Travel Back-Post: Cebu Shangri La

Sooo behind on posting these things. I really like to post all our travels because this blog acts as a memory album for me (and our family) in many ways. I've been keeping it so long now, it astonishes me the things I've forgotten in just a few years, and it's nice to have a little pictorial memory of all the cool things we've done as a family. Plus the kids love looking back at old photos of themselves. It amazes me the memories that these pictures jog for them - always so different from my own. :) Anyway, about a month ago we spent a too-short weekend at the Shangri La Hotel in Cebu with our friend I&S and their kids. This was a total resort vacay, as in we did not leave the grounds of the resort once. I&S had been there before and described it to us as "little kid paradise," and they were not kidding! There are several pools including one large and several small water slides, a water play area for the smaller crew, a private beach area where you can snorkel, kayak, and do other water activities, and a mini golf course. And that's just the outdoor activities! The indoor playground area was also super cool. They had these crazy slides, one of which included a death defying drop that required the kids to put on a boxing-like helmet in order to ride. The kids were all too nervous to give it a try until I noticed that A (natch) was missing. Next thing I knew, I heard a loud shriek of joy followed by, "That was awesome!!!!!" Then it was impossible to pry him away. After that the ice was broken and all the kids followed suit (well, to be fair, J only went once and that was because Husband went with her - a daredevil she is not!). Watching I, a 6-foot something, 200lb+ man go down after A's teeny 35lb butt was pretty hilarious, though. The slide ends in a ball pit to slow your velocity. A's plunge into the pit had me worried that he'd been swallowed up. I's plunge cause balls to flip out the pit so hard they came raining down on our heads. Truly one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

The Shang really was a great vacation for the kids (and for us), but it was very, very pricey. We only went for one night (flew in very early on a Saturday morning and flew out at 10:30pm on Sunday night) and yet it cost as much as our last 3-day/2-night vacation to Bohol (which I will blog about soon, promise!). The food was good, definitely Western quality, but you paid for it. The buffet dinner was about $100 (yes, dollars)/pp. Kids ate free, which was nice, but it was still a cost of $300 for all of us to eat + alcohol. Childcare, water gear, and other extras were also an additional cost. For the Philippines I found this to be a little excessive in terms of pricing. We've stayed at tons of Western-style, very nice resorts here without being priced out in this manner. But, the resort was packed, so they're clearly not concerned. I will say that about 80-90% of their customers were non-Filipino, which may either be indicative of their pricing or the reason for it. Anyway, it was worth it for the time we spent there, but I don't think it's a place I would go back to. There's too many other nice places to go that are far more affordable.