Our next stop was Lautoka, Fiji. We didn’t bother going into town for this one, in fact, we got off our ship and immediately onto a catamaran to take us to Malamala Beach Club. It’s the world’s first beach club situated on a private island (allegedly).
After the sweat bus incident the day before, we were relieved to sit in the air conditioning on the 40 minute ride over to the island. We had ended up booking this excursion with the ship last minute, but refused to pay an arm and a leg to get a cabana or a beach lounger.
As soon as we made it to the island, Andy made his way to find chairs – and I high tailed it to the information desk to see if they had any cabanas for sale at a normal price. (The ship had jacked up the prices and they were astronomical). The lady looked me square in the phase and said, “Would you like number Cabana 1, 2, or 10?” I was a bit puzzled and asked her how much it was. She shook her head and told me that it was first come, first serve at this point.
Y’all. We got a Grand Cabana for free! And because we got there first, everyone else thought we had paid for it and didn’t feel comfortable coming over and trying to share it with us. They didn’t realize we hadn’t paid a penny for it. The only difference was we didn’t get a butler included, but who cares!
This is what it looked like – we forgot to take pictures
The four of us had shade and multiple tables… and more chairs than we could use. It was a nice upgrade from what we were going to be working with previously.
The island was small, but had different areas where you could swim. It was also covered in washed up coral – was a bit shocking! It was everywhere so we had to be careful where we stepped because some of it was quite sharp. There was plenty of room for all of us to spread out – and water activities if you wanted to (stand up paddle boards, kayaks, snorkeling, etc.) and lunch was included for us as well.
We splashed around for a while and then took a walk around the island. There were two different pool areas one was special for the real paying cabana customers – and the other was for the rest of us. We decided that after lunch we were going to hit up the pool.
It was a really relaxing day and we started to wrap up when we started to see the catamaran coming to retrieve us. I looked ahead of us in line and saw a familiar face. I could have sworn it was “Pilot Pete” from the Bachelor franchise and more recently, Traitors.
Andy took this picture to help confirm
I was doubting my own eyes and enlisted the help of others. Sure enough, it was him! There was a kerfuffle as we were getting off of the catamaran and Emily and I found ourselves next to him in line. I asked him a few questions about Traitors and he was really nice to chat with.
After making our way back to the ship, Emily and Mark had another great night of karaoke on the ship.
When we booked this cruise we were pretty excited that we were heading back to Thailand and that it was going to be over New Year’s. We were even more excited when we realized it was in Phuket, (southern Thailand) because we didn’t make it this far south so this was an additional draw for us!
Even though we had just done the island hopping in Langkawi the day before, we had booked a full day excursion to James Bond island. If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, it’s from The Man with The Golden Gun (1974). I had seen it quite a bit on social media, but candidly I hadn’t seen the movie.
But James Bond Island is a tiny island in Thailand with a tall rock that looks like it was glued straight into the ocean. It became famous after the movie, so now everyone calls it “James Bond Island” even though Bond was only there for about five minutes. You can’t go inside the rock (sad), but you can take dramatic photos, pretend you’re a spy, and wonder how the rock hasn’t fallen over yet.
Some tour guides (or locals in their stands) even provide you with golden guns to take pictures, which is a bit terrifying when you’re walking up and you see a bunch people pointing guns every which way!
Previously, the beach had been closed to swimming to protect it from tourism. Imagine my surprise when I walked up and saw people in the water! What?! I didn’t bring my bikini! It seems like most other people didn’t realize either, thank goodness… because we were still able to get quite a few pictures without a ton of bum bums in the background of our pics.
There were a few places where you could hike up and get better views far away from the beach too that allowed for even better pictures as well. It was a really lovely place!
After James Bond island, we stopped at a small fishing village where we could do a little shopping or grab some snacks. This fishing village popped up after James Bond Island got famous and they wanted to capitalize on the tourism in the area. There were many handicrafts to be bought and food that our guide recommended that we avoided (unless it was prepackaged) in case the water wasn’t clean. The whole “island” was built on stilts around a sand bar- crazy there is a whole village floating above the water!
After we got back to our bus we got dropped off at an ocean front restaurant and had a fantastic Thai lunch. We met a lovely family from Ohio that shared a table with us. We shared travel stories – and a love of Disney. They were a lot of fun to connect with – even their teenages were super social to talk with!
Once we got back on board we started to clean up before New Year’s Eve – it was a long, sweaty day out and about. So we both wanted to freshen up and get ready for dinner.
The main dining room on the ship was crazy – Andy said it looked like it was their Super Bowl! Since we had a late lunch we were okay waiting for our favorite server, Gama. We had ordered a special bottle of champagne from our sommelier, Alphonso, earlier in the cruise. He had it chilled and ready for us. We weren’t sure if we could share any with him. But his eyes lit up when we asked if he wanted a splash!
After dinner was ending, he brought over two small port glasses and poured a tiny taste for him and Gama and toasted to health and prosperity in the new year. They truly were the best servers we’ve had on a Celebrity Cruise, ever. It was a really special moment for all of us – and Alphonso is getting married in just a few weeks, which made it even more special too!
We hung out indoors at the Martini Lounge (in the AC) until around
11:30 or so before making our way to the pool deck for the big party. Once we made our way outside it was one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen. I knew Phuket would put on a party, but I didn’t expect lanterns. (You know, like Tangled – paper lanterns?) They were every where marking the sky. It’s one of those moments that a camera can’t capture and a moment I’ll remember forever.
All the floating lights were paper lanterns, it was incredible
Conveniently, after our Australia/NZ cruise – the pools were covered, so as the clock struck midnight no one was jumping in the pool. Shucks!
We didn’t stay out too much after midnight – we watched the fireworks a bit longer because they filled the sky all around (along with the lanterns) and it was beautiful to see.
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The next morning we had most of the day in Phuket, but since we went to bed much later we didn’t want an early start.
We also didn’t have much planned for the next day in Phuket, but we did want to get cheap Thai massages. It was important to me to find a good spa, and I had found a few. We walked about 30 minutes and the first spa was booked until 2:30, which just wouldn’t do. Thankfully, we had only passed about 70 other massage places.
I had asked the receptionist for recommendations and she had given us one nearby. They had availability and we actually were able to walk right in!
When we had gone to Thailand previously, we had cheap and wonderful Thai massages that left us both sore (and maybe a little bruised?). We were both looking for a sequel. Unfortunately, we paid about the same (maybe a little more?) but didn’t get the same level of pain. When I say pain – we both like deep tissue massages – we were hoping to be hurt. 😂
They weren’t BAD, they just weren’t what we were expecting. Either way, they were still adequate and considering we were walk ins. They were fine! And we paid less than $50 for for the hour for both of us with tip!
We started walking back to the ship and decided to get a drink. The cruise was really big on making sure not to drink the ice in the port stops, but we figured Phuket is a big enough area that it should be fine. We found a place near the beach and ordered a few cocktails and mango sticky rice. The drinks were good and the food was superior.
It was a really good start to the new year!
The next day is a sea day and then we will arrive in Singapore, which is the end of our cruise.
Our next stop was Langkawi, Malaysia where we had booked an island hopping tour with the ship. We were excited for this tour because we knew we would be going around in a high speed boat from to a few different destinations and it was only for a few hours.
Once we got to port, it was a quick walk off of the pier and that’s where we met our group. We didn’t have to take a bus this time to get to the boat, which was a nice change of pace and our boat was right there! We hopped right on and were on our way.
Along the way our tour guide pointed out a few islands that were shaped like different things: a pregnant woman and the other a crocodile. The next stop was where a cluster of islands came together and created an echo chamber, which was really fun for the group to play around with.
No bats allowed!Sunken SailboatCrocodile Island (only it’s shape)
Our next stop was a bat cave, but unfortunately for us there weren’t any bats in there at that time. However, we did get to go really far in! The weather was perfect for boating around and it was beautiful to look at all of the limestone islands.
We pulled up to a more isolated island where we were going to stop to swim or walk around for an hour. The description in the excursion didn’t mention swimming, but Andy and I own a boat so we came prepared. A lot of people were upset because they didn’t bring one so they couldn’t get in the water (I would be too!).
It was a nice beach to walk around and dip your feet in the water regardless. The island even had monkeys that were waiting for us to leave so they could steal any food. They all came out of the trees as the boat pulled away!
Once the excursion ended, we had lunch back on the ship and then we decided to walk back out to the port to do some shopping. There wasn’t much right there and we didn’t feel like taking the bus all the way back into town. We did decide to opt for a quieter day on the ship and take advantage of the pool.
We thought about renting jet skis, but it looked like you needed a guide to rent them. We didn’t think we had enough time for the guided tour, but if you’re in the area in the future – it could be a really fun option!
This was one of our favorite stops on the trip and we really enjoyed it. We know from chatting with other passengers that they liked it too!
Scribbles and Snapshots 