I had really hoped to take more pics, especially with the new lens, but between helping out with the kid and falling sick - yes that seems to be the recent trend for all my holidays - there just wasn't enough time to go around snapping shots.
Dancing girls outside Mel's Drive In. I think the show was newly added a few months back. Quite popular with tourists standing nearer for a "closer" look. I didn't recall visitors standing so close to Kowabunga Kove with the other show. *laugh*
Note: I've taken to using smaller images in this post in the hopes that scrolling through them is faster. If you want to view the enlarged pics, you can visit this link.
We stayed at Festive Hotel again as it was the cheapest of the three. The hotel is still undergoing renovations on the third floor, but the pool and gym have been completed. Because of the potential for noise, I had requested for rooms on the upper floors and was given two adjoining ones on the 7th. It was great of the staff to accommodate my requests. The room TV has access to more than 30 TV channels (through SingTel Mio I believe), and I really love Cartoon Network for the Tom and Jerry shows. Really brings back memories of my childhood. I also watched NatGeo's episode on Megastructures: Marina Bay Sands. Very educational show about how it was built. I've come to appreciate the effort that's been put co!nstructing that mammoth.
Here's the view from the balcony of the hotel room
And a similar view in the night
I love the loft bed on the right hand side, but its a bit too high for my liking. The family room comes with a bathtub - the deluxe twin that I booked as well did not have a bathtub. The flower wallpaper on the ceiling provides some measure of room lighting, though the room is generally quite dark even with all the lights switched on.
A closer look at the loft bed. The sofa on the bottom left can fold out to becomes a queen sized bed. The cupboard under the loft bed contains a safe that you can place your valuables in.
The wall mounted LCD helps to save a ton of space. Comes with lots of TV channels for when you're bored. The desk below conceals a small refrigerator with 3 complimentary bottles of mineral water. It is otherwise quite empty and you can chill what other stuff you have in it.
Yes, one of the bulbs has blown out.
View of the room from above in the loft bed. That's the float my kid uses at the pool.
Here's what the passageway looks like. The room numbers are right next to the curvy lit elements.
And for those who are curious, the lift. The flower pattern is a recurring design throughout the hotel.
Staircase leading to the spa at the hotel lobby. There's now a children's corner beneath the stairs with a TV showing cartoons.
We had quite a relaxing vacation, with 3 rounds of swimming - all at Hard Rock even though the pool at Festive Hotel has been completed - I guess the allure of sand is just too great. The swimming pools were pristine compared to the public ones. The water doesn't taste salty if you know what I mean. With no lifeguards I guess they couldn't make the pools too deep. The Hard Rock pool was 1.4m deep at it's deepest end. Enjoyable swims, except for the occasion when my kid dumped a cupful of water into my mouth while I was doing backstrokes.
Here's a view of the Hard Rock pool from our hotel room. Hotel staff cleans and smooths out the sand on the "beach" during nighttime. To use the pool, you need to sign out bathing towels from the counter located at the entrance to the pool. Guests may only sign out 4 towels per room. I don't think there's a time limit, though we generally never took more than 1.5 hrs including bathing.
Here's how the swimming pool at Festive Hotel looks like. The bathing amenities at Hard Rock pool are larger, with four shower rooms in the men's restrooms. Here, there only seems to be one.
Boulangerie at Festive hotel had some great ice cream that we enjoyed (twice). At $1.50 per scoop (before service charges and GST), the price seems quite hard to beat. They rotate the flavors each day, so the selection differs slightly from day to day.
Boulangerie in the nighttime. It closes pretty early at 6pm I believe. Quite a cosy environment.
A view of the ceiling from the restaurant. The signature "balloons" of Festive Hotel.
Here's what we ordered.
And the aftermath...
Underwater World had discounts for Singaporeans and PRs with each adult ticket going for the price of a child ticket - that's $14.60 compared to the usual price of $22.90. Not a bad bargain. Though the venue had a distinctive fishy smell that wasn't there a few years ago. Guess things do run down over the course of time. The aquarium was quite packed with bus loads of tourists flooding every now and then. Given the small space, overcrowding was to be expected but fortunately it eased up as they were on a fixed schedule. With the new dolphin lagoon I thought finally the days of sweating at the hot sandy beaches were over. Well, to a certain extent. Now, we sweat at hot concrete stands instead.
Here's the tickets to Underwater World. Actually, I took this after we exited the aquarium - notice the torn off portion in the right hand corner of the ticket.
Some obligatory fish / sea-life shots - its an aquarium after all!
The dolphin lagoon allows for participants, at *gasp* S$125 - S$150 per person depending on the package. Each session lasts around 20 - 30 min I think.
I wasn't in time to watch the dolphin show from the stands as I was late. Had to take what shots I could from the outside. The shows weren't long - around 10 to 15 min. I thought it was pretty unnatural how the dolphins were taught to hold stuff between their flippers.
The seals now have their own show as well. I found this pic quite funny.
Guest invited to chop, sorry, massage, the seal.
Seal was asked to do a sprint around the pool. The wake shows the speed at which the seal was traveling.
And, of course, the balancing act.
With Christmas round the corner, Universal and Resort Worlds have been busy putting up decor for the occasion. The most impressive was the big Christmas tree at the Bull Ring in front of the theme park. The Christmas tree was being put up while we stayed at Sentosa, but was finally completed on Friday. Even the mascots in the theme park have not been spared from the obligatory festive trinkets.
I love this pic the best. Took this on Friday night - luckily it was completed just before we left Sentosa.
I think we missed a performance. Here's a gathering of the performers complete with angel costumes.
Another shot of the tree from another angle.
Here's another tree just right after Hollywood area in the theme park.
More Christmas decor in the theme park.
Frankenstein with a shawl and earmuffs?
Beetlejuice in a cheery mood.
I've lost count of how many times we've watched Monster Rock and Shrek 4D, but it must say something when you start thinking that the audience's reaction was more interesting than the show. I enjoyed the screams of the audience during the spider scene. Never gets old hearing that especially when the hall is packed like today's was. Noticed that besides the change of cast at Monster Rock, the Wolfman's costume had been changed as well. Don't really like the new look.
I wanted to take some pics of Lake Hollywood Spectacular but unfortunately I have gotten too rusty at taking fireworks and my camera settings were all off. In addition I was way too near the show anyway to take the pics I wanted. I'm happy to report though that for all those who want to get close and personal to the show you can do so at the pavilion situated behind Mel's Drive In. I could feel the grit blown into my face during the performance. One wonders about the safety of inhaling fallout from the fireworks though.
A quibble about the 7-11 at Resort Worlds. I can never understand why they would locate a convenience store right next to the largest smoking corner. I mean, visitors with children are likely to patronize the store right? Why expose the children (and heaven forbid pregnant women) to second hand smoke? Granted there's another 7-11 next to the monorail station (one wonders why there are two of the same store within 100m of each other) but it's so small you'll not find what you were looking for there. I really hope Resort Worlds will shift either the convenience store (not likely) or the smoking area.
I chanced a glimpse of the Crane Dance in operation from Vivocity just across Sentosa, but was told by the hotel staff that it was a trial run. In any case it looked exactly like it was depicted in the promotional videos. Boxy, and not very exciting.
Service standards were a mixed bag. On one hand I encountered very good service where the staff helped to break up a bill into components so we could maximize on the offers provided. On the other hand I wasted more than 40min redeeming vouchers (at another location) because the staff wasn't flexible enough to interpret the rules correctly.
5 days really pass by fast. Time to sync back to reality. And thank you for taking the time to read through this post! Additional pics below!
