Marina Bay Sands’ Experience

It is far from the perfect grand image portrayed in their advertisement.

(I’m representing the perspective of a stingy customer here, someone who paid and wants to enjoy the return of every single cent)

Let’s start from the booking process.

Since my parents said that they are coming to SG, I have been eyeing at the hotel for quite some time. I called it luck when I actually saw a promotion posted around a month ago at the hotel’s website, stating all the free goodie I can get if I registered for that period.


The Promotion

So I registered. When I register by clicking on the promotion link, there is no clear indication of how much it is per night, and how much will I be charged in the end. They are asking for credit card details, but no mention of how will it be used, or when will I be charged – Disappointment 1: Poor online service and information.

After registration, I was left with confusion, so I called up the hotline. He explained that I won’t be charged until the day I stayed there (thanks), and giving me the net amount. Being in the line, I checked with him on which tower is the nearest to Casino and if I can pick to stay in that tower. He responded saying that the nearest is Tower 1, but it’s reserved only for those who play big in the casino, not for this promotion. The promotion can only get Tower 2 and Tower 3. Fast forwarding to the check-in date itself, the person in registration counter told me that Tower 2 is the nearest to the Casino, and I can definitely check in Tower 1 if I wanted too - Disappointment 2: Wrong information

On the day when my parents finally reached the airport, I checked with the information counter about the free shuttle bus to hotel. The lady was giving me the right information of where I should go, but when I reached the coach bay, there is no one to check about where and when will the bus stop from the 10+ lines. We waited for almost half an hour before finally seeing a bus with Marina Bay Sands logo – Disappointment 3: lack of direction

When we finally reached the hotel’s bus pick up / drop point, there is no one at all helping us with the luggage! There is even no one who greats welcome or at least help you to open the door. We’re just being left stranded at the bus bay, and need to figure our way to the reception. When I finally reach the reception level, there is no counter near by who I can ask for help. I wouldn’t have been so mad if I’m not carrying 7 luggages with me and paying 450 for this kind of services. Anyway – Disappointment 4: lack of customer service!

And then here come the check-in part. OMG I have to ask for everything. I need to check if they have complimentary breakfast, which was responded with a yes after 1 min of checking. Then I checked with them of how to use the $100 voucher which is part of the promotion. They rush here and there for 5 mins before finally coming back with the marina bay sands brouchure, saying that I can use it in everywhere, including the shopping area. But for my understanding, the voucher is only $50 instead of $100. It’s $50 per stay, not per night. (I was too stunned with their attitude at that time and forget to ask them to check their own beloved website). So I queried anyway on how I can use the voucher, because they don’t give me any voucher slip. The guy at the counter told me that I can just mention my room number to the shops / restaurant. I was astonished and try to clarify my understanding, “Do you mean I can go to the C & K store across this hotel, tell them my room number, and I don’t have to pay?” and he said yes. I want to counter him a lot but my mum and dad were already waiting too long, so I thought I have to let it be. I was frustrated really – Disappointment 5: Inconsistent and useless information :(

When we stepped in to the hotel room, the electricity is already on and there is already a card at the key slot. I was puzzled but ignored it. Afterwards, I checked the services they have. The TV has merely 18 channels :( I can’t find the Taiwan channel for my parents. The internet is not free, and the price isn’t mentioned. They have a water boiler, but I failed to identify where to plug it other than the work table (they don’t have bar table). When I called to check on the swimming pool: “Our swimming pool is currently under construction, but if you want to swim, you can go to Fullerton hotel to do so, provided you use their Spa services”. Oh yeah, what a great workaround. I actually checked with them on what is the price for the Spa, but again… they don’t know! They said I have to checked with Fullerton staff :( And oh, the pillows are like nothing. Too soft too empty. - Disappointment 6: incomplete room services


The Atrium Premier - look decent in the eyes of a point-and-shoot camera

Even though I complained so much, but I still like this :p (narcism)

Another time, I called to check for my friend if there is any bus going to marina square from the hotel. The concierge checked for 10 mins before giving me 4 buses which are actually not stopping at the bus stop he was referring to – Disappointment 7: poor knowledge

Another time, I checked with the waiter of how much is the nett price for the lunch buffet, and she literally replied: I don’t know, without offering any other help.

Another time, when I ready to check out and pay the bill, I was puzzled of why my breakfast meal is not included inside. They spend 10 mins and then telling me that the breakfast entries are not in yet, and said that it will be charged directly to my card later on. What?? How can you charge a person without first contacting the person? I had the breakfast at 8 and it was already 11 at that time. If you are not that speedy, then why are you telling people that the check out time is 11am.

And yet another time, when my parents are ready to leave Singapore, we checked with the concierge if there is any free bus to airport. She gave a clear and loud yes. But when I checked about the timing, all she can give is ‘every half an hour’, without a proper timing. She again checked and called for so many people and so many times, but no one can give a proper answer to the exact timing, or whether a bus is coming or just leaving.

All in all, I’m very disappointed with the hotel :( There are so many times, when I was waiting for the staff to give me a respond, I see the others are just standing and chatting and laughing. There is no initiative at all to help with my query or at least acting professional. I guess I am disappointed so much because I was all ready to assure my parents that I am giving the best to them, but it ends up that we have to spend so much time figuring out the basic information. Lastly, my parents told me that the Casino's staffs @ Sentosa are much more professional than the one @ Marina's...

I should have gone to marina oriental or some similar hotel which have more experienced staff and swimming pool! :(

First time & disappointed customer,
ED

Moving On

At the end of the week, the pressure is still on :(

I hope the week won’t repeat itself later. I can’t believe that I got myself in this kind of overloaded situation :( It’s about time for me to put a stop sign to my boss. It will otherwise getting too much to my personal life and affect my mood in any other things.

Actually, I wont say that my boss is the culprit of all this. Remember the other post where I was confused about being proactive or being work-life balance person? Well I still am. I took some of the work for the opportunity to learn more about other streams. And, it was indeed filling up the missing pieces for me. But then, at what cost is it coming? To what extend I can be ‘proactive’ before all these start eating me?

Let me make it a continuous attempt office at the max at 11pm ok? And let me make a promise to leave office before 8, at least once a week. I don’t want to repeat the same story of staying at office until early 4am in the morning :( Even the taxi driver pitied me.

Last week isn’t a really good week, let’s take a look at the next week. Monday is a public holiday in Germany, Friday is a public holiday in Singapore :D to add more excitement, mum and dad are coming! :D I can’t wait. On the following week, I’ll be moving to Queenstown! :) Closer to home, which also mean.. Less time on transport! I start to feel bored in bus ever since I finished the Lost Symbol couple of weeks back.

Talk about Lost Symbol. I completed the book and felt a bit cheated. The it’s most important point, where it seems like there is no way out for the heroes, the enemy himself asked to be killed!! :( What an anti-climax!! Anyway, similar to the other books, I don’t understand half of the facts told (except for digital fortress. At least it talks about cryptography) I’m looking for next book to read. Recommendation? (best if it comes with the loan. Huahaha cheapo)

Oh, another thing in office. I got assigned as a buddy for a new intern. He is coming from SMU, 3rd year with one year of internship experience in other bank, and… (what am I doing writing out his resume :s)… and anyway, he is an Indonesian! Haha. A guy from Bandung who has been staying in SG since secondary. I checked if he knows any people from our batch, but sadly no common network. Guess we’re all too old for him. He will be here for 10 weeks. I hope his boss can keep him busy (hehe evil)

On Saturday, I finally meet up with Vera again :) She is back from US a couple of weeks back. I still can remember the day when she was about to go.. .we keep saying that one and half year are really long… and now? Within a blink of eyes, she is back :D still as cheerful as before, with an engaged status. I’m wishing you all the best Ver… :)

We had dinner at Marche Restaurant… which was awesome!! The last time I dine there was 5 years ago, and I can’t really remember how was the place like. It has a very homey decoration, woody furniture, with nice spread of European food. The food looks pricy, but I guess it’s still reasonable in the end :) I like the ambiance there. It’s a restaurant where you can chat and talk comfortably without the risk of getting a hate look from other people (though I’m getting couple of warning from the staff for taking pictures)


The decoration displayed on the stairway to the restaurant. The things can move ok!

Ok.. it’s 6pm and I’m already starving! Time to go for a dinner.. and hopefully a movie before sleep. I want to finish the princess and the frog movie!

Looking forward for next week,
ED

Silent Scream

Dear blog.

This is 3AM in the morning, and I still can’t stop crying.

I want to tell… I want to talk… I want to scream… but again, it’s early Tuesday morning and who am I to break the peace? Let me scream in this blog, at least.

Life is never fair. This I knew. There are different position and role in life. Boss and subordinate, client and vendor, manager and executer. When you’re in the more authoritative role, what’s wrong with staying reasonable and trying to understand what you really want before requesting for it? Changing report format every week to suit your mood doesn’t work. Keep asking me to add in obvious information just because you didn’t spend any effort to get yourself updated with it, doesn’t work as well.

I hate myself when I’m blaming someone for my own quality of work. To my defense, I always give my best to the things I do, and as far as I can think of, I hardly get this kind of treatment before. Someone who just asking you to improve without giving a specific point of improvements. Ridiculous! :(

No matter how angry I am, I think I have to calm down and get myself to bed now. It’s human nature to blame other people when something is pushed to them. Like what I’m doing right now, and like what he is doing to me, I guess.

It’s the darkest before dawn.

But the darkest is yet to come.
ED

Offered

The joy is kind of similar like getting a job offer – relieved… Finally it comes to an end here. No more running here and there, no more random phone calls during office hours, no more people asking where are you working… The only different from job offer is… you’re paying this time, not getting paid. Haha..

We finally settled for 2.6K, 3 + 1 @ Block 52 Strathmore. It’s almost 10 mins walk from MRT, but I must say that the current tenant really take good care of the home. It’s really clean and giving the homey feeling. We heard about the flat only on Sat afternoon, when the agent suddenly called and offered to view the flat.

The pushy agent was telling me that the viewing offer only valid until 6pm, and it was 4pm when he called. Lucky him (or me) that I was just sitting idle at that moment…. I then decided to go out for viewing… since it’s just nice to go for dinner to later on.

So my flatmates and I went to view the flat. The flat is surprisingly… good. Not exclusive, not ‘wow’, but…. It just has everything that we need. The comfortable master room, the two nicely sized common rooms, the two mediocre bathrooms, and well-taken care kitchen and living room. The only concern is… what else if not the price T_T The opening price from the mediator is 2.6K, for first June moving. And so that’s our closing deal. She didn’t budge for negotiation, even a bit. Huh. And we’re interviewed like we are four swindlers trying to win the house. Where do you work at? What line? What is your company name? blablabla… once again, owners these days are too much!!


My soon-to-be bedroom :)

Anyway, we left with last offer on 2.5K moving in 1st June. After agreement from others, we amended our offer to 2.6K moving in 15th June. And you know the ending.

It’s not that the flat is really what we expected in term of budget, but I guess we’re all already saturated after so many viewings (Redhill, middle-of-nowhere, Commonwealth, then Queenstown), and ready to put this search to an halt next week if we’re still unable to find an agreement. So this flat was really coming as our last hope.

Sunday was really a tiring day in trying to really get confirmation of the flat. Fortunate that we’re having fun before that, lunching with SCE group… after so long! We were lunching at Royal China, Raffles. Trust me, the dimsum is nyummy! After the sumptuous lunch, we went to play “I’m the boss” at the Mind Café, Funan. It was the game we played alot back in NTU... where we can lend board games for free. The game was fun, especially when you played with people who are expert in sales and allying. Me who against allying, finally come last… T_T hahaha..



Group Pic after the great lunch @ Royal China. Happy Birthday Shen Nan!


I'm the Boss - reminded me so much of NTU!

Ok, it’s almost 12 now… I didn’t have time to watch any movie this week :( in the middle of CJ7, which I might finish next week. The alien dog is really cute!

2 more weeks to mum and dad!
ED

Rejected

What happen when you want something badly, keep dreaming about it, and all in sudden; informed that you’re not getting it? Denial, disappointment, and no, I’m not in acceptance state yet :(

I get a bit anxious now after being in hunting mood for 10 days without a promising result. Why present owner all so picky about tenants!? I never understand how profession can mean so much in securing you a place! And what kind of reasoning makes you prefer older people? Or the belief that family type is better than professional? *frustrated. Sherlock Holmes would have never gotten a room if he dealt with this modern landlord.

Anyway, 1 month to go! This goes as hard as looking job now. Maybe I should start writing an appealing resume of a good tenant.

Hmm.. Let’s move to the other side of my life… work.

With two weekly calls to be arranged every Tue and Thurs, I officially have to work till 11PM for that two days T_T so now my only hope are to leave earlier on all the other days. But! Monday is the day where all work piles up, Wed is the day for a yoga class, and Friday is the day of sending chaser. In conclusion, I will never leave early :(

Which bring back to the importance of finding a nearer flat – my wallet is currently drain up every week by the taxi fare!

Anyway, the other reason for me going back late is… the weather! It is so hot and my aircon is not working (since last year), so no point of going home early and having sauna every day. The weather is really killing me. Yesterday I was rolling for literally 3 hours and can’t put myself to sleep. The next day, I was awake by the heat too. It’s aweful :( On my last attempt to save myself, I called for an aircon technician, who affirmatively declared that my aircon should rest in peace, that I should let go and consider finding a new one. Oh well, if only the decision is on my hand… :( we told our owner about it. He doesn’t believe it and wants to get his technician to check it out. So let see…

Again.. 1 more month to go! Haha..

My parents have confirmed that they are coming this 28 – 30 May :) I’m so happy… and I’m glad that I didn’t book the Marina Bay Sands too early – they are now coming up with promotion! Finally. Free breakfast + free room upgrade + SGD50 voucher. Now the price seems to be more reasonable… slightly.

As the timing is just so nice with my moving house period, I started packing unused stuff to send home. Gosh it brings back so much memory when I started to look back what I kept 2 years ago: all the exam papers, all the publicity materials, all the publications…


My classic mistakes - on FYP Review

It’s with a very heavy heart that I decided to go green letting go of the hardcopy and keeping the softcopy. Please remind me to do back up frequently!

Last but not least… Happy Mother’s day! I love you, Mum… (dad, wait for your turn in couple of months! :p)
ED

Tsubasa Album Reproduction - 2

3 years ago, I drolled when I saw the Tsubasa Album Reproduction - 1.

And now... my jaw almost dropped when I know there is Tsubasa Album Reproduction - 2.


The artbook was released Nov 09

Kinokuniya, wait for me!
ED

Spotted

So we started the house hunting this week.

I posted some advertisements on website, but feel skeptical about getting the dream flat. Past experiences did make me realize that you normally didn’t get what you exactly wanted.

But this time is slightly different. On Tuesday itself, I got few text messages from an agent. The first place she proposed was 168a Queensway, which after few keywords search in gothere.sg, I knew just behind anchor point mall! 15 mins bus to my office! When I was still pondering between near mrt vs near office, she comes with another offer, 77a Redhill. My heart skips a beat. This block is one of the 7 blocks I have in my dream house list! The Queensway goes out from my mind and I quickly asked for a Redhill viewing.

Few minutes afterwards, she brought me back to reality that the house is a bit out from my budget, but she did offer me to take a look and see if she can negotiate with the owner.

So I went to the viewing on Friday... alone. I should have wait for weekend when my other flatmates can make it… but I’m just too curious (sorry guys!) The place fits 90% of my dreams. It’s just across the Redhill MRT, it’s near to food court, it’s windy, and it’s at the 6th floor, so no worries of MRT noises. My only disappointment is that the master room is… small, only 3/4 of my current one. I’m not sure how to fit anything inside.


The humble Master Room :(

I shared my stories with my other flatmates…. And they pretty much loved it (I hope it’s not only my own assumption). All we’re waiting now is a confirmation from another flatmate to join us, and then we’ll bid for the place. The agent told us that there is already someone bidding for 2.65K. But let’s see if our innocence faces can win us the bid with 2.5K. Wish us luck!

OK, so much about the flat hunting update. I’m still skeptical about this going smooth… but will surely post another update next week. Moving date is in 6 weeks time! And some of my flatmates have already started packing! That’s the spirit! Yet I’m still trying to find someone to fix my aircon.

Office was pretty fine. Big boss was not around and small boss was relaxed a bit. Domino effect, the small me got the chance to slack as well :p Next week everyone will be back in office… and I shall prepare for the battle. I don’t need a fortune teller to tell me that I will have loads of work next week. So many meetings coming up!

Apart from the upcoming pathetic days, I have few days which I’m looking forward too. May 28 – 30. My parents will be in SG! For the long weekend! Yay Yay Yay. I’m yet to order what to bring from hometown :D and I guess I can get my parents to transfer some of my stuff home too. 2 years is a long time to stack a bit of, erm, unnecessary stuff.

My dad wants to stay in the newly opened Marina Bay Sands. I gasped a bit when I check the price online… it is doubled from the normal 5 stars hotel! But come to think about it, they are only here for 2 days… and they don’t come frequently too. So just as I was about to book the room, my sister called up and asked me to hold on. She will help to check and see if there is any promotion back in Indonesia… let’s see… I’m not in rush to spend $1000. hahaha..

I’m updating blog today instead of tomorrow because…. Today is my brother’s birthday! The link? He called me up 9am in the morning to tell me that today is his birthday (OK it doesn’t happen every year, but this year he is determined to make it a unique one) Being suddenly awaken like that, I forgotten that it’s his birthday… until he reveals it after 15 mins in call. Consciousness rushes to my mind and I feel totally guilty and awake in sudden. OMG I forgotten my brother b’day :’(

After a nice half an hour chat, I then go back to sleep :p… but not for long. My sister calls afterwards asking me to wake up and enjoy the summer breeze. I said yes and went back to my bed, but then my phone keeps beeping and I finally given upon my beauty sleep. I woke up and chatted with my flatmates till lunch (well normally no one is at home when I woke up) and then did a quick laundry and idling... so I started blogging :)

Tomorrow, I’m looking forward to 2 movies in a row. Ip Man 2 and Iron Man 2. See how similar they are? Both start with I, end with Man, and it’s their sequel. And for me, I didn’t watch any of the previous series.

I will have to sleep early today if I don’t want to fall asleep in the cinema tomorrow. Hahaha..

Till next week!
ED