I have been reading stories of other families spending their Easter in a hotel here and there, and how the kids had a great time in Easter parties. I said to myself that I want to experience that just once with my family, so I needed to set aside a budget for it. Nowadays, it's important to save by setting aside a certain budget for travel or investing like timeshares, etc. Although timeshares can be tricky, Resort Release helps people deal with timeshare issues.
So just to give you an idea on what we do on Easter every year, we always spend our Easter Sunday in our village where there is a simple egg hunting activity and a simple program where there's games and prizes given by fellow residents to be won. We've been attending this event for 4 years straight since last year. Most of the time, we go home empty-handed from prizes except for a few chips, candies, and an ice cream as part of the loot giveaway.
So just to give you an idea on what we do on Easter every year, we always spend our Easter Sunday in our village where there is a simple egg hunting activity and a simple program where there's games and prizes given by fellow residents to be won. We've been attending this event for 4 years straight since last year. Most of the time, we go home empty-handed from prizes except for a few chips, candies, and an ice cream as part of the loot giveaway.
This year, on the other hand, I decided that we try to spend our Easter Sunday in a hotel that offers an Easter Party. We were supposed to go to Manila Pavilion, but due to the tragic fire, we decided to spend our Easter at Century Park Hotel. This is our first Easter Party in a hotel so I don't have many expectations, but I was hoping to get more loot than our usual Easter party.
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| One Easter Superheroes ticket cost P1,350 good for 1 adult and 1 kid. I bought 2. |
Upon seeing the ticket, you already get clues on what's in store for you in the party which is quite exciting. On the left side, there's a loot bag stub and two food stubs. On the right, there's a raffle coupon for you to fill out your details.
Registration
We arrived at the registration area at exactly 9AM and there was a long queue. I guess a lot of people had the same idea as I did of having to spend Easter in a hotel. Registration took a while because of the manual registration where attendees need to fill out their name, address, signature, etc.on paper. There were also some people buying tickets on site.
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| Game Prizes |
While we were waiting in line, I took a picture of the prizes on the table. They are actually game prizes from generous sponsors.
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| Our first mini loot bag plus a can of Pik-Nik! Yey! We also got food stubs for the kids (1 BBQ, 1 hotdog, 1 cotton candy, 1 french fries) |
I was happy that upon registration (after step 1), we immediately got a small but heavy loot bag with a can of Pik-Nik. My son also received the same so we got two sets - and the party hasn't started yet!
We were also given additional food stubs which I think are for kids aside from the food stubs attached to our tickets. That means more food for us. Yey!
After step 3 of registration, we also received another loot bag, bigger and heavier. Pic is shown further below this post so you need to scroll down. They took the loot bag stub for this so I suppose that's the party's official loot bags for everyone. Again, we got two because we have two tickets. We also got our Easter baskets provided by the hotel, a bingo card, and a coloring pad.
The Venue
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| The Grand Ballroom |
The venue, the Grand Ballroom is pretty huge. It's a free seating event so everyone can sit anywhere they want. Naturally, the ones who came in early get to choose better seats that are closer to the stage.
The event started almost 10AM already because the host was waiting for those who were still in line for the registration outside. While waiting, we went to the booths outside the Grand Ballroom to check out what they have in store for us.
The Booths
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| Booths/Giveaways |
There's actually not that much booths outside. There was one game booth that we participated in where we need to shoot balls inside the mouths of the boxes and another one where you need to pin the mask while you're blindfolded. Unfortunately, we didn't win both so we didn't get anything.
I didn't have a picture but there was a Manila Bulletin table giving out free magazines and newspapers plus a coloring book for kids. Another booth was giving away Whatta Tops with nuts and they didn't require us to do anything! In honesty, that's the kind of booth that I love - just giving away free stuff while you're just passing by :D
Ms. Softy was not free. They were selling sundaes on the spot though. For P20 each, I bought 4 after the Easter egg hunt because the kids were a bit hungry after the activity.
While Waiting...
We went back inside and the event hasn't started yet so my daughter did some coloring first because she loves to color. She also likes looking at animal pictures in a magazine so the free Animal Scene magazine is a good freebie.
The Party Starts
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| Activities |
At around 10 o'clock, the party has started with a game. There were a lot of kids inside. I noticed there were lots of parents with toddlers. That's probably because kids ages 2 and below are free to enter. All those who participated in the first game (for ages 3 and below) were given point stubs. For the following games, only the winners were given point stubs where they can earn points and then redeem prizes at the prize booth. In the end, we didn't get any point stubs from the games.
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| We won minor raffle prizes. |
They were also announcing raffle winners during the event. There were minor prize winners and major prize winners that include gift certificates of an overnight stay for 2 in Century Park Hotel with breakfast, Php1000-worth gift certificates from the hotel's in-house restaurants, and more. My husband and I won minor prize prizes only: Two 100-worth of Timezone power cards and a small Fun Ranch bag pack. I really think everyone won in the raffle with different prizes because they announced so many winners.
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| Our Food |
The waiters around us collected our food stubs earlier in the event. After a few minutes, they served us our plated food that consisted of pizza, spaghetti, and fried chicken (which I liked very much). After a few minutes, they served us a slice of this rich and chewy chocolate cake with colorful sprinkles on top. For our beverages, we got mango juice and water each. I really liked the idea that we were served our food instead of lining up for a buffet. Plus, you can't eat that much in an event so a plated food is good enough to fill the hungry adult tummy.
However, for us to claim the additional food stubs (the BBQ, fries, and such), that one we had to line up to avail them. It's a bit of a hassle if you ask me because every time we stand up, we need to leave our things on the table which often worries me. Of course, we can't leave our young kids there because they'll simply cry so we have to tag them along in the line.
Other than that, while waiting in line for the food, the host will commence the next game so we didn't know what to do first - to fall in line for the food or participate in the games first. Well, we decided to wait in line instead.
The Egg Hunt
At exactly 11 o'clock, the egg hunt began and it was divided into two different age groups. My daughter was included in the 4-6 age bracket while my son was on the age 7 to 10 bracket. The Easter egg hunt was limited only to kids ages 10 and below.
We exited the Grand Ballroom, went in line, and the organizers guided us to a different room where the Easter Egg hunt would take place. Parents were strictly not allowed inside resulting to some kids crying here and there afraid of being alone with the other kids inside the room. However, most of the kids seemed to enjoy it very much and that includes mine. My daughter got 2 eggs with candies and then my son got 13 eggs! They didn't find the golden/silver/bronze eggs, but that's okay. The whole Easter Egg hunt lasted in less than an hour.
When we're done with the hunt, we went back to our seats in the Grand Ballroom. I also noticed the waiters already cleared our table. By this time, the host already announced the winners of the costume contest (3 winners), winners of the art contest, and the winners of the major prizes in the raffle. Amazingly, my daughter won 2nd place in the coloring contest! Wee! I felt bad I wasn't able to take a pic of her art before submitting it.
We got an assorted gift pack from Kettle Korn + Lucky Me Noodles as her prize. I just noticed that the 3rd prize winner was better though - a big, pinkish and glittery school backpack. I didn't get to see the first prize. It would be nice that all of the prizes would be school materials or toys instead of another gift pack like ours, but still, we're thankful for it.
After all the announcements have been made, the host officially closed the event. We went back to our rooms so we could rest and open our loot bags. You may check out my blog post about our experience in Century Park Hotel soon.
The small loot bag consists of assorted chocolates and candies from Choco Mucho and Chubby, strawberry chewing gum from Lotte, Lucky Me Curly Spaghetti, Smiley chocolate cookies, and an Enchanted Kingdom booklet.
We exited the Grand Ballroom, went in line, and the organizers guided us to a different room where the Easter Egg hunt would take place. Parents were strictly not allowed inside resulting to some kids crying here and there afraid of being alone with the other kids inside the room. However, most of the kids seemed to enjoy it very much and that includes mine. My daughter got 2 eggs with candies and then my son got 13 eggs! They didn't find the golden/silver/bronze eggs, but that's okay. The whole Easter Egg hunt lasted in less than an hour.
When we're done with the hunt, we went back to our seats in the Grand Ballroom. I also noticed the waiters already cleared our table. By this time, the host already announced the winners of the costume contest (3 winners), winners of the art contest, and the winners of the major prizes in the raffle. Amazingly, my daughter won 2nd place in the coloring contest! Wee! I felt bad I wasn't able to take a pic of her art before submitting it.
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| My daughter won 2nd prize for their Coloring contest. |
After all the announcements have been made, the host officially closed the event. We went back to our rooms so we could rest and open our loot bags. You may check out my blog post about our experience in Century Park Hotel soon.
What's Inside the Loot Bags
So here is the time we opened our loot bags in our hotel room. We first opened the small loot bags that were given during step one of registration. Here are the pictures:
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| Small Loot Bag. We got two of these |
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| The giveaways I got before the event started |
Now we opened the heavy loot bags. Here are the pictures:
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| Big Loot Bag We got two big loot bags so we got two of these. |
One big loot bag consists of assorted chips from Oishi, Kettle Korn, gummy bears from Trolli, Pepero sticks, Lotte chewing gum, Whatta Tops, lots juices and choco drinks in tetra packs, a Garage magazine, pen & pencil, and more. I was even surprised to see a big La Filipina pasta inside! I was quite happy because I have something to take home and give to my mom.
The big Pascual pink egg has a Pascual yogurt inside. During the event, I was wondering where people got their yogurts because I saw yogurt containers on the tables, so this answered my question. It seemed everyone loved it. I tasted the yogurt and I also fell in love with the taste especially the Greek yogurt flavor.
Now, we opened my daughter's prize, an assorted gift pack for the 2nd prize winner :
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| 2nd Prize from the Coloring Contest |
The bag consisted of Curly Spaghetti packs, Kettle Korn, Zesto Choc-O drinks, and a datebook from the Manila Bulletin.
Pros and Cons
Here are some the pros and cons of the party based on my observation and experience.
Pros:
- Lots of prizes and giveaways. All the kids who were wearing a superhero costume had a prize. Oh, how I wish my kids wore a costume.
- Spacious venue to accommodate people
- Kids were able to experience an Easter Egg hunt without the parents/guardians helping out.
- Plated food that was served on your table and we were able to take home our leftovers.
- Courteous waiters and staff that tended our needs.
Cons:
- Having to line up for the kiddie food while the host was announcing that he will start a new game for the kids. We didn't know what to do whether to join the game or get out of line again. We simply waited in line for the food.
- They had a Bingo game that they failed to explain in the beginning. We only learned about the Bingo game when they were announcing the winners already. We were supposed to find people who were wearing different superhero shirts and have them sign the cards. I just felt bad about the wasted time at the beginning of the event that we could have used to do it.
- Organizers should wear a portable microphone when they're trying to get attention from the audience/kids because the area was too noisy for us to hear what they're saying. I also noticed some kids failed to join the Easter Egg hunt assuming that they weren't able to hear the announcement.
Conclusion:
I paid P2,700 in total for our tickets. Should I do it again in the future? It will depend on our budget so my answer is probably yes and probably no. But seeing my kids enjoyed the event then we'll probably set aside a budget for it. It only happens once a year after all. If you win tickets for the event then it's a definite yes that you must go because it's going to be super worth it.
Questions/comments are most welcome. Put them in the comments section, please.
This is NOT a sponsored post
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