Staycation at Equarius Hotel, RWS (Part 1)

1st weekend of 2014 saw us celebrating our 6th anniversary with a staycation at Equarius Hotel in RWS. Since our anniversary falls on the 6th of Jan, it made sense to book our stay on 5th Sun -6th Mon which inevitably helped saved us some money because if we were to book our stay on the weekend (4th Sat - 5th Sun) the price will be alot higher. Furthermore, when I was doing my research I was also surprised to find quite a few hotels that require a minimum number of stay during this weekend since it was the first weekend of Jan.

After reading mixed reviews on TripAdvisor, I went with no expectations, or rather I am ready for the worst & all prepared to meet & counter-attack nasty duty managers & any other nonsense that may come my way. Official check-in was at 3pm but I did make a request for earlier check-in, we arrived round 2pm & all service staff at check-in counter were pre-occupied serving other guests. To my surprise, less than a minute of standing in queue, a friendly staff stepped out & offered to settle my room check-in. Delightful surprise! I had half expected some waiting time spent queuing. The staff who served me happened to be a sweet young thing (quite a chiobu leh!) too, pleasant on the eyes indeed hehe.

I booked a deluxe room but the staff, upon knowing we were celebrating our anniversary, has generously upgraded us to a deluxe garden room with a huge-ass lawn + balcony. Honestly, the area was so big, it could probably house 6 mahjong tables! Our room 301, faced lush greenery but if you looked downwards, it was the road leading to the hotel. I especially liked the serene surroundings, the peace & tranquillity was exactly what I needed. For those who prefer another view, the other end of the hotel rooms face RWS Adventure Cove Waterpark.

I was the mastermind behind this year's anniversary celebration, in my reservation I had stated we are celebrating our anniversary. The hotel was generous enough to offer a complimentary cake (which tasted just like a lump of milk, but well, free things cannot hiam right) though I did try to request to swap the cake for 2 glasses of champagne instead since for my dinner reservation I had requested for a customized cake. So much for inflexibility & certainly UN-personalized service. Which brings to mind how awesome W Singapore Sentosa Cove was when we celebrated our 5th anniversary there.

Equarius hotel does not offer free wifi which seems pretty ridiculous considering this is a 5-star hotel! Booo! I spoke to duty manager Randy who handled my enquiry really badly.

Bad experience aside, the walk to the pool was horrendously far & there was no shelter! Barely 10mins into the pool & rain came, we had no choice but to retreat back to our room. Soon it was dinner time & we caught the Sentosa island shuttle bus to Quayside Isle (the stop to alight is W Singapore Sentosa Cove). Being a Sunday night, the restaurants were pretty empty & we dined at Quayside Fish Bar & Bistro, pretty decent food. Only quibble being the time taken to serve our dessert, at 8pm I already gestured to the waiter to bring our the surprise - customized cake. It was a frustrating long wait as the fiancé was asking for the bill & wanting to leave the restaurant.

Finally at 8.30pm my long-awaited surprise came! Phew! The restaurant served the cake complimentary & even gave us 10% off the bill.

Related posts -

Staycation at Equarius Hotel, RWS (Part 2)