Off the ship, out of Copenhagen and into Singapore

With the cruise over, a few comments are worth making. Regal Princess is by far the biggest ship we have ever sailed on but, in reality, it rarely seemed crowded. The biggest "size" issue goes to port access, so I think that is the most important matter in making decisions between cruise lines and ships.

Princess absolutely stood out with its amazingly efficient and effecively "no wait" embarkation and disembarkation procedures, and its production shows (and Beatle Maniacs). It doesn't quite match Holland America with some of the little things like towel size and quality, crockery, cutlery etc - but would be very happy to again be a passenger, subject to itinerary.

A few comments on passengers (and I guess the more you have, the more experiences you will have). There are a small number who seem to believe that the cruise is run just for their benefit, there are some who only believe a queue exists if they are at its head and, sadly, some who do not seem to have the terms "please", "thank you" or "excuse me" in their vocabulary. Pleasing to say that Australians did not feature in any of the above observations.

The biggest blight on modern tourism, however, has to be digital photograpgy and digital media. Where one or two photos used to be enough, now its more like ten - and then you continue to block everyone else while you review each of them. And as for the selfie stick - it needs to be planted very firmly up the you know where of its inventor.

Anyway, as noted above, disembarkation was a standout and never had to break stride but for a 5 minute taxi wait. Relaxing time in Copenhagen lounge and on time flight all the way to Singapore. Efficient transfer to Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel on Singapore River and into room by 8.30am ($150 excess for a pre-noon check in). Did the full HOHO bus route (part of Singapore Airlines stopover package) then headed back to hotel for Pat to catch some sleep while I went walking. Late swim and then for dinner.

We have experienced minimal high rise in the last 3 weeks, but to experience Singapore is to know what high rise is - and there are just so many more in the course of construction. Construction is everywhere here, buildings, roads, infrastructure, Metro extensions etc, etc, etc. The Singapore Grand Prix is on next weekend, and it too is a massive infrastructure exercise requiring significant interruption to roads, transport, pedestrian access etc. Regrettably, it seems the Grand Prix will be impacted by the very polluted air quality currently being experienced in Singapore due to Indonesian burn offs. Breathing is somewhat impacted - particularly in head cold recovery mode.