Bathrooms on the ferry are disgusting and dirty. There is plenty of staff to clean but I don't know…read moreif the captain's failure or management failure. The entire ferry was very dirty. The staff was rude. I went out on the viewing deck which I guess is off limits which is strange. The best part of the boat. I killed five cockroaches and I was in business class.

If you're prefer not to fly to Bohol on an itty bitty plane, then the ferry from Cebu City might…read morejust be your best solution. But I suggest taking additional precautions should you be hopping on the ferry any time after sunset. Coming from the states, I had the option to fly direct from JFK to Hong Kong with a connection to Cebu City. So we did that, and spent one night in the city before jumping on our two hour ferry to Bohol, where we spent the majority of our time while in the Philippines. We stayed at The Henry Hotel, so from there it was only about a 20 minute cab ride to the pier. Since we didn't pre-purchase our reservations, we made sure to give ourselves plenty of time to purchase our ticket upon arrival. Although the lines were short, there were a lot of other additional steps to take and small fees to pay before we were ready to board. Traveling in both directions, the ferry did not depart at the scheduled time. Typically there was about a 20-30 minute delay and boarding was a bit crowded and slow. On the way to Bohol, we caught a mid day ferry and sat open-air which was enjoyable, but not if you'd like to watch the movie. (We could have cared less about the movie.) Since the ferry is pretty large, you probably won't feel sea sick and although the two hours can fly by, keep in mind that you'll be pretty cramped in your seats with virtually no leg room. On our way back to Cebu City, we took an evening ferry. Open air is not an option in the evening, so you will need to stay in the main cabin. Since you'll probably be dressed for the warm weather, it's definitely worth carrying a sweatshirt or jacket on board because the air conditioning will be cranked to the max. Biggest learning: Pre- arrange a pick up from the pier. The area gets a bit shady in the evening. There are fewer travelers, a different crowd of locals hanging around and the cab flow is limited. If you stray at all from the ferry building, you'll quickly notice a few seedy characters vying for your business in their "cabs" that are completely not legitimate. There was an attempt to lure us an entire block away to where on man had his cab, and the whole situation felt scary. We remained close to the well lit pier building and eventually was picked up by a legitimate cab. When we did get picked up, as our driver pulled off one of the guys hanging out around the pier rolled up on him, tapped on his window and put out his hand. Our driver then had to proceed with handing him over some money, then telling us once we were on the road that those guys will kill you. (And then motioned slitting of the neck.) While his English wasn't clear, his hand motion was VERY clear, so as you might imagine the rest of our cab ride was spent in fearful silence. So daytime travel, good. For night travel, please pre-arrange your pick-up transportation so that you're safe.