Sentosa after so many years

Yesterday, Monday, I decided to take a day off in preparation for a looong week ahead.

I went to Sentosa with Candy. We originally had planned for a visit to the Science Centre and maybe also the Omni Theatre, but it doesn't open on Mondays..

We just wanted to go somewhere out of the way, so Sentosa sounded good. And it was a Monday.. how crowded could it get anyways?

HAHAHHAHA... we were WRONG!! Sentosa was packed with tourists!! The bus queues were loooong. Luckily we weren't going the same direction as the tourists, so it was relatively easy for us to move around.

It was my first time at Underwater World. It was a bit expensive to enter, but I thought it was worth it. Nice experience, though a bit small, had a good variety. I especially loved the Sea Angels and that huge river fish, Arapalma.. Candy liked the Giant Japanese Spider Crabs. The underwater tunnel was nice and just so happen, there were 2 divers feeding the fishies.. nice sight.. especially when a stingray took its time to gobble up a fish while over the acrylic dome.. never seen such close ups..

and Candy swears a grouper was in love with me.. hahha.. while watching the feeding, Candy noticed a grouper right behind my head looking at me.. even when i turned around, it was still looking at me.. we were probably only 8-10 inches apart staring into each others eyes.. hahhaha

we went for the 4DMagix show and also the Sky Luge and Sky Lift rides. Quite cool. Loved the Luge.. it's like a tobaggon but instead of being on snow, you run on a concrete windy path all the way downhill.. we were probably clocking 40-50km/h downhill.. Candy is a speed demon.. our second run, I had a 8-10 sec head start.. which is quite a long head start.. and she still beat me right at the end!! I must remind myself not to let her drive my car.. hahha

but the whole day was marred by the Sky Tower failing to work properly.. we were asked to wait 30 mins to 1 hour.. so we went for the 4DMagix show (30mins).. we walked around for a bit, and then went back.. they said another 30 mins or so.. so we went for drinks at the SkyBar.. we chatted for about 1 hour plus and went back to the tower.. and they told us they don't know how long more it would take..

we asked if could get some part of our package ticket as a refund.. they said, try the ticketing counter... we asked, and the lady told us, they dont do refunds.. i asked for her to ask her supervisor.. her supervisor look at our tickets and told us to ask the visitors arrival centre for the refund as that was where we initially bought the tickets.. so we went back to the VAC and asked them.. as we approached, they had just received the news that the Sky Tower was now operational again.. we told them, we were already heading home.. we had waited for more than 2 hours and now already at the VAC and had no interest in heading back to the tower. (which was a 15 min bus ride away).. at this time, it was already getting dark and i only wanted to view the skyline during the day.

They said, they dont give refunds and that the tickets were already discounted anyway.. they even asked if we could come back the next day to use up the ticket.. this was where i got really mad. and then the supervisor made it worse by saying it was not their problem and it was Sky Tower's fault and also the ticketing centre at that locations fault for sending us to VAC. I kinda blew up at her and told her off. anyways, the junior guy called his "upper management" and about 25 mins later, a malay lady came and had a discussion with them, and then she approached us and apologised for the mess... she said that there WAS a refund policy, but it had to go through proper channels.. she apolgised for her juniors ignorance and gave us a full refund for the sky tower.. we actually only expected a pro rated refund, as the ticket was already discounted by 24%.. but she gave a full refund anyway.. i was satisfied..

but looking at the entire situation really got me thinking about the inflexibility and the lack of authority given to the staff of local companies.. back when i was a delivery driver for pizza hut in brisbane, i recalled having alot of independence and authority to do eveything deemed necessary to ensure a dissatisfied client is made happy again.. we had authority to use our own judgement to give away discounts, free vouchers, and even give the pizza away for free and an additional voucher for future purchases to irate clients.. this usually happens when we are very late in the delivery or we get the order wrong or forget other parts of the orders..

of course, there's opportunity for people to misuse and abuse the system.. but surprisingly, these cases are rare and can be quickly found out.. becos of the authority given to us by our management, we actually feel more loyal to our company and bosses and look out for their interests.. our bosses seldom if ever question our judgement.. they will ask for an brief explanation, fill up a small form and approve the discount etc without much hassle..

i was wondering, how on earth is sentosa ever going to be a world class tourist attraction, if a simple thing like a refund takes so much time and effort.