Star Cruise Libra - our first cruise! (Part 1)

Picture courtesy from Google Image

My apologies for such a damn delayed post. Been struggling put my life back after the lost of my precious rings (not the saddest day in my life, but still very sad!) and work after a not so happy vacation was dreadful. Seriously, the cruise was not that bad just the ending towards the vacation was the killer! Alright, enough of negativity let's do a in depth review of our first cruise.

So, after an impulse planning and jealous over relative who just booked the cruise, I decided to jump off the wagon and did the booking from a tour agent. We took the package of 4 days 3 nights from Penang - Phuket - Krabi - Penang with Star Cruise Libra. As this cruise is under resort world, so we kind of expected it to be a casino nothing much to do of a trip. Thus, we had the lowest expectation and didn't bother to think any further.

Why a cruise?

Hmm..sometimes I'm a trend setter but there are times where I'm more to let's do what everyone else is doing when it comes to ticking off items from my bucket list. We never been on a cruise before, mom and myself for the past decades and lucky daughter for the past of her 2 years in her life. So why a cruise? WHY NOT?

And you have no idea. Too much movies/drama influence, I always have this fantasy about boarding a cruise. Long floral dress with the perfect summer hat. Pair with Rayban watching the sun set at the top deck and hoping for a romantic getaway by chance?

Ok, it's a bit far fetch but, hey 小女情怀 ? LMAO

Especially one of the movie from Andy Lau, the worst movie he acted as he claimed but it's chick romantic kinda movie where you just want to waste a 2 hours of your life watching it.

Fanscination Amour - picture courtesy from Google

Though, in reality nothing as such will happen to me in this life. But ticking off the bucket list is pretty exciting for a shout out though. Nothing is too late! 

So, let me share about this trip and along the post, I'll highlight the tips for you if you ever intend to join similar cruise.

Tips No.1 - Parking at Swettenham Pier Cruise Terminal, Penang

Since the cruise stop only in Penang, we drove all the way down to Penang Swettenham Pier Cruise Terminal. We have to park our car at the open car park, which was just cross the street from the pier entrance. Waze/Google Map give us a vague location about the parking but still, it's Penang so you won't lost. LOL! About the parking, we did a couple of research/asking around but it's pretty decent looking kind of a secured parking - which means, you have to pay by hours. FML. 4 days and 3 nights, cost us RM77. But hey, car still in one piece. So can't complain much. But my word of advise, any kind of parking also park at your own risk, so if you are unlucky don't blame anyone la. No cctv coverage to help you trace the car also.

When I was still single, I research like 50-60% about the destination before the trip. But with kids and traveling with elderly, I have no choice but to research at least 80-90% about the whole freaking trip. Not kiasu traveler but I need to know what and where my kid/elderly can go/do. Safety is my first priority. Don't even get me started with the packing!

But most frequent traveler will usually advise you not to research so much and plan a fix itinerary for your trip. Because you will get too caught up in trying to stick to the itinerary you worked on rather than enjoying the trip. Sometime, you'll get too restless when you are trying to cover EVERYTHING.

So, my itinerary is to serve as a guidance of what we can do following this route. If we ever get lost, then at least we SHOULD know where we should be heading to. LOL my last Europe trip was a very good experience and reminder about itinerary..

Yes, I went to Europe last year with the same group (my daughter and my mom) WITHOUT an itinerary. End up, we were lost in Czech Republic and in the car, on the road for freaking 23 hours. So nope, I am not going to repeat that.

Tips No.2 - Check in online and obtain your Sail Pass prior to the trip

OK, back to this cruise (sorry side track sikit). Due to my researches, we actually check in online and printed the Sail Pass (like our boarding pass) days before this cruise. This was a life saver to us because we skipped the super long queue for registration. Imagine after a long drive from KL, dragging your luggage from a public parking - means under super hot sun, a cranky toddler and the urge to pee, I seriously had no mood to queue up! With the Sail Pass, I went straight to an empty counter with a staff member and upon checking our passports, she gave us the access card to board the cruise. This access card is very important to you. It serves like your passport when you are on board. Also because of this stupid card, lead to me losing my rings. Aihhhhh (another story, I promise)

However, I still can't skip the queue at the immigration. And why on earth all immigration area is always out of air condition. I was soaking wet with my salty sweat. So, still be prepared to queue~~

After passing through immigration, we were welcome with cold towel from the cabin crew and there was a less crowded toilet to use. So, don't wait up at the toilet outside the registration area. Walk a little more and you have a crowd free + cleaner toilet to use.

Then FML another queue where we had to hand over the passport and re-scan the blardy access card again. The cabin crew did a damn thorough job to check word by word of your name on the card vs the passport for EVERYONE. So, good Lord I was almost dying due to dehydration! 

Finally, we see two model figure with beach wear and a camera man in front. This is a paid service means, you got to claim your picture with these models (cabin crews) with a fee. We took the picture still (100% tourist) and grabbed the voucher thinking we should claim it even though we have to pay since it was our first cruise. But the voucher was lost during the trip, too bad.

Wahlao, damn long procedure..we have to get our luggage up the cruise and FML another queue for scanning all your bags! ARGH! What the hell did I bring to this trip? How many times I need to remind myself to pack light. I really curse myself under my breath.

Then, finally we were in the atrium of the cruise where we were welcomed by the friendly cabin crew passing us a copy of the day itinerary, they call it Star Navigator.

Tips No.3 - Grab a copy of your daily Star Navigator

The Star Navigator is like a itinerary/newsletter of the cruise where it has all the important notes for you to read/know. This is distribute on a daily basis on your cabin room or if you missed it you can grab it from the Customer Service Counter. The important notes for example where you are going to have your breakfast-lunch-tea-dinner complimentary. If you miss the time for these, the consequences is to pay your bill on top of your trip cost. 

We were advised to look for our cabin and take a rest before going to the lounge for the gala dinner registration. Happily and with lowest expectation on our room, we opened the door of our cabin. Honestly, we think it is pretty decent with the price that we paid. But, two of the four travelers are plus size. So imagine how much space we actually have. We didn't think much though since we won't be spending much time in the room. One by one, we freshen up and head to the lounge.

Tips No.4 - Register for your Gala Dinner

You will end your last night on the cruise with a gala dinner and show. In order for the Cruise to serve your choice of menu (western/Chinese/Halal), you need to register for the dinner and select your menu. To avoid queuing, we went in and register after 15 minutes wait. The cabin crew will explain the type of menu for you to choose from and at the same time, trying their best to sell you some alcohol on board

Tips No.5 - Buy your bottle if you drink
One cabin crew from Surabaya - beautiful smile lady but I forgot her name, nicely explained to us the available promotion of wine. We got ourselves a RM238 for 3 bottles of red - different years Merlot and the best service of buying alcohol on board not just the price but you can actually drink in any of the restaurant on board. Doesn't matter if you couldn't finish it during the meal, they will store for you until the very last day when you leave the cruise. I honestly think the price is so pretty cheap for 3 bottles and plus point, the wine was REALLY GOOD WINE

After registration, we still made it to Pool Deck for a complimentary tea break. Since we only eaten our breakfast for the day and I remembered clearly we were starving!

Food spread was alright. Tasty? More to edible. LOL

Taken with the cheap sport cam. Not bad though!

Trying to understand if that's a playpen or a golf range?

Train them young

Both are super kan cheong type for pictures

There is a limitation of size to upload a video here. So some other videos will be You Tube links then. Which I am still working on my own You Tube channel.

She had a blast terrorizing us all

First day buffet dinner was a BBQ buffet at the Pool Deck. The weather was super hot and so crowded we didn't manage to enjoy the dinner much. Also because we were pretty stuffed with our snack/tea time earlier. 

I didn't manage to take the picture of our cabin. We opted for the lowest price since we think we can accept the quality of the room. The lowest rank of the cabin is inside stateroom. There is no window, but space was enough for your luggage and to sleep. So I took Google picture below:-

Something like this picture just that the lighting in the room was definitely not as bright as shown in the picture. I thought we will gave in to this cabin but my eyes were so sharp I actually read up the Star Navigator and there was a bullet point telling you "Please check out our promotion rate cabin upgrade at the Customer Service Counter".

See, so we went ahead and upgraded our room! LOL

We paid another RM1300 for the upgrade on top of our trip cost and for 3 adults, it was about less than RM500 per pax. 

The upgrades provided us a comfortable queen size bed with a sofa bed for the third guest. A spacious bathroom with bath tub and Loccitaine brand of toiletries. Beside, we were provided with a complimentary bottle of red wine in the nice fridge we have. Not bad though.

After browsing through my album, I realized I didn't take the room picture. Only these few below

Room service with some twist of humour

Bunny and Eddie

We were all knackered by the end of the day. I don't remember we explore much about the cruise. I remember we all went to bed early and waking up in the middle of the night with my daughter screaming from her nightmares. Gosh~~~

That's about the end of our day 1.

Stay tune for next part.