Sheraton Macao Cotai - Part 1 / 3

I talked about Macau (Macao) in quite a lengthy post previously, mainly about the city as a gaming capital in south east Asia. This time I am going to talk more about it in a slightly different perspective I suppose. I have been to Macau many times but most if not always just day trips because of the convenience of the 24 hours ferry services running between Hong Kong and Macau. I was lucky enough to be invited by the newly opened Sheraton Macao hotel in the Cotai area. What's in the Cotai area? I think it is basically the Macau version of the Vegas strip with countless hotels and casino establishment in the area.  A quick look around you will see countless construction sites nearby with other major hotels planning their new openings in the next few years. The Sheraton Macao Cotai hotel is the largest in terms of number of rooms within the entire Sheraton chain worldwide, with a total of room count of 3,896 rooms situated in its Sky and Earth Tower. With that large number of rooms, there are pros and cons obviously which I will talk about later.

The first thing I noticed when I entered the hotel was the sheer scale of it. The lobby wasn't the largest I have seen but it was the check-in area that truly shocked me! Look at that queuing setup! I suppose if 20% of guests check in together, it would be quite a scene! Imagine if the occupancy rate was about 80% that means 3,896 rooms x 0.80 ~ 3200 rooms ~ 2pax per room ~ 6,400 guests .... okay, yes, a proper queue system is required!!! Oh wait, apparently the weekend we checked in, the occupancy rate was almost 98% !!! (Note: 1,948 rooms of the Earth Tower is yet to be opened, likely in Feb2013, but still ...)

Then again, I was glad and happy for the 98% occupancy rate because without that I would not be upgraded from a Club Deluxe room to ... one of the only 8 Presidential Suites!!!!!! How does it feel staying in the Presidential Suite all by myself? Of course it was ... NICE ... but to be honest, even if I am traveling with my girlfriend, this is a bit too much, too big to a point I feel slightly lonely and overly quiet in that huge suite with 2 en suite bedrooms + living room + media room + meeting room + kitchen and .... a treatment room!!!! if you are traveling as a couple, I suggest to go for the Club Deluxe Suite which you can check out on Dorothy Ma's post. I was too lone and hungry that night I went to her room to order room service at 2am! Her room was much more cozy for couples! If you are traveling as a family, of course Presidential Suite is an option! :) Or perhaps the Ambassador Suite which is slightly smaller but enough for a family. Let me show you what I mean. My DSLR lens was not wide enough to take interior images so I used my iPhone instead so please excuse the lower resolution for the following interior shots. :)

Living Room(s)? 

Media Room (controlled by Crestron central remote control) 

Meeting Room? Dining Room? 

Treatment Room! yes a treatment room! 

Master Ensuite Bedroom with OSIM foot massage device!!!

Master En suite Bathroom with Bathtub and .... waterproof Crestron remote for TV in bathroom! (shower room on the side as well)

Guest Room

Guest Room Ensuite Bathroom 

 Now you can imagine how big the suite was right? It took me 15 mins to decide which room I should sleep in, the master bedroom or the guest room closer to the entrance? Oh and I did take a bubble bath! they have everything for the guests!

Most of the other rooms of different categories are quite spacious but my favourite is still the Club Executive Suite. Again, check our Dorothy Ma's post for more details. Other than that, one of the room categories I really liked was the Family Room! Not many hotels nowadays would offer family room  and even if they do it would simply be like connecting rooms and similar. However, here at Sheraton, they put some efforts into making a family room a truly family room in my opinion.

I was  quite surprised to see very cute bunk beds as well as little potty for kids in the bathroom!

    

They also provide kids amenities as well. I didn't show the image here but they also have bathrobes for kids!

Even in the 3 different pool areas, they have special facilitates for kids!

For those into exercises, their gym is quite large with the usual equipment as well. 

I mentioned about the sheer scale of this hotel in terms of room numbers, one thing worth noting is that even if you are staying at the Club level, having Club access for daily breakfast  there can be a chance that you have to wait in a queue in the morning depending on the occupancy rate during your stay I suppose. However, no worries, you have the option of heading to one of their restaurants as an option. We picked the Feast which is basically a buffet restaurant. I will cover more on that in my next few posts. Enough to digest for now right? :)