Our rooms were located in the new east wing and we were told to park our vehicles at the basement level of the same building. I was pleased with the fact that we had a wide enough covered space to park our cars except that no one told us to bring our luggage down before parking. It turned out that the basement was not fitted with an elevator to take us to the level where our rooms where, or even just the lobby, so everyone ended up lugging their stuff up a not very short flight of stairs.
Lugging it all the way up!
And contrary to what the reservations clerk promised, these were not view rooms at all. Disappointingly, our room’s window simply looked out to the adjacent vacant lot. However, I really loved how spacious, modern and clean the room was, employing the hues of autumn for its color scheme. Basic features were complemented with much desired appurtenances – an LCD TV, cable tv programming, wi-fi on demand, refrigerator, safe and a writing table. The room can also comfortably accommodate 3 people as it had a queen bed and a single bed.
The Room
Desk, Bureau and Console
Beverage Tray
Bathroom
Toiletries Set
I tried to take a short nap before our appointed time to go to Ilog Maria but since it was around 2:30 p.m., the corridors were abuzz with guests checking in. One peculiar thing about this hotel was the floor didn’t have carpeting. You do not only step on cold tiles when walking barefoot in your room but also have to bear with the noise all those luggages and trolleys make while rambling down the hallway during check in and check out time.
Related Post:
Ilog Maria, Sonya’s Garden & Buon Giorno
Cafe-On-The-Ridge
The following morning we all met at the hotel cafe for breakfast. Now I wasn’t really expecting to enjoy the food here because of reviews I’ve read on the web but was I pleasantly surprised! The food was really good! Maybe those were old reviews that I read and Taal Vista has since hired a new chef, I don’t know.
Included in the buffet were chicken adobo, crispy tawilis, bacon, sausages, fruits, salad station, egg station, juice station, etc. The chicken adobo was yum-my! Irma and Mike enjoyed the tawilis immensely while Joshua couldn’t get enough of the bacon.
The hotel staff said this was where we could get the best views of Taal Lake and they were right.
View of the Lake from Taal Vista Cafe
After taking all the photos that we could, we went back to our respective rooms to rest some. By 9:45 we were on the road again to hear the 10:00 a.m. mass at the Our Lady of Lourdes Church. Although service hasn’t started yet when we arrived, we still ended up sitting at different sections of the church because there very few seats left.
The Pink Sisters Convent was our final Tagaytay stop before checking out of the hotel and going back to Manila. Everyone got their piece of paper to write down their prayers but Kakay, Josh, Ann and me had to share a single pen. Kakay wrote first and Josh came next. Ann and I already had our petitions in mind but after waiting and waiting and waiting for 9-year old Josh to finish writing his, we decided to just to pray to God direct.
At exactly 12:10 p.m., we were back at Taal Vista to get our stuff and check out. When we reached our wing, we saw several guests standing outside their rooms, unable to get in. Apparently, most of the guests were checking out on that day, a Sunday, and Taal Vista programmed the keycards not to work anymore at exactly 12:00 p.m. of the day of check out. There was already a furor among the inconvenienced guests, us included. Some were already putting a hotel personnel to task for not informing us of their policy upon check in. This situation was soon resolved and we finally got our stuff from our rooms and proceeded to load these onto our vehicles.
And then we got a call from Irma, who was at the front desk settling our bill, telling us that we needed to surrender all our keycards because Taal Vista won’t allow us to check out if we didn’t. Hmmm, this hotel is far from friendly. Most hotels don’t collect these cards. Erlin has a large collection from different hotels all over the world and I’ve contributed a few to that collection. I was starting to get the impression that Taal Vista didn’t really care about their guests, only about their money.
Taal Vista Hotel: Rooms are nice if you get one in the newly constructed wing. If you desperately want a room with a view of Taal Lake, get familiar with the hotel layout and zero in on your desired room as you might not get a view at all, despite all assurances. Hotel is conveniently located near other commercial establishments (the Pagcor Casino is right across if you’re into that) and nearer Metro Manila than other hotels. Food is good but room rates are on the expensive side. And like I said above, this hotel doesn’t come off as very friendly.
Rating: 3 1/2 Plutos
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