G E M B O: Weekend at the Empire

Wednesday 28 October 2009

Weekend at the Empire

Last weekend, my wife and I decided to make full use of the reward voucher that I had, to surprise our children for a weekend stay at The Empire Hotel & Country Club.

I got the voucher back in July, for helping out the team to resolve issues. Put it simply, it involved numerous trips to Bandar, not mentioning table bangings but also good food!

Anyway, to put it to full use, we offered the stay previously as carrots to Muhammad and Iman to complete their 30 day fast in the holy month of Ramadhan. Muhammad completed but Iman had to stop for a week to take her antibiotics.

Muhammad and Iman had frequented this place with us, with Muhammad the most with 8 and Iman possibly 5, but this was Aaeeshah's 1st, which she thoroughly enjoyed, showing by her insistence to stay in the water as well as running through the long marble and thick carpet adorned hallways.

Will I stay here again? Perhaps, although there need to be a serious improvement on the check in services.... I confirmed booking on Saturday (repeated it three times over the phone, Saturday and 24 October), only to be told I was booked for Thursday 22 October; then I have to be put on queue for 30 minutes (it wasn't even busy) and they gave us a room facing an alley, warm aircon, smoking floor (my mistake, I didn't specify though) and quite a walk from the lift. Thanks to my dear wife, she insisted to the front desk that we get a room with working aircons and close to the lift. Thank goodness that the supervisor saw our records and noted that in the past we always asked for rooms near the lift.

So, again I ask myself, will I stay here again. Yes. A definite yes. Of course at BND250 (for main building room) it is more expensive than some hotels in the neighbouring countries, at least to me and the family, for this trip we can just stay or a day or two and relax, without the hassles of flying.

Enough of me babbling, and do enjoy the photos below.