JJ in DPS 2nd – 6th June 2025
Took the 2nd flight into Bali – SQ936 which departed SIN on time at 8.20 arriving DPS shortly before noon (SQ934 departs at 6.25am which we reckon was way too early!) since Didi only got back from NCC camp the night before only at 6pm!.
Airport transport was seamless thanks to Pelago arrangement (with 10% discount) just the day before, at $8 I don’t know if you can find a better deal than that. Pak Dewi was early and had a sign with daddy’s name. Though disembarkation was pretty quick we got held up a bit at customs post baggage collection. There was a new system which required registration of each pax on an e-form which got a little cranky, consequently we were held up for some 10-15min before we finally got it sorted! Ride was smooth at that time of the day, got into Nusa Dua precinct slightly past noon.
Welcoming sight of the familiar Hilton Nusa Dua, Bali.
There were actually no other guests waiting for checkin (lobby actually looked fairly quiet) and we were checked in by Ibu Pande. She was super nice, welcoming us back to Bali Hilton and organised some welcome amenities (even a family picture which she said was for the staff to recognize ‘Repeater Guests’ / Returnees) and an upgrade to the 1 bedroom Cliff tower Executive Suite (which we checked into midway thru the trip). Being the usual lowest-available-category people, we gladly welcomed the Cliff Tower Executive Ocean View corner room for the first 2 nights and subsequently the Suite on the final 2 nights.
The gang munching away on OCK (not sponsored!) which waiting for Daddy to check us in.
1 Bedroom Cliff suite:
Right after check-in we went to roam the sprawling yet familiar grounds, noticing some recent upgrades, for example the temporarily relocated Nusa Dua Executive Lounge, house in the makeshift Zone 3 of Grain Restaurant while the old lounge undergoes a well needed renovation and capacity expansion (the original lounge when first taken over from Nikko of course was located at now-newly rebranded Elara lounge with private cabanas for private and intimate dining experience adjacent to it’s own pool which used to be a private pool for lounge guests). This meant that the Lounge is open only from 12pm since its used for breakfast to extend capacity for Grain and converted back to the lounge past noon daily. With Pak Bagus from the Executive Lounge who remember the Lee gang from previous year!
The other thing we eagle-eyed kids quickly noticed was the new Game Cave next to Paon restaurant which now manages the pool and billiard tables (gone are the days cues and balls placed 24/7 free for all to use, so-we-were-told due to chronic cases of loss balls and damaged equipment you’ll now need to get the white ball and cues from the cave which operates from 9am to 6pm. In addition, it’s equipped with 2 virtual bowling lanes, couple of arcade style (Street fighter!) games and 2 PS consoles (v2 and v4, the former was rather laggy when we binge played Stumble Guys and Astrobot online).
We also had lots of fun on the foosball tables (Didi being the resident champ), with Mummy being the original expert on pool, but of course. Dig the moves.
We were so tired we just stayed in to an early McDonald’s lunch/dinner we grabbed in since we’re had already booked our seats at the outdoor movie night by the beach. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles go ‘Cowabunga!’ They allocated us really great ‘seats’ – we had some popcorn and finger food for the show.
Day2, we slept in a bit more today and hit breakkie at 930am. Rather rushed as breakfast ended at 1030pm and so it was very full when we arrived! We had a nice quiet table at the rear.
After that was back to the cave! Daddy wanted to make sure we had tennis practice so we went to checkout the tennis courts, whereupon he booked tennis with a coach from 1pm to 2pm. We fed the fishes from bread from brekkie on route to the courts, very well maintained through the years, 3 beautifully sheltered hard courts.
Didi of course was at the cave the whole time!
At 5pm we hit the lounge with evening drinks and canapés. Remember the ‘best part of Bali’ from 2018? Yes the ‘blue drinks’!
Went to the beach thereafter. Caught 5 crabs (which we released on Wednesday morning. Don’t worry no crabs were harmed in the process!).
Wednesday morning we decided to head out early for breakkie as Mummy and Daddy had gotten up early for sunrise at 6.20am. Jiejie despite being the one who woke them up, went back to bed and didn’t get out of bed will way past sunrise! Daddy and Mummy headed up the observatory (rooftop of the tower cliff which would be something like 20th storey) and took some nice shots and the vids. So good they wanted to ‘share’ that experience with us the next morning! Seems the same family of monkeys were already up and about! See them racing down the cliff!
Tennis again?
What better way to cool down after tennis than to spend time at the beach and pool. Looks like Daddy enjoyed the pool slide more than us!
We had a Brazilian style barbecue dinner at Grain, there was so much food!
Thurs we had early breakkie thereafter caught the Bali Collection shuttle to (but of course!) Bali Collection! Again, feeding the fishes by the lobby.
And interestingly we found there were some who were on the way there only to catch the 11am free shuttle from BC to Kuta (#travelhack)!
BC looked the same apart from having much less visitors, maybe also it’s was early in the morning, but we found the spot where they used to have a wooden swing, now upgraded with unicorn swings! Whee!
Again little kid Daddy wanted to join us but as soon as he hopped on, it creaked so much we had him dismount immediately!
Spent sometime just buying some nicely discounted shoes and took a taxi back to the hotel straight after.
Guess where next? Game cave for sure and more pool!
By 3pm we got back to the room and changed into our pool wear (yes pool, the one with water now) and headed to the beach. Daddy, Didi and I had a swim in the ocean. It was fun jumping in sync against the huge waves!).
Went back then to the pool slide (Daddy lost his goggles the day before and couldn’t find it despite checkin with the lifeguards who were nice to lend him a spare; which he also lost when it got sucked between the drain covers into the drain. Tsk Tsk Tsk!). We did have a nice game of pool water polo + basketball with a makeshift goal post using a repurchased giant pool float. The boys won 10-4 and Daddy gave us a little scare when he had a sudden muscle cramp in his left leg.
Went to the lounge for free dinner (fried chicken day, after chicken bakso the day before!) and thereafter to beachside resto Breeze for finger food and drinks while feeding Bobby. Yes Bobby our 4-legged friend who wanted to follow Daddy back…
Friday morning.
We get up early and head for an early breakfast. Kids hit the game cave 1 final time (Didi beat daddy at a game of pool) and Jiejie busied herself (Unlikely Story) at Stumble Guys.
Got to the airport at 11am for our 1pm flight home. There was already a long queue formed at the checkin counters ahead of what would appear to be a super full flight. Nonetheless cleared customs and immi checks much quicker this time, with just about 30min to grab a quick bite and drink at the lounge. Previously Plaza Premium Lounge is now converted to Tujuwan Lounge for SQ pax while the Cascadia Lounge remain adjacent to that. We skip Tujuwan (very quiet but with surprisingly much fewer food option (apart from noodle bar) and ate (yes again!) at Cascadia which although much older looking (and warm) had a better spread of food and deserts! Anyway Daddy guested Mummy and Jiejie in there while while Daddy and Didi were as Cascadia until the girls came over to join us.
Shortly thereafter we got to our departure gate I4 where we were met with no 1 but 2 SQ planes! Full flight but again Daddy got an empty seat next to him!
