot to take my camera so have no pictures to show but it truly was spectacular, they had it all, clowns, acrobats, lion tamers...and all done on ice skates!

After the ice show it was time for dinner followed by another show in the Savoy Theatre. Tonight it was an Australian pianist called John Darsk, with a little bit of Liberace style he did a show from classical to Billy Joel to comedy and even a number on the violin which had everyone clapping and stamping their feet. We really enjoyed this one and after such an action packed day we were ready for bed :)

Our cabin steward has been doing towel animals for me and here are a couple of new ones :)

Day 5 dawns and we head to the MDR for breakfast and this time are given a table for two! Hooray! It's nice to be able to wake up a little slower and not have to listen to anyone complaining!

After breakfast we check out the days activites and decide we will enter the Mini Golf Tournament :) The gale that was blowing over Deck 13 changed our minds for us and we headed off to play a game of Bingo instead. After my $190 win we were happy that we did!

Today we are trying another specialty restaurant, Johnny Rockets, an American Diner/Burger Joint. Again there was a cover charge (only $4.95pp) and you can order whatever you like from the entree, main and dessert menus. Drinks are extra but when we see that there is an old fashioned soda fountain and milkshake options we decide to get drinks as well :)

To start the waiter brought out a big basket of chips and onion rings with a mega bowl of aioli then drew a smiley face on our plate with sauce, very cute :)
We decided not to order any entrees (bowl of chilli, bacon cheese fries etc) as we were looking forward to the burgers.
Nathan and I ordered a burger each (pretty sure his was called a Route 66, love the old American style) and a couple of drinks. His chocolate milkshake was decadent and my vanilla coke had so much vanilla syrup in it I was in danger of developing instant type 2 diabetes...so wonderful! The burgers were hot and juicy and we enjoyed themso much that we ordered another burger to share.
Dessert was a choice of apple pie or icecream sundaes and we both chose the latter. I also ordered a chocolate coke that sent my heart racing and had me bouncing off the walls for the rest of the afternoon ;)
While you are eating, 50's style rock music is playing and the staff come out and do cheesey dances! They actually get right into it and look like they enjoy it :)

The rest of the day was lazy and cruisey, we donated a little to the casino and laid around our cabin and watched a couple of movies. After dinner we are docking in Hong Kong and want to have some energy to go out and explore!

We arrive for dinner at 6.30 for our regular table where our head waiter is Michael and assistant waiter is Elizabeth. It took a few nights to find an area of the dining room where were were happy with the table location and the waiters but now that we have found them we have booked this table for the rest of the cruise. Tonight however there is bedlam in the dining room! Although we are not even docking til 8pm and will be lucky to disembark by 9pm, everyone is desperately cramming into the dining room for an early dinner! Our table has been given away and the bookings waiter tries to put us in another area. One of the regular staff from the area noticed and quickly decided to dismantle a table for 4 that was still available so we didn't have to wait or go to another area. We take our time and have a nice slow dinner then wander to the deck to watch as we dock. With 8000 skyscrapers the skyline of Hong Kong is amazing! Lights and neons everywhere, buildings where the lights turn on and off in sequence to look like waterfalls or form patterns.

We wait for the call to disembark then wander out to the dock. We find a double decker bus offereing a Hong Kong by night tour and manage to get the front seat on the top deck! We spend 2 hours driving through Kowloon and Mong Kok, down Nathan Road, seeing the Ladies Markets, the Jade Markets, the restaurants and all the lights before heading back to the ship :)

We go to bed that night excited about the prospect of heading back into Hong Kong in the morning!

Day 6 and there is no sleeping in today! We are up at 8.30 and ready for breakfast :)

We are seated with a good group today and everyone is looking forward to heading off for the day. The night before we had picked up some brochures and found a free shuttle service that would take us to the Cu Chin Gardens, a Buddhist Nunnery and a huge shopping complex.

After checking out the gardens and nunnery we found the local train station and took a train back to Mong Kok, the district we visited the night before. We wandered around and found Nathan Road, the road for the best shopping in Hong Kong and revisited the Ladies Markets before catching a train back to town and finding a restaurant for an authentic Chinese Dim Sum lunch.

With a bit of time left before our shuttle we visit a crazy Chinese games arcade, they are really serious about this stuff over here!

Full and happy we headed back to the ship for a 3.30pm departure.

Tomorrow is another sea day!

Our first sea day and visiting Vietnam

Our day started well with a leisurely breakfast in the main dining room (MDR). This ship is very different to the P&O ships we have been on as the MDR has a buffet set up in the middle of it for the basics and you also order off a menu for the hot choices.

I am not a breakfast person but I go there for the coffee. Cruise ship instant coffee is notoriously disgusting but in the dining room they serve brewed coffee that is very good.

Some yoghurt and toast and I am done :)
Breakfast and lunch seating is 'as you come' so we will have breakfast and lunch with different people each day. Morning one we had a lovely group and ended up chatting for long after our food was eaten.

After going to a talk about the ports we would be visiting we went to the tour desk to book in our tour in Okinawa, Japan. This will be the only port where we do something structured, the rest of the ports we have decided to wing it!

By then it was 11am and we had to rush off to Ellingtons Bar! I had registered for a Meet and Mingle with people from the Cruise Critic site and RCI put on canapes and juice and hand out lucky door prizes and gifts for attending, of course you also get to meet other people and we chatted to a nice guy from Germany for a while before rushing off again for lunch :)

The night before we received an invitation to a special honeymooners lunch so at 12pm we went and met with the coordinator. There was another couple there as well, Salvador and Valerie from Mexico, and we were escorted to a private table with private waiters :)

Free bottomless Mimosas set the mood and we spent a few hours eating a very leisurely lunch before our waiters wheeled out an amazing cake and sang to us!

There was not much of the afternoon left but we managed to squeeze in a trivia session where we failed pretty badly ;)

Tonight was formal night so we dressed up for our leisurely dinner in the MDR followed by a show called Gallery of Dreams in the Savoy Theatre and then I was ready for bed!

Asides: While meeting with the coordinator we met the penguins from Madagascar! Of course I had to get a photo!

Setting an alarm for 6am just felt wrong but to get the most our of our day in Vietnam we needed to have an early start! We had booked a transfer into Ho Chi Min City and were just going to explore by ourselves :)

Quick breakfast (not so nice people to chat to this time, good Lord some people will complain about anything!) and we were off!

The scenery from the bus reminded me of Port Vila, or at least the smaller suburbs just outside. Small concrete or corrugated iron shops with bags of garbage out the front waiting to be collected. No manicured lawns or pretty yards here, just kilometre after kilometre of the same thing. Strangely though, hidden behind many of the grotty little shops were what looked like pretty terrace houses, would have loved to have got a closer look.

Ho Chi Min is the city with 5 million motorbikes and crossing the road here is an art form! There are pedestrian crossings here but they, like most of the traffic lights, are completely ignored! Even when we had a policeman stopping the traffic so we could cross, the bikes just swerved around him and kept going!

We visited the replica Notre Dame, and then went and saw the Reunification Palace. This is the place that marked the end of the Vietnam War, when the tanks of the North Vietnamese Army rolled through the gates and forced the surrender of the South.
It was very interesting to see the Command Rooms in the Basement along with the very plush upper rooms that have been so well preserved.

I was a bit nervous about going to the War Museum and while we were outside looking at tanks and planes I was fine. Inside was another story as there were 3 floors of rooms that had pictorials describing various phases of the war. Some of the pictures were too gut wrenching for me and I had to leave :(

We were determined to try real Vietnamese food and visited the Ben Thanh Markets, there were some food stalls there that looked great but the overpowering smell from the nearby fish market drove us out pretty fast!!
We found a local restaurant and shared a variety of dishes that were wonderful! My favourite was a pickled cabbage dish.

We had also heard that Vietnam produces some of the worlds best coffee so after lunch we found a coffee shop and ordered a couple of local coffee drinks and I now have to agree, Vietnam produces amazing coffee! If you see some in your local shops buy it, you won't be disappointed :)
We also tried some Vietnamese ice cream, not to my taste but Nathan thought it was okay, I think our flavours were strawberry and taro :p

The drive back to the ship was uneventful, filled with the same scenery of shop after shop after shop and with an Illusionist Show to look forward to after dinner our day was complete :)

The cruise begins!

What can I say about Mariner of the Seas except WOW! This ship is amazing!

I'm sure there are ships that are bigger and better but I have never been on one. Compared to the Pacific Dawn this place is a floating palace!

As this was the first voyage for this ship on this itinerary it was very hard to get a cabin. When we booked in December of last year there was only one cabin left, a Junior Suite. Nathan and I always cruise in the cheapest grade of cabin, an inside, so this was a huge splurge but if we wanted this sailing (and I REALLY did!) then we had to upgrade.

When we woke up yesterday morning and looked out of our hotel window we could see the Mariner at the dock and she dwarfed the Marina!
After a quick Asian style breakfast (mmm prawn dumplings and lotus buns!) we finished packing our bags and headed down to the lobby to wait for our transfer.

At this point I will complain about our travel agent. From the start to the finish of this booking she was crap! I wish I could say something good about her but if there was a mistake to be made, she made it. Everyone knows that Nathan and I plan and book our holidays ourselves but this time, as we were living in Vanuatu and needed visas for this journey and she told us she could do all the work for us, we decided using a TA would be less stressful. How wrong we were! And in the end we got the visas ourselves anyway.

This was only a minor annoyance but if you have hotel checkout at 11am and ship checkin at 11.30am why would you book the transfer for 9am?

Lucky there was free WiFi at the Marina to keep us amused while we waited.

Then there was the bonus of getting to checkin a bit earlier and be one of the first on the ship because of Suite Privileges....oh yeah!

So after a very painless checkin and immigration check, we had our photos taken and walked onto the ship! There were only a couple of places open as the staff were all busy cleaning up after the last cruise so we chose to go to the Windjammer Cafe, the buffet area on Deck 11, grabbed a table by the window and had a cold drink while watching the very busy Singapore Harbour. Unlike P&O, RCI does supply free drinks other than water so we could choose from iced tea, real lemonade, and flavoured waters like kiwi strawberry, lemon and lime and mango. All very nice!

The buffet spread was amazing and I couldn't resist going to the make your own section. All the ingredients are there to make your own hamburgers, hotdogs and sandwiches and my hotdog was great! We sampled a couple of other things like the Honey Stung Chicken (getting this recipe!) and a few of the small cakes for dessert. At some point Nathan will make a Big Mac, they have the special sauce there!

At 1pm the cabins were opened and we got our first look. Again, just WOW! A huge room with a King size bed, tv, coffee machine, sitting area, large ensuite with bath, walk in wardrobe and a balcony with a sunlounge, 2 chairs and a table.

We quickly dumped our bags and headed off to explore! Straight up to the top of the ship (Deck 16 I think?) and we found the Chapel, down a level and we were on the sports deck. Basketball courts, inline skating, rock climbing wall and mini golf! Nathan and I will definitely be coming back up here!

Deck by deck we explored, the Promenade was stunning, cafes, pubs and shops, you wouldn't believe you were on a ship walking along the brick paths!

Feel like ice skating? The ice skating rink is open every day!

Want some quiet time? The Solarium is an adults only area with pool, spas, cafe and bar and I think we will also be spending some time here :)

The main dining room spans THREE decks! We booked My Time Dining which means we can go to dinner whenever we choose rather a set time. MTD is in Deck 5 in the Sound of Music dining room. So plush, filled with chandeliers, purple velvet seats, gleaming glassware and very attentive waiters.

At 6pm we were due to sail away so we poured a couple of glasses of Pedro Ximinez and sat on our balcony to farewell Singapore :)

Then a quick change of clothes and off to dinner!

Dinner was 3 courses and every one was lovely :) I forgot to take my camera but for all my foody friends I will try to remember tonight.

After all the excitement and walking up and down the stairs of the ship at least 6 times (dear God!) I was tired and decided an earlyish night was in order. Back in our cabin there was an envelope on our bed, we have been invited to a special Honeymooners Lunch today!

Beautiful Singapore

My first impression of Singapore was how clean it is! 
The airport procedures were fast and simple and we were on our way to the hotel in no time :)
The Swissotel The Stamford is a lovely hotel.  From the moment we walked in we were impressed.
Our bags were taken from the car and we didn't see them again until they were delivered to our room.  We also had a lovely surprise when the person checking us in told us we had been given a free upgrade to the Executive Club which included a private checkin on another floor, free internet, Executive Suite, choice of public or private dining room for breakfast and snacks and cocktails in a private room from 5-8pm!

After a fantastic nights sleep we went down to the public dining room for a buffet breakfast.  While I started with the traditional omelette and bacon I quickly changed to the Asian options as they were so good!  Lotus buns, chilli chicken, seafood dim sims, chicken and veg rolls, rambutans, lychees, cheese and amazing fresh juice.
I think tomorrow's breakfast I will skip the western choices and use all my stomach space for the Asian goodies!

Breakfast over we headed off to be tourists!  First stop was a ticket for the HOHO (Hop On Hop Off) Bus.  A great way to see all the sights in comfort!
After doing both set routes we were ready for our first Hop Off and visited Chinatown and a couple of temples, one Hindu, one Buddhist. 

A nice leisurely stroll took us to the river area where we saw lots of water ferries, if we had time we would have done one of these tours but the day was getting on and we decided to head off for a late lunch.

Found a Yum Cha restaurant that looked pretty good and what a great choice that was!
We then decided to buy an assortment of cakes and sweets to take back to our hotel. 
I realised very quickly that I am lucky Chewy Junior is not available at home!  If it was I would probably be a candidate for Type 2 Diabetes in the near future ;)

After sharing a 6 pack of the above plus a couple of macarons and a chocolate tart there was no room for dinner...ah well we can eat healthy when we get back home!

So I sit here now, on a sugar high and can't help but plan coming back to this beautiful place.  So many things to do and we didn't have anywhere near enough time to do them.
Tomorrow we have an early morning, another excellent buffet breakfast and our driver arrives at 9am to take us to the cruise ship terminal...and then the main event of our honeymoon begins!

In Transit

Sitting here in the Mercure, full from a buffet breakfast and getting excited about the next leg of the journey!  Shuttle comes to get us at 10.20 to take us to the airport to check in for the flight to Singapore.

Yesterday's flight was smooth and uneventful.  Have to say that Air Vanuatu look after their passengers pretty well.  Lovely food and the champagne went a long way to helping me relax ;)

When we got to the Mercure the girl asked if we were on holiday and when Nathan replied that we were on honeymoon we got a free upgrade, great start to the trip!!

Time to zip up the suitcases and check out now!  Next stop Singapore!!

The Wedding

May 27th 2013 was an amazing day for me.  I know everyone thinks their wedding was the best wedding ever but I KNOW ours was :)
It's a week after the event and I am still smiling!

Most people won't know that our entire wedding was organised in one 2 1/2 hour flight from Brisbane to Port Vila and our vows were written in under 5 minutes.  Every part of the planning and lead up was easy and stress free and so was the day itself.

Surrounded by family and friends in an idyllic location, Nathan and I finally took our vows in a simple ceremony followed by a reception that was also simple but filled with joy and tears and laughter and dancing and love and food and firedancers and a flash mob.  
Perfect :)

 

We are lucky enough to live in Vanuatu and most of our guests came over from Australia and stayed between 4 and 11 days.  It was wonderful to have the time to catch up with everyone and show them our new home :)  I know the majority of you loved it and will be back again soon!

But now everyone has left and we are just 2 days away from the beginning of our honeymoon!
We hope you join us as we head off to Singapore then jump on the Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas for a 10 night cruise going to Ho Chi Min in Vietnam, Hong Kong, Naha in Japan, Jeju in South Korea and disembarking in Shanghai, China, where we will stay 3 days before returning home :)