Phuket 2015 Itinerary

We got off to a great start at Changi Airport, thanks to the complimentary 2-hour airport lounge access by Far East Organisation, after our recent stayacation with them at Orchard Parade Hotel. As we did not have any check-in luggage and had done our online check-in, we were able to go straight to the document check counter to obtain a printed boarding pass (not sure why we were unable to print it ourselves). Anyway, this queue was very short and definitely much faster! With more than 3 hours prior to flight departure, we happily went in search of the lounge!

Located one floor above and opposite gate C1, it was quiet and relatively empty. One could choose the seats near the viewing gallery, a more private rest corner with reclining arm chairs, or even a room to snooze in. There were also shower facilities. We rested a while in the comfortable arm chairs, before moving out for an early lunch, as well as reading of newspapers and magazines. There were plenty of food and drinks available, and we especially enjoyed the ramen, laksa, char kway tiao and cookies.

It was a full flight on FD377 departing at 1:05pm and we were assigned window and middle seats. The aisle seat was already taken up, and we did not feel like paying extra to change both of our seats. Thankfully, it was a relatively short ride, else hubby would have been very squashed. In less than 2 hours, we have touched down at Phuket!

We exited the airport and managed to find the Marriott Vacation Club representative, who was holding on to a long list of names… Wow, they must be popular! We were secretly relieved that they got our arrival flight details correctly, like finally, after emailing the updated flight details to the staff 3 times!

It was a quick 15-minute ride to Marriott Vacation Club, where we were welcomed by a staff who gave us our folder with resort information and also confirmed our departure… Which was when we discovered that they still did not update our departure details correctly… *faintz*

Anyway, once we got that part finally corrected, a buggy sent us to our 2-bedroom apartment, and we begun our very nua holiday, which looked something like:

• Day 1 (8 Nov) – Arrived in Phuket flight FD377 at 2pm (one hour behind Singapore), check-in to Marriott Vacation Club, explore supermarket at Turtle Village and bought breakfast, pre-dinner snacks at Kin Dee, dinner at Marriott Cafe, soak in huge bath tub and knock out
• Day 2 (9 Nov) – Light breakfast in room, explore Turtle Village, lunch at Coffee Club, dip toes into sea, soak in swimming pool, 400 baht massage by the sea, ordered in dinner from Kin Dee
• Day 3 (10 Nov) – Light breakfast in room, mandatory sales presentation (which lasted 3 hours because we were so undecided), lunch at Bill Bently Pub in Turtle Village, nua in room, view sunset, dinner at Thiwsoen Seafood Restaurant, more soaking in huge bath tub
• Day 4 (11 Nov) – Light breakfast in room, check-out from Marriott Vacation Club, complimentary shuttle to Phuket Airport, flight FD376 at 9:50am, arrived in Changi Airport at 12pm, lunch at Saboten, tea-break at Artisan Boulangerie Cafe in Changi Airport T2, dinner at Morsels before going home 🙂

Not bad for a relaxing trip huh? Food within the resort was expensive, but it was also normal for hotels and resorts to raise the prices because of the higher food quality and overheads. However, since we prefer to try local delights, we decided to venture out. We did not try any street food because the one vendor whom we approached, paused and gave prices based on how we looked (80B for a small piece of chicken thigh meat grilled by the roadside, no thanks).

Useful Links:

• Marriott’s Phuket Beach Club – This is a hotel under Marriott Vacation Club meant for club members (TripAdvisor review).