Mactan Island, Cebu 2016 Day 2 – JPark pool and beach

I awoke at 515 to find the room illuminated by daylight. Peeking out I saw the skies in an orange hue, sun was about to rise. The clouds were blocking so I chose to return to bed without the sunrise shot.

Woke up again at 8 and surfed some net before baby K woke. Changed his diapers which was slightly leaking and concluded that the pants diapers were not as high capacity as the tape ones for overnight usage. Then we proceeded to breakfast at The Abalone.

The Abalone restaurant.
The Abalone restaurant.
Inside Abalone.
Inside Abalone.
International buffet.
International buffet.

Baby K had his own baby seat at breakfast. Baby K had some bread and cereal with milk and was satisfied while his parents chose from a wider variety of food. As baby K became bored and fussy, wife brought him out of the crowded restaurant for a stroll and back to the room to change to swimwear while I waited forever for my cappuccino which never came.

Went back to the room without my caffeine boost and found baby K all ready. He was not impressed that I have to change and became fussy again until we both stepped out of the room. Couldn’t waterproof my camera in time and so had to make do with the iPhone.

We first got out towels from one of the towel exchange huts then we proceeded to the “shore” that we saw yesterday. It was in fact a shore for people sitting in their inflated donut float to come out from the moving stream to disembark. It wasn’t a good place for toddlers since it got deeper so I brought him to the basic toddler pool where there was a rain mushroom and a small slide.

Played there for a while and we went to the bigger kids pool where there was a pirate ship, a big structure with slides and a rain mushroom. It was easier in the day when not many people were around but as it got crowded, I had to bring baby K out the pool. Furthermore the slides could only be taken by kids under 12 and so I couldn’t slide down with baby K. I had to leave the iPhone before entering the area to prevent it from drowning but that meant that I had to go back to the towel hut to put it into the locker which had a password lock.

Tag to enter Waterpark.
Tag to enter Waterpark.
Toddler pool with a kids Pirates ship theme.
Toddler pool and a kids Pirates ship theme pool in the background.

After all the fun in the sun, I returned to the room with baby K and gave him a bath before we again tried to get him to nap. Wife cooked lunch but baby K refused to nap. So we left the room to buy some drinks from the Metro supermarket and called room service to carry out housekeeping.

We bought more bottled water, a beer, fresh milk (limited variety) and some drinks before returning and baby K fell asleep in mommy’s arms.

Returned to the room and lay baby K on the bed while we ate the other packet of pork, microwaved, with a bottle of not-so-cold beer, upon returning from the supermarket. Thankfully baby K napped a lot longer.

Pathway to walk to main street.
Pathway to walk to main street.
JPark resort.
JPark resort.
Lunch was pork with beer.
Lunch was pork with beer.

Baby K woke up after 2 hrs whereas both daddy and mommy had a quick shut eye too. Things didn’t go too well as baby K became very cranky, wanted to play with water from the kitchen tap. After some scolding from mommy and trying to feed him porridge which he only had some, we decided to bring him out for a walk to the beach.

First we went to the Jlounge to pick up our welcome drinks with the vouchers, and it turned out to be tropical mixed fruits drink. It was too sweet to taste like real fruits though.

Welcome drink.
Welcome drink.
Inside Jlounge.
Inside Jlounge.

After that we proceeded to the towel hut to exchange for towels again and went to the beach. On first look it was pretty disappointing. The available sand near the water was a small space and the one where the sun decks were had a large space reserved for a company event. Baby K had to settle for the sand, which wasn’t smooth sand but a mixture of other stones, to play with.

The sea water wasn’t turquoise like Boracay but was clear and only mostly knee deep for quite a distance. There wasn’t much to see though except for a couple of silver fishes which was very hard to see sometimes. Baby K was fascinated by the water parachute in the distance and the low water level as he squats to splash the water.

A view of the beach standing in the waters.
A view of the beach standing in the waters.
Water was clear.
Water was clear.
Panoramic view of the beach.
Panoramic view of the beach.
Giant slides in the Waterpark.
Giant slides in the Waterpark.

We left after some time and proceeded to the arcade to utilize whatever tokens he had left to take the train and boat rides while I bought a frappe (Jlounge) to cool down from the heat. After that we got back to the room until dinner time.

A frappe to cool down from the heat.
A frappe to cool down from the heat.

We went to the Korean restaurant Maru just at the ground floor of our block. We ordered grilled chicken which was not too bad and they had quite a couple of sides. However the waitress misunderstood with out orders and didn’t send the pancake. Luckily the main dishes was filling enough and they made up by giving us another pancake side dish and some tropical juices.

Inside Maru restaurant.
Inside Maru restaurant.
Side dishes in the Korean restaurant.
Side dishes in the Korean restaurant.
Grilled chicken for dinner.
Grilled chicken for dinner.
Entrance of Maru restaurant.
Entrance of Maru restaurant.

Back at the room, I bathed the baby and soon enough he was calling for nap time. That was nice as it gave us some rest time for this trip. Got to catch some TV (managed to catch Antman on HBO) before going to bed.