Aug 4, 2013

The Party Bus Manila Review: The Minor Setback

Posted Aug 4, 2013
I just had to take my mind off (of) something deeply troubling so I decided to accept a friend's invitation to try the Party Bus and document my experience.

When I first heard of Party Bus Manila, I immediately thought of Pub Crawl Boracay, it has a similar idea where you party in a group, hopping from one bar to another with activities along the way.

I invited a few friends to try the Party Bus Manila. Registration is easy, you just go to their website and sign up. You will be contacted by a representative and get the instructions to pay the 50% down. The registration fee was P1750, the price was lower than the usual since it was a first anniversary event.

The meeting was set at 9:30PM, Distillery, Fort. If you arrive at exactly 9:30PM though, it's most probably that you'll be one of the early birds there but no worries, you get free drinks anyway; in our case it was either Stella Artois or Rum Coke.

The actual event started around 10PM+. To lighten up the mood, they lined us up, boys vs girls in parallel. They asked several questions that you need to answer to the person in front of you. It was alright.


The party limousine is like a big van; I was surprised that they were able to fit 30 people there. It was a little hot inside though, probably because of the number of people inside. They should definitely improve the air conditioning.

They gave drinks inside the bus. For those people who are wondering if you can drink inside the bus, yes, you can. I was hoping to get a taste of gummy candies soaked in vodka, but this was not present at the time.

People who joined Party Bus were very friendly, and I get to meet people from different countries, there were this Swiss guy, Vietnamese, Thai and there was a Filipina who talked with a Singaporean accent.



I noticed, however, that the organizers were using a point and shoot camera so I asked what's up with that. They said that the official photographer was sick. No worries.. for now.



The first official stop was Aracama bar at Fort Taguig. When we entered Aracama, many of us thought that we were at the wrong place because people were dining, there was no bar area in sight, and the place was well lit. Little did we know that the party is upstairs. The place is well maintained, service is excellent, it wasn't overcrowded, or maybe not yet.

Aracama was fun, there was another boys vs girls activity where a big glass of alcoholic drink with many straws was given to each group and the first to finish the drink wins. Of course the boys won.  We stayed a little longer then went to the second and final stop, Urbn.

The Minor Setback

A disappointing thing happened when we went to Urbn. They won't let some of us enter because the place was overcrowded. So we waited.. and waited.. it was more than 30 minutes of stress, and worse, we were asked to fall in line thrice and we were discarded thrice! I don't know what happened there, maybe there was a miscommunication between Urbn and Party Bus' management. The reception was not very nice, bouncers were a bit rude, probably because they were stressed with the number of people. This contributed to the already stressful situation. People were thinking of leaving and going back to Aracama or to another bar, I think some did.

Eventually we got in but the high was already gone, it's one of those setbacks that dampens one's mood. My excitement was lessened by the wait and the heat. I texted the Party Bus management that I was disappointed. One representative talked to me and said sorry, and explained many things I didn't hear since it was so loud inside. I'm the kind of person who says what's on my mind and I just had to say my piece to them. It was something I hoped I didn't experience but  it already happened, not much we can do about it except to just shrug it off for the moment and just continue to have some fun.

Final Words

Overall, it was alright, you get to party and meet new people and possibly new friends. I still enjoyed with despite the minor setback. People like me who loves to party should definitely try this, or for tourists looking what to do in Manila; this is a fun experience.
I give Party Bus Manila a 3 out of 5 stars. I would've given it a 4.5 if it weren't for the incident.

-Manny

Party Bus Manila contact information:
Website: http://www.thepartybusmanila.com
Contact numbers: 09178892662 , 09177907373

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