Lots of little annoyances to note – none of which are deal breakers and we could get by them or simply adjusted our expectations. Here’s the list:
In-room WIFI is account-based (login ID and password are on the TV screen), complimentary but also excruciatingly slow. It’ll still be tolerable for email and light web-browsing, but not for heavy duty work or web-gaming. Might be a good thing though, since you now have a good reason not to follow-up on work emails!
The king-size bed is wide but also somewhat short in depth. Asians like ourselves will be fine, but if you’re a tall Ang Mo visitor, your legs might be sticking past the edge of the bed.
The user-interface overlay for the televisions is pretty and informative, but also resulting in obviously lagging navigation from menu to menu. In fact, it’s bad enough to dread changing TV channels!
The hotel is relatively new but it’s already starting to show wear and tear, on account I’m assuming because of heavy use by visitors to the Theme Park, and also maintenance that’s not keeping up. The window edge carpeting in our room was damped on our last morning, and we suspected it was due to inadequate window sealing. Small parts of the room showed wear and tear (e.g. stains on the walls), and our bedsheet on one morning showed large stain spots even after house keeping had supposedly cleaned up.
The water pressure in our showerhead was awfully low, and it took us – even the kids – at least twice as long just to get clean. We didn’t bother with calling for someone to come look at it as we figured it’s a common enough problem in many hotels.
Bring your own toiletries too. The hotel only provides the bare minimal.
There are lots of things for kids to do and get engaged in, but not for adults. Not the Hotel’s fault of course, but you’ll need to moderate your expectations.
The hotel’s main restaurant – Bricks Family Restaurant – is the venue for its included breakfast. Probably due in part because of the number of hotel guests and also that most families would time their breakfast to finish just before the Parks’ opening hours meant that the restaurant got really crowded between 0900 to 0945 hrs everyday. The restaurant felt like a school tuckshop, with the restaurant reception having to use loudhailers to direct visitor traffic. The breakfast buffet offerings were adequate for kids (or rather as they’re not discerning enough to tell quality) but adults might wince! A check on Tripadvisor reveals a lot of unhappiness over the quality of food in this restaurant and also its general organization. To be fair, our experience wasn’t quite as bad. There’s enough food to go around and queues are for the most part either short or non-existent – probably because most of the buffet items were not cooked on the spot, and patrons during our visit were for the most part abiding by basic courtesies of not queue-cutting and minimal shoving. But the food quality really isn’t there.
The hotel’s fairly late check-in at 1600 hrs and early check-out at 1100 hrs policies don’t sync well with the Park’s opening hours, and makes it hard for travelers to arrive at the hotel, check-in, and head out to visit the park right away.
Hotel staff service standards are generally adequate (e.g. knowledgable) but not particularly friendly or warm.
Most seriously though is the price of the stay. For what one is paying, you’re really expecting much better all-round standards, especially the included breakfast spreads, and room luxuries and amenities.
Last post in the series on our notes and recommendations for future trips to the Park, and hotel if ever!
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