My Aunt and cousin Sydney were visiting us during their summer vacation and they always had impromptu plans to fly out to Bali or Phuket from Malaysia (because it's cheaper). Every year they would do something new and this year was no exception.
We had been trying to book Avillion Admiral Cove which was fast filling up due to the Port Dickson International Triathlon competition. My mum and I kept on having this confusion (well more from her side) of the Avillion hotels because she wanted to book the Avillion Water Chalet Resort while I felt it was better to stay at Avillion Admiral Cove since the competition would happen there.
Booking online through their official website or other travel sites proved to be a challenge since we decided to book at the last minute. Calls were made to the hotel and they told us that only 4 Straits Room were available and that we would need to call the head office in KL to make the reservations from there.
I was puzzled. Can't we book it directly with the hotel since I'm on the line with them?
They said no because the KL office would have a list of guests reserving the rooms but they could tell us how many rooms were still available and such. That would mean calling them the next morning at 9am sharp to book the rooms straight away.
This was the correct hotel alright.
Luck was on our side and we managed to book 2 Straits Studio Rooms which overlooked the yacht dock and the sea. The last time I went there (which was a few years ago on my birthday), there were 3 private bungalows with their own private yachts, between the sea and our hotel.
I arrived with my mum after an hour and a half drive from Putrajaya, which was pretty near for me (minus the jam). We got a bit lost at the end of the road after the toll and instead of right, we went left. After a u-turn, we manged to find the hotel in no time. My dad, Aunt and cousin Sydney were already there earlier for registration and familiarising themselves with the competition route.
Oh I forgot to mention that tiny bit of detail. My cousin Sydney is 17 years old and this is her FIRST ever International Triathlon competition which she decided to do in Port Dickson. She's a state runner back home in her school and this was her chance to just have fun while competing with everyone else.
I am embarassed at this point to share with you that she is so fit and much fitter than I am, and boy can she run.
Now the lobby area still looked the same and had those wide sofa or day beds sofa which looked more like a queen size bed for guests to sit on while waiting for the rooms to be ready. If you didn't have a room ready and don't feel like going out into the hot sun, you can just lie here on this sofa and take a nap. The sun will hit your eyes from the wide open window, and the wind will sing you to sleep in a matter of minutes.
That is indeed a bed but it is also a sofa sitting nicely in the lobby area.
The Cinderella ball-like spiral staircase led us to the restaurant and bar.
A sporty looking bicycle parked at the main entrance door of the hotel, ready for the competition.
We rode up the elevator with another bicycle and its' owners.
The rooms are still the same as before and what I liked about it is that our bed comes with a sliding door (in case someone decided to peep in through the window or come through the door I think?). There's a nice day bed like sofa near the tall windows, overlooking the sea and those bungalows I mentioned. A nice sized round dining table in the middle, a kitchen sink attached to the mini bar was sits in front of our bed with the TV looming above from the ceiling wall. It's clean. It's neat. It's presentable.
The Straits Room. I only had like 5 minutes to take this photo before we rushed down for dinner. Darn.
Once settled, we walked back to the lobby area, down the spiral stairs, walked passed the dark blue swiming pool to the dining hall which served buffet. There weren't much food left and it was pretty late so the waiter suggested that we head downstairs at the bar where they served ala carte menu.
It was packed and there were no seats left for us. Such a shame because it would have been nice to sit at the corridor with our dinner and stare out into the sea and those parked boats, imagining that we owned them all.
The swimming pool overlooking the sea area.
The three bungalows that I mentioned earlier. I do wonder who owns them.
A hotel with it's private parking bay for the yachts. How rich & fabulous!
The hotel also had access to its's own beach area.
We decided to head out to town for dinner instead while my Aunt booked another room, the Executive Studio and gave her current room to my other Uncle, Aunt and cousin Jeanny who were on the way to join us as Sydney's personal cheerleaders.
This room was definitely bigger with a King size bed (which could fit 4 people) and a bigger day bed by the window. There's also a walkway from the main door with a huge wardrobe closet and shoe area. Sydney parked her bicycle and the rest went into the closet and the huge bathroom. There's no rain shower heads but the shower head was still quite huge.
I ended up in the room together with my Aunt & Sydney because the bed seemed lonely with just the two of them. :)
Now this is more like it. The Executive Studio Room.
Where:
Avillion Admiral Cove. 5 ½ Mile, Jalan Pantai, 71050 Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. Tel: +606 647 0888
Read about the Triathlon in the next post!