Cruise to...Nowhere?

That's right, "Cruise to Nowhere". Sounds like a total waste of money but don't diss it till you try it! In a bid to somewhat save some of our lost tourism GDP, the government allowed two cruise companies to operate 2- or 3-night cruises to Singapore's open seas for local residents at half passenger capacity. Every passenger must carry a "trace together" token wherever they go, and the crew were extremely vigilant in ensuring all passengers complied with social distancing rules.  

My family went on the 3day/2night World Dream cruise in January, just after school reopened. This was the first cruise for all of us, and since we did not have tourists or families, our particular cruise only had about 800 passengers (~4,000 is max capacity!). As a result, the service staff treated us very well. We also didn't have to queue or pre-book the pool, restaurants, shows, and events. What a treat!

One of my brother-in-laws was actually in Singapore then but he couldn't go as he is not a Singapore resident. What a pity😩

We went for the upgraded balcony rooms because those were the only ones available, plus if we had to be quarantined, we wanted the more spacious rooms. We have ZERO regrets for this splurge. To sit out at night and be lulled by the sound of the sea...such peace and serenity is rare to come by. 

What we did:

THE POOL & WATER SLIDES

For crowd-control purposes, we had to book the jacuzzi and pool. But since there were so few people, we practically had two jacuzzi tubs and the entire pool to ourselves for a solid 45 minutes! There were also two water slides that that were fun, and brought me back to my childhood at the Sentosa water park (Fantasy Island).

SHOWS

• Sing-a-long to some classic "Oldies". Easy, simple, nostalgic fun.
• Magic show (duh...is it a cruise if there isn't a magician?) He was entertaining and pretty good. Photo of him below.
• (Free) Night-time laser show (set to Michael Jackson songs). There was supposed to be fireworks but they cancelled it on our leg. Guess it wasn't worth the cost with so few passengers. 
• My sisters and I also caught a gambling-bingo game. No one won the grand prize of some ridiculous number, but the consolation prize winner got over a hundred bucks. Enough to cover the cost of the tickets I guess😆 

VR CENTRE

We tried out the VR Centre, and my family had a grand time at the shooting game. But the roller-coaster ride (see below) was a let-down. 

This poor magician. He had a "fan meet" session, and even though we were 10 minutes late, we were still the first there. I'm sure he would be more popular if there were more passengers. We went there because of the promise of free VR Centre tickets, but of course, there is always a catch, right? We didn't end up using the "free"-with-conditions-tickets. 

MASSAGE & SPA

I know, probably one of the biggest rip-offs on a cruise, but my family enjoys splurging on massages during holidays. This cruise massage was relaxing but not the best. At least the package came with a sauna and steam room experience that was enjoyable. 

FREE CLASS

I went for the beginner ballroom dance class (the only one), and perhaps because it was at night and there were so few passengers, I was the only participant! It was embarrassing for me and the instructors. Thankfully my sisters joined me. We got a personalised, 45-min cha cha class, so that was nice. 

DINING

We ate at the complimentary restaurants, except on two occasions. The first was at the Japanese restaurant where we ate the shabu shabu. It felt good to eat such comfort food, especially because the complimentary Chinese restaurant was "meh". About $25/per pax for a filling portion. 

We also splurged on the fine dining Chinese restaurant. Not worth the extra money, but better than its free counterpart. 

The complimentary breakfast restaurant had decent breakfast food though! You can't go wrong with omelets, right? We also got a free ice cream for filling up a customer service form. 

WOULD I GO AGAIN?

Absolutely, with some conditions. 

• Sail during off-peak season when children are in school
• Get a balcony room or suite.
• Save up for the extra-cost meals because the free food gets old very quickly.
• Budget for the internet, which is not cheap. 

The "3rd day" also doesn't count since we docked back at 9am, and were off the ship by 10am. So it really was a 2day/2night trip. 

But I loved the experience and spending time with my sisters again. And someone with more discipline than me would certainly be able to not spend any money on entertainment. Did I mention there are plenty of movies and shows in the rooms for those who are room-bound? 

Overall, I had a wonderful virgin cruise experience, and would love to go for more! 

Floral Fantasy (at Gardens by the Bay)

Gardens by the Bay is famous for its two conservatories (and rightly so! They are so well-done). But I encourage Singapore residents to spend an extra $10 on its lesser-known sister, Floral Fantasy. Highly Instagram-worthy, and a good rest for your legs from walking around the park. It is a small exhibit, and I don't think the foreigner rate is worth it ($20 adult/ $12 child). But if you can get a resident to purchase the tickets, go for it! You are allowed to stay there for 45 minutes, and my mom and I relished every minute there when we visited in July.

I'm not good at photography but it was so easy to shoot naturally beautiful pictures at this venue.

The sight that greets you the moment you enter.

These hanging balls of flowers came up and down by a pulley. I tried to capture on video how magical it felt but the balls ended up looking like virus cells, so...

The exhibit seems to be divided into two sections, front and back. The front has the lovely summer flowers (at least this season) as those above. The back was more eclectic, and I believe the underlying message was to care for our environment and better manage our waste.  

Crocheted "Pitcher" bags and some other items made from recycled material.

The end transitioned into a forest-like area, complete with handing willows and a vivarium on endangered poisonous dart frogs.

It was SO COOL to spot these rare animals, and see how many we could find. 

I definitely want to go again, but next time, I'll dress up nicely and get a better photographer to take professional shots of me there.😄  

Gardens by the Bay: Glass in Bloom exhibition

 My mom and I visited Singapore's Gardens by the Bay (GBTB) this past Saturday. It amazes me that even though I've been there multiple times, there is always something new to see. In this case, it was Dale Chihuly's Glass in Bloom exhibition. 

I was first exposed to Chihuly's work when I visited the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas many years ago. The sight of the famous colourful glass ceiling is still imprinted in my mind, and you can imagine how delighted I was to find out about this GBTB exhibition. 

Warning: photos galore in this post. I didn't take every single piece of his works (and my photographing skills don't do justice anyway), but I took a lot.😁 The below are those I like more.

GBTB displayed Chihuly's work in 5 sections: 

1. Indoor Gallery
2. Outdoor "Gallery" (really the fields and mini-gardens at GBTB)
3. Flower Dome conservatory
4. Cloud Forest Conservatory
5. 3 of his works on public display for "free"

1. Indoor Gallery

For those familiar with  Chihuly's work, this section showcased his "Macchias", "baskets", "Ikebanas", works on paper, and glass art.  

Opening piece. Stunning right?

My favourite was (surprise) the glass paintings. They look "meh" until closer inspection when you realise they are actually layers of painted glass combined to reflect a certain look. My mom loved the top-left art piece because of the way the glass pieces reflect light onto the wall. 

2. Outdoor Garden in the fields and mini-gardens around GBTB

Chihuly's signature works are his Sun and Moon pieces. For this particular exhibit at GBTB, Chihuly created the Setting Sun (wonder how many other Suns there are...).

The Moon was situated in a field surrounded by bottle trees. This is my first time seeing one. How cute are they?

Obvious mastery in bending and shaping glass. One of his most famous pieces is the Ethereal White Persian Pond. Alas, my pictures of that piece turned out horrible so you will have to make do with Google.   

We also found these whimsical animal sculptures (by GBTB, not Chihuly) while walking around. 

Cute!

3. Flower Dome Conservatory

I have to confess that the pieces in the Flower Dome Conservatory were (personal opinion) nice-but-not-fantastic. But the way GBTB designed the display for his 1997 White Tower and 2013 Erbium Pink Fiori was very well-done. 

Looks like Setting Sun but a tower instead of a ball? Setting Sun looked cooler though.😅

That perfect dahlia. Also learned that the flower in the middle-row, far right is from the succulent Crown-of-Thorns. The stem is full of thorns, yet the plant still blooms such pretty flowers. As a Christian, I can't help but think that this plant holds deep symbolism. 

Chihuly's art displayed amidst a variety of bluebells. I don't know why but bluebells make me happy.

My mom loves succulents and pointed out these unusual looking ones.

I discovered a (new?) tiny spice and fruit garden. That space smelled amazing! There was also a wedding taking place when we visited. As I mentioned on Instagram, real-life "Crazy Rich Asians" for sure. There were ~100 guests, which meant every guest had to undergo Pre-Event Testing = a few thousand dollars more on PET kits alone! 

4. Cloud Forest Conservatory

My favourite piece:

Piece was suspended from the viewing bridge (see below pic).😲  

Caught the next rotating exhibition, which was on orchids, Singapore's national flower. Wasn't in love with this new exhibit but lots of unique orchids, such as the tiny orchids growing in bunches (they do that?) and the other tiny purple-white ones. Yellow ones in honour of my paternal grandmother who loved yellow orchids. 

Couple of his other pieces. Very cool but not my favourite, especially the green-spikey one which reminded me of a virus cell. Appropriate for our time but...not. And that's me with a sloth carved entirely from wood. Had to take a selfie because it was so cute and life-like!

For those who didn't want to pay, three of his pieces were on public display for free. Showing two of them here because I couldn't photograph the 3rd (Walla Walla) well. I LOVED these two pieces.

Slipped in a picture of some fuschias set against the Singapore Flyer because they remind me of Christmas, and I love Christmas. It was raining when I took that picture, but the weather cleared up later and turned HOT again.😰 Ah Singapore weather.

I loved the experience and thought it was money well-spent ($30 for the complete package for adults). And there was hardly anyone despite being a Saturday. It was a nice bonus for us, but this probably means the exhibition cost GBTB a financial loss. There is no way they recouped the money shipping these pieces from Seattle to Singapore with only locals paying to view this exhibit. Another casualty of the pandemic. 

I'm glad I caught this before it ended, and hope to one day visit the Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle when international travel is available again.