Our last staycation was 2 years back before Jia He was born. Ever since then, the kids have been asking for a staycation, but it’s never easy, especially after the Covid-19 outbreak. Finally, this year we decided that it’s time to have a kid-friendly staycation since travelling overseas is still not an option for us after looking through all the complicated yet necessary procedures for travelling. And we really need a break.
Since we have 4 kids, choosing a kid-friendly hotel with lots of kids amenities becomes our top priority. Hubby said, must choose a hotel which has a lot of kids’ activities. After going through the options, we choose Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa because I planned to have some activities in Sentosa during our stay too.
Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa Booking & Planning
I booked directly with the Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa hotel because it was quite a last-minute decision (booked in late Oct), and we do not want any hiccups for our stay. Under the staff recommendation, we choose the Rasa Family Fun package with Deluxe Sea View, which includes daily breakfast and dinner, 1 hr Nestopia and sea sports activities. Because we have 4 kids, and there is no bigger room option for us (not sure if is it because of COVID or a bigger room was not available), we have to book 2 rooms. Since we are the same family under the same address, we can request a connecting room.
Before the start of the staycation, we have to pre-book the activities 5 days in advance, which means every morning at 10 am (subject to changes), we have to standby at the webpage and book our activities, to ensure we get our desired time slot. #StaycationStress 😂
To make sure our planning goes well, I prepared our itinerary beforehand. So we don’t get stressed over it while doing the booking. Below is a screenshot of my 4D3N itinerary at Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa for your reference. You can see that some timing is overlapping each other. These give us more time to play with the kids. Please note, that the booking timing may be subject to changes by the hotel.
And if you need a checklist for packing your child’s staycation, you can download it here!
1. Checking Into Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa
The check-in was a breeze. Since I booked directly with the Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa, I’m able to do mobile check-in and declaration directly a few hours before. So when I reached at 2 pm, I just settled some administrative stuff and 1 of my room was already ready to check-in!
Our room has a Deluxe sea view with a connecting room. One room comes with a bathtub and the other one doesn’t. I LOVE the amazing sea view. No matter the day or night, it’s magnificent! Initially, I was paranoid about the door access to the balcony, but don’t worry, it’s very heavy, so toddlers can’t open it.
@missyqiqi #throwback to my #sgstaycation ♬ Vacation – C0NTR4IL & We Are One
From 2 pm to 5 pm, at level 1, just outside the pool area, they have a Rasa Fun Play which is open to guests, no booking of slot is required. They have a bouncing castle, balloon sculpture, face painting, archery, big Lego/Janga and ball games.
2. Facilities
Below is their indoor playground, which is divided into 2 sections – Mini Toots and Toots Club.
Mini Toots – 4 Years Old & Below, Parental or Guardian Supervision Required
Toots Club – 5 to 12 Years Old, parents or Guardian not allowed
Art & Craft Zone – Basically they provide them with some crafts material to do. The kids had some foam stickers (not sure what u call that) on the 1st day and the last day was a Christmas Tree art.
The kids’ favourite activities during the staycation are pool and Siloso Beach play.
Both need to book a slot to play, each slot is 2 hours of play.
For the Siloso beach play, the Sea sports activity is free to play. Bo Heng played but Jia He couldn’t reach the height limit. It’s really fun. We played kayaks, paddleboats and stand-up paddleboards.
As for the pool, it’s kid’s kid-friendly and well-sheltered. The slides are for the kids, adults are not allowed. So if you want to slide with your toddler is not possible. Just beside the kid’s pool, there is a playground for the kids to play. They don’t really have an adult pool, except for the jacuzzi. The depth of the pool which is more for the older kids is not over 1.2-5m (my rough gauge). There is a lifeguard on duty too.
Besides Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa indoor facilities, they also have Nestopia. Which is just beside the hotel at the Silosa beach.
Personally, I wouldn’t recommend young toddlers who need parents’ guidance to play the slide. My experience wasn’t very nice, trying to slide down with Jia He and balancing myself and the scarf. Maybe I’m too tall for the slide because I have the lie really low which is quite comfortable. But they can play rope climbing!
Booking-wise, I emailed Nestopia directly to confirm the date and time. If your package doesn’t come with it, you can buy the ticket directly from the website, or use your Sentosa Fun Pass.
There are another 2 facilities which is the Spa and Gym. We did not explore their spa because stuck with kids, but we used their gym facility. Thanks to my so-into-fitness hubby. The same thing, you need to book a slot for the gym, which we booked at 6 am for the 2 days. We skipped the 3rd day because we are drained. 😂
Their gym is well equipped with weights, medicine balls, a rolling machine and running machines.
They provide a small towel. 🙂
3. Food…
The highlight of the staycation we all looking forward to is the buffet breakfast and dinner at Silver Shell. Because food keeps us going. Because of COVID, the buffet will be served to your table in a la cart style by ordering through the online ordering menu Pretty easy and the food is acceptable. The breakfast selection is not very extensive but good enough. For dinner, I was expecting more like sashimi and oysters but they don’t have. They have sushi, 1st day I requested raw salmon without the rice, they served me that. But 2nd day they said not allowed. 🙁
I like their kid’s meal range, which has quite a lot of variety, including a muffin decoration kit that can help to keep the kids occupied.
I suggest having dinner early like 6-630pm. From my experience, we had our dinner before 7 pm, service was pretty fast but by 715pm onwards, the service was quite slow and a bit of the order was messed up due to peak hours. It’s understandable since they have to serve the buffet dish from different “stalls” at every table, which can be quite overwhelming.
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Since our breakfast and dinner are provided by the hotel, we just need to settle our lunch outside.
Besides taking the free shuttle bus to RWS, you can choose to have your meal at Trapizza.
Their thin-crust pizzas are the top favourite. Kids’ meals are also in very good portions!
Overall, we had an enjoyable stay and Shangri-La really designed their resort with Kids-friendly facilities in mind. Below is a screenshot of my hotel stay package for 1 room, 4 days, 3 nights, Dec 2021.
I don’t think we can travel overseas anytime soon, so I booked our March staycation with them but in Orchard. We can’t wait for our next staycation with Shangri-La again!
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