The must-see celebrities of Madame Tussauds Singapore

Day 3

Exploring Sentosa Island

It was our last day on Sentosa. We started packing our belongings ready for check-out of the hotel later. We went to the MacDonald's at the basement of the Resorts World Sentosa to have the breakfast first, before we headed towards the Merlion Plaza.


Merlion Plaza

The Merlion Plaza is located just beside the Sentosa Express Imbiah Station. The most iconic feature over here is no other than the 37m tall Sentosa Merlion statue, also the tallest Merlion statue in Singapore.

Sentosa Merlion

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The Sentosa Merlion is a ticketed attraction, which visitors could watch a video about the origin and history of the Merlion and the Lion City, as well as taking an internal lift to the viewing platform to enjoy the 360 deg panoramic view of the island. We did not enter the attraction, only taking photos against the majestic Merlion.


Madame Tussauds Singapore & Images of Singapore LIVE

After the photo taking at Merlion Plaza, we took a series of escalator up to the Imbiah Lookout. We headed to the Madame Tussauds Singapore & Images of Singapore LIVE and bought the entrance tickets, which allows visit to both the attractions.

Entrance to Madame Tussauds Singapore & Images of Singapore LIVE (Source: Photo from Sentosa.com)

We had to visit the Images of Singapore LIVE first, which we waited for a while to enter in groups. We were brought into the room, where the official 'tour' began. Unlike the typical museum which you could roam around to visit the stationary exhibits, Images of Singapore LIVE features a very different concept which real life actors and actresses would lead the visitors through various scenes with special lighting and sound effects within the area, introducing the different era of Singapore's 200 years of history. Some of the themed area includes the Malay Fishing Village, Chinatown, Quayside Walk and Jubilee Cinema etc.

Scene at the Chinatown (Source: Photo from Tripadvisor)

At the end of the tour, we had to board The Spirit of Singapore Boat Ride, which took us through various famous Singapore's landmarks and different heritage themes, such as Marina Bay, Gardens by the Bay, Singapore Flyer etc. At the end of the boat ride, we were led to the entrance to the Madame Tussauds Singapore.

The Spirit of Singapore Boat Ride (Source: Photo from Tripadvisor)

Similar to many other Madame Tussauds museums worldwide, the Singapore branch features life sized wax figurines of famous people categorised in various zones such as politicians, sportsman, singers, actors/actresses etc. The popular ones include US President Obama, UK Queen Elizabeth, Tiger Woods, David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Michael Jackson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, Angeline Jolie, ABBA pop group etc. The Singapore branch also focus a lot on Singapore based and Asian famous people, such as Lee Kuan Yew, Lee Hsien Loong, Fandi Ahmad, Stephanie Sun, Zoey Tay, Yao Ming, Jackie Chan, Andy Lau etc.

Lee Kuan Yew and his wife

Yao Ming - NBA Star

Jack Neo - Singapore Movie Director

Bruce Lee - International Movie Star

In the middle section, there's a series of displays on how the wax figurines were made, starting from the small details on the facial expression, to the hair style and the eye colour etc.

Steps in making the wax figurine

Mould of Stephanie Sun (Singapore Singer)

Making of Stephanie Sun in progress

The whole tour is mainly queuing up to take photos with various "celebrities". The whole area is smaller than the London main branch that I had visited previously, but the Singapore version is more interactive, where there're props that you can play with. For example, you could pick up a golf club and pretend playing golf with Tiger Woods.


Sentosa Nature Discovery

After the fanatic photo shooting session, we exited Madame Tussauds museum and headed to our last attraction, the Sentosa Nature Discovery. Sentosa Nature Discovery is located at Imbiah Lookout area too, and within short walking distance from Madame Tussauds Singapore. This place was relatively quiet, away from the tourist crowd, which presents a totally different side of Sentosa that we know of. There's a static exhibition that showcase the island's natural geology and ecosystem. This is also the start point of the Imbiah Canopy Walk, which visitors could get close to the canopy ecosystem. We did not see many birds, although we saw two squirrels running across the walkway.

Entrance to Sentosa Nature Discovery (Source: Photo from Sentosa.com)

Exhibition at Sentosa Nature Discovery (Source: Photo from Sentosa.com)

After walking for a while on the canopy walk, we returned by the same route back to our hotel and check-out the room. It's time for us to bid farewell to Sentosa after 3 days of fun-filled staycation.



Follow the links below to the other days of my Sentosa staycation:

Day 1: Resorts World Sentosa (Festive Hotel, The Maritime Experiential Museum, S.E.A Aquarium, Hard Rock Hotel Swimming Pool, Crane Dance)

Day 2: Sentosa (Palawan Beach, Fort Siloso, Starz Restaurant, Lake of Dreams)

Day 3: Sentosa (Merlion Plaza, Madame Tussuads Singapore, Images of Singapore LIVE, Sentosa Nature Discovery)

Family fun at Palawan Beach and explore the historic trail of Fort Siloso (Sentosa)

Day 2

Exploring Sentosa Island

We had our bread that we bought from Breadtalk last night as breakfast. We then changed to light attire and prepare for our trip down to the beach. From Festive Hotel, we walked to the Waterfront Station and took the Sentosa Express monorail to the Beach Station. From the station, visitors could either turn to the Siloso Beach on one side or the Palawan and Tanjong Beach on the other side. Siloso Beach is the most popular beach of the three and is also the longest. The hotels like Siloso Beach Resort, Costa Sands Resort Sentosa and Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa are located along the beach front, thus also explains for the large number of tourists at the beach. There're a number of attractions located at Siloso Beach as well, such as the Wings of Time, iFly Singapore, Skyline Luge Singapore, Wave House, and The Flying Trapeze, along with many other beach bars and cafes.


Palawan Beach

We headed to the less crowded Palawan Beach. Along the way, we passed by the new attractions such as the KidZania and Port of Lost Wonder, which both are meant for children.

Palawan Beach

Port of Lost Wonder

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We found a shelter on the beach and settled down there. My kids quickly took out their sandcastle set that we brought along to start playing with the sand and building sandcastles and other figures. Not far from us, we saw a group of young men and women having their "beauty pageant contest" near the water, most probably from a local polytechnic or university. Others were observed having picnic, swimming in the water, canoeing, sunbathing, taking beach photo shoot and playing Frisbee etc. It was an enjoyable sight to see people of different ages having fun at the beach.

Water Playground

After our kids were done with their sandcastle building, we washed up and continued along the beach towards the Southernmost Point of Continental Asia. From the beach, there's a suspension wooden bridge that leads to an islet. Via different land bridge links connecting the islet, Sentosa Island, Singapore mainland and Peninsular Malaysia, it is technically the southernmost point one could walk to on the continental Asia.

Southernmost Point of Continental Asia

Suspension bridge to the islet

View of Palawan Beach from the bridge

On the islet

The islet has two outlook towers, which we climbed up to enjoy the scenery. On one side, one could see the busy Singapore Straits filled with many commercial vessels. On the other side, we got a different view of the Palawan Beach, as well as other Sentosa icons such as the Sentosa Merlion and Tiger Sky Tower.

View of the suspension bridge

View of Sentosa from the outlook tower

After this, we returned to the beach and took the beach tram back to Beach Station. We returned to our hotel room to wash up and change up.


Fort Siloso

We had our lunch at the Resorts World Sentosa Ding Tai Fung (which its Hong Kong branch was awarded one Michelin star). We had our favourite Xiaolongbao (steamed pork dumpling) and the fried rice with pork chop. After lunch, we headed to the Resorts World Sentosa basement to take the Sentosa Bus 2 to the Siloso Point. This is the place where visitors could reach the Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa  side of the Siloso Beach, the Underwater World and the Fort Siloso. Visitors will be immediately impressed with the 43m high Fort Siloso Skywalk Tower, which the skywalk links the Siloso Beach to Fort Siloso.

Fort Siloso

Fort Siloso Skywalk Tower

Introduction to the Skywalk Tower

The tower has lift access, which brought us up to the skywalk bridge. The skywalk bridge is 181m long, which along the way visitors would have a stunning unobstructed view of the Singapore Straits, Siloso Beach, Harbour Front and the Keppel Bay.

On top of the Skywalk

View of the Siloso Beach

View of Underwater World and Harbour Front

View of Keppel Bay

Walking on the bridge towards Fort Siloso, we also found a number of displays by the side introducing the history of the fort and the artillery gun emplacements.

Fort Siloso was built in the 1870s by the British during the colonial period, as part of a series of other coastal batteries built in various parts of Singapore to protect the new colony from seaborne attacks. Today, it is one of the best preserved fortifications in Singapore that is open to public. At the end of the Skywalk, we entered the yellow zone (one of the 3 zones classified at Fort Siloso).

Fort Siloso Map

The upper area of the yellow zone consists of the Tunnel C Complex and several gun displays. The tunnel facilities are the mainly meant for ammunition storage and visitor could learn the mechanism the soldiers used to transfer the large heavy rounds up to the firing platform.

Artillery Gun Display

Tunnel C Complex

Re-enactment of soldiers loading the shell to the hoist mechanism

At the lower area of the yellow zone, there are more guns and there's the guard room where the Combat Skirmish LIVE attraction is located. In the red zone, the key attractions are the Fort Siloso Square and the Surrender Chambers (separate entrance ticket required). At the Fort Siloso Square, there is an old military barrack turned exhibition hall, which showcases the Singapore's history during the World War II, and the history of Fort Siloso.

Fort Siloso Square

Fort Siloso Square Exhibition

Model of Fort Siloso

The Surrender Chambers focus on the re-enactment of the scenes during the British and Japanese surrender of Singapore during World War II, with wax figurines.

Scene inside Surrender Chambers (Source: Photo from Sentosa.com)

The blue zone is located at the furthest western end of the Sentosa Island, which mainly comprise of the Fire Direction Tower and the Tunnel A Complex. After the tiring walk up and downhill around Fort Siloso, we traced back our route back to the Skywalk and took the Sentosa Bus 1 back to Resorts World Sentosa.


Starz Restaurant

After some rest in our hotel room, it's time for dinner. We went to the Starz Restaurant at Hard Rock Hotel for the international buffet. Once we were allocated with the seats, we set off to explore the food available. At the cold dish section, they have a good variety of salad options. The seafood section is typical, with snow crabs, cold prawns, clams, and mussels.

Starz Restaurant

Sashimi and sushi choices are quite limited, with salmon, tuna and a few types of sushi rolls. There's also the bread and cheese section, although small, but they do offer a good variety of cheese. At the hot dish section, there's roasted beef, fried finger food, spaghetti, laksa, chili crab, steam fish etc. The India food selection is small, but the curry and tandoori are tasty. There's a wide variety of deserts like cakes, tarts and puffs, but what really stands out is their ice cream There's a wide variety of ice cream flavours and the staff will scoop the ice cream for us. Overall, we were satisfied with the meal. Although the variety of food choices might not be as many as other hotel buffets, but the food quality is good and would really commend on their ice cream section. The ambience of the restaurant is good and the services of the staff were great too, attending to our needs promptly.


Lake of Dreams

After the buffet dinner, we strolled around The Festive Walk to help in the food digestion. We stayed around at the Lake of Dreams to wait for the performance at 9.30pm. The Lake of Dreams is a 15 min musical show coupled with the special effect of fire, water and light. It was designed by 4 times Emmy award winner Jeremy Railton.

The show was the last activity of our day, which we returned to our hotel room after the show to call it a day.



Follow the links below to the other days of my Sentosa staycation:

Day 1: Resorts World Sentosa (Festive Hotel, The Maritime Experiential Museum, S.E.A Aquarium, Hard Rock Hotel Swimming Pool, Crane Dance)

Day 2: Sentosa (Palawan Beach, Fort Siloso, Starz Restaurant, Lake of Dreams)

Day 3: Sentosa (Merlion Plaza, Madame Tussuads Singapore, Images of Singapore LIVE, Sentosa Nature Discovery)

The amazing experience at SEA Aquarium (Resorts World Sentosa)

Day 1

Resorts World Sentosa (RWS)

I had visited Resorts World Sentosa several times since its opening, but this was the first time my family and I will be spending a staycation there. Resorts World Sentosa is the latest major re-development on Sentosa Island, along with smaller new developments in other parts of the island, as part of the Government's plan to rejuvenate the tourism offering on Sentosa. Resorts World Sentosa is one of the two integrated resorts in Singapore (the other is the Marina Bay Sands at the Marina Bay area), which comprises of the major attractions such as the Casino, Universal Studios Singapore, S.E.A Aquarium, Dolphin Island and Adventure Cove Waterpark.

The Forum

Casino Main Entrance

Walkway to Casino at The Galleria, Luxury Fashion

Elephant-like Sculpture at The Galleria, Luxury Fashion

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Festive Hotel

We had our lunch first before arriving at Resorts World Sentosa. We went straight to check-in at Festive Hotel, which we will spend the next 2 nights here. Festive Hotel, along with the Hard Rock Hotel, Crockfords Tower and Hotel Michael, are located along the central area. They are linked together via The Galleria, Luxury Fashion. There are other hotels tucked within the tropical rainforest setting at the west zone, such as the Equarius Hotel, Equarius Villas (where the awesome Ocean Suite is located too) and TreeTop Loft. Of course there are much more offerings in other parts of the island, such as the famous Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa and W Singapore Sentosa Cove etc.

Festive Hotel is a family oriented and child friendly hotel. At the reception area, there's a Lego store by the side which appealed to many of the children. Our deluxe room is located at the highest level with pool view. The room is quite spacious and furnished with modern facilities, like the king size bed, bathroom, LED TV with international channels, electric kettle, safe deposit box and bar fridge. Complimentary bottled drinking water, instant coffee and Milo are provided as well. Stepping out to the balcony, we got to see the pool, Crockfords Tower and Hotel Michael.

Deluxe Room

Bathroom

Balcony

View of the Festive Hotel Swimming Pool

View of Crockfords Tower and Hotel Michael

The Maritime Experiential Museum and S.E.A Aquarium

We did not spend too much time at the hotel room and headed straight to the first attraction which everyone loves, the S.E.A Aquarium. The S.E.A Aquarium is adjoining with The Maritime Experiential Museum, thus the entrance ticket allows you to visit these 2 attractions together. The main entrance leads to The Maritime Experiential Museum, which visitors must pass through before reaching the S.E.A Aquarium.

The Maritime Experiential Museum exhibits Asia's rich maritime history and Singapore's past as a trading port along the Maritime Silk Route. Upon entering the museum at Level 1, the full size replica of the Admiral Zheng He's 15th century treasure ship (Bao Chuan) caught our attention.

The Maritime Experiential Museum (Source: Photo from yoursingapore)

The first area we passed by was The Souk, which refers to the Arabic marketplace. Over here, there are many interactive exhibits of various maritime countries' bazaars, which recreates the prosperous trading scenes. Along the way, visitors also get to see the Jewel of Muscat exhibit, based on the design of the Belitung shipwreck.

Jewel of Musat (Source: Photo from patrickpang)

There's a Typhoon Theatre which allows visitors to experience on board of a ship encountering a storm. This requires a separate admission ticket, and we did not visit it. There's also an outdoor attraction where several full sized replica historic ships are on display. At the end of Level 1, there's an escalator that leads to the basement, where the entrance to the S.E.A Aquarium is located.

S.E.A Aquarium is one of the world's largest aquarium, home to more than 100,000 marine animals. The aquarium is separated into various zones that showcase different marine species in different habitats. The whole area is a bit dim, and the dark blue colour environment gives visitor a feeling as if they are in the deep ocean. At the entrance, we were greeted by the Strait of Karimata & Java Sea, where there's replica of a shipwreck that now serves as a habitat for the tropical fishes.

Shipwreck Habitat

Seadragon

Walking along, we were brought to various zones such as the Discovery Touch Pool with sea star, sea urchins and sea cucumber, the Ocean Journey where we got see the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, giant spider crab and jellyfishes.

Video: Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins

Giant Water Column Reef Habitat

Giant Spider Crab

Squid

Jellyfish

At the end of the walk is the Open Ocean, which is the wow factor for the S.E.A Aquarium. In front of us was one of the world's largest viewing panel (36 m wide and 8.3 m tall), which the tank houses more than 50,000 marine animals, including the manta ray, leopard shark, goliath grouper etc. One would imagine yourself in the deep ocean looking at this magnificent view, with schools of fishes swimming in synchronised fashion.

Open Ocean (Source: Photo from suitcasestories)

Sting Ray

Goliath Grouper

Video: Open Ocean_1

Video: Open Ocean_2

Just beside the Open Ocean is the Ocean Dome, which we were treated to a 360 degree panoramic view of the ocean habitat. The route turned around to the other side where there are more coral reef habitats on display, African Lake zone with freshwater fishes like the tigerfish and the moray eel habitat.

Coral Reef Habitat

Lion Fish

Another popular zone is the Shark Seas, which we would pass through the underwater tunnel and immersed in the water surrounded with 100 over sharks, which includes the hammerhead and nurse sharks.

Video: Shark Seas

After the S.E.A Aquarium experience, we exited the area back to the basement level of The Maritime Experiential Museum. There's an interesting Maritime Archaeology Gallery, which showcase the artifacts recovered from various South East Asian shipwrecks. Just opposite the gallery is the Bao Chuan Cutaway, which shows part of the ship's interior layout. Over here, we could see several compartments to store the precious goods and even exotic animals like giraffes and rhinoceros acquired during Zheng He's maritime voyages.

Bao Chuan Cutaway (Source: Photo from ramblerwithoutborders)

We went back to Level 1, where we watched the Bao Chuan show that introduced Zheng He's maritime voyages before leaving the place.

Swimming at Hard Rock Hotel

We went back to the hotel to change up to our swim suits for a swim. We went to the Hard Rock Hotel swimming pool instead of the Festive Hotel's, because I found that the swimming pool layout is nicer and bigger. The side nearer to the hotel is basically a beach! I believe this is the only artificial beach pool you can find in Singapore. The water is shallow and is a safe place for kids to play with the sand without any fear of strong current or danger at the real beaches. At the centre of the area is the children water playground that comes with a slide. At the far side is the regular pool and there's also a jacuzzi pool and pool bar.

Hard Rock Hotel Swimming Pool (Source: Photo from skyscrapercity)

Crane Dance

We returned to the hotel room to wash up after the swim. We had dinner at Ramen Play located at The Forum. After which, we headed to the water front to watch the Crane Dance, the world's largest animatronics performance. There is a pair of mechanical cranes, one female and the other male, which dance under the backdrop of special lighting and water effects to illustrate their courtship ritual. The show lasted 10 minutes only, but it was really worth it. We returned to our hotel after the show to end the eventful day.

Follow the links below to the other days of my Sentosa staycation:

Day 1: Resorts World Sentosa (Festive Hotel, The Maritime Experiential Museum, S.E.A Aquarium, Hard Rock Hotel Swimming Pool, Crane Dance)

Day 2: Sentosa (Palawan Beach, Fort Siloso, Starz Restaurant, Lake of Dreams)

Day 3: Sentosa (Merlion Plaza, Madame Tussuads Singapore, Images of Singapore LIVE, Sentosa Nature Discovery)