Hotel H2O

Last June 6, my parents and 2 sisters went to Palawan for a vacation. Since we only came from Boracay the week before, our pediatrician did not recommend that Dawn travel again so soon. She was only 3 months old then.

So our little family of 4 decided to have our own mini vacation within the Metro. We booked ourselves at the Hotel H2O of the Manila Ocean Park. I got a really good deal at Ensogo for the Aqua Room. The room normally costs anywhere between P7,500 to P11,500 depending on when you go but we only got it for P4,550. YEY!

The 2 kids were very well behaved during our car ride to the hotel. They sat in their own car seats and held hands all throughout the trip. My heart swelled with joy looking at them. I could have already concluded it was a 'successful' family vacation right there and then.  

I brought Dawn with me to check-in while Dens and Troy parked the car. There is a pretty long walk from the drop-off point of the Manila Ocean Park to the hotel. The hotel staff said they are now working on making a covered walkway so that their guests will not get wet in case it rains. I think that's a wonderful idea. 


The hotel lobby was at the 3rd floor. Maybe i just was not expecting too much given the size of the hotel but i was very impressed with the lobby.  It was more beautiful than i imagined. 

Checking-in was easy. I just showed them our Ensogo voucher and they immediately offered to send someone to help Dens get our things from the car. I said that wasn't necessary since we only had 1 small luggage. Yes, 1 small bag for all four of us. I really try to pack light during all our trips. 

The hotel was really nicely designed. Even their hallways were well thought-out. It had bubble-themed carpets and white glass walls.  The lighting was really nice too.

The Aqua Room was the highlight of the hotel. It was a very small room with an excellent 'view' of the sea. The aquarium went through and through down the hallway so you'd get different kinds of fish every minute. They were literally passing by our room. Troy was so excited the first time he saw the huge aquarium. The aquarium also had electronic roll-up shades in case you need to sleep and don't want the glaring light from the tank.  


The hotel closes the light inside the aquarium from 9pm to 6am everyday. For some reason, all the fish seem to also go to 'sleep' when the lights go out. Most of them just stayed within our view and did not move the entire time. It was a very interesting observation.

After a few hours in our room, we decided to do some 'touristy' stuff and check out the other amenities. We wanted to let Troy try the fish spa where you immerse your feet in a pond full of fish doctors. They're supposed to bite off dead skin cells and leave your feet fresh and clean. We went to the Ocean Park's public fish spa area but there were just too many people and i decided against it. I thought i didn't want to let Troy dip his feet in other people's dead skin cells (shiver! love, i know what you're thinking: OA naman!).  Anyway, the guard told us that the hotel had its own private fish spa. It turns out that it was inside the hotel's actual SPA. They had fish spa for each locker room. We told them we wanted to all be in the same area so they agreed to let us use the one inside the ladies' locker room since there were no other guests that time. Troy just wanted to watch and was too scared to dip his feet when he saw the number of fish doctors in the pool. He finally agreed to dip his toes but immediately pulled up when the fish started biting. We stayed there for about 15 mins.  The people at the spa were so gracious and decided not to charge us anything! Double YEY - our private fish spa experience for free

After our fish spa experience, Troy and Dens took a dip in the pool while Dawn and i did a little shopping inside the park. The pool was okay. Nothing fancy. It was pretty small the view wasn't too spectacular. 

After swimming, we went to watch the musical fountain show. It was comparable to Sentosa's laser show in Singapore. Not bad for Philippine standards, i must say. Troy enjoyed it very much. Dawn was attentively watching too. We also got it at a great price of only P99 per head. It normally retails for P300. Do check out promotional websites as they normally have ongoing special rates during non-peak seasons. 

After the show, we had dinner at the Pancake House inside the park. There are other food establishments to choose from so you don't need to go out. I felt like we were in a cruise the whole time.

The next morning, we headed to the Oceanarium with the 2 kids. It's not as big as those abroad but the amount of sharks and stingray can compete internationally. There was a good number of exotic fish to see.

  

We only stayed overnight but it felt like we were there longer. I guess it's because of the number of activities we got to do during our stay. I highly recommend it for a weekend getaway within the city. No need to drive far to have a good family bonding time together.