It's been a extremely tedious to try and blog while vlogging a the same time. There's a difgferent art to writing and telling stories through a written platform, but lately with all that's happening--socially. politically--doing my content through video really has been the best way to go. But when it comes to getting all the information out there, blogging is still the way to go.
I get to write about all the details in a concise manner and can always reference to it without spending so much time going through the entire video. But hey, after a few months here I am again so I can document anotehr exciting experience I just had!
WHY A YACHT EXPERIENCE?
If you're on Tiktok, you probably have been seeing the same videos as me and I've been seeing a lot of yacht cruise videos! First saw it on Kathryn Bernardo's birthday photos and I did a couple of inquiries after but thought it was too expensive. Thankfully duting the time we decided to visit, we were celebrating my mother-in-law's birthday so we kind of had a reason to splurge a bit.
For the rentals, a minimum of a 2-hour booking is required and a one-time terminal/port fee of P1,500. There are a lot of yachts to choose from but specifically for us, we got the La Banca yacht which is P6,000/hour. There are also specific island destinations you can visit based on the duration fo the package you're selecting.
The rental doesn't include food so we brought our own snacks and water but the good thing is, there's no corkage fee so bring in as much as you can consume. They also have partner restaurants just in case you don't want to bring it yourselves. You can order from the restaurant and have it delivered to the yacht directly before you leave.
Time is very strict for the booking because they do make about 5-6 trips a day. If you're late, time already starts running even if you're not there. During the trip, you can do fishing, swimming and snorkeling once you arrive the island destination. Pick-up and drop-off is at the Subic Bay Yacht Club.
THE YACHT
There were only 11 of us and the yacht capacity was 20pax. Even fi there were 20 of us, it would still be super spacious. It also has a full kitchen that includes a functioning stove, microwave, water heater and a refrigerator. It has one room with a huge bed that can comfortably fit 5 people and it has it's own toilet and bath. There's also another standalone toilet and bath just beside the bedroom.
WHAT CAN YOU DO
As mentioned, you can fish, swim and snorkel. If you're fishing, you have to brign your own equipment and bait. Same goes for snorkeling, you have to bring your own goggles. For our destination we went to Grande Island and the water was crystal clear! There weren't a lot of fishes when we were swimming but we saw a couple when we were about to leave so not sure if it's because we're too early lol. Our schedule was 7AM - 10AM, we didn't want it to be so humid because we had kids with us.
Personally swimming around while eating and drinking was a really fun event. My niece and nephew just learned how to swim and we were teaching them to kind of take it on their own at sea--and they did have a lot of fun--I did too.
Will we come back? if there's a worthy occassion why not?? Lol. I'm not going to lie, compared to renting a regular boat to tour the islands, it can get pretty expensive. In El Nido we had to pay like 2k+ for an entire day and that comes with food for lunch. I guess what sets this experience apart is the exclusivity you get from it--I mean we had an entire yacht for our little family to enjoy! Plus the flexibility to go if we wanted to and just complete a different itinerary altogether. So yes we will. It's an amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience that everybodo should get to try.
Check out : https://www.labancacruises.com/cruising-around-subic for mroe information. #notanAd
Ochi is a twenty-something Corporate Trainer who loves to cook, take photos and videos of her food, eat and travel. On weekends, she's either drunk or snuggling in bed watching her favorite crime drama. 
