I'm a full-time mummy

We had recently spent a day at Sunway Lagoon and today I'll be sharing our experiences of our family outing there. Just in case you guys are not aware, school holidays has just started in Malaysia.

I had days before googled online for tips and what to take note of just in case I might missed out something when we arrived there. I packed our swimming stuff and brought 2 towels for our kiddos and a spare change of clothes for everyone. A few small packs of snacks for the kiddos only since I read that no outside food or drinks are allowed unless it's for the children. We didn't bring our stroller along as I feel it would be too cumbersome to lug around and had to worry about it as well. Anyway, we arrived at Sunway Lagoon at 11-ish am and I quickly went to get our complimentary tickets for the outing.

With the complimentary tickets, I went to the ticket counter to exchange them for our wristbands. At the main entrance, a staff will put on the wristband sticker on our wrists and we were welcomed in and the first thing we decided to do is to check out the Wildlife Park.

It was getting hotter by then and we managed to check out the tiger, white lion, black panther, some cute mini monkeys, otters and snakes before we decided it's time to head to the Wet Park.

I changed our kiddos into their swimming gears while hubby went off to load some cash onto his wristband and then went to rent a locker. Do note that there are few types of lockers which are available for rent:

- each time opening of locker will cost RM5

- small lockers unlimited opening/closing costing RM23

- big lockers unlimited opening / closing costing RM43

You can use cash or load the cash values onto your wristbands if you don't want to be bringing cash along. We left our wallets and belongings in our locker and load RM100 into our wristbands. All expenses incurred in the theme park can just easily be paid by swiping the barcode on your wristband. The remaining values in the wristbands can be redeemed at the gift shop on your way out of the theme park. Easy peasy!

I like that there are many benches and shades all around Sunway Lagoon, it helps when you are walking around with 3 kiddos and lugging your stuff along. Once we have all changed into our swimming suits and stuffed our belongings into a small locker, we head out to the big beach area. I brought along a plastic bag of necessity (water bottles for kiddos and ourselves, wet wipes, suntan lotion and goggles). Hubby rented a giant tube which we lug around everywhere we go (do not lose it as you will lose your deposit if you lose it!)

We spent quite a long time at the main beach area, enjoying the waves and then head on to the smaller pools with lots of playground for the kiddos and half a dozen rounds of river rides with our tubes. A few surprising and suffering moments for me (I'm terrified of water all over my face since I don't know how to swim) were when we went through this row of waterfalls as we sat on our tubes. I can't jump out of our tubes as our girls were sitting on my lap so I had to cover all 3 of us as we braved out of the waterfalls area.

We stopped for a while to have our late lunch (Burger King - reasonable price!) and resumed our water activities at the playground, main beach area (giant waves every few minutes by then which was really fun and exciting for our 3 kiddos) and decided it is time to slowly head home. We took a quick shower (lots of changing and shower rooms available though I wished there were soaps and shampoos provided hahaha) and changed into our spare clothes. It was already 5.30pm by the time we got ready to head home.

Then our 6.5 year old boy said he wanted to cross the bridge. Our eyes widened and since he insisted to cross it, we braved through and climbed up the stairs and crossed it. I was not afraid of heights (2 decades of staying in government flat at 15th floor, mehhh.. such height is nothing to me) but I was really tired as hubby and I took turns lugging our heavy load of wet clothes and towels since we were going to head home after that (we were told by staff there that lockers will automatically opened at 7pm and we don't think we could make it back the other side of the bridge to our locker in time, so we took out our belongings and lug it along.

We managed to cross the bridge and it was a satisfying feeling to do that with everyone in the family feeling victorious of conquering fears and etc lol!

I didn't manage to snap any pictures while we were in the wet park since my handphone was nicely stuffed into our locker ahahah.. but rest assured, there are staff all around the wet park ready to snap pictures of you and your family for memories. They will slap on a sticker band on your wrist which you can scan before you exit, where you can browse your pictures and decide whether to print them out and buy them back for memories and safekeeping. We bought 1 picture which costs us RM35.

All in all, it was a fun and tiring day for us. Weather was great except for about half hour of rain in the afternoon (we had our late lunch then so it was a great timing!) Sore muscles everywhere the day after (old already I guess!) What a nice way to enjoy our family outing!

The theme park has planned out a whole new range of exciting activities and enticing promotions from 21 November 2015 to 3 January 2016 so do come early (their opening hours is 10am to 6pm) to catch the dance performances (we managed to watch some Hawaiian dance real up close), clowns, DJ pool party, music band and more!

Btw, Malaysians celebrating their birthdays will enjoy FREE admission into Sunway Lagoon for a period of a week from their birthday, along with a meal voucher worth RM10, redeemable at F&B outlets within the park. Sunway Pals members also get a free double tube to add to the merriment. Sunway Lagoon will also offer a 30% discount off the entrance fee for up to four accompanying guests of the birthday boy or girl. How cool is that?! Aside from birthday celebrations, Sunway Lagoon also offers special promotion to celebrate senior citizens. Malaysian senior citizens over the age of 60 are able to enjoy Sunway Lagoon for FREE.

In addition to that, visitors will get to enjoy 30% off on normal admission rate via Sunway Lagoon 2 online promotion packages – Family Packages and 4 To Go*. With Family Packages, 2 adults and 2 kids would only cost RM 378, and that’s not all; the package comes with complimentary RM10 retail voucher and meal voucher. As for 4 To Go, 4 adults admission tickets would only cost RM420 and it comes with complimentary RM20 retail voucher.

For more information on Sunway Lagoon, call 603 5639 0000 or log on to Sunway Lagoon’s website at www.sunwaylagoon.com or its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SunwayLagoonMalaysia

Do note that I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the complimentary tickets for our family in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

I came across this article which I must definitely share with you guys as I'm very interested to know your thoughts on this. For your convenience, I have copied the excerpts from the article here:

"Don't talk to strangers" is still common advice—I hear it often even from parents who are professionals in the child victimization field—but if it was ever good advice, it is not now.

 The parental instincts behind the advice are good.  As a mother of two, I want more than anything for my children to be safe and try to protect them as best I can.  That is what virtually every parent I've ever known has wanted.  However, avoiding strangers and avoiding social interaction ends up sending the wrong message.

 Children of today need assertiveness training. They need to be taught how to identify adults who are usually safe, such as police officers and staff members.  If they get lost at the mall or a fair, they should not be afraid to talk to any stranger--they should know who to ask for help.

There is a very large scientific literature that tries to understand the mind of a criminal.  I know it's kind of creepy, but if you try to put yourself in the mind of a criminal, the world looks very different.  Criminals look for easy targets.  Most criminals will avoid contact with large, able-bodied adults.  That is why children and the elderly can be especially vulnerable to some types of crime.  Criminals are looking to "win" in their assault of a target and will almost never pick a target who they believe to be stronger than they are.  This is also why walking alone at night or breaking down on an isolated highway can temporarily increase your risk of victimization—criminals will exploit other vulnerabilities and weaknesses too.

Criminals are remarkably consistent in who they identify as good targets and anxiety and social isolation are two factors that can make someone seem more vulnerable.  This is also one reason why re-victimization is a common problem for victims.  It is so horribly unfair, but the very symptoms of post-traumatic stress and anxiety that one crime can cause can make someone more vulnerable to another criminal.

The good news is that the solution is something that is good for your children in all sorts of way.  Give them practice and experience interacting in a wide variety of social contexts.  Teach them assertiveness skills and how to speak up if someone tries to make them do something they do not want to do.  Be sure they know how to seek help and call 911.  Explain to them what the police can (and cannot) do for them if they are in trouble. Be good role models and be assertive and positive in your own interactions with the general public.

This is one of the best gifts you can offer any child.

What do you think?

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.