Recently a group of friends and myself had the pleasure of taking a Manila Bay dinner cruise with Sun Cruises, located at CCP Terminal A. CCP Complex, Roxas Boulevard, Manila, Philippines. The cruise lasted about 2 hours and provided some beautiful views of the city of Manila and also the sunset over the Manila Bay. The cost per person is ₱550 (approx. 13 USD) and included dinner.
We arrived about an hour early to meet our group and to find the place which is located near the Folk Art Theatre at Manila Bay. We went to the first building that said Sun Cruises and although a sing offered a shuttle to the dock location, we were told we needed to walk there, which was a bit of an annoyance, but at such a low price we did not complain and walked about 3-4 blocks to the docking area. At the docking area there is a small table set up with an agent that issues boarding passes and a small tent with chairs to wait for boarding.
Sun Cruises asks that all guests arrive 30 minutes before departure to secure their boarding passes. They only allow you about 15-20 minutes to get the boarding pass so make sure you are there on time as they will not entertain late guests. There menu varies, and the agent that was checking us in did not know what the menu was that night, which was a bit frustrating as we had one in our party that could not eat certain foods. The menu this night was Egg Drop Soup, Battered Fish with cucumber cream sauce, roasted pork with hoisin sauce, boiled potatoes, and rice. They give you cold water to drink, but offer other beverages at an additional charge. The food was okay, but not great. The pork was quite tough although the sauce was tasty, and the cucumber cream/tartar sauce that was served with the fish was very good. There was a small bug in my rice, but in fairness to them, we were dining outside, and it could have flown in from the ocean so I did not complain.
We departed close to on time, and dinner was quickly served and there was live entertainment in the form of a singer and a guy accompanying her on guitar. The girl sang nice and the music was mellow, but a bit too loud. As we went during the middle of the week, there were not a lot of guests on the cruise, I think including our group, there were maybe 14-15 total, and we were all seated on the upper deck. The lower deck had seating as well and was an enclosed air-conditioned area. The restrooms were clean and adequate.
After quickly finishing our meal we moved around the boat to enjoy the views and take photos of the bay and the sunset. We were lucky on this trip as we saw a rainbow over the city. The ocean breeze made the warm day nice and all in all, our group enjoyed the trip. The cruise lasts about 1 and 1/2 hours and for the price it is well worth it.