Adelaide-Singapore-Shanghai
23rd August 2018. The long wait is over. DH and I had booked this cruise whilst we were on the Golden Princess and for me, I doubted this day day would ever arrive. I am so happy DH, Paul has overcome his concerns regarding his health and abilities to travel overseas again. Whoo hoo.
Our wonderful son (we have two, but the youngest one) dropped us off at the airport early for us to book in at Singapore Airlines check-in and hpefully snag a two-seater alongside the window. As we were flying with Ezair, a Princess connected air agent, we were unable to pre-book our seating and my fear was getting to sit, squeezed in the middle of the plane with three over passengers. As fate intercepted whist we were in the line, one of the Business Class counter-staff called us out of the line to help process the economy passengers and we just happened to be the easiest to access. So I asked if we could have a window seat, which apparently our tickets weren't for but yahoo!, not only did we get but also change from the back of the plane to the quiter middle section. Happy chappy. Small but great pleasures.
We had a delay in taking off. The plane had to go back to the terminal for mechanical repairs when we were about to take-off.....mmmm? After 75 mins the plane was back in take-off readiness and off we went. We managed to get into Singapore with an hour's transfer time connecting with our Singapore Airlines flight to Shanghai. All well on this leg of our trip. We arrived in Shangahi 15mins early but by the time we spent standing around at the immigration counter getting our 144 hour visa into China, our cases were two of four left circling on the luggage carousel, all the others had been collected.
Now to find the free hotel shuttle to get the the Ramada Pudong Hotel (which I had booked on Bookings.com) for our over night stay. Fortunately all went well and we ended up getting into bed two hours after landing. From a 5.50am alarm wake-up in Adelaide to a 3.15am 'heads on pillow' in Shanghai.
I requested a quiet room to sleep in and we were given a suite at the end of the lobby on the 7th floor......very nice! Next morning we had a relaxed breakfast in one of the restaurants before organizing a taxi to take us to the Cruise Terminal. 55 mins and 223 Yuen later we arrived to bedlam. To be continued the ship's internet has hiccupped.
