Adventure on the Legend of the Seas - Part VI : Outing to Kuala Lumpur

*** Excursion to Kuala Lumpur, Part I ***

Our adventure on the Legend of the Seas included two land tours excursion. The ship will stop at Port Klang (KL) and Phuket for passengers to have a short getaway. That's so fun right? You are on a holiday and you get two mini holidays included!

There was a whole long list of land excursion that you can purchase. If you are a shopaholic, you can join the tour that brings you around the shopping malls in KL. For those who are into photography, you can visit Batu Caves, Museums and many other iconic tourist attractions around KL. You can read about what the other bloggers went to.

I saw an option called "On Your Own" and asked Catherine if she's interested to go for it. She was equally excited and we signed up for it. On your own means we can go meet our KL friends who have visited us in Singapore recently!

I was so excited! I MSN-ed and Whatsapp them saying  'ayam kambing' (I am coming!)
(a Malaysian joke to Malaysian bloggers, maybe some of you might understand too). 

Later we found out that the day we were visiting them was a public holiday in Malaysia! Woo hoo! They were there was no excuse for them not to meet us! We booked their time!

* getting out of the ship to Port Klang *

By the way, when you sign up for land excursions, please note that it departs really really early! The meeting time was 7:15AM! On my normal work days, I have just woken up!

Set your alarm clocks (note the plural!). It's very hard to wake up early on a cruise! We can't be late or we will be left behind. I woke up early. Showered and went to grab a quick bite first and met the rest at Anchors Aweigh.





Getting out of the ship was super duper easy! Inserting our SeaPass card to the machine at the 'aerobridge' equivalent of the ship and we were out! No need for passports etc! Immigration clearance has been done for us!

We walked into the Port Klang Cruise Centre and the excursion buses were waiting for us.

* buah tangan - Tetsuya's products  *

Just like how some of us in Singapore bring gifts when we visit friends as a courtesy, we also brought some gifts for our Malaysian friends.

New word to learn. In Malaysia, when you visit friends and present them a gift, that 'gift' is called a "buah tangan".

I thought some Singapore products like Tiger Balm, Prima Taste would be good gifts from Singapore, but these products are sold in Malaysia! There's another uniquely Singapore gift that I can bring. Bottled New Water would be so uniquely Singapore. But that would be telling them, hey, wanna try our recycled piss.

These folks we were meeting were food connoisseur. Getting some food related gift is a better idea. I recently ate at Tetsuya's Waku Ghin and thought something from Tet's would be a nice gift.




I got down to Fairprice Finest at Bukit Timah the day before the trip to grab some Truffle Salt and two bottles of their vinaigrette for salad and rice. I did not know who will eventually turn up, so only 3 gifts. Whoever we meet first gets it!

It's a good gift for bloggers who are worth their 'salt' right? 


If you guys are interested in different kind of salt, I saw in Isetan Orchard recently that they have other kinds of Truffle Salt too. So if you have seen or heard of them and want to try them, head down to Isetan. ;-)

* dropped off at Lot 10 *

We felt like kids being dropped off at the school gate in the morning. 'Mummy' said, enjoy yourself in school today. I will be back at 2.30PM to pick you up! Behave in school!
 The trip from Port Klang to KL was so smooth. It was probably because it was a public holiday and everyone was sleeping in! We reached Lot 10 so early that the mall was not opened yet!




Debenhams! They have Debenhams in KL again! (I think it came, closed down and is now back)
Is Debenhams ever coming to Singapore I wonder? If they do, will they have the UK prices I wonder.

Ya, it's kind of the old school brand, but their stuff in UK is cheap during sale. Sis and I was in UK less than 6 months ago and we discovered the joy of window shopping there. LOL While sis looked at clothes, I was at the Kitchen section looking at Le Creuset, Jamie Oliver's kitchen gadgets and Nespresso machines. They are way way cheaper than what we can get in Singapore!

* strolled to Pavillion *

We were naughty kids. We did not attend school at "Lot 10" today. We bypass the prefects and sneaked out of school! The two of us went shopping instead at nearby Pavillion!

We always hear about our KL friends tweet about Pavillion, always tweeting about having breakfast, tea, lunch or dinner here. So we took a short walk there. We were too early again and the security guard did not want to let us in. (was it because we were in school uniforms?)

* breakfast at The Loaf *

What can we do before 9 am in KL? Breakfast! We saw Tun Dr Mahathir's The Loaf!  I thought it was only available in Langkawi, but it seems they have a branch here too!

Catherine and I decided to have our breakfast at the al fresco area and people watch! People watch we did. I can even tell you the person on the bottom right of the photo works for Tangs! Their uniform is the same as in Singapore. LOL.




It's good to have Catherine as a companion. Both of us like to eat! We can order and order and eat!
Here's her coffee and my hot lemon tea. They are quite big mugs too!




The two naughty kids, after escaping from school and went to the shopping mall, we were hungry and the two kids sneaked into "The Loaf" to eat. Mummy always complain when we ask her to bring us here. Her usual nag: "Ah Boy and Ah Girl ah, money not easy to earn one, don't pick so many things ah. One each is enough. Nice food one piece is enough"


Since we already planned to sneaked out of school, we brought out money from our piggy bank. Without mummy around, we just picked all the delicious treats that we wanted to eat! Yey!

The Mixed Nut Danish (MYR4.90) had was filled with cashews, almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts and walnuts. What glued it together was ooey gooey caramel! A little icing sugar strips made it more dainty! If you go nuts over nuts,  you should order this!





This was something that we could not resist when we saw it. A pool of melted chocolate!
This was the Chocolate Croissant. (MYR4.90)  Take a bite of it and the chocolate flows out! Chocoholics rejoice!


Just be careful eating it. Mummy won't be happy if we returned home with our clothes filled with chocolate. She would have suspected that we did not attend class! Mummy has a sharp nose, she will know that those were expensive chocolate stains. Not the chocolate we buy from the school canteen.




This was the Red Bean Walnut Roll. (MYR2.90) This Japanese inspired bread shop has a slightly different rendition of the usual red bean roll. A very nice rendition of it though!





The best seller of the shop! The Cranberry Cheese (MYR3.60).
I heard people buy them by the loads!




It's like having cheese cake, bread, munching on dried cranberries all in one mouth.
Tun Dr Mahathir should bring in a branch of The Loaf to Singapore! I will be one loyal customer!

* where to find free internet *

After we finish our breakfast, we wanted to find a mobile shop so that we can purchase a mobile prepaid SIM card. While looking around, we were distracted when we saw Starbucks! When techies see Starbucks, it's either coffee or wifi! The Starbucks in KL provides free wifi! High speed wireless it was too! I just realised I forgot something! I did not do a speed test to measure the speed while I was there!

I kind of missed my (free!) fibre speed wifi at home. It feels so good to be connected again and with free and fast wifi!

We later bought our prepaid card with the help of our KL friends. We got the prepaid SIM card from  Digi. Digi seems to be offering a very good deal. Unlimited data use for only MYR5 a day! That's around SGD2.15 a day compared to roaming rate of SGD15 a day if you are on Starhub. (or a huge bill when you are on other telcos from Singapore.)

Techies need to get connected. The prepaid was so that we could stay connected while on the ship when we are sailing near Peninsula Malaysia. haha... You get Malaysian telco signal on and off during the whole cruise. A tip for net addicts!




If you are shy to just use the wifi, you can always buy a drink and sit on the table. I am too shy to rip their internet off and I also did not want to stand leaning on a pillar to check email. I bought a drink and proudly sat down on the comfy chairs. (and inside the shop instead of outdoors so that I can get connected with air conditioning comfort)

Both Catherine and I sat down to read and reply our emails, tweeted and replied tweets, catch up on Facebooks, send chat with people on Whatsapp.  Time really flies! It was suddenly 11 AM and we had to go back to Lot 10! Our KL friends are meeting us there! More about that in the next post coming right up!

p/s Citrus Crush was nice. ;-p

Adventure on the Legend of the Seas - Part V: Night Entertainment on Board

This post is part of a competition I am entering. If you think I deserve to win the the Grand Prize which is a cruise 7D5N Western Mediterranean Fly-Cruise on board Liberty of the Seas, please visit http://contest.omy.sg/royal-caribbean/ and vote for me! You stand to win prizes too!

*** Night Entertainment on Board *** 

If you are wondering if there's anything to do at night on board the cruise, oh yes, there is!
Here are some of the things you can do while on the cruise. A compilation of the places I roamed on board the Legend of the Seas during the night.

* Theatre Show *

Every night after dinner, there's a musical theatre show that you can enjoy. The performers above were from the Royal Caribbean Dancer and Singers troupe. These people were superb!

There was a magic show too.  We were quite entertained by David Dimuzio that could sing in Chinese. Knowing that majority of the crowd were from China and Singapore, David sang "Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin" 月亮代表我的心. The Singapore and China crowd of course clapped enthusiastically for him. You can watch a version of him singing his 'ang moh' chinese on Youtube here.




Every night, there's a different production. Their repertoire's good too!
The photo above is taken on the second night.

Yes, if you notice, it's a live band playing the music. For a while, I thought I was in the "Singapore Durian Theatres".





Most folks come here after their formal dining. As there are two formal dining sessions, the shows here repeat few hours later for the second set of diners.

They were doing the soundtracks from the shows of yesteryears. It's always nice to listen to live music and you can see some of the audience stand up and start dancing and clapping along.

* For the above 18s, disco *

If you are above 18, right on most top floor of the cruise, there's the Viking Crown Lounge. During the night, there's the Salsa Hour, Karaoke, Late Night Music with DJ Storm.

People raising their hands and shaking their bon bons around. They were mostly women gone wild after looking at skin of the man the bartop.




These three photos are of the 2nd night, where there's a special performance by "The Macho, Macho Man". Man with great body, nice abs with no top on dance and gyrate along with the disco music. These guys were doing the "YMCA" on the bar top.




You see the lady on the left bottom of the photo above? An old lady with a hunchback can't resist not coming here! Oh, some of these ladies.... I shall say no more. Ask Darren by roommate, he was dancing with them.

* Class Reunion *

You can just stand and watch people sing and dance if you want. This was the Farewell Night.
On other nights, they play dance music here and you can dance your night away.

I watch it for a while and it looked like a game show!

* Exercise *

I told you there are exercise freaks on board right? People who ate healthy and exercise all the time.

It's past 8 pm and there are still people on the elliptical bike in the Fitness Centre. I wonder how long they were going to exercise for!

* Movies *

There were movies shown every night too. You can catch up on movies that you have missed here. It's free of charge too. We wanted to catch Salt, but was too busy with other things arranged by the Omy and Royal Caribbean folks for us.

Hmm. I wonder if popcorn was provided with the show!

* Library * 

There's actually a library on board. It is quite well equip too!




We spotted a guy reading in the library late at night. I wonder how long he has been there reading! There you go, night entertainment for bookworms on board.

Calvin and Estelle were posing as bookworms reading while I took photos of them. (You can see it in their post) I think we were a bit noisy, but this guy did not seem bothered and continue reading.

* Karaoke *

For those who love Karaoke, there's a karaoke room too! You can order your drinks and sing your night away here!

* Video Games * 

There's a small video games room too. We did not see anyone after midnight here. Probably the kids were all in bed now. There were quite a few people playing them in the day time though.

* Optix * 

Aha, my partner in crime roaming around the ship late at night. Calvin and I were 'chased out' from the Optix! It's a teenager hang out place and the a member of staff came to us when we were playing Foosball.

She politely said, this place is reserved for teenagers and gave us a big wide smile. We got the hint. Oh man, do we look that old?!?! The uncle at the hawker or food centre still call me 'ah boy' you know!

* Eating *

For some people, their favourite night activity was just eating! This photo was taken at 12:01 midnight. There's still food being served and yes, there were people eating away! You can snack here till 2 am!




I asked for a slice of pizza to eat so that I can photograph it. :-)


Other than the above, there are many other night entertainment too.
- There were many people visiting the shops on board. It's duty free!
- Some who might have exclusion orders from the two IRs in Singapore, might be spending their time in the 'you know where' on the cruise too.

There you go, some of the night entertainment for those who only become alive after the sun sets!


This post is cross posted at: http://blog.omy.sg/royal-caribbean/2011/01/05/night-entertainment-on-board-legend-of-the-seas/

Adventure on the Legend of the Seas - Part IV: Going vegetarian on board

This post is part of a competition I am entering. If you think I deserve to win the the Grand Prize which is a cruise 7D5N Western Mediterranean Fly-Cruise on board Liberty of the Seas, please visit http://contest.omy.sg/royal-caribbean/ and vote for me! You stand to win prizes too!

*** Some behind the scenes shots ***

This is my 4th post about the Royal Caribbean Cruise. Holidaying on a cruise can be so fun and entertaining. Since I took so many shots of my new friends hard at 'work', I shall post a few of them here.




Yee Leong (http://yiliang-room.blogspot.com) hard at work.
Visit his blog if you can read Chinese.




Darren (http://celebratelah.wordpress.com) and his super big lense!
Cherie uses an iPhone4 to take photos! An iPhone blogger! (http://cherielee.wordpress.com)




Eunice (http://travelerfolio.com) has this 'white' camera that you can't miss.
Calvin (http://www.calvintimo.com) uses the Canon S90/S95 that momo uses too.




Catherine (http://www.camemberu.com) has this huge flash that makes her photos superb! She fixed her flash on my camera once and wow the photos comes out so nice even in dim areas!

*** Vegetarians, there's a vegetarian menu on board too! ***

If you are a vegetarian and wonder if they serve decent vegetarian food on the cruise, the answer is yes! I was quite impressed with the vegetarian food served too.

In fact, for one of the nights, I ordered everything listed as 'vegetarian' on the menu, even the desserts! It was rather tasty and I shall just tempt you with the vegetarian dishes for this post.




If you like your bread, which by the way was freshly baked daily on board the ship, they provide a good selection. You can have your bread plain like how I usually have it or you can dip it in Olive Oil mixed with Balsamic Vinegar.




Some like their bread with butter. They use the US brand Grassland here. It's good to note that the ingredients only has cream and salt. Nothing that only a chemist will understand.

* Vidalia Onion Tart *

This is sweet vidalia onions combined with nutty Gruyere cheese, then baked in a buttery crust, served with leek fondue and sauteed red pappers.

The description on the menu already makes you salivate doesn't it? A nice tart for a starter.

Vidalia onions are unusually sweet onions grown in Georgia, USA. Only onions that is grown in certain areas in Georgia can be called Vidalia onions. (Just like Champagne from France)

* Grilled Mediterranean Quesadilla *

Melted Monterey Jack cheese and vegetable sandwiched in a warm tortilla and served with a tomato-cilantro salsa.

This stuff was really good, not only I said it, the rest who ate it says it was good too!

Just for fun: Tortilla is pronounced tor-TEE-yah.

* Strawberry Pavlova *

Crispy meringue coated with fresh cream and topped with strawberry compote.
Sweet and delightful!

* Spinach Salad *

Fresh spinach leaves with plum tomatoes, sliced mushrooms and toasted sunflower seeds.
It looks so good doesn't it?


There you go, vegetarian options on the menu and the vegetarian selection changes daily too. Interesting selection right? Now, where can I get Vidalia Onions in Singapore? I feel like having that tart now!