Thursday February 23, 2023
Docked starboard to dock but port to the view of the town, on the opposite side of the same pier that we docked in last week. The big excitement was Anne got her Diamond Cunard pin and card, which is the highest level of frequent traveller benefit on Cunard for which one needs to have spent over 150 nights aboard the ship.
We returned for a nice day in Singapore, with the 900 guests who had got on a week ago, getting off the ship and another 700 embarking. Knowing the issue we had last time with the immigration, we left early as we were to meet Anne’s friend and co-worker Geok, when both worked for Citibank in Singapore a decade or so ago, for an early lunch. As the Cunard shuttle leaves you at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Center which is opposite the hotel, we agreed to meet at the hotel. We were fortunate that we were through immigration in a few minutes, so had time for an hour’s walk through the beautiful gardens, all on reclaimed land, that is the Marina Bay gardens. We met up with Geok and went up to the 57th floor of the Marina Bay Hotel, to the Italian restaurant LAVO. We had a grand time chatting and catching up on her family and activities since we last saw her 4 years ago. By 1:30 PM she had to leave and we made our way back to the ship on the shuttle.
Getting through immigration was quick and we were soon back in the cabin, tea in the Atlantic room and then changed as we were going back to the Marina Bay Gardens for the World Centenary Cruise Party. This is a party, thrown by Cunard for all guests who are doing the World Cruise and is usually quite exclusive and special. In 2016 it was at the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and in 2019, it was at a Rodeo in Buenos Aires, Argentina. So we were looking forward with excitement to seeing what was going to be done today. By 5 PM, as instructed, we were ready in the queue to get off the ship, go through immigration again and go to the party. The queue did not move and got longer and longer, snaking through the ship, blocking the flow of guests that were not going to the party, and all were getting a bit fidgety. As there were 930 guests doing the full 4 month voyage, it was 3 times more than usual and all were trying to get out. It turns out that Singapore immigration had computer problems so no-one was being let off. As time went by, some walked away while others queue barged and a Welsh man even started singing in Gaelic! After an hour queuing in the corridors of the ship, with little to no information, they started bringing out chairs for people to sit on and passing out water. The queue eventually moved up some 50 minutes into the ordeal, and stopped again with one more announcement about Singapore immigration. This was all the more frustrating as we had been told when we returned after lunch that our passports got a special orange sticker so we would not have to pass through immigration again! Well to cut a long story short we eventually got to the venue over two hours after we started queuing following a 7 minute coach ride!! The overall attitude of the crowd entering the venue was not great.
The beautiful venue is within the big shells that house a botanical garden we had visited last time we were in Singapore where there was a large room with small tables, barely accommodating 2 people each, but set up for 4 making for severe overcrowding. We now got into the queue for some Indian food and wine. There were only 2 people preparing the set dinner plates with food which made it very slow. Eventually after another 25 minute queue, we had some food, there were too few waiters serving wine so as each time they only had 4 glasses on their tray, they were gone before one could get to the 1/4 full wine glasses. The Captain Hall spoke about the 100 years that Cunard had being doing the world cruises, initially booked for American Express Members only, but there was a rowdy group of passengers in the back that spoke incessantly throughout the speech which was not only rude, but made it difficult for those of us in the front, to hear. He was followed by the Senior Vice President of Cunard, who spoke of the record number of passengers doing the World Cruise, again with many impertinent people talking through the speech. A 2 dragon dance then started the show and a large woman came out as Master of Ceremonies, trying to capture the audience, but failing miserably. As she progressed, she seemed to loose more and more of the audience to private chatter. She was followed by 2 women playing Chinese instruments which was the most professional part of the show. The large woman came out again, to sing, by which time many of the guests had started to walk out, some going into the botanical gardens, while we went to watch the show of the lights and music of the metal trees that are in the park and outside the venue. We had seen it from the top of the hotel last time, but this time we also heard the choreographed music and lights and enjoyed it even more. This was the only part of the evening that was worth the effort of going to the party and is free for all public to attend. However some of the Cunard guests were being unpleasant standing in-front of others and chatting during the show. After the 20 minute show, we tried to get back to the venue to see if the show was going on, but the ground staff said It was time to head back to the ship, and directed us to the coaches. The return shuttle service organization was a shambles appearing more like an angry football crowd charging onto a field to chastise a loosing team, rather than guests returning from what was billed as a glamour outs party! We hoped that the upcoming 4th time that day going through immigration would proceed smoothly. Anne went through the automated turnstile without a problem after a short queue, but Roger’s passport failed, despite being put into the machine by an immigration assistant, so had to queue up for the manual in person review. Finally, we got back on the ship after the very disappointing ordeal that was the World Centenary Party. We should have skipped it and it would have been a lot more fun. A real shame that a party that had the makings of being a highlight of the trip ended up as being a “low-light”.
Roger & Anne Travels 