We’ve been averaging around two staycations a year in the last few years now, and we’ll be doing four this year even. Invariably, they have been short stays for the two of us as a getaway from our kids. But our frequency of staycations have also arrive to a point where the novelty has mostly died off – not because the properties we’ve been staying at aren’t interesting, but more that we’ve covered most of the key areas downtown now over the last 3-4 stays.
Still and notwithstanding that, we had a long weekend in August this year though – thanks to the back to back National Day and also Hari Raya Haji public holidays – and as tempting as it was to again leave the kids with the grandparents, we decided at the start of the year to do a short 4D3N family vacation. I’ve been interested to try staying at The Canopi Bintan, if nothing else just to see what the fuss is about. But that property is notoriously difficult to book, with reservations at the key peak periods routinely made by guests well in advance. We then did a booking for Cassia Bintan, since we had a pretty good experience at their sister property in Phuket at the end of 2017 – but around midyear decided to just do a staycation within Singapore itself.
Problem is of course: properties for two adults are easy to find on our island; for a family of four and sharing a single room, not nearly so much! We shortlisted a few, and decided on the Furama RiverFront for a 4D3N stay. Like everything else we write about on this blog, this was a stay paid for out of our own pocket, and we’re not beholden by the necessity to say only nice things to continue obtaining sponsored trips. Our trip’s experience is pretty much authentic, so here are our unvarnished comments of our stay.
Firstly, it’s important to deal with the elephant in the room: the Furama RiverFront isn’t a new hotel, and it shows. It’s located at Havelock Road where several other four star properties are also located. The external appearance is a little dated, and signs of its age are everywhere: including the basement carpark, the lobby, the rooms, and even the external facade. Housekeeping is still up to mark and doing the best they can, but the hotel has clearly seen better days. In our room, there were cracks and areas where the laminates had peeled off, and cupboard/drawer hinges that were slightly misaligned. There were also small stains in the room’s one-seat sofa. The floor corridor on our level is somewhat dimly lit (or maybe it’s just tasteful ambiance?), and the styling in the The Square restaurant where we had our breakfasts and dinners felt dim and almost depressing even. There was also renovation work going around the hotel, and noise could be clearly heard on the ground floor but thankfully not our room.
That out of the way, we have good things to say about our stay – well, for the most part. We stayed in a Family Room on the tenth level, which had all the basic amenities, and two comfortable queen-sized beds. The wife is particularly fussy when it comes to mattresses, and she said the ones in our room were very comfortable and provided an ideal amount of support for the back. The hotel also offered complimentary parking – a benefit we really availed ourselves to as we drove in and out of the hotel in our exploration of Singapore, and we had no problems finding empty bays, despite it being a holiday weekend. Drive carefully into the basement car park though: there is a very sharp right turn into the basement level.
The family package we were on offered several goodies, the two main ones being playtime at the Waka Waka indoor playground (situated at an adjourning building), and also we had a half-board stay. Firstly, a one hour playtime at the Waka Waka indoor playground – which is just sufficient for the fairly compact playground with a really fun slide area – for two kids and accompanying adults came with the package, but the kids got additional vouchers which doubled that time period. The kids couldn’t had been happier with that! For the adults, the buffet-styled dinners were the real icings. We’ve had some fabulous if pricey spreads at the various places we’ve stayed at. But given the general class of hotel the Furama RiverFront is in, we had modest expectations when it came to feeding time, and were thus quite surprised at the actual quality of the items. No, this isn’t a five star spread, but it was still pretty decent. Several items come especially to mind: the chili crab, the lobster laksa, the coffee pork ribs, the satay, and roast pork.
There are actually two restaurants that guests can opt to go to: the aforementioned The Square @ Furama which dishes out the International buffet dinner and also where we had our morning breakfasts , and also the Kintamani Indonesian Restaurant. If you’re staying for more than one evening, I’d recommend that you take turns to dine at both – the spreads are quite different.
There’s also a shuttle bus service that brings guests to Orchard Road and Clarke Quay (I think). But it seems to be outbound journeys only – guests will need to make their own way back. We drove, so didn’t try out this service.
As for some final bits that didn’t work well: the hotel is a pretty busy property, and there were tour groups routinely about either checking in or out, or just congregating. Thankfully, the crowds were largely at the lobby and also concierge area, so once you go past it, things are quiet again. At our time of check-in, we also witnessed two separate occasions of unhappy guests over one thing or another. I didn’t catch what they were unhappy about even though their upset expressions and raised voices was obvious to other guests around them, but it was handled professionally by the reception staff.
Lastly, the in-room WIFI was stable and permitted multiple connections: but the permitted data allowance of 4GB over the four days is, honestly, a pittance. That’s enough if you’re primarily using mobile devices like tablets and smartphones for general surfing and browsing, but you’ll need to watch background mobile device apps that run on WIFI – e.g. auto-uploading of pictures and videos to Google Photos when the phone senses you’re on WIFI. 4GB over 4 days is likely not going to be enough if you’re using laptops (desktop browsers do not routinely compress data) and certainly not if you intend to stream, or binge-watch Netflix in your room. We’ve stayed in several local properties now, and this is the first time we’ve seen a cap at a local property. Or rather, the other properties might have had the same but they certainly did a better job hiding it!
Still, the issues were pretty minor. Our two kids slept well, ate heartily, loved the Waka Waka playground, and enjoyed the four day itinerary we planned out for them. If you’re looking for a family room and have kids coming along, need a place that will feed the group of you, need complimentary parking, and don’t mind the place not being particularly luxurious, do take a look at Furama RiverFront.
Recent comments