Bored of staycays? Yes. Need a break? Also yes. My friend & I had booked for a cruise trip in November. I have been to cruise once when I was younger, but I was too young to remember how the experience was like. We decided to go with Dream cruise because they offers halal friendly food options. I guess one thing to take note from the cruise trip is that, apart from your booking payment, you still have to pay a gratuity fee of $24 per night/per person. All the other activities and food are pretty much paid off (some activities are not free).

Few weeks before your trip, you will receive an email from the cruise company for online check-in. Once done you will receive your ART test appointment timing. I was allocated to the 11am slot, which is for the first group. Test results were out in 30 minutes. It was a pretty smooth process. The immigration gate opens around 12:30 (I had to wait longer since I am in the first group) and the ship was ready for boarding by 2 PM. Checking out was really smooth as well, it was all done in about 30 minutes. We stayed in deck 10 and they have cleared the floor around 10:30 AM.

Food options was just average to me. You can never go hungry in the cruise as there are 24/7 snacks bar. On my first night the snack choices were not the best though. It can be better, but it is not the worst!

Our balcony stateroom was on the east side of the ship so we managed to catch the beautiful sunrise on the first morning. The bed is so comfortable, and the room is SO cold. It is quite spacious for 2 pax. There was nothing new to watch on the TV, but good thing is I brought my Nintendo Switch games just in case we have some free time to play.

Shows: there are 2 free shows which is available for booking once you are onboard. The slots run out pretty fast so it is advised to have the app handy before you board. If you did not manage to book any slots, I believe they do accept walk ins based on the availability. I’d totally recommend going for Jolly Holly, their performances are exceptional.

Free activities: Rock climbing, table tennis and mini golf are available for booking upon walk in (on the same day itself), swimming/jacuzzi slots are open for 1 hr per day upon availability, ropes courses & zip-line are available on walk in, waterslides operates for 2 sessions per day and it is available upon walk in as well; we went there around 12pm and there were no queue at all!