Going Places - Sky Ranch (Tagaytay)

Tagaytay City's "Sky Eye" Ferris Wheel.

I've heard of news that SM built a Ferris Wheel in Tagaytay this year. Apparently, it's the tallest Ferris Wheel in the Philppines. Well, we're in Tagaytay just last Saturday and before we leave, of course, we'd like to see the Ferris Wheel first! So, here we are. Welcome to "Sky Ranch", home of the tallest Ferris Wheel in the country, the "Sky Eye".

After parking our vehicle, we went straight in!

More pictures can be viewed after the break, people!

You can see the Horse Back Riding Area at the Parking Lot.

The Sky Eye, viewed from the Sky Ranch Entrance.

The Sky Ranch Entrance. Buy your tickets!

A ticket is worth ₱100. They have a 50% discount today, so we got ours for ₱50 each.

Let's go inside!

Here are the horses near the Sky Ranch Entrance. What is it with Tagaytay, Baguio, and horses?

Welcome to Sky Ranch! So many people!

At first glance, you'll think that "Hey, there's practically nothing here. The only thing interesting here is the Sky Eye!". And you are right, sir. The main attraction of Sky Ranch is the "Sky Eye". Aside from that, there's really nothing else to see. Ok, well, there's the "Super VIking", the only other "decent" ride out of the bunch. I'm sure SM Development is planning on building more awesome stuff in the future for the Sky Ranch. I mean, everybody can tell that most of it is still under construction. But if ever that you'd like to visit the Sky Ranch right now, you'll have to do with the Sky Eye.

Inside Sky Ranch. There's the "Sky Eye" and the "Super Viking".

Most of Sky Ranch is still under construction. That section, I guess, will be for restaurants and shops. That's the "Red Baron" ride, to the right.

Food stands, if you want to have snacks while on-board the Sky Eye.

Solo picture of one my favorite snacks, Potato Corner! The vendors are laughing at me. Hehe.

Other rides include a Carousel...

...and a coaster ride, the "Nessie Coaster". I'm sure kids will love this ride.

But we're here for the Sky Eye. Time to buy some tickets!

I've only realized just now that most of the pictures that I took are crap. That maybe because my family was in a hurry to scan the place. It's also very hard to just point the camera at the crowd. Most people don't like their pictures suddenly taken by someone they're not familiar with. Nevertheless, I still tried my best to capture as much photos as I can.

My family immediately bought tickets for the Sky Eye ride. We also immediately fell in line so we can get this over with.

A closer look at the Sky Eye's Carriage.

Here's an awesome view from underneath the Sky Eye.

Lots of metal bars to support the enormous Sky Eye.

I like this picture. The Sky Eye is pure white. Plain, but beautiful. I like it when they make it simple, yet stylish.

The line is very long. But, since the ride only gives you one loop around the Ferris Wheel, the line didn't take that long.

Oh, and there's a Mime.

It's almost our turn!

Looking closer at the Sky Eye's frame, here's the mechanism that makes it go spin-spin.

I also checked the carriage's connections. I don't know about you, but that doesn't look good. Somehow, I think that they should've used bigger nuts and bolts. Also, the actual connection... I feel uneasy. But I'm sure the engineers who built this thing knows what they're doing.

Time to get on-board! I'm a little scared ever since I saw the carriage's connections to the main frame... But that's just me getting paranoid.

Here's our carriage! I forgot to mention, by the way, that this is the first Ferris Wheel that I saw that has air-conditioning. Cool. Literally. Well, not really. But, we'll get to that in a moment.

Up we go! The line outside is starting to build-up again.

We're getting higher... (Look, we're on carriage # 15.)

Getting higher...

There's the Taal Volcano.

Getting really high now. We're halfway up.

The food stands are getting smaller. I forgot to buy French Fries for the ride. Aww..

We're almost at the top! Here's the Sky Ranch's Entrance.

Here's the "Super Viking". Looks like he doesn't want to look down. LOL.

Ooh! Here's the metal bar that's holding our carriage! We're almost at the top! Once it hits the middle part of our carriage...

Sky Eye's highest point!

Crap, I wasn't able to get a decent picture of the Taal Volcano...

Here's the Parking Area, viewed from the highest point of the Sky Eye.

And here's the rest of Tagaytay City, viewed from the highest point of the Sky Eye.

The carriage next to us is empty. Huh.

Now, we're going down. We can see the other side of the Sky Ranch, most of which are still under construction.

We can see the line again.

And, with just one loop, the ride was done. Was the ride worth it? For ₱150? I guess it is, for the experience. I mean, it's sort of a "must-try" to most people. After all, it IS the tallest Ferris Wheel in the country. But the overall ride, for me, was not worth it. It's too expensive for just 1 loop. Also, I don't know if it's just with our carriage, but the air-conditioning is very ineffectual. We were sweating like crazy during the entire loop! Not a good experience for me, especially when I think that this is their main attraction. But I think that it's very smart of them in making the ride just one loop long. I remember my Ferris Wheel ride in Enchanted Kingdom where they waited first for all the carriages to be full, then do another full loop. By making the ride just one loop long, they avoided long lines of waiting customers. But the main experience was compromised.

Anyway, now that that's done, we can scan the rest of the place. I wanted to try the "Super Viking", but no one else wants to ride it with me. So... Skip.

The "Super Viking" and its ticket booth.

The "Super Viking" in action.

There's nothing else to see. We sat beside one of the cottages for a breather. You can't sit inside, the cottages are for rent. Although I guess they didn't foresee that visitors will rest/loiter around it. I don't think most people would like to rent a cottage that looks like this. (By the way, is this just Sky Ranch's attempt in mimicking Tagaytay's Picnic Grove?)

The only thing left to see is the Taal Volcano.

It's very windy and you also get a great view of the Taal Lake and Volcano from here.

There's the Taal Volcano. I should consider actually going there, one of these days.

You can say during your visit in the Sky Ranch that you get this bonus. A great view of the Taal for free. Well, that's if you forgot that you paid ₱100 just to actually get in here.

Last, but not least, here is the Sky Eye viewed from the cottages.

It's time to leave Sky Ranch. If you still want to come back within the day, you can get this stamp so that you won't have to pay another ₱100.

That's everything, really. I'm sure that while you're checking the pictures above, you can see that there are other rides aside from the Sky Eye and the Super Viking, but those rides are for children. So, if you have kids, I'm quite certain that they're gonna have a blast here. If it's just you, and you're a young adult, you'll have very limited choices.

We'll visit Sky Ranch again, someday. Once the construction is done. Their logo is similar to the "Sky Cable". LOL.

Well, that's it for our trip in Tagaytay. See you in the next post!