Singapore Flyer

7 Sep 2010

Ai Ling works with OCBC and she got for us complimentary tickets for Singapore Flyer.

Singapore Flyer is the world's largest observation wheel, standing at 165m, the height of a 42 storey building and it is 30 metres taller than the famed London Eye.

After dinner at Raffles City, Hubby drove to Raffles Avenue and by the time we got into the capsule, it was 9.30pm.

A view of the Singapore Flyer's capsule.

The Singapore Flyer In-Flight Compass

Hubby teaching the kids how to read the In-Flight compass.

Enjoying Singapore magnificent cityscape during the 30 minutes ride.

Thanks to Ai Ling once again for the complimentary tickets and lovely evening.

Universal Studios Singapore

6 Sep 10

We had buffet breakfast in the Festive Hotel and the restaurant was packed. We were told that we had to queue to get a table for the buffet breakfast. After the long queue for hotel check-in the day before and the many more queues to come in Universal Studios, I wasn't prepared to queue for my breakfast. I was furious and made a fuss about it. I must had look very upset that the waiter quickly got us a table, without having to queue :)

The Universal Studios Singapore opens from 10am to 7pm. After experiencing long queue for hotel check-in, we kinda expected lots of people in Universal Studios and decided to be early to beat the crowd. We were at the entrance at 10am sharp!

Our first stop is at Madagascar. There was queue to take photo at this stop and so did we. They did allow us to use our own camera and video cam but Hubby still buy and paid S$12 for the instant photo taken by them.

Then, we went for the King Julien's Beach Party-Go-Round carousel ride, go up and down, round and round with the Madagascar characters.

Our next stop is at Far Far Away. Jaden wanted to ride the "Enchanted Airways" (junior roller coaster) but Jared and I were not up to it.

There was a long queue for the ride.

Jared resting on stroller and playing with our new video cam while waiting for Hubby and Jaden.

Hubby was thrilled by the ride but Jaden was very cool about it.

Thereafter, we watched Shrek 4-D Adventure movie where we can see, hear and feel the action right from our seat to join Princess Fiona and Shrek in a fairytale adventure. We felt in our face water splashes, spit, air blow, etc. There's two types of seats to choose from ie the moving and the non-moving seats. Highly recommended to watch this 4D movie.

As we walked out from the theatre, there's the "Magic Potion Spin", a ferris wheel for children but all 4 of us were in the ferris wheel. Nothing great, can give a miss if there's a long queue.

We had our lunch at Goldilocks Fried Chicken. Luckily, we were there at about 12pm. As we bought our food, sat down and eat, there were lots of people came in for lunch. Lunch came to S$26.20 and as we had S$15 meal vouchers from the Universal Studios tickets, we only paid S$11.20. It's good to have these vouchers as we were paying in Singapore Dollar, not Malaysia Ringgit.

After the lunch, we wanted to catch the Madagascar Boogie! show at 1pm.

Waiting for Madagascar Boogie show under the hot sun. It was a hot afternoon! Thank God that we brought stroller, caps and sun glasses.

The popular "Move it Move it!"

After the show, there's photo with the casts session. We took this photo using our own camera. After the photo session, as we walked away, we were approached by the Universal staff who showed us our photo taken by them. Again, Hubby bought the photo for S$12, the same photo as above. Why it is so hard for man to say "No, thank you."?

Our next stop was at The Lost World. We didn't try the popular Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure as there were long queue and the waiting time was almost an hour. I would suggest this station as the first stop at Universal Studios and be there at 10am to avoid the crowd.

We tried the Dino-Soarin and also catched the Waterworld death-defying stunts, explosions and thrills of "live" water show at 2pm. After the show, I wanted to take Jaden back to hotel for his afternoon nap but he chosed to follow his Daddy. As such, we continue and move on to "Ancient Egypt". We didn't try any rides here, except for photos taking.

We took a slow stroll and stopped at Sci-Fi City and tried the Accelerator, a madly spinning on whirling twirling attraction.

At New York, we experienced the Lights, Camera, Action! hosted by Steven Spielberg with special effects of major hurrricane hitting New York City.

From New York, we moved to Hollywood to catch 3.45pm stage show Kowabunga Kove, the wackiest, kitschiest, campiest beach blanket singing sensation.

After the show, sligtly passed 4pm, we had our afternoon tea at Mel's Drive-In. We had brownies and iced milo.

We heard street entertainment by The Rockafellas and returned to New York to catch the B-boys. It was a good and entertaining show with participation from audiences. Jaden was too tired and slept on the stroller and missed this show.

When we walked back towards Hollywood, there were Character Meet and Greet by the walk of fame ... Marilyn Monroe,
Charlie Chaplin
Woody Woodpecker

We also watched the infamous Universal monsters in a rock-n-roll musical at Pantages Hollywood Theater at 5.30pm.

The kids were bored and tired while waiting for the last show that we wanted to watch, Donkey Live at 6.15pm at Far Far Away, which we've missed earlier on. Donkey Live is a sing along with Donkey in an interactive live show.

As we were leaving the Universal Studios, we saw this nice castle that we've missed and took several nice photos. It already passed 6.30pm and there were not so many people left in the park.

We left Universal Studios at 6.45pm. We never thought we could last this long as we were thinking of going back to the hotel for a rest at 2pm and go back to Universal Studios at 4pm. The afternoon tea of brownies and iced Milo helped and of course, it was good that Jaden had his nap on the stroller.

Things that I would suggest for Universal Studios:

1. Be there early
2. Bring stroller (for those with kids);
3. Bring caps, sun-glasses and mineral water
4. Plan your trip. Browse through Universal Studios website and have some ideas of what are the things that you wish to do / cover, depending on interests and age.
5. Collect the stage shows, street entertainment, character meet and greet schedule and circle the shows time
6. Go for early lunch ie before 12.15pm to avoid crowd

As we stayed in Resorts World Sentosa, on the following day, we stopped by That's a Wrap and bought some souvenirs and these t-shirts (S$19.90 each) for the boys.Luckily, we went back and take photos at this famous spot again.
Overall, we had a good time in Universal Studios Singapore. It's better than expected and not as crowded as we thought it would be. I like it for being new and the good customer service.

Resorts World Sentosa, Festive Hotel and Hotel Michael

5 to 8 Sep 10

For the Sep 10 school holiday, we decided to take the kids for holiday in Singapore with the opening of the Universal Studio.

We heard from friends that the Universal Studio tickets were selling like hot cakes and fast sold out. As such, we booked the hotel and Universal Studio tickets from Resorts World Sentosa in mid Jul 10. Singapore and Malaysia were having school holiday in the same week of Sep 10. We chose the beginning of school holidays rather than the end of school holidays as it crashed with Hari Raya holiday which means there would be massive traffic jam and lots of people in Universal Studio. And we were right ... we found out there were at least another 4 families that we knew went to Universal Studio during the same period as we did.

We paid S$786 for 3D2N Ultimate package which include:

• 2 nights accommodation in Festive Hotel
• Daily buffet breakfast for 2
• S$25 Resorts World Sentosa gift voucher
• 2 adults + 1 child tickets to Universal Studio Singapore
• 2 Welcome drinks at Casino Royale Bar

We drove to Singapore on Sunday, 5 Sep 10. We left home at 9am, made a toilet stop at Jejantas, lunch stop at the famous Fish Ball restaurant in Yong Peng and a petrol stop just before the immigration check point.

When we reached Resorts World Sentosa, we went to the underground car park but it was full and paid S$7 for the entrance charge. We went to another entrance and paid another S$7 for the entrance charge. Finally, we reached Festive Hotel at 3pm. There were long queues for the hotel check-in and I queued for about half an hour, checked in and was told that our rooms were not ready. While waiting for our hotel room, I approached the hotel concierge and made complaints on the full car park and S$7 that we paid. The hotel reimbursed us both the entrance charges as hotel guests do not need to pay for those charges.

We waited and waited for our rooms and the patience were running low as all of us were tired from the long journey travel. Finally, our rooms were only ready at 5pm! We made complaints to the hotel and the hotel allowed us late check out on our last day till 4pm.

Festive Hotel is a family oriented hotel. Upon check in, kids were given welcome pack with box of strawberry milk drink, toothbrush and sponge in a little bag. Kids tailored slippers were also provided in the hotel room.

These photos were taken at Festive Hotel. I love the design of the hotel with giant orchid motifs in a fun and colourful theme. We stayed at the Deluxe Family King room which can accommodate 5 guests comfortably, with one king-sized bed, one loft bed and one sofa bed which can fold out to a double bed.

Jared and Jaden love the loft bed. They climbed and played on the bed but refused to sleep there at night. Nobody slept in the loft bed and also the sofa bed. End up, 4 of us slept on the king-sized bed.

The only thing that I didn't like about the hotel room is the bathroom with too many doors and glass wall in such a small space.

My secondary school class mate, Ai Ling came and meet us in the hotel. The kids had a swim in the hotel pool.

My ex-boss from Watson's, Cathy hosted us dinner at this beautiful place, One'15 Marina Club at Sentosa Cove with beautiful scenery of yachts and sea.

View from the Buffet Breakfast Restaurant.

Our 2nd day stay in Singapore was scheduled for Universal Studio.

Ai Ling and her husband hosted us dinner at this Irish pub and restaurant, Mulligan's in Resorts World Sentosa. My sister and family joined us for the dinner too. The BBQ pork rib was soft and tender. The kids had very good appetite after a long day play at Universal Studio.

Complimentary daily show at 9pm ... Lake of Dreams. Nothing great though.

Initially, our Singapore trip was a 3D2N but my boss requested me to attend meetings in Singapore as the big boss from HQ was in town. As such, we extended another day stay and decided to try out Hotel Michael and moved to Hotel Michael for our 3rd night stay in Resorts World. As a member of Genting Worldcard, we got special rate of S$200++ (S$234 nett) which was not too expensive and this hotel stay was paid for by my employer.

Unfortunately, the timing of my meetings in Singapore office made it not possible for us to visit Singapore Zoo in this trip.

The signature pizza of Palio at Hotel Michael at S$28++ and the pizza was lovely.