Went to Puerto Galera over the weekend. Felt I really needed to share this to everyone dahil grabe na-experience namin dun and will NEVER EVER go back EVER AGAIN.
Minolo Shipping Lines - DO NOT RIDE THIS FERRY, I REPEAT, DO NOT RIDE THIS FERRY. Here was our experience, upon arriving Batangas Port, a rep from MSL approached us asking us to buy tickets from them, since direct to White Beach, we went with him. WORST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE! They specifically told us that we would be on the first trip which is at 7:30AM, when we lined up for that trip someone then announced that those with Falcon and FG tickets are not due to go until 8AM, fine, it wasn't a big deal na sa amin kasi 30 minutes lang naman diba? Anyway, nung time for boarding na for our trip, my group (4 adults and 1 kid) were the SECOND group in line, next thing I know yung barker or whatever he is called started calling for BIG GROUPS "Asan na yung group of 24?" And then "Asan yung group of 9?" That's when my husband intervened and raised his voice na and told them "Kami nandito sa harap bakit kayo nagtatawag ng mga nasa likod? Pinapila nyo kami tapos yung nasa likod papapasukin nyo?" While they were talking, I protected my kid and pushed my way out of that door and headed towards the ferry telling them wala na silang magagawa, papasok na kami dahil nasa unahan kami. Upon arriving, we chose to push that incident aside na first of all because as soon as we got to White Beach, someone was announcing that we had to confirm the time and date of our departure from White Beach dahil may capacity sila, so sabi namin ayan mas organized na pabalik. We didn't worry about it anymore, we confirmed our 4:30PM departure for the next day right away and they even took our names para daw sa boat manifest telling us we need to be ready for boarding at 4:!5PM or else they will give our seats to chance passengers. So on the day of our departure, at 3:45PM we already went to the port para maaga kami makasama sa head count. Pagdating namin dun we asked kung san kami magpapa"attendance" para ma-count na kami at hindi ibigay sa chance passengers ang seats namin. Anong sabi nila? Wala pa boat nyo magantay kayo. WOW HA! Ok fine, at 4:15 we asked again, WALA PA DIN. At 4:45 we saw na nagstart na pumila ang mga tao na naghihintay ng MSL na boat so pumila na kami, when we saw it was Condor, we asked them nasan na yung Falcon na ferry? (coz yun nakalagay sa ticket namin and we want to follow it dahil ga sa capacity issue) Sabihan ba naman kami na walang ganun ganun na, basta may 4 na ferry na dadating within 5 minutes of each other at pumila at sumakay na lang kami and what did people do? EVERYONE CONVERGED NEAR THE BOAT TO GET THERE FIRST, TALAGANG UMALIS SA MGA PILA AND THE STAFF OF MSL DID NOT DO ANYTHING. I then saw Falcon ferry approaching and told my group we should go to the correct ferry like it says on our tickets for safety. Next thing I know, WE WERE 4TH IN LINE BUT THEY WERE CALLING FOR BIG GROUPS AGAIN, at this point nagkakatulakan na, I had my arms extended to protect my daughter dahil ayoko siyang maipit and when someone actually pushed me na resulting to hurting my daughter, my mommy instincts kicked in na I PUSHED EVERYONE AS IN EVERYONE ASIDE AND SHOUTED AT THEM NA "Sinasaktan nyo na anak ko umalis kayo! Tumabi kayo papasok na kami sa boat ALIISSS!" At that point, wala na sila magawa dahil talagang nakakatakot na daw itsura ko. NO ONE HURTS MY DAUGHTER! IF MSL ORGANIZED THE PEOPLE ACCORDING TO THE BOAT NAMES THAT IT STATES ON THEIR TICKETS HINDI MAGKAKAGANON, if the staff were competent hindi magkakagulo. BUT NO, THEY ARE LAZY AND HAS NO COURTESY WHATSOEVER for customers.
I truly hate Minolo Shipping and would like to file a complaint about them. Oh wait, did I mention that the ferry we were in pabalik ng Batangas Port was so full may mga NAKATAYO?
We will never ever ever go back to Puerto Galera again! EVER!
