Superstar Virgo

Family holidays are happy events. We look forward to them as they are fun and enjoyable and present great opportunities for family bonding. Well, for this year, our family signed up for a 4 day 3 night cruise on board a ship. This time, we took a bus to Singapore to Harbour Front for a cruise to Phuket and Langkawi aboard the Superstar Virgo, the largest ship in the Star Cruise family.

We left on Sunday May 8 which was Mother's Day. Amanda treated us to a wonderful Macd breakfast with her first pay from Uniclo (the no. 1 clothing store in Japan and no 3 in the world). The day before we had spent over RM1,400 buying all sorts of shirts and cardigans from the store which had newly opened at KLCC. I had to take leave for half a day to buy a few things for Amanda and get some freebies like tote bags and a one of its kind tumbler for a certain amount of purchase. I take it as us 'supporting' Japan in her recent earthquake.

For the first time, Amanda gave me money to buy her clothes and money for her hand phone bill. This is a record of sorts as usually poor mummy has to pick up her bills. Sometimes her hand phone bill can exceed RM200 a month!

The double decker bus which we took at Corus Hotel was very comfortable. However I prayed hard for safety and protection as I was well aware of a recent accident involving a double decker which overturned and killed a number of people in a serious road accident.

Mamak mee was served on board with hot drinks. There was also a small toilet for light usage. The journey was restful and we stopped at the Pagoh rest area. We reached Singapore about 1 pm. At the immigration, we were told to throw away our chewing gums....I had no choice but to throw away a brand new pack of mints (won that during team activity at church camp recently). We were made to bring down all our bags. The Singapore Customs police were really fierce. They literally shouted at a group of Indian tourists. Our conductor told us that you cannot answer them back, they will 'bark' at you.

We reached Harbour Front at about 2 pm and checked in our 5 bags. We then visited Uniclo outlet at Vivo City which was adjacent to Harbour Front.

At about 3 pm we boarded the ship. Took us an hour to queue. Many holiday makers from India, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, France and other countries also boarded with us. We were informed by one of the guest that India was having a 6 weeks school holiday (no wonder half the guests were from India). We seem to be the only Malaysian family!

The room at Virgo was bigger than the Libra. 2 beds facing one another and a retractable upper bunk. There was a sofa bed for the 4th person. I really love the plush carpet with sea motives. The toilet also was bigger.

We ate our tea ravenously...fried rice, pizza, muffins, pitas, sausages, sandwiches...at the Mediterranean restaurant. This proved to be a favorite restaurant among the Indian guests as they served a variety of delicious vegetarian fare as we found out later. However it was not so popular with the children and Tim. I loved buffet restaurants generally  because of the salads available.

About 1,600 guests had boarded the Virgo for a 4 days 3 night holiday to Phuket and Langkawi. We also found out latter that the Cruise director was Harold Q (bald headed young looking chap with little dimples when he talked). He told us that he was transferred from Libra (yes, we met him and Hendricks last year). Harold is something like a drag queen!

The ship was huge. It has 13 levels. Facilities include a well equipped gym, 2 pools, 2 jacuzzis, a winding slide snaking down to the pools, a spa, a theatre (Lido) with terraced seats, a smaller hall (Galaxy of the Stars) for game shows, a library with many books, 3 restaurants (non paying) and 4 more (paying), 2 shops, karaokes, glass encased lifts, hair saloon, nail art shop, photo gallery, games room, mini golf course, wall climbing (or is it rock climbing?), a movie theater hall.....and many more. To truly explore the ship will take us a week, I think...

At night we had dinner at the Chinese Restaurant. The food was delicious. We then watched a world class magic show Philippart and Anja. I was a tad disappointed because I had seen an identical show on board the Libra last December....but never mind, its so good that its worth re-watch!

We had our first and last supper on board the ship on our first night stay. We had salads, bread, porridge, koay teow, fruits, India vegetarian food, cakes, muffins, sandwiches.....Stay tuned.....