1st Birthday Party Detail

As soon as we decided to host a birthday party, I asked my friends about their experience with their event management person. There were few positives and negatives which everyone gave. One of my friend suggested me to try Kiddoscope, if budget is not a problem. I had never heard about them, so went and checked out their Facebook page. They had done some amazing work and contacted the number on their website. I spoke to Ms. Tanya Kothari and fixed up an appointment to meet her. Let me tell you, she is always before time and I hate making people wait. But unfortunately I was stuck in a meeting and I had to make her wait for a long time. She then gave me a presentation about the kind of work she has done so far and took details from me as to what I'm expecting. She sent out the costing of the various events in the party.

After I decided to go ahead with her, I went and showed her "The Apartment" at Park Hyatt. She said a carnival theme will not go well there and said she would suggest a theme for the party. She asked me about my son's likes and asked for a weeks time to come up with a presentation. After a week, when we met up again, she started talking about "Little Sailor theme" and we decided that was the theme we had to go ahead with. She sent me reference pictures and the things that can be done in the venue.

Things I liked about Kiddoscope:

1. They don't take much time to understand and respond immediately. We got along so well because of that.

2. Very well organized. Everything is communicated over the phone and mailed.

3. They suggest different things and challenge themselves. They built a ship as the center stage and also suggested to use bubble machine instead of poppers. They were so much better

4.  I didn't have to monitor a single thing that was given to them and completed the setup on time.

5. The games and the gifts for the games were brilliant. They MC for the games was too good and everyone had fun

6. They came innumerable times with me to Park Hyatt and answered my calls at odd hours. Mr. Munish, with whom I was coordinating later was extremely accommodating and always had a smile on his face

Things I would have preferred with Kiddoscope:

1. In between, while I was making the payment, I asked if I can do 70% advance instead of 75% for easier calculation. This was answered like how they were debating if they should charge 100% advance from customers but decided upon 75%. C'mon, a 5% won't really hurt and such request can be accommodated

2. The number of danglers that were hung were very less and I would have preferred more. 

3. I would have preferred a better location for instant picture counter. Also, the same prop from the entrance counter was used for instant picture. Probably I misunderstood it but did feel disappointed.

I would definitely recommend Kiddoscope to everyone.

Chennai doesn't seem to really cater to kids clothing for theme parties. I had to order from US a sailor dress for my son. Luckily, my uncle was coming down around his birthday and asked him to bring it

At the end of the day, everyone enjoyed the party and my boy behaved well as well.

Little One turned 1

It was a long debate before we finally decided to do celebrate my son's birthday (October 6th) in a hotel.I checked out just one hotel and finalized it. It was "The Apartment" at Park Hyatt, Chennai. I liked their concept of having different rooms and an open kitchen. That being said, I initially had problems with the lady (Ms. Jyothi George) with whom I was coordinating the event at Park Hyatt. I'm a person, who likes to complete work well before time, have it all planned, blah blah. So when I had to wait for information, it really irked me. After telling her or rather me screaming at her (Sorry about that :( ), things were absolutely smooth after that

Things I loved about Park Hyatt:

1. Ms. Jyothi George co-operated very well and made sure everything went as per my wish

2. The spread of the buffet was huge and super yummy food. 

3. Brilliant Service

4. They were even sweet enough to give me a room from afternoon, so that I could tuck my baby to sleep and get him ready there

Things I dislike: Absolutely nothing. I loved hosting my party there and would recommend it to anyone

The theme of the party was Little Sailor. I got the invitation done privately. When I did enquire at leading card printers, I felt it was quite expensive. So got it printed at a DTP center and was quite happy with it. Also it costed me 1/3rd the price!!!

I was thinking a lot about whom to get the cake done from. I had narrowed it down to The Park, Adoniya, Cupcake Company and Sabeetha's Cakes. I'm actually glad I went ahead with The Park.

My Experience at Adoniya:

Sent her a mail and went and met her. She was to mail me with options but she never got back. I don't like it when people can't remember and I need to go behind them. There are so many other people to do the job. 

My Experience at Cupcake Company:

Sent her a mail as well. She responded with options and price points. I was uncomfortable having such conversation over mail and wanted to meet her in person to discuss the detail. When I called her and informed her that this is regarding the Little Sailor party cake mail that I had written, to which she responded saying " You need to wait at least 24 hours before we can mail you back". It really put me off. Here I was trying to tell her that I would like to meet and when she would be comfortable for a meeting. When she responded after "24 hours", I did respond saying that I was not comfortable dealing with someone with whom I can't meet to discuss the detail. Plus she was charging me Rs. 21000 + tax for a 5 kg cake. Really??? Whoa!!! That's the highest I know in the city and is the cake that good??????? I've had the cupcakes at her store and it does taste good but it's not out of the world. I will definitely go to her store and have her cupcakes but I don't think I will ever order cake from her

Sabeetha's Cake:

I had seen her work on FB, but never really tasted her cake. I called and a sweet lady responded. I did mail her the detail but she took sometime to respond. In the meanwhile, I went ahead with The Park

The Park:

I have had "The Park" cake quite a few times and I know the flavour is super yummy. I spoke to Chef Santosh and mailed him the detail. Got the cake made in Chocoalte Hazelnut flavour. The awesome thing about "The Park" is, they don't take advance on orders. It costed me approximately Rs. 10,000 for 5 kg cake.

For the return gift, we ourself did it. We got a towel and made anchor with Swarovski crystals.

Shall write about the event management company in my next post 

Random Thoughts

I'm not a social person. I have my own set of friends, with whom I like to mingle. Likewise, with family as well - I don't really mingle with anyone just for the fear of politics involved. That being said, I don't really like to host dinner / lunch parties for family. 

I'm a South Indian and my husband is a north Indian. I don't know Hindi and my husband is not that fluent in Tamil. So, when it comes to hosting his relatives at my place, I'm not comfortable with the language and the fact that it's all formal. The table has to be properly laid, with proper cutlery, be a proper "lady" shuffling between kitchen and dining serving food.

To compare this, I prefer having my friends over. You have absolutely no need to be formal. Food can be on the table and they can just help themselves. Isn't it strange that friend's feel more at home than your family.

Also, when family comes, one has to dress according to what would please others (I mean family members), while with friends one can wear what pleases them. I hate it when I have to "adjust" for someone else. Why can I not wear what I want at my house???

I hate the fact that in India (at least the set of people I interact with), people interfere so much and give advice. I'm gonna start charging for the advice that people give me. I'll probably be more rich than my monthly income. 

Coming to my son, who is now 7 months. I'm still trying to figure out whom he likes better - me or my husband / mother-in-law. I obviously want him to love me more than them. I do get absolutely jealous, when I try and entertain him the whole day, while they just spend probably an hour with him and he gets so excited when he sees them. Dude, i've been with you the whole day.. Why not smile and laugh at me too? He gives me so many kisses in a day - Is that his way of showing his love to me and saying he loves me more ;) ? Only time will tell and I hope my wish is fullfilled :D

Lessons learnt from Maldives trip

There were quite a few hitches that I faced while planning my Maldives trip. Just jotting it down, so that I don't repeat the same ones again.

1. Ask many travel agents at once. This will help in analyzing cost and also one can get a better deal. I made the mistake of contacting just makemytrip.com and my air fare increased by the time they responded.
2. I always thought it's best to book by oneself but travel agents do give a better deal. I made my booking directly at Four Seasons. I was surprised by the deal I got from my travel agent. 
3. It's better to work with people who are flexible. While working with big companies like makemytrip.com (Mentioning only their name since I've personally interacted with them), they work on fixed time like 10 am to 6 pm and only on weekdays. Getting the quotation and making the booking becomes difficult once it's weekend. My experience with Fernweh and my previous travel agent(who made my booking for Bora Bora) is they are flexible with timing. They work anytime during the day (and night), you can contact them anytime. They treat every customer like king. They come home to pick up documents and other details required. You end up having a personal relationship with them and this goes a long way. I'm definitely going to check the rate with Fernweh, every time I go for my vacation.
4. Never book indian airlines. At least in my case, they had no benefit at Spice Jet like front row for babies. Good thing the flight duration was small. The variety to choose meals is limited unless you pre-book. 
5. Indian airports are not that great. I'm not talking about Delhi, Mumbai or others that I'm unaware of. But Cochin airport was very bad. There is no way one can while away time there. Not many stores, the international airport wore a deserted look. In the domestic terminal, while we were returning to Chennai, the check-in process would not happen before 2.5 hours of flight departure. There was no place to eat inside the airport. We had to request the airport authorities to let us out of the airport, so that we could eat and relax at the food court at the airport. Also, there was no baby room near the check-in counters. The restroom facility that we have in our Indian airports are pathetic. The restroom facility at new terminal of Chennai airport was so bad that it was full of water. 

My stay at Four Seasons, Kuda Huraa

The previous night was bad with zero cooling in the room. We headed out for breakfast while they were repairing. Breakfast was good and I could get everything I wanted for my Little One :) We were informed that there is something wrong in the AC and we would be shifted to a suite by evening!!! Now that was amazing. 

One can relax by the pool or beach. Snorkelling on the beach was quite nice. We went for Dolphin cruise in the evening. It was such a good sight to see so many dolphins swimming. Four Seasons has a turtle corner, where the injured turtles and rescued and given life. The sunset lounge is to die for. The one bedroom suite that we were shifted to was gorgeous and spacious. This was one of the few room from where sunrise and sunset could be seen.

On the 3rd day, my husband went for Scuba. He felt the corals were a bit dead and the experience he had at Bora Bora was mind blowing, when compared to the one here. My mother-in-law went for Male city tour and she had fun exploring the city. It was my mother-in-law's birthday. She was flooded with personalized gifts from all departments. They even sent a complimentary cake, which truly made her day even more special. 

The next day, my husband again went to another location for Scuba, where he felt it was not that great. I, along with my mother-in-law and son, went to the nearby village. The guide explained the lives of people in the village and gave us some time to shop

We tried the spa and the experience was mind blowing. One needs to take a cute boat ride to the spa. I just wished I had tried the spa on an earlier day. Would have absolutely returned to try out more massages. During our stay, we dined at all three restaurants for dinner and each was good in its own league. My mother-in-law loved the yoga and meditation, that she didn't miss it for anything :) On day day we were departing, the instructor, wrote the list of asanas for my mother-in-law to practise at home.

While we were going for our spa, I asked if I could check out Two bedroom Royal Beach villa. It was a massive beautiful villa and had a private beach. 

View of Sunset Lounge: 

View from my room:

Morning Yoga Session:

On my last day, we went for kuda huraa reef snorkelling. We could see so many fishes and it seemed like a good end to our holiday. The service of Four Seasons, like always is amazing and I absolutely cherish my stay here.

Finally Maldives

Maldives Flight Details:

Onward:
Chennai (8:00) -> Kochi (9:00)
Kochi (12:50) -> Male (14:10)

Return:
Male (14:45) -> Kochi (17:05)
Kochi (21:10) -> Chennai (22:35)

I was excited to see the new terminal of Chennai Airport. The airport looked nice and swanky from outside. The check-in process was so slow. The person trying to check-in was confused whether we have to take the luggage at Cochin or at Maldives. He did ask us to collect it from Maldives. The baggage belt at Check-in counter was not working. So you could see everyone getting frustrated. We had our breakfast at "Balaji Stall" before the security check. It was super yummy. The aroma of Sambar was lingering around that we ordered Idly and satisfied our craving :)

The airport looked nice inside and you could see a lot of work was still pending. There was a baby care room, but it was locked. When you have so many passengers using the airport, how can it not be functional. There are many passengers with babies, who are going to use the facility!!! Anyways my flight was delayed by more than an hour. When we reached the Cochin airport, we enquired with the ground staff. They advised us to take the luggage and then shift to International Terminal. 

During our check in at Chennai airport, the person issued our ticket for Cochin to Male as well. This made our check-in process at Cochin easy. We had to wait for about an hour at Cochin Airport. The airport was quite deserted and i didn't find staff at few of the stall. My MIL got a cute baby umbrella at one of the stall. Thank god there was a baby room at this airport!! There was limited option to eat at the airport. After an hour wait at the airport, we boarded the flight. The flight duration was again short. The flight was not full, so each of us occupied a row. It was a blessing in disguise when you have a baby :)

Finally we reached Maldives and Four Seasons has a lounge at the airport. One can refresh with water, tea/coffee, fruits, snacks like nuts, energy bars, etc. Since we were the only one to arrive, we left the airport immediately. We were offered cold towel (Badly needed one) and water on the boat. And yes, they had wi-fi. The ride lasted for about 30 minutes. Upon reaching the hotel, there was a band playing to welcome us. There was a refreshing drink offered to us. What was extra special, was the drink offered to my son in a cute cup and straw.

They informed us about the upgrade to Sunset Water Bungalow from Sunrise Water Bungalow. The room was nice and spacious. They had placed a crib with diaper, a fish toy  and few other accessories for my son. We had the 1st room, so we could see the adult pool from our room as well. They informed my MIL about yoga and meditation. So she was off for her evening yoga, while hubby and me enjoyed the adult pool.

We tried the Indian restaurant "Baarabaru". It was fantastic. The food served was brilliant. One thing that I love about Four Seasons, is the service. It's outstanding. The best I've seen in hospitality service so far. When we returned to our room, we found the cooling of air-conditioner to be bad. But the night had to be passed and we were hoping the next day would be better

New destination - Maldives

The quest for a holiday started after I delivered my son. We couldn't go on our birthday holiday, since my son was too young. Post new year we decided we could go on a family holiday with my MIL as well. Our initial plan was to go to Singapore & Bali and made plans around my MIL's birthday. We decided to surprise her and changed the destination to Maldives (She had been wanting to visit Maldives for a long time). For hubby and I, it would be a similar experience as Bora Bora and there is bound to be comparison in our head.

While I was making the plan for Singapore & Bali, I had contacted makemytrip.com. I later informed them about changing the destination to Maldives. There was so much confusion in our head between Four Seasons, Kuda Huraa and Mirihi Island. Since we were taking my MIL to an exotic location, we thought we'll take her to Four Seasons. The makemytrip agent was giving me very good deal. Upon confirmation, she would say it is not available. I would have hardly taken couple of hours to confirm. I was fuming mad as to how it could not be available. She answered saying this was the quotation and upon confirmation from my side, she would check for availability. That seemed absolutely absurd. I did post a complaint at their website. The makemytrip team did apologise but I guess it didn't really matter then.

I had three flight options. A direct flight from Chennai to Male provided by Maldivian airline. The flight timing was inconvenient, so we had to let go of this option. The other one was Sri lankan airline and Spice Jet. I remember Sri lankan airline to be much more expensive than Spice Jet. So we went ahead with Spice Jet (Later when I did check, Sri Lankan airline was cheaper). Anyways I had booked and I didn't want to worry about the difference.

I contacted Four Seasons, Kuda Huraa for reservation. I informed that we would be 3 adults and an infant travelling and I would require the Sunrise Water Bungalow. The price quoted by the team was pretty expensive and I made the reservation for 3 night. It was just a Bed & Breakfast deal and I didn't get any deal that I got at Bora Bora. I was going to be charged close to $5300 for just 3 nights!!! The tax is a killer here, where in you are paying 18.8%+GST. I personally feel, Maldives is much more expensive than Bora Bora. But when you are in a holiday mood, I don't mind splurging once in a while.

All booking made and we were waiting for April 15th to come. During the course of time, my MIL got to know about we travelling to Maldives and the whole surprise got spoilt. A week before we were leaving, I pinged my friend, who is a travel consultant and owns a company called Fernweh. I had completely forgotten about her while making the booking. I casually asked her what is the best rate that can be offered to me and she gave me a quotation of 300$ lesser than that was offered by Four Seasons and an extra night. Now that was a bonanza and I immediately accepted the deal.

Now the painful process was shifting my confirmation from Four Seasons to them, but Four Seasons did do the needful and my plan was changed accordingly. In the last minute I had to change my flight detail and we were geared up for the much awaited holiday :)

Last Day at Dubai

We were lazy and got up pretty late :) We then headed out to check where we could have our breakfast. The spread at Kaleidoscope was ABSOLUTE BRILLIANT!!! One of the biggest I've ever seen and tasted brilliant as well. Overall, our stay at Atlantis was very nice but the highlight was food here. Fantastic restaurants :) Th check out process was smooth and we headed to the airport to catch our return flight to India.

Overall a great trip and lots of memories to cherish :)

Dubai Day 3 & Day 4

The day again began with enjoying at the swimming pool. After freshening up, we left for breakfast. The variety was again really minimal and the service was pathetic. I don't even want to waste my time by writing here how bad their service was. After breakfast we left for shopping. 

We first visited Dubai Outlet Mall. The Outlet Mall had lots of brands under one roof and there was pretty good discount going on. We had our lunch at the Food Court on top. We then left to Dubai Mall for Shopping. This place is huge. We could only cover 25% of the mall for the time we had. I absolutely loved the time spent time. One might get tired going around the mall, but this place has lots of store under one roof. They have a huge aquarium and Fountain Show. We had to miss the Fountain show because we had to head back to the hotel for our Dhow Cruise.

After all the shopping (of course, we did crib that we couldn't visit Mall of Emirates), we headed back to the hotel to freshen up. We were to be picked up for Marina Dhow Cruise by around 7:00 pm - 7:30 pm. Guess what?? We were ready on time by 6:50 pm but the bus came to pick us up by 7:45 pm. We were dropped off at the cruise location. The cruise started about 15 minutes after we boarded. One can enjoy the building and the view from the top deck. The food was average and the belly dancing was good. After a long night, we reached our hotel by almost 11:00 pm.

The next day, we wanted to check out early and go to Atlantis. We all got ready, packed our bags and went down for breakfast. The service again was so bad, that we walked out of the breakfast. There was no one to even notice that we had come and gone!!! This after waiting for more than 30 minutes for breakfast. The variety that is laid out is bad and is cold. They take minimum 15 - 20 just to reheat the stuff. All apartment guests are seated upstairs of the cafe and we are the only ones for breakfast. It is not like the place is packed and service is tight. It was more than 30 minutes and they hadn't got any eggs for us to eat. 

We checked out the apartment. The check-out process was pretty fast and we headed out to Atlantis. I had made reservation to stay at Atlantis for 1 night. I had booked 2 double rooms and 1 triple occupancy room. They informed me that there was no package with breakfast. So I had to pay for my breakfast separately. I had called them earlier to enquire if I can check in early. The suggestion that was given was to come in early, drop off our luggage and go ahead and see the hotel. 

We reached the hotel and were amazed by the size of lobby. It was truly a magnificent place and it's too huge that you can get lost easily. We started with the check-in process. The luggage was taken and we were allotted 1 room for the moment. The rooms were big and the view from the room was amazing. The bathrooms were big as well :) We went ahead and saw the Lost Chambers. The variety of fishes were just amazing and loved that I could see so many different species of them :)

View from one of our rooms:

View of Lobby:

After we were done with Lost Chambers, we had a quick bite at The Burger Joint. The burgers were absolutely smashing. It was well past 2 pm and went to the room to check if we were allocated our other 2 rooms. We were not and we had to wait for quite sometime :(. We then headed to the Aquaventure Waterpark. Since I was preggie, I really couldn't do anything much but the rest of the family had a blast. I wanted to do snorkelling and heard it was safe to do while you are pregnant. So went ahead and did snorkelling with sharks!!! I was quite scared while getting inside but the guide was fantastic and made me feel at ease. It was absolutely thrilling to  see a shark so close ( The staff at Atlantis get confused between Shark Snorkelling and Dive Centre).

We went to the beach nearby but the water was way too salty that we ended up going to the swimming pool. We snacked at the "Shark Bytes" next to the pool and took advantage of 50% off on beverages :). We were tired and went to our room to refresh ourselves. We were debating between Nasimi Beach and Ronda Locatelli. We mad our booking for Nasimi Beach and at the last minute changed it to Ronda Locatelli. The restaurant was absolutely gorgeous. The food tasted brilliant. I had one of the best pizzas here. 

My room was facing the dive centre and I could see all the lovely fishes swimming all night long :). It was time for me to take some rest before I head out to India the next day