Marine Bay Sands Hotel

Entrance of Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Hotel shop

This is the second part of the Marine Bay Sands post, here are the pictures of the interior of Marine Bay Sands hotel.

On my way back, I talked to an employee of MBS, he worked as a logistic supervisor. Currently MBS employed about 7,000 plus staff, the location of Marine Bay is located out of town area, apart from the dozen of restuarants, there are no food courts nearby for meals. Thus, MBS provide both lunch and dinner for their staff. He mentioned it was very busy, imagine providing food for over 7,000. He is required to work from 7 am to 10pm on most days, with his weary look, he mentioned he is going back early today. It is not easy to work there. Saying good bye I wish him all the best.

Marine Bay Sands Opening 27 April

Photos from Marina Bay Sands

The US$5.5 billion (S$7.5 billion) Marine Bay Sands opened for business after a simple ribbon cutting ceremony at the hotel lobby by top executives from its parent company Las Vegas Sands (LVS) and the traditional lion dance for good luck.

At the Feng Shui approved time of 3:18pm on 27 April.

Marina Bay Sands officially opened its doors to the public. The Integrated Resort (IR) is set to open progressively over the year, with Tuesday’s first phase including 963 hotel rooms, parts of the shopping mall and convention centre, some restaurants and bars, the Event Plaza along Marina Bay, and the casino.

Finally Completed..

Sands Expo and Conventional Centre.

Beautiful carpets, very thick & soft...

The holding area and the payment of levy for visitors to the casino. To prevent over-crowding inside the casino, locals/PR are required to wait for their turn to go into the casino after paying the levy. A few hundred chairs are neatly arranged in the holding area, by the side there is also a row of small kiosks selling food & drinks. Very thoughtful and well planned by Sands.

Separating the locals (Singaporean/PR) and foreigner. Talk about being a local, we don't have any advantage at home. The levy is $100 for locals.

Going into the Casino. Mainly Chinese tourists & local retirees.

The Shoppes at Marine Sands, most of the shops are not ready for business, still under renovation. People taking the escalator to the casino entrance.

The escalator at the Shoppes caught my attention, have no idea where it led to, it is still closed to public.


Visited Marine Bay Sands yesterday afternoon to catch a glimpse of the building and surroundings. Readers might have read the earlier posts on MBS during it's construction phrase.

A 2 parts series on the MBS, in the second post, I will upload the pictures on the interior of the Marine Bay Sands hotel for readers, so stay tune. And an exclusive interview with a Sands employee (logistic), actually he talked to me while i'm leaving the place, with the opportunity to ask him questions and learn how it is like working there, you guys will be amazed!

Two earlier posts:

MBS on 4 March

MBS on 28 Feb

Check the blog for the second part: Inside Marine Bay Sands Hotel coming up shortly..

Resort World Casino Singapore - Feng Shui

Received an interesting email from a friend last week, sharing here with everyone. You might like to read more on Resort World in my earlier posts last month, have not been to Resort World Casino, but will probably visit at a later date. The written English is quite funny and I just left the main content close to the original. Apologise if you find it difficult to read.

If you are thinking of having a 'crack' at the RWS Casino, beware of what you are up against.... believe it or not !!!

A fengshui master. He said RWS's casino is full of 'fengshui' arrangement that it's very strong to trap anyone's money when going into the casino. From the moment you enter (if you asked the cab to drop you at casino entrance), you will see the lobby has one strange sculpture.... the elephant.

1. The elephant refers to you, or to someone that's rich, all mighty and with a lot of cash. The legs of the elephant are long....and high up, meaning high rollers will visit. But the top body of the elephant has a pyramid metal structure that can be found replicated at 6 spots on top of the fountains of wealth atop the casino entrance. The pyramid represents RWS.....sitting on top of you, the elephant. No way you will not follow the 'qi' of RWS presented to you....

2. Going down the LED lighted arcs escalator...the LED panel's resemblance of knives. Not just a normal knife but a shining sharp one.. there are a total of 4 panels. The picture on the LED is fishes swimming then followed by fireballs. The fireball represents RWS. Fishes are customers. All swimming to the casino. You are distracted by the light and sound. No one will think of those knives, which will have cut you into pieces even before you start gambling.


3. Down at the path to the casino...a lot of criss-cross arcs with water like lightning.... like a net....trapping your money.

4. In front of the casino, there is a double 'ba qua' opening looking up with light shining in...that is a strong fengshui..on top of the ba qua opening is the fountain of wealth with giant lotus plants and leafs curling out from the water, meaning growing well. Balls and multiples pyramids are located at fengshui location. The water of the fountain all fall down into the casino direction, meaning money keeps flowing in. The casino is build underground at the deepest location of the resort, directly under and behind the big Merlion.... deep down into hell!

Your 'qi' must be strong to gamble there....the fengshui arrangement is more 'shiong' than Genting Highlands. MBS is also....casino deep down in Marina Bay, the Lotus shape museum aka praying bowl with a center hole collecting rain water...water flowing from the lotus flooding the museum (the moat design) and the three towers represent something I need not say if you are a Chinese.....

ba qua - A Ba Gua is one of the tools used by a feng shui master, along with a luo pan (feng shui compass) to help determine preferred locations, in the home or office, for certain functions; such as wealth, health, fame, love and more.

RWS - Resort World Singapore

MBS - Marine Bay Sands, the three towers look like tombstone to some people. (see the pictures on my March 4 blog post)

qi - In traditional Chinese culture, it is frequently translated as "energy flow".

shiong - a Hokkien dialect commonly used in Singapore, meaning "damaging".

Universal Studios Singapore Opening Next Week :)

Universal Studio Singapore 2010 - Sneak Peek..

Universal Studio Singapore was opened for sneak preview during the Chinese New Year Celebrations, from 5pm to 9pm every night between 14 to 21 Feb 2010. The whole park was opened, but none of the rides were operational. Visitors had to pay SGD10 to get into the park. Park tickets for the week were sold out in 2 days. On 05 March 2010, it was announced that the park will start opening on 8:28am. 18 March, 2010, for a soft-opening phrase. From 13 March, 2010 the team members of Resorts World Sentosa and their families can start visiting the park before the public has a chance to do so.

The park is 20 hectares (49 acres) in size, occupying the eastern part of the 49 hectares (120 acres) Resorts World Sentosa. There are a total of 24 attractions, of which 18 are the original or specially adapted for the park. It consists of seven uniquely themed zones which it encircles a lagoon. Each zone is based on blockbuster movies or television shows and each feature their own unique attractions, character appearances, dining and shopping areas. The park will feature the world's tallest Dueling roller coaster based on the hit television show Battlestar Galactica, a castle from the world of Shrek and Monster Rock, a live musical show by the infamous Universal Monsters as well as celebrity Look-alikes. The park also includes about 30 restaurants and food carts together with 20 unique retail stores and carts located around the park.

The park is home to the world’s biggest single collection of DreamWorks Animation theme park attractions, occupying 2 of the 7 themed zones, namely based on "Far Far Away" from Shrek and the island of "Madagascar" from the computer-animated movie Madagascar.

A total of 19 attractions opened on the Opening Day of the park, along with multiple shopping and dining outlets.Universal Parks & Resorts is marketing the park as a "one-of-its-kind theme park in Asia" as they promised that the park will be the only of its kind in Southeast Asia for the next 30 years.

I would probably be visiting the park shortly during a weekday, adult ticket is priced at S$66.00 per day. Weekend ticket will cost S$72.00.

MORE PICTURES COMING UP ... STAY TUNE :)

Marina Bay Sands Part 2 - Mar 2010

This is the second part of the blog post on 28 Feb. It had been very hot and humid in Singapore in these couple of weeks, probably around 34C in the afternoon city.

Should be ready in less than 60 days.

Adjacent to Marina Bay Sands, a new office building is currently under construction, the whole area was hot, dusty and noisy.

Lifted the camera above the fences to have the pictures taken, the "colorful seats" is the floating platform, venue for the National Day parade.


Another building under construction in the city area.

Pictures taken on 3 Mar 2010

Marina Bay Sands gears up for April 27

On the 28 Jul 2009, construction of the three towers. (the hotel tower)

Massive construction going on, workers working on 2 shifts. Probably the convention centres...

National Day parade on the floating platform. With the IR at the background.

Working round the clock...

Marina Bay Sands in Singapore to Open Its Doors on April 27, 2010

Grand Opening Celebration, Including the Unveiling of the Extraordinary Sands SkyPark, to Follow on June 23

Last year on the 28 July, I attended the national day parade preview at the floating platform.

I captured a few shoots of Marina Bay Sands during construction. Coming April, Singapore's second Integrated Resort (IR), prefer to call the second casino will be in operation. Unlike Resorts World Sentosa which targets leisure travellers, Marina Bay Sands has said its focus is on high-end business travellers as well as the meetings and convention sectors. In the coming week, I will be travelling down to the city to capture some pictures of the new attraction, so stay tune, for more pictures here.

Resort World Sentosa ---> HUAT AH?

Resort World Sentosa..

With the Resort World Sentosa opened recently... the social ills that comes with gambling addictions, depression, divorce, suicide and high crime rate will rise for sure. Our MM Lee Kuan Yew, had mentioned earlier, punters will not win in the casino..

CNA 19 Feb

With a laugh, Mr Lee said: "They want to gamble. I don’t understand why they want to lose. You surely will not win."

In reference to Resorts World Sentosa, which opened its casino on Sunday, Mr Lee said "the boss counted S$3.5 million" on the first day and S$3.7 million on the second day.

Here are some of the familiar Singaporean behaviour seen at the Resorts World Sentosa. Reported on Sunday Times.

CHOPE - that's my seats

Seats are a premium in the over-crowded casino, and some middle aged female patrons have been spotted leaving packets of tissue paper on the tables to "chope" -or reseve - their seats. Others who need a toilet break get friends to fend off other patrons keen to take their seat.

Those who have visited Singapore food centers will be familiar with this sight, which is uniquely Singapore. This is an ugly habit, what we can do is just simply telling our friends to make his/her purchase first while we waited at the seats.

Chope my seats! In one of the food centers in Singapore, during office lunch breaks.


Shout Out Loud

Punters are loud and animated bunch.

Shouts of "huat ah" (prosperity) are frequently heard throughout the hall.

"Picture, Picture" is another oft-heard phrase at the poker and baccarat tables. It refers to the king, queen and jack cards in a poker deck.

In fact, the more crowded and loud an activity is the better it seems. The tables with the most "action", draw the biggest crowds. Some players will joke loudly with the dealers as if they are old friends.

"Why get so worked up? They think if they shout louder, they will win? If that's the case, the casino would have closed down a long time ago." a retiree who was observing them.

Made yourself at home

Spotted at the casino: people taking off their shoes and sandles as they parked themselves at the jackpot machines. Others slept on the sofas in the rest corners for precious shut-eye time before waking up refreshed for yet another round at the machines.

At the end of the day.. as a Singaporean, I will not fork out S$100 just to go in and gamble.