Shangri-La’s Rasa Sentosa Resort – Day 1 (22Dec 2016)
I have some Shangri-La Golden Circle points expiring Dec 2016. So I decided to use the points to book 2 rooms at Shangri-La’s Rasa Sentosa Resort so that we can have a short family staycation in Sentosa. I had originally wanted to book 2 rooms for 2 nights but DS2 said that he cannot stop his canoeing trading for too long as he is preparing for competition. So in the end we agreed to a 2 days 1 night staycation. We had stayed at this hotel many years back when the boys were very young. But in recent years, while we had done 2 staycation a in Sentosa, they were all at Resorts World Sentosa when we spend our 3 days 2 nights within RWS and it’s Universal Studios theme park and its water park. So this staycation will be a change for us. We decided that we will enjoy the beach and pool at Singapore’s only beach resort, and not go into RWS, but will do the other activities outside RWS.
The resort is as beautiful as I remember it. The last time we stayed here must be some 10 years back.
I booked a king and a queen seaview deluxe room and requested connecting rooms. We arrived around 10.30am and our rooms were not ready as expected since check in is suppose to be at 3pm. So we left our backs with the conceirge and headed out to Megazip.
The hotel called around 2.30pm to tell me that one room is ready. The second room was only ready around 3.15pm. But we were at iFly then and after we were done and headed back to the hotel, it was close to 5pm. We colllected our keys and headed to our rooms to rest.
The rooms were simple but beautiful and have been updated. This is an old hotel, but it is still well maintained. As promised, we had interconnecting rooms, one king and one twin. The extra bed that I requested was set up in the king room. It is in fact a Murphy bed, so is much more comfortable that the usual rollaway bed that other hotels provide.
Besides the usual welcome fruit platter, mini bar was complimentary and we also had a complimentary box of Christmas cakes and cookies. Very thoughtful of the hotel.
From the balcony in our rooms we were able to witness a beautiful sunset that evening.
There was a Christmas Light Up Cocktail for hotels guests at 6.30pm at the lobby that day. It was 22 Dec, and the hotel is starting its 10 days countdown festivities to the new year!
We were greeted by Christmas Caroling by the hotel staff at the lobby. It really brought out the Christmas spirit! After 45mins or so of singing , the drive way and hotel entrance was lighted up and there were artificial snow all over! Beautiful. The whole atmosphere was really cheerful.
Then drinks and some finger food was served. They had red and white wine and fruit juices and coke. There was also a cotton candy corner or kids. DD headed for that immediately! They were serving mini burgers, some canapes and some pastries.
We hung around the cocktail for a while. The kids had juices and DH and I had a glass of wine each. We also tried the mini burgers which were delicious with the carameliaed onions before we headed out to dinner.
By this time, sun has set and the resort is all lighted up. It is beautiful. It didn’t seem like I am in Singapore.
We had made dinner reservations at Trapizza, Rasa Sentosa’s casual Italian restaurant by the beach for dinner. The restaurant is actually on Siloso beach next to the hotel, just behind the Siloso Point Bus Station outside the hotel. It is a short 5 mins walks from the hotel. But if you are too lazy to walk, the hotel can arrange a buggy to take you there.
Trapizza is a proper Italian restaurant with a woddfired pizza oven. Not just a pop up frozen pizza eatery on the beach. Seatings are all alfresco style. It had rained that afternoon, so the evening was cool and comfortable.
Since we had some finger food at the cocktail earlier, we went straight for the mains. DH had the Spaghetti Aglio Olio, DS1 had Spaghetti Bolognaise, DS2 had the Lasagna Al Forno and DD had the Linguini Vongole. All of them liked their pasta.
I was not very hungry, so I order the 12 inch Pizza Pepperoni. There were about 8 slices. I ate 3 slices and the rest of them helped me with the balance 5 slices. I did pinch a spoonful each of the Spaghetti Aglio Olio from DH and the Linguini Vongole from DD. I thought they were pretty good too.
After dinner, we checked the menu for dessert but none appealed to us. Then I remember the ice cream place that we passed at Siloso Point Station when we walked here and so we decided to have our dessert there instead.
Our dinner, including a jug of coke and a pint of Tiger beer for DH was SGD157 which we felt was very reasonable. Similar to the price at Peperoni Pizzeria.
Co+Nut+Ink sells fresh young coconut, coconut drink, Coconut ice cream topped with nuts and its most popular coconut ice cream with water chestnut (a variation of the popular Thai dessert). The all decided to have the Premium Dessert which is a scope of coconut ice cream (more like sorbet rather than creamy ice cream actually) served in half a fresh coconut and topped with chopped water chestnuts coated in tapioca flour jelly. It also comes with a small cup of fresh coconut juice. Each serving cost SGD6.80, but if you buy two, it is SGD6.50 each.
This is absolutely delicious! The coconut sorbet reminds me of my favourite coconut sorbet served by Greyhound Cafe in Bangkok! So light! The coconut juice was refreshing! So glad we came here for dessert! It was so good that we came back for more the next day!
Next to this ice cream store is a 24 hour 7-Eleven convenience store. Great place a get some breakfast stuff, snacks, tidbits or but whatever that you may have forgotten to bring. We decided to get some potato chips.
After that, we went back to our rooms and called it a night. It had been a tiring but fun day!