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

Staycation with Kids at Festive Hotel, Sentosa

As we drove into Sentosa, the boys began their "Happy Song" in the car. "We're going to Sentosa Sentosa Sentosa, how about you you you, wont you come too too too..."
We had planned a last minute staycation at Sentosa and the first hotel on our list is Festive Hotel. At the lobby, the kids were attracted by a nearby Lego shop , which is good to keep them entertained while hubs arranged for the hotel check-in.

I've heard that the hotel provide some goody bags for the kids, but sadly we did not receive any. Neither did we go back to the counter to ask for it as all of us were already looking forward to see our deluxe family king room.

The hallway was pretty dark and lacked the factor of elegance. but we were glad that the room was at least bright and cheery, but not as spacious as it was shown on the websites. The TV was not working, so we called up and asked for assistance. AT least one full hour of our time is used up waiting for the technician to check and the staff to arrange a change of room for us.  Since it is a 5 stars-rated hotel, we certainly arrived with a higher expectation and expected at least a smooth and fuss-free check-in on our first day. The bathroom was kept to the minimal and sadly came without a bathtub. Considering it to be a Family King room....it's supposed to be friendly with family that come with KIDS. And kids go very well with BATHTUBS. Now we felt relieved that we booked the room at a large discounted rate instead of the original full price which we did consider before the promotion.

Still, the children loft bed was a hit with my boys. Rboy immediately announced that this bed belonged to him and wanted to sleep there that night. And as usual, BabyK just can't stop clinging onto the stairs like a koala. The bedsheet of the loft bed was a little damp, probably because the air-con was blowing directly on to it. There's just this dark and musky feel to that corner where the loft bed was, so I was not really comfortable with them sleeping there over the night. Well, I think it's just me, the illogical 6th sense of a mother. 

After settling our our luggage down, we prepared the boys and made our first visit ; the sea aquarium. It was BabyK's first visit and he was truly mesmerized by all the sea action .He tapped on the glass and called out "Nemo Nemo" at every fish and followed them around. It was the time of Halloween too, and the boys were also entertained by the scuba divers in skeleton costume. 

 When night falls, there was nothing much to explore at Sentosa with kids. So we goggled for night activity in Sentosa and came across Wings of Time, a multi-sensory water display with laser and fire effects. If you have kids who are also obsessed with laser lights, 3D and fireworks, this is definitely one stop to make at Sentosa. The short fireworks display at the end of the show was simply spectacular. 

(photo borrowed from website)

Early the next morning, the sunshine boys were all dressed up and in excellent mood!

Festive hotel doesn't offer breakfast buffet, so we had ours at the nearby Hard Rock Hotel instead.

Then our next highlight of this staycation is...

the man-made beach at HardRock Hotel ... my boys' favourite  tropical water playground.

What I love about man-made beach is because...it's a MAN-MADE BEACH! What's not to love? If you compare to the beaches in Singapore, then this man-made beach totally wins hand-down especially we are talking about young kids here. The sand here is much finer and softer, no oil slicks and mud, the air here don't smell like urine, no pestering mozzies , no sharp stones and rocks in the sand, the water is not disgusting salty...and best of all..no crashing waves. I don't have to worry about the waves dragging my baby and toddler into the sea. Furthermore, my boys had fun with the "cleaner" sandplay and they were confident to step into the water by themselves. At the same time, hubs and I had an easy time keeping an eye on them while enjoying our sunbathing and cocktail at a good distance.

It is such a wonderful feeling to watch your kids playing nicely with each other independently. They communicated, they played, they shared .... before they fought for the same bucket later on.

That's pretty much the end of our one night staycation, short but fulfilling. So here we go, packed all our memories into our baggage with us before we bid farewell to Festive Hotel and Sentosa.