Singapore day 1 - zoo

Our evening for the first day in Singapore was booked with an around-the-world event, but our day was free. We wanted the boys to have some say in the planning process and after seeing a short video that featured the Singapore Zoo, they decided that’s what they wanted to do. We looked it up and after reading about the various options we landed on the River Safari portion as the bit we wanted to do. We wanted as early a start as possible, so we got ourselves ready and headed down to the gangway before CD Bryn had made his announcement about Insignia being cleared at Singapore. This worked out perfectly as the gangway was open and we headed out without delay.

We negotiated the loooong walkway to the immigration checkpoint and went through the fully automated procedure to scan our passports, get a thumbprint, and record our pictures for facial recognition. Then it was off through the Harbour Front Cruise Centre (British spellings please!) to find a cab. We got in a minivan with a very pleasant driver who told us various things about life in Singapore. The zoo opened at 10:00 and we walked up to the gate just at that time. With few people having arrived we were able to cruise right along and get good views of the exhibits. The highlight of the morning was watching the pandas being fed. We also enjoyed the Amazon River ride, which is a boat that drifts along a slow-moving river with a couple of drops and allows for viewing of Amazonian animals along the shoreline.

The zoo is not huge, but the location is spectacular. It is located withing the nature preserve that takes up a good chunk of north-central Singapore. So even when you are not looking at the animals, you are surrounded by jungle and the native fauna. Since it’s not all that big we were done with our exploration by lunch time. We went to the food court and found a spot that featured an all-vegetarian menu. I had an udon noodle bowl with Impossible “meat” that was outstanding. It put the frozen pizza and French fries that are the usual offerings at our zoo to shame.

Given that we had to meet in the lounge at 4:20 for the ATW event we wanted to head back to the ship after lunch. We grabbed a cab and had a much different experience riding back than we had on the way up. Our driver was not at all friendly, mumbling to himself and watching videos on his phone as we drove. To make matters worse, he misunderstood our destination. I figured “cruise port” was a sufficient description of where we wanted to go, but he took us to a different place than where we had started. He insisted this was the right destination, and the Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas was indeed docked there, but it was not where Insignia was docked. I pulled our dock location up in Google Maps and showed him. He was indignant at this point, insisting that I should have showed him that. I felt that if there was a possibility for confusion he should have clarified that at the beginning, but I wasn’t going to get into an argument on that point. We simply said that’s where we need to go and he huffed and took us there. Not a great experience, but nothing that would ruin our day. I’ll cover the ATW event in another footprint.Читать далее