W Hotel Singapore: W is for Wonderful

Tell me I’m not the only one struggling to catch my breath after the March holidays?

As usual I filled the week with activities and meet-ups so it wasn’t really a break… My husband positively rolled his eyes at me when I causally wondered how my week had packed itself with activities so I’ll admit it, yes, totally my own fault. But you know what, it was FUN.

The best break we had actually came the couple of days before the March holidays officially kicked off when we decided to take a spur-of-the-moment staycation. We’d originally intended to book a package at RWS bundled with tickets to Adventure Cove, SEA Aquarium and Universal Studios – it was a very good deal. I’m not sure what it is about me and and RWS hotels, but since they’ve opened, I’ve never been able to book a hotel stay. Either the rooms would be fully booked or the dates and room types available would not be suitable. This time proved to be no exception. The package I wanted (with a stay at Equarius hotel) sold out as I was putting my booking through! Argh.

After various other permutations didn’t prove cost effective, we decided to decided to change our plans and opted to stay for two nights at the W Singapore instead.

That turned out to be an awesome idea because we had a seriously super stay — a great time of family bonding and just getting away from it all. We’d explored the W before when my parents stayed for a couple of nights, so we knew what to expect of the facilities. But this time as actual guests staying in the hotel, we were quite blown away by the great and warm service that we received everywhere, from the reception to the poolside attendants to the servers at the restaurant. They all made an effort to remember and greet us by name, and accommodate our various requests. I was very impressed. And oh, the food was really good too. W Singapore definitely goes on the “Can Stay Again” list! 

While waiting to check in, Nomi “snaps a pic” of me with her Hello Kitty phone as I snap one of her…

Maybe the only complaint I have is that they took rather long to get our room ready for check-in — and we came after 3pm! At least we got to wait by the pool in a hammock. I was feeling pretty hungry and ordered a club sandwich too. And this monster of a sandwich turned up. Oh it was gooood.

 

Swimming is the first order of the day! Even better when you can eat by poolside! Noey liked the club sandwich so much we ordered it again the next day and he ate half of it for lunch.

I love the pool at the W — it’s huge, comfortable and open 24 hours! The water was a nice temperature, there are nice floating beds, and floats and toys for the kids available for use, good poolside food and drinks, nice poolside seats and hammocks. Not many water features but the kids still had a whale of a time. I’m quite pleased that we managed to go swimming two days in a row!

A view of the pool and beyond from our room.

View of the bed. I didn’t take many pics of the room before the kids invaded it and that was that! I did love the flower motif on the headboard though, and the butterfly features on the having light. The flower motif was worked into features around the hotel and I thought it was very pretty.

The kids’ favourite part of the hotel stay — being able to watch TV while bathing in the long tub, thanks to the sliding glass panels. They watched too much Disney Channel but well, we were on holiday after all!

Part of the breakfast spread. There was a lot of food! From pastries and waffles to cold cuts to cereal to cooked food to fruit to Chinese char siew noodles and laksa (yay from me!). I didn’t take pics. Too busy eating. We only had breakfast on the first morning as we only had 1 adult breakfast per day. Since we were staying 2 nights, we asked if we could have both breakfasts on the first day and not take breakfast on the second day, and they agreed. One example of the flexible and accommodating service we received.

Cute bottles of orange juice.

Really excellent waffles which were the kids’ breakfast of choice. Crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. Delicious.

We enjoyed the food at breakfast so much that we were back again at The Kitchen Table for dinner to try their international buffet. Here we were recipients once again of some great service as they made the effort to squeeze us in despite being fully booked. And they even specially accommodated us indoors, because the haze was back and the man who seated us expressed concern for our kids. I wish I got his name so I could commend him personally. 

As for the food, oh my, it was GOOD. (Then again, it was $85 per head so it’d better be good!) There was really fresh sashimi and my favourite cold seafood section had deliciously juicy prawns and lobster claws. There was one big leg of ham, garnished with roasted apples, that fed my children. They loved that and the bread rolls. The husband had quite a bit from the Indian section and the servers came round with skewers of tandoori prawns, which were really yums. There was a pasta section with a range of ingredients, pastas and sauces for you to choose from, which were each individually cooked up on the spot. The Chinese noodle corner served up noodles and laksa, similar to what we had for breakfast, and there was another range of cooked food on the table.

And dessert! The chocolate fountain was a must for the kids, but I preferred the deconstructed cheesecake. There was plenty to choose from, with desserts of mousse, jelly and cake served up prettily in little cups. 

I just realised that, incredibly, I didn’t take any pictures of the food at all. Oops. I’m such a terrible food blogger. But I did have my hands in all that seafood, so well. You’ll just have to take my word that it was good. 

It was a relaxing break, and I dare say, just what the doctor ordered. W is for Wonderful, yes indeed.