Celebration upon celebration! Our birthdays being 15 days apart (well, technically, a year and 15 days), the hubby and I have been celebrating our birthdays these past weeks and we aren’t planning to stop just yet even as the month isn’t officially over.
We recently had a meaningful staycation at the Hyatt City of Dreams Manila Hotel. With the hustle and bustle of our daily grind, it was hard to find quality time even if we wanted to. Don’t get me started with our traffic woes that robs us of precious family time, week in and week out. This staycation was a way for us to enjoy each other’s presence minus the metro noise that we’re only glad to escape from even for just a day.
A 360-degree view of our room at Hyatt City of Dreams Manila.
Ours was a Superior Room with floor-to-ceiling windows, furnished in striped woods and warming shades of mustard, paprika and chocolate.
Marble-lined bathrooms equipped with a vanity, a standalone tub and walk-in shower. Love!
Our room was equipped with a fully-functioning work space with an ergonomic desk chair; a 42-inch LED HDTV with an interactive interface and a safe large enough to accommodate a laptop.
It took considerable will power for us to fight the urge of fishing the Mac out of the safe. Because the hubby and I have been kind of programmed to be productive, we thought, why not battle a backlog or two and some tasks out of the to-do list. But no. We knew we had to be present and give undivided attention to each other. How often do we get to do that anyway these days?
Not so much. Here’s where our frustration about the traffic comes in.
Seventeen hours. That’s the number of hours Jeff spends on work-related tasks, including 3 hours (sometimes 4) of driving to work and another 3 hours (sometimes 4) driving back home. To say traffic is wild these days is an understatement. I don’t know how much crazier it’s going to get when holiday traffic officially begins. You mean to say, this isn’t holiday traffic yet! O Lord, have mercy!
The 6-8 hours that the traffic steals from our family per day is considerable. Multiply that by 5 days, that’s 35 hours precious hours, we rather would spend with each other. Hours that can never be taken back. I mention this, why? Simple. Quality Time. Quality Time requires time and time is way too evasive because of our traffic situation. But even as we grieve this fact, our resolve is to continue to be intentional in pouring into our marriage.
So honeymoon, it is, whenever we get the chance. In marriages, the honeymoon euphoria eventually dwindles with time. If we do not become intentional about it, we might just end up having a “working partnership” rather than a “romantic relationship.” This is a sad picture of a lot of marriages these days, in this ever hustling and bustling world that we’re in. With the love that the Lord has poured into us to give to each other in all the 15 years of being married, we hunger for more of each other, even as we grow deeper in the Lord.
Marriage is God’s idea and is designed to present the picture of Christ’s relationship to His bride, the Church. While we’re aware that human marriage will always fall short and will never be able to perfectly mirror the divine – it has given us a picture of how the husband should love His bride, just as how Jesus has given Himself for His bride (the church) and how the Bride should be submission to her Bridegroom, just as the church is to Christ. It’s a divine mystery, that we are only too privileged to embrace and have a glimpse of even through this marriage. God isn’t done yet with our marriage, thank God, we remain to be His workmanship, open to His molding, correction and leading. 🙂
The 300 thread-count linen and non-allergenic feather pillows were ever so inviting. But we had to put off retiring until later that night. As we enjoyed and indulged ourselves in great food for dinner buffet at The Cafe. What’s a honeymoon without gastronomic feast, right?
The Cafe September Flash Deal: Book a table this September and avail of 50% discount on the buffet rate of every second person!
The promo includes a perk for the biggest table booking based on number of full-paying guests at the end of the month. At stake is a two-night hotel accommodation in a Boracay resort for two (2) persons with airfare.
Feel free to browse through photos we uploaded on Facebook for a virtual tour and to check out the dinner feast we enjoyed at The Hyatt City of Dreams Manila’s The Cafe. We loved every buffet spread there was at the Cafe.
This staycation became our cheat day even as The Cafe’s wide array of buffet stations were just so hard to resist. Not that we tried very hard. Haha! But I loved that there’s this station where “Healthy Shots” are available: Garden Island (Celery, Cucumber and Pineapple) and Apple Earl (Apple, Earl Grey Tea and Honey) and Slow Juices like watermelon and Cucumber.
There was also an option to have Gluten-Free Pasta and Pizza. Quinoa was available too. There’s room here even for the health buffs! 🙂
Make sure to try the best Carbonara in the metro. The chef at The Cafe whips up the Carbonara sauce from scratch (egg yolks), garnished with porchetta. I drool just remembering how good that was. I loved everything and plan to feature the buffet meals we had via MyTummyisFull.com. Watch out for that. Meanwhile, browse through the Facebook album for more food shots. 🙂
The Café is an interactive show-kitchen restaurant, where live culinary theatre is performed by experienced chefs at vibrant cooking and buffet stations, with hot dishes prepared à la minute to ensure freshness and optimum flavor. The counters at The Cafe, include: Italian, Grill and Griddle, Asian, Deli, Comfort Food & Favorites, and
Pastry.
This was what woke us up the next morning! Weren’t we given the loveliest room with the best view?
The hubby and I woke up the next morning in agreement that this is something we have to make time for. A getaway, alone in each other’s arms, every so often.
Entrance to the Salon, Pool and Fitness Center
We heeded the call of the pool and jumped in before breakfast.
After swimming, we made sure to be able to workout together that weekend.
Working out is something we aimed to do every weekend at least but has failed to do this last couple of months. We started off with planks. I always had to start with planking, otherwise it was impossible for me to do that one exercise routine, when I’m done with the rest.
While the hubby was working on low-intensity cardio on the treadmill, I worked on toning my flabby arms by lifting light dumbbells.
As we burned calories upon calories after the workout, we felt entitled to enjoy the scrumptious Buffet Breakfast at The Cafe.
Hyatt City of Dreams Manila offers a honeymoon package that includes a breakfast buffet for two at the Café, a bottle of wine and a box of pralines.
In our case, we were given a congratulations cake, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Feels like getting married all over again. As we renew our vows, hopefully, on December (our 15th wedding anniversary celebration), we are going to go on a honeymoon again! We might just go back to Hyatt City of Dreams to avail of their promo package.
Above was the instagram entry I posted almost 3 years ago, when the hubby went to his knees, asking me to marry him again. We are shooting to have an intimate renewal of vows on our 15th, if the Lord wills it.
Hyatt City of Dreams Manila was the perfect spot for our honeymoon staycation.
- A 5-minute drive to SM Mall of Asia, in case we needed to swing by the mall
- A 10-minute drive to/from the World Trade Center and Philippine Convention Center
- Close to intramuros to, in case, we felt rather nostalgic and would love to ride the kalesa or something. My husband and I can get pretty adventurous sometimes and we love new discoveries as we make more memories together.
I have to particularly note that The Hyatt City of Dreams is the ideal Airport hotel to stay in, with a mere 3-kilometer distance from Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Travelers can make sure they’ll get to the airport on time as they consider the metrowide traffic in Manila.
Fresh from our Hyatt CDO staycation, at the Mall of Asia. Recharged and reaffirmed.
Our Hyatt City of Dreams Honeymoon Staycation affirmed our resolve to continue to be intentional in our marriage. To get away and enjoy each other’s company like we recently just got married should be a constant thing! The goal is for our succeeding next honeymoons to be more special, even as we know each other more deeply than we did prior. O how lovely it is to be known and be loved! We strongly believe that this the heart of every person. Thank you Hyatt City of Dreams Manila for making this honeymoon and birthday staycation so worthwhile and extra special!
To learn more about Hyatt City of Dreams Manila, please visit www.codmanilahyatt.com.
