Review: Crowne Plaza Galleria

Crowne Plaza Galleria
Ortigas Avenue cor. Asian Development Bank Avenue
Quezon City 1100

Reden and I stayed at the Crowne Plaza Galleria at Ortigas Centre on December 9 and 10 for our pseudo-honeymoon (pseudo because it wasn't really a honeymoon).

The hotel was fully booked at that time due to the Philippine Council of Surgeons' event. When we were checking in, we were made to choose between a twin room and an accessible room without a bathtub. We chose the latter since we preferred having a king-size bed over a bathtub.

The room was spacious and the door to the bathroom was wide enough to fit not only a wheelchair, but two wheelchairs. The bathroom was spacious as well and had steel railings at the shower and toilet areas. Unfortunately, we only had a view of the roof of the adjacent building but it didn't matter as much as the room's cleanliness. Fortunately, the room was spotless, didn't have weird odors and everything was in order.

On our first day, we ordered bentos from for lunch. The food arrived in about 30 minutes, was warm and plated nicely. I already forgot what we ate but I remember the food being really, really salty! The dessert was good though. We went out and when we came back in the evening, the room has been cleaned and the bed was made, which was nice.

The following morning we enjoyed a buffet breakfast at Corners. The choices were overwhelming but we managed to try everything. There were traditional Filipino fare (garlic rice, crispy dried fish, longganisa and taho), Chinese food (dumplings, congee), Japanese (maki for breakfast, anyone?) Western treats and pastries. They served coffee, tea, soy milk and fruit juices as well. We were kinda expecting the food to be salty but were relieved that everything tasted the way it should. I like the breakfast food more in Corners than in Circles in Shangri-La Makati and about the same way I like breakfast fare at the Hilton in Cebu.

After breakfast we walked to the pool area. The Crowne Plaza shares their pool with Holiday Inn so we were surprised that it's so small and not very inviting. It's like an over sized kids pool! But if you're in Ortigas, you wouldn't want to swim anyway. Shop, that's what you do. We chose the hotel for its proximity to several malls, including Robinson's Galleria (which was connected to the hotel), SM Megamall and The Podium (where The Spa is located). It was also close to Eastwood City, where Ate Laddie and her family were staying. If the traffic were not so bad, travel time from Eastwood to Galleria might only be 30 minutes max. Crowne Plaza was also quite close to UP Village where my in-laws were staying.

The service was good as well. Everyone we encountered were polite and had smiles on their faces. They even spoke in English even if we spoke to them in Tagalog!

Overall, the Crowne Plaza Galleria was a good choice and we might just stay there again if we're in Manila and need to be in Ortigas.