Friday, May 24, 2013

A Day At Adventure Cove With the Kids

My husband and I took leave from work so we could spend the extra long weekend with the kids. We've already been to the beach and Port of Lost Wonder a couple of times so this time round we wanted to try something new, we wanted to go to the newly-opened Adventure Cove in Resorts World Sentosa. So we prayed for sun and lo and behold we had nice sunny weather when we went yesterday. Of course there were a couple of false starts. We couldn't find the map online to figure out where to go and how to go there but I figured it would be near the Maritime Museum and SEA Aquarium and I was right. However, the signage was a little bit misleading so we ended up walking down a wrong path before turning round and finding the right way. There wasn't such a long line at the entrance and we got our entry tickets straight away. The entrance fee was quite reasonable - SGD29 for each adult and since our two kids were both below 4 years old, they got in free. We changed into swimming gear thereafter and rented a locker, which by the way was quite hi-tech, you had to go to an online terminal which accepts payment and assigns you a locker. Everything was keyless and you used your birthday as the code to open the locker. However, it was a bit inconvenient as you had to go to the terminal every time you wanted to reopen your locker. Anyway, everything sorted out, we took tubes and went down the lazy river which was sooooo slow (I don't think there was enough water pressure) and sooooo long (longer than the lazy river at the Waterbom Bali which we've also gone to previously). In fact it was so long, by the time we finished one round it was time for lunch. And so we trooped off to lunch at Bay Restaurant. It wasn't so impressive though. And warning to everyone going there that the food at the snack carts might be way more edible. I think the food's been out quite awhile so the hotdogs were tough, the pasta for the meatball pasta was also tough. The fish and chips were okay though. Anyway, I was telling my husband they should also have a system for money so you needn't bring your wallet with you. At Waterbom Bali, they gave you something that you loaded with money so all you had to do was flash this card or key, I can't remember now what it was, but you didn't physically have to carry actual money with you. But despite that bland lunch, we were all excited and my daughter especially wanted to go build sand castles. Unfortunately, her father told us to leave her sand toys behind and so she ended up digging sand with her hands. After that quick activity, we went around to explore the pool areas and kept going back to three places which were more suited for the kids: Seahorse HideAway, Bluwater Bay and Big Bucket Treehouse. We didn't really have time to line up for adult rides ourselves and just stayed with the kids but we had tons of fun, too much in fact that we had to drag the kids kicking and screaming away from the pools. But hey, looks like we found a winner here and we're gonna go back again soon enough. Meanwhile, pictures from yesterday:

Lexi and Andi making a sand mushroom

Me and Andi at the shallow wading pool at Seahorse Hideaway. She discovered how to lie on her tummy and kick and pretend to swim here. We especially loved that the flooring was a non-slip type of matting and not the regular smooth pool flooring kind.

 Seahorse Hideaway Sign

The humongous climbing structure at Big Bucket Treehouse. There were two slides and eventually, Lexi our 3.5 year old daughter decided she wanted to start sliding down the slides on her own and so she did. She told Dada at one point while waiting in line, 'Dada, you wait your turn, it's Lexi's turn now'. Meanwhile, Dada and I took turns sliding down the slides with Andi.

The slides were too close to the ground though, that if you slid down too fast, your butt would drag across the mat flooring of the pool once you hit the bottom of the slide (which happened to me the first time I slid down with Andi).

We spent quite a bit of time at Bluwater Bay as well which was a giant wave pool. The waves would come on every 10-15 minutes and we would hold the kids and try to jump the waves.

It would have been great if the shallow part of Bluwater Bay was made of sand though or matting instead of the current material it has now. My daughter ended up banging her knees in the shallow end a couple of times and she ended up with bruised knees at the end of the day.

A great way to end a full day of swimming is to share ice cream with your sibling.