Review: Westin Singapore Seaview Suite - The Military Frequent Flyer

This is slightly out of order, as after our excellent Singapore business class flight, we took Jetstar from SIN – Phuket, and stayed for three nights at the Holiday Inn Express Patong Beach, then took Jetstar back to Singapore. However, I already have this post written. The next stage in our awesome SE Asian trip last fall was our stay at the Westin Singapore. Thus far, these have been my reviews so far from this trip:

And then we’ll have for later:

Review: Holiday Inn Express Patong Beach Phuket

Review: Intercontinental Singapore

Review: EVA Royal Laurel (Business) Class 777-300ER Singapore to Taipei to JFK

I was going to book two nights at the Westin using my SPG points, but my younger brother Jim, who is SPG platinum from his job as a consultant, had a bunch of suite upgrades that he wasn’t going to be able to redeem, so I asked if I could borrow some for our two night stay there. He said yes of course; however there was a hitch. He’d have to be staying there to redeem the upgrades. So, I transferred 24k SPG points to him (12k per night), he booked the room under his name with me as a guest, then redeemed the upgrades. He added a note that “he would be arriving after we got there”.

The location is pretty awesome, as it’s only 3 (long) blocks from the marina, 1 block from the subway, about a half mile walk from the gardens, and just South of Chinatown, which is a great area for walking.

I was nervous it wasn’t going to go as planned, but when we went to check in, the front desk agent said, “oh, it looks like your brother won’t be getting in until later”, and I just nodded my head yes. She said she was able to upgrade us to a seaview suite, which looked awesome online.

The lobby of the Westin is beautiful, grandly overlooking the harbor, and the staff is wonderful. Unfortunately, the check-in got really screwed up after that. We took our bags up to our assigned suite, but when we opened the door, there were already people staying in the suite! We apologized profusely, then rushed back to the lobby to ask, “whisky tango foxtrot?!?”

The manager came by, apologized profusely to us (and hopefully to the couple we barged in on!), and offered us business lounge access, and for us to wait there while a new room was prepared. Even with the upgrades, we initially were not offered lounge access because it’s only offered to the platinum member, but they gave it to us because of the gaff. It worked out great – we got free breakfasts in the lounge, in return for having to wait only an extra 30 minutes while our room was prepared.

Sarah, the lounge associate who helped us, was awesome, and personally toted our bags up to our room (against my protests). When we walked in, both my wife and I audibly said, “WOW!” The seaview suite is gorgeous, and ours faced a nearby building, but we still had a partial view of the marina and a side view of the pool and the harbor. There was an entry foyer with ½ bath, leading into a huge living room with desk and Nespresso maker, then to a huge bedroom with king bed, and huge bathroom with floor to ceiling windows and separate shower and bath. The bath had a great view overlooking the city, although was right across the street from another high-rise building where people working there could potentially see through the windows. All the window shades were automated, which was pretty cool.

The outdoor pool is pretty phenomenal, as it’s an infinity pool overlooking part of the marina, and the harbor. It was hazy the whole time we were there, and we had a cab driver who said smog was getting worse all the time in Singapore. I guess my only gripe about the pool was that because it’s so high up (42nd floor) it was pretty windy, which made it a little cool in 70ish degree weather. There’s a bar, but it’s also attached to the lounge; across the hallway is the fitness center (which I didn’t use) which overlooks the harbor.

Breakfasts were decent; not the best Westin breakfast I’ve had, but they did the trick (and free always tastes better!)

As a consolation, because of our botched check-in, they offered us a complimentary ride to the airport. We were a little embarassed, as we were going for a night in the Intercontinental, but they didn’t mind. We were escorted in the Westin’s jaguar, which was great, even though the Icon was really only 3 subway stops away.

All in all, it was a phenomenal stay, and I would definitely stay there again!

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