Family Cruise

The entire family went on a three day two night cruise in Dec. We spent some quality family time, but the entire experience was terrible from boarding the ship to disembarking. We booked three rooms, and our parents' cabin turned out to be the crew cabin! We took almost two hours to get the room sorted out. Meal times were war times; either we were booted out to queue while watching others strolled in without queuing or our tables were double booked. 

I wouldn't say the crew service was bad but the entire ship just did not seem to be ready to take on guests; the ship came out from Sembawang Shipyard just a day before after their refurbishing exercise. 

Check out the jacuzzi... Not a real good photo to start the blog with..

Well not all are bad, we did have some fun time :)

The kids had the best time, since they were blissfully ignorant of the dirty pool water and our grudges about the ship. Our parents had a good time too, though I think any family-together time is happy time for them.

Beatrice, Clare and Felix ~ the precious babies of the family

The first night was extremely tiring, after the room and the dinner saga. My sister and I retired to bed pretty early at about 10pm. One of the nieces slept in with us. The bed was not that comfortable, I woke up with rashes the following morning... 

After breakfast, we spent an hour or so walking around the deck. Thereafter we went off to the casino with our parents. We hung around for a couple of hours, and went for lunch. I sneaked off in the middle for my camera, and took a picture of the room and myself!

Later part of the afternoon was spent watching the kids at the pool while brother and me wondered off to work our cameras *smile*. 

After the kids showered, we went for dinner. Again the queue and the double booking of tables. Beatrice, our eldest niece, was a gem during meal times. She would help to queue for food and drinks, and bring these back to the tables for everyone. 

Night came and more strolling, haha! There was really not much of activities that were real exciting and fun on board. I guess most were here for the casino? The highlight of the stroll was a sea cockroach along the deck! Felix was so excited over it; he almost went crawling on the floor with it!

I wish I could say the trip was fabulous and everyone had a good time. When it was time to disembark, I was so happy to be sleeping in my own bed that night!

To be fair, I wrote to the cruise company on our experience a couple of days later, and as part of their  generous service recovery, they offered us another round of cruise at their largest ship. We have yet decide if we would go for the second round because it meant another round of scheduling coordination for 11 persons.

Family time never come easy especially when it involves three generations. Making the special effort is totally necessary but well worth it; especially for our parents.