MOUNT HUTT NEW ZEALAND SKI FIELDS
Visited 20 June 2015, posted 20 Nov 2015
Mt Hutt Ski Holiday
J wanted badly to experience a winter holiday as he had not felt real snow before. We made him work very hard at his academic, music, chores and wushu for an entire year to ‘earn’ sufficient star points for this trip and he was very motivated to do so. We had planned to go to Mt Buller in Melbourne where hubby and I used to ski in our uni days but alas, snow in the Victorian Alps comes later and later each year. In 2014, snowfall only came in the last week of June. Given the fact that June hols for our school going kids in Singapore end in the last week of June, we decided to look further south for a snow holiday.
Chan Brothers offered us a good deal for a 4N stay in Methven where kids under 10 ski, stay and eat for free. For about $1600 per adult and $1200 for a child, we flew by SQ on a 10 hour flight overnight to Christchurch. Then rented a car from Hertz (we wanted a new car, hence we didn’t go for a budget car rental which in our experience, will rent rather old and possibly unreliable car) at $100 a day and drove 3 hours (180km) to Kaikoura to whale and seal watch.
wild life at Willowbank
Near the Christchurch airport are two attractions the kids would love. The Willowbank Wildlife park is just 10 minutes north of the airport and has a good variety of wildlife animals including the Tuatara (NZ native lizard which ) and the biggest Kiwi enclosure in NZ (tread quietly in the cool dark enclosure to spot the shy birds, we spotted only one brown kiwi which was quite large).
feeding eels
Do buy the animal feeding food and you can feed large eels (quite scary experience, remember to use the spoon attached to the platform for this), farm animals like horse, lamb, free roaming chickens, ducks, roosters and hens. Our favourite were the tame gentle and beautiful deer who licked up the food from my hands. This was supposed to be an exposure for J who was afraid of animals but he ended up very afraid as the hungry geese and hens ran after him for food. It was our first stop after getting off the plane with little sleep so J was grouchy and very cold (2 degrees Celsius). The park was deserted and at 10am, we were the only visitors. Hence, all the attention from the animals were on us for food!
Kaikoura landscape
We stayed at the Hamptons B&B, very hospitable couple hosted us. The property was newly renovated and spacious rooms faced the sea. We enjoyed hearing the lapping waves on the shores when we slept at night.
Helicopter whale watch ride
I had visited Kaikoura before and fell in love with the scenery, the snow-capped mountains meet the sea in dramatic ways. Maybe I’ll retire here J The last time I was here with a group of friends we didn’t get to see the whales because of poor weather. This time, we decided against the 2.5 hour boat ride on choppy seas to whale watch and opted for a half hour helicopter ride instead (at double the price!). We had the whole heli to ourselves and the whole experience was very professionally run. We were lucky to spot 3 humpback migratory whales and 2 sperm whales. We could circle the whale to see the entire 10 minutes they took to surface and breath before diving into the deep sea again. The heli alerted the whale watch boats where the location of the whales were but they could not arrive in time to see any action. That’s the risk of going out in the boat, you also only see the tail and not the body of the whale seen in the aerial view but you’ll get a close up feeling whereas the heli is quite high up and you won’t experience the sheer enormous size of the whale next to your boat.
meeting seals in the forest
We saw lots of seals at the seal colony from the carpark, you’ll see seals lying all over the place! This can’t beat the experience we had with a 30min drive up the highway to Ohau waterfalls where you’ll see seal pups trekking 100m from the coast inland into the forest to play in the freshwater waterfall!
seal pups play in this fresh water waterfall at Oahu
We met some pups as we trekked inside the forest! What a close up experience, it was amazing.
view from hotel
It snowed when we arrived at Methven, first time for my son and hubby experiencing fresh snow fall. They were both excited and we built a snowman, not so easy though. Methven exists as a farming community most part of the year and is very small and quiet little town. It comes alive as a snow city during winter.
empty ski slopes with powdery snow
Every morning, the ski bus comes round to pick us up to drive one hour up the mountain to Mt Hutt ski area. I must say the Mt Hutt children’s ski school is very well run. Their instructors are very good, compared with our experience in Mt Buller. They are very well organised and their instructors are great with children. Since we were there at the start of the snow season before the NZ school hols in July, we paid for group lesson but J had 2 coaches following him the whole day, talk about one-to-one or two-to-one coaching. It was no wonder (also because of his good sense of balance from martial arts) that he progressed to the higher slopes taking the ski lift the next day, much to my worry seeing him go up on the lift so high till I can’t spot him. He had a ball of a time and got a bit angry with us when we told him we weren’t signed up for the third day of lessons. Remember not to overdress so many layers for skiing as we actually perspire even in the cold, from the exertion of the sport. Do warm up, especially adults or we’ll risk spraining an ankle or leg. Be prepared to fall many times if you’ve haven’t skied before. Knowing inline skating or ice skating will help with your ability to balance when you learn to ski. For kids, make sure they wear long socks (J wore soccer socks) that cover the shin area which presses against the boots quite a bit.
We spent the third day at a local farm instead. Through the arrangement of the I-site info centre, a 82 year old farmer who was as strong as a young man, came to pick us up for a farm tour. Viv showed us to his donkeys, lamb, miniature ponies, hens, cattle. With personal coaching and demonstration from a farmer, J summoned enough courage to stroke the donkey and fed the lamb and hens. He even got to sit on a huge tractor, a highlight for him.
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GARDENS BY THE BAY @ Night (Lantern Festival)
Visited 27 Sept 2013, posted 3 Dec 2013
J wanted to take his little dragon traditional candle-lighted lantern to somewhere where people actually carried lanterns (nobody seems to be carrying lantern around housing estates these days, not even at the lantern festival events at the neighbourhood!). We found out that this year's mid-autumn festivities with lantern displays was held not at the usual Chinese Gardens but being held inaugural at Gardens by the Bay instead. We heard they had dino displays this year (to J's delight) so we made it a point to go down to take a look.
Some dinosaurs were not accurately depicted, according to J. He stood in front of the dino display and tried to educate some people that the short ones were not 'baby stegosaurus' but Diemetrodons instead. There were not that many displays in the large field next to many booths serving Taiwanese and local snacks.
There was a floating lantern structure at the pond and Xmas came early as the tall tree structures were lighted like Xmas trees. We were pleased at the night photography capabilities of our old humble point and shoot camera.
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Sentosa Adventure Cove Water Park - July 2013.
When J and I arrived at the theme park (after J’s ice skating in the morning), it was almost noon and the crowds began to swell. It didn’t help that we chose to visit the park the first day it re-opened after the thick haze settled.
We headed for Bluwater Bay (stimulated wave pool, see pic above) where a sea of sunbathers bobbed up and down the waves which were rather strong, I must say. J had a good time with his god sisters there. The two 7 year olds also had buckets of fun (literally) with the 2 open slides at the Big Bucket Tree house (pic above) where the wait at 2pm was about 5-10 mins to get onto a slide. You’ll need to climb your way up stairs and netted ropes and try to avoid others splashing buckets of water on you as you climb up the 2-3 storeys. J's god sis was tall and she and her dad tried the Duel Racer (see top pic) where you lie down frontwards on a mat and slide down a steep slide.
There is a Seahorse Hideaway splash/wading pool for the younger children and the young ones can also go down the lazy river ride on the Adventure river on a big tube float passing through lush garden, water falls , a dark grotto (where the water is illuminated in blue, see pic below), a tunnel with marine life on top of you and the ray pool where you get to see the sting rays as you glide down the river, this was quite a treat for the kids.
We didn’t try to snorkel with the marine life at the Rainbow Reef (below pic) because the crowds were huge, the line was long and the bottom line is that I think it’s not environmentally friendly for the poor marine life who may be stressed out by so many visitors trying to touch them! But you can view the marine life from outside through glass panels and it’s a pretty sight on its own.
We ate pasta $12.90 (kid’s meal with a juice), sausage meals $14 and cold sandwiches $7 at the Bay Restaurant. Food wasn’t good and it was expensive.
I would have liked to try the other rides like Whirlpool washout, tidal twister and pipeline plunge but because of the queues (one hour long for each by 3pm), we decided to pick one. On the recommendation of our friend, J and I queued one hour for the Riptide Rocket without knowing what we were in for (J regretted it!)…while lining up for the ride, we saw that we had to sit a 2-man raft on a conveyor belt upwards to the top of the hill and then we couldn’t see what goes on after that until the raft splashes out of the tunnel into a 1.2m deep pool. It was a roller coaster ride actually, after you enter the tunnel downwards, you actually ‘fly’ upwards on a electro-magnetic track (defying gravity) and whizz downwards again and up again a few times. Poor J closed his eyes as he was rather terrified, not expecting a roller coaster ride on water! I on the other hand, enjoyed myself thoroughly and comforted him saying that at least he accompanied mummy who got to do a thrill ride on the eve of my birthday! J couldn’t walk straight after that and spent some time bobbing up and down in the wave pool before heading home at closing time (6pm).
Entrance fees are $29 ($33 peak) for adults and $20 ($23 peak) for kids below 12.
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LEGOLAND
June 2013
Thank goodness our planned trip to Legoland occurred the week before the bad haze days hit Singapore and Malaysia. We had to cancel a subsequent planned outreach trip to a children’s home in late June because of the choking haze. Due to some miscommunication, our initial plan to set off at 730am in the morning in order to have breakfast in JB was changed to setting off at almost 9am instead. We went through the 2nd link at Tuas and it was not difficult to drive to Legoland as there were signs on the way. Make sure you have a Touch and Go card for the toll though, for the Malaysian customs side. More details on driving into JB legoland can be found on the informative mom’s blog called Jayne. Jayne’s blog also provided details on where to eat around Legoland area.
the only shelter you'll see for a long time!
Lego City
Legoland is divided into 5 sections – Lego City, Land of Adventure, Imagination, Lego Kingdom and Lego Technic. The boys wanted to try the driving school first and they headed for the Junior Driving school only to be turned away as this is for 3-5 year olds driving around a small track. The boys had to sign up for the Nissan Driving school (6-13 yrs) where they lined up for about 15 mins to get into an instructional room, after which they were let out into the driving tracks which had roads, traffic lights, crossings, car parks that mimic real roads. The boys loved this! While they were queuing up for the driving school, kiasu mum me lined up for the Boating school where each boat can take 2-3 passengers. This was not bad.
We decided to get some early lunch before the crowds swarmed the cafes so we chose to eat at the Market Restaurant. The food was so-so, we ate chicken rice set which costs us about SGD12 each which came with a drink. The 2 younger boys did the Lego Airport planes merry go round where the planes went up and down, nothing a 7 year old can’t handle, this was quite a mild ride. Rescue Academy was good fun as you get to pump up and down to move a Fire Truck to rescue a building on fire, you’ll have to hose the fire out accurately and it was like a contest where 4 trucks will race off. J and daddy won the race and were very pleased about it. Good team work, boys! There weren’t queues for the Lego Airport and Rescue Academy, only the driving and boating schools so far.
Land of Adventure
We went to the Lost Kingdom Adventure (short queue) where you sat in moving cars and shoot laser beams to uncover treasures and earn points for being a sharp shooter. The boys loved it. We skipped the Pharaoh’s Revenge (indoor playground) and Beetle Bounce (sitting on a long bench chair you are brought to a height and let down bit by bit, bouncing – not something to do after a heavy lunch). J’s god brother wanted to do the Dino Island which was a boat you took to a height and plunge down amidst dino landscape but we advised him against getting himself wet. There were Body dryer kiosks where big dryers will blow you dry for a fee RM10.
Imagination
At Imagination land, we went up the Observation Tower which was a circular structure with seats and it spins round slowly so you get a 360 degree view of the surrounding land as you rise up, there was no queue when we went so we were up and down in 15 mins. There is a Duplo Express kiddy train ride in the middle of the land for toddlers. There is also a Kid Power Tower where you hoist yourself up in a chair via a pulley system, it’s really your own kid’s power of arms that will bring him as high as he can hoist his own weight. There is a Duplo Playtown playground for toddlers and younger kids and a Duplo Express small choo-choo train for toddlers. We went into the 4D lego studio where you can watch a 4D lego movie with moving chairs, 3D glasses and water spluttering at you, they have 4 movies which they interchange at every hour. The boys really loved the Build and Test centre where you can build your own vehicle with lego blocks and test it in a race downhill with other’s creation – where your creativity and engineering skills are put to test. The parents loved the respite from the heat in the air-conditioned centre so we stayed quite a while there!
duplo express
Lego Kingdoms
This is where dragons, castles and knights take centre-stage. Our 7-8 year old boys were so excited with this themed land. They went on the Dragon’s apprentice roller coaster which was exciting for them, not too scary. We didn’t try the main big roller coaster called the Dragon. There are height limits for these rides. I recall those lower than 1.2m must be adult accompanied and you have to be at least 1 m tall to go on most of the rides. The kids also did a mini-carousel type of ride called Merlin’s challenge which goes round in a circle fast. There is also a ride called the Royal Joust where you sit on a horse as a knight with a joust spear and the horse goes round a track quite slowly, not a thrilling ride but you get to pretend to be a knight in a battle.
dragon's apprentice
joulst
Lego Technic
There is a wet ride here called Aquazone Wave Racer where you shoot guns while being whizzed about on a platform, standing up. It looked rather dangerous, I think it’s best to be older (like in your teens) when you try this ride. You can shoot water guns at the Water splash area, the boys had a whale of a time here, lucky we brough a change of clothes. I don’t fancy paying RM10 to go into the dryer booth. Project X is a high roller coaster where you sit in a lego car with 3 other persons and the cars move fast and slow up on a very high coaster platform structure, it looked scary to me. We went on the Technic twister which is actually spinning tea cups, J always likes this ride.
Miniland
Our last stop was the Miniland where we saw minituare models of Asian sites like Taj Mahal, Borobudur, Angkor Wat, Thai Palace, KL Petronas Towers, Singapore waterfront, airport (with moving planes and cargo trucks), a port, a pirate ship display and others. We ended the afternoon with a ride around the park on the Legoland Express train.
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SEA Aquarium Resorts World Sentosa
Visited 26 May 2013
The Oceanarium
I had intended to give the Oceanarium a miss because I was quite upset with the Dolphin issue in which the Oceanarium was embroiled in recently. However, my brother-in-law bought tickets for the whole family and suggested to celebrate J’s birthday with an extended family outing so I went along to support the celebration.
We were first greeted with a huge tank containing a shipwreck that evolved into a marine habitat containing giant grouper, threadfin trevally, batfish from the Java seas. J was awed by the sheer size of the aquarium display. As you walk, there are aquariums at your feet and you can see fishes through the glass floor, young children will be thrilled to bits. There is also a Discovery Touch Pool where you can feel star fish, sea cucumber and sea urchins though I can imagine how ‘stressed’ these marine creatures are at being prodded by so many hands crowding the touch pool.
The Laccadive Ocean display had many colourful corals and marine fishes which was my favourite. I saw the indo-pacific bottle-nose dolphins as they played in the pool and swam close to the glass wall, much to the children’s delight. These dolphins were the centre of the controversy, some died enroute to the Oceanarium and there were wild life activists protesting against keeping them here in captivity. But RWS is taking great pains in explaining that the marine life’s welfare is of utmost importance to them and that they are ensuring the creatures are being protected from harm. This was their response when I wrote to them lodging my observation at the huge amount of flash photography that was carried out by visitors in the acquarium and I was wondering how this affected the marine life. RWS told me they will take care to reduce the flash photography if it in fact does affect the marine life.
first of two tunnels, this one as you enter
schools of schooling fish
The displays of the translucent jelly fishes looked surreal to me. the man-of-war with it long trailing tentacles and the dancing jelly fishes of the deep oceans – what a sight!
There were other displays categorised according to the seas – East Africa, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, South-China Sea. I liked the colourful African lakes freshwater fishes, they were one the prettiest, in my opinion.
The super giant theatre tank that housed the Open Sea with its leopard sharks, giant manta rays, eels looked like a cinema screen, according to J. It was so big that it had 3 level layers in the viewing gallery.
J’s favourite must have been the Shark tunnel with it’s silver tip and hammerheads swimming across your ‘ceiling’. There are seemingly 200 sharks in this tunnel display. The family had a great time, we adjourned for lunch (couldn’t find a seat in most restaurants) at the Xiao Long Bao La Mien place and spent slightly over $100 for 8 of us eating mainly La Mien with some side order dishes.
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Mosaic Fun - April 2013
This is not a playground of any sort but I included it in this blog because it is one of the rare places offering mosaic especially tailored for kids and they have very flexi classes which are reasonably priced. My mom who is a very crafty person decided to expose J to some mosaic art when she saw how other young kids developed fine motor skills and could handle the small pieces of mosaic with dexterity. J took a walk-in trial class by buying a craft project (he chose a dinosaur fridge magnet costing $14 because it had a big surface to fill and opted for shimmery more expensive tiles) which costs between $10 - $30+ which could be fridge magnets, photo-frame, candle-holder, book cover etc. The tiles and materials as well as instruction and guidance from a teacher comes free with the price of the project.
J and my mom had great fun choosing the colourful tiles and shapes and planning how to decorate the dinosaur. The guidance given by the craft teacher was also good – she was attentive and yet allowed J’s creativity to charter the path of his project. A small class had just ended when we entered the shop and there was one other 10 year old boy crafting a picture of a cat which looked very impressive.
I found the tiled wooden jewelry boxes, notebook covers and stools very attractive. There were even landscaped pictures on display and for sale. A beginner course for a Mirror or Notebook costs $75-80 for 6 hours (4 lessons) including adhesive, tiles and grout. Intermediate and advanced projects include coasters, lamp covers, tissue/jewellery box, coin bank, plates, furniture like stools. J completed his dino in under an hour and the teacher ‘buried’ it in sand to form the background (grout), you can choose the colour of your grout to match your work.
Fun Mosaic
Bukit Timah Plaza #01-01
1 Jalan Anak Bukit
Tel: 646 97955 / 9878 2217
www/fun-mosaic.com
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Korea - Sept 2012
My family was invited by Korean business associates to Korea in Sept 2012 so we took the opportunity to make it a family holiday before J started formal schooling, then we would be tied to vacationing only on school hols! We were taken to the Korean Traditional Folk Village museum where we saw how Korean lived in the olden days, including how they milled and prepared food, how schooling took place, their prisons, traditional folk houses and village life and traditional games children played (above, J had a go in trying to throw a spear into a vertical structure with a hole.)
In my opinion, South Korea is not an ideal place to bring young children, aside from theTheme parks. We joined a tour group in the 2nd week of our stay and J was the only kid! Nobody else brought young kids on this trip. It was especially hard for J when we ate mainly at traditional Korean restaurants where the food can be spicy and J ended up eating plain noodles with chopsticks (no spoons or forks for the kids). Lucky for us, J had been training with those trainer Korean chopsticks since he was 2+ plus the Montessori training he received where he learnt to use chopsticks, otherwise he would be eating with his hands! On days when we could eat out ourselves, we headed for Lotteria (their version of Macdonalds which we were told, was not thriving in Korea and not very popular).
We went to Everland twice - just as well since one visit can't cover the humongous grounds of the theme park. Our hosts brought us there for an afternoon of fun where we visited Zootopia, they had a petting zoo which was great for young kids (see pic where J fed the chinchillas), a drive through Safari (long queues tho), bird santuary (where we fed the birds off our hands, great fun!). Our second visit a week later was with our tour group after returning from Jeju, and we had almost the whole day there. We caught the afternoon parade which was okay. What I liked about Everland is there there were rides suitable for toddlers (slow train rides and car rides which were 'mild'), small roller coaster, spinning cups, merry go round and revolving space ships for young children and the bigger wilder rides for the older kids, something for everyone. They have the world's steepest wooden roller coaster, you often hear screams coming from the riders. Even the old grandaunty went for the haunted house ride where you sat in a car to shoot the ghosts, great fun. The whole park was decorated for Halloween which was very colourful, with autumn flowers too, very pretty. There were European and Rose gardens for those who enjoy looking at flowers. One caution though, if you make your way down to the valley where Zootopia is, it is a rather steep climb up so it is better to catch the travelator if the queue for the chair lift is too long.
We spent about 6 hours at Lotte World from mid afternoon to about 9pm. Lotte World is a lot smaller and more compact than Everland and it has an indoor and outdoor theme park. The outdoor theme park's entrance is that of a castle and after walking through it, you can see some daredevil rides like the Gyro and Bungee(Veritcal drop), Atlantic Adventure (fast roller coaster), Gyro Swing (swings you high up and spins you in the air), Bumper cars, Flume ride, Giant Loop coaster which are meant for older kids and adults. They have something for the younger ones like the small ferris wheel, Kiddie Land pirate ship swing, car on rails slow ride.
You can take the Comet Express monorail (can be a long queue) from the indoor to the outdoor parts of the park. While indoors, there are more things for the younger child like Treeble's HOpper (kid's version of Gyro drop) which J enjoyed and laughed so much with his mouth opened and saliva dripping everywhere during the ride, the poor Korean attendant had to keep wiping his seat! There is an indoor Carousel , kiddy bumper car ride, Boong Boong Car (car ride through a candy land), Swing pang pang and Drunken baskets(twirling cups), Happy picnic (car ferris wheel indoors), Eureka (flying boats) for younger kids and an indoor roller coaster for older ones. The restaurants there aren't fantastic, we ate at a fast food joint, the burgers were so so.
You can take the Comet Express monorail (can be a long queue) from the indoor to the outdoor parts of the park. While indoors, there are more things for the younger child like Treeble's HOpper (kid's version of Gyro drop) which J enjoyed and laughed so much with his mouth opened and saliva dripping everywhere during the ride, the poor Korean attendant had to keep wiping his seat! There is an indoor Carousel , kiddy bumper car ride, Boong Boong Car (car ride through a candy land), Swing pang pang and Drunken baskets(twirling cups), Happy picnic (car ferris wheel indoors), Eureka (flying boats) for younger kids and an indoor roller coaster for older ones. The restaurants there aren't fantastic, we ate at a fast food joint, the burgers were so so.
For those of us who go to Jeju, don't miss out on the horse riding (J had his first go at riding a pony), All-terrain vehicle and the yellow submarine ride. Some complain there isn't much to see in the submarine ride but at least there is a scuba diver that feeds the fishes right outside your window and you'll see the schools of fishes, quite a treat for the young ones. The trek up Sunrise Peak is quite steep and the walk down to the long tunnel caves is interesting but wet for the kids so come prepared with brolley and rain coats. My hubby carried J on his shoulders while scaling the Peak, quite tough on him.
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Hong Kong - Jan 2012
If I had the choice I wouldn’t choose cold winter Jan tovisit HK, brr…but it conincided with the International Baby and Children’s Product fair and so Icouldn’t resist squeezing the conference together with a family vacation.Besides, Jeromesort of ‘threatened’ me by saying that if I didn’t bring him toDisneyland, he will soon be too old for it…HK Disneyland is said to be small(just nice actually for kids under 6) compared to Japan and LA’s Disneyland. Do remember to press the buttons for the express queues at the ticket counters in some rides, they will give you atiming where you can skip the queues. These can be found on some rides likeSpace mountain (I went for it yet again, enjoyed it in Japan and LA last time,but not suitable for kids below 7), winnie the pooh ride (Jerome enjoyed this though he is no longer a winnie fan by 5) and toy story shooting ride etc. We went on a school day weekday but there were still some queues and we completed the whole park in ¾ day.
We didn’t visit many sites nor did we do much shopping and eating due to my hectic schedules having to meet the Dwinguler SEA distributors and Korean reps..sigh. But we did squeeze in Victoria Peak which was really fun going up the very steep tram, Jerome asking ‘Are these the leaning towers of HK?’ referring to the seemingly slanted buildings at 45 degree angle. We found a nice playground on top of the hill (see pic above) and the Sky terrace provided a spectacular view from the top of HK, though it can be covered by smog most of the time, we are told. We also managed to catch the sounds and light night laser display at the HK skyline though the boys weren’t too impressed, me thinks our Marina Bay and Sentosa laser displays are more impressive due to the new technology.
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Singapore Flyer - Sept 2011
1 Sept saw my hubby and I celebrating Teachers’ Day with a free ride on the Singapore Flyer
for the month of Sept for all teachers. We paid for Jerome’s ticket with a 20% discount.
We went at 5+pm when there was still some parking, to catch the Flyer at dusk.
The ride was 33 mins so we made sure we took a toilet break before boarding the capsule.
It was quite exciting boarding the capsule as the capsule does not stop to pick up
passengers, you have to jump in a moving capsule..Jerome was given an activity wheel where he had to play I Spy the Merlion, gardens at the bay etc so that kept him busy.
Jerome made everyone in the capsule laughed when he asked aloud ‘Mummy, when will
we be going upside down?’ as our capsule proceeded to the top of the wheel – interesting
conception he has.
33 mins was a good period to be up in the sky, I was afraid I’d be ill with the open feeling of a great height but it was enjoyable and the view was great as the sun was setting. While at the ground, we explored the koi pond in the ‘tropical forest’ area at the bottom of the wheel and Jerome fed the fishes with fish food from the vending machine.
Good top of the world feeling, where to next for such ‘high’, Marina bay sands infinity
pool?
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Universal Studios - 1 June 2011
Dino-soarin
1 June was a weekday and we celebrated Jerome’s bday at Universal studios in the hope to avoid a crowded time at the theme park. We were there from 11am in the morning and though it wasn’t very crowded, there was a fair number of tourists lining up for the popular rides, especially those rides suitable for younger kids like Dino-Soarin (Pteranodon ride), Merry-go-round, treasure hunters, Canopy flyer, Shrek 4D.
The Canopy flyer was rather fast and can be jerky at certain turns but Daddy was with Jerome, who was fascinated with the dinosaurs he spotted below so he wasn’t afraid. Being a dino-fan, we spent most of our time at the Lost World theme park area. Jerome liked the big T-rex. Pity we couldn’t do the other rides as he was still a bit young for him. But I went ahead with the daredevil Battlestar Gallatica, though a thrilling ride, I wondered later why I ‘tortured’ myself with it as my head was knocked several times during the ride and my neck was rather stiff after the ride.
We also enjoyed the Lights, camera, action recreation of an explosion in a movie set. when Jerome shared about his experience at Universal Studios in his preschool the day after, his teacher told him there wasn’t such thing as 4D and he tried to explain that on top of the 3D effects, ‘saliva’ and ‘water’ were squirted at him during the adventure show. Well, both the teacher and Jerome were right in that there is no fourth dimension in reality but to a little boy, being a little drenched during the show was reality enough!
Madagascar merry-go-round
I thought lunch would be an expensive affair at the park but to my pleasant surprise, we spent $35 for the 3 of us at Friar’s which was not too bad at all…we didn’t cover all rides because some were not suitable for a 5 year old. Thus we managed to cover the whole park in 3+ hours including lunch. Will come back again when Jerome is older and can do the faster rides
Update: we visited Universal Studios again , this round at night on 17 June 2012 (Father's day) courtesy of my brother-in-law's company family day. Things look a little different at night (fireworks possible at 10pm, quite a treat for the young ones) and it's cooler. Jerome was brave enough at 6 yrs to try the Enchanted Airways (Far Far Away) junior roller coaster ride which was quite fast and thrilling for him, he proclaimed proudly that he did not close his eyes. The Madagascar crate adventure was so-so (a rather slow-ish boat ride, suitable for younger children and seniors) but Jerome enjoyed it, having just watched Madagascar 3. Also did the mini ferris wheel Magic Potion Spin at Far Far Away which was a rather slow-ish ride too. Transformers had awesome 3D effects though not suitable (rather violent) for a 6 year old.
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Super Star Virgo Cruise to Penang/Phuket - 2 April 2011
The Japan trip that we planned months ago was shelved because of the devastating earthquake that occurred, just 2 weeks before our planned departure. My son Jerome was so looking forward to this trip, we were to celebrate Gus and my 10th wedding anniversary. Jerome was reading up everything Japanese and even learning the language to prepare himself…what a let-down. But it was a good opportunity to bring home a lesson of empathy for the Japanese people and children who lost their homes and loved ones in this disaster, he now prays nightly for them.
We replaced the Japan trip with a 4D3N cruise on the Super Star Virgo to Penang and Phuket the very last minute and thanks to a nice friend who had a VIP card, we got ourselves a balcony room at a fraction of the cost! This was our first cruise so we were all very excited.
The check-in was relatively fast, probably because we were in balcony class and went not during the peak season in early April. The room was more spacious than we expected of a cruise cabin, it was a pretty decent size (see pic of balcony view & cabin, excuse the mess) and we awoke each morning to a different scene which can be appreciated right on the bed, wonderful! The engine of the ship was not loud, a slight purring sound which you can hear when you lay on the bed.
our messy balcony cabin
The food at the Chinese Restaurant Pavilion was yummy, especially their sang tang (double stock soup), we ate there most of the time, service was quick too as the food (4 dishes and a soup) were standard for everyone. Breakfast there was dim sum, not bad and we got a table by the window most of the time, Jerome loved eating indoor in air con by the waters (so to speak). We tried Bella Vista (western) for their American-style breakfast (good stuff) and lunch (3 course meal – we had salmon pasta, soup, dessert ice cream/chocolate pudding). You’ll have to ‘dress up’ for dinner in this restaurant (no open-toe footwear and shorts or sandals, guys with collar polo at the least). The Mediterranean Terrace served international buffet and was so so. We were usually early for meals so we didn’t face much of a queue, also because it was off peak. There were 6 other restaurants available but it was not part of the package (ie. you have to pay to eat there). We only tried the Japanese restaurant which was ‘okay’ standard for the Gala night dinner. For normal paying passengers of the balcony class rooms, you would get a $200 dining credit with your room card but we were guests so we didn’t get the credit.
Neptune’s Wet N Wild and Toddler Pool with an Ocean view at the back of the ship
We spent quite a bit of time at the arcade and outdoors playing table tennis and at the kid’s pool. I was tempted to try the big slide but decided it was too troublesome as it was located at the Parthenon Pool (adult’s pool 1.7m deep with 4 jacuzzis) at the otherside of the ship from the children’s fun pools. Jerome enjoyed himself at the toddler’s pool though he was not too keen on the slides at Neptune’s Wet and Wild (see pic) which most kids loved. As he gets older, he develops more fears like getting splashed in the face down the slide when he loved being dunked as a baby during classes at Marsden swim school…sigh, talk about regressing. Talking about fears, Jerome was frightened of the mascots on board, including Charlie the penguin, a clown, a tiger and a pirate which most kids loved to take photos with.
We went to the open house at Charlie’s Childcare centre – the facilities were not bad, they had a decent size indoor play structure which Jerome loved, a soft play area for toddlers, a dining and sleeping area, a movie room with bean bags, a reading and craft area, a pantry, child toilets. However, we decided not to put him at the childcare centre because of two reasons – one: we saw a child being admitted when she seemed to be sick, no temperature or health checks were taken at the door. We actually paid for the session for Jerome, it was a face painting and free play (there were activities almost every hour including pizza making, crafts, costume party) but asked for a refund because we didn’t want him to catch any virusses from other kids. The second reason was our doubt as to the suitability of the child-minding (sorry, this must be because my standards are high – the more I read up on early childhood education for my doctoral studies, the higher my expectations of others…not realistic you might think…but it’s my paranoid self coming to play). During the crew show on the second night (kudos for the crew putting up an entertaining show), there were segments where the ship ‘divas’ came out to sing and dance (cross-dressing act). On the intinerary (we were given a daily newletter of the happenings on the ship which was good), it was labelled as ‘family fun’ but we disagreed that a cross-dressing act with lewd actions can be considered family fun. Jerome was rather confused during the show…he asked ‘is that a monster? is it a man or a woman?’ and I had a hard time trying to explain ‘cross dressing’ to him and made a joke out of it. The children who were in Charlie’s childcare centre were brought to see this show which had the mascots coming out during the finale (probably the only part suitable for the kids). These kids had front row seats and sat through the entire ‘diva’ performances together with their childminders. We began to doubt the suitability of the childminding at that point. I have no doubt that other parents have put their kids in the centre and they had lots of fun, it’s just that hubby and I decided Jerome was better off with us. Because of this, we didn’t have much time for ourselves – my plan to visit the spa was shelved.
We looked forward to the shore excursions and after reading up some reviews, decided against buying any excursion packages from the ship as they were overpriced. We did some of the things ourselves by hiring a taxi for a few hours (must bargain with driver), at a fraction of the package cost.
sunset at Penang seen from our cabin
Penang – we docked at Georgetown (in the city) and disembarked by noon. Our plan to go to Penang Hill was shelved because the venicular which we wanted Jerome to experience, was being fixed. So it was a shopping trip. We were taken to Gurney Plaza (upmarket shopping like any shopping centre along Orchard road, prices no different we found) and Prangin Mall ( a let down as half the shops were abandoned). We regretted not going to foody places instead, that would have been the speciality of Penang (Penang laksa, chendol, char kuay teow and indian rojak…sigh). We bought quite a bit of local goodies from a local produce shop though, like my favourite chicken biscuits and shek kia ma. Some things sold there were made in china, so be careful what you buy, read the labels. We returned to the ship at 5pm to prepare for the Gala dinner.
Gala dinner – everyone dressed up, well, some more than others. I would have preferred to watch the Gala show first at 7.15pm then catch a late dinner but Jerome’s tummy couldn’t wait. We ate till 8pm and went for the show at 9pm by which time Jerome was sleepy and fell asleep before the acrobats that he was looking forward to came out. It was a Russian production, not bad for entertainment and circus acts. We couldn’t stay till the end because Jerome was asleep on daddy’s shoulder.
View of Superstar Virgo from Patong beach
Phuket – We disembarked quite early at 9+ in the morning, the ship dropped anchor just off Patong beach and we took a small boat to shore, Jerome liked the ride. We followed our friends who knew their way about, hired a tuk tuk for 200 baht (4 adults and a child) and went to Jongceylon shopping centre’s market and mall. The wet market which was just beyond the shopping mall had lots of local produce, we bought mangoes, plain dumplings, fish maw, dried shrimps for a good price and they were fragrant and fresh. The mangoes we bought tasted delicious, according to our families who ate them back home in Singapore. After the morning’s shopping, our friends (two senior ladies) decided to head back to the ship for lunch after a thai massage. We proceede to the beach for some sand play which we promised Jerome and he had a good time at the beach (water and sand is so-so at Patong beach, a highly commercialised stretch) although it was very hot.
Jerome’s shots (his love for photography must be daddy’s influence)
Jerome (at 4.5 yrs) took his camera along and snapped some good pics. The photo of the beach and tuk tuk are taken by him.
All in all, we had a pretty good time although hubby still prefers Club Med where the food is available almost 24/7. His only grouse is that there are specific timings for eating on board this ship….
See also my blog on infant-toddler and preschooler child development - sharing from my doctoral studies on early childhood education and my product reviews on kids stuff
Infant-toddler resource blog
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