Dania Experiences

My impression of the Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) hotels hasn’t been a positive one. From the times I’ve stayed before, the rooms never justified their hefty price tags and having dined a couple of times at their hotel-operated restaurants, service was mostly robotic and functional in nature. This is exactly how I feel about the Marina Bay Sands brand as well – forgettable experiences and the sense that you’re just another faceless number to them.

However, there were some rather promising reviews of Equarius Hotel in particular, the furthest hotel from where all the action is, so I was slightly more open to trying it out. Even then, I let a few promotions on Traveloka pass me by until it reached an amount that I was okay with and wouldn’t fill me with absolute regret if the stay went south.

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• Inclusions:
  • 1-night stay in Deluxe Room
  • Breakfast
• Spent: SGD$185.10

Check-in

Arriving at the reception counter, there were already two groups of guests in the queue so there was a bit of waiting. Thankfully, Jesslyn, the senior front office manager, opened another line and attended to my husband and I. The registration itself seemed to take a while too so we probably spent a good 15 minutes just checking in. Nevertheless, Jesslyn was very pleasant and genuine throughout, sharing her personal thoughts about the rooms and breakfast recommendations. A fairly promising start.

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Room

I couldn’t believe my eyes as I walked into our room on the 5th floor (out of 7 floors) – it felt humongous for a base room! My husband kept involuntarily exclaiming that there was so much space. I loved how the room felt so bright and open. The view of greenery was pretty calming too, although being in the thick of nature meant there would be insects, like the jumping spiders I saw at our balcony. Needless to say, the balcony door was shut throughout our stay except the one time I went out to take photos 😛

My firm pillow request was fulfilled in a heartbeat and the housekeeping team responded promptly to my call for turndown service, but strangely enough, our request for additional cartons of water took no less than four calls to be delivered. Anyway, the bed here was very soft – I was grateful I didn’t wake up with a sore back the next morning.

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The bathroom was also immense, with space for a tub, a separate shower, double vanities and even a small dressing table area. Alas, of all things, they didn’t provide conditioner (like the situation at JEN Orchardgateway Hotel, boo).

Most of the room and bathroom were hygienic, except one of the towels that had sizeable brown stains on its edges. It didn’t help either that the tub had remnants of gold glitter, likely from a previous guest’s bath bomb. Well, that ruined my plans for a soak.

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Prior to our arrival, I informed the staff that our stay happened to coincide with our wedding anniversary. In a generous celebratory gesture, a box of Janice Wong artisanal chocolates was brought to our room. This was indeed an unexpected step up from the regular slice of cake or macarons that other hotels typically offer.

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Facilities

Being on the edge of the island away from all the attractions and dining establishments, it was a good thing that there was a complimentary shuttle bus to ferry guests to and from the other RWS hotels that were closer to those facilities. The schedule indicated that the frequency was every 15 minutes but in reality, the waiting time was much shorter than that, which was great.

Pool and gym facilities are located opposite the hotel across a large field and are shared with Equarius Villas. Bringing back memories of the colossal pool at W Hotel, the one here was equally curvy and so massive that try as I might, I couldn’t fit the entirety of it into a photo. The gym was just as expansive and probably one of the larger hotel gyms we’ve seen so far.

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Next up, I had a brief tour of The Palace in the Equarius Villas compound, a lavish two-storey accommodation with a mind-blowing size of 731 square metres. I struggled to keep track of how many bedrooms there were after a while. If you fancy a relaxing massage, you will find your very own treatment room nestled on the ground floor of the property. But the highlight has got to be the mega infinity pool on the top floor, which overlooks the main pool and tons of lush greenery! Would you pay top dollar for a stay here?

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For breakfast, we had three options to choose from: Tangerine, Feng Shui Inn or Sessions. Tangerine is located where the pool and gym are, and offered four set menus (American, Continental, Asian and Healthy) with no refills unfortunately. My husband opted for the American set while I had the Asian set. Many of the items were surprisingly yummy. My nasi lemak rice was light and fluffy with fragrant sambal chilli and curry chicken. The kaya toast and barbecued pork bun were pure comfort food too. My husband’s set was a little less stellar but we did like the flavourful sausage and scrambled eggs, plus the better-than-average, sufficiently soft pancakes.

The ambience here was calming, with views of the pond and surrounding foliage. The staff gave off really friendly vibes as well, one even cheerfully helped us take a couple of photos (:

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Feng Shui Inn was the most convenient option as it is situated within the hotel. However, there was only one set menu available and it was limited to one set per diner. My husband actually preferred the food here compared to what we had at Tangerine but I beg to differ.

He liked the silver needle noodles, which I found quite bland and oily despite supposedly being fried with XO sauce, as well as the black truffle kurobuta siew mai (I couldn’t taste any truffle). At least we could both agree that the chicken porridge was not too bad. I enjoyed the soy milk very much as it was warm, soothing and less sweet too.

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The last breakfast venue option was an all-you-can-eat buffet at Sessions all the way at Hard Rock Hotel, requiring a ride on the shuttle bus. As I was waiting for the bus to arrive, the queue behind me started getting longer so a staff offered some of us a buggy ride to ease the lines.

Oddly enough, there wasn’t a monstrous queue to enter the restaurant at that hour. I got a table quite quickly and set off to sample some items. My favourite was the fried chicken wing! Crispy and well-seasoned on the outside, juicy and succulent on the inside. The salmon tasted pretty good with what I think was hollandaise sauce but the scrambled eggs underneath were mediocre.

The atmosphere here was fairly noisy and chaotic, with the main dining area practically full, leaving little room for adequate personal space. Fortunately, I was seated in a smaller, sectioned off corner towards the back that had less people and more distance between tables.

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While I was dining in the restaurant, the epic pseudo-beach swimming pool outside caught my eye so I went out to take a closer look after. It was a gigantic area with multiple pools in it, one of which had actual sand and resembled a real beach, certainly a kid’s (and maybe some adults’) wonderland! But anyway, this shall be a tale for another day if I ever do stay here.

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My overall rating of the experience: 4 out of 5 stars. First of all, our room was nothing like those outlandish ones of the other hotels in the RWS portfolio that I’ve been to. It felt way more elegant with a muted, soothing colour palette. Second, I came here expecting to be treated like just another anonymous guest in their vast sea of patrons but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Staff here had an ever-ready attitude to extend help and offer warm greetings along the corridors. Kelly, a concierge staff, always had a smile on her face and patiently answered all my “where is the ___?” questions at various times during the stay as I had trouble locating their facilities. Major props to Jesslyn too for taking such good care of us! When I thanked her for her hospitality while checking out, she surprised us with one last kind gesture – personally driving us in a buggy to The Forum as that was where we were headed ❤ The only weak link in this whole experience was probably the food, where it was a hit-or-miss situation. But all in all, this stay has definitely altered my perception that all RWS hotels are of the same too-expensive-for-too-little-value nature. This particular hotel is one I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend (:

If this post helped you in some way and you’d like to buy me a coffee, I’d be incredibly grateful (: