Marina Bay Sands Singapore Opening Launch, 27th April 2010

Marina Bay Sands Singapore Opening Launch, 27th April 2010

Yesterday I was invited to go for the opening of the Marina Bay Sands Singapore. Joined by our local Malaysian media and also hundreds of other foreign media, we were given a taste of one of the most spectacular destination in the world. The whole property itself cost a whooping U$ 5.5 billion!

Marina Bay Sands will be the Asia’s leading destination for business, leisure and entertainment delivering once in a lifetime experiences.
We were given a media tour in the morning with medias from Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam and we were nevertheless nothing less than impressed.

The shopping at Marina Bay Sands will have 800,000 square feet of retail and dining space. Luxury and high end brands such as Cartier, Chanel, Ferragamo, Frank Muller, Gucci, Patek Philippe, Prada and many more will be coming to Marina Bay Sands. On top of that, the interesting part will be the new brands such as Anne Fontaine, Henry Cotton’s, Paul & Shark, Stefano Ricci, Wolford, Marisfrolg, Moiselle and Rabeanco.

Some of the brands that is so exclusive it will be only available in Singapore in the Asia region. Not even in Tokyo, Japan or Hong Kong. It will be one of the hottest shopping destination in Asia!

For the expo and conventions, I was very impressed on the size of it. The Sands Expo and Convention Center has 1.3 million square feet of flexible convention and exhibition space. It features Southeast Asia’s biggest ballroom that can accommodate 6,600 people for a banquet! That will be 660 tables for a wedding! On top of that, there will be junior ballroom for 1,000 people and below. In fact, on this Saturday, Marina Bay Sands will hold 3 separate weddings altogether!

Then, we were brought to the casino area. For the first time in my life, I had the luxury of taking pictures in an actual casino. With more than 600 table games and more than 1,500 slot machines, the design, the setting and the ambience of the casino was nevertheless breathtaking.

In fact, the casino section is only 15,000 square meters which is less than 3 percent of the gross floor area of the whole property.

The picture shows the beautiful ceiling of the casino and the Lotus (car) for the lucky winner of the slot machine.

There will be a wide variety of popular table games including Roulette, Blackjack, Baccarat and Sic Bo available at the casino.

Inside the casino, it holds one of the world’s largest Crystal Chandelier. Made with 132,000 Swarovski crystals, the impressive Chandelier suspended 40 meters up in the heart of the casino’s ceiling. Wonder how much it weighs? 7.1 tonnes!

Intan and I couldn’t help ourselves taking pictures in the beautiful casino.

The Marina Bay Sands Hotel has 2,560 rooms and suites with 18 different room types. This includes also 230 luxury suites that come with butler service and access to VIP areas.

We were given a sneak preview of one of the suites in the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.

With breathtaking view from the hotel suite, Marina Bay Sands Hotel promises a next level of “resort destination” to Singapore.

There are still a few areas still under construction that is the Sky Park at the 57th floor, the museum and a few more areas within the property.

The launch commenced on 27th of April, 2010 at 3.18pm sharp. After the ribbon cutting ceremony, the lion dance performance rocked the entrance of the Marina Bay Sands.

With thousands of visitors waiting at the entrance, the casino was packed within minutes after the launch.

My personal thoughts about Marina Bay Sands, though gaming is considered the main attraction of the destination, the concept of it will be purely high end luxury vacation. Look at the celebrity chefs under the roof, the award winning theatre performances like Lion King, a museum, the amazing Sky Park, the new Banyan Spa Resort, the shopping bazaar, this is not just purely gaming, this is “the destination”.

A shot of the interior of the building….

The magnificent glass masterpiece at one of the entrances of Marina Bay Sands Singapore…
While many comparing to the Resorts World Sentosa Singapore, Mr. Sheldon G. Adelson said they would be happy to look at Resorts World Sentosa Singapore as a partner than a competitor. He believed that Marina Bay Sands Singapore will have their capital return in 5 years time.

Though its only more than 50% completion now, I can’t wait till its scheduled completion at the end of the year. Seriously, I can’t wait to visit the Skypark! It would be one of the world’s hottest destinations that changes the landscape and probably carved itself a history in Singapore.

A picture of us, the Malaysia’s media group for the Marina Bay Sands Singapore Opening.

Wilson Ng