Visiting Singapore; Marina Bay Sands
Hotel, Resort & Casino; Resorts World Casino; Sentosa Island, Singapore; Sky
Park; Sky Garden; Din Tai Fung.
During our last visit to Singapore, we were fortunate enough
to have our friends offer to show us Singapore by car for two days.
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| Our Friends in Singapore |
They picked us up at the airport and on the way to our
hotel, the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, we were able to see many of the changes in Singapore’s
beautiful skyline and downtown area.
Marina Bay Sands Hotel is an integrated resort totaling 20
hectares of land which includes the hotel, shopping, a casino, and much, much
more, located along the shore of Singapore’s Marina Bay.
The developers, Las Vegas Sands, states that this is world's
most expensive standalone casino property totaling about $8 billion Singapore dollars!
When it was completed, it was the
world's largest atrium casino with 500 tables and 1,600 slot machines.
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| Marina Bay - Photo is Courtesy of the Internet |
This fabulous hotel includes three massive towers with 2,561
rooms, a 1,300,000 sq. ft. convention & exhibition center, a 1,000,000 sq.
ft. shopping mall (The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands) with over 300 retail stores,
an Art & Science Museum, two large theaters (The Sands Theater and Grand
Theater with a seating capacity of 1,680 people and 2,155 people respectively),
six premier chef restaurants (including: Cut (by Wolfgang Puck), Waku Ghin (by
Tetsuya Wakuda), Pizzeria and Osteria Mozza (by Mario Batali), Guy Savoy (by
Guy Savoy), DB Bistro Moderne (by Daniel Boulud) , two floating Crystal
Pavilions, and a 6,500 sq. ft. skating rink.
Stretching across the three towers of this complex is a
1,120 ft. long SkyPark with a maximum capacity of almost 4,000 people and an
impressive 490 ft. infinity swimming
pool, set on top of the world's largest public cantilevered platform, which
overhangs the north tower by 220 ft. This swimming pool is situated over 625 ft. (191
meters) above ground and holds over 375,000 gallons of water.
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| Sands Resort Swimming Pool |
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| Sands Resort Swimming Pool |
The lobby of this stunning hotel is the largest lobby I have
ever seen in the world. In my lifetime
of travel around the USA and world, I have probably stayed at more than 1,500
different hotels around the world, so believe me when I say, this lobby is huge.
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| Sands Hotel Lobby |
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| A very sweet and friendly staff member at Check-In ! |
The staff at the reception area are well trained, courteous,
kind and very helpful. I mentioned I
would be enjoying my birthday during my stay, and reception arranged a nice
surprise for me up in my room, and boy was it delicious !!!
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| First Class Service for my FREE Birtday Cake .... Yummy! |
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| Happy Birthday Cake for Me ! |
Of course, we had to relax after our arrival, and there is
no better place to just that other that the infinity pool at the top of the
resort. Plenty of room for long swimming
laps, for relaxing in the pools’ water fountains, benches, and the jacuzzi’s. From the pool, you will enjoy incredible
sights of the Singapore sky line, and the sights in the pool area are very nice
as well!!!!
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| What a Beautiful City View ! |
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| More Great Views |
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| More Great Views |
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| More Great Views |
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| More Great Views |
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| Peace and Tranquility at the Sky Pool |
From the Sky Park and our Hotel room, we were able to get
several nice pictures of the area around this fabulous Hotel & Resort, such
as the Sky Garden Park.
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| Sky Garden |
Later on that afternoon, they took us to Sentosa Island, and
then a wonderful dinner that evening. The
Island was renamed from Pulau Blakang Mati to Sentosa Island in 1972. The island can be accessed from Singapore city by car tunnel,
by cable car, by monorail and by foot. In 1974, the cable car was built linking
Sentosa to Mount Fabar in Singapore. The
(10) years later in 1982, the monorail was opened in 1982, and the causeway
bridge was opened in 1992. The monorail
was closed in 2005, and a new high speed “Sentosa Express” opened in 2007. Finally, the foot bridge for walking
pedestrians opened in 2011.
The island has had tourist attractions for decades, and
these attractions generate about 20 million visitors per year.
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| Entering Sentosa Island on the Causeway Bridge |
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| Sentosa Cable Car |
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| Sentosa Express Monorail |
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| Sentosa Cable Car |
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| Entrance to Sentosa Beach |
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| Maritime Experimental Museum & Sea Aquarium |
Most famous is the tallest Merlion statue in
Singapore. The merlion has been a
marketing tool and is widely used as a mascot and national personification of
Singapore. You can even find images of
the Merlion on many Singapore postage stamps.
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| The Famous Singapore Merlion on Sentosa Island |
Resorts World Hotel was a huge undertaking and the developers
spent almost $5.0 Billion USD on this project.
Not only are there six (6) hotels with a total of 1840 rooms. And a
massive 15,000 sq. ft. casino, but there is also many fine restaurants, spas, a
large shopping mall, a Marine Life Park, a Maritime Experimental Museum and
Universal Studios Singapore!!
After dinner, my wife just had to go to find delicious
durian back in Singapore.
In my last blog, I showed several photos of the durian that they
purchased, opened and ate, but like I said in that blog, durian is just not for
me.
As many of you know, I do collect casino chips and enjoy
some gaming experiences at casinos. This
trip, Singapore has two of the larger casinos in the world at the Marina Bay
Sands and at Resorts World on Sentosa Island.
This was a lucky trip for me because
at the Sands Casino, I won a few hundred Singapore dollars at the casino, but
at the Resorts World Casino, I won over $1000 Singapore on one hand at a table
game. What a great way to help fund our
vacation to Singapore!
By the way, photos inside the casinos in Singapore are prohibited.
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| Entrance to Resorts World Casino |
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| Entrance to Resorts World Casino |
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| Beautiful Orchids Everywhere in Singapore |
Below are some of the Casino chips from the two casinos that
I collected from the gaming tables during my visit.
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| My Singapore and Sentosa Island Casino Chips |
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The next day, we did have a chance to go shopping at the
many, many shops at the Marina Bay Sands Resort.
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| A glimpse of the Marina Bay Sands Mall |
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| Leaving Hotel Reception to our Hotel Room |
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| On Display in the Mall |
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| On Display in the Mall |
We found a store there that rented either a
red or yellow Ferrari by the hour. (We also found one of these Ferrari rentals in
Dubai as well.)
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| Ferrari Ultimate Drive |
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| Ferrari Ultimate Drive |
Later that evening, we saw both of these incredible cars
parked outside the Sands Hotel!
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| Actual Ferrari's for Rent at Ultimate Drive, Parked outside the Hotel |
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| Actual Ferrari's for Rent at Ultimate Drive, Parked outside the Hotel |
When we found a Din Tai Fung restaurant in Singapore, we had
to stop and enjoy a nice snack. This is
one of our favorite restaurant chains, and we have eaten at their stores in the
US, Taiwan, China and now Singapore. If
you like Xiao Long Bao dumplings, Din Tai Fung has some of the best in the
world!!!!
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| Din Tai Fung |
We also tried some local food during our stay.
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| Local food Famous for their Southeast Asian Chicken dish |
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| Delicious !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
