Phuket Vacation with my two buddies

When I first came across a promotion for a Royal Caribbean cruise, I immediately shared it with my two buddies. At first, when I told them the price of the whole holiday, they couldn’t believe what they were hearing.

My guy buddy asked, “What? Are you sure this is so cheap?”

I said, “Yes lah! It’s a really good deal!”Without much hesitation, all three of us applied for leave and booked the cruise to Phuket. It was both of their first time on a Royal Caribbean cruise. My guy buddy was especially excited—he kept WhatsApping me, asking what to wear for fine dining, whether he needed jogging shoes for morning runs on the deck, and many other questions, haha.

The day finally came.

Once we boarded the cruise, I brought them around and we had our first buffet lunch on board. After that, we headed to our cabins. I even snapped photos of my room and posted them on Facebook. Many friends commented, “Wow, such a nice cabin! How much did you pay?”

I replied privately, and they were all surprised—it really was a good deal.

At 8pm, we went for our fine dining dinner. We ordered the chef’s signature dishes. Halfway through, my guy buddy said he wasn’t full yet. I told him, “Just order another round lah.”

He asked, “Huh? Can meh?”

I said, “Of course can!”

So he happily called the waiter over for the menu, haha.

After an amazing dinner, we took a walk on the deck, enjoying the cool sea breeze and the peaceful night view.

The next morning, while we were having breakfast, we looked out the window and saw that the cruise was about to dock at Port Klang, Malaysia.

After breakfast, we disembarked and shared a taxi with my colleague and her husband. Our destination was KLCC, where our shopping adventure began.

My lady buddy and I went straight to MAC for cosmetics, while my guy buddy sat nearby waiting patiently. He said he only planned to buy chocolates, haha.

Before heading back to the cruise, we had lunch at a restaurant opposite KLCC in a new mall. We made sure to return before 4pm, and thankfully there was no traffic jam. We were back on board by around 2pm.

After that, we headed up to the pool deck to relax—soaking in the Jacuzzi and enjoying the open sea atmosphere.

In the evening, we went for fine dining again. After the great experience from the first night, we were all looking forward to it. This time we ordered coconut herbal soup—oh my goodness, it was so good that we all ordered another round. 

The next morning, my two buddies went for their morning jog while I stayed comfortably in bed, haha. When I woke up and got ready for breakfast, we heard announcements about onboard promotions—sunglasses, shawls, evening bags, jewellery, and more.

Naturally, we went to take a look. I ended up buying an evening bag, a shawl, and a bracelet. My lady buddy was still deciding whether to buy alcohol, ha...ha...

By noon, we arrived in Phuket.

We took a small ferry to the jetty, and were greeted by beautiful scenery. This marked the beginning of another shopping adventure.

We took a tuk-tuk to the mall and did quite a bit of shopping—local snacks, coin pouches, keychains, T-shirts, slippers… the list goes on.

But the weather was really hot. My lady buddy and I couldn’t take it anymore and ended up buying sleeveless T-shirts to change into. I also started getting a slight headache from the heat, so I drank a lot of water.

After finishing our shopping, we went for a foot massage—and it was absolutely heavenly. My headache slowly disappeared, and we felt completely relaxed again.

Before heading back to the cruise, we had seafood dinner by the beach. While waiting for our food, we watched the sunset right across from us—it was beautiful.

As we ate, fireworks suddenly lit up the sky. We quickly asked our guy buddy to take photos. It was such a perfect moment.

When we returned to Singapore, my buddies told me they really enjoyed the cruise and said, “Next time got such good deals, must tell us again!”

I was really happy that they had such a good experience. It became one of those unforgettable trips—full of laughter, food, shopping, sea breeze, and friendship.