Singapore, Round 2

When we visited Singapore in November of 2012, we never in a million years would have guessed we would be back just over a year later.  It was nice to land in Singapore and know a little bit of what to expect this time.  It was even more incredible to be here and not be jet lagged!

The cabs are efficient and one of the only things in Singapore that are cheap.  Our 25 minute ride to the hotel from the airport was under $25.  We checked into The Westin Singapore before 6pm and since it was still crowded for New Year’s we did not get a suite upgrade but had a nice room with big bathroom and closet area where Lizzy slept.

Picking a hotel in Singapore is always difficult because there are so many and none are inexpensive.  Last year we tried The St. Regis, The Grand Hyatt, The W Singapore - Sentosa Cove, the Marina Bay Sands Singapore and the Crowne Plaza Changi Airport.  While we strongly considered the W again since we liked the breakfast so much, it was just too expensive on the dates we were in town and the Westin was only a few months old and it is always fun to try something new.

We ended up using 12,000 Starwood points per night, for a total of 24,000 points for the stay.  We checked out with a $0 bill, which is always nice, but that was only a so-so use of Starwood points since the cash rate was around $335/night before taxes.   When we were booking this trip, we did want to start using up our significant point balances and not just wait for the perfect redemption.  However, in the future we will likely be a bit more discerning with our redemptions as we have found other good uses for these hard to come by Starwood points.

The hotel is in the financial district west of the marina area and about a 10-15 minute walk from the Marina Bay Sands complex.  For a downtown business hotel, the Westin had a surprisingly nice pool area with a beautiful infinity pool on the 32nd floor.  Overall, we thought the design was very nice and quite a beautiful business hotel.

The girls were starting to melt down shortly after we arrived (the reason we don't have any room pictures), and consequently Joe wasn’t in the best of moods, so we tried to grab dinner at the lounge and get the girls to bed.  It wasn’t a great night, but it is hard to blame the girls too much for their behavior.  Joe, on the other hand…

Annie slept with us in the king bed and she is a very mobile sleeper so we didn’t get a great night of sleep.  I woke up before the sun (which is easy to do anywhere but Tokyo) and worked out before the girls woke up. We went to the lounge for breakfast and the girls saw the pool just off the lounge so that meant nothing else would happen until we took them swimming.  Annie had a bit of a scare in the pool but recovered by the next day and had no problem getting back in.

The first of 14 days of restaurant breakfasts

Fruit shooters were a big hit

Joe and Annie with the cargo ships in the background

We walked for 15 minutes to the Marina Bay Sands hotel, casino and shopping complex where we stayed for a night during our 2012 Singapore trip.  We had lunch at Pizzeria Mozza and ordered two pizzas (Margarita and Spicy Salami) and the girls weren’t too interested in them.  Despite living 15 minutes from the original Pizzeria Mozza in Hollywood, the Singapore location is the only one I have been able to convince Joe to go to.  Since living in Tokyo, we've only been eating Dominoes and mediocre pizza from the American Club so Mozza was AMAZING.  At $52.15 for the four of us, it was also by far the most expensive meal we had on the entire trip.  

We walked around the giant, gorgeous mall and the girls really wanted to go on the gondola rides but Joe was too cheap to spend $30 to go on a 6 minute ride.  The girls found a mini “playground” on the way back to the hotel and played on the see-saw and swing for about 30 minutes.  There were some other tourists there who couldn't get enough of Annie and Lizzy and asked if it would be ok to take some pictures with them.  While this is a normal occurrence for us in Tokyo, I started to notice on our vacation that in addition to posing with the girls, these people weren't too shy to hug them, hold their hands and pick them up, which made me a tad bit squeamish. 

This woman took a ton of pictures (and some videos?) of our entire family. And of our family posing with her family. Bizarre

Marina Bay Sands in the background

It was hot and sunny!

After a pathetic excuse for a nap and a failed dinner in the lounge, we headed over to an indoor food garden right next door to our hotel.  The girls ate a salad from subway (meat and cheese for Lizzy, veggies for Annie).  To our delight there was also an Ippudo Express, which is a branch of our favorite Ramen shop in Tokyo!  Lizzy and I then shared a frozen yogurt from Red Mango, which brought back good memories of Pinkberry (tear).  With full bellies we walked back over to the marina area for a night light show on the water which the girls loved and another walk around the shopping area.

Our favorite Tokyo food!

Singapore Skyline

Light show at the marina -  used some of the same effects as World of Color at California Adventure

Lizzy's curls agreed with Singapore humidity

We got up the next morning, had breakfast and grabbed a cab to the airport.  This transfer was even cheaper at $18 and we headed to the Air Asia check-in area, got rid of our bags, and headed to our gate.  Luckily, we found a great indoor playground on the way to the gate where the girls played for about 30 minutes. It was by far the most fun they had during our time in Singapore.  In hindsight, it was also the turning point in their behavior.   From this point forward, they were pretty good for the most part.  We couldn't really blame them for their poor behavior on this leg or the trip, as they had just endured a long day of travel from Tokyo not to mention the skipped naps, restless nights, poor eating and lack of kid centered activities.

The most fun part of the girls' trip

Singapore bear had lots of fun on the trip as well

We lost track of time a bit and had to rush to the gate, complicated a bit by Lizzy deciding to fill her diaper on the way.  After a quick change we boarded the Air Asia flight for the hour long flight to Langkawi.