Mactan Island, Cebu 2016 Day 4 – Home Sweet Home

Again the same cycle repeated as yesterday, only difference was I managed to see some illumination through the clouds at sunrise. Imperfect but no choice, it’s our last day in Mactan Island. Back to bed and woke up at 8am.

Left for the buffet at 9am and for the 3rd day consecutively, the food was not getting more interesting already. Still we had our fills (baby K started liking cereals, munching on them) before leaving for the room to get ready for our last pool visit. We asked for a room extension and was given to 1pm to check out and also reserved a spot for the airport transfer that had scheduled timings (130pm was ours).

We brought the ball that we bought at the shop the night before but baby K quickly lost interest quickly, preferring to play at the pool. Since mommy joined, baby K tried to the pirates ship slide. First attempt was good but on second attempt he lost balance and started turning around on the slide and by the time he reached the end of the slide where mommy tried to catch him, he was slightly shocked. It was really funny though.

Pool towel cards.
Pool towel cards.

Still he continued to play in the pool after and mommy had to go cook lunch for baby K and I went around the pool on the donut float with baby K. The structure at the kids pool was still out for maintenance but the wave pool seemed to be working as waves started crashing against the land.

I made one last look at the beach and probably due to the nice sunny weather, the waters seemed prettier.

Beach was beautiful with the sunny weather.
Beach was beautiful with the sunny weather.

Back at the room, we rushed to clean up, not because of the check out timing but due to a notice telling us that the entire block will be out for maintenance. That also meant that we couldn’t clean up the porridge cooker as it was still cooking. That kinda sucked as we were on late check out.

After the porridge was cooked and packed, we proceeded to check out at the busy reception. We had to pay for our dinner that we charged to the room, the in room dinner and our airport transfer (150 pesos per head per way) but was informed that our old notes couldn’t be used anymore (demonetization) and had to be exchanged at the banks. This was not the first time that it happened during the trip but we would have expected the resort to have just accepted for us. These notes we got it from the forex in JEM and didn’t know that it would be a problem. I paid by card instead.

Long corridors of rooms.
Long corridors of rooms.
Map of the resort.
Map of the resort.

We waited a while more for the shuttle to come and this time around, the bus was pretty crowded with many Korean tourists. Baby K fell asleep enroute to the airport which was about a 30mins drive through mostly small roads.

At the departure hall, before we could check in, we had to go through X-ray scanners and that caught us by surprise. Had to shift some hand held luggage and valuables and during that motion, baby K was woken up.

After the check in, we had to go pay 750pesos per head terminal fee, another surprise (didn’t know, should have done more research). However the good thing was that the old notes were accepted and we managed to get rid of them.

Terminal fees to be paid before departure.
Terminal fees to be paid before departure.
Receipts of the terminal fees.
Receipts of the terminal fees.
Demonetization of old notes.
Demonetization of old notes.

After immigrations, which was moving pretty fast compared to the busy domestic flights, we went to one food center to get some drinks while baby K ate his porridge. Time flew past quickly and after shopping for a bit, it was time to board the SilkAir flight home.

At the departure hall.
At the departure hall.

For the return trip, we had the bassinet seat and sharing the third window seat with a single passenger. It was a pity that she had to sit through the entire flight without going to the loo as the bassinet was there and also to deal with baby K ruckus (He only fell asleep on the final hour before touch down). I guessed people really do preferred the wider leg space with the risk of meeting a baby in the process.

This escape was meant to be a water park resort away from home to spend time with my kid. There wasn’t really time to explore the other areas of Cebu and to do any water activities even though there were plenty. For all 4 days, we were enjoying what the resort could offer and it was nice. More planning would be required to coordinate the cooking timing and the napping timing in order to “do more”. It would indeed be challenging when we embark on our Europe trip on September.