I
was in SG for 8 hours in mid-June to check out the GSS (well, not really). We
took First Coach departing from Bangsar first thing in the morning and reached
Novena at 12:30. After collecting the ticket for the return leg, we rode the MRT
to Marina Bay and walked to Marina Bay Sands before walking to City Hall. Took
the MRT to Orchard and spent the rest of the day there before returning to
Novena for our coach ride back.
I
hadn’t planned on returning to SG again so soon but there was an online coach
offer for RM28 return (!) (RM55 for two and RM100 for 4 persons travelling
together) and it looked so good that I bought it specifying 20 September as my travel
date. I then scoured for online tickets to the Universal Studios Singapore and
finally bought it at RM158.42 each after a further 11% discount by MyDeal. I only
noticed in the terms and conditions that the tickets were only valid until 31
August 2014 (which meant I couldn’t go on the coach as my chosen travel date is
20 September) so I quickly bought return train tickets (lower berth) for 23
August 2014. I had to go and collect the USS tickets in person and it was then
when I saw that the tickets were valid until early December 2014 after all. Well,
what do you know, even online terms and conditions are not accurate. I decided
to still utilise my train tickets (the train ticket cost RM46 one way or
RM92 return and I’d rather burn the coach tickets than the train tickets).
So
we left on Friday evening, the train pulling out of KL Sentral at 23:00. I
couldn’t sleep well but must say I slept better than on my previous Senandung
Sutera rides. I got up at 5 am to use the bathroom and perform ablutions. We arrived
at JB Sentral shortly after I finished my morning prayers. We now have to get down
at JB Sentral to clear immigration; before JB Sentral came into being, we needn’t
leave the train as it was the immigration officers who came on board to inspect our
passports. Clearing the immigration at JB Sentral was a short simple efficient process though as I used the autogate.
We
pulled into Woodlands barely five minutes after leaving JB Sentral and joined
the queue to clear SG immigration. After that, we walked out and walked to
Marsiling MRT station (a bloody local woman decided to start a fight with me and
that really riled me up). We rode the MRT to Harbourfront, changing at Jurong
East and Buona Vista. From Harbourfront, we took the RWS8 bus to Sentosa. You
need to pay the exact fare of SGD2 for the bus as no change is given.
We
changed and freshened up at Resort World before having breakfast. After breakfast,
we walked over to USS. The queue was already considerable then. We rode the very
mild Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase at New
York then Revenge of The Mummy at Ancient Egypt. As it’s a high-speed
rollercoaster in the dark, you must store your belongings and loose items
(hats, sunglasses, handphones etc) in the lockers provided nearby. The rental
is free for 45 minutes (when we returned later, the rental was free for 55
minutes, I guess to take into account the larger crowd and longer queue). We had
a good laugh at the photo hahahaha!
After Ancient Egypt, we headed to Lost
World for the 11:15 WaterWorld show but as we still had some time, we detoured briefly
to Far Far Away to ride the Enchanted Airways. After WaterWorld, we headed back
to Far Far Away for the 12 noon Shrek 4-D Adventure. It was getting almighty and
unbearably hot by then so the air-conditioned theatre was a welcome.
When we exited the theatre, the large clouds
above had turned somewhat darker. There was supposed to be a 13:15 Madagascar Boogie!
but the show was postponed because of the weather so we walked around before
heading to the prayer room between Sci-Fi City and Ancient Egypt. It was a good
thing we arrived when we did because barely five minutes later, a lot of people
descended upon the prayer room too!
We snacked in between and debated if
we should ride the Canopy Flyer back at Lost World. The queue was long though
and it looked like we would need to queue for close to an hour so we returned
instead to Ancient Eqypt. The queue was very long this time and we had queued
for more than 30 minutes when there was an announcement informing of delays. The
line moved after ten minutes but it turned out it was because people were
abandoning the queue and not because the ride was already fixed. The announcement
as we left informed that the problem had not yet been rectified and that it
would take some more time.
We
then joined another frustratingly tiring super long queue for TRANSFORMERS
The Ride: The Ultimate 3D Battle at Sci-Fi City. Just
when we thought we had neared the end, the queue snaked behind corners and into
another room. The ride was at least enjoyable although it is simply ridiculous to have
to queue for 45 minutes for a five-minute ride.
Next,
we checked out Lights, Camera, Action! at New York before settling in to watch
the parade.
This
was my second time to USS; the first one was in February 2011. This time
around, I was not as impressed as I was then. I took much fewer pictures for
sure and I felt slightly disappointed – of the long queue which amounted to
nothing and of the cancelled shows. The Battlestar Galactica ride is currently
not available and even though it’s not likely that I’d ride it, it’d be fun to
watch others brave it out. And I think the parade sucked big time. It looked
half-hearted to me.
I
guess I won’t be heading back to USS in a hurry...
We
left around 5 and took the coach back to VivoCity. We were not charged this
time. We headed to the food court at B2. There’s a halal section at the food court
and even though I don’t normally buy chicken rice, I had that and some
vegetables for early dinner.
We
then rode the MRT back to Marsiling and walked to An-Nur Mosque to perform
prayers. It rained while we were riding the train but had stopped when we
reached Marsiling. It started drizzling again as we left the mosque. We went to
the hawker stalls at Woodlands Centre Road and had some drinks and supper. We walked
to the Woodlands Train Checkpoint and waited until 23:00 when the ‘gate’ opened
for us to clear immigration before boarding the train. You clear both the
Singaporean and Malaysian immigration at Woodlands, which means you don’t need
to get down at JB Sentral. A good thing too as the Senandung Sutera train from
Woodlands depart at 23:30. And yes, somehow 30 minutes are enough to clear both
sides of immigration and find your berth/seat on the train.
I
still haven’t decided if I would burn my coach tickets for 20 September. I might
just go ahead and then take the MRT from the Harbourfront to central. Unfortunately,
I don’t think I can transfer the tickets to other people as I’ve already
emailed the coach company a copy of my passport as requested.
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