~Room Sweet Room~

Well, the title says it all. Some people would like to correct that phrase to "Home Sweet Home" but for me and to our little family of 5 it's "ROOM SWEET ROOM".

Ever wonder what's the size of our room? I meant ours as in Jake , ME, Joe, Judith and Javier @ 5-in-1. At first it was hard to accommodate so many of us in a room but we figured out a way and made it possible. It's tiny but very comfy. Our room is special because it's brings us together. It's not just a bedroom for resting or sleeping purposes, it's also an entertainment room. HAHA~

The 5 of us are stuck in a room.. it's like the shape of the letter L. It makes us closer and I'm afraid that once the kids grow up and have their own rooms, I might not be able to recover from 'not sharing a room with them!'. SOBS~

We love our room because it's like a sanctuary to us. Whenever we are tired or feel a little restless, we'll just go into our room. Our bed has always been so comfortable. Hotel beds aren't as comfortable as ours. It's like you feel at peace and there's a warm sensation to it. (don't think dirty okay?) A right bed is when you can sleep soundly and wake up feeling good. And a right room is where you look forward to; to spend inside each and every single minute of the day. Therefore, "ROOM SWEET ROOM".

 BEWARE!!! The yellow door beyond total tranquility

 Overall view of our room

 Our 'Bed Sweet Bed'

 Joe and Judith's double decker bed

 Top bunk is Judith's bed...

 Bottom bunk belongs to Joe

*it used to be the other way round (Joe@top bunk & Jud@bottom bunk) but they switched among themselves cuz' the princess wants to be on top of the castle!

 This is our beloved sofa. It has the 'Mario & Friends' theme.

*it's also a sofa-cum-tabletop for Jake. He sits on the sofa with his laptop on to play DOTA and plugs in the HDMI cable for other purposes too. Talking about all-in-one.

 This is the mini entertainment section.. I don't think it's mini.. just looks like it.

 We have the Wii on the left, boom-boom speaker in the middle and the PS3 on the right.

*PS3 serves a few functions : gaming / blu-rays / music / DLs'

 Blu-rays amidst PS3 games!!!

 Jake's Wii games..

*Barbie as The Island Princess belongs to Judith k, not Jake's.

*all ORIGINAL okay? Dun puh-lay, puh-lay!!!

 Drawer of a variety of gaming controllers

 Jake's cook books

 Milk making station

 This is our good friend who helps us make our room the way it is! HAHA~

You must be wondering where does Javier sleeps; well, he shares the bed with Jake and ME. Whenever Joe's not around, Javier usually occupies his bed.

We won't be going back there~

During the weekend, Jake and I checked into The Gardens Hotel and Residences. Of course, we stayed at The Gardens Hotel. The Residences isn't ready yet. It was the soft opening of The Gardens Hotel, so we decided to try it out. We always love to try out new hotels and give our reviews. We stayed in the Executive Deluxe Room on the 18th floor, which we can have free flow of juices, coffee and tea at the executive lounge throughout the day. 

So as usual before the booking, I made sure that the hotel has a child's pool. That is the most important facility that we lookout for... second is of course that a bathtub must be present inside the bathroom. Okay all set+

We actually planned to stayed the first night just the two of us, to celebrate our "7th Wedding Anniversary". The kids will spend the night over with my in laws. Then after the first night which is the second day, my sister had arranged to send them over to us. But our plan failed cause, we realized that we miss the kids so much and that it was so awkwardly peaceful when they're not around. We're so used to the screaming and shouting that we felt weird not hearing them... and we also realized that there will be fireworks on the 30th of August not on the 31st of August for the Merdeka!! We must have miscalculate the dates.. but the fireworks weren't fun.. HAHA~

So after lunch and some grocery shopping, Cecilia sent the kids over to the hotel. The kids was surprise cause earlier we had told them that they'll only be staying with us the next day which is Sunday. So they were shocked and happy at the same time.. but so sad.. we found that there weren't any child's pool.. there's an adult pool only. Sobs for Jake that the gym weren't even equipped yet. Why did I pack his Nike then? Wasted the space! Truly disappointing. I did asked about the child's pool when I called earlier and the receptionist did said there's one. How cruel can that be? To lie to us just to have the occupancy rate beeming? Aargh.. and then the room temperature wasn't functioning properly. It was so cold at 25°C so we had the air-condition temperature turned down to 30°C and yet it was still freezing. We had to off the air-cond at times. Freaking cold!

Then, before

Jake wanted to check out after the first night but since we had booked online, the rooms are fully paid for 2 nights. Double sobs. Anyways, we try to make the stay interesting for the kids. But we already planned not to go back to The Gardens Hotel and Residences. The service is quite bad too. Well, one or two of the staff are friendly especially the security guards. However, we don't mind going back to Boulevard Hotel as it's always welcoming! We'll rate this 5 star hotel -> 3 star only.. sorry but it's true; as a result, we won't be going back there.

     PROS'

• nice room
• amenities ok

    CONS'

• uncontrolled room temperature
• lazy and moody service
• no child's pool
• gym not equipped
• don't have spray nozzle - inconvenient for doing 'big business'
• same variety of buffet breakfast 2 days in a row - scrambled eggs, sausages, fried mee, baked beans, omelette, miso soup, bread, salad and fruits.

Below are some pictures I took to share:

The Bed

* nice room thou', quite comfy.. you have a pillow menu too!

The Bathroom

* no spray nozzle at toilet....

The Workplace/Entertainment

* nice TV.. the desk has lots of secret compartments.. btw the Diethelm chair is heavenly!

ME..... checking out the bed

Hubby busying himself with the big monitor..

When we look outside, this is what we see...

Daytime

* nice scenery except for the murky river below

* The Gardens Office Tower - very emply btw

Night time 

* lonely road

* city view.. can you see the fireworks sparks? That's Dataran Merdeka over there.

Splashing time!!!

This was how we made the tub interesting for the kids.. we had water balloons in it... we had to use the water pressure to pump each and every one cuz' the stupid pump that came along with the balloons wasn't working. Cliche'

* me snapping myself

What kids do to pass the time when there isn't a swimming pool..

* Javier find every possible hole to get inside

* got Joe a book to make 3-D robots...

Judith and Javier busying themselves with Charlie and Lola sticker book

While waiting for the fireworks...

* cam-whoring myself.. very rarely I do it.. so this is a plus!

* Javier need his power drink @ 'SUSTAGEN' to keep him going

Javier found another hole to hide which was underneath our bed... eventually it became a fort for them to play.. going in and out!!

The LETTER

Dear Guest, 

Thank you for staying with us!

Kindly be informed that our check-out time is at 12.00 noon. In view of our full house high occupancy for today, we regret that we would not be able accommodate late check-out requests. 

Please disregard the above if we have specially extended a late check-out request for your good self prior to this notification.

We thank you for your understanding and apologies any inconvenience this may caused.

Yours sincerely,

XXXX

We received the above letter a day before we check-out. I guess they read our mind. But believe me, the 'full house high occupancy' is inaccurate. Anyone staying there will know. The minute you press the button for the lift, it 'DINGS' and opens. You don't have to wait. And you can see the amount of people during the buffet breakfast. So, I doubt the hotel was full. But this is the 2nd hotel that we can't wait to check-out. The first hotel was Bayview Hotel, Malacca. :)