Sentosa Staycation – Village Hotel

School holiday is here and if you are thinking of ways to bond with your child, perhaps I can share about our recent discoveries with One Faber Group?

Our visit to Sentosa was coincidentally tied with the time of our Faber Membership renewal. I was pleasantly surprised to be informed that the membership is now digital! Yay to 1 lesser card to clutter my already “filled to the brim” aunty wallet.  https://www.onefabergroup.com/faber-licence-membership

New digital Faber Membership
The girls first ride on the Monorail. Courtesy of Village Hotel at Sentosa

Thankful that despite being a little red dot on the world map, Singapore has so much to offer. Ask any tourist what they know about Singapore, Sentosa is probably one of the mentioned must-go places. Who would remember going to Asia Village or Fantasy Island when we were a kid? I wanted to bring the girls for a different Sentosa experience, not the usual RWS or Kidzania. Exploring Sentosa via foot, Cable Car and Monorail; the way I would explore when I was a kid. To enhance the experience, we also checked ourselves into the new Village Hotel so we could have a good 2 days to breakaway.

Feeling at home at Village Hotel Sentosa

In conjunction to the celebration of the Singapore Cable Car’s 45th Anniversary, One Faber Group came out with its Explorer Passport expedition. Pick up your Passport at the cable ticketing kiosk and start exploring the route and collect limited edition ink stamp at selection cable car station. There are 5 activity points and out of which, I have to say I enjoyed the 5 min walk to Faber Point the most. It was something that my usual self would probably skip (I am someone who would drive even if its just 5 min walk) but surprisingly I asked myself why did I not know of such a place? Ans: That’s because Charlene you are a lazy bone who did not appreciate nature due to the fear of sun and insect. A scenic 5 min walk from Mount Faber Cable Car Station, we were even greeted with the sight of a Merlion at Faber Point!

Grab your explorer passport from any cable car ticketing kiosk
Complete the 5 activities in the passport

We stopped for lunch at Arbora which boasted an unblock magnificent view of the rainforest hillside. The restaurant menu had a wide selection of western and local classics. I ordered a delicious lobster laksa that caused me to ruin my Keto diet, eat first diet later. Do you know there is a new nightly attraction at Arbora? Miraculous, a multimedia night show, featuring Mira & Mirak – a pair of mighty squirrels who lived in a heart-shaped Angsana tree at Arbora. The girls really wanted to watch Miraculous as all the Cable Car staff was telling them about it. Unfortunately, we could not watch on the day we were there as there was a private function. Nah, this gives us another reason to be back.

We continued our explorer adventure heading back to Sentosa Island. Admiring the Birdseye view of our beautiful island. In our current hectic life, how often do we stop and appreciate the things we have in our life. Thus when we completed the fifth activity at Siloso Point station, we explored Siloso Point with the recommendation of a tourist. How shameful? A Singaporean guided by a tourist. LOL

After a quick freshen up back in our rooms, we headed back to Dusk for dinner. This was supposed to be a session planned for hubby. Sadly, he had to travel at the very last min and we did the sunset dinner without him. Here goes another, nah.. we will be back. Dusk is highly recommended for a place to chill over drinks and dinner, come around 630pm and watch the sky take in its breath-taking hues of vermillion and violet.

cheers…

If you are thinking about where to stay in Sentosa or planning a staycation with your family. Do remember to check out the new Village Hotel which recently welcomed its first visitor in March. If squeezing in a hotel to save cost is not your style, then you will be thrilled to learn that Village hotel offers a Family Room at an attractive rate of $260 per night. (This is under their opening special) Yes 2 rooms for only $260! I think this is a steal for a hotel in Sentosa that offers great facilities and a stone throw away to all the attractions. Village Hotel is just a 3 mins walk from the Merlion Station and Imbiah Monorail Station. You can also walk to RWS from the Festive Walk. If you are a lazy bone like me, the hotel provides free shuttle service to RWS and Vivocity. They gladly provide all patrons with complimentary Monorails tickets which is valid for 3 days of activation. Who needs to travel this June Holiday when there is so much being offered in Sentosa!

Village Hotel at Sentosa

10 Artillery Avenue, #02-01, Sentosa Island, Singapore 099951 Contact No.Hotel:
+65 6722 0800
Reservations:
+65 6881 8888
Emailinfo.vhs@fareast.com.sg

https://www.villagehotels.com.sg/en/hotels/village-hotel-sentosa

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The perfect family staycation – all while earning Skywards Miles!

Before we left for our Europe holiday, the girls were sulking as we did not bring them along. Thus,
we promised the girls a staycation when we were back from our holiday. We thought a staycation
would probably be the best substitute for a holiday and the girls would be happy. They should be,
because we need to beg them to roam around most of the time during our overseas holidays! The
girls were always happy just staying in the hotel and whenever we were out exploring, they would
always ask when we would come back. Thus, we felt a staycation would be the best idea for them.

As we had done numerous staycations in the past, we wanted something with more tranquillity this
time round. The first hotel that came to our mind was Shangri-La! Now, I had heard a lot about the
wonderful service of Shangri-La, but had yet to stay in one of their hotels. Thus, I thought it would be
a good time to experience the highly raved-about service of this hotel. If you had read my previous
post on Mileslife, you will be glad to know that you can also book your hotel stays through the app
and earn Skywards Miles at the same time. Of course, I did just that.
Booking a hotel stay through the app was a breeze – just like how you would usually make any hotel
reservations online.

From the moment we checked in, the service from all the staff at Shangri-La was impeccable. The lady who did our check-in advised us to switch to the Garden Wing as the room was more spacious. I am glad we did, as the girls needed the space to play and the room was perfect.  The room at the Garden Wing was also bigger as the booking with Mileslife came with an additional kid’s bed (free of charge!), which was perfect for us. Usually, we have to either all squeeze into a King size bed or sleep with the girls on twin beds. But with an additional bed, we were comfortably set in this room. Watch this clip for a tour of the room.

 

As we did not want to make this staycation all about staying in the hotel, we tricked the girls out by telling them we were going to hit the nearby Toy’r’Us store.  Hahaha… They jumped out of bed immediately. There is a free shuttle service to Orchard road every hour. If not, you can always request for a complimentary parking ticket each time you leave the hotel. After all the shopping at the Forum, we headed back to the hotel for a nice dinner at the Shang Palace.

 

The booking I made through Mileslife came with free breakfast!!! I have to tell you the breakfast at Shangri-La is a MUST!! The selection was one of the biggest I have seen. Good news to all families with kids 6 years and below. The kids get to dine free with each paying adult!! For us, Lauren paid half price ($22.50) as she is 8, but it was still very worthwhile too. All in all, we had a two-hour breakfast with Nasi Lemak and Laksa, and hit the pool right after.

 

 

 

 

We were surprised to see many Singaporean families there for staycation too!!! The girls made some new friends and were so reluctant to leave because it was almost time for us to check out.

 

 

We truly enjoyed ourselves and I am already scrolling through Mileslife for the next hotel to plan for our staycation! ;p

For those who are interested to know, I spent $441 and I earned 3,500 Skywards Miles from this booking.  This will be so helpful for my family holiday to Melbourne next year.  FYI, an Economy Class Saver return ticket on Emirates to Melbourne will require 45,000 Skywards Miles. Inclusive of my earlier spending on Mileslife, I am already a quarter way through the Miles required! Additionally, if you link your Emirates Skywards account to the Mileslife app as your frequent flyer programme of choice, you will be able to earn bonus Skywards Miles ranging from 25% to 75% if you are a Silver, Gold or Platinum member! Do keep a look out for special promotions on the app as well – the promotions may help you earn more Skywards Miles than usual!

 

 

 

 

 

I am definitely going to use this app whenever possible to accumulate more miles! For those that plan to download the app, do use my code “MSCLAK” under the referral code section to get additional 1000 miles on your 1st purchase (min. $49)!

 

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Staycation at Equarius Hotel Resort World Sentosa

Every December Kel and I will plan a family holiday. Unfortunately this year due to several reasons, we needed to be in Singapore. We know it is school holiday and Lauren will be busy with Primary 1 next year.  Thus we wanted to make her school holiday as exciting as possible even though we are just going to explore our own sunny island.

 

While planning, we realized that a staycation in Sentosa may do the trick. We booked a 3D2N stay at Equarius Hotel. The last 2 staycations we had in Sentosa were at Festive Hotel and Amara Sanctuary Resort. We were not pleased with our stay then.  A friend recommended Equarius Hotel and here we are..

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Equarius Hotel lobby

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The girls were so excited watching mummy brushing her teeth..

The standard at Equarius Hotel is wayyyy better than Amara Sanctuary Resort or Festive Hotel. The room was huge, clean (very important factor for me) and smell really nice..  The bathroom was big enough for the entire family to be inside. The girls in the tub, me cleaning their bottles and papa watching after them. OK the only not so good was the distance from the attractions. Equarius Hotel is supposed to be the SPA hotel so tranquillity is their business, away from the busy streets and attractions. If you really want to walk from Universal Studio back to the hotel,  it will probably take you 20 to 30 mins. There is a hotel shuttle bus every 15 mins that will bring you around the hotels and to the casino. You can drop at the casino and walk to the attractions. For us, it was not easy even with the shuttle bus arrangement as each time we had to unload all the stuffs from the stroller (the stroller was full of stuffs above and underneath) and load again.  Most of the time we just drove to the East carpark but you will incurred extra carpark charges as the hotels’ carpark (West) and attractions’ carpark (East) are not linked. You can get the complimentary parking from hotel but you are only entitled to one complimentary carpark pass a day for hotel guests so if you have to go in and out of the carpark then one complimentary carpark pass is definitely not enough.

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We spent Day 1 at the Adventure Cove and Alexis got to play on the water slides too!! There are many activities and you will really need 1 full day there, especially so if you plan to include Dolphin Island.  Lauren’s favourite activity in Adventure Cove was the Rainbow Reef.  Initially she was really scared because the staff told her the water at the Rainbow Reef is 3 metre deep. Upon hearing the 3 metre, Lauren came up with all sorts of excuses to not get into the water… eg. the goggle was too tight, the water was too cold (the water was indeed quite cold)… bla bla bla.. I was very upset with her as we queued for awhile.. So I used a little “Mummy’s angry”  tactic and soon Lauren was in the water. She was so engrossed that Papa had to keep pulling her back. When she was up, she told me the fishes were so colourful and beautiful.. This is definitely a must try even for adult.

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Papa and Lauren then went on to Dolphin Island. Of course Lauren loved this particular section of the visit.. She is an animal fanatic and dolphin is one of her favourite animals. The whole session took 90min.  Out of the 90min,  the actual dolphin interaction was only 30min while the rest were pre and post interaction briefings and choosing of photographs taken during the session.  The trainer briefed them on the hand signals to interact with the dolphin and the ways to stroke and handle the dolphin.

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Lauren was very much in love with WaWa, the dolphin she was interacting.  She kissed and kept giving WaWa the hand signal to talk to her.

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Alexis, Aunty and Mummy continued the water play while waiting for Papa and Lauren. For parents bringing young toddler, these are the attractions that are suitable for younger kids. Do note that an accompanied adult needs to be with them at all time.

  1. Adventure River

    Grab a tube and take a leisurely ride down Adventure River, floating through 14 stunning scenes including a lush jungle garden, a mysterious grotto and an underwater tunnel with a sea of marine life swimming above and around you.

     

  2. Big Bucket Treehouse

    Get wet and wild at the Big Bucket Treehouse! Share the rush of the giant bucket tipping over gallons of fun in an action-packed wonderland of interactive water plays. It’s the coolest place for kids to be.

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  3. Bluwater Bay

    You’re sure to catch a wave at Bluwater Bay where the surf’s always up! Come share the rush in this giant wave pool and have a swell of a time with the family

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Lauren was sulking when we told her it was time to leave..

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Our day 2 was kept for Universal Studio. Lauren was super excited about USS. She woke up very early and pestered us to get ready. She even proposed to skip breakfast and lunch. Honestly when you are out with a 6 years old and a 13 months old toddler, how fast can you be.. So by the time we were done with getting dressed and food, it was past 12noon. We bought the Universal Express passes on top of the regular tickets and those were our BEST INVESTMENT EVERRRRR!!!!!  Please… do yourself a favour, if time is an issue, please get the pass.  You can always check out the crowd inside the park before deciding if you want to get the express pass. There are many shops selling the express pass inside. Due to the fast track queues from the express passes, we completed all rides (except Battlestar and The Mummy due to Lauren’s height) within 4 hours.. In fact, we took a couple of rides twice or thrice.  We walked past the long snaking queues with all the envies of the others queuing.. FYI, most of the rides need 50-60min of queuing if you do not have express pass during peak season.

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Before you leave the park, if you do plan to come back soon, especially Singaporean. Please upgrade your ticket to the 6 months season pass. We did that to all our tickets and now I can just bring my girls as and when we want.

 

Day 3: Honestly to explore Sentosa properly and if you have the luxury of time, I will suggest a 4 days stay. Resort World Singapore will take you 3 days to fully enjoy all the attractions, not forgetting Sentosa Island also has tons of activities for you to explore. This time round we skipped S.E.A Aquarium and Trick Eye Museum as we were very worn out from the walking and Alexis was starting to get very cranky.  Papa and Mummy decided to go for a SPA session at ESPA to unwind. The ESPA is heavenly….. We do not have the time to stay and enjoy most of the facilities although we very much wanted to.

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We ended our staycation with  The Luge ride inside Sentosa Island, Lauren needed this before agreeing to go home. We saw the soon-to-open Kidzania Singapore next to the Beach Station.  Sentosa is going to be “The Place” to go the next school holiday.

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Our 8th Wedding Anniversay

“Success in marriage does not come merely through finding the right mate, but through being the right mate.” – Barnett R. Brickner

Being together for more than a decade, we had been through ups and downs; bracing through difficult times to where we are now.  We are now like soul mates and best friends. Talking to each other on the phone for hours when he is away, making time to meet each other for lunch often even though we will be seeing each other at home in a few hours.  I am happy that both of us had put in effort to maintain the sparks in our relationship.

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The weekend celebration started the night before where I came home to a beautiful bouquet of roses.

Thinking hard if I should post this unglam phot but this is the moment where I got my flowers..

My very sweet hubby planned a surprise staycation this year for our 8th Anniversary. His surprise is actually not that surprise because his “overly smart” phone unexpectedly sent me an invite on my calendar after he added the details on his booking. Of course I was very touched by the act because despite his busy schedule, he set aside time for me. 🙂

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Conrad was our wedding venue and we did make a vow to come back yearly but with the arrival of Lauren and Alexis, we somehow forgotten about the promise.

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Kelvin took me for a very nice dinner at White Rabbit. The experience at White Rabbit was very romantic. The chapel setting, excellent food and a nice gift from hub.

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If you asked what other programs we did…. nothing… We took this opportunity to rest.  Both of us had probably forgotten what it was like to be able to sleep all the way till late morning. With the girls, it was always sleep late, wake up early even on weekends.  We wanted to do a lot of stuff like watching the Man Utd and Leicester City match at Paulaner but we dozed off in bed before the match started..

Ok la, Kel took a lot of photos for me… He is the super nice hubby where he would really go all out to take photo of me or the girls..IMG-20151128-WA0025-01

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Like what the photo mentioned, a step closer to a lifetime together.  I am truly blessed…

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