Our Adventures: Resorts World Manila + Movie Review: The Hobbit

Lights in the sky. The signage for Resorts World shining bright against the night sky. 

Paul and I have always been making fun of the airy ad for Resorts World Manila. (Resooorts Whoorld Mhanilaaahhhh), we'd have laughs when we would imitate that catch phrase, so imagine our reactions when we found out that our company was having our Christmas Party in Republiq (a club in Resorts World Manila). We basically had more reasons to say Resooorts Whoorld Mhanilaaahhhh 


The Hotel 

When I heard that we were having our Christmas Party at Republiq, I immediately researched into having a room booked in a nearby hotel. 

I learned in my research that there are 3 hotels in Resorts World Manila: 

The Remington Hotel (affordable hotel) published rates: P3,900.00/night

Marriott Hotel Manila (5-Star business hotel AKA- expensive) published rates:P P8,500.00/night 

Maxims Hotel (All suite luxury hotel AKA - really expensive) published rates: lowest price is P15,800.00/night.  


We were also lucky since there was a promotion for the Remington Hotel which was P1,188.00/person so the total was P2,300.00 + this was already for an overnight stay for two persons in a standard room. It also included two P200.00 movie passes at Newport Cinemas and P100.00 worth of game passes in the Game Zoo. 

Paul says it was the 'best idea ever' to book a room in the Remington Hotel, so that we basically had a place to crash after the party. It would have been too much to travel all the way back to Antipolo after the party. 

After the party: A tired me posing by the Hotel entrance before heading up to our room. I've already been awake for more than 24 hours. 

Paul and I would also both be coming from shift. Our shifts ended at 7:00AM Saturday and the party was going to start at 3:00PM and since Paul was the official photographer he had to be there at 2:00PM. 

It was a good thing that the hotel allowed us to do an early check in at 10:00AM. We arrived at the hotel at 9:30AM and first had breakfast/dinner (a meal) in the nearby Mc Donalds. 

After checking in, we found that our hotel room was pretty standard. With two queen sized beds and a flat-screen LCD TV. 

There were a lot of amenities that were lacking in the Remington. Like there was no shower cap or laundry bag. You had to place a refundable deposit for the hair dryer and much to Paul's dismay there was no complimentary water and coffee (or even tea)! Paul is a big water and coffee guy so this was a blow to him. 

Although there was a pretty cool vendo machine at each floor, it was still a bit disappointing. 

Just the basics. Just perfect if you just need a place to crash. 

When we finally settled in and tried to catch a few hours of sleep, Paul was out like a light bulb right away, while I just lay in bed and watched around two episodes of Cajun Justice before the alarm on my phone was blaring telling a tired and sleepy me that it was time to get up. 

Masquerade Ball. Getting ready for the party 

Traveling Book. First destination of Book 5 of Game of Thrones: A Dance with Dragons. I read a few pages of this when I woke up in the early morning. 

Since we were running on a tight schedule, we headed out to the Newport Mall, I had already researched on Salons there and decided to go to Fab Salon- check out their Facebook page here to get my hair done. Hair styling cost P 500.00 which wasn't so bad considering my initial research led med to believe it would be P 750.00. 

The Party 

The Calm before the storm: Candles light up a dark Republiq Club before the festivities begin. 

Company Christmas Party- woot! woot! A time to go crazy and have fun after a year's worth of hard work. At this point, I'm considering making a separate blog post for the Christmas Party Photos so my office mates can easily view and grab photos of the event. 

For now, I won't be posting much photos here since we are still post-processing them. There are about 500+ photos to go through! 

Misery Business indeed: Me singing during the party. 

Did I mention I did a little song number during the Christmas Party, although I made a blunder of the first part of the performance :p It was still a funny (albeit humiliating) experience that I can share with my team mates. 

After the party or should I say after Paul's photography responsibilities (since we did not stay until the end of the party) we headed back to the hotel and slept right away. 

Free Movie: The Hobbit 

Hobbit of the Hour: Bilbo sure put the 'B' in Baggins. Me by the movie poster outside the movie theater.  

Paul is a big fan of LOTR (Lord of the Rings) I remember when we were still boyfriend and girlfriend we would spend hours watching the extended version of LOTR complete with behind the scenes footage from the conception to the execution of all the tiniest details of the trilogy. 

I remember Paul saying that he made a pledge before to read the LOTR books every year- I know for a fact that, that pledge just remained a pledge. Although I do commend Paul for having been able to read all the books and being such a big fan of Peter Jackson and his team. 

So we've been looking forward to the new Hobbit movie this December. It was really a hard time for us to schedule a time to go and watch, with a busy  Christmas schedule and the MMFF (Metro Manila Film Fest) movies being shown on Christmas. 

Not to mention that The Hobbit has a running time of 3 hours! If we were to watch it after our shift we would be really in a zombie-mode for the next shift. Our weekends were pretty much devoted to Christmas shopping and get-together's with friends. 

Great performance by Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins: A promotional material for The Hobbit. From the movie's Facebook page. 

Our lucky stars aligned when we figured out to watch The Hobbit in the Newport Cinemas since we had free tickets with our accommodations. Another advantage was that the Newport Cinemas has schedules for movies showing almost throughout the day. So we planned an early check out and catch the 9:00 AM showing of the Hobbit. 

Since the free movie tickets were only for P200.00 and the movie costs P220.00 we had to add P40.00 but that was okay since the time was so convenient for us. There was only about 2 other groups of people ( a couple and a small family) who were in the theater with us, so it was a pretty pleasant movie experience. 

Reviews I've read advised to eat the popcorn in the middle of the film and to go to the washroom before the movie. I made sure to follow all the tips I read and true enough our popcorn was long gone even before the middle of the film and my bladder was pretty much about to burst by the end of the film but for the love of all that is Middle Earth- hold it in! You never know what part you might miss if you make an attempt to relieve yourself in the middle of the movie. 

There is no Happy or Sleepy here! The band of dwarfs in the movie. From the movie's Facebook page. 

Reviews I've read said that the movie was too long and dragon..err dragging especially the first part and that the action only picks up during the middle of the film. I believe that it was necessary for the film to start as it did in order to set the right pieces into play and in order for the viewers to invest in the characters plus it makes the reluctant adventurer in Bilbo more believable. 

Filled with lots of action and excitement, (I had my mouth open the entire time and I was clinging on to Paul) the movie also featured characters who were originally not in the book, like the pale Orc and the Brown Wizard but of course can still be found in the LOTR world. 

The brilliant Peter Jackson (Paul is such a big fan(girl)) :p also put in some scenes that would inevitably lead to the events of the LOTR trilogy. 

There was much buzz about the movie being shot in 48 fps and that it was generally met with mixed reviews. I'm really not the best person to blog about that so I will just stick to good old 2D and the story and how it was told- which is basically a big two thumbs up! Loved watching it and would definitely watch it again and if my husband's love for the LOTR is any indication we would probably be owning a DVD of it soon ;) 

After the movie, we had lunch at Cafe Mediterranean which is one of Paul's favorites. He likes Mediterranean food, so even if I'm not a big fan I obliged him with the opportunity to eat there. It was really a good feeling to watch him enjoy his food after watching a movie he really liked :)  It was kind of those things were in you're happy by just seeing other people happy. 

All in all it was a good adventure and one that had me thinking about how lucky and blessed I am to be able to share this experience with Paul. It may be something some people usually do on their weekends but not for me and I'm grateful for every moment of it. 

Until next blog post! ^_^