Hello Kitty Town, Little Big Club & Legoland Trip (24-26Aug14)

We just came back from JB after 3 days 2 nites trip to Hello Kitty Town, Little Big Club & Legoland. It was a fun trip and we really enjoy the time spent together as a family.

Staying in LEGOLAND hotel was one of our option initially, however the hotel rate was too steep about S$300-500 per nite. After doing some research, staying at the Puteri Harbour Traders Hotel seems to be the best choice. It is just next to Hello Kitty Town with complimentary shuttle bus service to LEGOLAND which only takes 10mins drive. The room rate is cheaper than LEGOLAND hotel and very new as well. The Puteri Harbour Traders Hotel turns out to exceed our expectations. I shall post my review of the hotel on a separate post.

The travelling to Puteri Harbour is surprisingly not as straight forward considering it is so near to SG. The best option is to drive. But we do not have a car, therefore our choices are limited.

One of the options is to take a coach by WTS travel from Singapore Flyer. However the timing is not so ideal to us as the earliest departure timing is at 8.30am. By the time it reach Puteri Harbour will be around 10-11am. After time spent in checking in to hotel and other miscellaneous stuff like having breakfast, feeding baby and etc, half day gone. We intend to go to both Hello Kitty Town and Little Big club on the first day so the timing quite tight.

The other option which we took was the public bus. The timing is earlier and we could reach Puteri Harbour by 9.30am which is just nice to catch the Theme Park opening hour at 10am.

First, we need to take the Causeway link bus CW3/4 at Jurong East Bus Interchange. Now, the travelling from my house to JE is like East end to West end. As we need to catch the bus at 7.30am, we took a taxi to JE. We reached JE bus interchange around 7.05am and the queue for the CW bus was already quite long. We were carrying our baby stroller with a big backpack, hence we were quite worry that we might not get a seat on the bus plus carrying all the barangs.

The bus came at 7.15am and the fare was S$4 per adult (Just to reach the 2nd link CIQ at JB side). Infant is FOC. We were lucky to be able to get seats on the bus although the bus was quite crowded. Therefore the tip is to reach the bus interchange earlier and queue to guarantee a seat if you are bringing a baby or children along.

The bus departed at 7.20am sharp and reached Tuas 2nd link (SG side) at around 7.40am. We need to alight with all our stuff to clear the custom first before boarding the same bus by showing the bus ticket. However as we need to clear the custom at the counter due to having infant instead of the automated machine, the time taken to clear the custom took longer. Although the clearance was done in 5mins but the CW3 bus which we took earlier already left. We thought we were stuck and have to wait for another 20mins for the next CW3 bus to come. Luckily there was another CW4 bus came along in the next few minutes and we were able to board the bus with the bus ticket.

We reached the JB custom (2nd link CIQ) at 8am. We need to catch the earliest JPO2 bus departing at 8.30am, so we were on time. The bus station is located at the JB custom just a few steps walk after clearing the custom. The bus fare cost about 2RM per adult. The JPO2 bus departed on the dot at 8.30am and reached the Puteri Harbour bus stop at 9am.

The bus journey was smooth and the Causeway link buses run like clockwork, very efficient. I was expecting to reach by 9.30am but we managed to reach earlier.

The Puteri Harbour bus stop is located at the Little Red Cube building and right next to the Puteri Harbour Traders Hotel. It is just less than 3mins walking distance. The hotel location is very convenient, with all the restaurants right outside the hotel.



Restaurants & shops in Little Red Cube

Little Red Cube - Water Fountain

Hotel Lobby

We tried to check in but the room was not available yet due to weekend. So we left our backpack at the hotel concierge and tried to find some restaurant to have our breakfast. We realized that most of the restaurants opened at 10am except for Lat's Place which opened at 9am on weekend. So we have our breakfast at Lat's Place. Quite a fanciful restaurant with all the animation. It kept our little baby engaged by looking at the animation on the TV. The food was average only. 

Lat's Place

Inside Lat's Place

Our Breakfast

After breakfast we visited Hello Kitty Town & Little Big club. Both Theme parks are very kiddish and vey suitable for young children. Surprisingly as adults, we enjoyed both theme parks very much too. Check out my review on the theme parks.



Hello Kitty Town & Little Big Club - Ticketing booth

The next day we visited LEGOLAND. However LEGOLAND was not as enjoyable as Hello Kitty & Little Big Club cos it was very hot in the morning (with little shelter) and in the afternoon, it rained. So it sort of dampen our mood. But when the rain stopped in the late afternoon, we managed to enjoy some of the rides and we had a good time as the weather was more cooling and not so crowded. I shall review our LEGOLAND experience separately.

Legoland

In summary, we enjoyed our trip very much. The journey was smooth, hotel stay was fantastic, the theme parks were relaxing and some of the rides are enjoyable. Most importantly it is not very expensive and very near to SG. However I don't think we want to visit the theme parks again in the near future. Perhaps when our gal is older, we may bring her back again.

Here's our itinerary:

Day 1: SG to JB / Puteri Harbour / Hello Kitty Town / Little Big Club

• Took CW3 Causeway link bus at JE Bus interchange to 2nd link CIQ at 7.20am. S$4/Adult, Infant FOC.
• Took JPO2 Causeway link bus at 2nd link CIQ to Puteri Harbour at 8.30am. RM2/Adult, Infant FOC.
• Check in Puteri Harbour Traders Hotel at 9am. 
• Breakfast at Lat's Place.
• Visited Hello Kitty Town. RM 110 per adult for 2 theme parks (Hello Kitty Town & Little Big Club). 10% discount for NTUC member.
• After lunch visited Little Big Club
• Call it a day at 5.30pm
• Tabao food back to hotel and took turns to enjoy hotel facilities - gym & steam bath (very shiok)

Day 2: LEGOLAND

• Breakfast at hotel
• Took complimentary shuttle bus from hotel to LEGOLAND.
• Tour LEGOLAND. RM140 per adult.
• Call it a day at 6.30pm
• Took turns to enjoy hotel facilities again after dinner.

Day 3: Back to SG

• Swimming at the gorgeous infinity pool on the hotel rooftop
• Breakfast at hotel
• Check out from hotel at 12pm
• Took JPO2 bus back to CIQ 2nd link at 1.50pm. Paid RM4 / adult which also includes CW3/4 bus back to JE bus interchange (Just need to show the ticket).
• Tip: While waiting for the CW3/4 bus at CIQ 2nd link, the bus CW6 came first. Although CW6 goes to Boon Lay but it still needs to alight us at the 2nd link SG custom. Based on our 1st day experience, it is better to reach 2nd link SG custom earlier for clearance as the bus will leave very quickly. Therefore we boarded the CW6 bus to reach the SG custom first. Our reasoning paid off. We managed to catch the CW3 bus right after we cleared the SG custom.
• Reach JE bus interchange at 3.30pm
• Took MRT from JE back home. Reach home at 4.45pm.
• Journey ended.