D.Throne and How We Spent our First Day at JPark

If it wasn't for my husband's company, I won't be able to set foot at JPark Island Resort and Waterpark. The resort is a five-star family destination where the elusive mix of fun and luxury is made possible.

Our JPark stay happened last May, it was summer and the husband's company made an announcement beforehand of a summer outing and team-building getaway to this resort in Mactan, Cebu. All of their employees who are currently working from home were encouraged to join, some who were from Luzon and Mindanao and other parts of Visayas were even sponsored for plane tickets just so they can join.

Pre-COVID years, the company always have this summer outing events, it halted during the pandemic so everyone was excited about the get-together after two years of just interacting virtually.

My husband decided to bring us along for a day tour but when their HR department announced a special rate for their employees since they are lifestyle members of the said resort, we decided to just take advantage of that and check-in for a night.

We requested an oceanview room. I am not including how our room was in this article but I will do so in the future. I realized I didn't get to take photos of our room using our camera, so I have to still find those photos from my phone instead I'll just get that up on a future blog, for today, let me share with you how our first day went.

Right after checking in and settling all our things in the room, we headed to the grounds of the resort. There's a spot there for those who want to rest with comfy pillows and cute stuffies.

The baby was so happy to see these cute alligators and turtles, but he was actually asking us for the electric car that was displayed in the lobby. Our plan at that time was to let him ride it and tour around the resort.

This is a 16.5-hectare property, there are 568 rooms, villas and suites, six themed pools, 10 dining outlets, a casino, activity zone, dive shop, and a private beach. The highlights of the sprawling water complex include 3 towering waterslides, a lazy river pool, and a pool with a beach-like shoreline.

The information above sounds overwhelming. But with a toddler with us, we have to cut down things that we must do for the sake of our little one.

And what was important for him at that time was the D.Throne's Vintage Electric Car. There were a few guests on those cars and every single time he spotted one, he'd point at it that we decided to go and rent one.

Unfortunately, it isn't free. Guests can rent this for Php 300 per 30 minutes. It's quite easy to use and there's an orientation beforehand. This has a battery installed in it and the resort got a lot of units available for lease.

As I instructed the baby to pick what color he wanted, he immediately hopped into the yellow one. And so the adventure began!

From their playground area where these cars were parked and the orientation was also conducted, I drove the car towards the beach area where all the slide activities can also be done.

Again, it was easy to operate, there's a throttle or accelerator on the right grip, and the speed can be adjusted as well but I was advised to stay at 6 and below. It was a nice experience to be moving around in the car and Matti felt like he was the one driving while he was also turning the steering wheel.

While the resort has cemented pathways, there were areas where D.Thrones were not allowed to enter so we just stayed within the permitted areas, we reached the poolside, the beach, the slides, and even went over the private villas.

We had to stop for a few times where there were children and adults going up to a tall structure that was for the water slides to watch them take those huge slides. For now, we won't be able to enjoy that amenity. The husband is not a fan as well.

We decided to go back and enjoy the beautiful landscaping that the management had done to the resort. I surely adore the villas at the side of the road and the many trees in the resort. There were hammocks here and there and bermuda grasses fill the side of the pathways which made the view prettier.

And although there were so many people at the pools and the beach, when we were in this area, I felt calm and relaxed as I pass by this part.

I was getting used to driving the D.Throne electric car and Matti doesn't want to go down yet so we went for another round at the area where the huge JPark Island sign was. I believe we had already passed the 30 minutes time so I hurried towards the playground area to return the vehicle. The attendants were not strict with the time though, I guess we had used it for almost an hour!

The playground was just right next to the Pororo Park. I wanted badly to bring Matti there. In fact, before we headed to our room, I filled up the form as there's a registration requirement, they don't accept walk ins though because of the pandemic protocols.

However, on our scheduled time which was ten in the morning the next day, Matti was sleeping as he got really tired from all the morning swimming so we decided not to go instead. The Pororo Park rate is Php 800.

We just let Matti play after the ride as he was unwilling to get down from the D.Throne just yet but we convinced him when we mentioned playground.

After that, we headed back to our room. The weather was very humid and we were sweaty from playing at the playground. We have to rest and freshen up again for the evening. We planned on going around the resort again and experience how it looked during the night.

This is definitely a huge resort. The pool that's visible here is just one of the pools, they call it Island Pool and it is Jpark’s main pool. It has waterwalk activity for children, water basketball, water volleyball, mini-waterfalls & swim-up pool bar. It's depth is 3.5 feet to 5 feet and is open between 7 AM – 8 PM daily.

There are other pools such as the wave pool, Captain Hook's pool, Amazon river, and more. I'll talk about it in the next blog for our second day experience.

We slept after having a shower. The baby got tired I guess from all the running, riding, and play. When we woke up, it was already past seven and I was hungry. I had no energy to go out to any of their dining areas so we decided to call their customer service for room delivery.

We ordered a huge pizza and it was really good! I appreciate them delivering it on time. My husband and I were both ready to explore JPark at night!

There's a fire show happening every night at the resort. It was interesting to see these dancers playing with fire. One of them was even spitting out gas and making such great entertainment for the guests around the Island Pool. Unfortunately, we missed to take some photos, we got so overwhelmed witnessing it that we could only take videos. Also, it requires long exposure for us to get a good effect of the fire which we can't afford because we have a toddler with us.

Anyway, we just roam around, enjoyed the night lights, took a lot of photos of the resort as well as the fountain at the main building.

Our first day here at JPark Island Resort and Waterpark was coming to an end and we were glad that our toddler enjoyed it so far although he didn't take a dip in the pool that day. He will surely make it up the next day!