Preparation for parenthood

Wedding is finally over and now both of you are preparing to be parents! How exciting when you first got that home pregnancy test showing positive! Congratulations!

Alright, what's next?

This is entirely my own experience, now that I'm 30~31 weeks in pregnancy, I would like to share with you readers especially readers from Malaysia.

We're considered the lucky bunch because our government's medical facility has improved over time and giving us a lot of aid and subsidies for medication and check ups.

Going back and forth with both private hospital and government clinic so far, I would love to share my experience with you, especially first time mothers like me. *shy*

Both my hubby and I were excited the moment we've confirmed that I'm pregnant. We did multiple home pregnancy test from the basic stick to digital. Finally when the digital test kit showing that I'm pregnant, I got mixed feelings. "Yay! But what should I do next?"

According to Chinese taboo, you shouldn't share the news of the pregnancy until you're done with the first trimester. What they believe is that by telling the whole world that you're pregnant, you may "scare" the baby spirit thus causing miscarriage. Not being a very superstitious myself, I find myself still fall back to such taboo and thus hiding the news from my siblings and friends until the 3rd month had passed. Of course I did some research too if there's logic behind it. It is said that the first trimester of pregnancy is often the risky one whereby chances of miscarriage is higher therefore if you've told others that you're pregnant, the hardship  may even be greater when you need to share the  bad news of losing the baby.

So both hubby and I decided to only share the joy with our parents. We didn't know what to do then. The following day, we went to private hospital nearby for check up. The scan showed I was 5weeks pregnant (according to my LMP -Last menstration period) but the doctor couldn't scan much about it as it was still just a dot in the womb.

At 5 weeks.

We went home with joy nevertheless and got folic acid to reduce the risk of neural tube defects on the baby. We were told by doctor that usually before getting pregnant, the mother is advised to take folic acid too to cut down the chances for neural defects baby. We were lucky to be able to see the doctor, according to my brother, some hospital require you to make an appointment 2 months in advance!

My next visit was 3weeks later when I'm 8 weeks pregnant to scan for heartbeat. Indeed, we can see flickering in the womb and hear the heartbeating. I teared. Doctor also prescribed me vitamins to take to help increase the supplements needed for the baby.

When I'm 3months pregnant, we finally break the news to our siblings and relatives and friends. It was interesting to see their reaction especially when I broke the news on April's fool day.

My sister in law recommended us to open a pink book with the government clinic, known as KKIA (Klinik Kesihatan Ibu & Anak), Where the check up is very much cheaper and our baby's vaccination will be free compared to private which charges about RM 200 for each shot.

You cannot go to just any KKIA to do check up, you have to find out which KKIA is handling your district otherwise, they will not handle your case. When hubby and I first got to the KKIA we were directed to, we couldn't do a walk in. We'll need to set an appointment with the nurse and come again another day. You'll need to remember to bring the following:

- Your IC
- Spouse IC
- Marriage certificate
- Utilities bill

I got scolded by the nurse for seeing them so late. When I'm already 3 months into pregnancy. They said I should have come earlier. Well, I didn't know earlier, now I do...Well, suck it in... I read elsewhere that the ideal time to come is when you're 10 weeks pregnant. I also heard some going in at 8 weeks. So... I'm not sure on this.

Should have taken the picture when it's a new book; anyway, if you're fit, the sticker would be green instead of yellow.

 

If you're wondering why there's a yellow sticker, it's because I got a high bp record just lately in my 3rd trimester.

 

Came to the appointment as early as recommended by the nurse and finally open my first pink book (buku merah). The clinic was crowded. But they follow ticketing numbers so that was quite organised. First timers will be asked all sorts of questions like family medical history, LMP, and the usual urine and hemoglobin test (each visit) and after some briefing and advices, I finally got my pink book!

Ever since then, I went for both private and government clinic for checkup. It's tiring especially when the government clinic only operates on working hours and the time slot that I got is usually 8am.

I like the government clinic checks. They are more thorough. Each time you visit, you'll have to do a urine test, blood pressure test, hemoglobin count test, weight check and you'll get free obimin vitamins! All you have to do is to pay RM1 for the processing fee. But the downside is that you wont get scanned by the doctor on each visit. Only on certain appointments. If you don't mind that, I suggest you to only go for government clinic's. Although you may have to persevere in the infamous long wait.

Private is more expensive, every check they do and every prescription they gave is bound for charges. I often got charged closed to RM200 each time I made a visit to private hospital even without the prescription. But the bright side is that they operates on weekend as well (depends on which hospital) and their service is much faster. My advice though. Do get your questions prepared. Whether you got less questions or more questions you'll still be charged for consultancy, and it's not cheap.

There you go. It's up to you whether you want to opt for government or private. To me, it's all about the budget you have and the service you prefer.

Part 3: Review on Wedding Banquet @ Crystal Crown, PJ

Recap:
Part 1: Review on Wedding Banquet @ Crystal Crown, PJ
Part 2: Review on Wedding Banquet @ Crystal Crown, PJ

After the wedding reception and all of our guests head for home, the hosts (us and my brothers) sat on one of the table to discuss with the banquet manager about our feedback and dissatisfaction.

We voiced our feedback from most of our guests and what we experienced throughout the night. As usual, the banquet manager has no authority over this and wanted to shove us off by giving diplomatic excuses. "This has never happened before", "We have not seen it happened", "There were too many people". Obviously there are many people, which is why we are able to opt for this bigger ballroom. Shouldn't it be expected before? Where are all the staff training? 

Since he couldn't make decision, we opt to speak to higher authority. He initially wanted to settle this issue there and then so it doesn't alarm his superior. But we insisted. Seriously, we were shocked to see such service being carried out like as if customer's event meant nothing to them. So unprofessional. Such a shame to get high hotel star rating.

He later pass us his superior's name card which is the F&B manager.

We made an appointment to meet up with him and  the F&B manager the next day. Which happens to be a holiday.

We appreciate that he's able to make it over to the hotel discuss the dispute even though it was a holiday. 

We again voiced our experience and complaints of our guests to the manager which he also couldn't make any decision to compensate us on the poor service provided. During the 3 or 4 hours discussion at the lobby's Cafe, there was no solid conclusion. He has heard our complaints, but again, he couldn't make any decision. He called up the sales manager to talk about our compensation or at least until the issue has been resolved, we will hold back the remaining banquet money. Over the phone with the sales manager, he promised us that it will be held first until the issue has been resolved. We wanted someone who can make decision, but it was quite a waste of time since there was no solid verdict that day. We ended up writing a 4 page complaints from most of ours and our guests feedback.

Our mail back and forth lasted for 2 months, from early October until mid of December. With still dissatisfaction on our side.

2 days after our banquet, I again updated the feedback since there was no reply or any sort from the hotel. An email came back one day later:

Meanwhile Management has decided to charge your credit card for the balance amount of RM10000 verified as agreed in our contract to close our account.

What? What about what was promised over the phone conversation between both managers? Now that there's a dispute and all they care about is their account? There was no other saying to this. They've charged it as they sent the email out.

On Oct 5th, you expressed that CCHPJ was going to charge me the remaining MYR 10,000. I replied on the same day, expressing my concerns regarding that.

On Oct 6th, you assured me that you would attempt to convince the management otherwise; and that your previous email was to inform us, the customer before you charge them.

My credit card shows that it was charged on Oct 5th.

 As quoted from our reply.


The said investigation goes on for another week while keeping the customer in the dark. We have to promptly email / message them to find out what's going on.

More than a week after the dispute, we finally came down to another meeting with the managers. This time with both the sales and F&B manager, and the sales person, staff A.

What I remembered clearly from our discussion, we were first shown the CCTV footage. That was a bit waste of time. It's only showing snippet of what was caught on tape and the position of the CCTV was not even overall the hall. Some were blocked by pillar, some were located I don't know where. And more ridiculous, remember the .gif that I posted in my review part 2? Somehow on their interest, it was fast forwarded. All other snippet that was shown to me has no fast forward, why only this snippet? And you've guessed it. "We don't see the issue you were talking about here", that was what claimed by one of the manager. They claimed that they spent 6 hours looking at the footage. Well, if it's only what benefit the hotel that the snippet is showing, then what's the point of showing it to us? Let us be another eye to see the whole 2 hrs of our event. We can point it to you on the customer's perspective. 

Not like we haven't offer ourselves for the help.

In the end, what was promised from the management is to refund 30% of the said amount, with additional 2 room + 10 hi-tea vouchers for feedback which valid for 6 months. 

What makes them think a customer would want to come back to this hotel after such bad experience?  

And only valid for 6 months? That's not even showing that the customer is any importance. I would expect a year long or lifetime no limit kind of voucher if we're going to be offered vouchers for compensation.

It's like getting vouchers for Christmas gift instead.

We negotiated for more since we're still not satisfied. We negotiated for 3 rooms and 15 meal vouchers. From the total compensation we're looking for, this, we have taken much far back.

At the end of the discussion, they promised to get back to us after checking with their management:
- Whether the refund would be in terms of GIRO or credit
- Whether the voucher can be extended instead of 6 months.

What we have agreed upon as compensation before calling it a night:
 - 3 rooms + 15 meal vouchers
- The said money refund

What really came back to us AFTER we reminded them 4 days later (because there was no news from their end):
- 2 rooms + 15 meal
- voucher validity only 6 months 

Well, once again it seems to me that the message was not conveyed properly from the sales manager to her management. Or rather. Did she even convey it at all?

We have already voiced our concern that we will not be around during the first few months of the voucher validity and during then there was so much understanding that it could perhaps be extended. But since it's not what we agreed upon, we wanted to make another meet up discussion. This time, we want to meet the so called "Management" that was always quoted by the sales manager.

That was so happen that their COO was away for business trip until end of November. But if they really want to make things right, shouldn't the COO email to the customer instead? There's unhappy customer with your staff here.. hellooooo. Guess the COO shows no concern to their customer anyway after receiving payment.

One month passed. I sent an email

If you noticed the dates that were sent, they surely take their time to response to us. Even from Whatsapp, there was no update. 

The reply only came a day later with "good news" that the management agrees to extend the voucher period for another 3 more months. 

And that's the end of the saga.

Still I wasn't satisfied. Put your feet into our shoes, it clearly does not make you feel as though customer is important to them. There was suppose to be a meet up with the COO after the COO is back from business trip. That didn't happen. How long will it take for COO to reply an email "okay, we can extend the voucher validation" if a meetup was not even planned at the first place?

I feel the whole "Management" name was made up to prolong the discussion and to protect their benefits. 

I really don't like the service given by the sales department. They don't give me the impression that they place customer in priority. The F&B department (especially the cafe at the lobby), service was good. They were really attentive. If only the same kind of attention and professionalism was given during the banquet that day. I'm sure all of this can be oversee.

Part 2: Review on Wedding Banquet @ Crystal Crown, PJ

This post I'm gonna write about "during" the banquet. 

You can read about pre-banquet here: Part 1: Review on Wedding Banquet @ Crystal Crown, PJ 

The real day is here, the day that you've been waiting for and all prepared for. This ONE DAY. This big day of yours. Your guests are coming and some are already here.

Yet, during this time is when the staff decided to further hammer the red carpet. On good thoughts, it's for the safety of the people walking in and out of the ballroom but shouldn't this preparation be done way earlier before they deemed that the ballroom is ready to be used? This doesn't seem "ready" for me.

As we need to prepare food for our photographers before the program starts, I've requested for some plates to put the food that we've take out from restaurant. The plates only comes 20 minutes later even when the kitchen is just next door. And they brought us mini plates even when I've already explained what the purpose was for. I'll just oversee that.

As the entrance were quite crowded, the staffs too need to walk around the hall for preparation, they accidentally bump on to the flower stand along the isle. But they choose to ignore even when one of the flower broken and walked away. My expectation was that he picked it up. I don't really mind if the flower is broken, that gotta happen somehow. At least show some regret and pick it up.

During the couple march in, one of the staff decided to walk along on the red carpet. Shouldn't he be already aware that the moment has come? The door was open to indicate that the marching in will begin and he decided to walk slowly on the red carpet as my photographer has to ask him to move away and until one of my guests pulled him away to stand by the side. We even had our emcees repeated in bilingual, a trained staff would have alerted themselves to move aside.

The service of the staff were so slow. When my guests requested for a drink, it only comes 30 minutes later. Or never. Some staff even brought one whole bottle of soft drink to the table where they were actually suppose to serve when needed. Does this mean that my guest have to self-service? Also, this means there is no control of beverage flow. One of my guests requested for hot water and the staff shoved the hot water right next to my guests face without saying excuse me in the first place. Asking the guests first before proceeding is the least they should be trained. "May I clear the plate?" Simple sentences. Simple answer is expected. Yes, no. Yet, the staff did not ask and cleared the plate on the table even before my guests were finish with their food.

Seriously, all these staff shows lack of training especially on their communication skill. They barely could understand the requests. One of my guests spotted that the staff were fooling around before the presentation of the food. Where's the discipline? (and that staff was a high rank one).

One of my guest's door gift were taken away without question asked when the staff accidentally spilled some soup over it. Some staff did not understand the dining culture (which I would expect them to know if they have proper training). They provide spoon to scoop the ice instead of ice thongs. Is this some roadside restaurant? We're in a hotel ballroom for heaven's sake.

I have a few vegetarian guests. I've already told the sales person (whom I liaise with before, whom should be aware of my requests) that there should be a proper marking of who is the vegetarian so that the food may arrive to them correctly. It was promised that they would ask who it was first before putting on the marking on the table to identify them. Yet, the marking were all wrong, and my vegetarian guest were left hungry for a few hours before I have to personally confront the staff myself. Yet, as I've mentioned, the staff pretend to understand my request and walked away and ended up ignoring it. I have to check back again with my guest to find out if they were served. And it was so slow with small portion!

Usually during Chinese wedding, there will be times, especially after "bone-food" or "shell-food' like chicken or prawn, the plates will usually be cleared and new set of plates will be given. Yes, this hotel ballroom do provide this service. But they just stack the whole new plates on the table and expect my guest to distribute among themselves. Then when they were clearing the plates, they took away some of the cutlery and didn't replenish it. What do you expect my guests to eat with? Hands? Also, this coming from my boss' experience from the server that serves his table. The staff placed the dirty dish UNDERNEATH THE TABLE. Why?! WHAT?! Well, given the benefit of thought, my boss is not a Malaysian, you could say he don't understand the culture. But the other 9 members on the table are. They too commented the same. WHAT? For WHAT?! feed the rat? If there is one...

There was some technical problem during the event. The ballroom suddenly got warmer. Guests complained. At 7pm (when the event suppose to start), technical equipment were still not ready for my emcees. Unforeseen technical problem like sudden breakdown, I could still understand. But the excuse they gave after we confront them after the reception, "Well, there were too many guests at that point, so it gets a little hotter". Legit excuse definitely. But shouldn't they already have this experienced and be prepared to adjust the temperature? Or just set them to optimum temperature.

Remember that I mentioned they were hammering the red carpet during the start of the event, well, it wasn't a well done job. The carpet still wasn't rolled out properly. There were wrinkles and few of my guests almost tripped few times!

There were more feedback and dissatisfaction that happens during the event. Too many to list out and overall it just show how unprofessional they were. 3.5 star hotel according to Tripadvisor. I don't see this kind of service being a 3 star at all. I could only compare them to normal restaurants out there. Not a hotel rank service. Much disappointment !

Recap:
Part 1: Review on Wedding Banquet @ Crystal Crown, PJ
Part 3: Review on Wedding Banquet @ Crystal Crown, PJ

Part 1: Review on Wedding Banquet @ Crystal Crown, PJ

In short: Hell of an experience.

Long story ahead. Spare me some time if you're planning to read ahead and tell me what's your opinion on it if you've ever had experience with Chinese wedding banquet there.

I'll split it to 3 parts. Before, during and post-event.

PART 1:

We signed up with their banquet package at the wedding fair and our person in charge was Sandy.

Regarding the ballroom (review at first sight): It has the capacity to fit 50 tables (so they claimed) - We fit 32 and it seemed quite pack. There are 2 mirrored pillars at the center of the hall. There is upper deck to fit another 5 tables, but we didn't use it. A huge stage in front with 2 sides back room for backstage preparation. Kitchen is at the back of the ballroom (opposite the stage). Audio room is placed is situated at the upper deck. Podium is next to the stage. Not sure if it matters, but the communication with the audio manager would be a little tricky.

All was fine and I'm very very satisfied with Sandy's service. She keep us informed and update us on details and  was very punctual and patient. Our negotiation of wedding preparation and all that we need to know from the hotel side, (obviously it's our first time to have a wedding banquet) we were filled with information. Sandy find out and update us very promptly. We had a few meeting and during the meeting there was some awkward pause for us couple to think of questions to ask about, Sandy would keep smiling and told us to take our time. Plus, she's always by her email and whatsapp.

Unfortunately but good news for her, she's getting married too and her date falls a week or two after ours. So therefore, she no longer able to be in charge of our event since she will be on long leave to prepare for her own.We were passed on to a colleague of hers.

Having the impression that Sandy was such an excellent staff to deal with, we have the same expectation on her colleague. I'll not name this colleague but let's call her "staff A".

The first time I met with staff A was when I'm collecting my wedding card during my lunch time. Minor cookie point minus, staff A seems to be in rush when I was collecting my cards. Obviously, I'll need to double check the cards and quantity when I receive them. Staff A looks uninterested and keep asking if I still have anything needed from her. I told her, "Not at the moment, but I'll need to double check the cards". Yes, there are 100 over pieces of cards. I did not count/check all anyway, I just took some randomly to check the spelling and design. Well, at least a good gesture was that staff A asked if I had my lunch (not sure if she was going to invite me for lunch, though) but I told her I need to head back to work. Staff A asked again if I needed anything from her. Eventually I told her no and she left. Staff A left before the customer. Okay, maybe no biggy but as a customer sales representative, I would expect her to place customer first.

We had a few questions to the management or rather regarding to the event later on where we usually communicate via staff A's corporate email. It took longer time to get back to us and sometimes it doesn't even answer all of our questions. For example, we emailed in the morning at 10am, staff A only gets back to us at 5pm. By the time we responded to the email at 5:30pm, the next reply would be the next day. Which we assume it's because it's already office hours.

Then we have more inquiries to staff A/banquet related.

We could have communicated via Whatsapp too, but we since our questions were quite many, we thought it was easier to have it via email and also for reference later. There was no email reply one week later. When we message staff A via whatsapp, we were only then informed that staff A was on leave and there was no other staff to be in charge meantime. When staff A was back on the next day, staff A claimed that there was no email from us. Well, clearly for us that the email has went through. I checked my sent email. Not sure where the mistake has gone.

Side note, there's no discount rate for room just because you're doing your wedding there. The rates that were given by staff A is similar to what I can find exactly from their hotel webpage. Disappointed.

Few days before our wedding, we have a walkthrough to make sure everything is in place. So we've meet up with staff A again.We've clearly mentioned earlier in one of our discussion that we wanted cream colored chair cover due to probable of old people's superstition that white/black is bad color. 
 

screenshot from our email conversation

On the day of rehearsal, the ballroom was filled with white covered chair. Okay... We can't change from that since there are no more stock for cream covers and we weren't informed earlier? The placement of the tables are also far off from the hall plan that they have provided. 2 of the tables were too close to the kitchen entrance and it perhaps would block the servers' access . Shouldn't they have thought that through?

Plan that was sent to us:

What was the actual plan:

 

Honestly, how can this ballroom fit 50 tables? :x

While we were rehearsing, staff A left before us again. Of course, given the benefit of doubt, staff A let us have our time to do rehearsal as long as we want. (But what if we still have things we want to clarify? That day being a Friday and staff A is off duty on Saturday. Sunday is our reception day already) Regarding the parking, staff A told us that we could verify our tickets over the concierge and we only have to mention staff A's name for reference.

We left at about 8pm plus and head over to concierge as told to verify our tickets.

To our surprise, the staff over the counter rejected our validation. She told us they weren't informed about it and we couldn't do so. I mentioned staff A's name and that we could refer her. Concierge staff called their supervisor/manager then and explained the situation. To our disgust, the manager sounds upset and said "Just give them lah". The tone that he said it was as if we were desperate beggars asking for money and they were forced to validate so that we would stop pestering them. 

What? This is our right as customers and we were even told that we could do so.

Bad customer service of a front counter. I wonder how could they place them as the hotel's front person.

Part 2: Review on Wedding Banquet @ Crystal Crown PJ
Part 3: Review on Wedding Banquet @ Crystal Crown PJ

Wedding reception

If you're like us, having the ceremony in the morning and wedding reception during the dinner, then you can refer to our experience. I wouldn't say this as a guide since all the variables could be different.

But one thing for sure, I DO NOT RECOMMEND DOING WEDDING BANQUET AT CRYSTAL CROWN HOTEL, PJ.

I'll explain why I said that in another post. In short, it gave us a bad experience and on our special day? Really? bah..

Depending on where you gonna held your wedding reception, be there earlier to make sure everything is prepared. Your bridesmaids and groomsmen may also be there earlier to help check things out.

The bride may be preoccupied to redo her make up and dress up, so the groom is the only hope to run back and forth to do the preparation (boy, am I glad to get help from all of them). The bride will most likely got stuck in the room until the reception time actually starts, depends on what time your MUA will arrive, so do check the updates with her. Let her know in advance how many person will need to do make up for the reception so she can estimate her time.

While I was in the room doing my preparation, Jon was already at the ballroom ushering and greeting our guests. Checking things with the banquet manager. Make sure to assign receptionist and make sure they are also there early.

Once the bride is done, you'll go to the ballroom to greet the guests, take some photos, 

but do be wary of the time when the actual reception suppose to start. Get your emcee to be your timekeeper. 

Once the program actually starts, bride and groom will have to be ready at the entrance to do the significant march in later.

Nothing much I could comment on here as the dinner reception is pretty basic. But I'll just share with everyone my program flow because I too wanted to look for reference back then... Assuming the dinner should start at 8pm sharp and depending of the set of gowns that the bride will have to change, I had 3 sets. It's tiring. Just go with 2 at most...IMHO

7-7:45pm - Arrival of guests (our guests actually arrives at 6:30pm)
7:35pm - Bride change gown
7:55pm - Emcee plays proposal video of the newlywed
8:00pm - Emcee introduction + couple march in
8:15pm - First dish serve
8:20pm - Plays Tea ceremony session video
8:30pm - Bride change to next set of gown, meantime emcee plays Prewed photoshoot montage
8:45pm - Cake cutting and Toasting session and some speech
9:30pm - Couple goes around the table for toasting
11:00pm - End

It was tiring but indeed an experience to us.