Prudential Marina Bay Carnival

Carnival is a rare thing in Indonesia, so when I heard that there would be a mega carnival in Marina Bay Singapore during the time of my visit, I got super excited and immediately put this on top of my places-to-visit list. I'm a big fan of carnival although I suck at playing the games. With Prudential being the main sponsor, this carnival is said to be the largest one in this little red dot, with the opening hours of 4pm to 11pm daily.

pic credit: Marina Bay Carnival website

pic credit: Prudential Singapore website

pic credit: Prudential Singapore website

The carnival is split into two locations: Bayfront event space (next to Marina Bay Sands) and The Promontory (the one closer to Merlion Park). The majority of the thrill rides can be found at the Bayfront side while The Promontory side has more family-friendly rides. These two fairgrounds can be reached within 7 minutes walk. You definitely have to visit both!

Good news, admission to the carnival is free. However, the rides and games require credits to play. These credits are stored in a prepaid card. A card can be used by more than 1 person, so for example if 2 people want to ride the Star Flyer (the ride costs $10 per person), they will deduct $20 from one card. You can buy and top up the card on the spot with a minimum amount of $10 (cmiiw). Note that the credit in the card is non-refundable.

I did not want to spend too much on this carnival knowing I'm a bad player. I only topped up $20 in my card, enough to play 2 rides and 2 games. Fyi, the rides cost $6 to $14 and the games cost $4 to $8. Oh ya, I also found a good deal from Klook you can purchase for $45. With this price, you are entitled to 1 card with $35 credits inside and 2 drink coupons (choose between 1 Tiger Beer or 2 non-alcoholic beverages). This package can only be purchased online and you will have to redeem it on the spot. Lol actually if you are a big player who wants to try all the rides and games, you will end up spending more than the cost of Universal Studios ticket.

Here are two most popular rides at the carnival (be prepared to queue!):

pic credit: Marina Bay Carnival website

My POV of Star Flyer. Sorry for the blurry pic!

Star Flyer (10 credits): 35-metre tall swinger with 360 degree view of Marina Bay. The ride will ascend and spin at the same time, offering you an unobstructed view of the cityscape. While some riders were screaming as if they were on a roller coaster ride, I did not find this ride thrilling at all haha. But if you are afraid of heights, you would probably be shaking after getting off the ride. The speed is not too fast, just nice for me to snapgram the view. Some people asked me how could I did not shake my hand while snapgramming haha. It took courage, people!

pic credit: The Smart Local

Doesn't it look so tall?

Mach 5 (14 credits): 55-metre tall pendulum ride that goes round and round. Going with the speed up to 130 km/h, this ride surely suits adrenaline junkies very well. It is definitely not something I will ride even if someone pays for me.

Besides these two, there are some other interesting rides like Euro Coaster and Jungle River, to the classic bumper car and carousel. If you are up for a challenge, you will be attracted by the numbers of carnival game available here. With over 1 million licensed soft toys from Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks to be won, you will not want to leave the carnival empty-handed. Who doesn't want to win a Minion, Baymax or Yoda?

Lobster pot game

Ring toss game

Bean bag toss game

Shuffle ball game

We tried some games like buzz wire, ring toss, basketball and shooting, but turned out we were not skillful enough. Okay, the god of fortune was not by our side haha. We even tried the buzz wire game twice, but it was damn hard to win because the spiral wire kept spinning. I gotta admit, I got jealous seeing people carrying a giant teddy bear or a sackful of soft toys, but then I convinced myself that they actually bought it because they paid for it.

Oh well, I ended up bringing a small dog soft toy from a game that did not need any skill at all - just luck. My friend won me this dog from the Odd Number game, where you need to draw at least 1 odd number out of 3 given chances. You really need some luck to win it, because my friend actually saw that the numbers inside the box were 95% even numbers.

What is carnival without food?! Both Bayfront and The Promontory fairgrounds have food stalls with seating, offering many kinds of food and drink that are made for Instagram. I even saw the famous French patisserie, PAUL, opened a stall here. Note that payment for food is strictly by cash only.

I always have a thing for galaxy and unicorn <3

Starlite - $9.90
I only managed to try one drink here from Rainbow Works booth. I got this Starlite for $9.90 (you can have it on a unicorn float for $15 - so expensive!). It is just pink blended drink with marshmallows, whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles. If it is not pretty enough, they put a small pink balloon as an extra touch. I thought it would be a sugarush, but in fact it just tasted bland. Such a daylight robbery.

Overall, I would totally recommend everyone to visit this huge-scale carnival while it is still around until 1st April 2018 (no, it ain't April Fool's joke). Make sure to head down for some family fun, or go with your friends and get crazy together! By the way, the nearest MRT stations are Downtown (Downtown Line) and Bayfront (Circle Line & Downtown Line). What I did was coming out from Bayfront MRT (exit E), explored the carnival at Bayfront side first, walked to The Promontory and explore that side, and finally walked to Downtown MRT via Marina Bay Link Mall.