Singapore to Sea

Every crew member asked where Lara's shirt was. She "lost" it

Breakfast this morning took us to Holland Village, with one very clear mission: roti prata, paired with teh tarik and kopi o on the side. Mission accomplished. The children absolutely hoovered their plates. A small personal aside, this was somewhere I used to frequent with my parents during my childhood, yet somehow nothing felt familiar. Time has clearly been busy.

Soft bun set. Bun = essentially Kaya toast on white bread.

This is egg and mushroom prata. Sauce is divine

Teh tarik

Oma and Opa, pros at public transport and affordable taxi drivers

Then it was finally time to board Ovation of the Seas. My parents summoned their trusty driver, who delivered us smoothly to the Marina Bay Cruise Centre.

The last time we sailed with Royal Caribbean we were in a suite. This time, thanks to a late booking (and no thanks to Disney, no I'm not bitter..), our cabin options were limited, so we decided to try The Key. The best description is probably "budget concierge". The real drawcards for us were priority check-in, priority tendering at ports (Phuket looking at you), and onboard internet for each person. We picked it up at 50% off, which made it an easy yes.

For anyone curious, priority check-in essentially gives you a 30-minute head start on the rest of the ship. Our general check-in time was 11:30, but The Key guests could arrive between 11:00 and 11:30. We arrived at 10:46, only to see plenty of people already being processed ahead of us. FOMO arrived immediately.

A brief mishap at immigration added a little drama. The rest of the family sailed through the automated gates, barriers opening effortlessly as their faces were scanned. Mine, however, demanded a passport scan. The officer’s instructions were delivered with increasing enthusiasm: Open your eyes. Keep them open. Don’t close ah. Open bigger. BIGGER. Still no luck. The moment my passport was scanned, the problem disappeared. Meanwhile, Mal had my passport and my family, now well ahead, were loudly calling back, “No need passport! No need passport!” Umm...deeply unhelpful.

That tiny glitch felt like five minutes but probably lasted all of ten seconds. Otherwise the whole process, including security and check-in were lightning fast. There was no time for photos. Crew ushered us along at pace and we were onboard just after 11:00. One notable difference on this sailing was that our passports were collected, something that hasn’t happened to us since cruising the Eastern Mediterranean with a stop in Israel.

Our ship

Even though there were many many people at the port, we were never held up at any line (other than by me lol) and we kept moving...

Finally a brief stop on the gangway to take a photo. Opa still catching up at the back

Onboard and ready to eat!

Lunch was a sit-down affair featuring a Chops Grille menu, served in a main dining room reserved for The Key guests. Our carry-on bags were whisked away to our cabin, rooms opened at 1:00 pm, and we unpacked before heading out to explore the ship.

One of our favourite onboard pastimes is people-watching. At the climbing wall, we spotted a scrawny, bespectacled boy who looked as though his life experience consisted entirely of school and tuition. Barely a metre off the ground, legs splayed frog-like and glued to the wall, he was well and truly stuck. A crew member attempted a gentle assist, nudging him toward the next foothold. The result was a dramatic 10-centimetre shift and panicked cries of “No grip! No grip!” followed by “No more push! No more push!” Half of me felt genuine sympathy. The other half had to actively remind myself that laughing at other people’s misfortune is, technically, not very nice.

None of us won the obligatory spa raffle. Boo.

Dinner was in the main dining room. One thing I still struggle with on Royal Caribbean is the persistent push to upsell specialty dining. I know it’s part of the job, but we were approached at least five times. The food itself was enjoyable and our servers were efficient and friendly. Behind us sat a group of families who appeared to be travelling together, adults at one table, kids at another. After the meal, the children migrated to the table directly behind us and proceeded to play games enthusiastically and loudly, with no parental supervision in sight.

My family physically restrained me from addressing the situation myself. Instead, my parents calmly spoke to the head waiter and we were moved to another table. Problem solved.

I had ambitious plans to watch the evening show, but after several nights of poor sleep, an early morning start to fly to Singapore, and my body loudly insisting it was well past midnight Sydney time, I surrendered. Bed won.

Tomorrow, we dock in Penang, Malaysia. Street food, colour, and chaos await, and I fully intend to be awake for it.

Day 2 – From Holland Village to High Seas

The menu

There was no point resisting

Indoor picklecourt. Happy Mal

Basketball courts. Happy boys

Oma and Opa

Ship built for families. So many activities 

Foosball

Cornhole

Our tiny cabin for 4!

Balcony

Bye bye Singapore!

Practicing for the speed climb competition

Complimentary fruit plate for the cabin

Our lovely peaceful dinner before it was disrupted with kids shouting and climbing everywhere on the table left of us in the photo!

Finally some chill time

Festival of Fifty – Chapter 3: Asia

At 5am, the next chapter of the Festival of Fifty officially began. Well, technically. If we are being precise, Chapter 2 should have included a couple of domestic flights to Brisbane and Adelaide to watch cricket (Chapter 1 was Ecuador). But since I failed to blog that chapter at all, we are simply striding past it with confidence and moving straight on.

January launched us into Asia, Part 1. The original plan involved cruising on Disney’s shiny new Adventure out of Singapore… but let’s not reopen old wounds or discuss Disney’s less than magical execution. Instead, we pivoted. The revised plan had us flying to Singapore, meeting Oma and Opan, boarding Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas, and finishing with a short but sweet stint in Chiang Mai.

Travel logistics are rarely riveting blog material, so I will keep this brief. The only moment worth documenting was Jonah’s suitcase tipping the scales at a remarkable 6kg. The rest of us stared at him in disbelief, silently asking what exactly he did pack. The suitcase alone weighed 2.5kg. Apparently, the shoes on his feet were the only pair he brought. No swimmers. No sandals. A bold strategy that required immediate shopping intervention upon arrival in Singapore.

For context, Elliot’s suitcase weighed a modest 8kg, while Lara’s clocked in at a confident 20kg. Entirely justified, of course, as it included a pair of fluffy pink bunny ears complete with a bow on one side. Clearly essential travel equipment.

Yes flying economy. Sigh. But we did secure a cozy corner for the 5 of us without having to share seats with random strangers

"Refreshment"

The photos made them look bigger than they are. Mixed reaction from the family from meh to delicious

Lunch. Some chicken dish. Apparently the rendang was delicious

My parents were beside themselves with excitement to have the kids in Singapore. They were waiting for us at the airport like our own private tour guides, complete with a minivan, preloaded transport cards, and bags of freshly cut fruit. Three kilograms of mangosteen, one kilogram of rambutans, and the family favourite, jackfruit. Add to that my personal weakness: ba kwa.

For those not familiar...Ba kwa is a Singaporean style barbecued pork jerky. Sweet, smoky, slightly sticky, and completely addictive. Thinly sliced meat, marinated and grilled over charcoal, then snipped into squares. One bite is never enough.

We were whisked back to the family apartment, miraculously with enough beds for everyone. Elliot, Lara, and Oma did have to share, and Elliot’s feet hung well over the end of the bed, but nobody complained. Free accommodation with aircon earns a lot of goodwill.

With less than half a day in Singapore, my parents were on a mission to maximise every minute for the kids. Buying Jonah budget swimmers and thongs was thankfully quick. We then moved straight into serious eating. Calamansi juice to start, hot and crispy pisang goreng, followed by Hunanese cuisine for dinner. The family bravely powered through the burning pepper heat, followed by shamelessly pilfering the freebies on offer, ice cream and bags of asian chips.  Well it was mainly Opa.

We ended the night the only appropriate way: cendol. Sweet coconut milk, gula melaka syrup, green jelly noodles, and shaved ice. A perfect full stop to our Singapore stopover, and a very delicious opening scene for Chapter 3.

Day 1 - Asia begins: Grandparents, Street Food & a Very Empty Suitcase

Minivan ready and waiting at the airport

If you've ever wondered, this is what 3kg of mangosteens look like

Rambutans peeled and chilled! Dangerously...usually the labour of peeling limits the number that you eat

Fruit fest

Transport card locked and loaded!

Drink stop!

Hunan cuisine

Food was delicious so long as you don't accidentally bite into chilli or peppercorn

Massive drinks sizes to rival the good ole US of A

Yup free!

More freebies!

Ba kwa

Apparently once upon a time, Singapore Airlines business class passengers used to get free gifts! This was my aunt's lovely collection of porcelain Dutch house courtesy of Singapore Airlines