As always, the day starts with a trip to the gym. While the gym was just about decent for one to get a good workout, it was very cramped and at times it could be a little overcrowded.
The view from the gym was excellent though.
Hot tip, you need the Royal Caribbean mobile app. It will show you all available activities on board at any given time. For some activities, you can make reservations on the app. For others, you will just have to show up at the venue of the activity. If you show up late for some activities, you may be denied entry. I made an appointment for some foot analysis and was about 5 minutes late. The room was already full so I could not enter.
Rule of thumb, just be on time.
Another rule of thumb, if you miss something, just rush over to other activities. There are so many things to do on the cruise.
Oh, and the good thing about having the Unlimited Dining Package is that you can go to all the speciality restaurants for an unlimited number of times. Although I think there might be a limit to one visit to Teppanyaki.
For me, that meant daily visits to Izumi. It was the restaurant that I enjoyed the most during my last trip on Spectrum of the Seas.
This was my pre-lunch snack…
I had this daily… With the Unlimited Dining Package, you can visit any of the speciality restaurants, have a light snack and head off to another venue.
Which I did. Obviously…
Lunch on the second day was at Chops Grill!
Ok, I was way less enthusiastic about this because I am a vegetarian. However, members of my family do eat meat. The feedback was that the burger and steak were good. Hot tip for vegetarians or those with special dietary requirements. You can inform the restaurant of your dietary requirements. I never had an issue getting food prepared in a meatless manner at any of the speciality restaurants. For that matter, the buffet spread at Windjammer had sufficient options to cater for just about anyone with any special dietary requirements.
I like it that you get served bread before the meal. Only to find that the same bread was also served on the Windjammer buffet line. Same product, different packaging. We learn something new everyday.
This was the burger.
Presentation wise, Chops Grill emphasised a lot on how their food is plated.
Here is how thick the mushroom soup was.
For all of you steak lovers…
One thing that needs to be highlighted about the dessert options on board. There are just so many. However, it is rather similar between the various restaurants and even the buffet spread.
This lava cake is both heaven and a one-way trip to becoming a diabetic all on one plate.
All in all, the experience at Chops Grill was very positive. The service was, as was on the whole cruise, immaculate. The food was good. My family thoroughly enjoyed our meal there. Some went for seconds on the 3rd day of the cruise. For me, there were better options. Not that Chops Grill was not good. I’ll reveal my favourite restaurant on board the Spectrum of the Seas eventually.
After lunch, the cruise ship docked at Penang. I would say that there is not much to do at Penang. In my previous trip on Spectrum of the Seas, that itinerary also included a day trip to Penang. You get off at Swettenham Pier which is in George Town.
The place to disembark is on level 2. You will walk out into Swettenham Pier Cruise Terminal.
You only need your SeaPass card to scan to get off the cruise ship. You can then call for a cab, of which there are so many touting along the path when you disembark. The ideal scenario would be to use the Grab application to book a private hire vehicle. This is a lot cheaper and, in my opinion, much safer as I will know who and which vehicle I am taking. If there are any issues, Grab will have a record of the ride. This is especially important if you accidentally leave something in the vehicle.
George Town is quite a large area. Perhaps the more interesting parts of George Town would be the area around the George Town World Heritage building located close to Armenian Street.
There were a lot of quaint cafes for you to stop by and have a drink on an extremely sweltering hot day.
Perhaps one place which you can visit is Chew’s Jetty. It is quite close to Swettenham Pier.
There are an array of stalls at the Jetty. It was rather hot and you can get ice cream or some cold desserts here. Although I do think that the options onboard are better still.
The view is very relaxing. You can see the Spectrum of the Seas in the distance. You can walk back to the cruise ship from here. It took me about 10 to 15 minutes to get back to the cruise ship from Chew’s Jetty.
Back on the cruise, it was time to eat. AGAIN!
This time it was at Sichuan Red.
Sichuan Red is a restaurant serving up Chinese cuisine. If you need your usual fried rice, stir fried vegetables, soya sauce chicken type of thing, then head on down to Sichuan Red. They have this lobster with beehoon which was what my family ordered. One for each person. For those who do eat lobster. There is a limit of $35 per pax for those on unlimited dining packages.
I found the food here to be very uninspiring. I think some of the dishes can even be found at the Windjammer buffet selection. Especially the stir fried items. However, I am biased as I have never enjoyed Chinese food to begin with. Yes I am a Chinese but I do not enjoy food that is stir fried.
Perhaps their desserts were the best options…
Next up was a live show. Now if you can only attend one live performance, then attend Showgirl! Past, Present, Future. This is miles more entertaining than The Silk Road from the day earlier. It is a musical with song and dance that is about 45 minutes long.
Next up we booked a karaoke room at Star Moment. Star Moment consists of a huge public hall where you can make song requests and when your request is being played, you get up on stage to sing. There were private rooms which were of course chargeable. We had to book the rooms ahead of time. You could bring in snacks and drinks from all the available restaurant and cafes into Star Moment. In fact, if you wanted, you could grab your meal at the Windjammer and bring it down to Star Moment to consume.
Overall, the second day on the cruise was really enjoyable. I think Penang was not interesting enough to warrant disembarking too long off the cruise ship. Returning to the cruise ship early to enjoy the activities on offer on the cruise ship would be, in my opinion, the ideal choice.
The highlight was Showgirls! The show was very entertaining. The singers were very good. There were a few hilariously weird moments in the show. This is a must watch.
And that is the end of day 2!
Yours sincerely,
Daryl
