Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Casino, Singapore

[PhilH]

As some of you know I stayed at the new Marina Bay Sands in Singapore last week. This is a new hotel and casino built on reclaimed land out in Marina Bay. It is a Las Vegas style hotel as befits its owner Las Vegas Sands (owner of the Venetian and Palazzo in Vegas). Please note in this report all the photos are taken on my iPhone 3G and are slightly less quality than I would normally expect from my camera.



Architecture / Design

As you can see from the photo above, the hotel has a stunning design with three large towers with around 2,500 rooms and a large roof deck which spans all three and juts out significantly on one side. This houses the Sands Skypark (more below). In front of the hotel towers is the Casino building along with a relatively large shopping mall with all the leading brand fashion outlets (still some to open) and a large Expo centre. Further there is a large lotus flower construction still being put up which I believe will be an open air stage area. Please note that although the hotel is complete there is still much construction work going on in and around the hotel as can be seen in some of the photos in this report.



Room

I had a standard room on the 50th floor in Tower 3 (the leftmost tower in the first picture above), which is near the top (55 floors in total, Skypark is on the 57th floor). The room was very well designed and perfectly spacious. It had a small balcony which seemed to be wasted as there was only a foot deep or so of useable space before a glass waist height wall and a large flower bed using up most of the available space. However note that I was on the ocean side, the rooms on the Marina side did not appear to have balconies. The bathroom was well equipped although lacked a bath - only a walk-in shower was available. The main room had a large LCD TV and the bed was large and comfortable. Overall an excellent space to spend some time.

View from room






Room








Bathroom

[PhilH]

Sands Skypark

One of the main featurs of the hotel is the Skypark, which is situated on the roof some 200m above ground level. It is open to the public for a fee of S$20 but is free for hotel guests. Unfortunately public visitors use the hotel lifts in Towers 1 and 3 to get to the Skypark and as the ticket office is near Tower 3 they mostly use that one. This means on busy days (e.g. National Day when I arrived) the elevators become very crowded. I had a number of occasions where I had to wait for a second elevator to come which stopped on most floors and was not airconditioned.

The Skypark is stunning and well worth a visit even if not staying there, just for the views. The bit that juts out over the edge contains a wooden decked viewing area with stunning views over Marina Bay and pretty much all of Singapore! You can certainly see Changi from the top.











One of the main features of the Skypark is the infinitiy pool which is 150 meters long and looks out over Marina Bay. The pool is for hotel guests only and while it is controlled I witnessed many gaps in the security so if you are keen enough it is possible to slip in. The pool and the views from it are astounding, but it was reasonably busy at most times when I went up there.









Along the ocean side of the Skypark is a botanical area and a bar for hotel guests only and a VIP area.



Casino

I didn't take any photos of the casino as I was unsure of the law in this regard, but it is enormous and stunningly designed. A huge central floor area is covered with a roof 5-6 storey high and there are 3-4 floors all with gaming machines and tables. I didn't gamble on this trip, but the place seemed to have a different vibe to Vegas, a bit more like the newer casino's in Macau which cater in large part for a Chinese audience. Here's an image I found on the web.



Operations / Service

Unfortunately there is a downside and it is on the service side. I arrived on National Day which was busy and the hotel was full. While I was able to check in immediately a number of colleagues had to wait. Despite problems with the elevators as previously mentioned, I was also unable to procure any room service on my first night as the service was "busy, so sorry". I expect a hotel to be able to cope with being full and deliver a minimum standard of service. One of my other colleagues encountered further problems by being checked in to a room with someone already in it! This may be to do with the hotel being new, but they really need to improve their service levels.

Location

Although it gives stunning views from the Skypark, the location and access to the hotel is problematic, particularly in hot and humid Singapore. Until the new Marina Bay MRT station opens I would avoid staying here unless you're using the Expo centre as I was. The taxi can be quite epensive with some mysterious extras added, e.g. $13 to Boat Quay which is only about 3 mins away which is expensive for Singapore and the traffic and taxi access to the hotel are both problematic.

Conclusion

A beautifully designed and constructed hotel, suffering from operational teething problems and current construction of the surrounding area is not yet finished. Until this is done I would not recommend staying here unless you're at the Expo centre, however I would say that the Skypark is worth a visit.

Hope you find this review useful!

[KeithMEL]

Stunning! I especially liked the look of the rooftop pool!Thanks for sharing PhilH.

[soarbeyond]

Hi Phil!
Nice report you have there on MBS!I was thinking of staying there the other day but decided to settle for St Regis.
$13 to Boat Quay???Are you serious?
Did u take the cab during the peak hour surcharge?(5-8pm) I know there is a $3 surcharge to take a cab from MBS

[PhilH]

Hi Phil!
Nice report you have there on MBS!I was thinking of staying there the other day but decided to settle for St Regis.
$13 to Boat Quay???Are you serious?
Did u take the cab during the peak hour surcharge?(5-8pm) I know there is a $3 surcharge to take a cab from MBS

Yes it was around 7pm I took a cab. IIRC the surcharge was $5 and there was another extra for $1.50 but I don't know what that was. To be honest the traffic was so bad and I was late for a "business meeting" at BQ Bar on Boat Quay that I just paid and left the taxi to it (it was a 7 seater taxi so maybe there was a surcharge for it?)

[soarbeyond]

Yes it was around 7pm I took a cab. IIRC the surcharge was $5 and there was another extra for $1.50 but I don't know what that was. To be honest the traffic was so bad and I was late for a "business meeting" at BQ Bar on Boat Quay that I just paid and left the taxi to it (it was a 7 seater taxi so maybe there was a surcharge for it?)

7 seater cabs start at $3.20. 20cents more than a normal cab.
Surcharge was 5 bucks woah
Hahahahaha uh wells...the mysteries of Singapore cabs

[milehighj]

Thanks for posting. I like how the pool faces the city rather than "out to sea". Far more interesting view IMO.

[haf]

Thanks for posting these. I was curious of the view.

I was at 1-Altitude on Sat night - the bar atop the OUB Centre building (63rd floor rooftop - highest outdoor terrace bar in Asia). I must say the view from up there is far higher and far better for a 360 degree view.

Futhermore, the $15 cover to get up includes a free drink. It's not that windy, you can walk around the entire building AND the glass wall is only 5 ft high meaning many can look over the top of it.

The fireworks from the Marina Stage viewed from up there were quite impressive!

[225]

Can anyone recommend a good restaurant in the sands complex? More of a nicer sit down than quick and cheap.
Does look good but the rooms are bl00dy expensive even for a basic room.
Ta

[FlyingDan]

Thanks for your report PhilH! Love the brand new look of the room. I however agree with 225 in that even their basic rooms are too expensive.

[phaleesy]

Thanks for the comprehensive review, PhilH. Like the pool.

[kapitan]

The building looks like something out of Stonehenge....



and the local joke..... the three blocks looks like chinese ancestral tablet, to remeber the father, son and the unholy Goh....

[FlyingDan]

The building looks like something out of Stonehenge....

[Dent@SUB]

Great insight view! Thanks PhilH!
And somehow, the room's carpet remind me about T3's carpet. No?

[jammed]

and the local joke..... the three blocks looks like chinese ancestral tablet, to remeber the father, son and the unholy Goh....

yeah, i remember when the concept drawings 1st came out, the lotus-like structure now under construction (museum?) was said to be meant for incense