The Singapore Flyer (View from the TOP)

The Singapore Flyer is a towering 165 meters structure above an extensive spread of water, with an outstanding view of Singapore's fascinating cityscape.

It gives a 30 minutes glimpse of Singapore's perfect skyline,  especially during a clear weather.

Your Singapore Flyer experience starts with the Journey of Dreams Interactive Gallery. It is a multi-media showcase that gives visitors a better appreciation of the Singapore Flyer.

VISITORS INFORMATION

(As of December 2014)

 

Opening Hours: 9am to 10pm (last service at 9:30pm)

 

Ticket prices: Adult SGD33 / Child SGD21 (Note that you can also get discounted tickets by buying combo attractions.  I bought mine via Asia Travel and availed of a 3 in 1 combo which included: Singapore Flyer, DUCKtours and Gardens by the Bay). 

 

To reach Singapore Flyer: 

• Nearest MRT - Promenade Station (CC4 on Circle Line / DT15 on Downtown Line) - about 5 minutes walk to Singapore Flyer (Exit A)

OR

 

• Take a Taxi (SGD15) from the Orchard Area.  It drops you right in front of the Singapore Flyer building.

 

Legoland Malaysia (A Dream come true for Lego Fans)

Legoland Malaysia is a dream come true for Lego lovers and fanatics. The park is located in Johor Bahru, Malaysia's southern most city.  It is actually closer to Singapore than Kuala Lumpur, hence the suggested point of entry is via Singapore. 


The Park is divided in 6 major zones. These are (counter-clockwise): 

1. Lego City is where you can find most of the kiddie rides and attractions.  

• Lego Rescue Academy*. The boys love this family firemen role-play competion with other families.  My boys did all the work, as I cheer them on.  Of course, we WON!!!

• Lego City Airport. My son piloted a plane while I co-pilot.

  

• Boating School*.  The boats were quite difficult to navigate.  My eldest was very good at it, while my husband and youngest struggled a bit...

My serious boat captain.

• The Driving School* was one of my boys' favorite attractions.  My youngest was quite proud to drive his first Lego car and get his own Lego driver's license after (He wore it the entire duration of our Singapore-Malaysia vacation. Yup, even in USS - check out his USS picture with his Papa here).  

• Junior Driving School for toddlers (pass).

• The Shipyard is a playground for younger children (pass).

• The LEGOLAND Express* is a mini train that goes around the park.  It is a good and easy way to tour the park, while resting your tired feet.

2. Land of Adventure takes you to:

• Lost Kingdom Adventure* is a ride to an Egyptian-themed landscape on board a jungle vehicle, while armed with laser blaster.  Your goal: to shoot enemy mummies and tomb creatures.

• Beetle Bounce (pass)

• Dino Island* is a river raft jump ride similar to Enchanted Kingdom's Jungle Log Jump (pass)

• Pharaoh's Revenge is a play gym for small children (pass) 

3. Imagination is a place for Lego fans creative minds. Here guests can bring their imaginings to life. 

• Kid Power Tower you pull yourself up to get a vista of the park (tiring - pass).

• Observation Tower is actually an observation deck, that gives you a 360 degrees view of the park.

• Lego Studio** is a LEGOLAND's theatre showing Lego movies with 4D features.  If you have time suggest you watch all the movies.  Click here for the latest schedule - Lego Studio Shows.

• Duplo Play Town is an interactive playground for small children (pass)

• Duplo Express is a mini train for much smaller children (pass).

4. Lego Kindgoms is a legend and myths themed zone. 

• Forestmen's Hideout is a play gym for school age children (pass). 

• Dragon Apprentice* is mini roller coaster ride for school age children.

Courtesy of LEGOLAND Malaysia webpage.

• Royal Joust is a medieval contest on a Lego horse.  Boys particularly loved riding the Lego horses all dressed up in medieval outfit. 

• Merlin Challenge is a high speed carousel (pass).

• The Dragon is Dragon Apprentice's mommy.  It is a huge roller coaster for thrill seekers. None of my boys wanted to ride with me after the Dragon Apprentice experience (pass). 

5. Lego Technic has action packed rides and exciting workshops for older children.  

• Technic Twister you spin the wheel to control your ride (pass)

• AQUAZONE is a wave surf type of ride, where viewers can water bomb riders (pass - not cool, unless you want to get wet)

• Project X* is an 18 meters high crazy ride. I so wanted to ride this one, but you know about the Dragon Apprentice experience already, so I would no longer elaborate (pass).

• Lego Star Wars Miniland* is the latest of Legoland's attractions.   The park has recreated various scenes from the Star Wars  movie.  On display are about 2000+ well known Star Wars models  and iconic scenes.

6. Mini Land* is the center piece of  the LEGOLAND theme park.  We were awestruck to learn it took LEGOLAND Master Builders three years and 30 Million Lego Bricks to recreate some of Asia's best known landmarks. 

We so Love LEGOLAND where everything is Awesome!

Please check LEGOLAND Malaysia website on how to get there, pricing and latest promotions -
LEGOLAND MALAYSIA WEBSITE.

Must see attractions and rides are in "*", meanwhile we did not ride attractions labelled "pass".

Feel free to ask me questions about LEGOLAND Malaysia, I would be happy to help.

SINGAPORE DAY 8 (SEA Aquarium)

Day 8.  Our last day in Singapore is a visit to the South East Asia Aquarium (more popularly known as SEA Aquarium).

Your journey begins with a tour of Asian maritime heritage at the Maritime Experiential Museum.

 

The SEA Aquarium is home to over 100,000 marine animals of over 800 species, across 49 different habitats.  

 

 

My boys were so enthralled with the multitude of marine animals present in the park. 

 

 

SEA Aquarium has 6 major attractions:

• Maritime Experiential Museum
• Typhoon Theatre
• Shipwreck Habitat
• Ocean Gallery
• Ocean Dome
• Shark Seas

 

My family's favorite attraction was the Ocean Dome. The Ocean Dome gives guests a 180 degrees vista of the Open Ocean habitat through the largest underwater acrylic dome 9m in diameter.

 

 

 

 

My boys occupied a window nook at the Ocean Dome and spent time admiring the marine animals.

 

 

VISITORS INFORMATION

(As of  December 2014)

(Operating Hours: 10am to 7pm)

 

Ticket Type: One Day Pass - Adult SGD38 / Child SGD28

 

The SEA Aquarium One Day Pass allows admission into Typhoon Theatre except weekends and during holidays.  An additional SGD5 will be charged during these dates.

 

SEA Aquarium is located in Resorts World Sentosa.

 

  

From the SEA Aquarium we went to Vivo Mall via the Sentosa Express, for lunch and last minute "pasalubong" shopping. 

 

 

 

 

Lunch was at Food Republic.   

 

Meals were cheaper here than inside Resorts World. Total food bill for all these was less than SGD20. 

 

 

 

Check out the rest of our Singapore-Malaysia escapade here:

Day 1 - Singapore City
Day 2 and 3 - LEGOLAND Malaysia
Day 4 - Jurong Bird Park and Science Center
Day 5 - Singapore Zoo (with breakfast with the Orangutans)
Day 6 - Sentosa Island
Day 7 - Universal Studio Singapore 
Day 8 - SEA Aquarium and Vivo City

 

 

 

SINGAPORE DAY 7 (UNIVERSAL STUDIO SINGAPORE)

Day 7 is an entire day at the Universal Studio Singapore (USS).

We came on a busy holiday, so half of our time was spent lining up for queues. We have not much choice really as our entire vacation coincided with the Christmas Holiday. The crowd lightened up though, at about 6pm.  

As it was Christmas, the theme park time was extended to upto 930pm, so that was an additional 3 hours rides' time (Note that most of the shows last performances were at 7pm).

Our USS Itinerary:

• 930am - Breakfast at Slappy Cakes. Quite expensive, food wasn't that great either.  The boys did enjoy making their own hotcakes though. 

• 10am - USS
• Lights, Camera, Action (hosted by Steven Spielberg) was just awesome. You get to see a studio transform into a backdrop to a major hurricane in NYC.   

• Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase bring you to a space adventure with the Sesame Street gang in search for the missing spaghetti.  This one is for kids and I suggest you skip unless riding with children. 

 

 

 

• Transformers The Ride: The Ultimate 3D Battle is a must, must try!  If the queue is long, do not hesitate to get a Universal Express pass.  Lining up can sometimes take forever and you wouldn't want to waste precious time.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• 1pm Lunch at Goldilocks, Far Far Away.  Prices inside the park is triple compared to costs outside (Note: You can leave the park and request for (same day) re-admission, by presenting your USS tickets and hand stamped).   

• Revenge of the Mummy* is an indoor roller coaster thrill ride, not for the faint of heart.  You would be asked to deposit bags and loose belongings.  You would know why, once you begin the ride. 

 

• Treasure Hunters takes you into a dessert jeep ride in an abandoned Egyptian excavation site.  

• WaterWorld* show is one of our USS highlights.  The boys were awed by the breathtaking stunts and awesome explosions.  Note:  Don't seat on the blue colored seats less you want to get soaked. 

• Dino-Soarin. My boy won't leave the Lost World without a piloting his own dinosaur.  It is a ride we have here in Manila and I must say a 30 minute waiting was an absolute waste of time, but how can I say no to my dinosaur flyer kiddo?

• Shrek 4D* takes you up close to Fiona and Shrek's fairytale adventure.  Must try as well, very entertaining. 

• Enchanted Airways* is a roller coaster ride.  I initially thought it was a mini-roller coaster for kids, but was wrong.  It has the scary loops of full roller coaster and was ultra fast.  I was a bit scared for the kiddos and my husband (who hates roller coasters). 

• Madagascar: A Crate Adventure is a funny and amusing trip to Madagascar on a river boat.     

• King Julien's Beach Party-Go-Round is a carousel ride.  

Rides we missed, because the boys were already too tired:

• Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure* a river rapid ride similar to Enchanted Kingdom's Jungle Log Jump
• Canopy Flyer* an upside down roller coaster ride
• Magic Potion Spin a ferris wheel for children
• Donkey Live an interactive live show hosted by Shrek's sidekick Donkey.

Note: The attractions with "*" must not to be missed.

Check out the rest of our Singapore-Malaysia escapade here:

Day 1 - Singapore City
Day 2 and 3 - LEGOLAND Malaysia
Day 4 - Jurong Bird Park and Science Center
Day 5 - Singapore Zoo (with breakfast with the Orangutans)
Day 6 - Sentosa Island
Day 7 - Universal Studio Singapore 
Day 8 - SEA Aquarium and Vivo City

SINGAPORE DAY 6 (SENTOSA)

We deposited our baggage at Festive Hotel, before we began touring Sentosa.

A day in Sentosa is not enough to go visit it's multitude of attractions.  There were really just so many to choose from.  

We decided to buy the Sentosa 1 Day Pass online via the Sentosa website and hoped we can get the most out of the ticket cost by visiting as much attractions as we can.

The Sentosa 1 Day Pass allows you one time access 20 attractions.

Our Sentosa itinerary:

• 10am - Trick Eye Museum. My boys love this one and we had so much fun posing and interacting with the exhibits.  
• 12am - Lunch at Malaysian Food Street. Located right next to the Trick Eye Museum. It is actually a food court. There are plenty of food options with prices not far from the ones outside Sentosa.

We took the Sentosa Express from Waterfront Station to reach the Imbiah Station for the next agenda.

• 1pm - Images of Singapore Live (IOSL).  Entering IOSL was like being transported back to Singapore's history.  Unlike regular exhibits, IOSL employs actors playing parts in Singapore's historic past.  It was very entertaining and highly recommended.  It is just unfortunate, cameras were not allowed inside.
• 2pm - Madame Tussaud Wax Museum. Right next to the IOSL is the Madame Tussaud Wax Museum.  We have been to the Madame Tussaud in HK, SG's was not very different, save for a boat ride which unfortunately was under maintenance when we visited.  If you have been to any of the other Madame Tussaud Museums, you may give this one a skip.  
• 330pm - 4D AdventureLand (Journey 2, Desperados, Extreme Log Ride and Green Lantern).  If you are running short of time, you can just do the Journey 2 and skip the rest of the shows.   
• 430pm- Skyline Luge Sentosa. This was the most fun, which also happens to have the longest queue.  Going down the slope was exciting, though the boys enjoyed going up better.   

Went back to Festive Hotel via the Sentosa Express to freshen up.

• 730pm - Dinner at Ruyi at the Forum

We again took the Sentosa Express from the Water Front Station and alighted at the Beach Station. 

• 840pm - Wings of Time is a wonderful and unique show. Unfortunately for us it started raining and we weren't able to finish it (Note: Wings of Time is an open air seating.  If weather is bad, please bring ponchos and umbrella).

What we have missed, which were part of the Day Pass Package (the boys were too tired):

• Tiger Sky Tower -  It was supposedly part of my planned itinerary, but the boys were not up to it.  The ride up, will give you a 360 degrees view of the Sentosa Island.  A sunset ride would have been splendid.
• Fort Siloso - I figured the boys will be too tired to roam around.
• Port of Lost World -  We have been to Legoland Waterpark previously and there is a pool at Festive, so a miss to another waterpark attraction is forgivable.  

TIPS:

• To Get or Not to Get a Tour Package? 
• Suggest you decide first what attractions you want to see.  There are numerous travel agencies offering combo tickets for discounted prices. We decided to get ours from Sentosa online for convenience sake.
• Do the math and compute if you would be able to maximize the day pass/package cost. 
• Note as well that doing more than 4 attractions might mean rushing through the activities. 
• Entrance to Sentosa via taxi is free if you are booked in any of Sentosa Hotels.  Just present an SMS or a print out copy of your hotel booking.
• Upon check-in request for a Sentosa Express pass.  This would allow you to enter and leave Sentosa without having to pay for Sentosa Express tickets.
• Singapore weather is fairly predictable.  It rains almost daily in the afternoon, although this only lasts for 1-2 hours.  December has the most downpour.  Do not let the weather eat out your vacation so come prepared for anything. 
• wear comfortable shoes, which is okay to get wet.
• bring umbrella to shield
• bring ponchos (light/plastic raincoats)
• face towel

DAY 6 - Simply amazing! 

Check out the rest of our Singapore-Malaysia escapade here:

Day 1 - Singapore City
Day 2 and 3 - LEGOLAND Malaysia
Day 4 - Jurong Bird Park and Science Center
Day 5 - Singapore Zoo (with breakfast with the Orangutans)
Day 6 - Sentosa Island
Day 7 - Universal Studio Singapore 
Day 8 - SEA Aquarium and Vivo City



Museums - We Love!

We love museums,  I was reading through my blog and realized that we have a lot of museum posts to date:

PHILIPPINES

• The Mind Museum at BGC Taguig City
• Science Park, Mind Museum
• Ben Cab Museum in Baguio City
• PMA Museum in Baguio City
• Museo Pambata in Manila
• Exploreum at SM Mall of Asia
• Dinosaur Land Museum in Clark Pampanga

SINGAPORE

• Madame Tussaud
• Science Center Museum
• Trick Eye Museum

HONGKONG

• HongKong Museum of History
• Madame Tussaud Wax Museum

 

SINGAPORE DAY 5 (Singapore Zoo)

Warning:  This place is huge.  It is so expansive, a day is not enough to get the most out of Singapore Zoo.

Note: If zoos are in your itinerary, I suggest getting park hopper tickets online via the Singapore Zoo website for purchase discounts. We saved the confirmation vouchers on our phone, which we used to enter the zoo.  The ticket came with unlimited tram ride.

• 8am -We left the hotel early via taxi (SGD25) for the 9am Breakfast with the Orangutans at Ah Meng Restaurant (Note: If you intend to avail of the Breakfast with the Orangutan, please reserve online. Payments are made direct at the restaurant prior to seating). 
• 9am - Arrived at the Singapore Zoo and hurried to Ah Meng.  (Note: It is still about 2-3 minutes walk from the main entrance, so please come early to avoid rushing).

We skipped lunch and instead had ice cream at Ben and Jerry's.

• 4pm - Left the zoo and went back to base to rest our tired feet.
• 6pm - Pizza Hut, Lucky Plaza for Christmas Dinner. Lucky Plaza is short 5-8 minutes walk from our hotel. 
• 7pm - The boys retired early and left me at Lucky Plaza for last minute "pasalubong" shopping.  Our Day 6 to 8 will be at Sentosa and I doubt I would be able to get my shopping done from there.

Good buys at Lucky Plaza:

• nail cutter key chains - 6 pcs for SGD10
• t-shirt - from SGD12 per piece (very good material)
• paper fan - 3pcs for SGD10
• assorted pens - 3 sets (5 per set) for SGD10
• chocolates (Chocolates are surprisingly cheap here at Lucky Plaza. No they are not fake.). 

For Giordano items, the deals were best at the airport.  They have buy 1, take 1 promo, while we were there.

Missed due to traffic and difficulty of getting transfers:

• China Town was part of the original itinerary, but I had to drop due to difficulty in getting a taxi. We would have taken a bus or the MRT, but we did not get EZlink pass as we didn't consider MRT or public bus transportation (Maxwell Hawker Center, Buddah Tooth Relic, Sri Mariammam Temple, China Town Heritage Center). 

Promise to self:  

China Town will be part of my next visit to Singapore!

Day 5 - Great day at Singapore Zoo from the Orchard Urban Jungle!


Check out the rest of our Singapore-Malaysia journey here:

Day 1 - Singapore City
Day 2 and 3 - LEGOLAND Malaysia
Day 4 - Jurong Bird Park and Science Center
Day 5 - Singapore Zoo (with breakfast with the Orangutans)
Day 6 - Sentosa Island
Day 7 - Universal Studio Singapore 
Day 8 - SEA Aquarium and Vivo City