My Plantation Bay Day Tour Experience

          I am sorry for this post is kind of late because the travel happened last June 2013. Nevertheless, I felt the desire to share my experience with you, guys. Actually, the initial plan was to go to Cebu on board Cebu Pacific airline since my parents haven't experienced traveling on a plane yet. Apart from that, I was on the lookout for the much talked about low fare happenings on this airline. Anyways, I was able to book ourselves on June 5, 2013, Wednesday. Here's our itinerary and the details of our expenditure.

June 5, Wednesday

12:30 noon - departure from Dipolog City Airport to Mactan International Airport in Cebu

1:15 pm - arrival at Mactan International Airport

Here is a photo of my boys who never seemed to run out of energy while waiting for our flight.

3 pm - arrival at Your Second Home, an apartment in Cebu that's conveniently located near Robinson's, Chung Hua, NBI, as well as National Bookstore. Upon arrival, we were greeted with the guard and the lady whom I made the reservation with. I am so sorry, I already forgot her name. But here's the details of Your Second Home in case you're still looking for a good, yet inexpensive place to stay for you and your family in Cebu. 

Your Second Home 

Address: 163 Mariano Cui, St., Capitol Site

contact number : (63 32) 256 0273

nightly rate: 995 php

In our case, we paid 1125 php per day because I requested for one big bed. One of the advantages of staying here is the availability of TV, refrigerator, air condition, private toilet and bath with hot and cold options, cabinet, couch, couple of drawers and hangers, two towels, and a mini kitchen. The room is quite spacious and it can definitely accommodate a family of four. The staff were also accommodating and friendly. While these facilities are great, we encountered few problems during our stay. One, the sink on the kitchen faucet kept clogging, so we had to contact a maintenance man to fix it. Two, there's very limited space for hanging wet laundry, so if you stay here for a couple of days or a week, you need to go to a laundry site, which I happened to find nearby Your Second Home. Nevertheless, if you want to transfer to a hotel, Hotel Asia is conveniently located a block from Your Second Home. Indeed, it's a good and affordable accommodation for a day or two of excursion with kids, but not for a long term stay.

Here's a photo of my eldest and my dad inside the room. There's also a mini island that you can use to dine on. 

5 pm - Me, my husband, and father walked to Robinson's to buy foods for our dinner. We had our fill since we had a long day ahead of us.

June 6, Thursday (SM and High Precision Diagnostics)

5 am - We woke up a bit early because my parents had to go to High Precision Diagnostics for a general medical check-up. They then went back around 7 am for our first stop.

8 am - SM Cebu

The kids had lots of fun in this place. We let them rode almost everything they can ride at the children's playground. They were so keen on playing arcade games. Unfortunately, their system wasn't very cooperative as we couldn't buy a loadable card for gaming worth 200. So, we had to move and stroll the vastness of SM. We spend our lunch inside SM and we ended the afternoon with a quick stop at National Bookstore. Everyone in the family knows I am dying to go to National Bookstore.

Here is my husband and our youngest.

June 7, Friday (Simala, Carcar)

5 am - We had to wake up early because a friend taxi driver of mine would pick us up from Your Second Home to take us to the infamous Simala. Simala is derived from the term 'himala' or miracle in English. Simala is renowned for its magnificent church, which started as a humble edifice decades ago when Mother Mary's statue began showing miraculous activities in the site. It is also in this site where a lot of people, especially those who pray for the success of their exams, health operations, and the likes, flock. Letters, wheelchairs, crunches, and even photos are stamped and neatly placed in cabinets with mirror covers for visitors to see. They're letters that either contain words of help or gratitude. 

My family with the Simala Church behind.

11 am - We left Simala and headed to Carcar. We had our lunch there and we then headed back home around 2pm.

June 8, Saturday (Plantation Bay)

7 am - We left as early as possible to fully enjoy the entire day tour schedule. The weather was cloudy accompanied by drizzle, but that didn't stop us from going to Plantation Bay, which was an hour and few minute ride from Your Second Home.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by the staffs at the lobby and we were also given a map and a rubberized bracelet to show that we're day tourists. The day tour rate was 2,000 php for adults and 1,000 for my 6 year old son, and free for my 2 year old son. My parents could have enjoyed the 20% discount for senior citizens. Unfortunately, they didn't bring their senior citizen IDs. Meanwhile, the day tour rate is already inclusive of lunch and the use of all the amenities and facilities of the resort from 9 am - 6 pm.

Here is an in-house cabby that takes tourists to and fro any point in Plantation Bay.

Here is a photo of the first lagoon that we stayed at for a few minutes as we huddled over to decide what to do first. 

Above is the complimentary lunch; lechon kawali and below is lemon fried chicken.

The following are selected photos of our activities in Plantation Bay. We hopped from one swimming pool to another; went to the beach; did kayak; Arnel wall climbed; Arnel and our eldest riding on a duo bicycle; and a lot more. Oh, Papa even jumped in a 12 ft swimming pool.

Here is a photo of my kids and their father inside the air conditioned children's learning center.

One of the bay's islets'.

Here is a photo of my parents kayaking for the first time.

6 pm - We started getting ready homeward. We were able to get a ride on the resort's tourist bus to the airport. We then rode from the airport to Your Second Home, which only took about half an hour. Because of the activities, my youngest son got really tired and fell asleep from 5 pm until 6 am the next day.

June 9, Sunday (home bound)

2 pm - We left Cebu to Dipolog City on board Cebu Pacific airline again. It was a smooth journey to and from Cebu. Praise God!

Here are the costs of our travel:

8,200 -  ( 4,100 php for 5 adults, 1 child, and 1 infant x 2 trips ) * note that we were able to avail of the 

                1 peso base fare. 

    600 -  fare from Mactan International Airport to Your Second Home

1,000 -  groceries for food for dinner and breakfast on the first day. The amount includes snacks, bottled                     water, ketchup, vinegar and soy sauce packs, and some spices for cooking

    800 - general check up for two at High Precision Diagnostics

    200 - fare to SM

    500 - lunch at SM

    200 - fare to Your Second Home

    800 - fish, noodles, drinks, and snacks budget for the next day

9,000 - entrance to Plantation Bay     

    200 - fare to Plantation Bay

    150 - fare to YSH

    800 - bread, cakes, barbecues for dinner and snacks the next day

1, 000 - fare to and from Simala 

    400 - lunch at Carcar 

 1,000 - pasalubong (chicharon, Red Ribbon, etc)

 4,500 - accommodation (4 nights and 5 days)

28, 750 - This is the total expenses for a group of 4 adults, 1 6 yr old child, and a 1 yr old toddler in a travel to Cebu via Cebu Pacific's 1 peso base fare. In this amount, we're able to go to Simala, Plantation Bay, Carcar, and buy pasalubong. I didn't include the books I bought at National Bookstore, small bottles of oil at Simala, as well as Papa's and Marc's shoes. If I include those items, I think the amount would total up to 30k plus. All of the amounts above are rounded off.