Ching Chong Boy’s birthday celebration – My Star Virgo 6D5N cruise to Ho Chi Minh & Redang experience!

Remember my previous entry? I had celebrated Ching Chong Boy’s birthday by arranging for a staycation and massage the day before his birthday (which I will blog about it later…) and for his birthday, we went for a cruise! To be exact, the Star Virgo 6D5N cruise to Ho Chi Minh & Redang. This was made possible by Nuffnang and Star Cruises! <3

I figured that blogging by each activities day by day might be a tad messy and confusing to read thus I decided to go thru the following in this order!

1.The room
2. The makan places
3. The facilities
4. The activities
5. Ho Chi Minh
6. Redang

Random camwhoring pictures will be inserted in between. :X

I had brought along Colin who brought along Ivan! Glad to have them on this trip! Great company 😉

We enjoyed a rather VIP check in, very hassle free and my Guest Service Officer Vivian was a great help. She helped arranged for all tours and reservations!

We were treated with a welcome drink and was given a tour of the facilities and restaurants in Star Virgo.

– The room

Star Cruises had kindly arranged for an Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony for all of us.

The room is rather spacious and honestly, we could fit 3 people in the room! Not only that, you can relax at the balcony and watch the sunrise and sunset!

We also had to attend a mandatory drill where they taught us how to put on the lifejackets and what to do in case of an emergency.

And now.. moving on to the makan places!

There are free and paid restaurants on Star Virgo. Here are the free restaurants.

– Mediterranean serves an international spread and is available for all meals, including supper! Extremely popular (especially since it’s the only restaurant open for supper!) and one of my favourites was the Congee that they served daily. Yummy!

– Bella Vista is a western restaurant. One needs to be dressed in at least proper covered shoes and jeans to dine at this restaurant.

Bella Vista serves set meals and my personal favourite would have to be the eggylicious breakfast we had on one of the days.

– Pavillion Room has to be our favourite free restaurant. They serve Chinese food like the usual dim sums and normal chinese dishes.

The boys especially loved having breakfast there. Pictures of the food that we ate here!

Highly recommended!

Moving on to the paid restaurants… For us Balcony Class card holders, we were given $300 dining credit where we could use in any of the paid restaurants mentioned below.

– Samurai serves Japanese fare. We ate there twice, once for the yummilicious Teppanyaki and another for the Gala dinner. Pictures of the Gala dinner later below!

The teppanyaki chef was hilarious, it was great watching him in action, he also “played” with us by making us catch random food items. lol.

THIS IS A MUST ORDER ITEM.

Sashimi is extremely fresh and to die for. All of us agreed it was the best that we have ever tasted before. Shiokadoos!

The beef was also one of our favourites! Melts in your mouth!

– Blue Lagoon is an Asian Bistro that is open 24 hours. The food there may look simple but they are very delish, portions are big though! Suitable to be shared, the boy and I ordered a Seafood Horfun and shared, enough for the both of us.

If you were wondering, why was there a cake, it was because Star Cruises had kindly sent us a birthday card! With a redeemable cake at Blue Lagoon. How sweet of them!

– Palazzo serves fine dining Italian fare. The restaurant has only 7 tables and is extremely exclusive. They do not allow kids in the restaurant. One of the guys was joking that it’s probably to avoid crying kids to spoil the atmosphere. LOL

Great service and the food was good! We had escargots, soup and steak!

Plates by Versace! o.O

We visited Noble House mainly for the Peking Duck. For only $38, once can order half a peking duck. Damn shioks!

The Taj serves Indian Cuisine buffet style and is located right next to Samurai.

The Taverna serves inernational snacks and is an ideal place to relax and enjoy good music.

Other food places that you should check out would be the Bellini (a Champagne bar) and Gelato Ice Cream & Juice Bar!

Now, moving to the facilities!

Port O’ Call & Star Boutique has a wide variety of tax-free items such as chocolates, perfumes, basic necessities, swimwear and various souvenirs for your shopping needs!

The Starlight Video Arcade is a great place to have some fun! Kids and families can bond here! The boy and I played some games here! Needless to say, I got badly beaten by him. Bah.

The Library is a good place to read books, Ivan used the internet here to email his wife, so sweet of him! Missing her every single day of the trip. Newly weds are always so mushy :X

Ching Chong Boy and I enjoyed the Water Slide at the Parthenon Pool immensely, we also swam and enjoyed the jacuzzi.

You fitness freaks would enjoy the Universal Gym. Unfortunately I didn’t bring my gym gear and was kicking myself for forgetting.

One can always pamper themselves at the Oscar’s Hair & Beauty Salon. We missed out checking out the Apollo Spa sadly!

Some of the activities that we checked out was..

The Welcome Aboard Show was fun! The StarCruises Dancers, Cruise Staff and Superstar Virgo Musicians put up a musical extravaganza for us, singing, dancing, the works!

Zumba fitness is something extremely popular in Singapore right now and Star Cruises organised a Zumba Inspired Cardio Dance Party for us to party in shape and learn Latin-inspired dance moves that are extremely calorie-burning. FUN!

Colin attended an exclusive Galley Tour with the executive Chef Chuah where he brought participants for a tour around the ship’s galley and also shared his experience and stories of how his chefs prepares for meals onboard.

We had a Gala Cocktail Party where we enjoyed a few drinks, there was a fashion show and a performance before the Senior Management introduced themselves and the Captain gave a speech.

We enjoyed a Gala Dinner at Samurai, extremely tasty meal but I prefer the Teppanyaki meal :X We also took the chance to take pictures with Vivian and Toku, both Guest Service Officers who took good care of us throughout our trip 🙂

For our Gala Show, we enjoyed a spectacular show called Reflections of Russia which considered of a great dance act, contortionists, aero gymasts and a hula hoop act.

The Choco Madness Party was fantastic! Not only was there a chocolate buffet but a great dance performance by the crew!

Aside from the above activities, Star Cruises had generously sponsored us two land tours during our Ho Chi Minh and Redang shore excursion.

For Ho Chi Minh, we chose a land transfer to Ben Thanh Market, we then proceeded for a massage and for some pho!

 

Shopping in Ben Thanth. Was forced to buy a pair of slippers cos my pweety sandals gave way. T.T

Enjoyed a shiok massage!

A trip to Vietnam is not complete without Pho, Viet Coffee and Spring Rolls! <3

Goodbye Vietnam! Till the next trip!

After Vietnam, we visited Redang!

A pic with the pretty Zoe Raymond! She’s another blogger (very popular one!) who is also sponsored by Nuffnang and Star Cruises. I took the liberty of chopping off my fat legs in this pic :X Thanks for the pic babe!

Both Ching Chong Boy and I went Diving while Colin and Ivan went snokelling!

Some pictures of the beautiful Redang!

 

Picking up our gear!

 

All dressed up!

Diving was fun! It was actually my second dive after my Open Water course last year and I was super rusty! Think I need more leisure dives! Big thanks to Hong and Mr Liu! Great Dive Masters!

Goodbye Redang!

Back to good old Singapore. 🙂

Did you enjoyed reading this post? Itching for a getaway? Star Cruises is now having their 18th Anniversary Facebook Giveaway!

All you have to do is head over to http://www.facebook.com/starcruises and LIKE their page.

Head to the Tag & Win tab at the side.

Tag 5 of your best buddies and stand a chance to win!

Star Cruises is a great way to have an all inclusive holiday. There’s everything to do on the ship! Great variety of food, fun activities and great entertainment.

Thanks once again to Nuffnang and Star Cruises for the opportunity! <3