Melbourne 19 Hours Later

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Our pre-cruise stay was at Crowne Plaza Melbourne. It was 15 minutes away from the airport and 15
minutes away from the cruise terminal. The hotel was renovating their pool and reception areas.  We were greeted by a bellmen when our taxi pulled up at the hotel.  They took our luggage and pointed us towards an elevator which would take us to the temporary lobby one floor up. 

We had a beautiful room which overlooked the front of  the hotel.  We could see the new pool area which will be fabulous once construction is completed.   The in-room television was displaying a picture of what it will look like.

Our room was quite comfortable with all the amenities needed for a couple night stay before your cruise.  It's location makes it a good choice as well. 

After 19 hours on two flights, your first instinct might be to get some sleep in your hotel ... But, that's the last thing you should do, so off we went ....

After checking in, we went up to our room to wait for our luggage.  After freshening up a bit, we headed out to the SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium which was actually a lot closer to the hotel than the map had shown.  It was just a couple blocks away.  We had some light refreshments in the lobby bar after returning from the aquarium.   We bought some meat pies for dinner from the local convenience store. We have lots of pictures and videos, so be sure to keep reading our diary on this trip.

The day we checked out, they opened their new lobby area, which looks lovely.  More images in our Crowne Plaza Melbourne photo album.

We'll talk more about our first day in Melbourne in another post.  For more images, see our Shutterfly Photo Page. Hopefully, you've followed us live on our social media channels as well.  Don't worry if you didn't, as our anchor post will tie everything together for you.  Just click the image (left) to our diary post.

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Relaxing in Singapore

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Crowne Plaza 

Changi Airport Pool

When we stayed at the Crowne Plaza before the cruise, we didn't have a chance to use the pool. The pool is located on the third floor in a court area.   This is also where the spa is located.  On our way to the lobby to check out before our cruise, my husband took a detour to check out the pool.  He took some pictures and showed them to me.  We decided then that we wanted to use the pool when we came back after the cruise.   Now that we were back at the hotel, we needed to plan our day.

Planning our Final Day in Singapore

One of the thoughts we had was to tour Singapore via the Hop on Hop Off Bus.  We knew that there was a ticket booth in the airport which could sell us tickets for the bus.   We weren't certain if we could begin at the airport or if we needed to get into Singapore city center.  Since we had free Wi-Fi at the hotel, we started doing some research.

All of a sudden my husband said that if we wanted to go swimming, we'd need to do so before going into Singapore.  He went on to say that he really wanted a relaxing day.  I was so happy he said that because I felt the same way.  We decided to change into our swimming suits and head to the pool.

We met a couple lounging by the pool who had also been on our ship.  We struck up a conversation and learned that they were flying out later that night and had reserved a hotel room for the day.  After about an hour we said good-bye to our fellow passengers and headed to our room to change clothes.

By now it was time to eat lunch, so we decided to go to the airport, check out the tourist kiosks, and then get some food.  We'll continue the story in our next post.

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Crowne Plaza Pool

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Disembarkation Day Singapore

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Sapphire Princess Turnaround Day

For the second time during our 15 day cruise, Sapphire Princess was docked alongside the pier in Singapore.  This time, we would be disembarking the ship and not returning.

Early Morning

For the crew, this is the most dreaded day of the voyage.  They only have a few hours to completely re-make each cabin and get it ready for the next group of passengers to embark on their voyage of discovery.

Since we were staying an extra day in Singapore, we didn't have any pressing need to disembark the vessel.  As Elite members of Princess Cruises Captain Circle Club, we had luggage tags for one of the early disembarkation times. 

Disembarkation Lounge

We arrived at the Disembarkation Lounge, one of the dining rooms on Deck 6, and checked in with the crew member.  She told us that we could disembark if we wanted to because they were running a little ahead of schedule.  We opted to wait because we wanted to have some breakfast before leaving.

After we ate, we took the elevator down one deck to the gangway.  One final scanning of our cabin cards, and we were on our way to pick up our luggage.   Since we had waited a bit, it was pretty easy to find our luggage, which was sorted by color-coded / numbered tags.

Since our luggage is on wheels, we didn't need a porter to assist us.  Next stop was customs / immigration to scan our fingerprints and passports for the final time.   Something didn't read correctly, so I actually had to go to a counter to be processed.   Even with that delay, the process was quite efficient, and we were soon heading to the taxi line to transfer to Crowne Plaza Hotel at Changi Airport.  You may recall we stayed there prior to the cruise as well.  We were directed to a waiting mini-van for the ride to the hotel.

Once at the hotel, we checked in, expecting that we'd be checking our luggage with the bell desk.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that they had a hotel room ready for occupancy.   It had been 8:30 AM when we entered the lounge on the ship and we were already in our hotel room shortly after 9:00 AM.   That has to be record time for disembarkation and transfer for us.  We'll talk about our final day in Singapore in some other posts.

What a great cruise - we were sorry to see it come to an end.  We met some great people, including our table mates and wait staff,  had some awesome excursions, and for the most part the weather cooperated making for an enjoyable voyage.   We would do this again in a heartbeat.

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Crowne Plaza

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Singapore Pre Cruise

Tip:  Add a pre-cruise stay to your plans - helps to take the worry out of traveling

When planning our trip to Southeast Asia, we had decided to include a one night pre-cruise stay which would give us time to adjust to the drastic time change and also serve as a buffer should anything go wrong with our travel arrangements.   Initially we had booked a Marriott hotel in Malaysia but as we looked into the airport to hotel transportation, we changed out mind.  It would have added a level of complexity, since we'd need to go through immigration in Malaysia and Singapore, that we didn't want to do on the day of the cruise.

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Our revised plans called for us to stay at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Changi Airport (Singapore).  It is located in Terminal 3.   Terminals are connected by shuttle bus and skytrain, so regardless of which terminal you arrive in, you can easily get to this hotel.

After retrieving our baggage and going through customs, we stopped at an information desk to inquire about the best way to get to the hotel.  They suggested we take the shuttle bus to Terminal 2 and then walk across to the hotel via the sky bridge.   With our luggage on a trolley, we headed to the shuttle stop.  We had just missed a bus, so we had a short wait.

A nice gentleman, who was on the shuttle bus already, helped us get our luggage on and off the shuttle bus to Terminal 2. Once we arrived at Terminal 2, we loaded our luggage on a trolley, took the elevator to the sky bridge and walked across to Terminal 3 / Crowne Plaza entrance.

After checking in, we headed upstairs to room 668.  Our baggage arrive shortly after we did. Once inside the room, we explored all of the amenities, including privacy shades and windows in the bathroom.  There's even a "Handy" device, which is phone that can be used during your stay.  It has web access, deals on sightseeing,  and free unlimited international phone calls.

We freshened up and headed back downstairs for some dinner.  The restaurant had a buffet, for $65 Singapore per person or a-la-carte selections. We'd had several meals on our flight, so we opted for soup and chicken satay instead of the buffet.

Originally we had planned to do some touring upon arrival in Singapore.  Since we'd been traveling for 24 hours, we weren't in the mood to go far, or even do any sightseeing. Shortly after dinner, we went to bed.

All refreshed after a good night's sleep, we had some breakfast cereal bars in our room.  We like to pack a light breakfast for cruise mornings, knowing that once we get on the ship, there will be plenty of food waiting for us.

Before checking out, we went up to the 3rd floor of the hotel to check out the pool area.  After seeing the pool, we decided that when we returned to the hotel after the cruise we would definitely want to unwind a bit at the pool.

We checked out and asked them to order a taxi for us.  It was only a twenty minute ride to Marina Bay pier, where Sapphire Princess awaited our arrival.  Check-in went smoothly - more on that in another post.   This hotel is a great location for pre/post cruise stay - we'd highly recommend it.  Post cruise, you could even get a day rate if your flight departs later in the evening.

Click on the image to the left for more Blog posts about this trip.

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Crowne Plaza

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