$200 for "free" drinks?

Day 28 - Boracay to Mactan (Cebu)

Our flight wasn't until 12.30pm  but we were told we needed to leave by 9.30am, so after a leisurely breakfast right by the beach we jumped into a van followed by ferry followed by van,  the time taken to get to Caticlan airport was about 50 minutes.  

The airport wasn't much more than a big shed but we were grateful that it was air-conditioned, it actually wasn't too bad a wait. The boarding process started an hour before takeoff, we were loaded on to buses which sat there until given the all the clear to drive in a convoy along the only runaway to our plane. The plane taxied back down the runway past the holding shed and did a U turn to take off on the very short runway. 

It was only a 45 minute flight but there was enough time for the flight attendants to run a short trivia game complete with prizes.

We hopped in a Grab at Mactan airport and arrived at the Shangri-La resort, our home for the next three nights. The girl who checked us in tried very hard to upsell us, suggesting we purchase lounger access ("free" drinks and snacks for about $200 extra per night), or move from the Ocean wing to Main wing, but we'd done our homework and knew what was being offered wasn't worth it. We did accept a move to a better room, what was weird was that it cost us nothing extra, plus there was already a welcome card in that room with our name on it.

We settled in and explored, having a couple of drinks at the beach bar for happy hour, followed by a buffet dinner where the staff confused us with somebody else and almost gave us free drinks.