The Holiday Begins

I was awake at 3.20am on Friday – excited at the prospect of going on our holiday, and worried that I might have slept in. I had booked a limousine to take us to the airport at 5.30am and was also worried that it might not arrive on time. What did I do at that hour of the morning? I spent some time getting the photos I took of Isabelle at her swimming lesson, ready for posting on line and also put together a short video of her swimming lesson.
Deb woke around 4.00am and we had a cup of tea and got ready for the trip.
The car arrived on time, and the driver got us to the airport in one piece and on time.
Checking in had been done on-line along with seat allocation, so it was just a matter of checking the suitcases – luckily they were not overweight, then going through immigration and security fairly rapidly. As usual I had to take off my shoes, and have the female security officer run the scanner over me because of all the metal I carry in my knees and hip.
Soon we were on board, and ready to leave. The aircraft was only about half full, which meant Deb and I had four seats to ourselves which was nice to be able to spread out.
The flight was fairly unevenful. Singapore Airlines was well staffed, and the food was very nice. I managed to watch “Slumdog Millionaire” while on route, and tried to watch a couple of other films – but found them very boring.
We arrived at Singapore in pouring rain, which made for an interesting landing. Changi airport has been extended. There are now three terminals. We had arranged for a wheelchair for Deb on arrival, and it was fortunate that we had done this, as the walk from where we arrived to the arrival terminal, immigation, customs and baggage claim was incredible. They have a little monorail that runs between terminals, and that helps cut down some of the walking but not much.
When we had finally finished with arrivals, we took a taxi to our hotel. The Fullerton. What a beautiful hotel! The building used to house the General Post Office of Singapore, and had been restored, and fitted out most luxuriously. Our room was on the 5th floor, looking out on the central atrium. We took photos of the room to show everyone.
Deb and I needed an afternoon rest after being awake so early and the long flight, so fell into our beds for a couple of hours. When we got up again, we went exploring – Singapore had changed immensely since we had last been there in 2001, and we hardly recognised any of it. So much building going on! There doesn’t seem to be a recession happening here. We took quite a few photos and wandered around for 3 hours, then found an Chinese restaurant where we had dinner. It was really delicious, and not too high in Kilojoules. After that we wandered back to the Hotel, and a much needed sleep.
On Saturday we woke fairly early, went down for our breakfast (included in the room charge) and had some delicious Bircher Meusli, yoghurt, fruit and tea. We took some photos and then decided to walk down through Chinatown, and see what had changed in that area.
It was very interesting to see the gentrification of the area. Many of the shophouses have been restored and beautified, and really look lovely. We saw the Mosque, Hindu Temple and Buddhist Centre, and browsed the shops.
We returned to the hotel to check out at midday, then went to Boat Quay to have a traditional Singapore Chilli Crab meal for lunch. It was marvellous!! Deb and I really enjoyed it and only just made it back to the hotel to collect our luggage and take a taxi the the Cruise Centre to join the QM2.
Getting on board turned out to be quite a “bun fight”. After dropping off the suitcases and bags, we were sent to a long queue to go through immigration. This was very poorly organised, as we were handed three forms to complete before going to the officers for processing. Deb filled in the forms, while trying to negotiate the queue and I carried the bags. It was really stressful. After this we had to go down to catch a bus to be taken to the Container Terminal where the QM2 was moored.
Eventually we got on board, and found our cabin. At least that was as requested. It is quite large, with a well fitted bathroom for a disabled person. However, we discovered that our request for a late meal seating in the Britannia Restaurant, and our request to have a table for 2 hand not been met. We were advised to consult with the Maitre d’ and request a change at the 6pm sitting.
At 5.00pm we had to attend a safety practice drill on how to wear the life jackets, and escape from the ship if need be. That was interesting to say the least.
At 6.00pm we consulted with the Maitre d’ regarding our table allocation, and we were fortunate to be able to change to what we had originally requested.
So we returned to the deck 7 to watch the ship leave Singapore. It was late leaving because a couple of passenger’s flight had been late arriving, and the ship had waited for them. It was lovely out on the deck, and I took some more photos.
At 8pm we went to dinner – managed to control the urge to eat all the fattening foods on offer, and ordered low Kj foods – but did have a desert.
We decided that we didn’t have it in us to go dancing or raging at the nightclub, and retired for the night. We organised morning tea to be delivered to the cabin on a regular basis, as there are no facilities to do this ourselves.

Sunday 15 March 2009
I was awake at 5.30am, and Deb woke soon after. We showered and dressed before the tea arrived. Then went up on deck to watch the sun rise. Then joined the walkers for the ‘round the deck walk. Three laps = 1.1 mile. I decided to do some washing in the on board laundrette, so walked about another mile trying to find it, and then discovering that it wasn’t open until 7.30am. However, while having breakfast – I managed to get it washed and dried.
After breakfast we joined an orientation tour of Decks 2 and 3 where all the “action” happens. These two decks have the theatres, planetarium, bars, restaurants, shops, etc. located throughout the two decks.
We managed to collect tickets to the show at 1.00pm in the Planetarium on “Cosmic Collisions”.
After the tour, we returned to the cabin, and I managed to get online with the QM’s internet café. Not easy. The reception is very poor by satellite. Still I was able to pick up a couple of emails from home.
I spent the afternoon transferring the photos from the camera to the computer and labelling them while still fresh in the memory.
We had decided to have lunch in the Kings Court – a restaurant made up of four sections – Italian, Asian, American and British foods. It was a complete “bunfight” – totally disorganised and terribly confusing to newcomers. The food was mediocre to say the least. It was also difficult to find a table, and as for getting a drink of water – none of the machines worked. So much for a first class liner!!! It was worse than a hospital cafeteria, and much more disorganised.
After lunch we returned to the cabin for a rest, and to try to get on line again. No luck this time – probably due to the satellite or something. I have been writing this for the Blog in a word document, and when I am able to get on line, will just need to copy and paste into the Blog.
After the rest, Deb and I went up to Deck 9 – The Commodore Club – to a “Friends of Dorothy” meeting. Not many people showed up – just two others and us. The Commodore Club is a fancy Martini Bar, so I tried a “Tiramisu Martini” – really very nice. First alcohol we have had since boarding. I forgot to mention that we had a bottle of sparkling wine left in our room on arrival – but we haven’t drunk it yet. Just put it in our bar fridge – we may drink it later on.
Tonight we have an invitation to the Captain’s cocktail party, before the first Formal Dinner. So we shall be putting on our “glad rags” this evening. It should be interesting. More tomorrow on how it goes.