The Philippines

Hello Everybody,

Is anyone familiar with the ports of call in the Philippines? We are about to book the Sojourn for January 2017 from Hong Kong to Singapore via the Philippines. Would be wonderful if someone has any information on it.

T

Hi,

Hubby and I did this cruise April just gone. I have just researched the cruise you will be taking and the ports we visited were little different to the ones you will seeing. I feel your itinerary will be better than the one we experienced. Firstly we loved the Sojourn, very rare can you fault service and experience.

Regarding the ports of call - all were very humid and hot. We are Aussies so we can handle hot summers but the humidity we experienced in the Philippines was very uncomfortable. Returning back to the ship after excursions was euphoric, cool and clean. What I do fondly remember is how very welcoming every port was on our arrival - dancing, music, welcome gifts of necklaces.

Hundred Islands - beautiful environment. Very little infrastructure for tourism but they are working on it. If you don't take a shore excursion you can still get to the main Island and have a swim and get the general idea of the place.

Manila - Traffic chaos, spent a lot of time in traffic jams. We were in port overnight. Easy enough to do your own thing.

Boracay - we took a shore excursion "Relax at the Beach" which was a dumb choice because Seabourn provided a free shuttle service from the pier to the main town which is next to the beach. Actually Seabourn provided a free shuttle services in every port to transport you to the main trading area. If we would have known about this before we booked excursions we probably would have been more independent. We also did not realise that you can take the tender to shore even though you are not on a shore excursion. Boracay had a fun vibe to it...beachbars, souvenir huts, very crowded - popular for Asian tourists.

Coran - very pretty, beachy place.

Puerto Princesa - unforgetable welcome given the the ship as we docked. We took a tuktuk or Jimny (? forgot what they called their local transport) had a walk around independently.

I hope my reflection does not sound negative because it was a lovely cruise, I suppose the ports of call to us were not mind blowing which Antarctica was. As they say once you have done Antarctica on Quest you always compare every cruise thereafter to that experience.

Cheers

Hi,

We also did this cruise in April and I agree with Rivercove 10's comments regarding the ports. I will however recommend that you take the ship shuttle in Borcay and walk the short distance to the beach. We walked along until we found a reasonable price for a boat for three hours and arranged to go snorkeling. We had a great day and it was easy to arrange on our own.

I actually really enjoyed Manila. We walked off the ship with the intention of taking the shuttle into the Intramuros part of town. As we walked off the ship we saw a free tour shuttle (from the Port of Manila authority) and jumped on this along with about 6 other seabourn guests. It was on open old style bus and very comfortable. We all thought we were just going to be dropped off in the old part of town. This was not the case as the driver took us to all the places of interest and waited for us. He even came into one place that was charging enterance fees and told them we were from the cruise ship so we were not charged. The driver did not give any commentary in fact he spoke no English but all the sites we visited had markers explaining the history of the buildings we visited so all in all for a free tour it was excellent. I will say that we got off the ship as soon as we could as we did not want to be out in the old part of town in the mid day heat. As mentioned by rivercove the heat and humidity were high. We then took a taxi to the old Chinese cemetery as I had read this was an of the beaten path thing to do. This was something unreal. Huge streets with street signs and huge crypt building to house the dead and not a person to be seen. The crypts even had bathrooms in them. Some of the crypts were very large and abandoned (obviously the family had died out) so people had actually moved in and were living in these crypts. It was like the suburb of the dead. Very unreal but I'm really glad were went to this place. The next day we wanted to take a food walking tour but unfortunately there were none being offered the day we were there. I researched where the food tour took guests and just followed their route and visited all the restaurants and ordered the recommended food. Was very enjoyable as you got to see parts of Manila you would not normally visit and try the local specialties. This port was well worth doing on your own if you have the inclination to do some research.

I missed the next two ports as I was ill but my husband and our friends said that Coron and Porta Princesa were the two best ports. In Porta Princesa they did the tour to the underground caves and really thought it was amazing so I can highly recommend that Seabourn excursion. In Coron they again hired a boat on the beach and went snorkeling and said this was by far the best snorkeling day they had in the Philippines.

My tip for you is to do some online research on the ports you will be visiting to get the most out of your time in the Philippines. Take lots of water with you at every port as you will be amazed at how much you drink due to the humidity. Also lots of sunscreen and a good hat!

Thank you for taking the time to write these wonderful informations.

In the meantime we have booked the flights and the sojourn for this trip and are very excited about it. It will be the first time on one of the bigger sisters, we have done the small sisters six times and loved them. The Legend being our last cruise sofar.

I found the comments regarding the Phillipines very helpful. Can you comment on the other cruise ports as well?

Thank you Rivercove10 and Clarky for those tips

We wonder if either of you have cruised the Singapore to Hong Kong trip with Seabourn as we are doing the round trip Singapore to Singapore early January and have any tips?

Many thanks for your valuable input, much appreciated!

Some questions:

-How easy was it to find a taxi to take you to the Chinese cemetery? Did the taxi wait for you or ??

-clarky sorry you were sick and missed the next 2 ports Without meaning be too personal, do you think your illness was related to the food from your walking tour in Manila?

Again, thank you for your time.

Many thanks for your valuable input, much appreciated!

 

Some questions:

-How easy was it to find a taxi to take you to the Chinese cemetery? Did the taxi wait for you or ??

 

-clarky sorry you were sick and missed the next 2 ports Without meaning be too personal, do you think your illness was related to the food from your walking tour in Manila?

 

Again, thank you for your time.

I would recommend visiting the Manila Hotel--MacArthur's Headquarters in WWII--and Makati--the financial district--the most upscale part of Manila--ask a taxi driver to take you to the Shangri La Hotel Makati--you are right by Green Belt and Glorretta Mall--both very desirable areas.

Also the Mall of Asia in Manila I believe it is the largest in Asia--with an ice skating rink.

Thank you for the great suggestions.... looks like Day 1 in Manila is organized!

We are very surprised that SB is still sailing the Philippines. The British FO advises against travel to this area, including the Celebes and Sulu sea due to the high risk of terrorism and kidnapping by the muslim terrorist gang Abu Sayyef. In the summer of this year they kidnapped and murdered a Canadian tourist called Robert Hall from a Philippine resort and there have been other such incidents. We wish you safe travels but will be avoiding this area, beautiful though it is.

Sofar we have not been worried about the HKG-Philippines-Sin cruise coming january. But we have been wondering when Seabourn is going to contact us with a change in itinerary.

I'm afraid there has been another kidnapping by these pirates this week. They boarded a South Korean ship just off the Philippines and took the captain.

AJPETER,

How did you like the cruise? We are signed up for the one in

February and wondered what you thought of the itinerary.

Thanks

We will be boarding coming saturday

We will be boarding coming saturday.

We choose this cruise as we were looking for something tropical with lots of beaches and seadays as we have to flee the winters cold and need to relax.