Star Cruise Superstar Gemini - Day 1

 

AHOY!!! 
Going to bring our baby Jules on a short cruise just to start the New Year.
And I have bought this really cute tee from COTTON ON baby with the words "AHOY MATIE" for jules, just for this trip! See the smile on his little face, guess he can't wait for his first outing too!

his fingers are his lollypop sticks

 We are on our way to Harbourfront now to check in and board on our superstar Gemini!

Behind us is ...Superstar Gemini

The cab fare from our place down to Harbourfront was about $8 and was a pretty short ride. The boarding time is about 4pm - 6pm. We are going on a really short cruise as I'm not sure how well Jules will be behaving on board. So it's a 3 Days 2 Nights High Seas cruise and we have booked the OceanSuite room for the 4 of us - 3 adults and 1 infant.

Apparently Superstar Gemini has just gone for a US$50million overhaul to its interiors and we are going on her first inaugural cruise! - can't wait!

At the counter while hubs goes to check in our luggage

And we have decided to check in our 1 piece luggage to make our lives easier. We also did think that our luggage may be delayed to our suite so I've also pack 3 feeds, 2 diapers, romper, wet wipes, porridge, spoon and bowl into my mummy bag just to be sure that Jules has everything he needs.

happy happy happy!

after we got our access cards and check in our luggage, the waiting area to board the cruise was super duper long and there were no more sitting area. so we decided to go to Vivocity to rest our feet. And poor Jules was so tired from waiting that he fell asleep.

The queue to go into the customs area was really haphazard. very messy and there were no proper ushering, unlike boarding a flight at Changi Airport. I really don't know how to explain the whole situation, but it's really terrible. Finally we managed to go through the customs and we are on our way to the ship now.

When we got to our suite, there was a technician trying to fix a hole in the ceiling. He told us that he his colleague has gone to get a light as he was fixing the lamp. Next,  we realised that the whole entire deck 8 has not water!!! But Jules seems pretty pleased with his bed! So we didn't really get super upset with the whole water thingy. Although we realised that we couldn't use the toilet as there was no water, cannot flush, cannot wash his bottles too! Hubs went down to the receptionist to try to get some help to fix it.

 

The ladies at the reception couldn't speak a word of English and Hubs had to talk to her in Mandarin. Urgh. We also realised that our luggage was not there yet, so we questioned her. She said that it will come, not to worry. But Hubs was saying that if they misplaced or lose our luggage, we are definitely going to disembark because our baby needs his milk powder! Again she says not to worry. And she told her that she will send a technician to fix our water pipes.

OK.

we are civilised people, so we decided to let her do the arrangement while we go check out the ship.

Jules at the Karaoke lounge's grand piano. Nice view of the harbour...the ship is not ready to set sail yet..and it's around 4pm now.

went back to check on the room, no technician there, and our lights are not fixed, not to mention the water and sewer pipes too. sigh. Took a sweater for Jules and his porridge from the mummy bag and we decided to go for an early dinner.

at the BBQ area where the dinner starts at 530pm, there were already a long q of people waiting for their food, plus there was a live band doing a welcoming party. Seems like these people really know where to go! So we decided to go to Bella Vista where they were serving western food. We queued really long like about 1 hour...and behind us were many people!!! Lucky we started early.

while we were queuing for the restaurant to be opened, hubs went up and down to check on our room, luggage and the reception. sigh. no signs of our luggage!!!

and some people actually tried to form another Q beside us! which made the aunties behind us really angry and wanted to cut our Q too. So terrible!!!

finally the restaurant doors opened at 630pm and we managed to get a table. Jules was getting very impatient. We ordered quite fast but some tables who were seated after us were served first! I was getting impatient too. Hubs had to tell the waitress many times...the service here is very very bad.

luckily there were bread on the table for us to eat first.
our helper brought Jules out for the sea breeze to calm him down. Think he was very pissed too.

Our First Family Shot on the Cruise!

The aircon on board is quite cold, so we put a cardigan on for Jules and I pinned my handmade cloud brooch for him.

after the long wait plus the slow serving of food. I mean each time we finished a dish, i had to bring Jules out to the deck to entertain him while waiting for the next dish to be served. The whole affair took so long!!!

finally it ended. or rather we didn't bother to wait for dessert plus coffee or tea. We just left and there were still a long queue outside filled with hungry people waiting to get a seat inside. And it was like way past 8pm or so.

Brought Jules back to the cabin for a diaper and romper change. So poor thing my baby!
it's his usual bath time now but there's still no water and we had to use the public toilet on the common deck to wash his milk bottles, teether and spoon.

seriously, i dunno how long i can tolerate this nonsense. They better fix the pipes or get us a new cabin!

since we cannot stay in the cabin as there is no water, we might as well roam the ship. The program at that time was BINGO, and we made our way there...well, at least Jules didn't mind it for awhile as he was biting and chewing on his teether.  This went on pretty well for half an hour only before he started to whine again.

on the way back to the cabin, we past by this chinese restaurant, can't remember the name but apparently a family was rejected entry as the kitchen was closed and the whole family hasn't eaten dinner yet. Think there was some miscommunication between the restaurant manager and the family's husband....oh dear.

the rest of the night went pretty bad.

1.  hubs told reception that if luggage is missing we want to disembark before set sail. Reception say not to worry
2. everyone else luggage was outside their cabin room except ours
3. ship set sail. finally evening we complained to reception, described our luggage, then found it in a room behind the reception
4. from 4pm till 11pm hubs went down to reception like at least 20 times, still no water, Jules need to sleep, technician in the toilet with walkie talkie turn on really loud. Jules cannot sleep and is super irritate and fussy.
5. reception can't give us a cabin. we continue to go up and down to use the public toilet to relieve ourselves, wash milk bottles, spoon, vacuum flask and teether.
6. 6pm, hubs told them that if they cannot give us another room, we will disembark before the ship set sail because we really need water to bathe our baby and wash the milk bottles.
7. 11pm, while i was waiting at the reception, hoping to get a cabin with water supply, my poor baby Jules finally fell asleep on my shoulder as he was so super tired. 
8. I'M SUPER PISSED.

i paid good money for a holiday so that Jules can experience some fun, yet I came here with my family to suffer...