April 27, 2015
Whether you are traveling for business or adventure, you need to consider your safety as a priority because you can only live once, and you shouldn’t waste time making mistakes. There are several things that can put you in danger and thus you must avoid them. If you want to travel and stay safe during […]
April 22, 2012
I can say that the last 3 days I had experience the rich’s lifestyle. 2 night accommodation from a plush resort, then a 1 night stay from one of Marco Polo’s hotels. It was a blast. Although the Crimson Hotel is not a good place to stay if there are more than 2 of you because the room’s just fit for 2 only.
Marco Polo though, is a different story. They have 2 big beds so we were very much comfortable. Still, going to any of these hotels and resorts are expensive so it was a blast simply because these were all free. My mom won it from a contest, 2nd prize. Not bad, right?
One thing has not changed though. There were so many Koreans. I think they are just everywhere ha ha. As with all things, they all come to an end and I am now back to reality.
It will be a week long busy schedule ahead for me blogging about all the food and places that I went to. I have to do it now while the memory is still fresh from my mind.
October 10, 2008
Parklane Hotel was where we had our wedding reception. Its location is very convenient as it’s within the city, in front of Ayala Center Cebu and its price packages for the reception was convenient for our financial budget. They have 3 sets of buffet package and my wife and I chose the following menu for the dinner buffet.
Soup - Ham and Corn Velvet
Appetizers - Pork Terrine, Fried Breaded Calamares w/ Sauce Marie Rose Dip
Salads - German Potato Salad, Salad Nicoise w/ Penne Pasta, Tuna Chunk and Anchovy Fillet
Main Courses
Pan Seared Fish fillet w/ White Wine Sauce and Seafood Ragout
Oven Baked Stuffed Chicken Roullade w/ Mustard Crème Sauce
Grilled Pork Tenderloin Lyonnaise
Stir-fried Mixed Vegetable De Luxe
Desserts - Chocolate Fudge Cake, Leche Flan, Carrot Cake
All the guests who went to our reception did not have any negative complaints regarding the kind of food that were served. Even I loved their Grilled Pork Tenderloin Lyonnaise. I’m no fan of pork but it tasted like beef so I ate a lot during our taste test. The Dessert’s Leche Flan was actually not part of the menu that we selected for the reception and it would have been nice if they informed us first hand about it rather than discovering it during our reception that one of the menu had changed. It is their responsibility to inform us. After all, we paid for what we wanted to be served and they go serve something different. When you’ll get married, here’s a tip. During taste test, devour everything that’s served to you because you can barely eat on your reception day/night since you will be busy with the activities and all. So that takes care of the food. Now, to the most important things with regards to the hotel, its service and quality of its facilities.
Room - The room where my wife stayed was pretty big. It’s called the Boutique room. The price during that time was around 8k pesos and we got it for free since it was part of the package for our reception booking. Meanwhile, our guests stayed in the Parklane rooms. No complaints here. For the first night though, my brother and I stayed in their Superior room which is small and funny that the room that was given to us was dirty. This room is usually given to travelers who come and go. Check the photos for the rooms (taken from Parklane’s Hotel website). First photo is the Boutique room, 2nd is the Parklane room while the 3rd is the Superior room.
I was disappointed with their technical staff though. During the first night, I couldn’t sleep because the ceiling in my room had some bit of a noise, like water leaking and the drops fall on the ceiling creating the noise. Because of the preparations, I went to my room late and got annoyed later on with the noise when everything was quiet because we all wanted to go to sleep. I called up maintenance to check on this. Funny thing, the guy never came back and asked if everything was alright. Since the noise still persisted, I went to front desk right away and asked about it. The girl told me that the maintenance guy said everything was ok. Ok?!? Did he even tend to it? Even if he did, he just assumed everything was fixed. He didn’t even go to back to my room and ask. I demanded they give me another room because I badly need my sleep because you can’t go to your wedding with your eyes barely open because you were not able to rest well. So they did give me a new one, but the room reeked off cigarette. Since I could barely open my eyes, I had no choice but to inhale all the left over smell of the smoke inside the room while I slept.
Food - The food was delicious. All my friends and relatives loved it. The only problem was that there were some guests who told me later on after the wedding that there no refills on the buffet table. What the. We paid the amount that was good for 250 guests and they were way less than that, around 215 by count, and there was a food shortage? Whatever happened to what they told us before that it’s their standard that if someone reserves a number of guests, say for example 200, they will cook food that’s good for 250. That meant the food served should have been good for 300 people. And where was all the food? My wife’s aunt who works there told us that she got pissed that the kitchen staff kept most of the food (she found out the next day when the kitchen people were eating it during lunch). She was so embarrassed that happened considering she was the one in the first place who wanted us to book our reception there because their service is good (come again?). This was highway robbery.
Past is past but if anyone else plans to hold their reception there, be sure to have someone watch over the food and manage it. My sister was supposed to be the one to do that but she got caught up with my wedding and all. I’m not blaming her. Oh, one more thing. No names here. But, the person whom we had been in contact with prior to the wedding regarding booking, reception and all wasn’t at our reception to help see through things that all would go well. We were on our own. Quite disappointed with that hotel overall. The only consolation was that since it was my wedding, I didn’t have to let those things bother me even after knowing about them after the reception was over. It’s my wedding, I should be happy. And I was just that.
