Yays to new hotel again!

Soaring above Singapore’s prime shopping belt, Pan Pacific Orchard is a verdant sanctuary with exemplary architectural design that draws nature inwards, featuring four seamlessly connected stacks—Forest, Beach, Garden and Cloud—each providing exceptional experiences across unique environments.

From official site

Address – 10 Claymore Road Singapore 229540. Website.

Contact – Tel: +65 800 8526855. Email: enquiry.ppsor@panpacific.com.

Price – SGD$337.50++ booked for a Deluxe King under the Discovery Launch Offer which includes 2 choices from the below list which I felt was decent enough:

• Daily breakfast at Mosella restaurant
• Choice of an alcoholic (or non-alcoholic) welcome drink per pax at Florette or Pacific Breeze per stay
• 20% off food and beverage during your stay when dining-in at our restaurants & bars or in-room dining and mini bar
• A complimentary bottle of wine per stay
• Access to Pacific Club Lounge at exclusive rate of SGD120 per person per day with privileges including daily breakfast, refreshment throughout the day and evening cocktails 

Location – The property is a striking sight along Orchard Road’s Scotts Road area, especially visible where Thai Embassy is. It sits right behind Palais Renaissance and only a 5-10min walk from Orchard MRT (though unsheltered access).

Getting There – If via Orchard Station, below is the hotel-provided instructions on how to get there.

If via private hire or self driving, the hotel driveway is along Claymore Road so watch out for the gleaming entrance.

About the hotel – Thought I’d give a bit more info about this spanking new 347-room property and its concept, cobbled from stuff that I’ve read.

With four distinct yet seamlessly interconnected stacks — Forest, Beach, Garden and Cloud — Pan Pacific Orchard, one of the landmark hotels in Orchard Road, Singapore designed by WOHA, is set to be an icon within the Orchard Road district, as the gleaming lifestyle belt goes through its green transformation. 

From official site

Forest Terrace – the property’s 1st floor featuring curling vines and thriving flora, and 120-m tall green column towers. This is where guests arrive to and check in, as well as where Mosella, the hotel’s breakfast restaurant is located. The entire area is alfresco as well so on the days I was there, it was super hot super humid which did not make for a very pleasant check in experience.

Garden Terrace – the property’s 11th floor curated garden with a central lawn area with private cabanas. This is where Pacific Club Lounge is located as well (more on that later).

Beach Terrace – the 5th floor conceived as an island escape in the sky. This is where the property’s pool is, a meandering lagoon pool surrounded by tropical palm groves. Here’s an overshot from my room with closer shots in the relevant sections below.

Cloud Terrace – this space on the 18th floor is a collection of creative event and celebrations places, both indoors and outdoors. Pillarless ballroom with natural lighting and capacity for 420 seats. Wasn’t much to see during my visit as the doors to these spaces were all closed.

Check In – I arrived to a suitably crowded and super warm lobby at 12pm on a public holiday – plenty of people waiting to try out this new hotel it seems! Kind of expected for its second day of opening, the process took a while as staff seems to still be trying to find their rhythm. And there was also no printed welcome letter so the welcome was all verbal including settling the choices of benefit included in the package which added to the less than seamless process.

The team was also kind enough to double-tier upgrade both my rooms which was appreciated.

But it was a really warm day so waiting in the heat was not the best start to be honest. These big fans installed didn’t seem to help probably due to the high ceilings. The entire team seems to be suffering from the heat in their uniforms too so it must be harder for them!

Another observation is that for an opening weekend, there was no fanfare of any sorts which I felt was a sorely missed opportunity. All very muted except for the presence of the hotel GM walking around.

Room – My Deluxe Balcony King (30SqM), 0918, was very good space for 1pax! Everything was of course brand new and spotless as well. The room is visible in one glance right after stepping in.

The open concept wardrobe is to the immediate right with bathrobes and slippers (quite fluffy) and hairdryer etc.

The mini bar section is next to the wardrobe, set up rather unconventionally.

First up, the “fridge” here is a built-in narrow vertical space against the wall which means it’s quite impossible to chill your personal items unless they can fit into the small space (on top of the fact that you have to remove the existing items prior).

Second, drinking water here is on tap and comes with 2 glass bottles for sustainability reasons. But for some reason the cold water option dispenses room temperature water.

Third, there are no tea bags provided. There is a Nespresso, but don’t recall seeing pods anywhere.

Further in is the TV area featuring a cosy lounge chair + single seater + coffee table. While this is a nice set up, the way this is arranged means you can’t watch TV from the lounge chair which I felt was weird and such a pity. Still useful to note that the TV can swivel and has chrome cast ability though.

Opposite the TV is the cushy king bed with good amount of bedside table space, equipped with charging ports.

The bathroom is a neat block of single sink, separate toilet and shower which served its purposes very well. At first glance, it looks open-concept but I later realized there are sliding doors which can be used to seal off the space for more privacy.

Toiletries were the atas Diptyque brand which was great!

Finally, this room type comes with a cute alfresco balcony area which overlooks the lagoon pool area. This section is separated by a sliding door and comes equipped with auto blinds which helps to provide some protection from the heat as well as provide privacy. Not so nice a spot when its super hot & humid though. Blinds and the light here can be controlled by 2 switches on a panel by the wall.

BUT I do have to point out a rather dangerous design – it was not made known to me that when the sliding door is opened, the room’s aircon switches off automatically AND the blinds are wired to automatically come down if it was left up. While this is meant to be a smart design (ie protect you from heat if it detects that the aircon is off), I almost got my neck caught under the blind as I was enjoying the view of the lagoon from the balcony and wasn’t aware that the blinds were slowly coming down (the sound of the blind roller was indiscernible in an outdoor environment). This is especially dangerous as the blind panels were hard panels and can potentially cause serious injuries. I gave feedback to the front desk was told that they would look into it.

Later that afternoon, a Titanium welcome amenity of chocolates and 2 cans of coke appeared on the coffee table accompanied by a welcome note.

Pacific Club Lounge (website) – Located within the Garden terrace on 11th floor, this lounge is a “private enclave that invites the nature in”. At check in, I picked the $120++ top up per pax to access this and I was really excited about what’s on offer.

A host of privileges await our Pacific Club guests. Your experience at Pan Pacific Orchard begins with a dedicated check-in service at the Pacific Club Lounge, and is rounded off with a leisurely late check-out extended until 2:00pm. During your stay, you are invited to the exclusive Pacific Club Lounge: a tranquil space with indoor and alfresco areas to enjoy daily breakfast service, all-day refreshments and evening cocktails with canapés. 

From official site

The space itself was elegantly designed with splashes of color seen amongst the mostly cushy seatings in the indoor space.

There are also outdoor seating available which was actually quite nice when it turned evening – this area do come with fans so I imagine they’d make the heat more bearable in the day time.

Afternoon Tea (1:00pm onwards)

I was really excited to check out the afternoon tea especially when I was told at check in that afternoon tea will start at 1pm instead of the listed timings. But……there was nothing except 4 choices of cookies and coffee/tea when I visited – I was told that these are the afternoon tea options.

To be honest, I felt a little cheated as these are what I’ve seen other club lounges offer as all-day refreshments. A listed “afternoon tea” session to me should at least see some tea cakes, finger sandwiches, even some scones maybe?

I had also factored in the value of the afternoon tea when deciding on the $120 top up so this to me feels like a gross undervalue. On top of that, when I asked for sparkling water, it took a long time to come as they did not have stock at the lounge and had to bring some from level 2.

Evening Cocktails & Canepes (6:00pm – 8:00pm)

Come evening, the spread was thankfully more decent but still a little underwhelming for the price they charge for access. Quality was good though (meats, appetisers, cheeses, desserts), and options included non carby stuff which made for an enough dinner.

Drinks on offer were via orders only so there are no pics to show – there were white, red, beers, simple spirits and cocktails available, and they even were kind enough to oblige to a random request for champagne (yay!). However, not having drinks on a self-service basis slowed service down considerably although the kind team kept checking on us from time to time, so perhaps the property can consider changing the format of how this session is run to improve efficiency. A printed drinks menu wouldn’t hurt!

I will say though that ever bubbly staff, Olivia, was so sweet throughout our interactions that it could almost have distracted me from the negatives.

Other Food & Beverage Options –

Mosella (website) – located on Forest Terrace and the hotel’s all-day dining spot offering Peruvian-inspired Mediterranean fare. This is also where breakfast is served even for Club guests as the Club does not serve breakfast at the moment.

The breakfast experience at 8:30am was a rather chaotic one due to the long weekend + opening weekend combi. Upon arrival, I was told that its free seating i.e. go find my own seat. But I later observed that most other guests were assisted with and led to their seats. For an opening weekend, such inconsistency did not leave a good impression.

The space itself was quite nice, set up in a burnt orange color with plenty seatings, with both indoors and outdoors options.

Breakfast options were aplenty with all hands on deck ready to serve the hungry crowd. Food quality was quite amazing and honestly one of the better ones around in terms of both quality and quantity – I’ll let the pics do the talking.

I do have to highlight that for such a big space, they only have ONE coffee machine whose dispensing time was not the fastest as well, hence often resulting in long queues for caffeine fixes. The barista-manned section beside this did not make coffee orders for some reason. I did hear that when inquired, the staff said the barista service was for VIP drink orders only – whatever that means.

Nonetheless, I think this needs to be sorted out asap to avoid cranky caffeine needs first thing in the morning – adding one more coffee machine will help to alleviate the queue for sure.

Pacific Breeze – this alfresco bar is located above the lobby’s water plaza where I enjoyed my choice of alcoholic welcome drink: a white wine served in a champagne glass.

Florette (website) – located on Garden Terrace and the property’s bar of sorts offering fancy cocktails, cavair, oysters etc. Slated to open on 01 July 2023.

Facilities – located on level 5, the Fitness Centre (24hrs) is quite well equipped and a rower is aways a bonus for me! There is even a small outdoor equipment area which looks quite fun.

The gym faces the Lagoon / Pool (6am-8pm) which is super resorty and photogenic – definitely a great spot to take those IG pics! The main pool area is facing inwards flanked by sunbeds and what I interpret to be the Beach Club Lofts which comes with its own pool pods and direct lagoon access. This space is also shielded from direct sunlight which I loved so definitely a swim on the cards if I next stay here!

There are smaller hived out pools which faces outwards into the neighbourhood landscape, equipped with a pool bar at the side.

Service – To be fair, I did book this stay expecting teething issues and indeed there were – there were multiple wonky encounters on top of whatever I’ve mentioned in the earlier sections:

Welcome drinks – I wanted to redeem my welcome drinks (white wine) on my checkout afternoon but was told that alcoholic options can only be redeemed from 7pm onwards. So I asked about non-alcoholic options and was told that its only soft drinks and orange juice both of which I don’t take. I thought that was so weird for a brand new 5-star hotel – not even sparkling water? Also, the benefit list states that the drinks can be enjoyed at either Pacific Breeze or Florette which is only opened w.e.f 01 July 2023 – but Pacific Breeze was mad hot so I thought I could have been nice if they offered the option to take the drinks back to the rooms instead of mandating that the drinks must be had at Pacific Breeze. Eventually I was told that the 7pm info was not true and given my glass of white wine at 4pm.

Titanium welcome amenity – I was given 2x cokes as part of my status welcome amenity left in the room and I requested to exchange for sparkling water a total of 3 times, each with no result. Further confusion ensued when one such request was responded with me being told that the welcome amenity is not included in my room’s package but they would make an exception. Huh?

Request for umbrellas – I headed out alot during the stay and during one of my requests for an umbrella from the concierge was told that they had ran out, with alternatives being to buy one from 7-11 at Orchard Towers’s 7-11 or cab back if I get caught in the rain. For a property which doesn’t offer sheltered access to the main roads, it wouldn’t hurt for them to stock up on more umbrellas as the hotel gets busier which surely will be a plus when it comes to making guests feel taken care of.

Calls for service using in-room phone – out of several times I’ve tried, only once did I manage to be put through to a human being. The rest of my attempts rang for long without being answered – which did not leave a good impression. I get that the team could have been completely swamped on opening day 2 but this patchiness meant that guests would have needed to make their way down to the front desk in person to get help which would certainly would have been frustrating.

Check Out – Painlessly done at 4pm including deduction of D$. Sutha provided great service here as I wanted to use paywave but their contactless terminals were not working so she offered to process my payment manually which I appreciated!

In summary,

Super happy to check this spanking new gorgeous property off as the hardware was excellent! If the property somehow nips these teething problems and adjusts to feedback constructively, I believe they will no doubt I daresay be the best hotel in Orchard Road for a while 🙂