R&R on board

Day 4 (Wed, 2 Dec 2009)

All too soon, it's the last day of the holiday. Nothing interesting to report today since there are no stops - the ship makes its way back to Singapore. So the focus will be on, what else, food!

One last breakfast photo. For the record, Andre ate two croissants every morning, with eggs, bacon, cereal and sometimes even prata, washed down with juice and milk. Thank goodness he has ongoing badminton training, otherwise he'll be a likely candidate for the Fat Awards.

Incidentally, before we left on this trip, Andre kept asking anxiously, "Is there internet on the ship? Who's going to sound our Mousehunt horn then?"

As it turned out, there WAS internet on the ship, albeit at an exorbitant rate - 23cts per minute. But since you're talking to three true-blue Mousehunt diehards here, we actually logged in once a day (in the game, you have to sound the horn once a day to get hourly checks for the next 24 hours. Doesn't matter if you don't get it, it's something only fellow Mousehunters can understand).

Imagine three persons hovering over a computer with internet connection at snail speed, eyeing the timer and willing it to go faster. In case you're wondering, we utilised 6 minutes and 5 minutes on Days 1 and 2 respectively. Kenneth thought we were crazy but indulged us. Like I said, only Mousehunters will understand!

Since we had time on our hands, we decided to catch a movie (there's a mini cinema on board). They were screening Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which none of us had seen. As it turned out, the quality of the film wasn't very good. The picture was fuzzy and sound quality was muffled in parts. But overall, it was still reasonably enjoyable, if you're not fussy for surround sound and all that jazz.

Lunch was at Bella Vista but we opted for the Chinese menu. (Since the Chinese menu is always more popular than the Western, Bella Vista offers this option besides Pavilion, the Chinese restaurant, to cater to demand). We figured that we should at least try the Chinese food once on this trip. Again, the food isn't great. They had this vinegared pigs' trotters which was quite tasty but I wondered how many people could actually appreciate this dish, particularly those with kids.

The rest of the day, we just spent a relaxing time doing practically nothing. Some pictures taken on the deck (these were actually taken on the first day, that's why you can see Jurong Island in the background).









Part of the afternoon was spent at the Activities Centre playing carrom and pictionary.

Since this was our second cruise, we didn't explore many of the locations on the ship or other activities organised on board. But for those interested, there is actually lots to do. Here are some pics from our 2007 cruise:









Miniature golf (left) and kids' pool (right)













Basketball court (left) and miniature rock climbing wall (right)

Finally, we partook of our last dinner on board at... you guessed it! Bella Vista. To be honest, when you've had this sort of dinner for four days straight, it starts to get a bit jelat. Except Andre, who looked so comical with his oversized menu, telling the waiter, "I'll have the goat cheese and tarragon tart." To which the waiter replied, "Yes sir!" LOL

Here it is, the goat cheese and tarragon tart appetizer

Assorted tempura with papaya rice. Soggy and the rice was tasteless, not very nice.

Andre digging into his main course of pork loin in cilantro sauce.

With that, we said staggered off Superstar Virgo, a little heavier than before this trip. The diet can begin tomorrow... BURP!