Staycation with Kids at The Canopi, Bintan Island

The attractive factor of The Canopi is definitely their crystal lagoon;

 an enchanting man-made beach with treated sea-water that is gorgeously turquoise clear.

 

Ever since I posted the first picture on my Instagram (aderearian), I received at least 4-5 texts on the same day asking where this place was. One even asked if this was Maldives!

Nobody guessed that we were only an hour ferry ride away from Singapore.

The Canopi offers a unique "Glamping" experience, which means "glamorous camping" or camping in luxury! We slept in huge spacious safari tents and at the same time, we get to enjoy the outdoor camping features. I described this as "camping cheating" , which is recommended for young kids though! You want the kids to experience a camping vacation but at same time you want to keep it safe, comfortable and enjoyable .

The poster bed and Victorian lamps bestowed the room a slight touch of luxury. The furnishing is interesting with wooden trunks as cabinets and attached with an open-concept rainforest bathroom. I can see their effort in bringing guests closer to nature as much as possible. The bed and pillows are really comfy and an extra day bed is provided in each room.

Rboy playing with his legos that we brought along .

 

This was actually a trip specially planned for Rboy and his friends for their yearly Xmas gifts exchange gathering. (We did not take BabyK with us but we'll make it up to him haha.) 

 

I was so looking forward to try most of the activities at their sports centre but were disappointed to be informed that most of the activities were fully booked or not available. All of their rides were under maintenance..zzz. What a great let-down! It was during the December holiday and probably since The Canopi is a newly opened resort, they are not really prepared for the sudden influx of visitors during the peak period. Only the AVT rides were suitable for the kids but the adults were not allowed to ride together with them. This was a new rule just made on the same day when we arrived.

 

The kids were jumping in joy once they saw the AVT and everyone cant wait to give it a try. However they were too young to handle the ride by themselves, so I was really upset that we were not allowed to ride on it together. Still, the kids were also happy enough to take turns on the AVT for that short 5 minutes "test drive" around the centre.

There is a distance from the sports centre and the reception area to our tent, so we made the right decision to rent an electric scooter on the second day to get around the resort. It was Rboy's first scooter ride experience and he LOVES the scooter so damn much that he didn't even mind riding under the sweltering heat.

So without the chance to book any activities on the first day, we decided to head straight to the beach! Very soon the kids got themselves very comfortable with the water and sand play.

The sand was not the white and powdery kind which I've expected, but no complains from the kids though. They were satisfied with whatever kind of play that were thrown to them.

 

The crystal lagoon was the main attraction of The Canopi and the kids love every single moment spent at the water. The heat from the sun was quite a killer but the kids were engrossed in their play so much to even bother about the sun.

We haven't got a chance to try this challenging floating platform because we thought it was too hot for the kids to go up on it. Another time then!

Our tents came with an outdoor Jacuzzi and it was also a hit among the kids! I was actually preparing a bubble bath for myself but the rising bubble foam captured the kids' attention and they began their own bubble fight with one another! Lots of play, screams and laughter makes a very memorable trip for the kids!

 

 

 

During one of the nights, we arranged for a BBQ dinner right under the beautiful night sky littered with stars. The ambience was perfect for a night of buddies-chilling session, and that was what the daddies did, right after they completed the task of serving the wives and kiddos with the bbq food.

 

Another highlights of this trip for Rboy was our fireflies mangrove tour. While strapping on our life jackets ,I had second thoughts on whether to let Rboy get on the dubious tattered-looking boat. I was afraid that the darkness would scare him and began to imagine the worse fear that may happen, eg. the boat capsized into the mangrove swamp infested with crocodiles!

 

It was a mixture of excitation and confusion for my 3 years old. He did not understand and did not know what to expect from the mangrove tour, but he was very impatient and can't wait to get on to the boat immediately.

 

In the end, I was glad I was steadfast in my decision. Rboy showed no signs of anxiety even when we entered the dark mangrove. He was only very curious and kept asking repeatedly where the boat was heading. Very soon then, he was mesmerised by the surprised fireflies that floated out from the bushes and trees along the swamp. I was really touched to see that smile of awe in his face when he tried to hold the glowing fireflies in his palm. Overall it was an unforgettable new experience for us.

 The only blurry photo I got from our mangrove tour

 

Some "not-so-goods" of The Canopi

 

- No telephones are provided in the room therefore each time we need to make any room service request or enquires, we've to walk all the way to the reception area to do so. All bookings of the land and water activities have to be made personally at the sport centre too, which is NOT walking distance from the tents if you've kids. We need to walk to the reception area first and wait (at least 10 minutes) for the buggy to arrive and bring us there. This is rather time consuming just to make a booking.  

 

- Anywhere outside the tent is non-air-conditioned, even the lobby or the café which is really hot and stuffy during the day. You probably have to wait patiently and bear the uncomfortable heat at the non-airconditioned/no-fan lobby if you arrived there earlier than your check-in timing.

 

- The carpet is really rough and prickly , but no bedroom slippers are provided.

 

- No hot water in our shower and our Jacuzzis.

 

- There's only one café inside the resort which is infested with flies that terrorised Rboy (My spoilt boy is not used to sharing his food with flies). Food is mediocre and price is almost the same as Singapore's restaurants. (Average $15 for a pasta). Breakfast is included in our stay but you definitely wont miss out anything even if you skipped it. We tried the breakfast on the first day and was determined to forgo it on the second day.

 

- The Canopi advertised strongly on their broad variety of land and water activities but most were unavailable when we reached there. (Most of the rides were under maintenance...during peak period???..wth..)

 

- Lots of mozzies at night (because it's so close to "nature") , so bring lots of repellent!

 

The Canopi resort is truly an innovative resort great for some adventure fun with kids, especially if you're looking for a short and affordable getaway near Singapore. Nevertheless, it still has so much room for improvements which I hope for them to polish up before I decide to make my way back again.

 

Staycation with Kids At Hard Rock Hotel , Sentosa

Hard Rock is a fashionable hotel ideally situated very close to the top attractions in Sentosa Island. Their dark chic lobby is designed to fit the fashionable rock and roll theme.

 

Our lovely happy little sunshine boys ready to ROCK HERE!

 

The room looks young and spacious with cool and trendy interior. The bed is of a good decent size and as usual, Reagan automatically climbed up and snuggled himself under the covers.

Doing our happy dance again!

 

Hubs was prepared to give a really good thumbs up for this hotel until we realised that WIFI is chargeable and at a rip off price! $35 for 24 hours and only for one user. So if hubs and I want to tap on the WIFI, we got to pay $70 additional per day. Hotels that don't provides complimentary WIFI to their guests disgust us totally..yucks.

We got ourselves busy the whole night waving our mobile phones violently in the air and pinning ourselves against the window like Spiderman, in attempt to tap on some free WIFI around here. Sorry, it's not logical for us to pay extra for WIFI in Singapore...

 

On a lighter note, the breakfast buffet hotel is really reasonable priced and my boys get to eat free!

 

On the day before, we've just experienced the awesome brunch buffet at Shangri-La, so this was of course no match to it. Still, the breakfast choice of Hard Rock is pretty decent and really good enough considering the reasonable price that it's tagged with.

 

 If we to stay at Sentosa again and are lazy to go out far for meals early in the morning, we would definitely come back here again for the quick and decent breakfast.

 

"Anyone wants to play with the water and sand again...KI CHIEW (raise hands) haha!"

Needless to say, the highlights of our stay at Hard Rock is definitely the man-made beach again!

 

Since the last time that the boys visited here, they've been wanting to come back here again.

Cool breezy weather +Kids can play by themselves + Parents can chill and relax........life is good.

 

Staycation with Kids At Shangri-La's Rasa Hotel , Sentosa

Shangri-La 's Rasa is always a timeless classic, despite the fact that the exterior design of the one at Sentosa is lacking of the exquisite and luxurious touch to it. It looks more like a dated beach resort than a magnificent 5-stars hotel. But still, it gives you the feel of a tropical island far from the hustle and bustle of the city.

(Above photo taken before the pigeon-war began)

Anyway the first half hour upon arrival , I had a little tussle with the boys at the lobby. While hubs was busy with the hotel check-in, BabyK was busy in the game of chase with the pigeons at the lobby. At the same time, his older brother the drama-rama Rboy was screaming his lungs out for me to protect him from those harmless and surprised pigeons. With one kid running to attack the pigeons, and the other running away to escape from the pigeons, it was quite an amusing scene at the lobby.

We arrived at least an hour earlier than the stated check-in time but was thankful to be given a room immediately. The kiddos cant wait to conquer their new territory! As usual, the first thing that the boy did once they enter the room , they kicked their shoes off and attacked the beds first!

  I read from some reviews that some of the guests received complementary biscuits and fruits, but not for us though. But at least the first round of their mini bar is complementary (only beverages).

The kids-friendly pool's facilities is one of our reason to choose this hotel. Pools with slides and water play made BabyK squealed in glee! Lifejackets are also provided for the kids and lifeguards are stationed at almost every corner of the pool.

 

The pool area is neat, large and spacious. Rboy still needs to work on his water confidence, but BabyK is certainly a water baby! He scrambled to every water spot in sight. Overall, the boys had a blast! Right in front of the pool is the hotel's private beach, but after the kids were done with the pool, they (or in fact WE) were too exhausted to explore the beach.

Rboy helping his little brother to get out of the pool.

The second reason why we looked forward to our Shangrila Rasa hotel stay is their awesome breakfast buffet! The staff used a puppet in their hand to guide the kids to their table and that somehow made the boys very delighted. The spread is incredible and I'm impressed by the kids buffet corner they set up for the little ones to help themselves with the food. It was indeed a really nice touch for families with kids.

Other interesting selections are...egg benedicts, noodles soup, dim sum, Indian cuisine , Japanese sushi's, freshly baked confectionery and many more. Their variety is unbeatable, considering it's just the first meal of the day.

BabyK toppled a cup of juice all over his pants and so I had to let him go pantless throughout our breakfast time. Obviously I can see that it was not really an issue to him.

After breakfast, we still had some time to spare before the check-out time. And that was when we made a pleasant discovery! There is a Kids' Club just below our hotel that comes with a free indoor playground! Yes, FREE indoor playground right below us and we didn't realize till that morning. My boys are big fans of indoor playgrounds and they worship me each time I take them there. Usually I've to spend close to a disgusting $50 for both kids plainly on the entrance fee. So now it gave me a good reason to be as thrilled as the kiddos!

There's an art room for the kids to get involved in some colouring and craft work...for FREE too. And if the kids are older, they get to conquer the awesome treehouse slide inside.

There is another toddler playroom but sadly it was closed for maintenance. The mini carousel captured the boys' attention and here they were pleading to get into the play room. Look at Rboy's disappointed face when I explained the meaning of "closed for maintenance".

I took them back to the indoor playground again and because we went on a  non-peak period weekday, the boys were the only kids here. The entire playground just for them....for FREE! Oh how I love the word "FREE"... beautiful music to my ears.

So what we love about Shangrila Rasa Sentosa

(experience based on our one night stay)

1) The pool with kids' friendly facilities

2) Awesome buffet breakfast spread

3) Free indoor playground and activities at Kids' Club

4) Early hotel check-in (take note: it was on a non-peak weekday that we went)

5) First round of mini bar is complementary
6) Free Wifi

The minus side

1) Some of the rooms have sea-views but not ours. Not sure if that was an option given when they allocated our rooms.

2) The hotel is aging and do need a face-lift. They need to do something to deserve the 5 stars rating.

Lastly, there's nothing better than ending our staycation at Shangrila Rasa hotel with contented and worn-out kids :P

Travelling with kids to Hongkong 2015 - Disneyland + Lantau Island

Our last experience at Hongkong Disneyland was proven unforgettable for Rboy. He has been  reminding us to bring him back ever since our last Disneyland trip earlier this year. Therefore, we decided to make it happen again this holiday! This time we made it more challenging by bringing his younger brother BabyK along, and even feel more adventurous to book an extra stay in central HongKong.

 

 Many have asked if the stay at Disneyland Hotel was necessary, since it is much more costly compared to other nearby hotels outside the Disneyland. If you have the intention to visit Disneyland and is towing along a drama-rama 3years old toddler and a clingy boobs-sucking 18months old baby, let me emphasize again that's a hell damn YES! Staying at the hotels inside Disneyland is going to worth your every penny.

Benefits of Staying at Hotels inside Disneyland

 (solely based on our experience with our 2 kids)

Firstly, the hotels at Disneyland are just a 5 minutes free shuttle bus ride away from the theme park, so it's so much convenient to travel to and fro. It is very important for us especially when the boys are screaming their head off for their royal nap or when weewee-poopoo accidents happened, or even to retrieve any kids-related stuffs that we left in our hotel. Once you enter parenthood, no matter how already well-prepared you thought you were ... somehow kids never fail to surprise you unexpectedly. Overall, we just need that sense of security to have our accommodation/luggage so near to the theme park where we are going to spend our next two days there.

Most of the visitors usually stayed till night to catch the spectacular night parade and fireworks, and you should never let the kids missed that. That's because I can't describe how much my boys have enjoyed them so much! Till now, they have been replaying the recorded parade and fireworks videos repeatedly on my IPhone, and asking when they are going back there again. 

 After spending an entire exhausting day at Disneyland with two shagged-out kids , you wish for the ability of teleportation, to get you back to your hotel room instantly. We witnessed the huge mob of people heading towards the mrt train and some stranded around to look for alternative transport back. As for us, we walked casually(and stress-free) towards our almost empty free shuttle bus and headed back to our hotel in less than 15 minutes! Once again, hubs and I gave each other another round of standing ovation and praised each other again for making one of the best decisions for this trip ; to book the hotel inside Disneyland.

Secondly, if you are looking forward to have your pictures taken with the Disney characters at Disneyland theme park, then opting for the hotel's breakfast buffet is highly recommended. Mickey mouse and his friends will go around to greet the hotel guests and have photo-taking session at every table. In this way, you can then skip the crazy long photo-taking queues inside the Disneyland park since you already had the chance to interact and take photos exclusively with Mickey during breakfast. I watched how my boys' faces lit up when Mickey Mouse surprised them with his appearance during breakfast. Last but not least, the buffet offers a marvellous spread of variety with a touch of Disney theme; Mickey waffles and cartoon dim sums! Way to score with the kiddos!

 The Cons

As expected, everything in Disneyland cost an arm and a leg. They certainly go all the way out to wring you dry. We paid around $10 for a bottle of mineral water ...so you can roughly do your math on how much we spent on all our meals there.

List of rides for young toddlers

Rboy is 3.5 years old and requires a child ticket to enter Disneyland. But no ticket is needed for 18 months old babyK! Free entrance fee! And we did try to make good use of that by exploring most of the rides which are suitable for them. Below is a good list of what we've tried with our baby and toddler, and it's more than what we expected. (Recently we brought our 18months old to Singapore Universal Studio and couldn't find any fun suitable rides for him to join us. So Disneyland is absolutely more younger kids-toddlers friendly.)

- Cinderella Carousel

- Mad Hatter Spinning Teacup

-Winnie The Pooh ride (My kids' voted fav)

- Its a Small World boat ride (My kids' voted fav)

- Fantasyland Train Station

-Buzz LightYear laser shooting ride

- Stitch Encounter

-Slinky Dog Spin

-Jungle boat ride

Shows that Kids MUST watch!

- The Lion King Show (At Adventureland)

- Paint The Night LED Parade

- Fireworks at the Disneyland castle

 On the last two days, we took a cab to our next hotel of choice, Langham Place Hotel at Mongkok. A classy hotel inside a shopping mall, and walking distance to the Ladies market and MTR station. We got a free upgrade (Credits go to BabyK. The hotel receptionist was charmed by him.) to another room at a higher floor with a good view of the city.

 The next highlight of our trip is

Ngong Ping 360 at Lantau Island

 Tip 1: If you make an online booking for the cable car tickets through their website before arrival, you get to skip the queue at the ticket counter and can straight head towards the cable car. This will save you at least 30-45 minutes of the queuing time.

Tip 2: If you do not have acrophobia (fear of heights), then do choose the new Crystal Cabin that comes with a transparent glass bottom. The kids will be wowed by the magnificent bird's eye view below, and feeling as though they were soaring through the sky is definitely a fast and cheap thrill for them!

Ngong Ping 360 is a cultural themed village located on a high plateau of Lantau Island. There are quite a few interesting attractions and photo taking spots catered for tourists like us. The cool weather was fantastic, and the boys were as happy as the awesome sunshine that day. Kids in good mood = Parents in even more excellent mood.

 

 These two charmers did capture lots of attention and even lured some tourists over to have a picture with them.

 Riding on the boys' excitement, hubs suggested climbing up to the Big Buddha to enjoy better view from above. I was quite hesitant with the idea of lugging two kids up 268 steps with all our "barang barang". Finally I was convinced by the hubs, and that's because he volunteered to carry both the kids up and down that intimidating 268 steps of stairs.

I'm glad that we made it to the top...with the two kids!!! The joy on their faces says it all. 

 Our experience getting our way around central Hongkong with the kids was not exactly a pleasant one. In fact , I would never categorise Hong Kong as a kids-friendly country to travel with young kids (besides Disneyland). The streets are narrow and cramp ,overwhelmed with crowd and noise pollutions. It's totally not stroller-friendly especially where there's no lift or escalator in most of their MTR stations. Quite a few restaurants, dessert shops or Chinese cafes don't provide baby chairs or kids' utensils. The friendlier Hongkies we encountered are mainly the staffs from our hotel. Other than that, the locals seem to walk around carrying stress and attitude on their face. Customer service doesn't seem to exist in Hong Kong and we were once reprimanded by the waitress for our inability to comprehend Cantonese (rolled eyes~).

To sum up, the memories collected from this short 4 days 3 nights trip in Hongkong were pretty wonderful and precious enough. The boys had a great amount of exposure and experience, and most importantly, an amazing bonding time with us.