Flight SQ21 and Arrival in Singapore (Author: J)
May 6: Friday
This trip report starts the day before our flight because that is when we began our travel. We currently live just north of Boston, but booked a flight from Newark, NJ. Flying from Newark had the benefit of allowing us to fly on Singapore Airlines — often cited as one of the world’s best airlines — on a direct flight: SQ21. SQ21 was, in 2020, the longest flight in the world. My understanding is that the current longest flight in the world is a Cathay Pacific flight that needed to reroute for safety reasons due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. So we lost out on the longest flight bragging rights when we postponed our trip, but SQ21 still seemed vastly superior to flying from Boston on a flight with one or more connections.
We packed our bags on Thursday night and D and P went off to work and school respectively on Friday morning. I went to the salon to get my nails done. (I had worked the previous 2 weekends to get all of my grading done and submitted so that I could have Friday off; in addition to my little birthday present to myself, I also cleaned the house and got the pets ready for the pet sitter, so it was not all fun and games for me — just mostly fun and games). I picked D up from work around 2. We then picked up P and hit the road. With traffic, it took us about 5 hours to reach my parents house in NJ. We had dinner with them and visited a bit before heading to bed.
May 7: Saturday
After a terrible night of sleep (which was fine with me since I was hoping to sleep a lot on the plane), we were up early to get ready for our flight. With almost 19 hours of plane time ahead of us, we went for comfort over style in our clothing selections. Goodbye pajamas. Hello sweatpants. We rolled out the door a little more than 3 hours before our flight. I would have preferred less time at the airport, but we hadn’t been able to complete online check-in and the airline recommended that we arrive at least 2.5 hours before our flight to check in.
The drive to the airport was quick and painless, the wait to check in to our flight, less so. There were just a few families in front of us in line, but the process of checking passports and Covid documentation was slow. I was relieved when we were issued our tickets and could proceed towards security. Once we were through security, we had more than 90 minutes to wait and not much to do as there wasn’t much open in the airport. We poked around in the small airport bookstore, looked at the planes at other gates, and then resigned ourselves to sitting.
When the plane began boarding, we did the thing that they tell you not to do but that most people do anyway. We stood and milled around waiting for our boarding group to be called. Soon enough, we were walking past the swanky business class pods to our seats in premium economy. (SQ21 has only premium economy and business class seats). The premium economy seats are in a 2, 4, 2 configuration. P and I had 2 window seats and D had an aisle seat in the same row. We elected not to pay the upcharge to get D one of the single seats near the window at the back of the plane (although this was the seat that D would have had if we had flown in 2020). Fortunately, the seat next to D was empty, making his seat selection more attractive than it otherwise might have been. Once we were settled, P and I tried a trick I had picked up in a YouTube video and took some chewable allergy tablets. As promised, these really did help minimize ear popping and I will definitely be taking children’s allergy meds with me on future flights.
The premium economy seats on SQ21 are pretty comfortable. They are wider and cushier than standard economy seats and they have fun features like a leg rest, book light, and extra recline. For a short person like myself, they still come up short (or maybe it’s long) because the footrest could not adjust so that my feet actually reached it. I did my best to compensate by pulling my backpack out once we were at cruising altitude and positioning it under my feet. I definitely recommend compression socks for anyone taking this flight, but especially those who might have to deal with dangling feet. Despite the mismatch between the seat size and my size, I did not have any circulation issues on this flight thanks to the socks and frequent walks to the restroom. The included pillow, blanket and noise cancelling headphones helped to keep things cozy.
One thing that I had been looking forward to on this flight was the meals because Singapore Airlines is known for its meal service. We preordered vegetarian meals for all of us. (P and I are vegetarian, and D eats fish, but not other meat). Our first meal was an Asian style noodle dish with mushrooms and vegetables. It came with a flatbread of some sort, fruit, and a lentil salad. Other than the flatbread, which was dry and hard to chew, the items in this meal were enjoyable. When the flight attendants came around to give out ice cream to the passengers without special meals, I requested one for P. Although he gladly gave P an ice cream, the flight attendant told me that the ice cream was not for those with special meals because “they come with their own dessert.” I guess the fruit was supposed to be our dessert.
After the first meal service, I did my best to sleep for a bit to try and transition to the correct time zone. (There are toothbrushes and other toiletries in the bathroom to help get you bedtime ready and I had also brought along makeup remover wipes and face mist). Thanks to the glass of wine that I had with my meal, I was able to doze a bit even though it was early afternoon at home. I woke up for the next meal, a light snack. The non-veg option was a chicken sandwich. The veg option was a vegetable sandwich of dry, unseasoned vegetables on wheat bread. This meal was not worth eating, but I ate it anyway. P rejected his.
I passed another chunk of time watching movies, reading, and taking P to the back of the plane to experience the snack cart. They had a nice selection of chocolates, granola bars, chips, cup noodles, pastry, and dried fruit, along with drinks. At some point, the fact that it was the middle of the night in the US caught up to me and I fell asleep for another, longer, nap. After my nap, the rest of the flight passed in much the same way as what had come before. More movies, more reading, and another meal. Our third meal was an odd one. It had a bean salad, fruit, and roll, much like the first meal. But when I opened the dish containing the main meal, I was greeted with mashed potatoes and mashed potatoes and more mashed potatoes, with a side of broccoli. In fairness to the mashed potatoes, they were tasty, but I am not sure who decided that they are a complete meal. I had some of the potatoes, the bean salad and the fruit. No one else in my family ate any of this meal.
After we ate, the flight attendants came around with coffee and tea. It’s served in real teacups with no lids. I mention this because right after the tea service, we hit some really wild turbulence. The plane dipped like we were going down a drop on a roller coaster and I spilled my tea all over myself. As I was cleaning up, I realized that – although I hadn’t enjoyed the turbulence – I also wasn’t overcome with terror by it like I usually am. In fact, I had remained calm and happy throughout the flight. I have no explanation as to why my fear of flying seemingly vanished on this trip, but I am hoping this is the new normal for me.
By this point, we were nearing Singapore, which was fortunate because I was nearing the end of my patience for sitting in a plane seat. The last 30 minutes or so of the flight were a challenge for me. (We were delayed about 45 minutes, so perhaps it was just the psychology of knowing we should be there already). I would, however, recommend this flight without hesitation. It was more comfortable and seemingly passed more quickly than many 5 or 6 hour flights I have taken and the Singapore Airlines service was as good as anticipated — other than some lackluster meals.
May 8: Sunday
When we finally touched down in Singapore, the caption came on the intercom to welcome us and let us know that disembarkation would be delayed because the airport had forgotten to send someone to hook up the gate. Coming from the US where airports from time to time send their staff home without remembering to unload entire flights of passengers, this made us feel right at home. While we were waiting, I turned my phone on and ensured that it had service. It took just a few minutes to get a message from Google Fi welcoming us to Singapore and assuring us that we had data coverage.
When we were finally able to deplane, we were met at the gate by a representative from the Fullerton. This was a pleasant surprise as I did not realize that our airport transfer included gate to front door service. The representative walked us to customs, confirmed that we had submitted our online arrival cards, and advised us to split into two groups. (For whatever reason, Singapore customs won’t let families clear customs together). P and I picked one line and D stood in another. As soon as D got to the front of the line, it became clear that he had not read any of the itinerary information I had shared with him. Thus began a friendly game of telephone where D shouted questions like, “Where are we staying?” and “How long are we here?” and I rolled my eyes and shouted the information back to him. He would then dutifully repeat the information to the customs agent as though she was unable to hear it herself. Fortunately, the customs agent let D into the country anyway. P and I also cleared customs without issue. (We had to show our passports and proof of vaccination and were photographed and fingerprinted).
We were then escorted to our car. As we drove, I thought about the part of Lee Kuan Yew’s autobiography where he talked about greening Singapore so that visitors arriving from the airport would be struck by how cosmopolitan the city was. As far as I could see, the plan had succeeded. I was struck by how green and shaded the drive away from the airport was. Before too long, we were looking at the Super Tree Grove at Gardens by the Bay and other Marina Bay landmarks. I might have gotten a little teary-eyed. Then, it was the moment 3 years in the making – our arrival at the Fullerton.
The Fullerton is a beautiful hotel. Check-in was quick and efficient, and we were soon in our room getting cleaned up and ready to enjoy the evening in Singapore. Our plan, based upon advice from the TripAdvisor forums, was to walk to Lau Pa Sat for dinner and that is what we did. It was nearly 7 when we arrived at the hawker center. At that time, all of the vegetarian stalls were closed. We had no trouble finding suitable options at other stalls, though. We picked up an Indian thali plate and some carrot cake. (Based upon my research, I am fairly certain that the carrot cake contained fish or shrimp paste, despite frequently being listed as a veg friendly option in blog posts on Singapore food. We decided to try it anyway). Once we had our food, I set out to find drinks. At the drink stall, I tried to order a lime juice, a beer, and a sugar cane juice. This is when I learned that each vendor at the drink stall is specialized. I was in the lime juice line, so I could only get the lime juice. Then I had to move to the next line for the beer, and so on. Drinks in hand, I made my way back to the table and we dug in to our first meal of the trip. Everything was delicious, which came as a relief to D who had worried that our mashed potato plane meal was representative of Singaporean dining options.
After dinner, it was dessert time. We headed to Food Folks, a shop attached to the hawker center, for ice cream and some packaged snacks. We enjoyed the ice cream in the shop and brought he snacks back to our room in case we woke up at odd hours with the munchies. (That did, indeed, happen, which is how I came to eat a bag of wasabi chips in my bed at 3 a.m., something that turned out to be a surprisingly acceptable middle-of-the-night snack).
As we walked back to the hotel, I checked the time and realized that we were just in time for the Spectra lights show at Marina Bay Sands. We found a spot with a good view of Marina Bay Sands and settled in to wait. P was not impressed by the show (probably because he was exhausted by this point), but I thought it was the perfect end to our first evening in Singapore. It had been everything I imagined it would be.
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