I have always been so fascinated of Shangrila Hotels ever since i saw them in post cards and online. So it's now my time to experience the luxury this brand has to offer to its customers.
I was about to celebrate my birthday and was planning to just spend it somewhere near Cebu City so i could just relax without having to travel long. You know traveling can be so exhausting.
So i decided to book an overnight stay at the Shangrila Resort in Mactan Cebu in a De Luxe Room on September 25, 2014. Yeah, Shangrila, known for its 5-star rating, is quite expensive and could really damage your wallet badly. But anyway, i only spend my birthday once a year so be it in Shangrila then.
A day before our arrival (by the way, i was with my friend, Crisly), i sent an email to the reservations officer whom i got the booking confirmation from. This was to inquire if we could check in the resort at an earlier time (before 2PM). However, it was with my greatest disappointment that as of this writing, i have never received any response from them. Yeah, for a 5-star resort, and it was Shangrila, my email was not responded. From a services manager's standpoint, that makes me wonder how their people manage emails. That could have been a simple yes or no answer. But nevertheless, crap things like this happens even in big companies. So, i just dealt with my frustrations.
At around 01:30 PM on Thursday, Sept 25, 2014, we arrived at the Shangrila Resort. We just took a cab which costed us a around Php290.00 from Cebu downtown (Basilica).
Upon arrival, we were greeted by the Shangrila staff with smile and their signature greetings "maayong hapon" which means good afternoon in English. One staff took our bags and we were ushered to the front desk for check-in.
Though it was a weekday, there were quite a number of guests in the resorts, a couple of them were still in the lobby waiting to be checked in. So i waited in the queue. When my turn came, i gave my booking information and my credit card (just for incidentals).
Here i am at their main lobby.... the whole check-in procedure took roughly 15 minutes. Yeah, i know that was a bit long.
Upon check-in, i was asked to fill out this electronic touch screen form. Also, i need to register my friend as guest in the resort.
When the front officer saw my birthday written on the pad, she immediately greeted me a happy birthday. That was sweet.
Considering that it was my birthday, i requested to be assigned in a high level room. Well, I've always done this whenever i check in a high rise resort/hotel both here and abroad. Guess what? I was given a De Luxe room in the 6th level of the main building. Don't you think 6th level is high? Well, read my mind....
Here's the twin bed room at 6104. The room was so nice, clean, and cozy..... until i saw the balcony....
Tsadaaaang!!!! yeah, we were housed in a room just on top of the roof where we got all the heat when staying at the balcony. Nice present Shang! Maybe this is the price we got when we asked for a high level room. LOL. I was about to request them to change my room but then i remember the lady was telling me that this was the only available De Luxe room at that time (around 1:45PM). So rather than waiting for another 15 to 30 minutes to tranfer to a different room, we just bear with it.
By the way, all rooms come with a balcony. After settling down all our stuff, we decided to head on to the beach. It was a lovely day with a weather that of summer.
"I decided to fill this blog with lots of photos so you'll see the whole beauty of Shangrila Mactan. Enjoy the view below..."
All photos herewith are orginal (unedited, using only a EOS 550D).
In fairness, i must say that Shangrila has the best (artificial) beach in Mactan. Kudos!
The water was clean, and was very clear that we could see colorful fishes swimming around... Crystal indeed.
The staff were very accommodating and always had their best smile on their faces. They promptly attend to your needs like giving beach towels, setting up casitas, etc. That was truly a 5-star service.
A view of the beach from the Ocean Wing.
The 4-feet deep infinity pool....
Just chilling.... the pool water was a bit warm...
Wherever we would got, we would always see coconut trees....
This pool is located beside the Aqua restaurant at the Ocean Wing.
At one of the bars in Shangrila, Buko Bar where they serve refreshments at a whooping cost :). A good place to chill though near their main swimming pool.
Lavish gardens of Shang! Very clean and well maintained. Love it!
This is the main swimming pool at Shang. The deepest pool is 7 feet.
Just sitting after swimming...
That is their water slides....
This is their kiddie pool...
This place is for kids... yeah, a kids water playground...
A Korean kid was enjoying the water splash...
Just another view of their poolside casitas....
Couldn't get enough of mother nature? Walk the trail towards Cowrie Cove restaurant....
Green green grass of Shang!
Just another bar serving ice cream. Oh how love their Dedon furniture.....
The giant chess!
A closer look of the Dedon furniture....
Waiting for the sun to set.....(though there's no view of the sunset)
At the Breeze Bar.... where one can enjoy his drinks while chilling by the beach...
Pose at the Breeze...
Here's the main lobby of the hotel at 9PM. I took this after we had dinner at Tea of Spring restaurant....
World class lobby.... clean and beautiful....
will post more photos of Shangrila on my next blog entry...
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