Singapore Diaries - Part 1

Singapore | October 2022

Birthday milestones are always special, not just because you celebrate reaching those milestones, but also because they make you want to do things you have never done before.

That is exactly what was planned for my mom's 60th. For the first time ever, she expressed a desire to go on a trip with all of us - a cruise vacation in Singapore! However, this was 2020, and Covid not only cancelled all travel plans, but ensured we do not even leave home for a good while.

Fast forward to 2022, and we were determined to make this long awaited cruise vacation dream a reality. But easier said than done, planning a vacation for an age band of 1.5 years to 63 years needs a detailed thought. Very detailed. Nonetheless, bookings were made, excel sheets were made, and here we were, heading for a week to Singapore!

Waiting to board our flight from Vadodara to Mumbai

None of us had ever been on a cruise before, and hence we were carrying only excitement and no experience with us. While we kept telling Ayaansh that we were going on a huge ship, in reality the rest of us so-called grown-ups too were clueless of how huge it would actually be! The initial moments of getting onboard the cruise were just about us trying to hold our composure. And what we experienced over the next 3 nights was pure enjoyment on a vessel that sailed 6500 people over the South China sea. Spectrum of the Seas, as they call it, was built to impress, and how!

Unlike the previous trip to Maldives, Ayaansh had a bit more imagination to use this time. However, everything here was at massive scale, be it the food in the restaurants, the activities, or the sheer number of people he could see. He now had more food options, more surface area to explore on foot (yes, at 19 months, we now had a running machine who refused to tire), and more understanding of what he saw.

Lift lobby on the Spectrum of Seas

There are painters. There are photographers. And there's...me.

At the plaza on the Spectrum of the Seas.

Growing into a toddler from being an infant is liberating at multiple levels. You hear more NO's than YES's. But the upside is, you start having a mind of your own. You now have stuff that you clearly like among everything else. And most importantly, you now have the ability to make memories! The deck of the ship was definitely Ayaansh's favourite places for many reasons, but mainly because there were....pandas!

The deck was his favourite area. And Pandas were just one of the reasons why.

The most undeniable benefit of living with family is the super strong support system that comes along in raising a kid. And family vacations are no exception to this philosophy. The cruise had a lot of activities which otherwise would not have been of interest to Ayaansh, and hence we all took turns babysitting him, while the others could enjoy the fantastic shows and activities onboard. So while Mumma-Dadda, Dadu-Dadi and Chachu witnessed everything from broadway shows to silent discos in batches, Ayaansh was happily being pampered all the time.

Sail-away views - as if the water is moving away while you sit

Disembarking on day 4 surely left us craving for more, but the only thing that helped us keep our sprits high was that the cruise was just one half of our Singapore holiday. We had more in store for us. But as far the cruise goes, this has been one of our finest travel experiences so far. It can easily be attributed to the fact that Ayaansh was an absolute fuss-free sweetheart all throughout and had tried to have maximum fun, in every way accessible to him. But even so, it is mind-numbing to witness the scale at which the cruise teams operate and the efficiency they bring in the process. While this was our first, Vrunda and I would surely want to expose Ayaansh to more cruises in future, with a hope that it empowers him to see the world at a scale that is not available to us everyday.

More from the Singapore adventures here!