So I last visited Amara Sanctuary many years back to celebrate my birthday but it was way Pre-COVID where I recalled they gave me an outstanding check-in service and process, even complimentary room upgrade to a villa. On 9 Mar, I checked in again with my family to celebrate my birthday hoping that I am able to enjoy the same level of hospitality and warmth. Alas, it turned out to be a sorely bad decision for Amara's hospitality has diminished greatly, and was a disappointing experience that totally spoiled by birthday and left me lamenting if I should have stuck to a tried-and-tested neighbouring property which is Oasia - the Wellness Hotel! 1) Drove to check in on 9 Mar, dropped of my wife and 11 years old daughter with a luggage bag. Totally no porter, no service staff at all come up and offer the usual assistance with the bag. As the check in counter area has a full glass facade, I saw several staff inside but none came out to offer any form of assistance. I had to get off the car, help my wife with the luggage, and my own carry-on bag, and pushed all the stuff into the check in area ourselves. Even AFTER my wife and daughter entered INTO the service area, not even a SINGLE staff came up to offer any help with the luggage. At that point in time, the counter area is not very busy that I noticed. A stark contrast to my usual Oasia resort (Celebrate that in 2023 for both my wife and my own birthday) whereby they have a staff who warmly welcome us at the drive in porch and assisted with check in process. 2) The Check-In process was mechanical and devoid of any cheerful and positive energy. Despite my comments that I was going to celebrate my 48th birthday at their resort, all the staff seemed to have glossed over my comment conveniently. Not even a simple 'Happy Birthday!', no birthday favours as what I was expecting from being spoiled by other hotels and resorts (Again I must compared with Oasia). Nope. Just the usual 'Hi, you want to check in? Do you have the confirmation email? Can i have your credit card.' Wow, and here I am hoping to relive that wonderful Amara hospitality that I enjoyed so many years back. Perhaps, COVID-19 has blunted all of Amara's staff sense of hospitality and warmth? 3) After settling down and already very disappointed, we proceeded back to the check in area to catch a complimentary shuttle to Vivocity for an afternoon out. So there was a schedule of timings and I was thinking "Sure. What could possibly go wrong right?". Wrong! About 10 mins before the scheduled pick up timing, i saw a shuttle bus came outside the drive way and drove off. I asked the service staff whether if that's the same shuttle service. They assured me that the bus was just dropping off Amara staff, that it will come back later at the pick-up timing as i was too early, and they advised me to go to the opposite side of the main building to wait. I promptly did as advised. 10 minutes later, that same bus came but the driver didn't even open the door. I gestured for him to open for the 3 of us. Instead, he reversed the bus, made a u-turn and left the property! My wife, my daughter and I were both shocked and bemused! Was it because there's only the 3 of us and hence, he didn't wanna pick us up? I queried the same reception staff and 1 Malay guy with the word 'Security' on his shirt. The service staff don't appear very empathetic to my situation and simply said something like 'Oh is it? You can stay here wait for the next bus'. Wow! Are you serious? And when I registered my disapproval, the security guy seemed to made a quick call which I presume to the bus driver and after a very quick word, he said the bus is unable to U-turn back and we just have to wait for the next timing (15-20minutes later i can't recall). is this the type of hospitality and service befitting a resort like Amara Sanctuary? My daughter's chartered school bus company can do better than this! We didn't want to waste our vacation time waiting around for shuttle buses, so the end we made our own way to Vivocity under a sweltering hot afternoon sun. 4) I booked the room with the balcony, and I had clearly indicated in my booking that I will be staying with my wife and daughter. A party of 3. AGAIN i must compared with Oasia resort where they will prepare 3 sets of everything for us such as toiletries, bath robes, towels etc. NOPE. Not for Amara. There's only 2 sets of everything. So, we have to 'share' amongst ourselves 2 sets of toiletries, towels, even pillows. My experience at this point was so affected that we didn't bother to request them to send an additional set and we simply wanted to 'fast forward' this very disappointing stay to the end. The hotel assistant front-desk manager met me when i was checking out, to find out more from me about my disappointing stay. I appreciated that. However, it was already too late and i think it was a missed opportunity for both me and Amara Sanctuary. A missed opportunity for me to celebrate a significant life's milestone at a resort which I wanted to give a second chance to relive my previous stay experience, and for Amara to provide me and my family a unique, pleasant experience that I enjoyed so many year's back. Alas, it turned out to be a bad decision and I should have just gone for my usual tried-and-test goto resort Oasia Sentosa which is just next to Amara and way more convenient and accessible, who are able to provide me with the usual welcome befitting of a guest celebrating his/her milestone event like anniversaries, birthdays etc.…