Maya New Roro Port — Local services in Cebu

Both the pier at Malapascua and the one on the mainland (Maya New Roro Port) operate the same scam.

Folks selling the tickets will tell tourists there are not enough people for the ferry to depart and that you need to pay double/triple/quadruple amount of money for the private ferry or to pay for whatever amount of tickets that will make it worthwhile for the boat owner to go. Once you’re tricked into handing your money over, a bunch of locals appear and board the ferry for free with the total passengers easily over whatever was the minimum mentioned in the ticket booth.

In another version of the scam, if you appear in time for a ferry with multiple tourists on, you will be told there is already not enough space or that you need to wait until exactly 5 minutes before departure to pay and register, and when you do, turns out it’s too late and you have to pay for a private boat.

This scam has been going on for years and I witnessed literally a fight between aggressive locals and scammed tourists on the Malapascua side.

Pity there isn’t much choice - if you get a boat from the hotel etc. you will still be lining the pockets of exactly the same bunch of dishonest people.

Terrible experience which leaves a really bad taste after visiting the amazing island of Malapascua. Bunch of bad guys giving...

This the "new port" where all boats to Malapascua take off from. It's a well established scam that is tricky to avoid!

We paid the Environmental fee and were asked to wait for a bit before boarding the boat. After 5min or so the people from the ticket office approached us and asked us to pay 500php each for the 45min boat trip because allegedly there weren't enough customers (only 8, the boat has a capacity of 26 people). They came back several times but we refused each time and said we would just wait for more people. After 25min, they claimed there was still only 8 people who all agreed to pay a little extra so eventually we caved at 300php per person. The peer pressure worked... It turned out though, this was a straight up lie. You can imagine our surprise when we got on the boat with about 15-20 other people...

On the other hand I am not sure they would have taken us on the boat if we didn't pay extra. As we were walking to board the boat, another group had just paid the fees and were asked to wait by the ticket people, although there would have been enough space on the boat for them and they would have been perfectly on time.

I don't mind paying extra if there is not enough people for the trip to go, I do mind...

Port going to Malapascua Island. If you’re in a car and wanting to go inside the port you have to pay P25.00 for entrance. If you’re a tourist and booked a place to stay in Malapascua, you have to go first at the Tourism Office(which is located at the port) and pay P75.00 as the environmental fee for your stay in the island. Next you will go to a “container” thing which you will log your name and pay P200 for non-residence of the municipality/place, P150 for vendors/residents, and expect P280(if I’m not mistaken) for foreigners. Bare in mind that not all of the time, the boat is available. Someone I had a conversation at the port and said that they’re waiting for the boat for 2 hours already. The boat won’t go if the total money won’t reach P2,000. Traveling time depends on the waves 🌊 and weather, based on my experience it is 40-45mins. When you get to the Malapascua, expect that a lot of motorbikes will offer you ride going to your place that cost P25-50 per head...