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Imperial Palace Ocean View. Ooohs and aahs as this wonderful view of the ocean and resort welcomed us into our room.
Boasting as the first luxury water park resort in the Philippines - Imperial Palace, Cebu was our destination last long weekend.
Things to do for kids:
The water park is a small version of Splash Island. There is the main pool, 3 big slide pools, kiddie pool with a pirate ship and slides, a small wave pool and a lazy river.
The lagoon style main pool is huge and is comfortably heated so night swimming was pleasant. Be sure to wear your slippers till the edge of the poolside because the pebble wash is quite ouchy to the foot.
Imperial Palace's Comfortably Heated Lagoon Style Main Pool
My kids enjoyed the slides and tried it for several rounds. There are 3 slides but there is a requirement -- only kids height 4 feet and above and kids aged 11 and above can use the tube and bowl slide. Don't forget to remove any kind of jewelry since they will not let you up the slide plus you can't leave it with the attendant either. My daughter was wearing her earrings the first time round so it was a hassle to bring it back up the room.
Imperial Palace 3 Slide Pools. Btw, there seems to be no dress code as I saw people wearing shorts and shirt in the pool.
The wave pool is pretty small so the people tend to crowd around the small area. Check out the schedule of the waves so your little one will not get disappointed. On our first day, the wave pool was not functioning the whole afternoon:(
Imperial Palace Wave Pool
The kiddie pool provided lots of fun for my 1 year old. He enjoyed going through the water fountains and just plain enjoying the water and the busyness of the place. I didn't let him try the small slide but my bigger kids did.
Imperial Palace Kiddie Pool
Imperial Palace Beach Pool that is connected to the Lazy "Amazon" River
The water park didn't quite match up though with my expectation of a 5 star water park, maybe 3 star or 4 star.
As for the beach, since the shore line is rocky, they shoveled up some sand and made up a nice sand area complete with coconut trees. You enter the sea through a short walkway and life vests for adults and kids are free to use. The kids spent some time building sand castles and snorkeling. The fish variety is limited to small sand colored fishes but kids still had fun spotting them.
Imperial Palace Beach
Imperial Palace Beach Entry. Enter the sea water through this well constructed walkway. Adult and kiddie vests are free to use so snorkeling is easier.
My little boy enjoying some sand time:-)
They also spent some time in the kids club (a small version of Active Fun). It was clean and it has small wall for wall climbing. They are also adding up a pretend play area. Coupons are given out upon check-in for a 5 hour one time use of the area.
Imperial Palace Kiddie Play Area
Imperial Palace Kiddie Wall Climbing
It would have been better though if the resort had green open spaces where the kids can run freely. Instead, there were pavements with well-manicured bushes that line it.
Room:
We got an ocean view room and the view was so relaxing and beautiful. The room was cozy and the interior was lovely with the green and orange hue combination. We got a room with 2 twin beds (bed can only fit a small child and an adult) and the sheets were luxurious. The bathroom with was clean but it was not Class A. I appreciate that the balcony had an expandable clothes liner so you don't have to display your suits on the rail for public viewing!
Imperial Palace Twin Room. Nice interior. One bed can fit a small child and an adult.
Food:
We dined mostly in Cafe Amiga, a Filipino resto offering ala carte food at surprisingly affordable price. Do order their hefty serving of crispy crispy pata:-) The other restos are, well, 5 star rates. Amiga will just set you back for 1.5k to 2k on a good meal for 5 people. They also have the Familia Buffet offering buffets for P1,500/person. We didn't eat there.
The breakfast buffet offers a generous selection of American, Korean, Chinese, Japanese and of course Korean food.
Imperial Palace Breakfast
Service:
Service was great and the staff were courteous and helpful. You will be asked for a tag in order to enter the pool area. We arrived earlier than check-in but we managed to get a tag (just give them your name) so the kids were able to swim even before check in.
Others:
The lobby offers a nice tropical airy feel. It was easy to get a cab if you want to eat out. There was quite a handful of people during our stay and most of them were Koreans. Very good for the tourism industry:-)
Imperial Palace Walkway
Overall:
Overall, I would say it is a nice commercial resort, beautiful room with a good ocean view. If you are an activity bug like me and my kids (hehe to the dismay of my i-want-a-relaxing-vacation husband), an overnight stay would be enough for all the resort activities.
To book just go to their website or you can click this -> Imperial Palace, Cebu