Boracay2012: Our Room 1

Glad I was able to take a photo of the beds not yet messed-up-to-the-max. I had to shout to my girls, whose first instinct upon entering a hotel room would usually to muddle a perfectly done beds, to please off the beds first so I could take even just a single quiet photo. Done. haha. So this was the room we stayed at Fairways & Bluewater, Newcoast, Boracay, almost two weeks ago

The room is very masculine. Just like a few good men I know, it's straightforward, practical and well equipped. I miss you so much husband *insert luggage full of heart here*. Yet effeminately comfortable. It got all we needed. 

• Air conditioning

• Bathrobes
• Coffee/Tea Maker 
• Complimentary bottle of water
• Daily newspaper (available at the restaurant)
• Desk
• Hair Dryer
• In Room Safe
• Wireless Internet Access (subject to charges)
• Ironing Board (upon request)
• Mini-bar (subject to charges)
• Non-smoking rooms
• Refrigerator
• Satellite/Cable Television
• Shower

*above (list of amenities) I copied-pasted from their website cos i hate typing bullet items. But here I could assure you I got them all in our room.

There was one thing lacking thu'. According to our needs, and not included in the hotel's list. Good ass phone. Yes no phone in the room and we were housed on the 3rd level! Not that I needed phone to do outside call, we have cell phones ofcouse st..id cupid!! But the reception/concierge desk was down at the ground floor. No elevator in the building. So if we did need anything, we had to get down ourselves. I wasn't able to ask about why no phone. The possible reason would be between the following :  a). the particular building we stayed-in was so newly built, it hadn't completed yet its facilities fully. b). it's a damn resort concept, haha!

The masculine vibe sways up to the bathroom. I particularly admire the choice of  floor tiles here which perfectly suited a beach hotel/resort room. One of my girls got the whole bathroom floor flooded with water (wtf# she normally uses bathroom like that, haha) but in a very short while, the floor dried up real fast. By itself. Without any floor mopping done.

From there on, I noticed that the entire room had the same dried-up fast floor. So clever and practical. You know how always beach resort's guests enter the room with wet and sandy (especially there in Boracay ) feet, that floor really works.

This was our window view. No ocean view, just greens and open sky, but...

..at night or on an early dawn when the blinds were drawn..

.. the view turned into a silhouette painting..nice or not? 

We were actually housed in one of the infinite nos. of  villas inside Fairways & Bluewater. 

This is how it looks outside. Quite a modern building. Lots of this around the resort. This is no. 26, if I remember it right.????

Across our villa is  another type of villa. I saw other types of villa also but no pics.. Fairways & Bluewater Newcoast is madly huge!!! In exaggeration, almost as big as the whole station 1 white beach or is it a lot bigger??? Seems like. 

Later I'll try to make a post on around the whole resort. 

Got tons of photos here.

Gotta share.

See ya:)

The Bellevue Hotel Manila

I wasn't so happy about my check-in experience with Acasia Hotel Manila so I was so keen not to go through the same with Bellevue Hotel Manila (both hotels located in Alabang). I called an hour (2pm) ahead of the regular check-in time which is at 3pm (most hotels are at 2pm even) to confirm the reservation I made months ago. I was replied positively and was informed that a room was already waiting for me. Reiterating that my early check-in request was granted.

Past 10 minutes of 3pm (I intentionally came a tad late to avoid another waiting scene), I was at the front desk of the hotel to check-in, only to spend almost an hour waiting in the lobby for a room. wtf! The staff told me that the room wasn't ready and had to be prepared yet.

Check-outs are at 12nn, check-ins at 3pm. 

Need I elaborate more?

Frowns. more frowns at the lobby :(

After 48 years, at around 4pm, the staff approached me apologetically and handed me the key card to my room. wtf! See how I aged waiting? Like another ten years were added on my face.
I hate inconsistencies. I hate waiting. I hate unhappy beginnings.

dear front office/reception.
the check-in experience sets the meter of your accommodation  it also initiates the mood of the guest for the duration of his stay. it's very important to do it fairly and prompt as it builds the first impression which usually lasts and would surely travel the net, especially when your guest blogs.
yours truly,
unknown diva

 

Anyway, up in 12th floor, this was my deluxe room. Biased to my initial experience of the hotel, I didn't like the room. It looked tired. Furniture and appliances were outdated. Particularly the television. And the smell. . so old and unpleasant. I suddenly missed the state of the art room of Acasia Hotel.

Those were the beds. To be fair, I have to mention thu', that this was at the main (old) wing of the hotel. Apparently, the hotel has a new tower wing which I really thought was what Bellevue  all about.

Had I known it, I would have had stayed at the new wing. Although accessible to each other, the two wings have separate everything. Like, restaurants, check-in lobbies, gyms, pools,etc. Given that the new tower wing has newer facilities, expect that it has a higher room rates. Before this, the only glimpse I had of this hotel was when we had drinks at the Vue Bar (see here) which was located at the tower wing. I didn't know that there were old and new towers.

I had to ask for extra key card cos they only gave me one. hello, you meant my companion had to endure powerless room every time I (vice versa) went out of the room? Cos I needed to bring the key card with me to use the key card secured elevators of the hotel. wt#?

The short foyer of the room. Adjacent to each other were the bathroom to the right and a kitchenette bar to the left. After the entrance door was the closet.

In fairness, it had everything_ safety deposit box, iron & board, hair dryer, flashlight, robes, slippers. .

The bathroom was nice with generous supplies but the towels were tired (they look otherwise in these photos) and didn't smell fresh at all. I think the hotel has to update their laundry service. I mean the linens (towels, bed's) didn't exactly smell 5 star.

I appreciated that there was a kitchen bar. It had a fully stocked ref which as usual we refrain to consume anything from there, haha. The littering was on us. When we stay in a hotel, more often than not, we would buy foods outside. Especially, when it's 5 star with expensive dining outlets which we could hardly afford. 

The usual complimentary coffee and tea facility.

It helped that Shopwise was just across the road. I love to munch fruits and bought some..

. . plus the hotel sent a complimentary small fruit plate, thank you.

Well, in the end_ it was actually a nice stay. We had fun at the gym and the pool was okey. The free room wifi was generous too as it could serve up to two devices. The check-out was smooth and easy.

The breakfast buffet was great. See now at My 3rd & 7th Sense.

Poolsides of Acasia & Bellevue

Almost at the last lap of summer holiday here at P.I., in spite of occurrence of  daily short drizzles, it's still majorly crazy hot around here. My girls ( about to go back to school in a week from now ) haven't noticed it yet, ( thankyou:) but this is one summer that we haven't gone to the beach. The no-beach-summer is actually intentional. Adding to the fact that everything's quite costly cos it's peak season, I also have to conquer the following : crowded beaches, fully booked hotels & resorts and massive traffics or worst_ local budget airlines issues. .all those just to spend a day to three in a beach. wtf!

So I went for the best next thing (for me) _ nearby hotels with pool that we could chill-in just the same, sans the tedious flight/drive, suffocating crowds and quite lighter in the wallet too.

If you're a condo resident, for sure you can't appreciate another pool in another building. Go, conquer the beach!.. but if you're like me who is landed in a village w/o swimming pool, this would be just right during the hottest season of the year.
Actually, I had it covered months ago, back to the travel expo I visited in Feb. this year. I was able to book early and paid like 50%++ off the published rate. That's one of the perks of planning ahead :D
I was glad that we didn't have to go far. Practically within the neighborhood, in Alabang there were two 5stars hotels that I had my eyes on :



1). Acasia Hotel Manila. The newest hotel in this side of Manila, was so nice that facilities still smelled brand new.

Nestling on the third floor of the hotel, the pool was far from grand, if anything_ actually was small. Nevertheless, I liked it that everything was spic & span. New = uncrowded. It was like we rented the place privately. loveth! Service was also efficient and warm. Complimentary drinks were served bottomless. So generous! I also loved the quality brand new bath towels. We really had fun.

* see the rest of the hotel  here and here and a bit of it also here *



2). The Bellevue Manila. Relatively old, I don't know how old. Maybe a hundred years old, if I have to base it to the smell of their bath towels, haha. Seriously, not that long. The hotel has actually a new tower wing but we stayed at the main wing only because I didn't get it that it has new building as option to stay. Thu' given that the new tower wing rooms are few peso more costly, had I known it, I would still opt to stay in a newer room.

Also on the 3rd floor of the hotel (why always on the 3rd?), the pool of the main wing of Bellevue was a bit bigger compared to Acasia's pool. It was also busy and more crowded than the latter. We wanted to swim the first day but the pool was crowded. There were also lots of guests dining/drinking in the area. The following morning was not that crowded. .



. . yet my girls thought the water was too cold, might be cos the prev night rain so they decided not to take a dip. They just camwhore the whole time in the lounging chairs around the pool.



That left just me and husband in the water. But not for long. In a short while guests flooded in the pool which we were not happy about and cut our swim.
* see the rest of Bellevue Hotel here*

Acasia Hotel : Room

After  those chairs, I was up in the 4rth floor of Acasia Hotel Manila for that overnight stay  in a deluxe room.

Although far from a suite room, I was happy that it has a small veranda facing down the Samanea (just one floor below) which I think is an alternative outdoor events place of the hotel. It's also just a floor jump to the pool area in the 3rd floor.

What's with the robe? ahh, immediately upon entering the room, I had to run a bath as I came from a distant trip.




Was happy to find the robe waiting in the closet,

along with other amenities like an ironing board and iron ofcourse, a flashlight and a safety deposit box. There was also a miniest sewing kit and laundry bag. This early, I have to mention here that prior to check-out the following day, I asked the housekeeping for an extra laundry bag for our wet (from the swim) clothes and was quite happy when they added a number of small plastic bags to hold our individual swimsuit. Very nice!

The bathroom was nice, new, spick and span and yes very 5 star-ry. Check the efficient  hair dryer and the tray of toiletries,

 Another touch of innovation is the inclusion of the bathroom scale. yeheey! Sorry to say but that 65.8 kg. wasn't mine. I'm proud to announce that I'm slowly getting to my ideal weight_ at that point (last weekend) I weighed 53kg. yeheey again!!!! Around 116 pounds I think. I'm hitting for less 4-5 pounds more then I'll be okey even perfect, haha! Please bear with my weight blahs. Me and husband are working-out quite real these days. Everyday, we're already up in the road of our village at 4am. Running for a good sweat of one hour.   




Both of us coming from a heavy scaled numbers, so far right now we're happy to see results of our hard work. I only wish we could sustain the energy. Wistful thinking ;))




anyway, another set inside the shower area.

enclosed shower facilities,

very nice shower head.

The bathtub which size to me is just ideal. Other hotel tubs are quite gigantic which I thought is over the top unless there would be 3 of you who would bathe together. Towels were quality and quantity.

Stepping out of the bath, you would find the rest of the room with a big LED tv. Back-up by almost all our country's cabled servers/ channels combined.

Along side is the study. .




with usb's, hdmi, etc's ports.

The wifi was free and allowed up to 3 devices max. At one point we couldn't connect our 2nd laptop and immediately was provided with a LAN cable. That's awesomeness!!

This was the welcome/complimentary fruit plate in the room. That night, before we retired, another plate of sliced fruits was served in the room.








fully stocked mini bar, each content priced x2 or higher (compare to grocery tags) as usual:)

Complimentary tea/coffee facility with 2 bottled water.

The beds and pillows were comfy as they looked.

I'll end this superlative-ly long post of a small room in Acasia Hotel with the photo above.

ps;

yes,exactly:)