Staycation at ParkRoyal Collection Marina Bay

Previously known as Marina Mandarin Singapore, ParkRoyal Collection Marina Bay is going through a face-lift to update its 3-decade-old hotel.

We spotted a good deal on Trip.com and booked our annual Heng Girls' Trip/Staycation during the March school holiday.

ParkRoyal Collection, under the Pan Pacific Hotels Group, has updated the lobby with lots of wood and plants in order to give their guests a zen vibe when you walk in. The bridge at Level 4 from the lift landing to the Front Desk also gives you a great view of the whole interior of the hotel. The bridge left such a deep impression on my boy that when he was asked to draw what he remembered of the staycation, he drew the bridge! 😁

There was a queue at the Front Desk but it moved relatively quickly. It wasn't long before we had completed our Check-In and gotten the key cards to our rooms.

One of the features of the hotel, for me at least, was the glass elevators that allow you to have a bird's eye view of the hotel while you ascend to your room. I'm a sucker for glass elevators 😊

We booked the most basic room, which is the Urban King Room. We chose the King bed option instead of twin beds just in case the Littlest wanted to sleep on the bed instead of the baby cot.

Thank goodness we did because I had to squeeze with 3 children on the bed in the middle of the night because the Littlest didn't want to sleep in the cot! I don't blame her because the cot only came with a plastic mattress and cot bumper but no cover, blanket or pillows 😶

The room did come with the usual amenities including a Care Pack. I also like that the bathroom had a tap to dispense distilled water so that the hotel can replace bottled water with refillable glass bottles to be more environmentally friendly.

The kids' favourite part of the room would be the bathtub! They spent quite a lot of time soaking and playing in it! ☺️

Depending on your luck, the Urban King Room could either face 1) Marina Bay Sands (most preferred), 2) Esplanade/City Hall or 3) Pan Pacific/Suntec (least preferred). Guess what we got? Yup, the City Hall View.

It's not a view of the sea but it's still a good view nonetheless.

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We wanted to have afternoon tea at ParkRoyal but they missed our reservation email and were fully booked by the time we check back in with them.

Instead, we had to book the neighbouring Mandarin Oriental's MO Bar. The sister read great reviews online and it certainly did not disappoint!

We decided to get two sets of the Afternoon Tea for 2 ($88 per set) and got to choose 4 types of tea. My favourite was the London-Singapore tea!

The food was delicately put together and each bite was a great experience! My very picky connoisseur Eldest Girl gave the food her stamp of approval 👍🏻

We had an enjoyable time and are already planning for our next Afternoon Tea 🤭

As we made our way back to ParkRoyal, we spent some time taking photos of the display at Marina Square.

We also packed some food so that we could have our dinner in the comfort of our hotel room.

Did I mention that our hotel package came with FREE FLOW ice-cream? After dinner, we joined the queue at everyday to get our hands on the different flavours 😋

After having our delicious ice-cream, we retired to our room where the Eldest Girl, sister and I took turns to soak in the bathtub filled with the goodness of a bath bomb from Lush.

It was a great end to a very good day of fellowship and bonding.

The next morning, we went to the restaurant for breakfast at our indicated slot (8am). We were quite impressed with the quick and efficient service of the staff despite them having to serve a restaurant full of guests.

The food itself had hits and misses but was overall quite good.

After breakfast, we monitored the pool from our room to ensure that it was not crowded before heading to the pool!

The pool wasn't very big but it was good enough for the kids, who had a great time swimming!

We were famished after our swim so we got ourselves some free ice-cream before we checked out. This time, they gave us each a small tub of ice-cream instead! So yummy 😋

I booked a visit to Gardens by the Bay for the rest of the day, so we left our luggage at the concierge, had lunch and made our way there via MRT.

Members can no longer travel free via the Shuttle Service hence we had to pay $3 each for unlimited rides. But the Shuttle brought us from the MRT directly to the domes.

The theme at the Flower Dome this season was Sakura featuring Hello Kitty! 🌸

Despite the crowds, we managed to get some nice photos with Hello Kitty.

We headed to Cloud Forest dome next as my mum has never visited before.

It started drizzling but thankfully the rain stopped just in time for us to visit the OCBC Skyway. The sister and mum were excited because it was their first time.