Mou Tuck Deng 无得顶: 2012

I have travelled on the Star Cruise, Virgo before but this was my first time travelling on the Royal Caribbean International, Legend Of The Seas. My cruise started from 31 October 2012 to 3 November 2012. We boarded the cruise ship at the new cruise centre at the Marina Bay, Singapore. The Marina Bay cruise centre is quite isolated. There is no public transport. It was rather inconvenient as compare to the cruise centre situated at the Harbour Front which is accessible by buses and MRT. Cruise passengers going to the Marina Bay cruise centre can reach the terminal only by private cars or taxi. We hired a maxi cab to ferry us there as we have 5 of us travelling from the same location. The taxi fare was S$50.00. We paid S$60.00 for the return trip. The service we got from the maxi cab driver was very good. He picked us up on time and driver was friendly. Our cruise itinerary was Singapore-Penang-Malacca-Singapore. We checked in at the cruise centre at noon and had our lunch on board. The cafe served international buffet. My rating for the food served was fair. Not that fantastic. The cafe sitting capacity was unable to accommodate the in flux of passengers. Many people had to carry their food to scout for the seats. For the following meals, we had decided to dine in the Romeo & Juliet restaurant that served western food. The same table was reserved for us through out the whole journey. We had breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same restaurant. The service from the same waitresses was excellent.
The cruise will call at the ports of Penang and Malacca. We planned to stay on board through out initially as we have senior citizens in the group (of course that also including myself). But we changed our mind and went for a free and easy land tour when my niece managed to contact a private tour guide whom she knew from her last visit. It was a seven seater coach. The guide will bring us to places that we requested. In Penang, we went to a bakery shop buying the Chinese authentic almond biscuit, black pepper biscuit and lotus paste biscuit. The biscuits were very good. We regretted that we did not buy more when we tasted back home. We also tried the Penang fried Kuay Teow(rice noddle). The fried Kuay Teow was damn good. We order 2 plates for sharing. We wanted to try the Penang fried oyster that opposite the fried Kuay Teow store. But it was closed for business on that day. What a waste! Next we stopped by a road side stall to sample the Penang durain. It was worth the trouble. Our last stop was at the Plaza Gurney, an up market shopping mall in Penang before we returned to the ship. It was a memorable trip.