February 17 -- Happy Anniversary (A Day Early)

If we were still in Atlanta, it would be the evening of February 16, as the sun was rising on the morning of February 17 in Singapore. However, we are not in Atlanta, we are in Singapore and it is February 17. Thus, we will celebrate our 45th wedding anniversary today (a bit earlier than we would have normally.)

As usual, we had breakfast in the hotel buffet. However after breakfast, this would be a different morning, as we had to pack up and prepare to checkout of the hotel and head to the cruise ship. So that's what we did. Here are our final views of Singapore from our hotel room -- you've seen these before, but sentiment compels me to post them again -- and from the bus ride over to the cruise ship, "The Spectrum of the Seas." (For those of you who followed our blog from last year's trip [Lands Down Under 2023], the ship's name might sound familiar. Last year's cruise ship was named The Ovation of the Seas. They are both owned by Royal Caribbean.)

As is usual, the process of boarding thousands of cruise passengers on the same day is orderly chaotic. Orderly in that there are predetermined steps to go through: verifying passenger status, verifying that all e-visa and other travel documents are in order, clearing immigration, doing the mandatory safety check, and finally getting into one's room. Chaotic in that there are a lot of people going through these steps, and with any group of people, there are always things that go wrong, that are not in order, are confusing, etc., etc., etc. Here are some pictures from the whole onboarding process.

Once we checked in, we went to the Silver Lounge for lunch and to wait for our room to be accessible. When we arrived at our room, we met our steward, Sena, began unpacking, and later prepared for dinner. We went to dinner in the Gold Lounge, where the waiters celebrated our anniversary with a slice of cake and a song. Afterwards, we sat on the deck outside of the Gold Lounge, observing the ships in the harbor as their lights came on. Eventually, we walked back to the room, settled in for the evening and went to bed.

(Jen is our concierge, who will assist us throughout the cruise.)

(Xinyi ["Zin-yee"] will be our primary waitress for the cruise; waiters singing anniversary song; anniversary cake and wishes served to us after dinner.)

(Last row, center picture of suite locations. We are in Room 154 on the 13th deck, so our suite number is 13154)

(Celebrating 45 years of being married and still liking each other. It's great when your spouse is your best friend. Makes life so much richer and life's burdens more bearable.)