Wednesday, October 8, 2008

CamSur Watersports Complex (CWC)

me with Camarines Sur Governor L-Ray Villafuerte who is an avid promoter of wakeboarding



The following are from what I remember from our recent trip to CamSur Watersports Complex (CWC) in Pili, Camarines Sur. I will only suggest what I and my friends personally experienced to make my suggestions as accurate as possible. I cannot fully trust my brain to remember everything so if anyone reading this has a question just leave a comment here in my blog.

How we got there: The most convenient way is to fly. Cebu Pacific Air and Air Philippines have daily morning flights to Naga from Manila. If you book your stay inside CWC a complimentary shuttle will be made available upon exiting the Naga Airport. Same goes for your return flight to Manila, the CWC shuttle will be making its round at about 6:30AM to take you to the airport just in time for your morning return flight. Don't forget to mention your flight details upon booking to avail of the free airport shuttle.

Where to stay: The most talked about accommodation at CWC is the Villa del Ray containers. The containers are all located just across from the cable lake so it is the most convenient for cable riders. The Green container which sleeps 2 only cost Php1,000 per night while the Blue and Red containers cost Php2,850 per night and can accommodate up to 4 persons. I had a comfortable stay as the bed is firm and you will be provided with 2 pillows per person. The bathroom is spacious with a high-pressure shower. We stayed at container nos. 101, 102, 108 & 109. All are with acceptable condition with room 102 as the best among the four. You can't ask for more for a 1,000 value accommodation which includes roundtrip airport transfers.


green and blue trailers


Wakeboarding or Kneeboarding: For beginners, it is required that you learn how to kneeboard first just to have a feel how it is like being dragged by a cable on top of a board. We only availed of the one hour kneeboarding just to test our skills. It costs 165 + 100 pesos equipment deposit. Every cent was worth it. The adrenalin rush I gained definitely was worth more than 265 pesos. After an hour and a total of 4 rounds, I don't anymore have the strength to hold on to the cable handle as every much in my body from the neck down to my legs were aching. My first try only resulted in a few feet away from the starting block but the succeeding tries were a success.

Other facilities and services: For those who would like to sample Bicolano dishes you would not be disappointed as the CWC restaurant serves laing, pinangat and even laing pizza. They have pastas, steaks, sandwiches, pizzas, rice meals and varried Filipino, Japanese and Korean staples available from 7:00AM to 12 midnight. For chlorine lovers, they have a big swimming pool besides the clubhouse but it is open only up to 7:30PM. There is a skateboard and bike park but we never tried that so I can't say anything about it. A scheduled two-way shuttle service is also available for those who would want to visit the town center of Naga. We took the 2:00PM and I think the last one is at 7:00PM from CWC. Just inform the reception if availing of this service.

Our stay and experience at CWC were all worth it whatever it cost us as the services we received from CWC were at a premium. The staff we encountered starting from the airport shuttle coordinator, receptionist, housekeeping attendants, the patient kneeboarding instructors, waiters at the clubhouse and security personnel were all aware of their duties and are all trained to please their guests.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

i like the trailer.. cool.. I'll nag my colleagues to try this also someday.. yahooo.. thanks for the idea and the details.

Joe said...

Galeng naman! Somedya talaga I'll go there para ma-experience that myself.

Oman said...

ang cool naman ng governor jan, talagang pinopromote nya yung tourism ng camsur.

glad you had a great time there carlo.

escape said...

you definitely enjoyed it! nakasama mo pa ang governor.

astig talaga! galing talaga ng mga nakukuha mong package.

kegler747 said...

@ carlota: Highly recommended for adrenaline junkies. Definitely worth trying it ;)

kegler747 said...

@ jowell: for sure you'll not be disappointed. Promise!

kegler747 said...

@ lawstude: CamSur is government-owned kaya eh talagang todo ang supervision ni gov.

kegler747 said...

@ the dong: Nung una nga di ko namukhaan pero he looks familiar. Nung may bumati kay gob dun nalang nag ring a bell sa isip ko :)

Anonymous said...

Very interesting entry as usual. Hope to see more of such sports covered on your blog.

Anonymous said...

cebu-tagbilaran-cebu: fastcrafts are weesam, supercat, oceanjet. weesam and supercat are both in pier 4 while oceanjet is in pier 1.. i recommend weesam.. i haven't tried oceanjet yet. fare is about 400 pesos but you could get a discount if you buy a round-trip ticket.. I'm not sure about the schedules from tagbilaran to cebu. as soon as i get hold of our newspaper here, i'll tell you.. from cebu to tagbilaran on weesam, i think its at 6 AM, 9 AM, 1 PM and 3 PM

Anonymous said...

dapat metered taxi talaga from fort san pedro to costabella.. kaso may mga sira ulong driver everywhere.. fare would probably be around 200-250 pesos.. kasi alam ko from airport to sm is about 150 pesos.. or you can take a jeepney to go to mactan then taxi na lang kayo sa mactan.. at fort san pedro, ride jeepneys that will stop at Pier 3.. tapus sa Pier 3, ask sa guard for ferry that will take you to mactan island.. 12 pesos ang fare ata sa ferry.. have a nice trip po

Anonymous said...

I haven't been to Camarines Sur. Hopefully I can visit this place.

Anonymous said...

I haven't been to Camarines Sur. Hopefully I can visit this place.

Anonymous said...

carlo, i didn't see the shipping schedules on the newspaper.. they have it on sunday sunstar newspaper only.. sorry...

Anonymous said...

may nakita ako sa internet na mga schedules: http://www.seaquestdivecenter.net/ferry.html

weeee

Bilal said...

hey i have got a pagerank 1 blog site regarding mobile games and stuff, we can have a link exchange if you want, that would be helpful for both of us.

my site: http://mobi123.blogspot.com/

email: levisinside0@gmail.com

ian said...

we were there is april 07, i think i shared this with you a while back, that the cwc service was just horrendous. the staff seemed peeved at our basic requests, to think that it was an odd day of the week that we were there. anyway...

i'm glad carlo that everything seems better now in CWC.

Anonymous said...

- bad management
- poor staff service
- crap food... uncooked burgers, flies in sandwiches, old bread... yuck!
- cash stolen from our cabanna
- cable machine broken...
- park in need of serious maintenance overhaul
- security issues, intimidating security walking around with guns
- reception sent us on a trip to hot springs that was closed and charged us for the trip
- 1 of 4 winch facility's .. out of order

... etc etc

c'mon get it together CWC!!!! this could be a facility that would draw wakeboarders from across the globe. Unfortunately after my experience neither me or my wakeboarding community will be visiting this facility again

Unknown said...

BAD EXPERIENCE at CWC on my two visits this holy week. first: each waiter has ONE MENU ONLY, so aabutin ka ng siyam-siyam kung grupo kayo. second: we wanted halo-halo because it was a hot day kaso wala sa "limited menu" that was given to us, BUT THE PROBLEM was, yung table beside us was served halo-halo, third: the waiter doesn't have a clue kung ano ang ingredients ng halo-halo nila. what i did next was walked up to the girl managing the pastries and asked her if she has extra menu on hand, and her reply "wala ho akong alam kasi dito lang ako sa pastries", nakakapikon na talaga. finally, i asked for the manager and told him about the menu per waiter and halo-halo problem. his reply? "talagang one menu lang per waiter and pag talagang kailangan nila ng extra e magpapa-recopy (HUH!) and halo-halo is not being served kasi limited menu ang nakalabas" so i asked him how come the other table was served halo-halo and his reply was " bakit sila binigyan ng halo-halo"...malay ko, bakit ako ang tinatanong niya, labo! i even asked him how many tables per waiter (kasi nga may problem sila sa menu di ba) and he asked me kung anong ibig kong sabihin, duh! my parting words were "ITO BA ANG WORLD CLASS?". we decided to leave kasi nakakapagod sila kausap.

Easter Sunday, i took my nephews and nieces for a swim at Lago del Rey and i paid P120/hr per person in cash (13pp). NO RECEIPT, they only issue lang daw upon turn-over at the end of the day, ANONG RECEIPT YON at saan napupunta ang pera. TAKE NOTE, THEY ONLY HAVE A YELLOW PAD WHERE THEY LIST THE NAMES OF THE PEOPLE USING THE FACILITY and yun na ang record nila. BAHALA NA KAYO MAG-ISIP!

... and while waiting for them to process my nephews, one group in bathing suits came over and asked if they can swim at lago instead of the regular swimming pool. ayaw sila payagan unless they pay, and the mom said they paid even more for the use of the regular pool so baka puedeng transfer na lang sila kasi they didn't know that there's Lago na more fun for their kids. pinababalik sila sa pool so i asked why not just help these people tutal under one management lang sila and easter sunday and their reply was,"wala kasing refund", HELLOOOO! wala na ngang receipt, wala pang customer service. I DON'T GET IT! hindi ko talaga sila nilubayan and i asked them to accompany the family back to the regular pool to assist them para makapag-swim ang mga bata sa Lago. it was not busy that sunday and there were six personnel just relaxing.

i don't think babalik pa ako dito, kung hindi lang sa mga bata talagang hindi na ako babalik after that experience at the restaurant but i promised the kids.

i don't understand why their customer service is so poor, pati cash handling malabo (paano kaya ang accounting nila) and hindi ba if you say world class, you expect at least a FOUR STAR service? ang service nila, ZERO!!!!!

Unknown said...

BAD EXPERIENCE at CWC on my two visits this holy week. first: each waiter has ONE MENU ONLY, so aabutin ka ng siyam-siyam kung grupo kayo. second: we wanted halo-halo because it was a hot day kaso wala sa "limited menu" that was given to us, BUT THE PROBLEM was, yung table beside us was served halo-halo, third: the waiter doesn't have a clue kung ano ang ingredients ng halo-halo nila. what i did next was walked up to the girl managing the pastries and asked her if she has extra menu on hand, and her reply "wala ho akong alam kasi dito lang ako sa pastries", nakakapikon na talaga. finally, i asked for the manager and told him about the menu per waiter and halo-halo problem. his reply? "talagang one menu lang per waiter and pag talagang kailangan nila ng extra e magpapa-recopy (HUH!) and halo-halo is not being served kasi limited menu ang nakalabas" so i asked him how come the other table was served halo-halo and his reply was " bakit sila binigyan ng halo-halo"...malay ko, bakit ako ang tinatanong niya, labo! i even asked him how many tables per waiter (kasi nga may problem sila sa menu di ba) and he asked me kung anong ibig kong sabihin, duh! my parting words were "ITO BA ANG WORLD CLASS?". we decided to leave kasi nakakapagod sila kausap.

Easter Sunday, i took my nephews and nieces for a swim at Lago del Rey and i paid P120/hr per person in cash (13pp). NO RECEIPT, they only issue lang daw upon turn-over at the end of the day, ANONG RECEIPT YON at saan napupunta ang pera. TAKE NOTE, THEY ONLY HAVE A YELLOW PAD WHERE THEY LIST THE NAMES OF THE PEOPLE USING THE FACILITY and yun na ang record nila. BAHALA NA KAYO MAG-ISIP!

... and while waiting for them to process my nephews, one group in bathing suits came over and asked if they can swim at lago instead of the regular swimming pool. ayaw sila payagan unless they pay, and the mom said they paid even more for the use of the regular pool so baka puedeng transfer na lang sila kasi they didn't know that there's Lago na more fun for their kids. pinababalik sila sa pool so i asked why not just help these people tutal under one management lang sila and easter sunday and their reply was,"wala kasing refund", HELLOOOO! wala na ngang receipt, wala pang customer service. I DON'T GET IT! hindi ko talaga sila nilubayan and i asked them to accompany the family back to the regular pool to assist them para makapag-swim ang mga bata sa Lago. it was not busy that sunday and there were six personnel just relaxing.

i don't think babalik pa ako dito, kung hindi lang sa mga bata talagang hindi na ako babalik after that experience at the restaurant but i promised the kids.

i don't understand why their customer service is so poor, pati cash handling malabo (paano kaya ang accounting nila) and hindi ba if you say world class, you expect at least a FOUR STAR service? ang service nila, ZERO!!!!!