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The receptionist told me that our queue number would most likely only be called after 1pm so meanwhile, we decided to tour around the place. For my parents-in-law, they headed for the casino to begin their ‘Genting expedition’. ^^

As for us, we went to check out the Indoor Theme Park within the First World Plaza. As the LCD monitors were not showing the ticket prices for the Day Passes due to a system glitch, I had to sneak up to the ticket counters to check out the prices.

After checking out the different passes available, we decided to go for the Day Passes for the Indoor Theme Park for this day (peak charges) and the passes for the Outdoor Theme Park for the second day (off-peak charges).

However, we only intended to buy the passes after we had checked into our room. So meanwhile, we took a walk in the plaza.

We stepped into Diesel, a fashion apparel shop and Catherine spotted two nice cardigans. However, she was stucked between them and couldn’t decide on which to get.

Meanwhile, her phone rang. Her father had called to inform us that our queue number was reaching. Wow, it was only past noon then and we didn’t expect our turn to come so fast! When we last checked the counter half an hour ago, our numbers were still quite far away. I was quite impressed with the hotel’s efficiency.

We quickly made a decision (fortunately one we didn’t regret) and bought the purple/white cardigan, after which we rushed to the hotel’s lobby for the check-in.

I requested for interconnecting rooms and also a cot for Darius, which the hotel was offering free of charge. After processing, we headed for our rooms on the 10th floor in Tower 2. Darius was sleeping soundly in his stroller then.

We left my mother-in-law and Darius in the room while the rest of us headed back to the car park to pick up our luggage.

After unpacking and settling down in the rooms, Darius woke up from his sleep and got comfortable in his new environment, crawling about on the bed and walking excitedly between the two interconnected rooms. ^^

The cot bed soon arrived and we placed it beside our bed, using a similar configuration as the one in our own bedroom back home. We were quite satisfied with their prompt service and the condition of the cot.

Darius getting comfy on the bed

Anyway, while we were unpacking our luggage, we realised the packet of potato chips that we had brought from home had strangely become extremely bloated, seemingly going to explode anytime. Was it due to the higher air pressure or the cooler temperature? o_0

It returned to normal when we brought it back home... o_0|

Before we were able to head out to the Indoor Theme Park with Darius, we had to settle his lunch first. Catherine took out the thermo flask containing the porridge we had brought along, but sadly it had turned cold. We tried heating it up using hot water from the dispenser along the corridor (by the way, we didn’t use the kettle we brought in the end) and after some time later, it did get warmed up a little.

Placing Darius into the stroller, Catherine started feeding him. He fussed a bit while eating, either due to the not-so-hot porridge or his eagerness to continue exploring the new environment. At this moment, I took out my PSP and started playing songs we had stored in it. It helped kept him entertained while finishing his food. I even let him fiddle with the device, making sure to first lock the buttons using the Hold feature of PSP (I didn’t know about this feature till this moment).

No, I'm not exposing him to handheld gaming... ^^|

Phew! With all these done, we could finally leave our room and start enjoying ourselves at the First World Indoor Theme Park!

As I approached the ticket counter to purchase the day passes for the three of us, I was told that Darius could play for free and we only needed to get passes for Catherine and I! Wow, what an unexpected but welcomed surprise! It seems that children under the height of 90cm could play for free, with the exception of the ‘Tour de Paris’ ride (Darius is too young to play that anyway).

Height check time!

We headed to the merry-go-round (aka Carousel) first, with Catherine accompanying Darius after placing him on one of the horses. We chose the type with the least movement (i.e. only moves up and down) since some of the other horses were more suited for older kids (e.g. rocking forward and backwards).

As the Carousel began its motion, its mystical music and the mist from the outside helped bring in the magical feeling, fitting for the occasion. Darius, however, was quite expressionless most of the time, occasionally giving out smiles when he spotted me snapping his photos from the outside. Although he might be too young to really appreciate the rides (thus FOC for him?) but these memories of him on them would be very valuable to us, and we were glad to be able to capture on photos and videos.

This is going to be very memorable when Darius grows up

After the ride, we tried out the Ferris Wheel and as usual, Darius just watched quietly while our carriage was in motion. He did get more active and happier after we allowed him to stand and walk inside the carriage (after we determined it was safe doing so).

We then moved on to take the Venice Gondola ride, which was a boat ride along the artificial river in the plaza. We boarded one of the boats and sat on the front row so that Darius could have a clearer view of his surroundings. He was pretty interested in some of the exhibits along the ride, his eyes fixed squarely on them.

Nice scenery at some points like this

As we headed for our next ride on the higher floor, we passed by the Snow City and discovered it was closed, probably down for some big-scale re-construction. We did think of visiting it with Darius but looks like we would have to postpone that for another time.

Reindeer Cruiser, which would bring us around the plaza in a reindeer-shaped carriage, was the next ride we took. There were paddles for us to cycle on, but since it didn’t make the carriage move any faster, it was probably there just to give the bored patrons something to do on board. ^^|

Next up, we checked out the Rio Float, which consisted of beautifully lighted up rides gliding about just below the ceiling of the plaza. We had a better bird’s eye of the plaza than on the Reindeer Cruiser since it was located higher above the ground.

With this, we felt we had taken enough rides for the day and decided to skip the remaining Mini Train and Monorail rides.

We then started to check out the shops at the plaza, which had quite a number of shops selling fashion apparels for both adults and children. We also came across this stall where the owner was doing a very good job in drawing portraits for people. We were tempted to give it a try but when we were told we were required to sit still for around 30 to 40 minutes, we felt it was an impossible feat when a toddler like Darius was involved. ^^|

Before returning to our room, I decided to check out the Internet Cafe to find out their opening hours and rates so we split ways for a moment. When I returned, Catherine and Darius were on the Carousel ride again~ ^^

I decided to join in by entering the Carousel area too but unfortunately, Darius started getting restless upon seeing me and kept trying to get off the horse. He probably wanted us to carry him instead.

Even when the Carousel began moving, he was still fussing so we decided to just carry him in our arms instead. Well, it was still a pretty fun experience as I’ve never been on a Carousel all my life.

With this, we returned to our room and called it a day. We sure took a lot of rides today and though we couldn’t be sure if Darius had spent most of his time enjoying the rides or observing the surroundings, this would nevertheless be good exposure for him. ^^

Time to rest after a long day...

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