Posts Tagged With: Marina Bay

Singapore Day 6: review if Chinois Spa and Spago Bar & Lounge at Marina Bay Sands

Posted on January 1, 2018 by Mel

We started our day with a spa treatment at Chinois Spa which is based at The Legends, a function centre adjacent to the hotel. We both had the “imperial” which was a body scrub, soak and massage over 2hrs. I always think a massage is a good way to start the year! This was no exception and was well received after a little to much bubbly last night. We also got a 25% discount as hotel guests.

When we returned to Hotel Fort Canning, our room had been changed and they had moved all our luggage. I wrote a negative trip advisor review about the hallway noise (which seemed unusual for a 5 Star resort) and the guest manager approached me to arrange a room swap and to personally apologise for his staff being far too noisy when the door soundproofing – based on their code restrictions from the heritage listing -is…well….a bit shit. As part of the apology, they offered a room upgrade.

After the spa and luggage shift it was nap time (for B) and bath time for me. Do you know what makes a deep soak tub better? Reece’s Pieces!

We had booked evening drinks at Spago Bar and Lounge. This was a suggestion I came across when reading really negative things about the observation deck at Marina Bay Sands. We tried to go up a few days ago but the line was insane. Basically, lots of things I read said we were better off booking in at Spago Bar and Lounge, spending $26 on a cocktail instead of an entry fee to the sky deck and enjoying that view. What a view it is!! It even includes the pool. There’s no fee to book but you are required to purchase something from the menu – they have cocktails (yum), mocktails, soft drinks, wine, hard booze and food.

HFC perk 5: when you get upset about stuff they actually fix it. Hooray for a 5 Star Hotel! Also, after going to MBS and riding in the lifts you don’t have to fight for lift space along with 65 other people here 🙂

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Singapore Day 4: Another Chinatown Hawker Centre and Gardens by the Bay

Posted on December 30, 2017 by Mel

We started with a late breakfast at Maxwell Food Centre in Chinatown where I got to try the authentic Singaporean dish of Haivanese (chicken) Rice. It was so tasty I forgot to take a photo! Our cooking class the other day told us there were three main things we should aim to eat while here that are truly authentic, traditional Singaporean food examples:

⁃ Chicken rice

⁃ Char Kway Teow

⁃ Carrot cake (the name of this is very misleading!)

⁃

So, one down two to go. B has also added chilli crab to this list because he doesn’t care if it’s not authentic…he intends to eat it! Apparently it’s the national dish and very popular, but isn’t a traditional dish as Singapore was originally not a wealth country and crab is too pricey.

After breakfast, I bought some dresses and pretty tops in Chinatown (I’m still refining my bargaining skills but they are getting better) and we also searched for presents for the kiddies back home. I’ve started a tradition of stuffed toys for the nephews and niece from each country we visit.

We then caught the MRT to Gardens by the Bay. We used the shuttle service to get from the entrance to the Flower Dome ($3 well spent as my back is playing up) and started there. All up, for both domes and the shuttle x 2 it was $62. The flower dome was very impressive!

B was particularly taken with the dragon sculpture.

We then went through the cloud forest (second dome) which was also amazing! The lines were quite short but I can imagine how crazy it must get when busy. The cloud forest was my favourite of the two domes.

Before starting the Skywalk, we had lunch at Majestic Bay under the flower dome. The food was quite tasty but pricey and there were screaming children everywhere…to the point where B had to repeat himself so I could hear him say “this reminds me, I need to book that vasectomy”. We had Shanghai dumplings, Peking duck pancakes and 2 cokes and it ended up being over $65 so not a cheap option, but very convenient. The food was good too, shame about the noise level.

After lunch (and with my back feeling a lot better) we headed up to the skywalk. This is an additional cost of $8 and unfortunately it was closed due to the rain, and had apparently been closed most of the day so far. We asked if it would re-open as the rain had stopped at that point but couldn’t get a straight answer. Some googling indicated that it often closes for the whole day after rain so we opted to head back to the hotel for a bath and a rest and try again another day.

HFC Perk 4: the bath tub in the room is amazing. I’ve had three baths since we got here!! It’s a great deep soak tub

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Singapore Day 3 cont’d: Chinatown and Marina Bay

Posted on December 29, 2017 by Mel

Today we did our first ever cooking class at Food Playground in Singapore! I wrote more about it in a separate blog post, including lots of photos, which you can find here: https://travelseeshare.wordpress.com/2017/12/29/singapore-day-3-food-playground-cooking-class/

After finishing the class at 12:30pm, we decided we were full of good food (naturally – since we cooked it all) and energy, so headed off to explore Chinatown for a little while. I think we will go back again as some of the food looked amazing. It was very humid today, and the markets were very crowded, so after about 40 mins of wandering we opted to head back to the hotel. Let me tell you, the walk up the stairs from the MRT station was KILLER.

The afternoon was spent relaxing in the pool – which we pretty much had to ourselves – and napping.

Our evening adventure was a trip on the Singapore Flyer with champagne. I read quite a lot about the history of the Singapore Flyer before booking this as it seems that the Marina Bay Sands viewing deck has basically put it out of business given that they are notably cheaper. I figured as first time visitors, we would give both a go at night to see which one we preferred.

Singapore Flyer

After doing some research, I opted to buy us two “champagne flight” tickets at $79 each rather than standard entry for $36 each. In theory, this meant we chose a date and time, got priority boarding and also had a glass of champagne.

I did consider the dining option but it was very pricey and you share the capsule with others which felt a bit weird. All went well until it got closer and closer to our boarding time of 7pm. Something was obviously going wrong and I was getting grumpy….at about 7:15pm they took us through a different way to other VIPs and in front of a whole queue of people we boarded A COMPLETELY EMPTY CAPSULE! Maybe we were the only champagne people? Maybe they were planning to put us with a later group and my grumpiness scared them? Who knows, who cares….it was amazing!

After alighting from our marvellous, child and people free flyer experience (40min round trip) we walked across the river on the Helix Bridge – visible to the left of the below pic – to Marina Bay shops.

We then had dinner at the DC superhero cafe. This was full of memorabilia and totally themed to DC heroes!

I had a Batman burger box and an atlantean hero cocktail. B had a Green Lantern quesadilla and a Mr Freeze cocktail. While it’s not an experience I’ll ever repeat (the bill for that was a whopping $137!!) it was worth doing it once it for the novelty value. My wagyu burger was also pretty damn tasty.

We also had a beautiful view of the colourful fountain and light show while eating.

After resting and rejuvenating, we headed for the sky park to complete the Marina Bay Observation Deck (SkyPark) comparison. What a failure that was! We got down there at 9:20pm and the lines were obscene. The queue for tickets was winding into the queue to actually go up.

Nope. Nope. Nope. I literally went down the escalators and straight back up. Maybe we will try again next week but for now….Singapore Flyer is a winner!

HFC Perk 3: we have seen very few kids staying here and the ones we do see are very, very little. This means the pool is actually RELAXING and there is minimal screaming. Sorry friends with kids but I think it’s awesome and wish more hotels we stayed in were like this!

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