In another blink of an eye, our little Emmanuel has turned one! What a milestone, not only for himself, but also for my wife, Lydia and I - we managed to survive one year with two children! Till today, we deeply respect parents who have multiple children, how do you even balance your time and effort between your children? But that's another story for another time.
When we were planning for his party, we were torn between two choices, should we do a party and invite our friends and family? Or should we do an intimate one? Thinking that Emmanuel would be all tired and angsty (like most babies on their parties), we decided to do the latter and started to look for staycaytion places to host the small party.
After filtering lots of hotels, we settled on Pan Pacific Serviced Suites Beach Road.
Located just minutes walk from Bugis and Nicoll Highway MRT, this hotel is literally at Singapore's city center. Essentially, you are just beside to major attractions like the Singapore Flyer and Marina Bay Sands, and several shopping centres that we frequent a heck lot - Marina Square, Suntec, Bugis, etc. It's even a stone throw where we used to stay.
For other lovely alternatives (and if you have more budget for a suite), check out these staycation we had at:
Our room: Premier Suite
For a good night stay, this suite definitely fits the bill. At 45sqm, it has separate living and bedroom spaces, and even feature a full kitchen, so you can do your light cooking over here. Of course, we cannot compare the recent suite we did with Emmanuel's 100th day at JW Mariott, which is a whopping 100sqm, considering the price difference. At $380 for a weekend stay, Pan Pacific Serviced Suites was great, cozy and definitely alright for hosting less than 10 pax.
While our helpers are decorating the room, we went for a lunch with the children at Bugis Junction before getting some groceries and necessities for the party. The guests arrived and we had the usual phototaking and birthday songs and cake-cutting.
What meant to be a beautiful cake by Wild Olive Branch (again) went down to the floor because of yours truly. I managed to fix it to the best of my ability, still it was delicious and something to remember. I mean, have you seen an actual fallen cake? I don't think so.
Here's the cake before the big fall.
"He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper"
- Psalm 1:3
We said farewell to most guests and had some dinner delivered to the hotel. It was a tiring day for all of us and ended the day. Or so we wished. Emmanuel kept fighting with the wall, while Olivia was kicking everywhere when she's half-asleep.
And somehow we managed to fall asleep.
After 3am.
We didn't opt for breakfast, so we had MacDonald's before hitting the swimming pool at level 21. The size was just right and had a little jacuzzi corner. The only downside was that it didn't have an area for children to wade around. Olivia and I had fun in the cool waters nevertheless.
Unlike most hotels who would provide additional coffee capsules, this hotel would charge you for $1.50 per capsule. Not comparing with JW Marriott, but they generously gave us like 20 capsules and 20 TWG teabags, when we just asked for a couple of them. Definitely enough to fix my caffeine needs for the next one week.
Endnotes
If you are holding a small party on a limited budget, go for Pan Pacific Serviced Suites Beach Road. Despite being the smaller size, you get what it's worth at it's price point. Service was good, and we had a lovely stay.