Staycation - Festive Hotel

To celebrate Daddy's birthday, we went for a staycation at Festive Hotel over the weekend.

We got upgraded to a family room, that has a bunk bed which the kids loved. Both slept on it the first night. But Nadine cried and refused to sleep there after an hour. Aaron slept alone, and the next morning, when he woke up, he calmly called for me to ask for milk. We were so pleased that he was so brave and calm. Unfortunately, the next night, he slipped while coming down the stairs, and supermanned down. Thank God the floor was carpeted and he did not hit anything, nor break/dislocated anything! But he sure was scared stiff. Hugged me to sleep the entire night, and was still hurting the next day. Probably suffered some internal bruises. Poor baby!

1st thing we did after checking in - swimming!

Nadine is able to swim unaided now. But because the pool was so big, she was a bit nervous. Had to wear her good old float as a security blanket.

Aaron, on the other hand, was not so comfortable in the adult pool and refused to wear the float. He was happy just piggy-backing on Daddy, or kicking water in the baby pool.

The kids loved the little water playground too.

We took the monorail to Vivocity for dinner. The kids ate very little during lunch at Swensens. They really don't quite fancy ang-moh food. So we decided to go for simple Chinese food at the food court. Bought them noodle soup, and they both slurped up a bowl each.

On Saturday, we went to Universal Studios. Compared to our previous wintery/autumnish Hong Kong and Tokyo Disneyland experience, this was extremely hot, humid and uncomfortable.

We started with the Madagascar boat ride, which was in nice, air-con comfort. The kids were totally amused by the life-size Alex, Marty, Gloria, Melman and their friends.

Next, we went to Far Far Away, where Daddy and Aaron went for the Magic Potion Spin, while Nadine looked longingly at the nail art and make-up sets in the shop for the whole time that Daddy and Aaron were on the ride. I relented and bought her a nail art set.

Nadine refused to take any of the rides, especially those that were in the sun. Aaron, on the other hand, was keen to try everything. So I took him on the Pteranodon ride.

We had to convince Nadine to go for the Treasure Hunters ride in Ancient Egypt. But once on it, she enjoyed herself, coz she could "drive" the car. Aaron was happy just being a passenger.

What excited Aaron next - Transformer! But there were no rides that the kids could take in Sci-Fi City.

Aaron was too small to be allowed into the Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase. So I went with Nadine.  Again, she had to be convinced to go on the ride, because she was more interested to shop. But once we got on the ride, she enjoyed herself, and was not scared even when we went into "space", where it was total darkness, except for the lights from the "stars".

By the time we came out of the ride, Aaron was totally knocked out on Daddy's shoulder. While he slept, we recharged ourselves with some snacks, drinks and ice-cream in a cafe, before Nadine went out to play with bubbles.

USS must be one of the smallest theme parks around. And because there are so many rides that the kids couldn't take, we were done with the park in easily half a day.

We went back to the hotel for a nap before heading out to Quayside Isle for dinner. The kids played with their new bubble gun before eating.

Meal-time has always been quite chaotic, coz both kids can't sit still to finish a meal, and one of us would always have to chase them around. But we discovered that by giving them some paper and a pen to doodle, they could actually sit still for a long long time, and finish their meal without frustrating the parents! Yay!

This was one of Nadine's drawings - during dinner: Daddy and Mummy getting married! 

Sunday morning, we checked out and went to the Butterfly Park. Again, it was an extremely hot day, and Nadine was petrified of the bugs and birds. We walked through the park very quickly, and she obliged with a few photos in front of some butterfly specimens. That was it. And such a little diva that she was, could strike this pose! Dunno where she learnt it from!

 Overall, it was a very expensive experience. The hotel was not fantastic, and not value-for-money at all. The whole RWS was super-crowded with tourists from a certain country, which made the experience very unpleasant. But the kids enjoyed themselves, and we had a good family-bonding time. That's what mattered the most.