Yesss. Hotel Jen at Orchard Gateway. I booked a staycation in their deluxe room because it was the ‘minimum’ room that had a freaking bathtub.
Yes.
All I wanted was just a freaking bathtub since my previous staycation at another location did not have one even if they were in freaking Sentosa.
Oh yess, the room is pretty big and awesome. The staff are polite. Also, this is a thing.
I really wanted a bathtub so when at the check-in, the counter staff asked if we wanted a twin bed or a king bed.
And I was all “Which… one has a bathtub?” and he said, the one with the king bed and then yes. “OK BATHTUB PRIORITY, PLEASE GET US THE ROOM WITH THE BATHTUB”.
And the staff really checked with his colleagues in earnest to REALLY check if the room that he would book for us would have a bathtub and then success, yes it is.
The view from the window! It’s pretty fancy. You can even see Robinsons from the window.
That’s the TV! You can also check your bill on their system or watch actual TV or listen to the radio. You might note they have a lot of freaking shelves should you wish to unpack and have a lot of luggage.
There’s enough space NEXT to the bed to play boardgames on the floor too. Which we totally did.
Or if you wanted to pretend to be Xiao Long Nu or something, you can lie on the mini sitting area and smoosh yourself against the window to pretend you’re sleeping in the night sky or something, I don’t know.
You probably won’t do that but hey, the view.
Oh yeah, just so you know, the bathtub is quite big. Hurray.
HOW IS THE BATHTUB? YES. IT IS A BATHTUB. WONDERFUL.
The first try, I had a bathbomb from my previous staycation did lay unused from nearly half a year ago. We filled the water and anticipated the spectacular fwooshiness of it.
I dropped it.
It went ploop.
Ok. Maybe I should use another soap, hopefully the other one didn’t expire and added another bar (I bought two back then) and NO IT JUST TURNED INTO SOAPY WATER WITHOUT BUBBLES AND STUFF.
As I lay in the water (alone because I got my friends to go away or rather they were buying stuff at 7-11 or something) I thought to myself, “No. No this cannot be.”
And then went out of the room to go downstairs to buy a new bathbomb from Lush that very night.
Of course I dried off and wore clothes before I rampaged downstairs.
SO BEHOLD. BUBBLE BATH! HUZZAH!
I had the bubble bath while my friends went to the pool instead the next day.
The POOL IS ONLY CLOSED AT 10.30pm?! I’m le shocked because that is awesome since you get moonlight swimming which we didn’t do because that night it rained.
The view from the pool! Click to embiggen! Because panorama woah. It’s pretty pretty!
Using my La Sardina film cam here, so lovely.
Stock photo of friends, ah ha ha ha. They’ve got a jacuzzi massage thingy there by the way.
I was in the gym instead and ok, the gym is pretty ok! It had the strength stuff, the cardio stuff and it’s open 24 hours. I tend to go for the strength equipment while people are cycling and running away since I do it in a circuit and HUAARGGH YEAAAH USE ALL THE GYM EQUIPMENT.
LET ME DO THEM CHEST PRESSES AND WHATNOT.
We made it for the breakfast after our morning activities. I booked the hotel room under the special opening package so breakfast was included at their Makan at Jen.
Unfortunately it is not Halal certified (the staff told us and I did email them too to ask) BUT, the restaurant is pretty smart!
While there was non-Halal cooked food in one section, they DID have cereals, bread, fruit, yogurt, muesli and actually Halal stuff in different stations. It’s not certified Halal but you know those food are Halal.
Ice cream is Halal…
Since it was there, we were all “Well, we need to eat ice cream. For breakfast. On principle” because it was staycation and you can eat ice cream at any time.
OH AND ONE THING I LIKED IS THAT, when you want to leave, there’s a little ‘station’ near the exit where there is a coffee machine it’s a little thing before you leave that you can take away a cup of coffee/tea/milo and either bananas or muffins etc in a little baggy.
That is a freaking nice touch!
How did I find it? It’s got great staff, very lovely facilities. Smooshy bed. BATHTUUUUUB. The only cons was the non certification of Halal food but you can always eat anywhere else in Orchard!
And oh there was a minor hitch with our internet because I don’t know my last name (darn you Asian names??), we called them up and they tried to help us but it didn’t work with username/password BUT after midnight, it worked. I think it was more of a server glitch thing. Otherwise, woooh.
OH AND DO LOOK AT THEIR VENDING MACHINE. It’s actually pretty affordable aka quite cheap for stuff in Orchard for canned drinks and snacks.
If you want a staycation with pals, ok can. I hope you can try out the deluxe room because it’s really, really niiiice. And you probably can do a pillow fort if you want to shove your friend to the other side of the king sized bed since there’s no twin share bed if you want a bathtub.
There is enough pillows and cushions to make one anyway.
That looks fantastic!
I’m in love with the pool there, and it’ll be good to have a staycation, and sit by the pool all day. <3