Staycation at RWS.....again.......

We were very blessed this year that the haze cleared up during the weekend and we had almost clear skies when we checked in at Hotel Michael on Monday. At least the PSI was in the moderate zone.

Berrylicious smoothie

Hard Rock Cafe - recommended!!

We arrived in Sentosa earlier than check in time so we went for lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. It was a lovely lunch and service was very good. Check out the garnish on my smoothie....I think it was Berrylicious or something to that effect.


It is the fourth time we staying at Resorts World Sentosa but the first time we are booked at Hotel Michael because it is cheaper than our usual Festive Hotel. The kids were a bit puzzled because they are so familiar with Festive that they thought we were lost when we made a left instead of right turn as we came up the escalator to the main lobby.




The room was smaller than the Festive Hotel. My mom was disappointed because when she was given a complimentary stay at Hotel Michael, the room was very big. We figured they gave her a suite rather than a deluxe room. It's funny how hotels make the word deluxe turn out so ordinary. The room was cosy enough except that the bathroom door didn't come with a lock so we had to ensure we coordinated bathroom times to avoid unnecessary embarrassment with our helper.

Oh where are the towels???

The first thing the boys did was to hit the pool. They love playing in a pool and since we don't have easy access to one, they made sure they took advantage of the pool at the hotel every time we have a staycation. They went to the pool for each of the 3 days we were at Sentosa. The only thing was the pool was smaller at the Hotel Michael and there were a couple of pain points. On Monday afternoon, the hotel seemed to have miraculously ran out of towels. The towels are normally placed on the racks unattended. This is convenient for the hotel guests if there are towels. Check out the empty racks.

One of the service staff who happened to walk past helped us to call the front desk to ask for towels. No towels were delivered after 10 minutes. I walked along the corridor and asked a housekeeper who was working if there were towels available. She said she did not have any and there were none in the rooms as well. 5 minutes later I called the front desk to ask for towels. This was followed by another frustrating call another 15 minutes later. During this time hubby managed to find another housekeeper who conjured up 1 towel for us. She had nothing left. The towels were delivered fresh from the laundry 5 minutes after the last call. I did receive an apology during my last call.

We did an analysis and find that there is a lot of improvement that could be made. The fact that the reception area at the pool/gym was unattended poses an issue because guests could just walk off with the towels into their rooms. There was basically no control over the number of towels being returned after use. We noticed that Hotel Michael provided white towels at the pool/gym unlike Festive Hotel which provided orange coloured ones. Guests would easily remember to return the towels because they are of a different colour from the ones in the room. The differentiation would probably make it easier for the distribution of towels after laundry. I wonder if the hotel has an exceptionally high number of inventory loss where towels are concerned.

The accused....the ledge

Another concern was that the lack of towels made the entrance to the pool area very wet. Guests were dripping water on the tiles as they were leaving the pool without towels. It was very slippery. The entrance to the pool area had a door frame which had a ledge on the floor. This made it very easy for highly excited kids, like mine, to trip as they rushed to the pool. This is very unsafe when you add the slippery floor into the equation.



Xavier with his blaster

Keane and his blaster

Anyway, safety issues aside, the kids had a blast of a time at the pool. No picture of Ryan because he didn't have his goggles on.

 

Since the kids don't really go on the rides at Universal Studio, we spent Tuesday afternoon at the aquarium. It was more crowded than it was in November last year. This time we took a slower walk and I was able to capture some creatures on camera.

Belly of mantra ray

Starfish

Here's some undersides for viewing....interesting how the star fish can grip to the side of the wall.

Here's looking at you babe.....

Looking right back at you

The only fish that I could capture easily were the big and slow ones........other than the jellyfish!!!!









Interesting forms of jellyfish......the lighting create some special effects too.








Japanese Sea Nettle

I don't remember the species....yes, was too lazy to write down except for one......but jellyfish are really fascinating in the dark.








Dolphin....?

Black tip reef shark

The one thing I was curious about was whether the dolphins and sharks can really feel comfortable living in confinement.








Nice yellow coloured fish.....again unsure of species, sorry!!!!

Moray eel going after a fish?

Checking own reflection

Some pictures taken by Xavier at the Moray Eel section.








The only other place we frequented (frequented means more than once) was the candy store.

Candylicious!!!

On the whole the trip was fun and we were really fortunate that the weather held in that part of the island for us. I am trying to find another hotel we can stay at next time.