Well, what’s there to do when you’re on a 5D4N cruise that isn’t stopping over anywhere for excursions? As it turned out, there was plenty that took us out of our stateroom. And the range included headliner performances, casual family-friendly competitions or art n’ craft activities, indoor sports, swimming (in a limited fashion), the casino, and of course that suite of highly publicised physical-type activities like rock-climbing, and surfing-lite. A couple of these activities though are not in the basic package and will cost extra. We largely did not take those latter up. In all cases, the fees for those premium type activities would had been hefty for all four of us and not really providing that kind of value for money (being financially prudent, as we have become these days).
To be fair, our specific sailing felt fairly crowded. There were queues everywhere for the popular activities. Your mileage – i.e. proclivities to doing the very Singaporean thing of queuing up for everything – will vary of course.
That out of the way, here are my comments for activities onboard the Spectrum of the Seas!
FlowRider: you know an activity is popular when long queues form up as soon as the activity opens on the first day. This activity on deck 15 is a nifty way to get introduced to surfing, and in a safe environment too. There’s a height requirement in order to take part, and you’d need to register at the adjacent admissions booth before you can join the queue Every guest would need to have their Sea Pass too for admission.
The queue might also take a while to clear. When there were a lot of persons waiting their turn, each seemed to be permitted just around 2 minutes of time riding the waves. Each guest will also need another minute or so to get ready, be briefed, and then exit the pool when done. So, all in, on a busy day, you can expect a turn around of about 3 minutes per guest. You could then be waiting easily for 30 minutes or more in the sun, so be prepared accordingly. When the queue gets too long, the pool instructors will put up a divider to allow two guests into the pool at the same time. The experience then gets quite significantly curtailed though, so you’d have to judge for yourself if you want to come back at a later time.
Hannah was the only one of us four who did the FlowRider: Peter was too short height-wise, and both of us parents aren’t water-type babies either haha. H loved the ride so much that she did it on three separate days. The last try was part of the teen programme, and at an exclusive timing in the evening where the pool was closed to other guests.
SkyPad: this one is a bungee-trampoline activity hosted on deck 15 and right beside FlowRider. You’d want use the RC app to reserve a slot for this activity, or risk queuing up for your turn (there is a small shelter though in the activity area to protect you from the hot sun). The activity is probably more fun for kids than adults, as kids are lighter and can bounce up higher off the trampoline.Moreover, the activity instructors don’t have to work as hard to hoist you skywards! The SkyPad can host up to four persons at a time, and each guest takes around 3 minutes or so. A small oddity too: the missus noted that the RC app advised that a small fee is required for each guest in the activity, but we finally ended up not paying anything for Hannah to have a go at this one.
Rock Climbing: hosted also on Deck 15 and near to FlowRider and the SkyPad, the rock climbing wall supports up to three persons at a time. How long you’ll wait in the queue comes down to how quickly and far each guest climbs up. The activity doesn’t see the same kind of long queues as FlowRider does, I guess on account of the sheer physical exertion that comes with this type of activity.
Splashaway Bay: a small wet n’ wild water park for the young ones. It can get really crowded because of how small the play area is.
Bumper Cars @ Seaplex: the Seaplex is a fairly large indoor sports hall that supports numerous activity types besides Bumper Cars, including badminton, indoor archery, table tennis, and basketball. The queue for Bumper Cars gets quite long too, and can snake round the circumference of the indoor court. Each session can host about 15-16 cars bumping around the court, and the session is about a minute long. The younger kids will each ride with a parent. So, if things move along optimally, you can expect a clearance of around 20 persons or so every 3 minutes. This activity was pretty fun, though nothing finally especially memorable nor special. You’d need to wear covered footwear also for this.
Fuel @ Teen Lounge: Hannah joined this one on the parts of each day when we were just content to vegetate, and she loved this teens-only zone! The group of them played board games, went on scavenger hunts, and also had exclusive time on the FlowRider on one evening. She made new friends at the zone, and even exchange phone numbers to remain in contact after the cruise.
Children’s Adventure Ocean: this is an indoor playground and guided activity area where you can leave your younger kids to be minded by activity hosts. We tried this out for Peter, but it didn’t look like he enjoyed it very much: possibly because he’s getting a little old for indoor playgrounds of this type, and he far preferred to be with his parents than alone with other kids.
Game shows and Art n’ Craft: there’s a decent variety of these, and typically hosted at the Music Hall or Schooner Bar. We joined in for the napkin folding (so-so), adult paper cutting (wife felt a little cheated at this one – she expected far more complex paper designs than what was actually offered), Movie trivia (super easy – we got 22/25 without even trying very hard), Guess what’s being drawn (super fun!!). The venues can get crowded fast with seats fully occupied early on, so go early to get your spot as you need.
As for the show performances: of these three below, Pengfei and John Taylor were hosted at the Royal Theater, and The Silk Road at Two70. The first two is first-come-first-serve seating, while the latter requires reservations through the RC app. All are complimentary and included in the package. All three shows offer repeat performances, but I recommend you try to check them out as soon as you can, as the theater fills up really fast and can be full well before the performance’s start-time.
Each performance is also about 45 minutes long, and begin on the dot. A note too about video and photo-taking: the pre-recorded event announcement will say that videography isn’t allowed: but the performers themselves didn’t seem to mind. In fact, a few of them even candidly asked the audience to “get their cameras ready” before they pull off their crowd-pleasing acts. I recorded short snippets of selected key moments of their respective acts, and will put them up once I do a selected compilation of the videos we took this trip.
Pengfei Su: we loved this show! This super-talented performer from China entertained us with juggling using Chinese rings, card tricks and a variety of illusions (these really made us debate over how he pulled those off), an amazing trick he did with Sudoku, and a Chinese face-changing dance that left the audience gasping then applauding. And he was super-funny with his well-delivered jokes. Don’t miss this performance. .
John Taylor: the famed Australian illusionist. I thought this performance was a little underwhelming, on account that the magic acts as shown aren’t really things that you wouldn’t have already seen elsewhere in other shows or on TV before.
The Silk Road: the made for Two70 dance and singing performance. This one was quite an assault on the senses, featuring very colorful light displays, sophisticated dance routines, a very agile contortionist, and a pair of male acrobats doing their thing off a trampoline. The performers get close to the audience too, so I recommend you try to get seats nearer to the stage if possible if you like intimate performances.
Next post – a retrospective post of the trip!