Singapore Day 1 - 5/5/2026
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
We arrived in Singapore at around 10 this morning. We pulled in to the Harbor Center which is the cruise terminal for smaller ships. There is a beautiful bridge in front of the skyline.
Today we had 2 different excursions from our ship into Singapore. We started the day with an excursion from the ship that would give us highlights of Singapore. First we had to get through immigration and customs at the port. That consisted of a relatively short line where we had to scan our passports, have our photos taken, take a thumb print, and then pass through to scan the items we were carrying. It was well attended with helpful workers and although much of our ship was entering at once it only took a few minutes.
We were herded to a bus outside of the terminal and waited for a few other couples to join who were late, and it was then off to the Marina Bay Gardens. Our guide was a nate Singaporean, and he filled us in on the culture and local landmarks as we drove. Some of the interesting things about Singapore - it's very safe, crime is relatively non-existent due to cameras everywhere and very strict enforcement of laws. Littering can bring a fine and jail time, Jay-walking, the same. Own a gun, despite never firing it can bring a death sentence, so can distributing small amounts of drugs. Zero tolerance for those kinds of crimes. The positives, there is no homelessness at all, 80% of people live in government housing which they own, and the government finances. They have a forced savings programs for young workers to get their down payment put away and then mortgages are stretched out if people need them to be, so everyone owns a home. The city is clean and very safe. They went from living in mud huts and very poor to living in structures and having a fairly welathy country in one generation. The people who live here are very proud of that and attribute it to their last prime minister who just passed away. They are a hub for banking, oil refining and trade in this area. There are 3 primary cultures living together, the Chinese, native malay people, and muslims. All housing must have a percentage of each of these cultures in each block that matches the percentages in the country. All cultures are taught english as a second language and all cultures serve the military for 2 years integrated together when they are 18. Also any kind of discriminatory language can get you jail time and a large fine.
We arrived at the Gardens by the Bay and entered the Flower dome first. The dome is cooled by these large artificial cooling towers that look like trees outside.
There are lots of topiaries around the garden and a theme of dinosaurs including a travelling animated exhibit inside of several Jurrasic Park dinosaurs.
Inside the flowerdome there was a largeTulip exhibit.
From the dome there were several areas where you could see out to some of the famous Singapore landmarks.
There were lots of wooden sculputres around the gardens as well.
After the flower dome we moved ocer to the cloud dome which had a large waterfall, and a walkway that spiraled down from the highest floor through the exhibits to the ground. This is also where the dinosaurs were being exhibited.
We came around one corner of the walkway and happened onto a Chihuly exhibit.
After we were done at the gardens we boarded the bus again and made our way to the Singapore Flyer, a large ferris wheel.
After riding the Ferris Wheel, we headed over to a little waterfront section of Singapore where we were supposed to take a boat ride but the skies opened up with rain and thunder and that part was cancelled so we headed back to the ship.
Once back at the ship, we grabbed some cheese and bread as a quick snack because we missed lunch and were going to miss dinner to go on a private guided tour of Singapore at night. We showered and left the ship again to meet our guide. We had some troube with communication with the tour company but eventually our guide Alex arrived to take us to see the city at night.
Alex was quite experienced and knew all of the places to park and to go for the best pictures and viewing. First he took us back to the gardens to see the light show. He parked in a special parking area and we walked through some back paths to get to the best picture spots on our way to his secreate spot where we were able to view the light show in a spot that was totally quiet and had great views.
After the light show we headed to the area where we were supposed to take a river cruise during the day and took one at night instead.
We also had a good up close view of the Merlion which is the Symbol of Singapore. Conrad had wanted to see this and we got a great view of it from the boat.
The Merlion was first used in Singapore as the logo for the tourism board, its name combines "mer", meaning the sea, and "lion". The fish body represents Singapore's origin as a fishing village. The lion head represents Singapore's original name—Singapura—meaning "lion city" or "kota singa".
Wethen headed to the airport because Conrad wanted to see the water feature there known as the Jewel, which has a light show at night. We sat and watched it change colors. There is a massive waterflow that is both peaceful and impressive
After the airport we headed back to the ship. We arrived back at 11:00 PM and ordered some room service since we had missed lunch and dinner. We headed off to bed becasue we have another day in Singapore tomorrow.