Sea Days - Mar 3 & 4

Sea Day – Mar 3 

We had breakfast as usual upstairs at the buffet. Roy had called to see if we could get together to discuss some things, so we met them for breakfast. Tom & Cathy had been wanting to meet them and they happened to walk by, so I introduced them. Too funny, but Roy remembered sitting with them at a Luau in Hawaii in 2019. So, they didn’t realize it, but they already had met each other. 

There was a Pub Lunch today, so we had that for lunch. Tasty as always! We went upstairs for dessert, but as usual nothing different. 

It was a formal night and we had dinner in the dining room and got caught up with Gwen & Doug’s experience on Komodo. It was their first time, and they did get to see active dragons and a wild boar. He also shared that someone said they got video of a Komodo eating a deer. Now that would have been awesome! (though not sure the story is true as no one else on the ship has been talking about it) He also shared that there were a couple of wheelchair rescues, and a stretcher was brought for another. One lady’s blood sugar dropped, and luckily other passengers had some candies to give her. 

A lot of fuss on FB was made about how strenuous the trek was. Princess list’s it as “strenuous” and mobility challenged shouldn’t take the tour. Many people think they are able but really aren’t and go anyway. The walk really isn’t hard, but it would be for a mobility-challenged person or for people who can barely walk on the ship. The transferring to the boats to the Pink Beach could be tricky, but plenty of crew were there to assist. Knowing one’s limitations can be tough to admit. My private tour stated that you couldn’t be mobility challenged. 

Tonight, we had a different Production Show called What the World Needs Now. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen that one and of course for the smaller Pacific Princess show lounge it was scaled down. This dance troupe gets off in Singapore and a new troupe will get on. 

We went to the Strikeout Game show which wasn’t all that fun to watch. People who wanted to went down on stage and a song was played and they were asked which year it was released. The dates were like 2 years apart, so really just a guessing game. They played several rounds. 

One more Sea Day until Singapore. 

Sea Day – Mar 4 

The day started before breakfast when Greg got an email form our guide in Langkawi saying fellow city guides told her they have not been doing any cruise ship tours since there is an issue with the pier. Greg checked at the desk, and they told him we are still scheduled to go to Langkawi. He emailed the guide that the ship reports we are still coming. 

We had breakfast and a bit later the Captain comes on the intercom to report that we are not going to Langkawi due to pier issues and now we are going to Penang. So, I canceled our tour in Langkawi (one we were really excited about doing and I had been corresponding with Wendy our guide for many months) Then, with such short notice I had to find an available guide for Penang. We also were getting conflicting information on the actual time we were to be in port. First one told Greg we got in at 7:00a – 5:00p. Next time he asked it was 11:00a to 5:00p. Next time it was 11:00a to 8:00p. That turned out to be the real time. 

We visited Penang in 2013 and did a circle island tour which was fantastic. (Rick & Janie, you may remember we had some great street food that day) This time we don’t get in until 11:00 so that’s a difficult time to deal with. We are there until all aboard at 7:30, but most sites close at 5:00. I emailed all 14 guides on ToursByLocals in hopes I would find one. Most were booked, but I found a couple that were available, so chose one and proceeded to work out an itinerary. We ate in the dining room for lunch at a table for 2 so we could get back to the cabin to work the tour. Plus, we were given the paperwork to get our arrival cards for Singapore and that needed to be done online. It can be done 3 days in advance, so not sure why Princess had to wait until the day before to do it. No mention was made of needing our passports on shore. 

We went to dinner in the dining room. Roy and Rondi ate upstairs so it was just the 4 of us for dinner at the table. All the while Greg is getting emails on the tour. After dinner we worked out a basic itinerary and booked the guide for 8 hours (luckily it was the exact same price as the Langkawi tour so my group of 9 didn’t need to pay more money or have us refund anyone) Easy Peasy. My wonderful “go with the flow” group said they trusted me to put the tour together and they would just go with it. 

There was a crew talent show tonight and we really wanted to see that. We went to the early one but we got there too late to get a seat, so we came back to the cabin and finished up with the tour details and some things for India. I had been organizing for our over-land in India which I had to stop to deal with Penang. 

We went to the late show for the Crew Talent Show, and it was great as always to see some of the talented people that work here as their various duties. The first guy works in the dining room and he did sand art. (semolina from the ship was used) It was really cool to watch him create faces and designs and he swirled the sand around that was projected on a big screen above him. One guy played an unusual instrument that was very pretty. The rest were singers, and one guy played the piano and sang. Some were bartenders, deck crew and a security officer. One guy from Serbia could be a professional singer. 

It was late and my head was ready to explode from all the back and forth with tour guides and researching what to see and do. 

Tomorrow, we arrive in Singapore!