TR: Cup Weekend in Singapore

[zanzibar138]

I'm going to start with a little background info, in case it helps anyone else find good deals like we did

DH spends a lot of time on a frequent flyer forum, and has been learning about some tips, loopholes etc for good deals. He decided to try one of the tips, and found a great value package to Singapore ($1200 for both of us, return economy flights from Melbourne with Qantas, plus 3 nights at what turned out to be a lovely hotel). We decided to go for it, and before we knew it, we were trying to translate our booking confirmation (which came to us in Portugese ). I relaxed when the bookings appeared on our Qantas bookings. For a laugh, we thought we'd request an upgrade to business class for 40,000 points each per flight (so 160,000 for the whole lot ).

In the meantime, two things happened. The first was that AAdvantage (American Airlines frequent flyer program) sent us an offer. The offer was for a reduced number of points required to get to platinum level (which would give us all the benefits of being gold level with Qantas) for $200 each. DH worked out that we could make that work, and we signed up.

The second thing that happened was that DH found another tip to try for a great deal on premium economy airfares. We found a return trip with Qantas for $1200 each - the catch was that it was return *from* Singapore. That wasn't so much of a problem for us as we will be returning to the area early next year, so we can just use the return part of the journey then.

So we ditched the return part of our original Expedia flights, and booked the premium economy ones via Auckland (as DH had worked out that if we did a side trip to Auckland 'on the way' home, we would qualify for the AAdvantage offer). Are you still with me?

Now, with all this going on, we had kind of forgotten about our upgrade request (and we never thought it would happen anyway on $600 flights including 3 nights accommodation...). The day before our flight, we got a text from Qantas confirming that our upgrade had been processed! OMG we're going business class!!! We made sure that we quickly cancelled the upgrade request for the return leg of the journey!

So to summarise, this is what our flights looked like at the end of the day (I can't figure out how to strikethrough, so I've italicized the cancelled flights instead)...

Melbourne - Singapore (economy business)
Singapore - Melbourne (economy)
Singapore - Sydney (premium economy)
Sydney - Auckland (economy)
Auckland - Melbourne (economy)

Plus we've got these leftover flights for our next trip...

Melbourne - Brisbane (economy)
Brisbane - Singapore (premium economy)

Righto. Now that I've thoroughly confused everyone, on with the TR!

 

[Kangarucci]

Well done!
I haven't been game enough to try out the website.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Congrats on working with the system and getting on with business.

 

[zanzibar138]

We were up bright and early to get to our business class flight to Singapore Eventually we made it to the airport, parked, and got through check-in, security and immigration (with the help of some express lines). We had time for a hearty brekky of bacon and scrambled eggs at the lounge, finished off with some chocolate muffins and coffee. We made use of the free wifi in the lounge, and before we knew it, our flight was being announced and we made our way to the gate.

We walked straight past the line for boarding, and boarded straight away via the business class entry. We were in the middle seats in row 2. Check out the leg room!



Not just recline and upright for these seats...



We were offered a glass of champagne or orange juice, and settled in for the journey. Soon we were taking off. I was a bit nervous about how my ears would feel (I got grommets put in a couple of weeks prior in an effort to reduce the pain I get while flying). I was thrilled to not feel a single thing in my ears - not even a change in pressure or popping!

Once we were in the air, I found some appropriate viewing and made myself comfortable.





The meal was a little fancy for my taste, but I enjoyed the fact that it was served each course at a time, with proper silverware and glasses, a cloth serviette, and even a little tablecloth!



We took a slight detour to fly over Uluru, and the pilot made an announcement so that people knew when to look out for it. Unfortunately, as we were in the middle of the plane with no windows, we did not get to see it.

Although it was a day time flight, the lights were dimmed, and people slept. I had a little rest, but no real sleep. It was so comfy being able to lounge right back though, with my feet up. That's the killer for me on long flights - I always want to put my feet up. I found some more entertainment and passed the time viewing that with the provided comfy noise-cancelling headphones. Apart from Planes, I watched The Internship (which I had already seen and really enjoyed), and a few episodes of Big Bang Theory.

It was kind of a strange landing for me. Usually I am the first to know when we start the landing process, because I can feel the pressure build up in my ears very early on. This time I had no idea, and didn't even know until the pilot made an announcement!

Unfortunately as part of the announcement, he advised us that due to bad weather in Singapore, we would be circling for a while. I didn't realise exactly how long we would be circling for, and decided to not watch another episode of Big Bang Theory, but to put the flight path map on. It was quite amusing seeing all the squiggles by the end! And I would have had plenty of time to watch at least one more episode!

At this stage I was VERY pleased that I had the grommets, because usually I would have been in complete agony with all that circling at that altitude. Even as it was, towards the end, I could feel the pressure building up in my sinuses, and DH said that he was experiencing a little discomfort in his ears. This time, I was able to enjoy a glass of champagne, lounge back, and catch a bit of view every time we banked (although it was the same view each time)

We eventually did land of course, and it was a great landing too - very smooth after all that. Since we were the first out of the plane, we made it to immigration before the crowds and got through quite quickly (about 10 minutes). And our suitcases were just passing by as we got to the baggage carousel! I've never gotten through an international arrival so quickly before!

Now, me being an uber-planner, and DH being a 'go with the flow' kinda guy, I thought I would not over-plan this trip. We didn't have any cash, so DH got some cash out at a convenient ATM. I hadn't made plans for the trip to the hotel, so we stopped at the information counter to get a city map, and an MRT map, and decided it looked easy enough to get the train. Unfortunately the train leaves from Terminal 2 (we landed at Terminal 1), so we had to make our way over there first. The ticket machines were really easy to use (you just pick from the map which station you're getting off at) and it was so cheap!

It turned out that our hotel was on the same line as the airport (east-west line), but the convention centre and airport were on kind of a shuttle line (kind of like the HKDL train for those who have been there), so we still had to change trains once. The other train was already there just on the other side of the platform though, so no big deal. I guess it was about half an hour, maybe a bit more, to get to our station. We got off at Outram Park, and it looked like our hotel was about a 1km walk.

As soon as we got out of the train station, the humidity hit us It was getting towards peak hour too, so the footpaths around the station and bus stops were quite crowded. We were both still wearing jeans, and lugging our suitcases along, dodging people... well, we were getting quite uncomfortable. It turned out it was a fairly straight-forward 10 minute walk to the hotel.

Our hotel, the Nostalgia, was a small hotel, very unassuming from the street. As we walked through the door, the guy there saw how hot and bothered we were, immediately took our bags, sat us down, got us a couple of bottles of cold water, and checked us in while we just sat there recovering. After a few minutes he was all done, told us we had been given a free upgrade (I like this trip so far ), and took us and our bags up to our room on the top floor (of 4). He gave us a little tour of the room and left us to it.

When reading the reviews of this hotel before choosing it, a recurring theme was the tiny room size. We thought it wouldn't be that much of a problem for only a few nights, when we were planning to be out most of the time anyway. Still, we thought we'd pay the extra for a deluxe, rather than superior room, to give us a little bit more room. We ended up with an exclusive room (the only better one than that being a balcony room), so we did pretty well. It was definitely still on the small side, but we could have coped with smaller. We had a view from our room though (we noticed the ones below us looked out to the roof of the next building) through the wooden shutter things, and the bathroom was very nicely fitted out. There was a hand-held shower, which was very handy for a quick rinse without having to worry about getting water in my ears (because of the grommets).







To be continued...

 

[zanzibar138]

We didn't have much time for hanging around, because I'd booked a champagne flight on the Singapore Flyer for 7pm, and the conditions said we had to be there half an hour prior. We quickly showered and got changed, and headed back out again.

Outram Station was a junction, and it worked out better to catch the other line to get to the Singapore Flyer. We still had to transfer once, but it seemed like the most straight-forward way, and transferring wasn't hard. It was a 5 minute walk at the other end. We didn't really know where we were going, but figured if we kept heading in the direction of the giant wheel we'd be good

By this stage we were running a few minutes late, so we headed straight to the check-in area (once we figured out where it was!). We were told to wait there, but I asked if we could go out and take photos while we were waiting and was given permission to go for 5 minutes.

There was a cute garden around the bottom of the flyer, with a pond and grotto type area. We didn't have enough time to check it all out, but managed to get a few photos.







We waited back in the 'lounge' for about 5 minutes before someone came to get us and took us up to a bar type area to wait the rest of the time. I really think they made it more complicated than it had to be! I was hoping they would offer us a drink while we were waiting, but no such luck I was hoping that it would just be us in the pod, and was checking out the other people waiting around, wondering what they were there for.

After a while, the lady came to get us again, and led us through the back way to the loading area. I was thrilled to see that no one else came with us! She seemed to be in a hurry, so I didn't stop to take photos of the cool lighting or displays in the corridor. We ended up waiting for about another 10 minutes for our pod to come around. As we had the VIP champagne pod, we had to wait for that specific one. While we were waiting, a few groups went through the regular line. They all had to share pods with the others in line.

Eventually our pod arrived.



We were shown in, given our glasses of champagne and chocolates (like a Lindt ball), and left to it. I couldn't believe how lucky we were to get a pod all to ourselves - it costs around $600 to book a private pod! Before we got too high, we posed for some photos with our champagne.







Despite the cloud cover, it was actually a lovely clear night, and we got a great view! I found that the side was much better for taking photos, because the curved part of the pod was covered in raindrops.

I had great fun playing tour guide with DH, and pointing out the domes in the Gardens by the Bay



Marina Bay Sands



And the lotus pod shaped museum.



Got some general photos of the city, bay, river, and of course structure of the flyer itself too.







We thought it was a tease having this massive bottle of champagne on display in the pod, and only giving us one glass each We definitely needed two!



We both really enjoyed it, and thought it was definitely worth splurging on the champagne flight. But we also both agreed that it wouldn't have been the same if we'd had to share our pod, so we were extremely lucky!

Next, we wandered around the area looking for something to eat. I found a good view of the Marina Bay Sands.





We ended up finding a kind of fake street vendor market. It was obviously for tourists, but by that stage we were getting tired and hungry and just wanted to eat. We found a place that did a nice looking chicken and rice.





Even being touristy food, it was really good, and pretty reasonably priced. We sat in the outside area with drinks enjoying the pleasant temperature and local atmosphere. A whole group of teenagers on rollerblades in halloween costumes gathered at a table near us, and that kept us amused for a while, trying to figure out who they were supposed to be etc.

When we finished dinner, we made our way back to the hotel and called it a night.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Busy day. How fantastic to have the extra reclining space on the flight and all that space in the Champagne flyer.

I am now hungry and could do with a serve of that Hainanese Chicken rice. It looks great. Out of curiosity, do you remember how much it cost?

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[zanzibar138]

Busy day. How fantastic to have the extra reclining space on the flight and all that space in the Champagne flyer.

I am now hungry and could do with a serve of that Hainanese Chicken rice. It looks great. Out of curiosity, do you remember how much it cost?

I believe it was about $4, which was a complete rip-off compared to the last meal of our trip which was $2.50 for about the same thing

 

[zanzibar138]

Following along!

Welcome!

 

[zanzibar138]

Sorry, I missed some comments...

Well done!
I haven't been game enough to try out the website.

You mean Expedia Brazil? Give it a go, it's completely legit Only trouble is, if there are any problems, you have to deal with it in Portugese

Congrats on working with the system and getting on with business.

I'd love to take credit, but this was all DH's doing. We're a great team - he does the flights. I do... everything else

 

[zanzibar138]

I had organised for us to go to Universal Studios today. We were being picked up from our hotel at about 8:30am. Looking back, I wouldn’t have bothered to get a transfer, as it was so easy to get around in Singapore. But, it didn’t cost us any extra, and since I booked through Qantas activities I got points for it too, so all was not lost.

The driver was early, and we got a call to our room at about 8:15am. We hurried to finish getting ready and made our way down. We were taken to a central meeting place in Chinatown, after stopping at another hotel for more people. When we got off the little transfer bus, we were given colour coded stickers (no better way to really feel like a tourist…) and told to wait.

We waited and waited and waited. While we were waiting, I noticed that the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple was right in front of us.



And noticed the ingenious washing lines hanging from all the apartments.



Eventually all of us with purple stickers were ushered onto a large tour bus. We sat there for at least another 20 minutes. That’s about the amount of time it would have taken us to get from our hotel to the park had we taken the train… Finally we started moving, and we were on our way!

During the short drive we were given our entry tickets, and advised of the various options of getting back. All along I had been planning to get the cable car back, but we were told that they only did return tickets, so unfortunately that wasn’t going to work. The tour guide suggested that after walking around Universal all day, the only viable option would be a taxi. I sincerely hope not many people paid any attention to her.

We were dropped off in the underground carpark thing close to Universal – we just had to take an escalator up and we were basically at the entrance. DH and I needed some breakfast first though, and were pleased to find another fake food market place.



There wasn’t much open at that time of the morning, but we both liked the look of the roti anyway. DH got the one with chicken, mine was just a dipping sauce. I would never think of having roti for breakfast, but it was great! DH got us a lime juice and a Ribena to share. The lime juice was extraordinarily sweet, but yummy.



After filling our bellies, we were ready to hit Universal.



I actually didn’t check the time, but it wouldn’t have been much past 10am, and there was no line at all. And only a little one for buying tickets. We walked straight in, and while DH was washing his hands, I took some photos.

We were there for the last weekend of the horror nights. We did not go.



Looking down Hollywood Boulevard.



We didn’t really have a plan, and decided to head left into Madagascar.



Now, having seen that the park is very small, and knowing that we’ve been to the one in LA, I didn’t know if it would be worth coming. This one has had a lot of thought put into it, and is very well themed. For me, that makes it worth going to.

Next up was Far Far Away (ie Shrek Land), complete with *not a Disney* castle.



We decided to line up for the dragon themed coaster. And when I say line up, I basically mean walk straight on. The queue had lots to see.







And the ride vehicles were cute.





The ride itself was a very tame coaster, but a fun start to the day. We decided to skip the rest of Far Far Away and move along.



The next land was The Lost World.



We decided to line up (ie walk straight on) for the Jurassic River Rapids.





This version is completely different to LA. Instead of a boat, you get into a circular raft (like the Grizzly River Run). And the theme is more to do with being flooded than being eaten, although there is a large t-rex at the end (of course). I started taking some photos as we were going around, but was interrupted by an announcement advising that photography is not allowed on the ride and to put all cameras away. I was completely mortified of course, and wondered why on earth they would have that policy (I can understand no flash photography, and even no videoing, but no photography?), but tried not to let it get to me too much. Towards the end of the ride, we were plunged into a pitch black (and I mean we could literally not see anything) tunnel, which went on for quite a while. I would suggest that this is not a good ride for children who are even a little bit afraid of the dark. Even I was kind of nervous!

When we exited, we were amused to find ‘drying pods’.



We did not pay the $5 charge to try them out, but headed on to the Canopy Flyer. By this stage the crowds were starting to arrive, and there was about a 10-15 minute wait for this one. From the ground it looked like quite a tame little ride around the treetops, but it was actually quite fast and got some serious banking around the bends. It was a fun little ride, but was over way too quickly. I wouldn’t want to line up for any longer than that for it.

Next we made our way into Ancient Egypt.







To ride The Mummy.



As in LA, you are not allowed to take any items onto the ride with you. Unlike LA, the lockers are not free, and it is pandemonium trying to get through the crowds of people who have no idea what to do, and through to the ride. I would estimate that we waited about half an hour for this one. Next time, I would go in an anti-clockwise direction to get the big rides done first. We only just made it back to our locker in time. The queue area has some really great theming – it’s worth checking out – and the ride was awesome! I thought it was slightly different to the LA version, and I enjoyed it more. DH said it was the best ride he’s been on!

Upon exiting, the crowds had gotten even worse, and we snuck in and out of the locker room the back way.

Next up was Sci-Fi City.



I am more into sci-fi than DH, and that is a big statement, because I am not at all into sci-fi. He is kind of against it. So there wasn’t really much of interest in this area. We both would have been keen to ride the big rollercoaster in the area, but it seemed to be down for maintenance, which was really a shame. Neither of us enjoy simulator style rides enough that we wanted to do Transformers (in fact, they often make me feel a little sick), so we gave it a miss.



To be continued...

 

[zanzibar138]

DH was getting a little tired and grumpy by this stage (and we had only been in the park for 2 hours!), so we found a table in the New York area to sit down at, have a rest, and contemplate our next move. DH thought about getting a snack, but wasnt willing to pay $20 for a slice of pizza (cant blame him).



While we were sitting there, some of the Sesame Street characters came out for greetings.







There were also a whole heap of props sitting around from the horror nights. I wasnt expecting to see that!



I wanted to take a walk around the lake and try out the Madagascar river ride before we left. DH was happy with that plan, so we kept moving. The path around the lake was lovely and quiet we didnt see many other people using it. We went the opposite way this time, so we would end up in Madagascar before leaving the park.

From the path we got a view of Ancient Egypt



Far Far Away





New York





And Madagascar.



Going through Ancient Egypt, we stopped at the jeep ride and watched for a bit.









Our next stop was Madagascar.



The river ride was very cute kind of a movie ride through. DH hasnt seen the movie, but he enjoyed it too. If nothing else, it was nice to just sit somewhere cool and relaxing for a while.



Upon exiting the ride, there were a few characters out and about.



And talking about theming I thought this tree was pretty cool, complete with abandoned plane. Would have been nice as a walkthrough or something though.



My feet were killing me by this stage (I had worn sandals, thinking that my boots would be too hot), so we left the park in search of somewhere cool to sit with some drinks and recover. For what its worth, we were in the park for about 3 hours.

To be continued...

 

[zanzibar138]

We exited the park, and headed towards the main food type area to try to find a suitable place. Most of the places there were either fancy restaurant or food court style, and we were more after a café or bar style place where we could get some drinks and maybe some bar snacks or something. We ended up settling on the Hard Rock Café, which was decked out for Halloween.





First up, we took care of the drinks. For those who are interested, mine was the milky looking pink one, and was called a Pickled Tink – it was like finding a hidden Mickey lol!



We splurged on a tasting platter to share. It was presented nicely, but we were disappointed (and what’s with serving spring rolls with sour cream and sliced olives???).



When we felt rested enough to continue (there may have been another round of drinks involved), we took off for some more sight-seeing around the island. I had actually brought my thongs with me, so I decided to do a quick change of footwear as well, which helped immensely!

We walked past the big aquarium, and further out to a point on the west side of the island. It looked like the entrance to some kind of water park, so we just checked out the views and headed back.

I really liked the contrast of this old style boat with the super modern skyscrapers in the background



I longingly looked at the cable car.



And was impressed by the size of these shipping yards.



We wandered back past the aquarium, towards the boardwalk to head back to the mainland. There was another nice little point with some gardens.



Then we wandered past some more restaurants and things before getting to the entrance to the boardwalk.



There were some turnstiles at the entrance, and it looked like it was a point of no return. We quickly confirmed that we were both ready to leave before we went through. Soon we came to the famous travelators leading up to the little viewing platform in the middle of the boardwalk. It was such a small hill, it was hardly worth putting travelators in, but it was a bit of a novelty.



From the viewing area, I took some photos looking back towards the island.





There was a little group of musical sculptures along the way.



And I took this final photo of the start of the boardwalk specifically for my mum, as I know how much she loves boardwalks!



We made our way through the shopping centre to the MRT station, and made our way back to the hotel, thinking that we would enjoy a nice swim when we got back.

Unfortunately, when we got back and were getting ready to go for a swim, DH made the realisation that he didn’t bring his swimming shorts, and he actually only had denim ones with him. (This is the second time this has happened – he also didn’t bring ‘bathers’ on our trip to QLD). He insisted that we go and have a look at the pool anyway, and it was so quiet there, he decided he would just use his undies lol!

So we went back to the room to change and get towels and drinks, and back to the pool deck on level 3 of the hotel.

The pool was very small, but quite novel, as it was right on the edge of the building, and had a glass wall, so it was kind of like an infinity pool. It was a little bit weird though in that location as people from the street could see right into the pool! That blurry part of the photo is the water line.





There weren’t amazing views from our hotel – not high enough. But there were some interesting things to see. I loved this block that looked like each building was attached by a pool deck or something.



We were nice and relaxed after our swim, so we thought we’d be really lazy and just stay at the hotel for dinner. We started with drinks (of course). DH went for the Singapore Sling, which was quite yummy.



Then choose a few dishes from the tapas menu for dinner. We went with calamari (which was divine), garlic prawns, samosas, and nachos. The nachos came out a while after everything else, so I didn’t bother to take a photo. Besides (and you will see this later), I don’t think they really know about nachos in Singapore, and they were not the best.





This was our view during dinner. It was actually quite pleasant to sit there watching the world go by.



I’d been eyeing off the gorgeous chandeliers in the lobby since we arrived, so I thought I should get a picture on the way back up to our room.

 

[Kangarucci]

Very much enoying your TR.

 

[zanzibar138]

Very much enoying your TR.

Glad to hear that

 

[PrincessInOz]

Universal is small in Singapore? Dang. I was hoping it was comparable.

Great update.

 

[zanzibar138]

Universal is small in Singapore? Dang. I was hoping it was comparable.

Great update.

Sorry PIO - it's tiny! Maybe even smaller than Movieworld.

In this photo, you can pretty much see the whole thing (sci-fi city with the big coaster to the left and Far Far Away to the right, with Ancient Egypt behind me).



Don't get me wrong though, I very much enjoyed it, and felt it was worth going. If I didn't have DH with me I think I would have stayed all day and taken more photos, maybe seen some shows.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Hmmm. Okay. Thanks for the intel.

 

[heidispidi]

Did you go on the Transformers ride? It was our favourite. We did the park in reverse order to you. Must have been my Disney experience, but I knew we should hit the big rides first, as it was quite crowded the day we were there. Battle star Gallactica was down for us too - shame, but I will have something new to try next time!

My Flyer photos were taken in contrast to yours, during the day. No private gondola or champas for us though, lucky you! Speaking of gondolas, I have a pic of my DH looking SO nervous on the Sentosa gondola!

 

[CaliBear]

Hi Zanzibar! I've posted with you in the HKDL section of the board and noticed this thread title. I live in SG (originally from California, hence the name) so I decided to sneak into the Aussie forum to read along. So far very good!