As I mentioned, our boarding time was changed from 11am to 4:30pm because of problems on the ship on the way to Singapore. So, we got up and mostly packed, then went out for breakfast. On the way it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to try the Singapore Flyer - the big ferris wheel down by the bay. I also thought that with so many delayed cruisers in town it might be booked out, but we decided to go and have a look anyway. As it happens, we had only a very short wait. The views over the city and island were really excellent, it was well worth the cost.
Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and took our suitcases to the cruise port via the MRT. Worked pretty well; although we had to catch two separate trains I think we only had to carry the suitcases up 6 steps, and only on an escalator once; the rest of the way was flat walkways and lifts.
Then, we got to the cruise port, and talk about chaos.
This was well after 2pm, but there were still heaps of people trying to leave the ship, plus of course get on and off the other ship in port. There were at least three places on the lower level called 'bag drop' but none of them were accepting bags; even though some people had been told upstairs to bring their bags down to the lower level.
Anyway, we fought our way upstairs and finally found the right place to leave the bags, and then we escaped; we went back to the train and back to Suntec City again.
We got back around 4:30 which was our supposed new boarding time, and inside the cruise terminal seemed almost more chaotic than before! They had started boarding; the new arrangement was boarding by deck starting from the top. When we arrived, they had already called all the decks above us, plus ours and the one below. However, there was just a huge group of people; we couldn't see any idea of where we were meant to go. We eventually got into the process though, starting with security. The couple in front of us caused a problem because they were trying to bring wine aboard - what they were doing would have been acceptable on a Princess cruise but not on Royal Caribbean. I also caused a delay; I was carrying 8 small cans of Diet Coke which is allowable, but with all the pushing and shoving I hadn't found a place where I could take them out of my backpack, so I had to do it at security. Anyway, we finally got through there, then fairly quickly up to and through the Royal Caribbean check-in. Then, they gave us a boarding card with a colour, and told us to wait. Just fascinating how badly this was organised. For each of the boarding colours there was a group of seats with a sign showing the colour, and the colour was also named on your boarding card. The colours included "Black" and "Silver" for example, and I could see those areas. However, the next three colours were three different shades of green - including "Lime" and "Mint" - but our colour was different again - "Green" - and there wasn't a "Green" area that we could see at all. Most people couldn't see the "Mint" area either, since the sign was turned around. And despite all that, in the end it didn't matter, because a little while later they called everyone who was there waiting, regardless of boarding colour. Next stop was immigration, where it looked like we should be able to go through the "Automatic" gates but they were stopping almost everyone from trying. Paul went through quite quickly, but I got caught up again because they were directing people to specific gates, two at a time. And, just when the lady in front of me was due to be seen, the Immigration lady decided to log off and leave, and it took quite some time for the new person to take her place. Then, the last stop along the way was just as you board the ship, where they scan the bar code on your boarding pass. Paul's again went through fine, but mine wouldn't scan, so she had to check my passport bla bla bla.
Finally though we got on board and found our cabin.
By this time it was almost dinner time, but because of all the delays they weren't trying to have formal dinner arrangements. We ended up having quite a nice meal in one of the restaurants anyway.
Then back to our cabin where we met our Cabin Steward, followed by the least organised Muster Drill I've ever attended. The map on the back of our door says quite clearly that we are required to go the drill via the emergency stairs just near our door. However, they remained firmly closed, so we went to the normal stairs instead. Not a person in sight until we got there. Then, we had to stand around watching the most inane, stupid safety video I've ever seen. Even the Royal Caribbean staff were apologising as we left....
However, never mind, we were finally on board and all good with the world.
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