The Best Part In Our Recent Tour...3 Days/Nights, In A Cruise Ship!

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I am writing first about our holidays in the Cruise ship first, since it was the best part in our tour! We had been to a 'Malaysia-Singapore' trip for two weeks, last month...came back on 1st May.  We spent the last 3 nights on a Cruise ship, at the fag end of our holidays! I never expected to enjoy so much inside a ship in the middle of the sea...for 3 days and nights! So, my first post about the tour is this part!

I had read about ships in Alistair Mclean's books, which was many years ago.  He used to explain the interiors and parts of ships very well.  Then, have watched the interiors in some English movies...I think I had never given much importance to remember everything clearly!

This Cruise ship, Star Cruise Gemini/Superstar Gemini had a city inside it...it had everything from shops to recreations to swimming pools!  I could have learnt dancing or origami or pizza making also in the ship! But I didn't! All these classes were for free.  We watched a magic show by Ernesto from Italy (click the link to watch a part of the show..very interesting!)which was made colourful by the Brazilian salsa dancers!

Now, to the ship!

The 'Superstar Gemini' cruise ship! A city is inside this ship!

We had booked for the flights to Malaysia, from there to Singapore and then to this Cruise ship, nearly 2 months earlier.  The Travel agent had insisted on booking for the Cruise as early as possible, since it was difficult to get the best cabins in the cruise if it was late.  Yes, we had the best view from our cabins!

The cabin!

It was a small, but very convenient room with all the necessary amenities! You can see the window at the far end which faces the sea! I used to sit on the window sill and watch the ocean/Andaman sea, whenever I was in the room!  A tiny, compact bathroom was there.  A wardrobe with a safety locker, hangers etc....everything was there.

The tiny bathroom...hand shower with a curtain, is on the left and wash basin and seat are on the right.  But was very convenient.  Everything was neat and clean.

The ship has got 12 floors.  First 4 floors (down) were for the ships engines, staff quarters, laundry and other things.  We stayed in the 5th floor. 750 rooms are there, including some suites.  3 floors have got dining and refreshment areas.  7th floor has got reception, shops etc.  Other floors on top have got casinos, gaming rooms, recreation room, health club, clinic, observatory room etc.  100% vegetarian food was available in Mariners restaurant. The best part!!!

Dining hall!

Different varieties of vegetarian food were here along with fruits, breads, cakes etc.  Coffee, tea. fruits, fruit juices etc. also were available.  Non-veg food was kept separately.  It  also tasted good, I was told.  Separate dining for Chinese was available. Vegetarian food was available on the 11th floor deck, where recreation stage also was there! Dance or music was going on most of the time.  

They never repeated the subjis...only dosa was not there! Even idlies, upma, vada, Raw mango sweet pachchadi (!) also were there! Different types of bakery items, even egg less cake was there! Their lemon pickle was superb! Curd tasted like home-made! All of us were eating, walking around the deck, most of the time! I have got a good tan because of the sun on the deck! We were taken by bus from the Penang and Langkavi ports for sight seeing.  Will write about them later.

I think 4 swimming pools and two Jacuzzi were there.  2 pools were for small children.  A ship staff was always standing there, keeping an eye on the small children.  Dress code was there for swimmers.  Men had to wear trunks and women full swimming dress.  If they didn't bring them, they can purchase from their shops in the ship...one swimming trunk was Rs. 1000/-, our currency!

Swimming pool

This is the beautiful 'Tea corner'.  Opposite to this, there were counters selling handbags, artificial jewellery etc.

People were sitting here, chatting or playing with children and just simply reading books in the mornings and evenings! It was very hot in daytime! Still, shades were there to sit and enjoy the sea breeze.

Many people were regular customers of this cruise.  One family said that they came here every year along with their small children, play basket ball, swim, read, eat and go back! Yes, a small basket ball court also is here on the other side of the deck!

This is the rear end of the ship! It was very nice to watch water, bending down on the rails!

Front side of the ship! All parts of the ship were clean. 

Mast?! I took this picture when I was waiting for the sunrise.

Decks were the most attractive places in the ship!

Some movies were shown, a movie a day, I think.  I read the name 'Gravity' which I had already watched at home.  The TV had some 11 channels.  One channel showed the passage of the ship 'live'.  HBO, Zee (Hindi movies and serials), Fox sports, a Disney channel were there and all others were Chinese channels, I think.

I noticed more than 50% passengers were Indians, rest were Chinese mostly, Koreans, Japanese, some Australians and people from other European countries.  The Captain was a Finnish, some crews were from Philippines, Germany, China etc.  Other staff were mostly Chinese.  Everybody was polite and did their job systematically without any flaw. 

I think I should stop now.  Will post the pictures taken from the ship, in my next post.

Make it a point to go on a ship once at least in your lifetime.  The experience is unique!

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P.S.: The first picture of the ship is from wikipedia Others were taken by me!

The second part of this post is here!