It’s actually a relaxing morning today. We slept in a bit, had our breakfast, then got ready to head to the ship. We decide to Uber over – instead of having the hotel call a cab. Sandy, one of the wonderful staff here at the hotel, isn’t all that confident with that decision for some reason. She makes sure we know she is there to help us if we need it. Hmmm….
But, the Uber – Ken – shows up as scheduled – he’s parked around the corner of the hotel and calls my phone to see where we are (I didn’t answer because we didn’t get an international package this trip). But Sandy is there to save the day. She comes out and says she thinks the Uber is around the corner, and takes us right there to him. Not that we didn’t already love The Club, but this just solidifies it. A definite repeat if we are ever here again for more than one day/night.
We’re off to the port in no time, with Ken, who is very nice and chatty – if not the most observant driver. There are a couple of near misses – side swipes – but he manages to get us to the Marina Bay pier without incident. Except that where he wants to drop us isn’t where the ship is docked – it’s the ferry pier. We pointed out the ship in the distance as we were driving in, and, well, it’s still in the distance – only you can’t really tell where it is from the ferry pier. Hmmmm…
He is so insistent, that we end up just getting out there and figuring it out. As it turns out, we’re right by the metro stop, which is a blessing because there is a long, paved and covered walkway that leads from the metro to the cruise ship port. Hey, it’s our morning exercise!
Fortunately for us, there is a nice breeze and cloud cover, so it isn’t all that hot, just humid as we trundle our luggage down the sidewalk path. It only takes us about 10 minutes to get to the port facility where we walk through the garage to the luggage drop, making sure our bags go into the Constellation luggage drop (there is a Costa ship in port as well, and that would be ugly if the bags went to the wrong ship!). Then upstairs we go to check in.
We’re pretty early – a little after 11 – but check in is seamless. We’re escorted right into the priority line, fill out the many, many documents (all visa and tourist pass related), then get our key cards and head upstairs to “wait.” According to the girl who checked us in, boarding will begin around noon. But, as we go upstairs, we are simply ushered onto the ship. Works for us!
That’s totally seamless.
First things first, we head to shore excursions to book our Phuket tour. We’ve got tons of cabin credit, so we’re using some of it on this tour to the Phang Nga bay and James Bond island. Then to the dining room to confirm our reservations – and to wait for the lunch to open – Concierge lunch in the main dining room is a nice first day perk.
As we are chatting with the restaurant manager, they open for lunch, so everything worked perfectly and we are quickly situated and oriented to the Constellation – our home for the next 30 days.
Bags come, unpacked, muster drill, dinner, sail away at 8pm, and we’re off…..next stop Phuket.
No comments:
Post a Comment