Asia Cruise

Date: January 20, 2019 – January 22, 2019
Location: Singapore

On January 20, 2019 we boarded the Celebrity Constellation for a 14-night cruise.

From the top deck of the ship there was a nice view of Singapore.

Typically, when we board a cruise ship the ship leaves the port late afternoon or early evening. The cruise was not scheduled to leave until the next day at 4:00 pm. We could get off the ship by 2:45 pm the following day. Food on the ship was included in the price of the cruise so we stayed on the ship for dinner.

We were seated at a table in the middle of the ship.

We stayed on the ship that night and watched the Garden Rhapsody Show from the cruise deck and went to the show on the ship. The Garden Rhapsody Show is better from the Supertree Grove in Gardens by the Bay, where we watched the show from the night before.

The next morning, since all-aboard the ship was not until 2:45 pm and the mandatory muster drill was after that, we got off the ship and went to The Southern Ridges. Southern Ridges is a series of parks that are connected.

Alexandra Arch

We did part of the Forest Walk on an elevated walkway.

We saw a tree with massive leaves. That is Brian’s hand compared to the leaf.

This is Henderson Waves. The walkway goes over Henderson Road and connects Mount Faber Park to Telok Blangah Hill Park.

We then took the subway to Bayfront and entered the mall that is part of Marina Bay Sands.

There is a waterway with gondola rides in the mall.

Inside the hotel, looking up.

We took an elevator to the top and were able to see the infinity pool.

There is a lookout point on top of Marina Bay Sands but we took a separate elevator up and no one stopped us. There is a gate where you need your hotel room key to get to the pool so we couldn’t go in there.

We got drinks at the top. They were expensive ($15-20 each) but the drinks cost about the same as if we had paid to go to the lookout.

From the other side of the building we could see Gardens by the Bay and the Flower and Cloud Domes.

As well as our cruise ship to the right.

We enjoyed Singapore as it was very clean and there were a lot of flowers everywhere. The 3 night we were there was not long enough to see everything that we wanted to.

After the ship left Singapore there was a Batak Challenge sponsored by Tag Heuer promoting their new brand slogan “Don’t Crack Under Pressure”. Batak tests your speed and co-ordination.  When the light comes on you hit it and another light will come on. In 30 seconds you could see how many you could hit.

Brian had the most for the passengers who competed with a score of 48. He won a bottle of champagne and a t-shirt. When we first entered our stateroom there was also a bottle of champagne for us from the art gallery.  The art gallery had a raffle the night we left Singapore and we won an art package with all of the small artworks.

We first saw this paining by Chris DeRubeis in January 2015 on a cruise.

We really liked the painting because Brian prefers red wine and I prefer white wine.

Photo from June 2017 Alaska cruise

We have looked for the painting on every cruise since we saw it. Chris DeRubeis also has a gallery in Lahaina, Maui. When we were in Lahaina in December the gallery had closed the day before for renovations.

We attended the art auction and were deemed “the most enthusiastic attendees” so we won another bottle of champagne. That brought us to 3 free bottles of champagne at only 3 days into the cruise.

At the art auction there was the Chris DeRubeis painting we had been looking for. The painting is called “Opposites Attract.” It is mixed media on aluminum with air-brush painting and hand ground surfaces. After talking about this painting for years, and how I wish I had bought it, we purchased the painting on the ship.