New Year's Eve Dinner and Countdown to 2013 in Hotel H20

Last year, we spent 2012 New Year’s Eve in Dusit Thani Manila (one of my dad’s clients) and enjoyed their Crossover Buffet and Countdown to 2012. It was our first time to experience celebrating the New Year that way. Thanks to my parents for giving us the tickets.

This year, there were no tickets sold to my dad since they probably knew he had a stroke. Hubby and I also didn’t want to buy tickets since it costs Php4,000 each (inclusive of Crossover dinner buffet and countdown). Masakit sa bulsa!

Celebrating in our own home was also an option but it will only be the three of us. I’m used to celebrating New Year with lots of people around me in my parents house when I was still single, making lots of noises, firecrackers, videoke, etc. It was so much fun! If it will only be the three of us, for sure, Kelsea’s already asleep by midnight (and maybe my sleepyhead hubby too). So we decided to look for a venue with a countdown to 2013.

There were free countdown parties in Mall of Asia, Rockwell and Ayala-Makati but too many will be there. On the other hand, almost all the known hotels had very expensive countdown tickets. Minimum is Php2,500.

Luckily, I found from a blog site (i forgot which one), that Hotel H2O offers a dinner buffet and countdown to 2013. Their New Year’s Eve Dinner Buffet is Php999 while the countdown is Php599 (inclusive of noise makers, cocktail drinks and pica-pica). We were supposed to pay Php1,598 each but we only paid Php1,200 each since we bought both the dinner buffet and countdown tickets. No fee for Kelsea. Reservation was needed so I called the hotel on that same day. I was surprised to know that there were still a lot of available slots knowing that there were only a few hours left before midnight.

It was only a 30-minute drive from our place in Cavite to Manila Ocean Park (MOP) where Hotel H2O is located. Hotel parking is only for check-in guests so we were asked to park in MOP’s parking area.

Here’s info about their offer (sorry for the flash)….

I was excited to see what’s inside Hotel H2O but unfortunately, the celebration was not held inside the hotel but in a function room (at the back of the Christmas tree below) inside Manila Ocean Park.

Guess where Kelsea was 🙂

The acoustic duo was already playing when we arrived.

Here are pictures of the food…

Bread and Macaroni Salad

Rice and viands

Appetizers

Pasta Station

Pudding

Fruit cocktail and Mango Sago Float

Chocolate Fountain…no fruits dips 🙁

I think there were 30 round tables good for 8pax each table. We were only three so we get to share the table with a couple.

Now, where was Kelsea?

Sleeping Beauty

Dinner was served from 7 pm to 9:30 pm. Then, we attended mass at 9:45 pm held in another function room.

After the mass, we went back again to the previous function room for the countdown but before that, we had our family photo taken.

Ay, hindi marunong kumuha ng magandang shot si chief! Gising na si Kelsea 🙂

Our noise makers……

My cocktail drink Ocean Breeze (I forgot to ask what alcoholic drinks it comprises of) and pica-pica….

The show band was ready to party….and so were the girls below…

Violet gets to party too 🙂

And when it was countdown time, we all went out to see the fireworks prepared by Hotel H2O.

It was actually disappointing because it was just like only 5 minutes or less. So after that, we just watched the fireworks showdown of Sofitel and MOA. All I can say is WOW! I think that was 15 minutes of fireworks display.

We went back inside and stayed for a few more minutes. And we had our first family picture for 2013 taken…