Inter-Island Philippines Travel By Sea
Marissa and I took the SuperFerry from Cagayan de Oro to Cebu on September 4th, 2006, departing at 10:15 PM and arriving at about 10:00 AM the next morning. We stayed in a State Room for a cost of about P3400 (~$68). It was well worth the cost and I much prefer the ferry to flying, but then I prefer to travel American by train rather than by air also.
While I loved the accomodation, and even took a shower in the private but oh-so-small bathroom, I do have one gripe. Security confiscated my Leatherman Wave just before boarding, giving me a receipt to pick it up at voyage’s end. However, the item was not off-loaded in Cebu and I had to email Superferry to complain about it. It tursn out that Superferry #12 went on to Manila from Cebu and my multi-tool went with it. I was told I would have to wait until the ferry returned to Cebu, and that I should meet the boat to get my item. “Meet the boat?” No, I want to be able to swing by the pier at my leisure, and my item should be waiting for me there.
On the plus side, Superferry customer service was very efficient and helpful at getting my lost item back to me, despite the inconvenience to me. Next time I’ll simply hide the item deep in my luggage, bury it with a bunch of PC cables and chargers.
The other peeve is that they confiscated my Bic lighter before boarding, but they don’t sell lighters and/or matches on board. I asked how I was supposed to get a light. The response? Get a light from someone who knows how to keep their lighter from being confiscated.
Oh, one more peeve, and this should really be fixed. On the Superferry website, under Schedules, when you pick one city as your departure city, the destination city should update so that only destination cities from that departure city will show. The way it is, you can pick any city of departure and any city of destination even if they do not have such a route. This is a simple fix and a major inconvenience to people like me who don’t know exactly what routes they serve.