My comments on Prudential marina bay carnival, because I think pre-awareness is important before you down there.
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– This carnival is advertised in a major way like the biggest carnival of S’pore. Don’t fall for it.
– Don’t bring your family on your first visit. They are most probably relying on the children factor to force you to part with your money. Sick technique!
– Just the simple $9 ride for your family of 5 will bring you down $45 already!
– If you see a large crowd at the entrance queuing to buy the ticket-card, DON’T just join the queue. Maybe there’re relying on our kiasu S’porean queuing syndrome too. There’s another entrance for general entry. Go one round the whole carnival and make your own cost-judgement. Then, decide. You can buy tickets in ANY numerous counters inside as well.
– Some prices: The Mach5, which rotates round and round. The cost is $14! The simple viking ride is $9 per head.
I overhead a group of adults calculating that this ride alone will cost them $81, and they rather spend and enjoy somewhere else.
– Half the stalls are the booth types where you have throw or shoot something to get some silly toy. Cost: $5 for 3 tries. You judge yourself is that fair, or you rather pay $5 in a shop and get a better toy.
– There’s a pick-an-anonymous-bag booth. All the toys displayed outside are high-end ones. I watched some of them picked up the bags. The toys inside were nothing like those, it’s some dumb toys.
– I saw people throwing rings into bottles. For the 5-10 mins I stood there, NONE got one ring in, even the guy who tried to cheat by bending forward with his tall height!
– This one was funny, you have to throw a ball into the bucket and you get a prize if it stays in. The bucket is not even far away. But no matter what strategy you use, dunno what rubber the ball is made of, it just bounces out anyway! I saw three families bounce their money away this way.
My take: USS or Cove or any of the established fun-places are MUCH MORE worth your money. This so-called Carnival just seems to be a money-scraping exercise, by a big-company, Prudential, no less. Seems like insurance-scraping money is not enough for them?
Anyway, if you’re okay with these high prices, then ok, go for it. But pre-awareness is very important.