Family Christmas Staycation at Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa Resort (Day 1/Part 1)

This staycation is our advance Christmas gift to the kids who love playing in the beach and swimming in the pool. I initially wanted to have a quick getaway at Langkawi or any beach destination in Malaysia or Indonesia but due to limited budget and time, we settled for a staycation. I booked the Rasa Family Fun package which includes:

• Free dinner and breakfast buffet at Silver Shell Cafe (2 adult and 2 children)
• Free use of selected water sports for one hour
• Free 3 swings on The Flying Trapeze
• Free internet access
• One complimentary sofa bed
• Free registration at the Cool Zone

This view and the three Christmas trees (first photo) greeted us upon alighting the taxi. Rasa Sentosa Resort is surrounded by Sentosa Island's lush greenery. I knew instantly that it is going to be a relaxing holiday for our family. I have heard and read great reviews about the 5 star hotel. Apart from their kid-friendly facilities and offers, having a beachfront is an added bonus to its charm.

We arrived at the resort before noon and was told that we may not be able to check-in earlier because of the ZoukOut 2013 event that took place the night before made the hotel fully booked. The hotel lobby seem to be very quiet when our feet landed the place but minutes later after the photo above was taken, guests who wish to check-out or check-in started swarming. 

The hotel is adorned with dainty Christmas decorations. I took the opportunity to capture some scenes with the kids whilst the hubby is registering at the check-in counter.

This is in front of the retail shop that sells fancy floating devices and swimming paraphernalia for kids.  

The kids wandered few more steps away... Lo and behold, they discovered the place with letter F-U-N written all over it. 

Look at the boy's facial expression, he really couldn't wait to play already. Before leaving home, his eyes lit up when I mentioned we were heading to the beach. He then chanted, "beach, beach, beach!" whilst on our way to flag a taxi to bring us to the island.

See? Even this fascinating Gingerbread Castle failed to get his attention. LOL. He's still all eyes to the pool and the beach.

Why does daddy take so long to register? Somebody's getting really impatient! Haha!

So what's a mom to do with bored kids? Entertain them of course! The sight of Christmas balls makes the little rabbit giddy. The moment he landed his eyes on them, he ran towards the Christmas tree and started picking the balls one by one just like what he does at home. Haha!

Good thing the hubby finished registering before the little rabbit takes down all the balls from the Christmas tree. We left our luggage at the concierge and headed to the beach while waiting for our room keys.

Below the staircase is this beautiful Koi pond. The kids stopped for a while to watch the colourful fishes swim. Such a refreshing and relaxing sight!

On our way to the beach, we passed by the kiddie pool with young kids having fun in the water and some lined up for warm up exercise before going for a swim.

We're grateful for the nice weather. It has been raining days before our planned staycation so we really prayed hard for Mr Sun to come out.

Looks like somebody is very pleased to set foot on the beach at last. It's none other than the beach-lover little rabbit. He must have been infected by mommy rabbit's love affair with beaches. :D

At least he got contented with just playing in the sand because our swimwear are in our luggage. I only took off the his cargo denim shorts, I let him sit in the sand with only his shirt and diaper on. Haha! Bad mama!

Can you read the big rabbit's mind? Her head is screaming "I can't wait to swiiiiiiiim!!!" Haha! She's a mermaid in her past life, remember?

This photo shows how far we are from the hotel premises. The beach is basically more or less 50 steps away from the hotel rooms.

Whilst the kids play with the sand, hubby and I chilled. I only noticed that huge rusty nail popping out of the wooden table after browsing our staycation photos. Good thing, none of us accidentally got poked from it.

I received a call from the hotel staff before 12:30pm telling us that our room is ready, much to our delight. We thought we had to wait until 3pm to get the keys.

Before the kids jumped on the bed, I quickly took a photo of our king sized bed plus the big rabbit's complimentary sofa bed. I will feature the whole hotel room in another post.

Let me entertain you first with our little family antics. Haha! We set our camera into burst mode. Look what happened next!

Hahahahaha! These two always make the funniest faces when our camera is set in burst mode. I do join the fun sometimes but I had to join the little rabbit from looking "normal". LOL.

After the photo opp, we all changed into our swimwear and brought the kids to the pool. Tune in for the rest of the happy-nings on Day 1 of our staycation. :D

I also blogged about 5 reasons why you should stay at Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa Resort here.