The Ultimate Kuala Lumpur-Singapore Vacation Leave: Far Far Away at USS

This is the twentieth part of our 6-days-5-nights Ultimate KL-Singapore Vacation Leave.

Shrek's house!

Continuing on with our clockwise walk, we found ourselves in front of a very familiar tree stump house. It's Shrek's house! This area is called the Far Far Away. The last time I was with my family, one of my favorite rides is found in this area. The characters that you could Meet and Greet in this area are Shrek, Princess Fiona, Puss In Boots, Fairy Godmother, Prince Charming, and Pinocchio. We happened to chance on the female cat counterpart of Puss. The last time I got to see Shrek and Princess Fiona!

Don't forget to take a picture in front of this castle!

Lots of picture perfect areas in this place
Puss In Boots’ Giant Journey
As far as I can remember, this is new. The last time I was here, I didn't see this ride. And now it belongs to the top of my favorite rides in USS! It's like a mini roller coaster, only less scarier. The adventure is you join Puss and Kitty to search for the legendary golden eggs. It was a fun ride! Not that scary but still very exciting, you must not miss out on this even if you have to fall in line for hours!

Puss In Boots’ Giant Journey

This is what the cart/coaster looks like

Puss in Boots and Kitty!

Very fun ride!

Shrek 4-D Adventure
Now this ride, I really really love! One of my favorites as well. Again, a must ride, even if there is a long line! It is worth the wait, I promise!

Shrek 4-D Adventure

Enchanted Airways
This is another mini roller coaster with some drops and twists/turns. For someone like me who hates heights, I didn't like this ride that much. Not like the Puss in Boots one.

Enchanted Airways

Donkey LIVE
This is a scheduled show and unluckily, we always pass by with the show ongoing so we weren't able to go in. Anyway, it's a sing along with Donkey, Shrek's sidekick.

Magic Potion Spin
This is a mini ferris wheel for children located inside the Fairy Godmother's Potion Shop.

The Dance For The Magic Beans
This is a street entertainment wherein Puss and Kitty flaunt their flamenco moves. We weren't able to watch this.

Fairy Godmother's Juice Bar
You can choose from a number of unique concoction of colourful elixirs made into juice.

Friar's
It serves a variety of seafood baskets and a soft-serve ice-cream desert.

Friar's

Goldilocks
Features the home made seven-spice fried chicken and the famous Ben & Jerry's ice cream, in a really really expensive price haha.

Fairy Godmother's Potion Shop
The souvenir shop area of the Far Far Away, all from the movie Shrek.

Fairy Godmother's Potion Shop and Goldilocks

Aside from the attractions, rides, and shops, the whole place is decorated like a Shrek movie so have fun exploring and taking pictures all around!

Far Far Away Sign

Fountain in front of the very beautiful castle

Far Far Away Arch

Have you seen Puss in Boots?

That's Far Far Away! Next up is The Lost World!

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The Ultimate Kuala Lumpur-Singapore Vacation Leave: Madagascar at USS

This is the nineteenth part of our 6-days-5-nights Ultimate KL-Singapore Vacation Leave.

Welcome to Madagascar!

From the Hollywood Boulevard if you go left, you would see yourself in the Madagascar area. If you go right, it's the New York area. We decided to just go clockwise and ride every ride we could with a short waiting time. Luckily, it wasn't the peak season and we went there on a weekday so there weren't a lot of people.

The Madagascar area pays homage to, of course, DreamWorks Animation film, Madagascar. The show is about four zoo animals escaping the Central Park Zoo but crashing into the island of Madagascar. It was a nice movie. This area is more of for kids but you can still try out the different attractions located there. Watch out for special character appearances of Alex, Gloria, King Julien, Skipper, Kowalski, Private, and Rico. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see any appearances in this area.

King Julien's Beach Party-Go-Round
It's a carousel (or merry-go-round) ride featuring various Madagascar characters. We skipped this because it's just your typical carousel ride.

Merry Go Round

Madagascar: A Crate Adventure
You get to ride on a river boat ride with the Madagascar characters and there is a storyline. Still, more of for kids but we did try this out. It was OK, more enjoyable for kids though. You can take pictures but it's a bit dark so it's hard to take a nice shot.

Line area

Blurry sample pic of what you would see inside

Marty's Casa Del Wild Food Court
Features a variety of Southeast Asian foods such as Nasi Lemak, roasted chicken, Briyani, etc.

Marty's Casa Del Wild Food Court

Gloria's Snack Shack
This restaurant features Japanese foods such as Bento Box Meals, Yakitori, Grilled Salmon, etc.

Gloria's Snack Shack

Penguins Mercantile
Memorabilias and souvenirs inspired by the characters of Madagascar.

So that's the Madagascar area. It's a good area for picture taking, the rides are a bit slow and for kids, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. Anyway, moving forward would take you to Far, Far Away land which features the characters of the movie Shrek!

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The Ultimate Kuala Lumpur-Singapore Vacation Leave: Hollywood Boulevard at USS

This is the eighteenth part of our 6-days-5-nights Ultimate KL-Singapore Vacation Leave.

Universal Studios Singapore!

This is the place we were most excited to visit. We love theme parks! I don't like extreme rides, but I just love the feeling of going around a theme park, seeing familiar characters, taking pictures, etc etc. And just like our Hong Kong blog post, I would be breaking down the USS into the different areas featured there. So it's going to be a multiple blog entry about USS. Anyway, Universal Studios Singapore is located at Sentosa Island. Again, it is recommended to allot 1 whole day for USS, and another day for Sentosa since both places are big. We made the mistake of cramming both areas into 1 day and Sentosa paid for that dearly. We got our USS ticket from Klook which was cheaper than the ones found all around Singapore or even online. Check out their website to see the latest prices. If you want, you can also check out your hotel reception if they're selling tickets, the hotel we stayed into was selling tickets but it was still cheaper at Klook. Also, if you do purchase your tickets from Klook, you don't have to print it out. You can just save the page, they have those bars in it, and show it at the entrance. Very convenient! Also, ver important note, compared to our horrendous HK Disneyland experience wherein each ride has a waiting time of around 3-4 hours, our USS experience was a breeze! We were able to get inside almost all the rides, some even twice. So, it's very important to take note of the date you would be going there, make sure it's not vacation time for the kids. And also, make sure to take that famous picture infront of the Universal Studios Globe!

Entrance to Universal Studios Singapore!

Anyway, Universal Studios Singapore is the second Universal Studios theme park to open in Asia, and the first in Southeast Asia. It opened last March 18, 2010. The theme park is 20 hectares big with a total of 24 attractions. The park has a seven themed zones which surrounds a big lagoon. Each zone is based on a blockbuster movie or a television show, with several different places to go to in each area. Each zone also has random character appearances so watch out for that.

Hollywood Area

The first area you would be going through is the Hollywood Area which is at the main entrance area of the park. As the name implies, it looks like the Hollywood Boulevard, flanked by stores in both sides. We literally ran through the streets of the Hollywood Area with gaping mouths. It was so beautiful! It also features a replica of the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. It's more of a shopping area though there's one attraction which is a theatre show. This is where you can also do your souvenir shopping, although there are stores in each area, in Hollywood, it's like a compilation of all the stores in different areas. So here are the different sections of the Hollywood Area.

Sesame Street Show - When I Grow Up
We didn't went inside this because it looked like it was for kids. But, according to the USS website, it features Elmo and the rest of the Sesame Street gang in a whimsical all-singing, all-dancing stage show where they talk about their dreams of being a firefighter, police officer, a singer, and a paleontologist. Barf.

Street Entertainments
You get to see either the Mel's Dinettes (the waitresses of Mel's Drive-in Restaurant) or The Cruisers, dance and sing in a stage. We were able to watch the Cruisers and it was a fun show, they sang groovy 1950s song I guess?

Hollywood China Bistro
At the name implies, it serves traditional Chinese dishes.

Mel's Drive-In
It's a drive-in diner, the typical 1950s diner serving American food favourites suck as milkshakes, burgers, fries, etc. Prices are a bit steep though. I was able to eat here when I was with my family, and the food was so-so. Nothing special though.

Mel's Drive-In

Starbucks
'Nuff said.

Meet and Greet
In the Hollywood Area, you can meet and greet the Minions, which is a must, and other Hollywood Icons such as Marilyn Monroe, Woody Woodpecker, Charlie Chaplin, etc. I think they have schedules of appearance in their website.

You can just opt to buy a Marilyn Chicken Leg if you don't get to meet Marilyn Monroe haha.

Shopping Areas
Go crazy over all the souvenirs that they have, ranging from keychains, to ballpens, to t-shirts, etc! This is one of our favourite part, souvenir shopping! So get your wallets ready because there's a lot to buy here! Of course, kind of a common sense, but do your shopping after you've explored the whole of USS so you don't have to carry all those plastic bags while going on rides.

• Universal Studios Store: USS themed items



Universal Studios Tshirts


USS Magnets


• Silver Screen: Latest merchandise from famous blockbusters and other Hollywood memorabilia.



Different Oscar Awards such as Best Wife/Husband, Best Girlfriend/Boyfriend, etc.


They even have pillows

• Minion Mart: Despicable Me Themed Merchandise of course!



Minion keychains


Fluffy unicorn!


Minion Cookies!

• The Dark Room: camera accessories and you can take fun photographs.



The Dark Room Store
• Star Characters: exclusive character merchandises, ranging from Shrek to Jurassic Park to Transformers, etc.



Shrek keychains


Transformers Magnet


Madagascar Pillows


Betty Boop items



Assorted character ballpens



Jurassic Park themed tumblers

• The Brown Derby: Sesame Street themed merchandises



Sesame Street Magnets...


...and mugs!

• That's A Wrap: Located at the Entrance Plaza, pick up a variety of apparel, toys, novelties, hats and Universal Studios Singapore souvenirs. This is also where you can get your GSTs

Next up is the Madagascar Area!

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The Ultimate Kuala Lumpur-Singapore Vacation Leave: Conquering Sentosa Island...Not!

This is the seventeenth part of our 6-days-5-nights Ultimate KL-Singapore Vacation Leave.

Wonderful Sentosa

Before getting to Universal Studios, you have to pass through Sentosa Island. A lot of blogs recommended that you have to explore both areas on a separate day because, Sentosa alone, is a huge place to explore with lots of things to do. Unfortunately, we don't have the extra day, so we decided to explore what we can in Sentosa, then spend the majority of our day in Universal Studios until 5:00pm, and then explore the rest of Sentosa. Easier said than done haha! We enjoyed USS so much we stayed there an extra hour, oh well!

HOW TO GET TO SENTOSA ISLAND FROM MERLION PARK:

• We boarded the Raffles Place MRT Station, but we took the East West Line going to Jurong East.
• Get off the Outram Park Station, which is the 2nd station from Raffles Place.
• Transfer to the Northeast Line going to HarbourFront Station. Get off there.

Now, the HarbourFront Station is not Sentosa itself. Best way we could describe it is it is the gateway to Sentosa Island. This station is located next to the famous VivoCity Mall and HarbourFront Centre. This is probably the starting point of your journey towards Sentosa. Of course, if you have the time, do check out VivoCity Mall. From the little that we saw, it was still very big for us, lots of stores and places to eat. Anyway, there are 4 ways to get to Sentosa Island from this area. Again, if you have the time, you can try everything because it's just fun haha. The 4 ways are as follows:

BY FOOT THROUGH THE SENTOSA BOARDWALK
This is how we got in Sentosa Island. From the VivoCity Mall, look for the exit to the waterfront promenade. This is in level 1. Unfortunately, there were no signs going there so we just asked for directions. One would think that walking towards Sentosa would be tiring, but, surprisingly, this boardwalk consists of a two-way, covered walk travellators. You can just hop on it and it will take you to the end. Although, there are parts wherein you have to walk manually, but for the most part, travellators are very helpful. Not only that, it's quite enjoyable to walk through the boardwalk because beside it is the Singapore Bay where there are amazing views and through the walk, there are green lush landscapes which is very nice for picture taking. You will definitely not be bored walking to Sentosa. At the end of the boardwalk are the gates wherein you have to pay 1SGD, you can pay via cash or by your EZ link card. The boardwalk is open 24hours a day, but the travellators operate from 7:00am to 12:00am. Along the way, you would also see some signs above which indicates how many more meters you are from Sentosa. It was a very fun walk. Also, along the way, there are some food stalls and souvenir shops if you want to take a look.

Starting End of the Sentosa Boardwalk

Amazing views all around

On the way to Sentosa!

Signs everywhere

The very convenient travellator!

All in all, the walk took about 15 minutes in a leisurely pace

BY SENTOSA EXPRESS
The Sentosa Express is located in the 3rd level of the VivoCity Mall. It is a monorail connecting to the Sentosa Island crossing above the bay. It passes through 4 stations: Sentosa Station (which is where you would get in), Waterfront Station, Imbiah Station, and the Beach Station. Operating time is from 7:00am to 12:00am. Ticket costs 4SGD, which you can purchase at Sentosa Station, or pay via the EZ link card. This price covers the island admission fee and travel cost. We will get into details of the different stations later. By the way, the Sentosa website stated that from January 3 to November 31, 2017, the train operation will be cut short to 10:00pm from Monday to Thursday, however, a free shuttle bus service will be available during the affected hours. We weren't able to try this express during our visit, however, when I first went to Singapore with my family, we were able to ride the Sentosa Express. There were a lot of people and long queues, so for me, the boardwalk is still the more convenient way to get inside Sentosa, especially if it's during peak seasons.

The Sentosa Express as seen from the Boardwalk

BY SHUTTLE BUS
This is from Beach Station to VivoCity Mall, so it's a one-way out of Sentosa. Not exactly a way to get inside, but if you do find yourself at the far end of Sentosa and is too tired to get back, you can try to ride this bus. However, operating schedule is only every Friday to Sunday and public holidays, from 6:00pm to 9:00pm

BY CABLE CAR
This is one of our must-do in Singapore. The Singapore Cable Car in Sentosa has 2 main lines: Mount Faber Line and Sentosa Line. We got a bit confused with the lines at first, but it's quite easy to get. Below is a picture separating the 2 lines and the following stations in each line.

You can get to Sentosa via the Mount Faber line, either entering through the Mount Faber Station or through Harbourfront Station located at VivoCity Mall. Again, some blogs stated that you can do a walking tour starting at Harbourfront MRT station, going through the Marang trail, walking towards the top of Mount Faber and then take the cable car ride to Sentosa, or vice versa. It's advantageous to do the walking tour because you would be able to see the famous Henderson Bridge, as well as one of the Merlions situated all around Singapore, and of course, since it's a mountain, there's bound to be a lot of good views for picture taking. If you don't have that much time, it's more convenient to take the cable car from Harbourfront Station to Mount Faber, get off, explore a bit, then get back on to go to Sentosa Station. The Mount Faber Line costs 29SGD for adults and 18SGD for child.

Once you get into Sentosa Station, you can walk towards Imbiah Lookout, which is around a 3-5minute walk, board the Sentosa Line Cable Car to go around Sentosa Island. There are 3 stations: Imbiah Lookout, Siloso Point, and Merlion Station. You can get on and off at any stations which costs 13SGD for adult and 8SGD for child. This does not include the entrance fee to Sentosa Island. To get a much better value off your money, you can buy Mount Faber+Sentosa Line Cable Car ticket which costs 33SGD for adults and 22SGD for child. We tried the cable car after our Universal Studios adventure so we would be tackling that later on.

A Map showing the cable car network to Sentosa and around Sentossa

We're done discussing about how to get inside Sentosa, now next up is how to get around this huge island. Below is the map of the whole Sentosa Island, which you can get for free there. Just click on it to enlarge and save it in your phone for future references, if you want.

So, basically, the main areas in this island are the following: Resorts World Sentosa, Sentosa Cove, Serapong, Imbiah Lookout/Merlion Plaza, Siloso Point, Beach Station, Tanjong Beach, Palawan Beach, and Siloso Beach. In each area, there are DOZENS of things to do. So, a whole day of exploring the island would not be enough, especially if you want to try out all the attractions. On the way to USS, we only got to pass through Resorts World Sentosa since we really only have a limited time. I will try my best to compile information about each area, but please do keep in mind that we weren't able to really experience it all. So yeah, we were NOT able to conquer Sentosa Island, not even half of it haha!

Resorts World Sentosa
Resorts World Sentosa is an integrated resort in the island, and is the first attraction you will find yourself into when arriving from the mainland Singapore. The famous attractions located in that area are the ff:

• Universal Studios Singapore
• Adventure Cove Waterpark
• Crane Dance
• Lake of Dreams
• SEA Aquarium

Of course, the most famous attraction is the Universal Studios which will have a separate blog entry. We wanted to try out the Adventure Cove Waterpark, however, due to time restraints, we weren't able to try it. But, this is probably our 2nd must do in Sentosa, next to USS. The SEA Aquarium is stated to be the largest aquarium in the world which houses over 100,000 marine animals of over 800 different species. Aside from that, there are also a number of hotels and spas around the areas so if you are planning on staying at Sentosa, this is the area where you can find the hotels. You can get here through the Sentosa Boardwalk by walking, or through the Waterfront Station by riding the Sentosa Express. The cable car does not stop in here.

Imbiah Lookout/Merlion Plaza
Imbiah Lookout is an area in Sentosa which has the biggest clusters of attractions and different things to do. Although, do take note that majority of these attractions have a fee to get into, so prepare your wallets. These attractions are as follows:

• Butterfly Park & Insect Kingdom
• Images of Singapore
• MegaZip Adventure Park
• Merlion Plaza and the Merlion
• Nature Walk
• Sentosa 4D AdventureLand
• Sentosa Nature Discovery
• Skyline Luge Sentosa
• Tiger Sky Tower

Probably, the most famous attraction in this area is the Skyline Luge Sentosa. It is a self-steering, gravity-driven, 3-wheel cart that starts from Imbiah Lookout, going down 650 meters ending at Siloso Beach. If you're not up for that adventure, you can opt to ride the Skyride which is like a mini cable car. The Luge and Skyride costs 12.50SGD. The Tiger Sky Tower is Singapore's highest observatory tower rising 131 meters above sea levels. We were able to briefly explore the Merlion Park after the USS, more on that on later blogs. The Imbiah Lookout also houses a number of restaurants and fast food chains, most notable of which is the KFC, so if you want to get cheaper food then inside USS, go outside the USS, eat at KFC and then go back in, just don't forget to have your hand stamped before going out of the park. The Movenpick Heritage Hotel is also located in this area. You can get in this area through the Sentosa Express by getting off Imbiah Station or by Cable Car and getting off the Imbiah Lookout Station. You can also opt to walk from the Resorts World Sentosa Area.

Siloso Point
This is in the far west end of the island. We were able to explore this area when I was with my family before. Anyway, the following attractions are seen in this area:

• Combat Skirmish LIVE
• Fort Siloso
• Underwater World Singapore

People usually go to this area to check out Fort Siloso. It is the sole restored coastal artillery fort in Singapore. It is now a free military museum open to the public. There are also guides in the area if you want to know more about the history of Fort Siloso. The Underwater World Singapore is kind of like our Ocean Park in the Philippines and Hong Kong. It has this underground tunnel where you can walk under the various sea creatures. And there's also a dolphin show, so don't miss that. You can get in this area by the Sentosa Line of the Cable Car and getting off Siloso Point Station.

Beach Station
The following attractions can be seen here:

• iFly Singapore 2D
• Gogreen Segway Eco Adventure
• Songs of the Sea

There's a McDonalds fast food chain here if you're looking for a somewhat cheap food around. This is the last station of the Sentosa Express, so if you want to explore the different beaches found in the island, you can get off here and walk by foot towards the 3 other beaches seen in the island.

Sentosa has a stretch of beach of more than 2 kilometers and is divided into three: Palawan Beach, Siloso Beach, and Tanjong Beach. These are artifical and reclaimed beaches using sand bought from Indonesia and Malaysia. I read a blog stating that the sand from the Palawan Beach of Singapore was given by Marcos previously, I just don't know if it's true haha.
Palawan Beach is in the center of the southern coast of Sentosa. Tourists go to this area because of a suspension bridge that leads to a small islet off the coast. This islet is said to be the southernmost point of continental Asia or Asia's closes point to the Equator. Cool! Other attractions are: Animal and Bird Encounters and Port of Lost Wonder. There are also several bars and restaurants along the beach if you want to freshen up and eat.
Siloso Beach lies on the west portion of the southern coast. This is the area where you can do a lot of activities, such as beach volleyball, canoeing, skim boarding, etc. This area is also the end point of the Luge from Imbiah Lookout. I think you can also swim in the beach though I'm not too sure about that. Again, several restaurants and bars are found all around, as well as shopping outlets.
Tanjong Beach is the more secluded beach and is in the eastern part of the coast. The only attraction in here is the Tanjong Beach Club.

Lesser known areas are the Sentosa Cove, which is more of a residential area of the island, and the Serapong, which has numerous restaurants, spas, and hotels.

HOW TO GET AROUND SENTOSA ISLAND:
We have already discussed the cable car and Sentosa Express to get to certain areas in Sentosa, however, there are also 3 buses and a beach tram if you want to get to other areas not covered by the express or by the cable car. Below are the bus and beach tram route, just click on the image to enlarge.

So that's how to get in Sentosa Island and how to get around the very huge island. To reiterate, we went through the Sentosa Boardwalk which took us around 15-20minutes at a leisurely pace. When we got to the end, there were some water fountain wherein you could refill your water bottle. Don't worry, it's clean water and it's for free! So be sure to refill your bottles there before entering USS. At the entrance at the boardwalk, you will be seeing a lot of signs pointing to whichever attraction you want to go to. Our main priority was the Universal Studios so we followed the signs. We were able to pass through the Trick Eye Museum, but it was still close at that time. After about a 10-15 minute walk, we finally saw the famous Universal Studios rotating globe!

The start of our Sentosa Adventure..which ended very abruptly as well haha!

The Trick Eye Museum

One of the museum's display located outside

Walking towards USS

Almost there!

Up next, Universal Studios Singapore!!!

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