cruise on the superstar virgo















just returned from a 3-day 2-night cruise to melaka and k.l. on the superstar virgo. did not join the land tour to melaka but did walk to the mainland when the ship berthed at port klang. just a short 300m walk to the star cruise terminal at klang. the superstar virgo and the superstar leo are the two biggest cruise ships in the star cruise's stable.















this particular cruise makes a 7-hour stop at k.l. on thursday, ostensibly to allow passengers sufficient time to tour the malaysian capital but actually it stops there to unload some of the refuse and to re-stock food, toiletries and other items needed for the cruise.




















on wednesday night, when i reached the cruise centre at harbourfront, i was met with a long queue facing the new york pizza outlet. i was wondering 'what's so special about this pizza', only to learn that it was a snaking queue waiting to board star cruise's superstar virgo. i had to wait for my travelling companion tsung kok weng before i could join the super long queue.















it was when i was in the queue that i bumped into james and sabrina. by sheer coincidence, they were also on the cruise because james had won two tickets as some lucky draw prizes. i had got my two tickets as a gift for my participation in the heartstrings walk.

we could not use the gym as we had not taken along our track shoes. we visited the casino twice, both times to watch people playing card games like blackjack and poker and also roulette, tai sai and the slot machines. you need not have cash with you to gamble; the access card for opening the cabin can be used to operate the gaming machines.

my cabin, with two single beds, afforded a view of the sea not like the hole in the wall we had when we cruised on the megastar aquarius many years ago. inclusive meals were had at the pavilion - a chinese restaurant, the meditteranean terrace and the bella vista. the bella vista offers both western and chinese cuisines. we had chinese dim sum on one morning and western breakfast on friday.

two of the shows which were a thrill to watch were street life and the musicians of bremen. the two shows were performed by the same cast - dancers from brazil and belarus and acrobats from guangxi in china.

at around 12.30 p.m. while we were having our buffet lunch at the meditteranean terrace, we already caught sight of our southern islands but it was not until 2.20 p.m. that we were able to disembark from the ship.

even though it was a mid-week cruise and school holidays had not started, the ship was almost at full capacity. i had expected to see a lot of retirees and senior citizens on the cruise, instead there were more young people. tourists from india, australia, china and indonesia made up the bulk of the passengers.