4/10 From the Ritz Carlton to the Seabourn Pride
The short version via pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mpquinn/Asia2010
The narrative version:
4/7 – 4/8 Dallas to Singapore
4/9 – 4/10 Singapore
4/10 From the Ritz Carlton to the Seabourn Pride
4/11 – 4/12 At Sea
4/13 – 4/14 Laem Chabang
4/15-4/16 Ko Kood and at sea
4/17 – 4/19 Ho Chi Minh City (Siagon)
4/20 Da Nang
4/21 – 4/23 Halong Bay
4/24 Hong Kong
4/25 Homebound
Service Specific Comments on the Asia trip
Brook feels to be near death again. She made it through breakfast fine, but now isn’t sure she will make it to the boat after her nap. The goal is to get from the Ritz to the boat as fast as possible.
We were supposed to have a summary of charges dropped off in the room in the morning. This didn’t happen, so I needed to go downstairs to check out. I check out, and all the room charges are there but none of the Virtuoso benefits are applied. This is not an insignificant amount of money, but the goal is to get to the ship fast.
Back up to the room. Brook is quickly as ready as she is going to be to leave. The plan is that I will take the luggage and get the cab while Brook hands in the keys. The cab should be loaded and she can walk outside and hop in the cab without delay. Good plan.
I am now carrying both carry ons and my laptop backpack downstairs to turn in the keys and grab a taxi. We get to the bottom of the elevator and someone offers to help with the luggage. Problem 1, he has no idea what I am talking about when I say the cruise terminal at the Harbour Front. Quickly, I become frustrated with the situation, and send him and Brook to get the taxi while I drop off the keys. The fucking bell man doesn’t need to understand where I am going, he needs to be able to wheel two carry ons 30 feet to the taxi line and tell the taxi driver Harbour Front. If I knew he was going to slow me down, I would have told him I didn’t need any help.
I hand in the keys, and luckily the girl who checked me out originally noticed me and explained I had already checked out to the girl I handed the keys to. The staff isn’t quick to catch on.
I hurry outside and we have a cab. Everything is new in Singapore except the cabs, and we got one of the originals. Oh well. The driver asks several times where we are going, and he understood Harbour Front, but doesn’t seem to know the cruise terminal. This doesn’t worry me in the least. Harbour Front is now Singapore’s largest shopping mall, so I am positive he knows where that is, and the address for the cruise terminal is 1 Harbour Front, so I am confident that he can drive to the end of the road that the super mall is on. He actually has no problem getting there, I think his real concern was he didn’t know if he wanted to get on the toll road with his jalopy, and he wasn’t exactly sure where to drop us off, since the largest mall in Singapore is very large. It cost less than $8 US to get there with tolls.
We get there, and a porter asks if we would like help with the bags. Now I don’t need any help, but Brook isn’t feeling well, and the porter knows where to go. Also, the porter was smarter than the doorman at the Ritz, so he got an $8 US tip, which is way more than what would have been appropriate. And humorously, he only had to port the bags about 25 yards. $8 doesn’t worry me, a one way ticket on Singapore Airlines back to the US worries me.
Clearing customs on the way out of the country was a breeze. No line, just walked up, handed them our stuff, had a Seabourn rep there if there were any questions and we were through. A little after customs, our tickets and passports were checked and we boarded, as which point Gigi (a French man, so say it with an accent), took my wet shoes from me (in a plastic Ritz Carlton bag) and carried them to checkin. Finally we had to wait in a line. Brook is holding up pretty well, and the “line” was only 2 couples ahead of us, with 4 stations handling checkin/ship IDs. Took around 10 minutes and we were guided by Gigi to the cabin. Our suitcase that was shipped ahead was nicely waiting for us on the bed! Our stewardess, Yolene, stopped by shortly to give us the tour of the cabin, offered us a nice bar of soap, champagne and canapés. Brook ate some of the fruit in the room and we unpacked. About 30 minutes later our carry ons (which we didn’t carry on to the ship) arrived and we unpacked those. Brook said she wanted to go on deck for the sail away, but that didn’t happen. Instead we watched from the window and quickly fell asleep.
Brook made it to the ship, but still didn’t feel better.