Well my title on this blog may be biased as I haven't really tried all the ferries here in the Philippines. I'm more referring to our experience in riding a ferry boat to and from Dumaguete/Siquijor. We arranged our ferry transfer care of Coco Grove Beach Resort, as initially instructed to them, I told them we prefer a ferry boat that is the fastest going to Siquijor from Dumaguete. Since I do not have any idea on the various ferry boats available and its schedule, I let Coco Grove decide. You can check my
previous blog on the ferry schedules they have provided me.
From the schedule they provided, it seems that GL Express is the next ferry that could take us to Siquijor for just an hour. We will be arriving in Dumaguete at around 8:30am so their 10am schedule is just right. Ocean Jet is listed but their schedule is 1pm, already too late. When we came back here in Manila, I read from Girltalk forum that Ocean Jet have early schedules, like 9am, from Dumaguete to Siquijor but the port will be at Lorena, which is quite far from Coco Grove Beach Resort. But there was no such schedule indicated in Ocean Jet's
website so I'm not sure if that's true.
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Dumaguete Port |
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Jay Lann Jeziel |
As mentioned in my
review on Coco Grove resort, they bought ferry tickets from Jay Lann, with an hour and 15 minutes travel time. But in reality, it took us 1 hour and 30 minutes! I am used to long ferry travels like going to Camiguin from CDO, to Caramoan from Naga and to Calaguas from Daet. But maybe I expect a short travel time to Siquijor that I really got bored and almost pissed.
So by the time we asked again Coco Grove to book us a ticket in going back to Dumaguete, I make it clear to them that we wanted the fastest ferry, whatever the its cost is, and they offered Ocean Jet. That time, I'm not really familiar again with the various shipping lines but I told the receptionist that we do not want to ride Jay Lann again. Our schedule was at 2pm so we settled at the lobby area before 1pm. Coco Grove's jeepney service will drive us to the port.
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Siquijor port going to Ocean Jet |
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This is the Ocean Jet |
Seeing the Ocean Jet, we were quite relieve as it is bigger and air conditioned! We thought even if the travel time will be again longer, at least we will be relaxed with its quite comfy seating and of course the air conditioned ferry. But to our surprise, it took us only less than 1 hour to arrive in Dumaguete port. That was fast! With that, we learn to love Ocean Jet!
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Picture before boarding |
I wasn't able to take a lot of pictures inside the ferry but aside from it has air con, comfortable seats, it also have LCD TV and rest rooms. I wasn't able to check if the rest room is clean. The ferry was quite big and life vest was already provided under the seat. The ride was smooth sailing, you wouldn't even feel the waves, if there was any or maybe because it wasn't strong at that time (it was summer!).
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Inside Ocean Jet |
Ocean Jet operates mainly in Visayas and a few routes in Mindanao (Cagayan de Oro and Camiguin - I didn't know this before). They offer various class to suit the passengers' preference and budget. With their motto: "taking you there fast and easy", with our experience, it was indeed a fast travel, convenient, safe and easy. I will surely take note of this the next time I needed to travel by sea in the Visayas region. Check their website for the schedules and rates.
Enjoy traveling!
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