Friday, March 19, 2010

Cruise pointers from a 1st timer POV

This posting as I have said in my earlier posting, Im gonna talk about my experience 'free-style' cruising with Star Cruises.Basically, most things are not FOC but there are quite a lot of FOC facilities in the cruise. Instead of putting you people to sleep with my 'ular berlingkar' posting, its just gonna touch on major points only, ok? Bah lets start crapping LOL!
You will enjoy Star Cruises if
  • like to makan. Star Cruises offers you up to 6 meals per day inclusive in your cruise fare. But not all restaurants are included so dont simply go makan without reading the Star Navigator, otherwise you will have a very deep hole in your pocket to mend when checking out! If you are a Balcony Class or Admiral class, then you will enjoy dining credits min SGD$50 up to SGD$250, depending on how long is your cruise. Then you can makan puas2 till your dining credit finish. As the Cruise Director, Myla said 'Our objective in this cruise is to make you FAT after the cruise'. Just joking!
  • like to take pictures. Star Cruises have a lot of mandatory & voluntary photo sessions. When you are about to board you can take pictures with the mascots (was it a lion nope its a pirate arrr!). Not forgetting the monkey thats monkeying around! When you are having dinner thats another photoshoot, then another with the Thai lady when disembarking in Phuket, then with the captain, etc. There is a place in the cruise known as Photo Shop. Erm no Mizi it isnt Adobe Photoshop that you are good at. Its a place where so many photos that have been taken are displayed & you can buy them as a souvenir.
  • like to play game of chance. Not suitable for Muslims though these games, if you know what I mean. There are plenty of 'game of chance' opportunities during the cruise. You might as well win on your vacation. For me, I had won $50, not bad huh for a free lucky ticket haha!
  • like to play game. There are also a lot of games activities conducted during the cruise, eg Who Wants to be a millionaire.
  • like to watch shows. Star Cruises offers up to 3 magic shows, 1 paid show & 1 Gala night variety show + 1 show by the cruise staffs which is very entertaining during the cruise. There was a magician named Charles Bach who uses his 'laundry' to perform magic, more.
Some 'not so nice' pointers on Star Cruises are:
  • Barely no mobile connection detected throughout the journey except when you are near the port of call. So those that like to tweet, poke, chat, blog cant do so! Hey who cares you cant use mobile you are here to enjoy! 
  • No wireless internet. The only place that internet connection is available is the Library. It is charged at 23 cents/min or $13.80/hr. Plus, the only thing you can access is Hotmail & Yahoo just to check email LOL!
  • Room. Dont complaint that your room is small thats it! You are not here to sleep! There are activities round the clock as early as 7am till as late as 3am! So enjoy the activities prepared!
Some extra info
  • Two very important things during your cruise is your Star Navigator which is distributed daily as well as your access card. The card acts as your onboard credit card as there is cashless system implemented on the cruise, as well as identification that you are 1 of the guest of the cruise. After the cruise you can keep the card as a souvenir
  • The staff on the cruise is multiracial. 
  • During my cruise I observed that there are a lot of Indians as well as Japanese on board too
  • The cruise charge SGD$ not RM$ please take note unless you board at Port Klang then its RM$ if you board at Singapore its SGD$
I guess thats it for this posting about my free-style cruising with Star Cruises. Still to come in the upcoming post, I will be blogging on something interesting next wk. So till then, I will be collecting & arranging my points for the posting over the weekend.
Have a great weekend & happy holiday student, dont let it flow like moving current without doing beneficial stuffs
HAPPY CRUISING ALL ABOARD TIME OUT!
Conclusion: Cruise is fun but make sure your pocket is heavy too to pay for unexpected charges

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