THE ROOMS
Lovely resort. We were a group of six adults and three kids on a Luxury Escapes deal for 12 nights. The staff were lovely and so kind and fun with the kids. The rooms are touted to be French inspired but it’s not French provincial or the more formal Louis style; perhaps a modern Singapore fusion (less French more Singapore) might be closer to the mark. There is a strange bar that looks like a striped elongated pill box that holds your coffee and tea, wine glasses and fridge. The fridge is empty unless you have a suite in which case you get complimentary soft drinks and a beer (just one) and nuts replenished daily. Only one of our group was a suite so, lucky them, but everyone did receive plenty of complimentary water bottles daily and a bowl of fruit on arrival. Note, there is no milk supplied in the fridge so you either have to call reception or nick a cupful at breakfast if you like it with your hot beverages. Reception can be a little confused about milk. We had no problem the first time we called but the second time took so long I had to call again and had to confirm whether it was for tea or coffee. There would be a charge if it was for tea. Our daughter called for some and received 2 coffees pods instead so she tried her luck again the next night. They called her back asking why when she had already ordered it just a night ago and she had to explain about the coffee pods. The rooms have all the amenities you get in hotel rooms - robes, safe, iron, hair dryer etc and the bathrooms have a bath as well as a shower and seperate toilet but for me there were way too many mirrored surfaces in there. Very shiny and reflecty. You put a little sign on the bed if you want the sheets changed, otherwise they just make the bed up.
THE AMENITIES
The hotel has 2 restaurants, a bar, an events centre, a small gym (and a swanky whiskey and cigar bar with a garden and some private rooms hidden away downstairs). There are 215 rooms, suites and villas. The rooms and junior suites are set on 4 levels spanning from the driveway at the front to the back of the property and the villas run parallel at the side of the property. There are central gardens the hotel rooms are built around and several fish ponds including one stocked with little fish that nibble at your feet. The main pool is very warm and gets quite deep so there is a rope to delineate the drop off point). Towels, kiddie life jackets and goggles and pool toys found near the pool bar.
LUXURY ESCAPES (LE) INCLUSIONS - food, drinks, Spa voucher
As mentioned, we were on a Luxury Escapes package which included welcome drinks (sadly non alcoholic), buffet breakfast and either lunch or dinner daily, a daily cocktail or soft drink and a $100 spa voucher per room.
The breakfast buffet was great, a diverse selection ranging from breads, cereals, yogurts and Bircher, raw salmon and seafood salads, cheeses and fruits, curries and rices, bacon, eggs, omelettes, hash browns, Asian soups, pancakes, muffins and petite cakes, coffee and tea and juices.
With LE we have found the menus are reduced to a limited version of the a la carte menu on offer and it was no different here at Kwee Zeen. The choice was still vast enough however we that even staying 12 nights gave enough variety so as to only need to revisit your very favourites once or twice. You could have two courses for lunch and three for dinner. The entrees were almost as large as the mains and the flavours were really good so we didn’t feel disadvantaged by this limitation. I especially loved the fish curry. The kids pretty much had fish and chips or rice every night but there were other kids options available including nuggets or pasta. Happily we were upgraded to the buffet dinners on Friday and Saturday nights so that went a long way towards keeping us satiated. The daily cocktails were also limited to things like rum and coke, vodka and orange, gin and tonic, scotch and lime taken in either Kwee Zeen or Le Bar, Kwee Zeen also allowing a house red or white wine which is what we opted for. Le Bar turned out to be flexible, allowing us to choose wine there as well. We just had to ask.
The Spa room vouchers were snaffled by us wives and we three enjoyed really great massages although the vouchers didn’t cover the cost of an hour so we paid an additional $80ish AUD each.
ACCOR MEMBERSHIP
Also, we are Accor members and attached it to the booking via the LE call centre as there’s no provision to do it on their website. We kept our fingers crossed because we didn’t book directly with Accor. Three rooms here for 12 night adds up and we wanted the points. I don’t think we got credited 36nights but we did get Reward points for the monetary value (I think that was why) and that was $30k so we jumped from Silver status over Gold and straight to Platinum. Adding the rooms would have made it to Diamond but we’re not complaining, we’ve gained access to the executive lounge now. I linked our Qantas frequent flyer to the membership and got a load of points even though we didn’t fly with them. Turns out they own LE. We also got loads of points added to our Velocity account because we paid for it on our Virgin card so make sure you research and take advantage. Our Platinum status updated instantly on our App and online membership card and I assume they’ll post out a new black card. You can book tickets to activities through their app for additional points like the Harry Potter forbidden forest and the Wings of Time show which was apparently excellent but I missed it unfortunately.
GETTING AROUND
We used the hotel shuttle to get to the spa which is down the road and around the corner. The shuttle runs every 30mins stopping at the SoSpa and then Vivo City. Vivo City is a large modern shopping centre that you can spend the day There is also a MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) system terminal in the same building which can take you anywhere you want. It’s brilliant. There are two lines that terminate at Vivo City , a circle line and the northeast line and getting anywhere couldn’t be easier, the circle line crosses all the other lines so you just get off where it intersects with the line that goes where you’re wanting to go. You just cross to the other side of the platform and wait, usually less than a few minutes and away you go. We used this to go to Orchard Rd. The Northeast line goes to HarbourFront which is basically where tourists need to get to for Marina Sands, Raffles etc. Once there can spend a day or two using the Hop on Hop off bus to orientate yourself. You can buy an Ezilink card or tourist pass for the MRT but we just tapped our credit cards on the turnstiles. ( There must have been something wrong because we were only charged 11cents). You can catch a train from the airport to Vivo and then the Sofitel shuttle to the hotel. (Two train connections but it’s easy and you don’t have to leave the platforms). Getting to the hotel via transfer cost around $120Aud for a van for all 9 of us, we needed a booster for our 1 yo. We google searched it (the Flight Centre transfers were $900 so don’t just trust ). It takes about 30mins in a car and Google maps states 2 hours by train but I think it would be more like an hour unless you’re super unlucky with transfers, get lost and/or can’t find the shuttle which parks just outside exit D at Vivo, you just follow the signs, it’s easy.
Back at the Sofitel the B bus across the road takes you all over Sentosa island for free or you can head down the stairs to the beach and catch a free trolley car to most of the fun destinations or use the 4 stop monorail to Universal studios, the Aquarium and the cable cars amongst other things.
SINGAPORE
Is a country that gets it right. It’s so well geared towards tourists, you can have an amazing time on any budget. It’s safe because there is zero tolerance and serious consequences for those with a propensity towards being naughty. Everyone has a roof over their head, and access to good healthcare. It’s beautifully manicured and not overcrowded on the roads because there is a limited number of registrations allowed and they are expensive and expire after 10 years. Taxis are cheap nonetheless and of course there’s the brilliant MRT. Loads of Michelin starred restaurants can be found (even in the Hawkers markets) . There is so much to see and everyone speaks English, even the airport is a destination spot, best in the world. It’s really worth more than a two day stop over on the way to somewhere else.