Quantum of the Seas Day 4

All good things come to an end. Though it was a short holidays, it was a decent length one to kick start after a year of hiatus. 

I had been wondering about the disembarkation procedure. What had been made known to us via the Royal app was that the disembarkation would be at 6am but no what or how. 

Information was provided on Day 3 via hard copy pamphlet and luggage tags were also provided. We could check in the luggage or lug them off the cruise ourselves. The luggage tags are numbered from 1 to 34 and disembarkation starts as early as 7am to 10.15am accordingly to the number on the luggage tag. Given that we only have 1 medium size luggage, we opted to move it ourselves. Easy peasy. 

Auntie S and kids were in the forward of the ship and given number 1 luggage tags. They were scheduled to leave at 7am. We were at the middle of the ship and our luggage tags were numbered 16, scheduled for 8am. 

Bcos it was too early for them, they decided to skip bfast. We didn't bcos I know that we will have hungry morning people. 

It was initially difficult to wake the kids until I reminded them that we are in Singapore and their data plan works. The next moment... So easy...

The windjammer was opened as early as 6am and was crowded when we arrived. Back in the cabin after bfast was a waiting game but nobody complains when there is aircon and gadget. The disembarkation announcement was made over the PA system as well as on Channel 24 on the TV. 

It was our turn shortly after 8am. By then, Auntie S and kids were already home. Disembarkation was easy and clear. There wasn't much of a crowd as well. 

Of course social distancing via the familiar "footprint" labels that we constantly saw throughout the cruise. 

Everything else was just as smooth and we were home before 9am. That marked the end of our cruise holiday. 

While the teenager had complained a fair bit and rolled her eyeballs probably enough to circle the earth, we all had fun. Zaky loves the boogie boarding. Lil Shauna enjoyed a few of the activities and we all had a great time with the bumper car. I particularly enjoyed the time with the kids. It had been so long. It is a pity that Daddy Lim can't join us this time. 

In my opinion, the cruise was particularly good bcos of the 50% capacity such that the line for the the activities were much reasonable. I think we must make full use of this privilege such that I jioed Auntie S to book the cruise again during the June holidays. Hohoho. 

Ya, cruise booked already. We are fast hands, fast legs. This time, Popo will not be tagging along. She finds the casino too tiny and would rather go to her Genting Dream cruise instead and had already planned on in end April. This time, we also jioed Auntie J and kids. Hoho. Daddy Lim isn't sure if he would be able to make it for the cruise and will see how his work schedule goes. 

This time, we will make sure to arrive as early as possible and book as many bumper car sessions as possible. Hoho. Oh, we need to stay away from late night performances too; we are not as strong as what we think we are. 

We are lao jiaos already and very much looking forward to June 21. Hoho.

Mummy Lim

Quantum of the Seas Day 3

C said that she wanted to jog on day 3 morning. 

While jogging is not my thing, I was glad to have companion. In fact, I had the whole gang with me. The girls ran ahead followed by the boys, then me. Auntie S' poor knees don't agree with jogging and she took on the all important sweeper role. Soon, I caught up with the boys, who decided that they would rest on the beach chair instead after 2 rounds. 

The map says that one round of track = 553m. I don't think so. The girls stopped after what they say was 5 rounds. I should have ran 6 and only took 18+mins. I can't have ran 3+km in 18+mins. My Garmin best, it recorded 4.5km and exclaimed that it is the fastest ever recorded run that I have. Lol. 

Obviously GPS and Garmin don't work very well in the middle of the sea. 

I bet it was about 2.5km at most. With that little burnt, I made the kids do HIIT with me. Hoho. Only C tried to entertain me, Lil Shauna hates HIIT and didn't do much. Zaky was worse. He was just playing dead on the beach chair. Lol. 

We didn't complete the session, probably just 2/3 of the 30 mins session bcos the kids were whinning too much. What's next was bfast and bfast obviously was a better option. 

Remembered that we couldn't rebook one of the shows? We were told by the staff that we could approach the guest service to see if they could help. While we still didn't get slots for the show, the staff managed to help us book ONE precious bumper car slot for ONE person on day 3 morning. We didn't share this with the kids bcos it sounded like the perfect trigger for murder plot. 

Anyway, we wanted to do the boogie board after bfast only to realise that the q was bloody long under the freaking hot sun. The kids agreed to go for a dip instead and after some game, Zaky snagged the single slot for the bumper car. At the door, we found out that people can still go for bumper car even if they didn't manage to make a reservation; they just have to q. With that, we got the whole gang to do the bumper car again. The q was definitely longer than the 1st day but moved quickly.

Nobody take photo for me, I take myself. Hoho. 

The boogie board q was much manageable after that. The boys went several times until the q started lengthening and we decided that it was time for lunch. As a result, lunch was later than usual. 

In the afternoon, we took part on some guess the lyrics activities and we realised how bad we all are except for Lil Shauna. 

Of the 20 songs, we made 8 guesses and 7 were by her. We got 歌神! The rest of us just looked at the screen blankly. Only when the answers were revealed and the songs played, we went "ahhhh" and "orhhhh" and happily sang along. Lol. 

By Day 3, we were a lot more tired and spent more time resting in the cabin. Many of our plans were also not going according to plan, like the dancing classes. The kids were probably pleased with that. There were line dancing, morning fitness dance, k pop music dance and we did NONE of those. I was adamant about the last pop music dance at 4pm and make sure that nothing goes in my way to attend that session. Hoho. 

None of the kids were keen. Only Zaky hold true to his words and went to the pop music dance class with the 2 aunties. Haha. It was an easy dance to 2 songs but much enjoyable. In return for his companion, I brought him to boogie board right after that and it was the last opportunity given that the session closed at 5.30pm. 

There was a Q and a fairly long wait. Zaky was the last few in the Q and they opened up the entire surf pool. We waited for about 45 mins before his turn but he thinks that it was totally worth it. Fyi, while he was waiting in the sun for his turn, so did yours truly in the no shade, direct sunlight spectator area. I can literally feel sweat rolling off my back and wrapped myself in beach towels. 

Zaky was exhausted after boogie board and didn't even want to swim with T. We heard that Auntie S donned her biniki *cat whistles*. We retreated to the room and didn't have dinner with them too bcos we were still full from lunch. In the end, dinner was at the complimentary pizza and snack place. 

We took a long break after dinner. The next and last program was a performance at 10pm. But the long day of activities, sun and sea wasn't helping. Zaky fell asleep at 8+pm and asked me to wake him up for the performance. Lil Shauna outright declared at 9+pm that she wanted to skip the performance and go to bed. Lol. 

The kids on the other side weren't doing any much better. In the end, we decided that we should just skip the show and go to bed. Soon after, the kids were both in lala land and I headed down to the casino to look for Popo. She had spent more time in the casino than anywhere else on the cruise. Lol. 

I had thought that she would be spending the last hours in the casino but declared that the limited jackpot machines were no fun, which basically means that she wasn't winning. She too decided that she would turn in for the night. 好吧, let's all sleep. 

Good night to the last night on cruise. 

Mummy Lim

Quantum of the Seas Day 2

There is a gym on the cruise but the earliest appointment starts at 8am and that clashes with bfast. I did my HIIT on the open deck instead. I am not the only healthy nut but the deck was busy with people doing their morning run. 

Good morning Tuesday!

Hello Mr Sun!

The kids were still sleeping when I was back. It was very difficult to wake sleepy heads. 

The plan was to have bfast at 8am and then the boogie boarding at 9am. We went for boogie boarding a few times on day 2 and 3 that I lost track of the actual number of times. We all tried except for Auntie S bcos she didn't want to get "wash away" unglamorously.

I got do ok, just that nobody take my photo. I do have videos of me screaming bloody murder, which isn't the wisest thing to do bcos I took 2 gigantic gulps of water when I got washed away. Oh ya, it is chlorine water and not sea water like the last cruise. 

The boys love this and they have learnt the different patterns during the few short sessions - kneeling, one foot up, sitting down. I did manage to kneel eventually but got washed off. The 1st time was when I took the gigantic gulps and the 2nd, I whacked my head on the cushion. While I don't think I have a concussion, I had a sore neck muscle after that. Old already ah. 

In between the boogie board sessions were swimming and more rock climbing. 

Long time ago during the Phuket holidays, I had a pact with Auntie S that we would wear bikini on the next beach holiday. Hoho. The beach holiday didn't come but the cruise swimming pool holiday did. We did both wore out bikini to parade the swimming pool but at didn't time. Hahaha. Lil Shauna just rolled eyes at me. Her poor eyes must be very tired for the constant rolling. 

Other than the boogie board, the highlight of the day must be the magic show. My kids never grew out of magic shows. While we lament that there aren't much stuff to do after dinner (except for another swim), we were all tired after dinner. The dinner took exceptionally long bcos of the crowd and we were all tired by the end of it. 

Good night cruise. 

Mummy Lim

Quantum of the Seas Day 1

While the teenager was a huge pail of cold water, the aunties self hyped. There is this Royal app. I am not sure if this is new due to covid-19 or we old school and relied on the good old paper program the last round. On top of the app, there is another cruise account allowing us to purchase paid services before the cruise. I bought the daily drink package as well as wifi to stay connected. 

The Royal Caribbean cruise also did their part to hype; every other day, I am receiving some email to remind me of the upcoming cruise. Woohoo! We started counting down and got all the more excited when the swab test come out negative about 12 hours after the swab. Hohoho. 

Then we found out how informative the Royal app is. By selecting a cruise that is currently sailing, we were able to see the itinerary that is an exact replicate of our cruise. With that, we were able to plan in advance though we know that something will definitely throw the plan off. Hoho. At certain point, it did feel a little information overload - which app? Which email? Which PDF? Just whack only.

Thinking that there wasn't much to do onboard during the day, we opted for arrival at 3.30pm. By the time we realised that the boogie boarding and rock climbing start as early as 3pm, there were no other earlier slots for arrival. Auntie S' colleague who just took the cruise shared that the reservations (for shows and bumper cars) can be made the moment we board, which also means that the slots could be fully taken up by people who boarded early. Gan cheong. Luckily no reservation is not needed for boogie boarding, rock climbing and other activities. 

I had to run some errands at JP and dragged the kids along also to feed them. We ended up with 2 humongous drinks. Why so big? My teh was tiny in comparison.

Then the boy kept rushing me as he was so worried that we would be late. He was apparently much more excited that I was. 

We met up at 3pm and though 30 mins earlier than stipulated arrival time, we were allowed to begin the checkin process. There was the drop off luggage, wellness screening, more checking and screening. While the process was efficient, it was not something that we are used to and my hands were so full from the passports, the papers, the phone (for scan entry). 救命啊.

Finally! The familiar gangway. 

Strangely, there is no need to "hand-in" the passports this time. 

The cabins were ready when we arrived though the luggage will take some time. The 1st thing that was required was to go to the muster point and upon confirmation that we had watched the safety videos, we were given this green sticker on the seapass cards, which also act as the room key. "Have you all watched the safety videos?" - YES, secretly hoping that the crew would not test me bcos....

Right next, we found a corner was to station ourselves and book the shows and bumper cars. The kids were told beforehand how important this step was but it didn't stop somebody from coming to ask about this and that. Vomit blood. In the end, we managed to book all the shows but only 2 bumper car sessions on Day 1. There were many, many sessions of bumper car throughout the 3 days but we only snagged 2. Zzzzz. 

We planned to either boogie board or rock climb after we come onboard but the plan was immediately disrupted by hungry tummies. We went for a bite at 4ish. Though it was neither lunch nor dinner, we still eat. Hoho. Our 1st meal on the Royal was the buffet at the Windjmmer Marketplace. 

We visited our cabin to "deposit" Popo before the next outdoor activity. We managed to pay an extra S$100 to an upgraded balcony cabin. Hohoho.

The cabin comes with a double bed and the sofa folded out to form another double bed. 

It was a very sunny and hot day even though it was approaching 5pm. The 1st activity was rock climbing. 

We didn't have time to try out the boogie board. 

Then it was time for bumper car.

It was so fun trying to bump people. Hoho. While queueing, I tried helping the teenager take IG worthy pictures. Duno will pass or not. 

Then we had food again bcos it was dinner time. I remembered that on the last cruise, dinner took forever bcos of the crowd. It was much faster this time but still took over an hour. We had a juggling show at 8pm and were not in time. Thinking that there are other time slots over the next 2 days, we canceled the reservation to rebook. Wrong choice. The other slots were ALL fully booked and we had to miss the show. Sob. 

In the end, we went for a silly game before another prebooked show at 10pm. The show was some singing performance themed "Sequins and Feathers". It wasn't fantastic but one of the 3 featured performances. 

We were all beat by the end of it. It was time to call it a day. Good night to our 1st holiday in a long while.

Mummy Lim

Quantum of the Seas: Pre-Cruise

I am not a fan of cruise but decided to give cruises - the great Royal Caribbean - one last chance in May 2017.  It was the Voyager of the Seas and I was expecting plenty of kids friendly activities, like how they had advertised it. Well, there were indeed a fair amount of activities but there were also a crazy load of passengers and a hell of waiting time for almost every other activities. I didn't quite enjoy the cruise and knew that it would be a long time before returning to one. 

Year 2020 had been so cruel to travel. Our last family trip was to South Korea in December 2019 and Covid-19 ceased all our quarterly travels. We all missed traveling and recalled how fun this and that place was whenever we chatted about our holidays. Sob, I want to go holiday. 

Desperation calls for tough measures. I booked a Royal Caribbean cruise holidays. Hohoho. Daddy Lim says that he is unable to take leave and Popo is dying to go to the casino (not cruise) and we nicely made a room of 4. We got Auntie S, C and T for companion too. 

We were so looking forward to the cruise. Ok, at least Zaky and I are very much looking forward to it. Popo just wanted to go to the casino and the teenager at home is a pain. Zzzzzzz.. from "pls substitute my space to somebody else bcos I have netball training" to "the cruise activities are so boring" to "I don't want the swab test" to "I wanted to sleep in during the school holidays". I give up. I have decided that I would bring her physically onto the cruise and she can sleep in the whole day in the cabin if she wanted to. From just a while ago, the kids were so excited at any kind of holidays. Puberty is a cruel thing. But at least I still have 1 kid, who said that he would do line dance and k pop dance with me. Haha. 

The swab test was scheduled for last Saturday. We met up with Auntie S and kids. There was a Q when we arrived but moved quickly. It was very efficient. I asked for a picture but the teenager only rolled her eyes at me. Zzz. 

With the only kid left.

I went to the same stall with Zaky and he went for the swab test 1st while the person explained the process - 5s each nostril. Stay still and there will be some "discomfort". "Discomfort" is a dangerous word.

I saw Zaky's eyes turned red when the tester stuck this long skinny plastic stirer lookalike thing into his nostril. He kept still nevertheless and soon he was done and I saw the tester stuck this sticker on him, which I assumed was to indicate that the work was done. Zaky then started sneezing a few times in a roll; he has sensitive air passageway.

It was my turn next. "Discomfort" is an ugly word. Pui! If it is indeed "discomfort", it is a big discomfort. Boo! The only saving grace was that it was done very quickly. I was then waiting for the sticker and realised that I didn't get one. Luckily I didn't ask or insist to have one bcos upon closer look... 

Ya, it was one of those stickers that kids get at the doctor. Lol. 

Yes, swab test done and I was hoping that with the one hurdle down, it will make the teenager more excited about the cruise. As D day approaches, she did indicate that she was more and more looking forward to the cruise. It wasn't bcos her mother was trying so hard to hype up the holiday but bcos she got to know that her so and so are also going to the cruise. Chey. 

Mummy Lim

Starting Tuitions

We stopped the kids LCentral when Lil Shauna started P6. Popo thought that I was crazy when PSLE was just around the corner. We didn't want to overly pressured the kids and they are kang dang kids anyway. Could Lil Shauna had done better if we had continued with LCentral? I don't know but I think she had done well enough for PSLE overall. LCentral or not, she continues to impress me with her English proficient and ability. 

I would say that Zaky was a free rider and benefited when we stopped jiejie's LCentral. He is not as strong as jiejie but isnt too bad either. He is well aware that we would put him back if he screws up SA2 (their school has no SA1 this year). 

Zaky is now on Maths and Chinese. We didn't start him on Science and told him that he should let us know if he needed help. Lil Shauna has all the tuition lessons ceased when she entered Sec 1 and we said the same to her. 

I am blessed with academically responsible kids. Zaky came back a few weeks back to ask for help in Science. He understands the topics but is doing badly for his practice papers bcos he is not answering using the right key words. After asking around, we put him in Agrader, like some of his peers. 

While he attended the 1st of the 4 trial lessons last Thursday, I enjoyed my McD chocolate pie. 

Look, the cup lid has been improved to be straw-free friendly. 

The lesson went on without a hitch. Yay!

Lil Shauna has just completed her WA1 and had been lamenting throughout the journey. It is afterall new for her to do real self study. She had most of her papers back and had done fairly well so far but acknowledges that she needed help in Maths. So here we are, putting her back into Matrix Maths. 

Let's see how the kids progress. 

Mummy Lim

Another Oral Ordeal: Cracked Tooth Part 3

Two weeks passed without much of an "teething" issue. Hoho. Once the dentist grinded off a large part of the broken tooth, the pain from the bite issue went away instantaneously. I was told to "eat normally". I did and with revenge, making up for the lost time. Lol. Hello to the weight loss that took like a week of suffering to go away but came back in a wink. Haiz. 

For the past 2 weeks, I have no issue to hot and cold food/ drinks. There was no pain even when I chew on it. I thought I am on the sure road of root canal and crowning. The only time that I feel "something" is during impact, like when I knock my head on the mat during sit-ups or when I rode over humps. It isn't pain but a sensation.

The dentist wasn't too pleased with my description though. I was invited back to the dentist chair. There was a couple of knocks and there was a slight pain but very bearable. Then he used this tool that is supposed to run an electric current through the tooth and a good tooth should feel pain. I think it look like this. 

The cracked tooth did feel a pain but only at something like 55 (duno what units). He tested it on a good tooth and I was reacting violently at 15. The pain on the good tooth was a lot more intense. 

The dentist cannot 100% diagnose if the tooth is fully dead. He is thus not sure if a crowning will work or should it be a root canal and crowning. Or maybe it is already cracked to the core and only an extraction (and implant) will work.

The conclusion? I was sent home again and this time, to try to eat normally for 2 months. I am of course to come back if the intense pain returns. Otherwise, to review again in 2 months' time and see if the tooth can be saved. 

I don't have much qualms about it, I am living in harmony with the metal banded mini cracked tooth for now. 

Mummy Lim

Hair

With the passing years, the intervals between each hair salon visits to hide my grey hair becomes shorter and shorter. "Ouch" says my scalp and wallet. 

Bcos of an event upcoming next week and I want to feel good for the event, I have decided to go back to the salon after 2.5 months. Hair colored? Checked. 

It had also been ages since my last hair trim and I looked like an out of control broom head. Hair cut? Checked. 

I had been toying with keeping a fringe. I had that on several occasions when I was younger and have long forgotten about the hassle of keeping fringe. I also have really stubbornly straight hair and those wavy fringes are out of my reach. Unless maybe I perm them? 

I got my wish; the hairdresser gave me a light fringe. Hehehe. 

How long I can tahan the fringe is a different question. I thought I looked different with long fringe. Ok, the makeup, lighting and auto meitu in the 1st picture played a big part too. Haha. 

I just earned myself another 3 months before another visit to the salon. Haha.

Mummy Lim

Not Hives?

Zaky has a history of allergy to tree nuts and eczema. He broke out in hives when I allowed him to lick my peanut butter sandwich when he was a toddler. Yay, silly mummy. Then we had to rush him to A&E when I gave him a small piece of sampling CNY chocolate cookie. In minutes, he vomited with visible swells on his chin and I found out that the cookie contains hazelnut. Zzzzzzz. 

We had been careful in keeping him off tree nuts in the 1st few years. We never got him tested but we think that he has outgrown. In our 1st Taiwan trip, the tour guide offered him muah ji. He didn't like it and kept the peanut covered piece in his mouth. We made him spit and to rinse his mouth but I was sure that he would have ingested some peanuts. Nothing happened. Along the years, I am sure that he had taken in some tree nuts, including the chocolate and nuts sandwich that I once accidentally fed him in one of the overseas theme park. Muahahaha. I sounded like I was out to murder him with different attempts at different age of his life. 

We became less careful along the years but still stay off products with nuts. It has become a habit for us to ask if the product contain nuts or check the labels. He too is aware of his allergy. In recent months, he has asked to be tested. Why? Bcos his teacher has recently offered chocolates as rewards to some students and he can't have them bcos they contain nuts. Lol. I have been putting it off bcos it means a trip to the polyclinic and long waiting time. 

We had a great day of activities on Saturday and ended off with dinner at Star Vista and topped it off with a super rich dark chocolate tart. Yum yum. Then we stole the big bed while Daddy Lim got banished to Zaky's room instead. 

In the middle of the night, Zaky woke up complaining that he was itchy all over. His eczema though recovered, resulted in general bad skin and he often break out in rashes. I got him to shower and then saw what looked like hives on 3 different spots on his back. There were 2 more on his legs. Zyrtec came to the rescue and he went back comfortably to bed. Was it the chocolate tart? Hmmmm...

On Sunday morning, the what appeared to be hives turned into big angry patches and they itched badly. We went about the day's activities without much issues. He even went to visit a friend and came back with new big angry patches on his hands. So strange, this is so different from his previous hives and why are they appearing so many hours after the chocolate tart, if that is really the culprit?

By Monday morning, the patches were still persistent. Zaky earned himself a long weekend and was super happy. I brought him to a GP who said that the patches didn't look like any kind of hives or even eczema. She thinks that they are more likely to be insect bites, like mosquito. Huh? Then how come he is the only one who got the blood sucked? 

Anyway, we were sent home with more zyrtec, some cream and a day's MC. Zaky even got to have McDonald bfast. Really 赚到. He was obviously very pleased. 

The cream works really well on the swelling as it contains 0.1% steroid. Zaky looked good this morning but was trying his luck to skip another day of school. Bcos of mosquito bites? Siao ah? 

Are they really mosquito bites? I don't know but I realised that I got bitten this morning too. Like Auntie S says, maybe the mosquitos were all full after sucking his blood and didn't bother us thereafter. Hahaha. Maybe he just has a bad reaction to mosquito bites bcos his skin is so bad. 

Mummy Lim