While waiting for the keys to our room, WY and WF explored the lobby a little. To their delight, there was a water dispenser by the staircase and so they happily helped themselves to the cold, refreshing water. Then, at my suggestion, they eagerly got 1 cup each for R and I, too. So sweet of them. :)
Our tour leader did a good job checking us in. After handing us our keys, she even visited us at our room to make sure that everything was in order - she also promptly ordered the additional bed which we were supposed to have in our room for WY, when she saw none had been brought up by the housekeeping staff yet.
We eventually have the additional bed returned the following day without even trying to sleep on it because it was simply too 'soft'. R sat on it and said that it felt like he was on a hammock! So for the 5 nights we stayed at the hotel, we made do with the 2 comfortably-spacious Queen-sized beds in the room. We only had to move the only 2 relatively-heavy chairs in the room to the side of the bed WF and I mostly shared, so that WF would be less likely to roll off the bed.The view from our room was ok. We could see a part of the beach from the balcony. We could see part of the main streets (where the shops and restaurants are), too. Early every morning at abt 4:30am, we could also see the hot-air balloon in the distance.
As R and I began to get our keys to unlock our luggage to get to our fresh clothes and toiletries etc, WY was sent to take his shower 1st. At first, he protested and 'offered' that WF, being the youngest, should proceed with shower first. But since we needed to unlock our bags etc first and so could not shower WF yet, WY's protest was 'overruled'.
And so, WY proceeded to undress and within minutes, he was in the showers..... Suddenly, we heared WY's frantic shouts, "Ahh! Papa, can you please show me how to turn on the water and make it warm?!! Ahh! Help!!"
Hahahhaa.... It turned out that WY wasn't sure how to adjust the tap to let the water come out from the shower-head instead of the bath tap, and somehow, the water was cold and he couldn't get the warm water he wanted! Hence the frantic call for help....
R was so mean to tell the poor boy nonchantly, "If you don't learn how to turn the tap suitably, then sorry, you'll have to bear with the cold water from the bath-tub tap and not warm water from the shower-head!" (Ok, ok, in the end, R did go in to help/show WY, lah.)
When WY was done, he came out somewhat 'indignantly' and then announced, "Ok, everything is ok now."
After that, R gave WF a quick shower. Then R took his shower and I was the last to shower. By then, the boys were already happily seated on the bed, watching Nickelodeon on the TV. (As it turned out later, this programme on the google-box became good company for them for the few days to come, during those wait-for-R-and-I-to-be-ready times.)Breakfast was served everyday at the restaurant in the hotel from 6:00am to 10:30am. We all loved this part of the morning - mainly because it was quite leisurely.
The buffet spread was quite good. Every morning, WF had cornflakes with fresh milk, bread/toast with peanut butter spread and butter, cheese and ham slices. He loved them all and would finish his food happily before washing them all down with a glass of water.
WY took much carbo at breakfast everyday. I remember that on the morning we were scheduled to go to SeaWorld, he actually took a huge serving of steamed white rice with is Sunnyside-Up followed by some toasts and pastries!! R and I had to suggest to him not to gorge himself silly lest his stomach couldn't take the load. WY helped himself to the generous servings of fresh fruits, too.
The boys' favourite corner at breakfast was the toaster machine. Both would love to personally select their bread slices and have them glide down the grilles of the toaster machine. Then they would stand patiently to wait for the toast to emerge from the bottom end of the machine before picking them up on their plates. I guess it was quite refreshing to participate in and view the whole toasting process once in a while.
R and I tried the various dishes, including the museli-oat stuff (I cannot recall what they called this) and the various hot savouries and cold cuts of ham and cheese. The chilled slices of crunchy zucchini and very succulent tomatoes tasted very good with the warm croissants, especially with some hot baked beans. We both agreed, however, that our daily favourite was the scrambled eggs - these really tasted so deliciously moist and fragrant.... McDonald's hard 'pasty' version instantly paled in comparison.
Breakfast usually took us between 30-45 minutes. So apart from the 1st morning (when we had a late breakfast at 9:30am or so), what we did each morning was to rise early, wash up and change out from our sleeping-clothes and then proceed for breakfast in our t-shirts and bermudas at about 6:30am or 7:00am. Then after we had had our fill, we would return to our room for our shower and change into fresh outing clothes before joining our tour group for the day's outing.
We figured that this way, we would not need to rush the boys into early morning showers and risk them catching a chill. Also, it would allow us to go for our morning bowel routine at a more leisurely pace. Later, R also heard from other tour members that the peak 8:ooam breakfast crowd would always be so big that they would have to queue for some time before they could get a table. Luckily, this was never a problem for us.
Actually, before we went on the tour, we had checked out Mantra Legends Hotel's website. R and I were quite disappointed to see some recent reviews - some people complained that the place had become less clean compared to previously and others had grumbled about getting dirty and smelly beddings etc. So, we were actually quite apprehensive about this hotel which our tour agency had booked for our group.Fortunately, we experienced nothing close to what we had read in the online reviews. In fact, we felt quite happy with the hotel. The only 2 grouses we had were these:
1) The housekeeping team mistakenly took away one of R's bath towels but because R said it would be too troublesome to go ask them to sieve through their mountain-load of dirty towels to retrieve his, we just let the matter pass without making a fuss. R ended up having to make do with his only other towel for the rest of the trip. Hmmmm.... *pinch nose*
2) The room card keys didn't always work - the card reader was somehow not very sensitive and so, R, WY, WF and I almost always had to try out 2-3 or sometimes even all 4 of our card keys when we wanted to open the door. It was almost like a daily "Sometimes We Get It At 1st Try, Sometimes We Don't" kind of tikam tikam ritual. Rather frustrating at times (especially when we needed to get into the room quickly because Nature has called!) but otherwise, quite funny seeing how WY and WF try to be the 1st to successfully open the door....
Perhaps because the Aussies take things very leisurely (as they are known to), houskeeping would usually be done only by the late afternoon. But the beds would be well made, the baskets cleared, the bathroom properly cleaned and the towels changed everyday. The daily A$5 tip which we left on the bed for the housekeeping team probably helped, too. :)
Overall, I would say that we enjoyed our 5-night stay at the Mantra Legends Hotel Gold Coast and won't mind staying at this hotel again.
* Pics were taken on different days.
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