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| Oceanus Waterfront Mall, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. |
Oceanus Waterfront Mall in Kota Kinabalu city center review - We visited Oceanus Waterfront Mall im middle of October 2022 several days before we publish this blog post. We live in Marina Court Condominium area and we alway walk across Oceanus Waterfront Mall every day.
What Is Oceanus Waterfront Mall
For you who did not know nothing about Oceanus Waterfront Mall, it is actually a ocean-themed local medium sized shopping mall located in Kota Kinabalu city center. We still remember the development works of Oceanus Waterfront Mall started back on 2011.
Before that, from 1998 to 2010 the land area that used today as the base of Oceanus Waterfront Mall building was used to be an old seaside jetty by local fisherman, used as sunset sightseeing area and a seaside waterfront area between Kota Kinabalu Waterfront and Anjung Senja night market food stalls.
From our eyeview the leght of Oceanus Waterfront Mall from left to right is about 1,000 meters long. The front door of Oceanus Mall built facing Marina Court Condominium buildings.
The back entrance of Oceanus Waterfront Mall was built facing the sea. You can see the partial part of Gaya island and small part of Sapi island from here. Another that you can also see small part of Sutera Harbour resort and shape of Manukan island from afar.
Oceanus Waterfront Mall opened for public on January 2015. During the same year, the Imago shopping mall also started to open for public visitors somewhere in middle of May 2015. During the opening year Oceanus Waterfront Mall did not charge a parking fee to it's public visitors.
How To Get To Oceanus Waterfront Mall
The exact locaton of Oceanus Waterfront Mall is beside the Kota Kinabalu Waterfront. Marriott Kota Kinabalu Hotel is attached to Oceanus Waterfront Mall. So if you wanna know where this shopping mall is you juay need to look for Marriott Kota Kinabalu hotel.
If you just arrived landed in Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA), to go to Oceanus Waterfront Mall you just need to call for a normal taxi. Go to taxi counter at the ground floor or Kota Kinabalu international airport, buy a taxi ticket, watch the taxi car plate number on the ticket and look for the taxi. The taxi driver will be waiting for your outside at their designated area.
Normal taxi fare from Kota Kinabalu International Airport to Oceanus Waterfront Mall in October 2022 is MYR 25 to RM35 depending on the season. The taxi price is quite high when you travel in holiday season or during Malaysian school holiday. Your taxi ride to Oceanus Waterfront Mall from Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) takes about 7 to 10 minutes. All depending on weather condition and overall traffic condition during your travel day.
If you are already in Kota Kinabalu city area such as Gaya Street, Sinsuran, Warisan Square or staying somewhere in Kota Kinabalu city area you can just walk on foot from your current location to Oceanus Waterfront Mall. It will not take long. All will be depending on your walking speed. From Gaya Street to Oceanus Waterfront Mall you will take about 7-11 minutes.
When Is The Best Time To Go To Oceanus Waterfront Mall
From our observation and from our own experience walk on foot into the mall middle of October 2022, Oceanus Waterfront Mall open for business at 10 AM then closed at 9:30 PM every day.
What is best time to go here? It depends on what you wanna see and what you wanna find. If you did not have any plan and just wanna walk there to discover what's inside Oceanus Waterfront Mall and to see how it looks like when you entered the mall, the best to go to Oceanus Waterfront Mall is between 12 PM in the afternoon to 3 PM during the day, and between 6:00 PM to 8 PM (Malaysian Time GMT +8).
For us personally as local guy living in Kota Kinabalu the best time to go to Oceanus Waterfront Mall is during sunset hours which is from 6:00 PM to 6:45 PM Malaysian Time.
What You Will See Inside Oceanus Waterfront Mall
Previously in year of 2020 especially during months of January until February, Oceanus Waterfront Mall is the place of interest among the majority of South Korean tourists who visited Kota Kinabalu for holiday. From our experience dealing and making friends with South Korean tourists, they love mango juice, beautiful sunset view, they love enjoying vacation in islands around Kota Kinabalu and most importantly they love wellness massage therapy before boarding their airplane going back to their home country.
Most South Korean tourists are interested in Oceanus Waterfront Mall because of two factors - sunset view and wellness massage centers.
We still remember during December 2019 until 2 February 2020 many South Korean tourists love to go to Oceanus Waterfront Mall to get a massage theraphy before they go to Kota Kinabalu International Airport to go back to South Korea. Because of that we saw several massage theraphy center open their business here due the popularity of Oceanus Waterfront Mall among South Korean tourists.
During December-January 2020 popular massage centers inside Oceanus Waterfront Mall are Violet Massage Center, Sunset Massage Center and Premium Massage Center. All of these massage centeres are located at the 2nd floor of Oceanus Waterfront Mall. The most famous among them all is Sunset Massage Center because this massage center has foot massage service facing the sea and facing the beautiful sunset view from 2nd floor glass wall.
When Covid-19 hit Malaysia very bad, the pandemic killed tourism industry in Kota Kinabalu very bad. No South Korean tourists for more than 24 months or 2 years until April 2022. After Malaysian's international border open for South Korean tourists, we can see several South Korean tourists walk on foot passing Oceanus Waterfont Mall and enjoying drinks in Kota Kinabalu Waterfont which is only next to Oceanus Waterfront Mall.
What Is Inside Oceanus Waterfront Mall In October 2022
We visited Oceanus Waterfront Mall recently (in middle of October 2022 at the time we created this blog post) to just see how it looks like inside and we are also curious about the progress inside the shopping mall.
Overall - Oceanus Waterfront Mall is empty. Most of the time this shopping mall has small number of visitors. Almost empty everyday during it's official business hours from 9 AM to 9 PM.
We only see about 10-20 people inside and about 30-50 people outside during usual sunset hours. At the time we entered Oceanus Waterfront Mall via main entrance door, there is a new shop at the left side. That shop is Guardian shop.
Guardian shop is a popular self care shop in local market and they sell personal care products such as mouth wash, make up, medicines, products for foot care, product for body care such as lotions and talcums, products for eye care, products for eye care, products for sports activities. Guardian shop also sells vitamins, supplements, energy drinks, energy foods, enery bar and bottled drinking water.
We also saw several new shops in ground floor being opened for business. Among them are 7 Eleven 24-hours convenience shop which is next to Guardian shop. There is also a new local bar in Oceanus Waterfront Mall which is opened around July 2022.
Most shops they are open up for business is only available at ground floor near main entrance. At the basement floor you can find one shop open for business. They are Sports Direct - a popular sports shop in Kota KInabalu. This shop sells branded sports products such as shirts, sports shoes, hiking shoes, swimming attire, skateboard, in-line skates and other sports products from famous Brands such as Adidas, Nike, Puma, Everlast.