Apparently we can't travel overseas until God knows when, so Singaporeans are turning to staycations more often than ever either to take a break or to utilize their Singapore ReDiscover vouchers. So when CNY comes, we thought why not take another short break during the long weekend, this time at the iconic Marina Bay Sands.
Lunch buffet at Rise
The check-in was pretty smooth and took slightly more than 20 minutes, afterwhich we went to Rise for a nice international buffet, where we got to enjoy free flow oysters, sashimi, abalone, and king crabs.
It was the CNY period, so they even had a God of Fortune mascot walking around greeting everyone. Olivia was so excited that she kept doing the "gong xi" hand gestures to him.
The Room
We got the Deluxe Room with a garden view, which is pretty superb as we get to see the majestic super trees with a backdrop of the vast Singapore straits (the other side is facing the Singapore river and floating stadium).
The toilet is huge and spacious, which could easily hold 10 persons (for any needs).
Shortly after lunch, we went for a quick nap. Thank God for the blackout curtains.
It was a great nap before heading to their signature Infinity Pool (apparently it's the world's largest), whereby you literally swim on the edge at level 57. Since it was the COVID period, all bookings had to made in advanced and all guests can stay for a maximum of one hour. We were there for about 20 minutes before it started to drizzle. Oh great. The last time we were at Andaz we missed our swimming slot because it rained.
One of the touristy things to do at MBS is to have a sampan ride through the mall, and if you're lucky, you get to witness the huge indoor waterfall when you're circling it (I think they shut the waterfall temporarily during this period). However the queue might be around an hour. My verdict? Nothing special, skip if the queue is too long.
MBS is a popular place for both tourists and locals alike, so when it comes to dinner time, unless you have a booking, it is super difficult to find a table during the holiday season. It was getting late, so we dabao (takeaway) some noodles and dumplings to our hotel room, had our humble dinner with some random movies on.
The night view was really pretty as well.
Good night
The thing with staycations with Olivia was that we have not had any good experience during her sleep time, so we really prayed to God that she can really sleep well. BUT. That wasn't the case. Woke up once at 3am and took an hour's time to go back to sleep, and then woke up another two times after that. To make matters worse, the bedsheets made our skin itched real bad. Not sure if they changed sheets, so that's a minus for them.
Breakfast
We didn't opt for the breakfast at MBS, but since it was Valentine's Day that day, we had a nice breakfast at TWG before heading back home (to get some real sleep). Even Olivia approves the muffins.
Endnotes
MBS is our third staycation during the COVID period, the first (and the best) being Equarius where we celebrate Lady M's birthday, and then Andaz where we celebrated the little one's. MBS's unfortunately was a little disappointing with the bedsheets and huge crowds. We have still yet to utilise our Singapore ReDiscover vouchers, so we are probably looking for another staycay in the near future. Not sure if we are going to bring Olivia along though. Just kidding, I love you Oli.