World Cruise--Hong Kong

Iconic Hong Kong. Buildings reaching into the sky at dizzying heights and stretching as far as the eye can see along the harbor’s edge. We arrived on a hazy morning, a little clouded over sky. There would be two days to explore this city, one that we had explored several times before (Hong Kong) so we did not book any excursions. Instead, we planned our own time there.

A week or so prior to our arrival we received notice that there would a World Cruise Banquet on the night we would spend there. Since we had to be ready early to be transported to the hotel where the gala affair was to be, it made changes to our plans. Sadly, the meetup with some friends had to be canceled. Their schedule and ours was not going to mesh.

We opted to get out of the main city and decided to take the Hop On Hop Off bus that would take us around Hong Kong island. The Hong Kong area is made up of several islands. While Hong Kong island had some city congestion, it also had some open areas and some resort type places that were not all steel and glass buildings towering above our heads.

Since we needed to use our phones on shore and on the ship (Hong Kong does not let you connect to Starlink for internet, so no internet on the ship), we opted for the AT&T international day pass. Ours is only $12/day and $6 for a second line. Whoo hoo! No sharing the internet for two days. A perfect decision.

Once we found our way through the Kai Tek terminal which used to be the airport for Hong Kong and to the “meet up” spot, Bob used his Uber app to call for a ride. The price was reasonable for what would be about a half hour trip to where we could catch the HOHO. It seemed to take the driver forever to find us but as the “ambassador” for the cruise terminal told us, it’s a long drive down the old runway and then a turn and drive back.

When he arrived we jumped in and were on our way. We needed to get to the central ferry station for the green line HOHO that we wanted to take. Surprisingly, for all the warnings about the possibility of heavy traffic, we arrived in about 20 minutes despite some backup going into the tunnel that connects to the Hong Kong island.

We scored the senior rate for the bus and began our trip around the island. Once away from the city area, the countryside changed to green trees and small mountains. One of the stops was for the famous Stanley Market but we’d been there before and opted to stay on the bus. It was getting close to noon though so we decided to hop off at the next stop which was Repulse Bay. There we found a small open air mall that was attached to either an apartment building or hotel, I’m not sure which but we found a restaurant called Spices. It was about our only choice as the other sit down restaurant was closed that day. Spices was exactly what the name implied. Food was a bit spicey as was the price but we ordered two small salads picked out the chili peppers and the cilantro and enjoyed a ginger tea and some kind of limeade that let you add your own sugar syrup to taste.

There wasn’t much we wanted to explore there as it was either climb up or down and up again to see more. We got on the next HOHO and finished our tour. When we arrived back at the central ferry terminal, our HOHO ticket allowed us a one way ferry trip so we used it to get back to the other side. The passenger ferry had lots of character and a huge engine that you could look down at through an open door.

We found another private car meet up point not far from the ferry, called another Uber and were back at the ship in plenty of time to do a load of laundry and get dressed for our World Cruise dinner. Unfortunately, I don’t think either of us was extremely impressed with the dinner. 

Our last world cruise on Crystal had been so wonderful that we were a little disappointed. A pre-dinner cocktail party lasted more than an hour. There were fans being personalized by a couple of men and some kind of flower being made for souvenirs but the fans ran out and the lines were so long that many of us just gave up.

With no place to sit down, we were relieved when we heard the call to go down to the ballroom for dinner. Now we were entertained by an acrobatic group and listened to two addresses by the captain and the president of Cunard. 

By the time dinner was served, it was almost nine o’clock, a little late for most people. We lucked out by leaving before dessert and catching the first bus back to the ship at 9:30. That meant we could get to bed at a reasonable time so we could get up for our next day’s adventure—Hong Kong Disney.

Once again we called an Uber and were happy to get a car quickly and move through the city without a lot of traffic tie ups. As a matter of fact, we arrived earlier than we expected but that was good as the line was already getting quite long to get in. We waited about forty-five minutes until they opened the security lines. Once through security, we were able to buy our tickets (again a senior discount) and wait in another line for about a half hour until the gate was opened.

Several announcements were made that once inside people should walk to their first ride. Sure enough, half of them ran. The Frozen attraction had recently opened and we expected that was where most were headed. We walked.

Adventureland. Fantasyland. Tomorrowland. We did it all. It’s really a small park and since there were several rides we passed on and we didn’t wait around to watch the shows, it only took about four and a half hours for us to finish, including lunch. 

Most of the attractions were very much like Disney World but often had a different twist to them. For example the Haunted Mansion at DW was call the Mystic Mansion here and differently themed. The tried and true It’s A Small World was the same and I hoped that the tune would work its way out of my head before too long. And now I’ve probably put it in yours. You’re welcome.

We were due back to the ship much earlier than the time we sailed. A new captain had come on replacing the one who was now going on vacation. He made the announcement that we would sail out in the direction that would allow us to see the nightly light show of Hong Kong harbor. 

The light show was not like I remembered which verifies our theory that seeing something a second time is never as good as the first.