Hitting a Paradise in Cebu: Crimson Resort and Spa Mactan

Fam's next vacation stop (since 2012 that is): CEBU.

The mom and I aboard Cebu Pacific before taking off to Cebu

This is yours truly's second chance of stepping in to the country's oldest city. Flashback to 2008, my colleagues and I ventured to Cebu after having visited Bohol since we got an invite from the Basilica De Sto. Nino's Rector to drop by for summer. So that Summer of '08, we roamed Basilica De Sto. Nino, marveled at the Sto. Nino Museum's relics, hiked up the Taoist temple, shopped for danggit and pearls at the local market and had a fun drunken night at a restaurant overlooking the city.

After an hour's worth of trip from NAIA, we landed in Cebu and was fetched by the resort's shuttle. We reserved for 3D/2N in Crimson Resort and Spa - Mactan to where we were shuttled again for about 30 minutes. Lo and behold, we were amazed at the seeming palace-slash-paradise resort.

Above are what can be seen upon arriving at the destination: grand pots as their fountain's ornament and a lobby leading to a wonderful view.


I love how simple yet grand their lobby is. A wooden decorative pattern hovers over the front desk area.




There are different seats where their waiting customers can relax and lavish the entire view.
There's a sungka table where guests can play while they wait for their rooms to be available.

Here's more of Crimson's outdoor paradise:

This sight can be seen from the resort's lobby area. Crimson is overall proud of their 3-tiered infinity pool.

Right picture shows my ice cold "welcome drink" from the resort staff. We're fans of the drink by the way. Later on, we learned that they concocted this thirst quencher by mixing lemon grass, cucumber and calamansi. Left picture shows a humongous playground for the kids.

Guests are transported by an electric golf cart from the lobby area to their rooms.

Speaking of rooms ...take your pick from their luxe fortresses ...

Waking up in Crimson Resort is also a treat. We had daily yummy breakfasts in Saffron Cafe where they have Pinoy b-fast varieties: corned beef, beef tapa, longganisa, bacon (oh, yes, their bacon's the best!), danggit. They have other food fares too: sausages, baked beans, salad, congee and the list goes on. Damn, I filled my plate and consumed what's on it in no time! I've had extra rice too (hence the 10lb gain when I returned in Manila).

Some folks from Foursquare testified that Saffron has the best desserts too but I wasn't able to taste 'em unfortunately (hence minus the possible 5lb gain).

We woke up to fresh flowers in our doorstep. There's a scroll (which came with the flower set) containing the resort's whole day activities where guests can participate in.

We took a stroll by the pool (where there's an ongoing aqua aerobics class) and the beach (which was off limits to swimmers due to a recent oil spill -- sucks).

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While the beach / beachside is calm during the day, it turns into one interesting venue at night where there's loud party music, folks enjoying either their booze / desserts and a cool ocean breeze.

 

Much for my feature on the beach and Crimson's outdoor spots, here's our space:

Top grade furniture inside the room. I love the grandiosity of the bed's headboard.

The bathroom is extra special. Here's a peek with the mom as our model:

This one's pretty cool. An odd-looking vanity chair. It has removable strong woven bars for butt support and a foam underneath it for comfort.

 

Misses:

• They have free wi-fi everywhere but the connection isn't really that good. Either the connection is really slow or worse, intermittent. They changed their wi-fi password while I was reading my office emails around 2AM and couldn't get in touch with somebody to get their new password. They could have sent a notice prior to the change;
• As per their website, they have an iron/ironing board in all rooms. We don't have that set though.

Hits:

• They provide a shuttle which courses through Ayala / SM malls. There are pick-up schedules too;
• There's a Bancnet (East West bank) ATM near the resort lobby;
• All the staff are oh-so-polite and exceptionally courteous (not one of them failed to greet us "good morning" or "good afternoon" or "good evening");
• They have a wide array of food to choose from;
• The resort is really clean and the furniture are quite impressive;
• The place isn't crowded;
• Spa by the beach -- speaks for itself. To say that this is wonderful would be an understatement.

Just to summarize the vacay experience at Crimson Resort and Spa Mactan, I'd give this heaven 9 out of 10 points. There were few misses but overall, it's close to perfection already.