Resorts World Sentosa in air-con meltdown
UPDATE
Resorts World Sentosa, which suffered an air-conditioning failure on Monday due to the malfunction of its chiller units, said the air-conditioning should be fully restored on Friday.
The breakdown has resulted in significant disruptions across its service and businesses within the resort.
The cause? The resort's chiller units — the components of its air-conditioning units — were "showing signs of overheating". An RWS spokesman attributed the malfunction to "unusually hot weather".
However, the resort was unable to comment on whether it had back-up chillers, saying only that plans have been made to acquire more of such units, The Straits Times reported.
"These changes should have minimal impact on our normal resort operations," said the spokesman, adding that RWS was trying to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.
However, the air-con malfunction has led to some eateries scrambling to find alternatives to keep their customers cool while other businesses were disrupted.
The Universal Studios theme park, for instance, had to revert to closing at 7pm on Monday instead of 9pm as planned. The park, which just celebrated its gala opening over the weekend, will close at 7pm daily until further notice — to ease the load on the air-conditioning units that are still functioning.
Meanwhile, some outlets and shows will not operate during off-peak hours. The resort's resident circus act, Voyage de la Vie, has cancelled its shows scheduled on Wednesday and Thursday.
Eating establishments within the compound also said they have been given alternatives in the form of portable air-conditioners and mobile blowers — devices that create and blow out cold air — to cool the surrounding air.
At Hard Rock Café, staff have been told to check on customers more often to ensure that they are comfortable. It has also installed two mobile blowers and two air-conditioning units to mitigate the heat.
Over at Chinese restaurant Baits, staff have been told to serve iced water to customers the moment they walk in. It has also received several standing fans from the resort's management.
The least affected was the RWS casino as its air-conditioning is still functioning as per normal.
Still, staff at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf said they had received numerous complaints from customers who were hoping to take shelter from the heat, only to discover that the temperature within the cafe was just as stifling.
Others RWS patrons, however, took the air-con meltdown with a pinch of salt.
Accountant Hazel Yip, 26, who was dining in one of the eateries said, "Although there're fans to keep down the heat, it's still quite hot. But the staff here are friendly, so it's not so bad," she said.
