My mum was quite disappointed that we couldn't travel this year so we booked another staycation for her to celebrate her birthday.
To ensure that she was not disappointed, we booked both JW Marriott and Pan Pacific just in case either one of them cancelled our bookings last minute (our bookings for either could be cancelled nearer the date without penalty).
It was a good thing we had 2 bookings because JW Marriott almost cancelled on us but told us a few weeks before the staycation that they were able to process our booking. After much discussion, the family decided to go with JW Marriott instead of Pan Pacific because our room at the former was a suite and the club allowed children until 7pm.
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Left: JW Marriott Hotel Singapore South Beach;
Right: The underground carpark can be quite confusing to navigate. Park at the wrong lobby and you might get a lift that may not reach the hotel entrance. Do check the maps outside lift lobbies before taking the lifts. |
We had to walk quite a distance to the lobby because the usual lifts that brought you directly to the hotel were closed due to the need to screen all visitors due to COVID-19.
When we arrived at the lobby at around 2.15-2.30pm, there was already a long queue at the front desk. I wasn't that surprised given that it was 2 weeks before Christmas. However, I was surprised that they took a long time to process our check in. Unlike other hotels like Shangri-La Hotel (
read about our experience here) and Fullerton Hotel (
read about our experience here), the checking in process was not digitalised or coordinated efficiently. I felt that more could definitely be done to improve it. Having said that, given that other guests complained of wait times of up to 6 hours that weekend at other hotels, we were very grateful to have only waited for 1 hour.
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| Selfies at the lobby |
Our Club Premier Room was ready but our Club Deluxe Suite wasn't. Front Desk advised us to put our luggage in the Premier Room and head for our Afternoon Tea at the Club Lounge while waiting.
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| Savoury and sweet Afternoon Tea stack |
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Clockwise from left: My boy loved his hot chocolate (he loves basically anything with chocolate in it);
Different sandwiches, but our favourite was Otah!;
Various dessert and tarts that I don't particularly like. |
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Probably the best plate of the stack;
My littlest girl loves the orange cake, eldest liked the red velvet and I liked the freshly baked scones! |
If there wasn't any comparison, I would have thought the Afternoon Tea was ok. However, I felt it wasn't as good as
our Afternoon Tea experience at Fullerton. I suspect it was because there were no chocolate desserts at all! The chocoholic in me was quite disappointed.
We waited for a long time but there were no news from Front Desk despite being promised that they will inform us at the lounge when our room was available. The hubby made his way to the Front Desk to enquire the status of our suite and was finally given the keys.
We could finally head to our suite! Take a virtual tour on my Instagram video:
Of all our staycations this year, this was our biggest and best room so far! Perfect for our relatively large family!
It was dark by the time we were done with our Evening Canapés. The night view from our suite was really lovely too!
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Left: View of the surrounding buildings lighted up at night;
Right: My littlest enjoyed watching the lighted up fountain just below our room. |
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| A selfie with the cheerful girls 🥰 |
The light bites at the Club Lounge wasn't enough to fill our stomachs; we ordered additional Grab Food for dinner.
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| Dinner at our sitting area |
We also informed the hotel that it was mum's birthday and they kindly sent a birthday cake to each of our rooms!
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| Birthday cake in a very unique box |
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Left: No candle, had to make do with a virtual one haha 🤭;
Right: the 2 December babies of the family! |
We ended the night in the bath with a bath bomb from the sister for my very atas eldest girl. She really knows how to enjoy life!
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| Bath bomb from Lush |
The sofa in the sitting room can be converted into a bed to accommodate children!
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| Watching TV from the sofa bed |
Everyone was asleep by midnight, except for this little one. As she took a nap in the evening, she was wide awake till about 1.30am at night! 😵
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| Rolling around in her baby cot before she finally dozed off |
The next morning, we woke up early for our breakfast slot at 8am. Breakfast was served at Beach Road Kitchen in the next building opposite the main hotel.
After breakfast we headed to the pool for a swim! There were 2 pools at JW Marriott but the one on the 18th floor was fully booked. Thankfully the hotel was able to book a slot for us on the 6th floor pool but it was only for 2A1C. However, when we arrived at the pool, it was very empty (people probably didn't make use of their allocated time slots) hence more of us could swim at the pool!
