The ship docked at about 7am. We had to be out of our cabin by 8am, even though we were not getting off the ship until 9:10am. After breakfast we sat in the Tahitian Lounge until we were called to get off the ship. For those of you whom have not taken a cruise. The ship arranges disembarkment based on earliest flights out and early Tours that end at the airport. Those that will be traveling independently are let off after. This is to minimize a bottle neck either at immigration, customs or just finding your luggage in the cruise terminal. In general the cruise line have gotten pretty good at managing this process and with only about 500 of us getting off (and not returning ) it wan't bad.
I had been concerned about the customs information that we had received concerning a 5% duty, but they just put all of our bags thru the x-ray and sent us on our way. Myrna found a van driver who would take us to our hotel (Crowne Plaza) at the airport. The cost was 45 Singapore dollars. A good price with the US dollar worth around 1.22 Singapore dollar.
We only had to wait about an hour to get into our room, after we settled in we took a taxi the Singapore Flyer, the tallest observation wheel in the world. Evelyn and I have been on the London Eye which was the tallest until the flyer was built in 2009. The weather is hot, muggy, and raining on and off. After we got on the Flyer it began to pour very hard. So hard that after we got off (30 minutes later) they closed the ride because of the weather.
We had a little lunch at the Flyer, Evelyn and I shared some dim sum and Don had a plate of spicy noodles, Myrna just sat with us and didn't eat, but tasted Don's plate.
After that we took a cab to Orchard Road the main shopping area of Singapore.We didn't have much time before it really began to really rain very hard. This did not stop Evelyn and she got her Starbucks mug from Singapore. We tried to walk around, but it was just raining too hard so we took a cab back to the hotel. We were in Singapore In 2006 and sa the highlights. We would have gone into Raffles Hotel and had a Singapore Sling as the drink was invented there, but with the rain we opted not to.
We will eat in the hotel tonight. Our flight home leaves tomorrow morning at 7:20am so we need to get up early. The hotel is attached to terminal three which is where our flight on United Airlines. We have to change planes in Tokyo and arrive at LAX at 10:25 Sunday morning.
Just a word about the hotel. It very nice, large room, big tv, both a tub and shower. It has nine stories and the floors are open to the outside. The best part as i said before is it is attached to terminal three where our United flight leaves from.
We had dinner in the hotel restaurant. They had both a buffet and menu options. Evelyn and I had the buffet for 52 SD and it was very good. They have sushi, roast beef, pork, chicken, and many fish dishes. Except for the roast beef every dish was prepared in an asian style. I was very impressed. The deserts and the entire presentation was quite something.
Don and Myrna, being the adventures' eater that they our had a club sandwich which they said was excellent. I had about 140 SD left, not enough to pay for dinner so I put the dinner on my room and then when I checked out I paid part of the bill with SD. I thought it was a creative way to get rid of them.
Nov 13 - Singapore to LAX
We had a 4:15 am wake-up call and left the room at 5:15 am. The bellman put our bags onto a terminal cart and we pushed it to the United check-in. We are all flying business class so after checking in we had coffee and sweet rolls in the lounge before boarding. The security check was done at the gate and I was picked for extra checking, which put me at the head of the line, where I got a pat down and they checked my carry-on for what ever they were checking for. The hotel is actually attached by a very short hall to terminal 3, it only took minutes to get from the hotel to the check in. The Chengi Airport is beautiful and very well run. We could learn a thing or two from them.
The flight to Tokyo is about six hours and we have a two or three hour layover until our flight to LA. Based on the timing I think the flight to LA will be around nine hours.
We landed at Narita Airport about 20 minutes late due to traffic. As we are transferring to another international flight we did not have to deal with immagration or customs. We did have go thru a security line that x-rayed our carry-ons. We sat in the lougne long enough for Don to have a beer and then we walked to the gate. I was picked for another security check, this time for explosives. They swabbed my hands and carry-on and then had me take off my shoes and the checked the soles of my feet. It didn't take long and everyone was very polite.
The flight is a little longer then 9 hours and after dinner we both slept around five hours. We we woke there was an hour and half left to LA. The seats in business class lay flat and it was easy to get into a comfortable position. Our seats face backwards so we have been flying backwards the whole time.
We land on time and after clearing immagration and customs in the record time of a little over an hour our van picked us up and drove us home. Trip over.
Sent from my iPad
Hal
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