George and Peter Lines from Zamboanga
Recently I took a ferry trip on George and Peter Lines in the Philippines. I traveled between Zamboanga City and Cebu City. All in all, I would rate it a 4 on a scale of 1 to 5 in terms of quality of the trip. A trip report of the ferry cruise follows.
In Zamboanga City, I visited the George and Peter Lines Office on Rizal Street. They had four classes of service. Normal deck passage, Green Room and Yellow Room for 870 pesos. The tourist class was 1700 pesos. I opted for Yellow Room passage and told it was their tourist economy air con class.
Upon arrival at the Port of Zamboanga, I decided to use the porters. Bad Idea. Normally a porter is happy with 50 pesos per large bag. Not at the Port of Zamboanga. Porters at the Port of Zamboanga demand extraordinary prices. They asked me for 500 pesos for 4 bags. A Filipino family traveling on the same boat were demanded 400 pesos for their 4 bags. Both us argued with the porters and paid 250 pesos each. I guess it works for the porters, they still get more than the normal price, but I, for one, won’t be using the porters there again. They’re a black eye on the Port of Zamboanga.
The Yellow room was below the main deck. It was large room. The bunks were in good condition, they’re were easily 100 bunks in the room, but it was only about 25% full or less. The air conditioning system seemed to be adequate for the room and the TV in the corner had a nice selection of movies playing. The rest rooms were just about the door and were relatively clean and there was even a shower stall available.
It seemed like most of the George and Peter Lines’ Zamboanga was newly painted and it looked there was good upkeep of the vessel, at least on the surface. The one negative I would say about the facilities was the Dining Saloon. Prices were ok and quality was for a ferry, but one of the attendants was a bit surly and not very polite. Additionally, the chairs were permanently attached to the floor and if you are Filipino sized, it’s easy to sit down, but if you aren’t, it’s tough to sit down and eat. George and Peter Lines could solve this and increase profitability by putting a few plastic chairs in the corner for larger people can sit at the table.
The boat arrived in Dumaguete at 7:30 am and left Dumaguete on time at 10am. It arrived on time in Cebu and I was off the boat at 4:15pm.
One Response to “George and Peter Lines from Zamboanga”
By Rudy Kintanar on Apr 29, 2008 | Reply
Your comments regarding the porters are very appropriate. Port authorities need to discipline them. They are a black eye to the tourist industry.
They want to fleece you and squeeze every penny from you.