Jpark Island Resort and Waterpark, Cebu — Hotel in Lapu-Lapu

My thoughts vary on this place. Firstly should it have a 5 star rating ? I think not, I think this is more a 4 star for westerners, maybe 5 star for locals. The room we had is nothing better than a 3 star room. That being said the grounds and water park of this place is certainly 5 star. It has amazing gardens and water play areas to cater for every age. They are very vigilant in people's safety. However there is also a negative side of that. This place has a 99% ratio of Korean tourists who I have found to be very mindless of others and extremely selfish. They will go down and put towels on the deck chairs to hold them for themselves, the floating tubes they will take them back to where they are sitting instead of leaving them in the pool for others to use. This means these tubes are getting used for about 10 minutes once or twice a day and then no one else can use them. The resort needs to add more tubes for a start and then stop letting people remove them from the pool. Plus enforce the one hour sunlounger rule. (Where if a sunlounger has not been occupied for over an hour the items are removed to make way for others to sit and enjoy) many times I witnessed sunlougers with towels on them from 10am when I arrived at the kids area to never see any one use the lounges, but only to see some one come along at 3-4pm take their personal items and leave. It infuriates me seeing people so selfish and mindless of others. They still advertise a wave pool as of September 2023 but there is none in existence at the park, they will tell you it is being repaired, but there clearly is nothing at the location of it. Now the breakfast buffet included with your room rate, Would you expect half hour waits out in the heat at a 5 star resort? The food itself was ok with a huge selection of foods to choose from not very hot or fresh tasting. Some items run out quickly and can take a while to get replaced, I noticed the jam near the toaster didn't get replaced at all one morning so I settled for just butter. As for the pricing, we took advantage of a special in September and got a Deluxe Room (lowest quality) for 7000php about $195Aud per night, which includes the water park entry and JPark entertainment zone. Now walking around this place wanting to experience most it had to offer, we discovered that pretty much every other activity incurred a further cost. The Pororo room (catered to Korean cartoon characters) was another 1500php per child (about $41Aud) 0-12 years old. This means you still pay for a baby that can't even crawl yet, let alone play, still has to pay the entry fee. Another disappointment was to find after paying the 1500php entry fee, some attractions were not working. The train ride is only every half hour so you only get limited rides in your 3 hour play time. It operates in 3 hour sessions, so make sure you arrive at the start of a session to actual get 3 hours. Food and drink was definitely not worthy of a 5 star rating. Except my coffee and cake in the lobby that was exceptional. Although there was many options to choose from and the pool side service was fantastic, the food was bland and expensive. A child size serving of nuggets and chips cost $370 PHP (about $10Aud) a burger (no fries) will set you back $680php or $18 Aud and no, your not allowed to take a long your own food. The wifi is terrible, it's very hard to make a connection and it usually drops out a lot, we were unable to connect for nearly a full day at one stage. The staff were in abundance though and were mostly attentative, but did a fantastic job, if they were not serving they would be cleaning and tidying up etc. Over all it had many 5 star services but performed in a 3-5 ster way. Prices were 5 star and I felt I did not get what I paid for in the end. The water park being included makes the value apertising, but would I stay again ? Maybe, but I would be better prepared and I would only stay 2-3 nights not 4 like we did. The convenience of having the water park outside your hotel was great expecially when you have 3 young...

So here it is, I’ve spent 4 days here and I kept reading the reviews thinking, how can you post such a review but be kind of honest at the same time.

Now listen up, yes this hotel is very much hated on but you gotta respect the staff, the seafood restaurant staff was amazing and just so nice. Some staff around the hotels were also nice but I found the restaurant staff to be the nicest.

ROOMS:

We were located on the 11th floor with an outgoing view over the city. Kind of disappointed since there wasn’t much to see. The room itself is fine, it needs to be redone kind of everywhere, very outdated. The carpets need to get changed since there are stains on there. The beds are fine and we didn’t find any bed bugs, that was a +.

Something that was awful about the rooms is that we booked our stay for 4 people, no idea of the name of the room I forgot, we arrived to see a room that had one price with a couch, small kitchen and a balcony, but the other part had only 2 small sized beds that didn’t fit 4 people (2 adults and 2 kids), we then decided to call room service for them to bring a portable bed, they then requested us to pay 2,000 pesos witch was incredibly overpriced for them to already know we were 4. We then got to a price of 200 pesos per night just for a bed that was worn out, had stains and damaged wood on the sides. (The stains were not on the mattress). Just as an information when they wanted to charge us 2,000 pesos they wanted to do so for each night the additional bed would be there, unacceptable saying they were aware of us being 4.

Restaurants and Food service:

As nice as the staff is in the restaurants I gotta say the food is very mid. Their selection is just too small at times and the food can be found to too good at times. On our first time we went to the Korean restaurant on the J tower, had a nice steak everything was good, service and food, on the second day we went to the seafood restaurant, expected the same service, ordered seafood platter for others that came but my burger never did! I waited around 40 minutes, then got relocated to the inside because of the rain then it still took them around 40-50 minutes for them to bring a plain Burger. I got my burger when the others were already eating the deserts and I got to say we’re not as good as expected.

Halls:

Elevators are as needed l, the halls smell like wet water, too humid and can feel strange to walk in sometimes.

Entertainment:

There are much to do with the pretty average waterpark, kids club which they overcharge you for (6 thousand pesos) and spa as well as the D’ thrones that I very much enjoyed. There is a lazy river And some reserved pools.

Interactions with other guests:

I don’t like the fact that the resort is filled with Koreans, I have nothing wrong with them but some of them can be very selfish and disrespectful thinking that the whole resort is reserved for them. Some pushing you in the elevators getting their “needed space”. Some of the staff like to treat the Koreans nicer than other non Korean guests which I found pretty unique. But as I said there are some small amounts of staff that are just amazing and so nice.

Overall opinion:

It’s a hotel and I don’t think it should be so sugar coated as it is on other rating platforms like trust pilot. It’s basically a bigger Ibis budget for my Europeans. Food is okay, rooms are just fine and staff can be amazing. One Thing I do have to say this hotel is NOT a 5 star hotel. And it somehow is rated as on google. So don’t expect 4 seasons level as that was the hotel I was at before.

As an add on note some of their services can be very cheap and...

Last year, my daughter and I visited J Park Resort, and this year, we returned with the goal of staying at the J Park Tower. I booked a room there and was assigned to the 9th floor. (By the way, the J Park Tower is more affordable.)

But to cut to the chase, this visit wasn’t a great experience. I’ve decided I won’t book the J Park Tower again for future visits. Here’s why.

First, the shower’s water pressure was incredibly weak, and the bathtub faucet didn’t produce any hot water. The low water pressure made washing my hair a struggle, and personal hygiene was a real challenge. To top it off, the lack of hot water meant I couldn’t even take a proper bath. Funnily enough, though, the sink did have some hot water.

Second, the electricity was highly unstable. During our 3-night, 4-day stay, we experienced 3–4 power outages in the room. (Since we spent most of our time outside, it might have happened even more often.) This made me anxious about using the elevator—what if the power went out while I was inside? This isn’t just an inconvenience; it’s a serious safety concern.

Third, I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the room cleaning service. On the first day, they didn’t provide a bathroom mat, so we had to use a towel instead. Later, they forgot to restock the toilet paper. I considered calling the front desk to request it, but it felt like a hassle, and we weren’t spending much time in the room anyway, so I let it slide.

Fourth, the Wi-Fi and mobile signal were very unreliable. The in-room Wi-Fi was painfully slow, and when I switched to my mobile data, the signal was spotty. In the bathroom, neither worked properly at all.

On a separate note, the staff’s service was, as always, exceptional. The reason I love and keep returning to J Park Resort is their warm smiles and hospitality.

That said, these inconveniences did leave a bit of a sour impression on our family trip, which is a shame. I trust that J Park Resort will take this feedback seriously and make improvements.

Oh, and I highly recommend visiting CARA Spa and J Beauty. I enjoyed two spa sessions at CARA Spa, which were fantastic, and J Beauty’s nail and hand/foot care services were amazing. (My daughter loved them the most!)

I’m already planning to return to J Park Resort next year if I get the chance. Despite the frustrations, I still believe no place matches the warmth of their staff.

Hoping to come back again soon.

2024

Our family's stay at Jpark Resort in Cebu was one of the best experiences we've ever had.

The well-maintained rooms, delicious food, water facilities that our toddler loved, and the friendly staff made our 5-day, 4-night stay truly wonderful.

We regretted booking half-board as we missed out on the local restaurant experiences.

Oh, and make sure you know this: you can meet Nemo at the private beach. Be sure to bring snorkeling gear or a comfortable snorkeling mask, and head into the sea...