5D4N Cruise on Mariner of the Seas (MS) - Day 1 (23 December)

When you have a small kid in tow, cruises are the best kind of holidays you can take.  With all meals and activities literally 'planned' for you, all you need to do is to pack your luggage, arrive at the dock on time, board and enjoy!

Marina of the Seas

We decided to bring the little lion dancer to a 5 nights Spice of SE cruise on Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas (MS) to Phuket over the Christmas holidays in 2013.  Then, MS was the largest ship to home-port in Asia starting their service from 1 June 2013.  We were lucky to have tried the ship that December.  When I knew that there were over 3000 guests on board the ship with me at the same time, I was quite amazed.  At the same time, I secretly prayed there would be enough lifeboats for all if Titanic were to replay itself!

The humongous ship features the unique DreamWorks Animation entertainment programme.  At regular intervals, ‘celebrity’ DreamWorks characters like Shrek and Fiona of “Shrek”, Alex of “Madagascar” and Po of “Kung Fu Panda” will meet guests and for photo-taking.  There was also nightly parades in the Royal Promenade and character breakfasts in the main dining room. The ship is also the first to have the Barbie Premium Experience in Asia for girls to sail in staterooms decorated in Barbie style and with themed activities such as tiaras and teacups party and fashion show.

If you are not into DreamWorks or Barbie, the ship also features other activities enough to keep you occupied for 5 days: rock wall, ice skating, theatre shows, 10 whirlpools and pools, 17 bars, lounges and clubs,basketball court, table-tennis, mini-golf course and more than 10 dining options with many complimentary and part of the cruise fare.  By the way, all the activities I had mentioned above are FREE! Ok, not really free but included in your cruise fare :)

Our 5 days itinerary goes like this:

Day 1: Depart from Singapore
Day 2: Arrive in Port Klang
Day 3: Arrive in Penang
Day 4: Arrive in Phuket
Day 5: Cruising
Day 6: Reached Singapore

Marina Bay Cruise Terminal that's shaped like a ship!

Being first time parents bringing a small kid overseas, we were worried over not bringing enough diapers, milk powder, wipes, toys, snacks, clothes and ended up with 3 big luggage with over 80% filled with his 'essentials'.  Yes, everything is an essential to his worrisome daddy.  Mummy is more relaxed.  What comes may, we can always buy at the destination! PS: Unless you need the stroller on destination, you don't really need one on board.  The ship is big but you won't spend all your time walking.

We arrived early past lunch at the Marina Bay Cruise Terminal, wanting to check in early to explore the big ship. If you are looking for extensive duty-free shopping like our acclaimed airport, you would be disappointed. Clean and big but just for custom clearance and boarding really. Find out how to get to the Cruise Terminal here.

Skip hopping to our stateroom
ont Deck 6

Finally, we are on board!  The first thing we did was to check out our balcony stateroom of course. 

His favorite spot in the room

This is Daddy's 'bed' for the next 5 days!

The room is large enough to have a double bed, sofa bed, coffee table, dressing table and a standing bath room.  The bathroom is small though.  Our family of 3 fits in nicely.  We were given a daily  programme sheet, which informed you of the daily activities and their scheduled time, destination information and more.  Handy!

Look how the little lion dancer is ready to lion dance on the bed!

Once we settled the kid, we took a walk around the ship determined to explore every nooks and crannies there are.  We found some hungry guests already tucking themselves in at Windjammer Cafe for a late lunch.



Here is daddy taking a stroll and enjoying the sea breeze.  You can jog here too but our little lion dancer keeps us fit all right without the jogging.

Deck 5

Lotus Lounge

This is Deck 5 where the Royal Promenade where the shops and cafes are.



You will find here: Lotus Lounge, Coach, Cafe Promenade (free flow of coffee, tea and pastries!), Sound of Music Dining Room, Guest Service and also where you will book your shore excursions.

Taking the lift to Level 5

Level 5 Royal Promenade where all the shops and cafes
are lined.

It's Christmas, so what do you expect? A giant Christmas tree
of course!

Another view of the Royal Promenade overlooked by a Buddha scupture

Schooner Bar

Deck 4 & 3: Royal Theatre, Casino, Schooner Bar, Centrum, Top Hats and Tails Dining Room, Rhapsody of the Blue Dining Room.










This is one of the many lounges on the ship.

The Centrum

The Savoy Theatre where you can catch shows

The Centrum

 Deck 11

This is a sculpture outside Windjammer Cafe.  Windjammer is where we had our daily breakfast buffet which is of quite a good variety and sumptuous.  Go slightly earlier to get seats or you might have to end up waiting for a while.


The cafe serves daily buffet lunch and dinner as well.

Deck 11

Solarium, where you can chill away from the sun.  However, this is a rather
busy walkway, if you don't mind others peering over your shoulders.

Whirlpool at the Solarium

Adults only pool

Pool deck

Large screen where they show movies under the stars

Deck 12

Deck 12: Bird's eye view of the pools and sun decks on Deck 11

Next, we went up to Deck 12 to explore the jogging track, Johnny Rockets' Cafe, Royal Babies and Tots® Nursery, The Living Room (where we were chased out shortly).  Other places on the same deck include: Video Arcade, Adventure Ocean®, Fuel Teen Disco and Vitality at Sea Spa & Fitness Center.  The jogging track is a good place to chill with a book or drink if it's not too hot, jog, skate or simply run free which is what our little dancer is best at doing.  From here, we get a bird's eye view of the pools and activities on Deck 11.  Beautiful.

Deck 12: Jogging track

Deck 12: Johnny Rockets

Deck 12: Inside Johnny Rockets, cover charge applies

Just before the sun sets and dinner starts, we managed to catch a glimpse of Fiona and Shrek and the DreamWorks' parade at the Royal Promenade.  See how excited Shrek is!

Fiona and Shrek, scream!  The parade is about to begin.

Not knowing better, we signed up for fine dining at their dining hall.  Before we could start anything, the little lion dancer decided to kick up a racket.  Dinner ended up as a more peaceful and relaxed one at Windjammer Cafe.

The beautiful dining hall

See Daddy's black face

With this, we ended Day 1 by retiring to our room to find that the efficient housekeeping crew had done up the room with a "bat" hanging from the hanger and our towel missing.  Good night Singapore and everyone.

Read on for Day 2.