March 16, 2024

it has been a long day, so I apologize in advance for a long post. we were off the boat by 830 and we were going to do the included bus tour of Singapore because we were told that it would give you the option of getting off at the Marina Bay Sands convention center which is where the ship’s shuttle was dropping people off. When we got on the bus, the guide said that we were not going that way and then they couldn’t do the route they were supposed to do because of police blockades for diplomats so we ended up jumping ship at the first stop which was the Merlion statue. From there, it was easy to walk around the bay to the Marina Bay Sands area. Along the way we found an indoor mall and we thought it would cool us off for a bit so we went there, but it was mostly closed except for a barbershop.

Haircut #2 in Singapore

While I was getting the haircut Kathy did a little shopping in a grocery store and found an alternative to potato chips.

Before anybody asks no we did not try them, and have no intention of trying

we went into the Marina Bay Sands mall, and it was a lot of high-end shops, but they did have a really cool Apple Store.

You could get to the store either from the platform leading out over the water or from the mall there was a tunnel that led to the store.

After the Apple Store, it was off to lunch and then we went to the Marina Bay Sands to check in but the room was not ready so we took some pictures of the lobby.

We decided to take a walk to Gardens by the sea, which are giant sculptures shaped like trees. Each one is covered in thousands of live plants. You walk through a beautiful garden to get to them, and there is a walkway connecting a few of them.

Views of the “trees”

We did take a walk on the bridge, connecting some of the trees and it was nice but it did sway a little bit, so wasn’t my favorite.

After we walked around the garden, our room still was not ready so we ended up taking the subway system to the Hard Rock Café, and got a Singapore T-shirt. It was really hot and we didn’t really want to walk back to the subway system so we decided to take their version of Uber, which is called Grab. By now we had gotten notification that our room was ready.

Our room looked out over gardens of the bay and tons of ships waiting to pass through the straits.

We quickly changed into our suits and went up to the 57th floor to enjoy the swimming pool which was the reason for the stay in the hotel.

It is an infinity pool, and it looks out on the Marina Bay. It is the longest infinity pool in the world.

It’s possible we had a cocktail or 2 while enjoying the views.

While it was cloudy. We still had a beautiful sunset.

Too bad about the cranes. I asked the bartender to move them, but it didn’t happen.

After sunset, we went back to the room to get ready for dinner and we were able to watch the light show from gardens by the bay from our balcony.

Made a big difference watching it from above.

There was music to go along with it, and we could hear it and we are on the 41st floor. Also, Rod Stewart is in concert here tonight and you could hear some of that from the stadium.

After the light show, we ran down to ground level and back to the Bayside to watch the light show in front of the Merlion, but it was delayed and we had dinner reservations at 9:15 on the 57th floor so we could not wait.

Kathy had salmon and what is pictured is a 1 pound meatball that is stuffed with mozzarella and has ricotta on top. It is supposed to be an appetizer but I made it my dinner and neither one of us could finish our meals.
After dinner, we did catch the light show from above .

The light show from the bay side.

The Marina Bay Sands at night.

We went back up to the pool deck, since it does not close until midnight.

The pool opens at 6 AM so we will try to get up there about 830 for another hour or so. All on board is 1 PM and we sail at 2 PM for Kuala Lumpur.