Yesterday, our family celebrated Christmas Day in an amusement park called Enchanted Kingdom. It is like Philippines' Disneyland, but ours has its own Filipino magic although the park's mascot is an old white wizard named Eldar... I guess it represents colonial mentality--a very Filipino thing? Okay, enough on-the-edge jokes easily triggered people might bash me for. Read ahead and enjoy ;).

It was a sunny day, just a typical Christmas day in this tropical country. I bet a lot of people who don't get much sun in their countries would have loved that weather. However, as I have always been in this hot country, I was so annoyed! We got in the park around 7:00am so that we could choose a nice parking spot as the park always run out of parking spaces on days like yesterday.

Then we had to wait for almost an hour in a long line with our tickets and heads smelling like grilled scalp due to being under the burning sun! (Our fault, we were too early, but had we arrived late, it would still be the same because there were A LOT of people!).

When we got inside the park though, it was just all worth it. I know I have been there a lot of times since I was a kid, but now being more in love with Instagram-worthy views, it was just much more exciting! As the rest of my family decided to line up in an unbearably long queue for this ride called Flying Fiesta, I sat on a bench nearby to hide from the wicked sun and of course get more blog materials...

This place called Rialto

That's me looking stressed, trying to sneak vlogging inside Rialto which is a 4D theater where taking photos or recording videos is strictly prohibited...I still don't know if I'll release the vlog on YouTube or Dtube, but I'll inform you guys when I do!

Now going back to Rialto. Well, this theater is most recommended for kids, but I guess it's not so bad to have that little joy in life sometimes as an adult. The film yesterday was Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas, so you know how child-friendly the whole thing really is. I remember, a year ago, they had Rio and other Ice Age films. The whole 4D experience in this place has always been cool, because you'll always feel even the spit of a talking animal character, the soft pokes or pat on the back of probably some mean character in the film, and of course the flying!

Fun fact: In that screenshot of my video, I was talking about how fab the glasses were that they could be like Chanel or Gucci. I mean come on, if they say trash is stylish, everyone will non-hesitantly think it's in.

Afer that 4D experience, we went strolling around that theater's area. It's basically a mini Brooklyn. I sat on that bench in front of some fake Brooklyn bakery. Also, as you can see, the bench seems broken with that little bent part on the middle. I just want to say I did not cause it to bend like that. I'm not heavy! haha

So that's my mom with me. We were standing on that mini Brooklyn street leading to Rialto. It's an unwritten thing that if you don't have any photo of yourself standing, posing, or walking on that area, then you've never really been to EK (Enchanted Kingdom) at all.

The capitalist system (keep reading, it's nothing serious, I swear)

So, the amusement park does not allow food and drinks inside, so if you're a group of people that's as energetic as my family who made it from 7:00am to 9:30pm in the place, then you have to prepare a lot of money for food or bring a car with you packed with a lot of them. The thing is that, the prices of the food there are like at least 20% more than its usual price outside the park. I mean, that's a nice business strategy, hands down. However, since you are a consumer allowed to go in and out of the park provided that you are stamped (they do stamp you in the entrance), eating by the trunk of the van like we did would be more cost-efficient and actually even more fun!

I had a nice view of this ride called EKstreme Tower from where we were parked. It's a really cool ride for adrenaline junkies like me. It basically brings you slowly all the way to the top from where you could get a view of the whole City of Santa Rosa (very breathtaking) and just drops you instantly all the way down without you being so prepared for it. Even I who had tried this ride a lot of times can't tell when it's going down, but it always happens when I blink! Still, you can't really tell whether you're high enough for you to expect the fall or not (ooh, life lesson too).

By the way, the tower looks like this at night:

The flying theater

The park recently opened a new attraction called Agila which they call a flying theater. This is how it looks like:

Now, let me tell you a funny story about my experience here. So when our whole family was already lined up for the theater, I remembered that I forgot my ticket in my bag which we were asked to keep in a locker outside the theater! God, I ran back outside to get it and when I got back inside, they all had their tickets stamped.

They asked me to go to where they were which was already outside the line. They were all set to go in! They asked the lady to give me a seat as they had already told her before that I just had to go get my ticket, that I was really with them. Obviously, the lady did not allow it. I mean come on, that would be unfair for the rest.

So what did I do?

Well since I was left out, I had to go line up with a bunch of strangers. I didn't mind, really since I don't have any trouble making new friends or socializing. During the long journey inside the building, heading towards the main theater, I just took some photos and videos to show you guys how beautiful the building really was, even inside!

Now, about this flying theater... It does not really fly and it also does not have seats that fly or move 360 degrees or something. That's what everyone thought though when we stopped by these screens where a video about how to wear seat belts and all that was repeatedly played. It seemed really scary because they had in the video, an instruction on what to do when you feel like you can't survive the ride--you put your hands in the air and do that "cut it" sign. Everyone was really thinking at that time that the ride might be really scary since duh, that precaution!

When we got inside though, the lady assisting everyone just said the seats just move lightly like in Rialto. Yeah, basically it's Rialto but the whole show is an adventure. They play aerial videos of different nature views from places all over the country. It was fun, because it felt like you were really in those places--the cave and beaches in Palawan, the desert in Ilocos Norte, that really wonderful river in Cagayan de Oro, etc. Basically, it was like paying $6 to tour the Philippines and meet new people like I did. Cool bargain!

Two of the people I met in the theater. Such cute couple!

Fun fact: Agila is Tagalog for Eagle, and the Philippine Eagle is an endangered species :(

Space Shuttle

Everyone in the family except for my brother and I decided to ride the roller coaster called Space Shuttle there in EK. I have never tried riding any roller coaster, because I have motion sickness that is so intense I might throw up during a car ride if the driver has some awful driving skills. My brother on the other hand is simply not an adrenaline junkie, so we both just had something to drink at the food court just in front of the ride.

Swan Lake

My brother and I have this tradition of going to the Swan Lake to pedal on swans. I swear, it's not easy doing that, because it makes your knees and entire legs hurt like hell or maybe we just don't really exercise and if we do, we skip leg day. I swear though, I had an intense leg cramp in my sleep after that!

By the way, That's us right there crashing our swan limo.

More Pictures!

So for only $12, you can enjoy all of the amusement park's rides, so if you visit Philippines, make sure to visit EK too. It's outside the busy capital city, so it's relaxing! I recommend you visit on days that are not as busy as Holidays though, so you could avoid long queues on rides. I've tried going there on a regular day a lot of times, and I swear you'll love how peaceful yet magical it is to be there especially when evening falls.

How I Celebrated Christmas Day: Enchanted Kingdom in the Philippines Tour