Oakwood Premier (Joy-Nostalg Center Manila) ~ A Fine Retreat in the Ortigas Urban Jungle

We again scored big discount on our latest hotel staycation via the Traveloka booking site. 

We needed to stay at the Ortigas Central Business district area and decided to book at the Oakwood Premier (Joy-Nostalg Center) ~ wondering if the excellent online rating was real!

We entered via the ADB Avenue entrance and was led to a short hallway leading to the hotel lobby (the hotel's main entrance and basement parking access was via Topaz Street). 

The lobby was medium sized but impressively decorated.

We were really pleased with the a one bedroom suite that we booked. It was huge at about 90sqm ~ talk about space.

There is a separate bedroom with a king-sized bed, that screams "STAYCATION". 

(Note: There is also a television inside the bedroom, on top of the television in the living room and bathroom). 

Definitely no fighting over TV here!

A working kitchen ~ fully-equipped with microwave and convention oven, vitroceramic cook top, dishwasher, refrigerator, toaster, rice cooker, coffee maker, crockery and cooking utensils.

A dining area that fits 4.

The living room comes with a home entertainment system (40" LCD TV and sound bar home theater system). 

Cable channel options were quite good too.

A full work space ~ for business travelers (actually there are two of them, one in the living room and another one in the bedroom).

My favorite place in the suite is the all-modern/luxury bathroom (free-standing bathtub, double sink, shower stall with rainshower and STEAM GENERATOR).

Dual Sink

Free Standing bath tub ~ warm bath while watching TV anyone?

My very own in-shower steam (truly relaxing and such a perfect way to unwind and de-stress)! 

The rooms also come with all the essentials to make your stay comfortable ~

toiletries, bath robes, iron and ironing board and even a washer/dryer. They thought of everything.

Our stay comes with buffet breakfast at the famed The Nostalgia Dining Lounge ~ the place was classy and posh with an eclectic design. 

The buffet spread was varied and very good.   

We checked the hotel pool, but never got to try it.

It was well kept and clean.  My son, decided last minute that he wanted to try the bath tub, while watching TV (Yes the TV won it).

VERDICT:

• Location is perfect. It is just a stroll away from Podium, Mega Mall, Robinson's and St. Francis Square.    
• Fast and efficient check-in,  although I was a bit disappointed that check-in time was a little later than I am used to (3pm, instead of the usual standard 2pm).
• Staff were attentive and pleasant!
• Our room is clean, spacious and comes complete with all of our needs.
• The Ortigas skyline view from our  room's floor to ceiling window was wonderful. It was nice sipping coffee, while we lose our gaze in the multitude of lights outside. 
• For the bathroom alone, I am giving Oakwood an A+.       I so want an in-shower steam at home!

 

My family hands down love Oakwood Premier and we would definitely be back soon!

It is a luxury-business hotel, perfect for those who wants to mix business with leisure!  ...Or families who just want a retreat in the urban jungle. 

Oakwood Premier Joy~Nostalg Center Manila is located at
17 ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City.

For direct booking and inquiries:

Tel: (63-2) 637 7888 / (63-2) 910 8888
Fax: (63-2) 706 7777
Email: premiermanila@oakwoodasia.com
www.oakwood.com

For Traveloka bookings check their webpage or download Traveloka mobile application:

www.traveloka.com

Walk with Dinosaurs at The Mind Museum

My 7 year old was thrilled when he found out we were off to one of his favorite places to visit ~ #TheMindMuseum and was ecstatic when I told him about the museum's latest attraction ~ #DinoPlay! 

My son is huge dinosaurs fan. He has been fascinated with these HUGE creatures since he watched them in The Jurassic World movie ~ DinoPlay was just perfect!

Satisfy your children's fascination and their curiosity (and yours) by visiting The Mind Museum's latest traveling exhibition, Dino Play: Explore the Mind-blowing World of Dinosaurs!

Launched last June 29, Dino Play invites young dinosaur fans to come and explore the world of dinosaurs. Start your exploration onboard a vintage original Sarao Motors jeep right next to T-Rex sculpture and huge dinosaur eggs welcomes you to the exhibit, a peek to the adventure that awaits you and the kids inside!

Dino Play is divided into four nests:

• Dino Dig ~ where you and active kiddo can try your hand at being a paleontologist! Dino Play provides free use of Paleontologist Field Kits to reveal fossils hidden in the excavation sites.

• Dino Lab ~ where you can examine actual fossil remains; Take a look at dinosaur bones, petrified wood, ancient shelled creatures, and even dinosaur poop that has since turned to stone.

• The Dino Fun area ~ offers hands-on activities such as: make your own fossils, play with the Dino Family Tree, and learn about a day in the life of a dinosaur. Adventurous bodies can climb the Dino Lookout Tower and spot any rogue dinosaurs that may be hiding in the vicinity! 

And my 7 year old's favorite nest at Dino Play ~

• Dino Den ~ We spent a good amount of time playing pretend dinosaurs, wearing different dinosaur costumes and wooden slippers (with dinosaur footprints).

Thumbs Up for Dino Play ~ It is an excellent opportunity for kids and kids at heart to learn about some of the most intriguing creatures that have ever lived in on the planet!

###

*The Mind Museum’s traveling exhibition Dino Play will be on display in the Museum for a limited run, until September 30, 2016 only. The exhibition aims to travel to cities and provinces around the country as part of The Mind Museum’s mission to bring science closer to the general public.

Entrance Fees:

Dino Play* onlyThe Mind Museum (3-hour tour) + Dino Play*

Child/Student    P200                                Child/Student    P650

Adults                   P100                                Adults                   P700

*Enjoy Dino Play exhibition for 90 minutes choosing from these timeslots:

9am-1030am  |  1030am-12nn  |  12nn-130pm  |  130pm-3pm  |  3pm-430pm  |  430pm-6pm

Limited capacity. Guests are welcomed on a first come, first served basis.

Recommended for kids up to 9 years old with adult supervision.

For more information or for interested parties who would want to host this exhibition, please contact:

Email:  inquiry@themindmuseum.org

Website: www.themindmuseum.org

Facebook/ Twitter/ Instagram: themindmuseum

Helpful FREE Applications for your Tokyo Japan Vacation

Preparing for a family vacation in a foreign country that doesn't speak your language is a daunting task, so to make planning for our Tokyo Japan vacation easier, I have enlisted the help of free downloadable applications in Google Play.
  
I have listed below the applications that proved useful to us:

1. PLANNING - I did my planning by area and  these applications were especially helpful in pointing out key attractions with descriptions.  

TRIPADVISOR  

I checked TripAdvisor a lot to see other travelers'  reviews, experiences and tips.   

Tokyo Handy Guide (by 公益財団法人東京観光財団).
The Tokyo Handy Guide the official tourism guide application of Tokyo Japan. It contains useful tourist's information on Tokyo's prime attractions by areas. 

Tokyo Travel Guide and Map (by Sygic Travel)
This application allows you to create a day by day itinerary. What cool about this application is that it computes for the estimate amount of time spent (touring the attraction and travel time from one tourist spot to another).  You can later download your itinerary via PDF.

Touch! Tokyo - Guide you to Japan (by H.I.S. Co., Ltd.)
Contains the latest events and activities information by area, including invaluable tips. It is also so easy to use.

2. BOOKING - I spent a good deal of time looking for an affordable, but comfortable and accessible place to stay in Tokyo. 

AIRBNB
I initially planned for a hotel stay, but got turned off with the expensive small and constricted hotel spaces. I turned to AirBnb looking for a Tokyo home-sweet-home. 

3. NAVIGATION - do not underestimate the power navigation applications in Japan.  I have downloaded a few, but ended up using Google Map (which proved to be very accurate) most of the time. 

Google Map
The Google Map is our best friend in Tokyo Japan. It proved useful in both walking / taking the train to our destination.

Other Navigation Apps we referred while touring Tokyo:  

Tokyo Rail Map Lite (by Urban-Map ~ Vollmer & Becker-Asano)

Tokyo Route Planner (by Unwilling Developers)

4. TRANSLATOR

JAPANESE ENGLISH TRANSLATOR (by GreenLife Apps)
This is a talking translator and an offline dictionary. It can even translate via voice recognition Japanese to English and vice versa. 

A better option, which was a find by my eldest sons is the Yominawa Japanese Translator Application.

YOMINAWA JAPANESE TRANSLATOR
It provides an easy way to translate Japanese with the use of your camera in real-time. You take of photo of word/sentence you want to translate and this application displays the English translation.


5. TOKYO DISNEYLAND RESORT - these applications helped us a lot in navigating Tokyo DisneyLand and Tokyo DisneySea

TDR WAITING TIME (by ThreeSixtyApps)
This application provides realtime attraction wait times, fastpass service status and current operation status.

PERFECT DISNEYLAND GUIDE (by UchinokoMoratte)
Aside from providing attraction wait times, this application works as a navigation map.  It was sometimes difficult to make sense of the distributed hand maps, especially if you are inside a huge park.  This application shows where you are at the moment and the actual location of the attraction you want to go to.

Let me know if you have other mobile applications ~ you have tested useful in your vacation planning.

Our DIY Japan Vacation (Itinerary and Expenses) ~ TeamPetilla Conquers Tokyo Japan

As promised sharing here our family's 7 days Tokyo Japan itinerary and expenses.  If you are traveling with children, I think you would find this itinerary (hopefully) useful.  Cheers and happy Tokyo Trip planning :

We have always wanted to go to Japan and seeing friends and officemates conquer the big "J", we thought it was time to bring #TeamPetilla there.

Expenses depends on where in Japan you wanted to go, when and what activities you have planned. Here are some of the questions to help you in your planning:

QUESTION 1:  Where in Japan?

We initially planned a 2 cities trip (Osaka and Tokyo).  We thought Japan is just a small country and travel from Tokyo to Osaka and back would be easy. We were down hearted to learn that these 2 cities are 4 hours apart by train.  

I did an easy computation and figured we would be wasting a good 8 hours on board a train just to cover these 2 cities together.   Since we have been to the Universal Studio in Singapore a couple of times before, we thought Harry Potter could wait another year or so... (translated to more reasons to  come back to Japan) - we dropped Osaka and focused our trip on Tokyo.

QUESTION 2: When to go?

Point 1: This question was easy for us, though we wanted to see and feel snow, we were scared that it would be too cold to tour around and could end up stuck in a hotel. 


Point 2: Hubby wanted to see Sakura (Cherry Blossoms), but I have read tourist attractions would be too crowded and accommodation prices double during Sakura season.


Point 3:  School starts in June. 

So we've decided the best time to go was in April right after Sakura season, revelries would have died down by then and if we are lucky there would still be some Sakura trees in bloom.  It would  be spring then so, weather would be perfect (we were expecting 14-18 degrees).

QUESTION 3: What do we want to do?

As we were travelling with children ages 12 and 7, our activities were more of the things our kids would enjoy.  That means, less shopping and sight seeing  and more on theme parks and museums (my boys love museum hopping ~ check here of favorite museums: MUSEUMS WE LOVE). 

Here is a breakdown of our expenses. 

Note: Reflected cost is cost for 4 persons. I used Php0.40 per 1JPY conversion.

ROUNDTRIP AIRFARE: P20K/person depending on your choice of airlines.  We took Philippine Airlines.

POCKET WIFI: P5K for a 7 days rental of a 75Mbps Standard Wifi  (data usage 10Gbytes). A Pocket Wifi is really essential if you have plans of navigating Tokyo's intricate train system. We pre-ordered the unit online and picked it up in the airport.   

ACCOMMODATIONS: P68K 
4nights in an Asakusa condominium booked via AIRBNB - P30K

2 nights in Tokyo Disneyland Hotel: P38K (I know it was really expensive staying inside the Tokyo Disneyland Resort, but the experience was real worth it).

DISNEY THEMEPARK ENTRANCE: P23K

Multi-Pass 3 days Disney Sea and Disney Resort passport (Adult Y16600 / Junior Y14400 / Child Y10700) - I bought this online together with our hotel booking.

Day 1 - Asakusa

What	In Yen	In Php
Transfers (Haneda Airport to Asakusa Station via Keikyu Line)	3120	1248
Senso Ji Temple	Free	Free
Nakamise Dori	Free	Free
Kapabashi Dori	Free	Free
Don Quiote - shopping (Jabra Stealth bluetooth earpiece)	8000	3200
Dinner at home (bought packed meals from 711)	1400	560
Lunch at Okonomiyaki Sometaro	2000	800

Day 2 - Odaiba

What	In Yen	In Php
Transfers (Asakusa Station to Odaiba via Ginza Line, then transfer to Yurikamome Line) - two way	4320	1728
Breakfast at McDonalds	1200	480
Miraikan Entrance (Adult Y620 / Child Y210)	1660	664
Gundam Front	Free	Free
Lunch at Diver's City Foodcourt	2000	800
Hello Kitty Café
- ice cream	1280	512
-"pasalubong backpack"	3400	1360
Daiso - various items (cost per item is Yen100, roughly P40)	600	240
History of Car Garage	Free	Free
Toyota Mega Web	Free	Free
Statue of Liberty, Aqua City	Free	Free
Joypolis Amusement Park, Decks (Night Passport Adult Y 2900 / Child Y1900) - foreign passport holders gets additional Y300 off (applicable for adults admission only).  Hubby does not want to ride and opted for an admission only tickets worth Y800)	7200	2880
Odaiba Chrome Shopping Center (good place for souvenir shopping). I bought rice crackers and a cap.	1200	480
Dinner at Takoyaki Museum	1000	400

Day 3-  Nikko

What	In Yen	In Php
Nikko Kinugawa Themepark Pass (Adult Y6180 / Child 3250)	18860	7544
Lunch at Edo Wonderland	3900	1560
Dinner at home (bought packed meals from 711)	1400	560

Day 4 - Ueno

What	In Yen	In Php
Transfers (Asakusa Station to Ueno via Ginza Line) - two way	1360	544
Breakfast at HardRock	4000	1600
Ueno Park	Free	Free
National Museum of Nature and Science (Adult Y620 / Child - free)	1240	496
Rental of English Guide (Y310 each we rented two)	620	248
Lunch at the National Museum	2440	976
Ameyoko Market (best to do your pasalubong shopping here - cheaper and with plenty of choices)
- bought "pasalubong"	4000	1600
- bought travel bag (too much pasalubong so little space :P)	6000	2400
Dinner at Fridays	5000	2000

Day 5 and 7 - Tokyo Disney Land / Day 6 - Tokyo Disney Sea
Only noteworthy expenses we had at TKDL and TKDS are out meals :P

What	In Yen	In Php
Transfers (Asakusa Station to Tokyo Disneyland Resort via Ginza Line, then transfer to Keiyo Line) Y420  / Transfer (TDR to Haneda Airport via Keikyu bus)  Adults Y830 / Child 420	1680 / 2500	672 / 1000
Day 1 (breakfast) TKL Plaza Resturant	3000	1200
Day 2 (lunch) Sailing Day Buffet	10000	4000
Day 2 (dinner) Teddy Roosevelt Lounge	3500	1400
Day 3 (breakfast) Sherwood Forest	10000	4000
Day 3 (late lunch) - Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall	6000	2400
Popcorn Bucket	1600	640
Popcorn Refill (lost track of how many times we had a refill, but it was a lot and enough to keep my youngest busy queing in line)	510	204

*Excluded from above are our many mini-snacks here and there :P 

For more tips, check out my Tokyo Day 1 blog post.

See also helpful FREE mobile applications we used in our Tokyo trip: FREE MOBILE APPLICATIONS TO HELP YOUR PLAN YOUR PERFECT TOKYO VACATION