Camp Macau @ City of Dreams

The Camp Quality children had the good fortune of being invited to the City of Dreams for a two-day camping experience in Macau. The camp was generously sponsored by Mr. Lawrence Ho.

We set off bright and early on Saturday morning from Shun Tak Ferry Terminal and arrived in Macau at 9.30am.  After clearing customs, we were split into three groups and each group boarded their respective coaches.   Before heading over to the City of Dreams, we decided to take in some of the more popular sites and museums that Macau has to offer.

Our first stop was the newly opened Macau Science Centre which only opened its doors to the public in January this year. Their exhibition centre with a total of 14 galleries was arranged in an upward spiral formation and offered an interesting variety of interactive exhibits.  Three of these galleries were designed with children in mind. The Fun Science Gallery introduces science to young kids between 4-7 years old. It offers four hands-on exhibits where children can perform individual or group tasks with water and the like.

The Science Express Gallery has a centerpiece called “Central Station” with a train called Science Express supported by four exhibition zones. An hour exploring each of the exhibits certainly helped to stimulate and cultivate our campers’ interest in Science.

The Macau Science Centre also had a planetarium for showcasing 3D movies.  Camp Quality was treated to “Dawn of Space Age” in 3D that guides the audience through a 3D journey of the last 50 years of space exploration.

After leaving the Science Centre, the group was dropped off at Macau’s most famous tourist site, the Ruins of St.Paul. This was adjacent to the famous Mount Fortress and Macau Museum.   The campers were given some free time to explore this unique colonial area on foot and grab some light lunch around the Senado Square area.  This area is always popular and bustling with tourists, shoppers, diners and strollers. Some of the children were happy just browsing the side street shopping stalls whilst others were busy purchasing Macanese cookies to take back home for their family!

We then boarded our buses late afternoon and headed to our final destination, appropriately named City of Dreams. Here the children were definitely spoilt. They were given the opportunity to experience a unique integrated resort with an amazing array of child friendly entertainment and recreational activities. There’s more to Macau than just casinos.

The children were guests of the Hard Rock hotel where they could dream the night away with royalty or rock stars and everything in between.

Most were mesmerized by all the music memorabilia on display around the hotel and were busy taking photos.  For many campers, this was also their first time in Macau so it was an extra bonus that they were getting the VIP treatment from everyone at such a fine hotel.

We were escorted to our function rooms for a quick welcome and souvenir presentation to Melco Representative, Mr Kent Wong who gave a very warm welcome to all the children and companions.

After a quick briefing and check in, we had to leave the City of Dreams complex and went to the Venetian to watch ZAIA - a pretty impressive and dazzling extravaganza by Cirque du Soleil.  The show was about a young girl who was dreaming about travelling through space. Of course being a Cirque production, it came complete with a very impressive array of technical capabilities including the moving globe (25” diameter) with internal projection, as well as moving stage pieces, overhead tracks for acrobatics, step dancers, roller-bladers and even a guy riding a bicycle upside down!?   

After the show, we headed back to the Hard Rock hotel at the City of Dreams for dinner.  Dinner was arranged for us at the Treasure Palace and it was definitely a Chinese feast fit for a king!

After dinner, the children and companions were treated to a VIP private viewing of the renowned “Dragon’s Treasure” at The Bubble. Inside the Bubble Dome, everyone was immersed in a multi-media attraction with explosive visuals and sounds. This 15-minute visual adventure tells the story of the Dragon Pearl and its mysterious powers as experienced by four Dragon Kings who are magically transported along with the audience on a sensory journey to each of their respective aquatic kingdoms of ice, tropics, volcanic and solar entities.  The show transported everyone into a fantasy world of eastern magic and Chinese mythology.

Next morning after breakfast, our Camp Quality Easter Egg Hunt took place at the stunning poolside of the Hard Rock Hotel.   There were 48 elaborately decorated Easter eggs hidden in the sand next to the pool area. The children were tested on some fun general knowledge questions, and those who answered correctly, were allowed on the sand field to hunt for the eggs!   Special prize giveaways were also hidden in some of the eggs.

A very worthy mention must go to Hard Rock’s “Kids City” - Macau’s largest children’s attraction.  This one-of-a-kind kids play zone has four distinct zones – Excite, Explore, Dream and Create and included a multi-climbing facility, a bouncy castle, bubble play, arts and crafts, video games, a princess dress up area and stage performances.  It was superb fun for the kids, although it stated it was catering to those 12 years and below, we found that many of our teenagers couldn’t stay away!  The children were given a two-hour play slot there but many didn’t want to leave and still asked for more!  

Last but not least, we would like to thank all the staff at the Hard Rock hotel and the City of Dreams for their warm hospitality and taking very good care of us throughout the two days. We would also like to thank Maggie Ma and Abby Lee at Melco Hong Kong for their wonderful arrangement.  My heartfelt thanks to Dennis Tam for the referral and we would like to particularly thank Mr. Lawrence Ho for his very generous gesture – thank you ever so much for giving the children a wonderful time and unforgettable memories!