Mein Schiff Southeast Asia cruise: Day 14 – Room release 09:00 – Transfer to the airport 20:00

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Overall, to write about the destination cruise ship, I can only now, after this vacation. I myself have been on two AIDA ships, but for Daniel Mein Schiff was a premiere.

The co-booked arrival and departure went smoothly – so far I have either not had a journey (ship from Hamburg) or organized it myself (as with extension to the front and back of the port of departure and destination). On the transfer bus, German announcements are played by the non-German speaking staff via clips on the cell phone held up to the bus microphone, so everyone feels well informed. If you don’t speak English and also have questions for the hosts and hostesses at the airport (who are really hard to miss), you can get help from fellow travelers who speak the language – you’ll always find someone.

The only thing that was a bit annoying is that you do not get the booking numbers with some airlines and nicely a not insignificant part of the journey (about 2h) for the queue was on it – we never fly again from Berlin-Tegel. The hint that you could have asked for the booking numbers, I have only read in the queue somewhere, for this there is a specially established e-mail address.

Seat reservations for the flights are free of charge and if you really book 21 days in advance, you can also count on your desired seat – aisle / window / middle seat. The respective phone number of the airline you get when booking.

When we left today, we were lucky because we still had a full day of vacation, unlike some of our fellow travelers. After the bed rest yesterday, sun, pool and city tour were also needed again. The room must be left regularly at 09:00 – we still had it until 11:00 due to the case of illness. If you leave as late as we did, you can also book a day cabin for 25 euros, in which you can then shower again if necessary and above all store your things safely.
The alternatives to this would be unguarded hand luggage storage in the Klanghaus (concert hall) and showers in the spa or pool area. We opted for the latter, and there were no problems with it. Provided you have booked a transfer, you are allowed to use all facilities (bars, restaurants, sauna, etc.) until the transfer time – 20:00 in our case. The self-organized departures have to leave the ship at 11:00. What I am not sure how this is controlled. If necessary, you will not be allowed on board once you have left the ship. So the city tour on the last day would have fallen flat for us. Very relaxed you could also treat yourself to a private rest lounge for two a little above the pool, but that costs a whopping 12 euros per hour – and the drinks you still have to get yourself.

You can take care of the large check-in luggage yourself, but you don’t have to if you put it outside the room door by 11:00 p.m. the day before departure. There is no other option than to leave it unattended in the large arrivals hall at the Singapore Cruise Terminal. But nothing happened with us – who would want to take our dirty laundry with us? Opportunity to repack between day luggage and large suitcase arises at the latest at the airport.

The entry to Singapore took a little longer this evening, because on the one hand a large Chinese cruise ship had docked next to us and for the Mein Schiff of course it was not only departure but also arrival day. For all there is a single queue for passport control. On the other hand, numerous excursions already started again at 20:00, so that not only departing passengers from two ships also still had to be guided through the baggage scanners.

All in all, we miscalculated a bit and the “generous” half hour from leaving the ship to reaching the shuttle to the airport was not enough. What was a matter of ten minutes including both checks when we arrived and in the middle of the day, now dragged on for a whopping three quarters of an hour – stupid considering that the transfer scheduled for 20:00 was the very last one. Fortunately, one or two buses still waited until 20:25, so that even the stragglers like us came along.