Thursday, February 5, 2015

Metrodeal Villa Fernandez Puerto Galera Getaway : Scam?


Travel Date: March 2013




 Villa Fernandez Resort is located at Palangan, Puerto Galera, which if you are not familiar
 with Puerto Galera geo, you might just overlooked it and regret doing such afterwards. The place
 is too far from everything you will need to have an enjoyable Puerto Galera Trip. Far from the 
beach itself, though it's in front of the water, it is something you can't really swim at. The view 
is good, but I guess every resort in Puerto Galera has the same breathtaking view anyway.
         After more than 4 hours of trip from Manila, the first problem we encountered  when we 
got there was the place to dine in. Which of course, decent places to eat are too far away from the 
resort, leaving us no choice but to dine at the resort. Our lunch, which we waited for 
almost an hour, costs P230 for a simple sinigang, P20 for every extra rice plus 10% service 
charge. 
          The front desk lady insistently offered us other activities (para mag-enjoy naman daw kami) 
and from her own words, later on, I realized that it was so true. We will not enjoy staying 
at this place so we have to go somewhere else. While we're still trying to decide on what to do, we 
experienced power outage. No air-con aside from the fact that water supply will resume at 
2pm. It's unimaginable, a lodge with no-water and no-electricity leaving us again NO CHOICE but to 
pay extra for other activities. P1200 for the 2 of us, unlimited time of Island hopping and 
snorkeling. 
          We're expecting that since they know that their lodge is crappy, they will be a bit nicer to offer 
us cheaper, if not FREE transfer to White Beach or other places where we can forget that the 
accommodation we got was such a joke. Transfer packages they offered were also too expensive. 
And since we don't want to spoil our vacation, we're forced to become extra patient and 
appreciative. After island hopping and snorkeling, we decided to spend the remaining hours of 
the day in White Beach. It means,we have to pay again for our transfer from Muelle to White Beach then back to Villa Fernandez, it will cost 400php if it will be arranged from 
Villa Fernandez and 350php from any tricycle driver in Muelle.
          I also advised everyone not to be too EXCITED for the FREE breakfast included on the package. It actually means 1 small hotdog(not even purefoods) a sunny side up egg and a so-called fried rice. No free coffee. I pitied ourselves for our meager breakfast in Puerto Galera so I decided I will PAY for extra hotdogs. The servers were good enough to give us 4 more hotdogs and an extra rice for FREE, I dont know if it's supposed to be a secret that they gave it to us for free. I commend the servers for being really nice, afterall it's not really their fault that they're working for a mismanaged resort/lodge. And I pity them as well for having to fetch pails of water for all the guests (rooms are located at 2nd floor and up and their getting the water from ground floor) because water supply at the hotel has a 2pm schedule everyday. This will really make you conserve water or decide not to bathe at all!
        And lastly, the FREE transfer back to Muelle port? You have to ride a motorcycle! Without them letting you know that this is the free transfer that they're talking about. It's not a big deal for me and my boyfriend to actually ride a motorcycle at almost 12 noon for a 15-20 minutes ride without helmet whatsoever, we AGAIN forced ourselves to just enjoy the experience.
        Overall , I will not recommend Villa Fernandez. With all the transfer expenses, crappy lodge facilities, expensive food really not worth it, the Metrodeal discount is not a good deal anymore.

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