CH229: S(taycation) G(rande)

Over the last weekend, I had a friend visiting from Bangkok. It was a short visit - Friday to Sunday. I had to create an itinerary mostly to highlight the things that will be most enjoyable for the short stay. I ended up organizing a sort of staycation for myself in the process.

As a surprise, what was meant to be a night just to spend in my flat, I decided I might as well book a hotel in the Marina Bay Reservoir area to centralize all the travel and be able to make the most out of the time (reduce commute times to the spots I wanted my friend to see). So, after going about prices and locations and facilities, I decided to book a night in Marina Mandarin (supposedly the hotel with one of the largest atrium - not sure if it's just South East Asia or the world). Check-in and check-out was very quick and efficient. The breakfast area was a bit small though, although the choices were varied, the space where the spread was served looked albeit small because you will observe how many people seemed to be concentrated in the area.

During the hotel booking as well through my ANZ Visa (hotelclubs), I got the deal for a room upgrade and free breakfast for two. I'm not sure if we were upgraded but the room was really spacious and we had the corner room. But considering how the hotel was shaped, I don't know if our room was better than what normally would have been peddled under usual Deluxe or Superior.

The view from the balcony

I always try and tell the check-in when I stay in a hotel that there's some sort of special occasion just to see what sort of complimentary food they'd give haha. the cake was delicious!

Drinks at Axis bar in Mandarin Oriental. I had Pimm's No 1 in celebration of Wimbledon

 More pictures and then Marina Bay Sands Infinity Pool shots

Walked around the bay (Esplanade)

Financial District

Merlion

Breakfast Area

Not fully awake

atrium

Pool Area

We checked in to Marina Bay Sands after. The price of the room we got was about twice as expensive than Marina Mandarin. But then I was telling my friend, that when you book a hotel in MBS, it's not that it's just a hotel room, it's the destination. We were discussing about how my mom would say that typically they dont want to spend too much on hotels because you only sleep in the rooms and do nothing else. But for the case of MBS, it's not just a hotel to sleep in, it's a hotel you spend time in so the price was in both of our opinion well worth it.

The room I got was the Deluxe City View. It's maybe less than 50sgd (I can't remember) than the room that faces the Gardens By the Bay. I wouldn't say that the room felt very luxurious as I feel that the room I stayed in Bangkok (Grand Millenium Hotel) felt more luxurious - with bath tub and the works in the bathroom, but the room was quite big - and it felt very roomy. The bathroom we were in was decked up pretty minimally but I thought it was okay. I would have preferred if they put up a rainfall shower type (I forgot to take pictures of the bathrooms - so I'm just quacking here).

Since my family -parents and brother's family- are coming by Singapore in September, I've committed myself to saying to them that I will book two rooms when they visit. Hopefully, since it will be the week after F1, the prices won't be as steep. I figure that the price we had to pay for the rooms was a bit jacked up partially because of the National Day Parade rehearsals scheduled in the weekend. Looking forward to staying in MBS again in September!

View from MBS room

The pool area we lounged in was for adults only so you won't see any children here at all as the lifeguards were quite strict about it. So, there was some peace and quiet at this side of the infinity pool.

the pontoon where the fireworks were to be launched from

paragliders from the national day parade rehearsals

pensive

the cake from MBS. at first when i mentioned something they sent me in my email the price list for cakes. I mentioned Marina Mandarin was going to give something complimentary and they backtracked and said they'll see if they can give something complimentar

I like CBTL americanos more because I find them more flavorful than Starbucks'