Oh No!! Not Another Subic Post!?!

Well…sorry. It’s another Subic vacation post. We are, obviously, great fans of the place.

We spent the last, long weekend in Subic as a pre-birthday celebration for Gaby. We asked her to choose where she wanted to go and she said she wanted to go to Subic. So, we went to Subic.

Unfortunately for us, all the new hotels were fully booked so we had to settle with the Subic International Hotel. Not exactly our favorite place. It’s an old, and dilapidated place which needs a lot of refurbishing. Sleeping on a lopsided bed isn’t the best way to catch your zzz’s. Not now, not ever. But the kids didn’t mind..so we settled.

I was nursing a fever on the morning of our departure and was deliberating on not pushing through. However, the kids, especially Gaby, couldn’t contain their excitement so it was a go. Armed with my favorite pillow and an armada of medications, we were off to Subic. I was asleep for the most of the trip and only managed to wake up for lunch. It was that bad.

When we got to Subic the fresh sea air must have done something good because I suddenly felt better. My clogged nose just popped open and my head cleared. So we checked in, rested for a bit, and went shopping. And suddenly….I felt as good as new.

By evening I was good to go. The kids saw a carnival right outside the hotel and begged to go after dinner. All of a sudden, I felt sick again. The sight of that roller coaster made me nauseous. But I wasn’t going to be the party pooper so we went to the carnival.

Funny thing is, our birthday girl wasn’t too keen on riding. She just wanted to watch. So we gave in to her wishes. I rode the roller coaster. Adi rode the carousel. Adi wanted to ride the Galleon swing but I put my foot down on that. Adi rode the octopus too.

Finally we were able to convince Gaby to try the octopus. She was fine at first but 20 seconds into the ride she wanted to get off. Actually, I wanted to get off too because all that spinning was starting to make me sick. Good thing the ride lasted just a few more seconds.

The next day, we were up early in preparation for our visit to Subic’s newest theme park, Jungle Joe’s. We found out about this place during our last trip and made a mental note to visit the place on our next trip.

The way to Jungle Joe’s is the same way to Zoobic & Ocean Adventure. It’ll take you roughly half-an-hour from the main area of Subic.

The cost to enter is Php350 per person. There are no distinctions between adults and children. It’s a flat rate. You can get a 50% discount, though, if you buy 3 Coca-Cola products that amounts to Php105. All in all it’s a savings of Php70/person. Since there were 5 of us, we got 1 entrance ticket for free.

I want to make one thing very clear…to describe the place I can use 2 words….RIP OFF! It’s nothing but a playground. And it’s so hot, you can’t play. The only place we were able to use was the indoor playground (much like the ones in Mcdonald’s) and the theatre that shows Disney movies (the quality of which was very bad). There was supposed to be a train but it was busted. For a 2-month old place that’s really something. Then there was the promise of a nice beach which we were looking forward to seeing. No dice. The “Gordon” family was using it and they had special guests. It was OFF-LIMITS for the day. My only consolation would have been the kids enjoying. However, the birthday girl wanted to leave after 30-minutes. Adi asked to be carried almost immediately because she wasn’t enjoying either.

Personally, they can improve the place. Firstly, they shouldn’t charge too much. The difference in price between them and Zoobic/Ocean Adventure is not much yet you get more for your money when visiting the other two theme parks. Much, much more. Second, they should provide “walking areas” that are shaded. The train was supposed to take of that but it never made an appearance. Apparently, it’s been busted for some time. Third, stop charging for everything. To play in their indoor playground you have to pay for socks. To ride the bikes, you have to pay. Couldn’t the Php350 cover that?

We stayed for an hour before beating a hasty retreat.

In the evening we had dinner at Sam’s pizza in Olongapo. This was our little celebration for Gaby. The band even played her a “Happy Birthday” song.

We had pizza, nachos, and chicken. It was a perfect foil to what would have been a ruined day.

The following morning we checked out early so as to avoid the mad rush of traffic on NLEX. When we got to the tollboth of the Subic interchange we were informed that the SCTEX was open and we could take it going home. And they weren’t charging. So we took it. It took us 30-minutes to get to Clark!! It was, by far, the best ride we’ve had on any Philippine road, ever. Imagine 30-minutes of uninterrupted driving on smoothly paved concrete. We were going at a fast clip. Like 120-140 kph and we couldn’t feel it. The way is peppered with verdant fields of rice and green hills. Beautiful. I have no idea how much the toll fee will be but this is going to be our way from now on. It even gave us a good number of hours to shop in Clark. At least we ended the whole affair pretty well.