Cruise The World With Us

Thursday – April 3, 2025

Sydney to Singapore – Singapore to Male – Male to Paradise Island

Today is all about travel and time. We had time in the morning to have breakfast at the hotel (neither Jan nor I did) before boarding the bus to take us to Sydney International Airport. Our flight to Singapore didn’t leave until around 11:00 am but Sandra wanted to be sure we had plenty of time to get through immigration and security at the airport. She wasn’t going to be with us today so Giulio was our guide from Sydney back to MSC Magnifica.

There were no issues as we checked in at the airport and went through security. We were able to check in as a group which saved some time. I didn’t realize it at the time but we were going to fly on an Airbus A380-800 – the largest passenger airliner ever built. I wondered when we boarded why the first row was numbered 35 (because there were 34 above us). The flight from Sydney to Singapore was just under 8 hours and I know we “gained” at least a couple hours due to the time zones we crossed.

We arrived on time in Singapore in terminal “B” and found our flight to Male was to leave from gate D23. They have a tram system at the Singapore airport to get between terminals and it would have been a long walk to go from “B” to “D”. The tram passed through what looked like a jungle on the way to terminal “D” – lots of exotic trees and flowers. I had not seen anything like that at an airport.

Gate D23 was quite a ways down the terminal. There are moving walkways that make it easier to cover the distance. We were to have a couple hour wait for our flight so we found a place to sit outside the gate and began to wait. I needed some cough drops so we sent Kelsey looking for a store that sold them. She came back about 15 minutes later with a scouting report and led me to the store. Not a bad deal – 30 cough drops (extra strength eucalyptus) for $ 3.50.

We waited outside the gate because once you crossed security to enter the gate area you were not allowed back out. About an hour before our flight was to leave we found there was a gate change for our flight from D23 to F54. As you might suspect from the gate number, F54 was nearly to the end of terminal “F”. This time there was no tram to take us from “D” to “F”. We had to hoof it and it was quite a distance.

We arrived at F54 with 20 minutes or so to spare, went through security and waited to be called for the flight. This plane was a B787 Dreamliner. It was configured 9 across – 3-3-3. We sat in the starboard (right) side of the cabin in row 52. This time there were no seats above us – just lots of rows ahead of us. This flight was over 4 hours with an arrival in Male around 10:30 pm local time. By the time we landed I believe we had “gained” 6 hours from when we left Sydney.

In Male we had to go through immigration control. Simon was the first to do that and was confronted with all sorts of questions we weren’t expecting. Giuliu stepped in to explain that we were all Magnifica passengers returning to our ship. Once the officials understood, things became much smoother. We even got an actual stamp in our passport books for arrival in the Maldives!

The airport is close to a dock where the jet boat from our hotel was waiting. We were booked into the Villa Nautica on Paradise Island – about 15 minutes away via jet boat. Believe me – the jet boat does make it feel like you are on a jet. The pilot said we were traveling at 90 knots (or roughly 103.5 miles per hour). The hotel had been expecting us and had prepared a meal and welcome cocktail. We were all bushed and passed on the meal so we could get to our bungalows. The hotel is spread out so they use large golf carts to ferry guests to and from locations around the resort. Our bungalow was number 191 which is nearly at the end of those on land (they also have 54 bungalows over the water).

Didn’t think to take a photo of the interior of the room and bath – we just wanted to get to sleep. I spent another night propped up so as not to cough all night.

Originally we were to arrive in the Maldives ahead of MSC Magnifica. However, due to ocean currents favoring the ship, they also arrived on April 3rd and were anchored in the harbor outside Male. We saw the lights of the ship as we were boarding our jet boat at the airport. The 2 photos from today are my attempts to capture Magnifica at night.

There are only 2 photos from today and you can find them here.