Enjoying Cebu in a completely new way

It’s my sixth time here in Cebu and I was pleased that each one different from the last. I’m in Cebu upon the invitation of Radisson Blu Cebu for the opening of the Thai Food Festival, which runs until October 9, 2011.

We arrived here last Thursday onboard a Philippine Airlines flight. Our flight, originally scheduled to depart at 9:00am only opened for boarding at 10:20am. The plane pushed back from the gate around 11:50am == our flight was almost 3 hours delayed. I’m writing this from the Mactan airport while waiting for our flight back to Manila. The original flight was for 3:40pm, which was cancelled, so we were put into the 5:40pm flight. After our 2-hour check-in in Manila, we made sure to check with the airline regarding the flight schedule before heading to the airport. It was lucky we did, because it was delayed and the new ETD was 6:40pm. It’s now 7:11pm, and we just received word that the plane from Manila is arriving at 7:50pm, pushing our departure time to 8:30pm. Le sigh. Typhoons and strikes make for a very inconvenient trip.

Flight troubles aside, our time on land was nothing short of spectacular. The room we were given were lovely: Business class rooms with a receiving area, soft yet firm beds with huge fluffy pillows, and desk with plenty of outlets for charging all our gadgets. Wi-fi internet is also complimentary, so you can just imagine how happy this made us.

One of the activity they scheduled for us is an island hopping tour with Islands Banca. Despite numerous visits to Cebu, this is the first time to do this. Their Butanding boat was an experience unto itself: it’s a modified outrigger boat fitted with comfortable couches, bean bags and iPod docks. The weather cooperated and we cruised with hardly any waves to rock the boat.

Despite the delays, it was a very pleasant trip. I found myself enjoying it more than I initially thought. Thanks for this weekend, Radisson!