Genting Dream Cruise North Bali (Celukan Bawang) Shore Excursion • Best of North Bali

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Genting Dream North Bali (Celukan Bawang) Shore Excursion

The second and final port of call on the 6 Day 5 Night Surabaya & North Bali Cruise on Resorts World Cruises’ Genting Dream is Celukan Bawang for North Bali. Shore excursions are available by Resorts World Cruises to explore the different ports of calls on destination cruises. For this trip, I had the privilege to try out the Best of North Bali shore excursion arranged by Resorts World Cruises.

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Genting Dream North Bali (Celukan Bawang) Shore Excursions

North Bali Pelabuhan Celukan Bawang

Genting Dream arrived at North Bali Pelabuhan Celukan Bawang at about 6am Ship Time on Wednesday after departing from Surabaya on Tuesday at about 7.30pm.

Genting Dream follows Ship Time (GMT+8) throughout the cruise, including on shore excursions. All timings provided in the cruise follows Ship Time. Bali follows Central Indonesia Time (WITA), which is GMT+8, so there would be no conflicts. Although some passengers were still expecting to add an hour from local time to try to follow Ship Time, and therefore almost be well and truly late.

While Celukan Bawang seems to be able to cater to smaller cruise ships, Genting Dream has her tenders out in the harbour as she’s too big to alongside the port directly.

My shore excursion ticket for Best of North Bali. The Best of North Bali shore excursion costs S$95.

This ticket must be handed over to the tour guide before boarding the bus.

This shore excursion meant I had a really early start to my day, with the meeting time at 6.15am. The Dream Dining Room Lower was opened at 5.30am with a long queue, but I went up to The Lido at 6.00am for a light and quick breakfast before going straight to Zodiac Theatre.

A sticker stapled behind the ticket is for identification which you need to paste in front of your shirt before entering the Zodiac Theatre for disembarkation.

Genting Dream Zodiac Theatre Meeting Point

For passengers who have booked shore excursions, the meeting point for North Bali shore excursions was at Zodiac Theatre. However, check on your day of departure on the meeting point as this may be changed depending on the crowd.

Shore excursion passengers should match the number on your sticker with the lollipop sign placed in front of each row.

Once the bus number is called, follow the staff stationed along the route to the tender platform. Tap your stateroom card at the checkpoint before heading off to the tender platform.

Tender from Genting Dream to Pelabuhan Celukan Bawang

Queuing to board the tender.

The tender is basically a lifeboat doubling up as a ferry. In non-emergency situations like this, passengers can freely sit anywhere they like, just like a shuttle boat.

I chose to go up to the open top deck for more sea breeze and better pictures. It’s not every day you get to experience an open-top lifeboat ride.

The Genting Dream has 2 tender platforms on each side, allowing 2 tender boats to alongside on each side at any one time. However, boarding was conducted orderly bus by bus to first departing boat by boat.

Sailing away from Genting Dream to Pelabuhan Celukan Bawang.

Arriving at Pelabuhan Celukan Bawang, passengers were greeted with Balinese dancers, music, and a garland of flowers.

Continue up the pier to meet the tour buses.

Tour buses are lined up at Pelabuhan Celukan Bawang.

Genting Dream Shore Excursion North Bali Tour Bus

My bus, Bus 1, was the first in line. The tour guide collected everyone’s ticket at the bus door before boarding.

The interior of the Genting Dream Shore Excursion North Bali midibus.

While the seats are narrower than usual (this is the type used in Indonesian regular 3-2 economy configuration), there is more legroom between each row of seats.

A map of the tour is handed out by the tour guide before departure.

The route we will be taking today is down to the centre of Bali island.

The tour guide gives an introduction of Bali and commentary for almost 75% of the journey to the first stop at Pura Ulun Danu Bratan Temple.

The journey from Pelabuhan Celukan Bawang to Pura Ulun Danu Bratan Temple takes 2 hours.

Pura Ulun Danu Bratan Temple

At Pura Ulun Danu Bratan Temple, Genting Dream passengers enter through the side open turnstile as tickets are already included in the tour package.

Heading down to the main part of Pura Ulun Danu Bratan Temple.

To head onto Lake Bratan, you can also hire a speedboat, sampan, or duck.

Lots of ducks were on standby for guests to rent.

There was a festival ongoing with lots of local worshippers. Non-worshippers are not allowed to go into the 2 main praying sites.

The misty tops of Gunung Catur towering over Lake Bratan.

The iconic Pura Ulun Danu Bratan on Lake Bratan. This temple is featured on the 50000 Indonesian Rupiah bank note.

On the other side of the temple, there are secular spaces for tourist photography with various icons as backdrops.

There is also a bunny house for petting some furry bunnies.

There are also some food stalls around, but the prices are a bit touristy.

Back on the bus, the tour guide passes around some mineral water which was stored in the bus’ cooler box.

Driving around Lake Bratan off to our next stop.

Candi Kuning Market

The next stop was Candi Kuning Market for local shopping.

The market was half-filled with souvenirs including keychains, t-shirts, and batik.

The fresh market is located towards the main road.

If you had skipped breakfast due to the early start to the day, there is a local warung in the market serving up simple mixed rice dishes.

There is also a touristy-looking café and restaurant touting “western toilets”.

As for me, I felt that the prices were a bit touristy, so I headed out of the market to where I would traditionally go in Indonesia.

Behold, the Alfamart.

It’s still slightly more expensive than local shop prices, but way cheaper for snacks and drinks than the touristy shops in Candi Kuning Market.

I headed back to the bus early to seek shelter as it had started to drizzle.

Departing from Candi Kuning Market.

Passing by some rice fields along the way to lunch.

Secret Garden Village

Lunch was served at Secret Garden Village, included in the tour price.

The Luwus Restaurant is inside the premises, overlooking the rice fields.

Tables were arranged by buses.

Lunch was an Indonesian buffet with an inclusive bottle of mineral water and choice of either beer or soft drink.

The white rice staple was definitely available, followed by some Mie Goreng. The Luwus Restaurant seem to have expected the Singaporean and Malaysian crowd by providing more Mie Goreng than normal in a regular Indonesian buffet for Indonesians.

Fun fact: If both white rice and Mie Goreng are available in an Indonesian buffet not for tourists, or at a warteg, the Mie Goreng is a side dish to the white rice.

Proteins and vegetables are available in the buffet.

For dessert, Pisang Goreng and sliced fruits are available.

My Singapore-style Indonesian buffet plate with the Mie Goreng as the main.

I picked out some fried calamari, fish balado, and chicken for my sides.

The Luwus Restaurant overlooks Secret Garden Village’s rice fields which makes for a tourist backdrop photo.

Following lunch, guests could visit the Oemah Herborist Beauty Factory Outlet for souvenirs and beauty products.

The Black Eye Coffee & Roastery serves up coffee, ice cream, and pastries for those still hungry.

Luwak or Asian palm civet are also kept outside for visitors to have a look at them. Luwaks are used for the production of kopi luwak.

As the name suggests, there is also a secret garden in Secret Garden Village accessible by a bridge. I’ll leave it to you to find where the entrance of the bridge is.

The view of the secret garden.

There is also a giant swing which swings out to the rice fields.

The entrance fee for foreigners to Secret Garden Village costs Rp.100,000, but this was included in the shore excursion.

There is a minimart across the road from Secret Garden Village if you’d like to stock up on non-alcoholic drinks to bring back to the ship.

Heading back to re-board the bus after lunch and visit to Secret Garden Village.

The winding roads to the next and final destination.

Lake Buyan and Tamblingan (Twin Lakes)

Lake Buyan
Lake Tamblingan

Lake Buyan and Tamblingan are also known as Twin Lakes which makes it a popular stopover for photos. This was a quick 15-minute photo stop, and doubles up as a toilet break on the way back to the port.

There is a lookout point built between the 2 lakes for tourist photos.

Beware of the monkeys around the lookout platform.

Toilets are located opposite the view point, along with a minimart.

The road down from Lake Buyan and Tamblingan was very winding and narrow.

The tour bus arrived back at Pelabuhan Celukan Bawang at 3.45pm.

Pelabuhan Celukan Bawang

At the entrance to the pier, Resorts World Cruises had prepared cold towels and drinks.

There was a small market at the port for last-minute shopping. This was probably focused more on those coming down from the ship free-and-easy as there is nothing much around the port.

There was a queue for the tenders back to Genting Dream, so I wasn’t in a hurry to join it.

Genting Dream was just a short distance away.

However, it started raining, so I headed to the tentage prepared for us with seats, and Resorts World Cruises staff were quick to hand out raincoats to everybody.

Heading down to the pier to catch the tender back to Genting Dream.

Boarding the tender from the floating pontoon.

The interior of the tender with everyone on the lower deck. Understandably, the open-top deck was not as popular in the rainy weather.

Slipping off from Pelabuhan Celukan Bawang.

Approaching back to the Genting Dream.

Heading up from the tender platform to the ship.

Security screening is conducted by the ship before completing boarding.

Tap your stateroom card at the checkpoint before entering the ship.

Once in, take the lift up to wherever you want to go around the Genting Dream. Probably to your stateroom first to drop off your belongings and shopping.

Looking back at Pelabuhan Celukan Bawang from my balcony.

Conclusion

The Best of North Bali shore excursion fully maximised the port time available in North Bali (Celukan Bawang), with this tour departing on the first tender and returning on one of the last ones. There was a lot of travelling inside the bus, but it got us to further destinations inland in Bali, which would be a different experience as compared to free and easy passengers who could only roam around the North Bali (Celukan Bawang) port as Grab and taxis were not available from Celukan Bawang and there was nothing outside the port aside from a car park.

The tendering process at North Bali (Celukan Bawang) was a lot more faster than Phuket, probably owing to the shorter distance between the ship and shore, allowing for quicker turnarounds for each tender boat. Do note that tendering is prone to the weather, so hope for a sunny day if you would like to go on shore in North Bali (Celukan Bawang) from a cruise by tender.

This cruise was kindly sponsored by Resorts World Cruises.

Genting Dream Cruise

Genting Dream Cruise Shore Excursions

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