Tigerlily75

And some last pictures from around town. The star ferry, Peninsula Hotel, Pottinger Street, a dragon lantern And the offerings at McDonald’s! some streetscapes:

Finishing up in Hong Kong - I totally could have stayed another week or two! We skipped the hotel breakfast again (seriously, don’t book a hotel package with breakfast in a place full of good food, it’s just a waste!) and headed out for dim sum: It was so good!

A quick update on the passport situation. I spoke to a lovely man at guest services, and the passports are with Chinese immigration officials who are onboard processing them. He understood our situation perfectly and they’ve had this problem before. Bottom line - it’s up to the Chinese officials if the actual passport will be released in time, it’s really out of HAL’s hands. We will be given a stamped copy of our passport, and can only hope we get the actual passport too. He took our cabin number and will follow up with us. If not, we can then hope the fact our copy is stamped by immigration officials might be enough. I suspect not, but we could always try. And failing all that, then we just don’t go into the park. That’s just the way things go when travelling to foreign lands. And we already know we’d like to come back to China in the future and see it properly, so we could always just do it then!

We are on board and sailing! It’s a little rocky, hoping my SeaBands stand the test of time. I will be back later to update properly and post the last of my Hong Kong photos. Meanwhile I need to finish my coffee, shower and get myself coherent before heading to guest services to beg for my passport for Shanghai. Shanghai Disneyland will absolutely not let us in without a physical passport. They don’t accept copies. HAL already made us get unnecessary visas by not telling us until yesterday that the 144 hour visa free channel will indeed be open, they can at least give me my passport with my visa inside! There’s a Shanghai port talk and Q&A at 10am, which sadly clashes with the cruise critic meet and greet. But if guest services don’t really know the answer I might have to skip it and go seek an answer there, which would be a shame. Stay tuned! On the upside - the ship is beautiful, our upgraded cabin is fantastic, and dinner was delicious! It’s going to be a great cruise. More later!

Yes! Technically, they are “trail runners” but .. I won’t be doing any running on any trail.. but it’s a good comfortable shoe that can take you from city to country!

Dinner tonight was at the michelin starred Yat Lok. This was another efficiency place - you eat, you leave! Hong Kong roasted meats are something else, We had crispy pork and, for the first time, roasted goose. It was so good!

They make rings out of old coins: My daughter bought one: Our little haul today: We went back to sneaker street and I got these: We found the very popular Mobile Softee truck right outside the store: It was meant to be:

We found this cute little shop called Bunkaya Zakatten, selling a mix of vintage & new items as well as things of their own design:

After our late start we headed to Australia Dairy Co, famous for its previously mentioned efficiency, and incredible scrambled eggs. You’ll queue, but it doesn’t take long, and then you’ll share a table with strangers. We ordered the lunch set with ham. Do not be fooled by appearances, it’s delicious. Those scrambled eggs really are the best you’ll ever eat, and the macaroni soup is pretty good too. We followed up with Steamed Milk Pudding, also delicious!

I love this. Found at Jordan MTR station. It plays music, I’m assuming so visually impaired people can find it, and it has a map of the station in braille.

We are having a very slow morning here in Hong Kong. We decided last night not to set any alarms and take the day as it comes. My daughter is still asleep at 10am, so we’ll miss the hotel breakfast which is fine, so many good places to eat in HK, so little time! We might head to Australia Dairy Company, a famous cha chaan teng known for its peak Hong Kong efficiency. If you’ve seen the “soup ***” episode of Seinfeld, it’s a bit like that! I’m still unsure of the connection to Australia, perhaps the dairy really does come from Australia. Then I think we’ll head over to Central (and take the Star Ferry!). At some point, I want to head back to Sneaker Street in Mong Kok, since I decided I want a particular pair of sneakers I saw there after all ..

I look forward to meeting you! Have a great cruise.

Ok, some hotel photos: Also, there’s an Asian section for breakfast we only discovered after finishing eating yesterday. I wondered where people were getting noodles from!

Here are some of the hotel - Eaton HK. It has bars and restaurants etc, I’ll try and get some pictures of them, we haven’t spent much time exploring the hotel. But here’s our room and breakfast. I had thought I’d booked a room with two twin beds, but this category of room (Signature Eaton) doesn’t have that option, so I messed up there. But for 4 nights it doesn’t really matter. It’s in a good location, a 4 minute walk from Jordan MTR station. Oh wait, I’ve just typed this on my iPad and the photos are on my phone! I’ll switch and put them in the next post:

Thank you! Mong Kok is particularly crowded, but the rest of Hong Kong is fine. I think at least at one point, the small area of Mong Kok was the most densely populated place on the planet. Or maybe just one of them. But even with the heavy crowds, it feels very safe here.

I would have loved to have seen Disneyland in the beginning! As a child I always wanted to visit, but I lived so far away and my family didn’t have the means (and probably not the desire!). So it seemed an impossible dream in a far away land. It really felt so magical when I finally got to go as an adult.

That’s an extensive history on the Westerdam, I’m so looking forward to boarding! As a tourist there’s certainly no noticeable difference here in HK. As you said the good people are all still here, the shops are the same, and the transport, the sights, and even the heavy British influence is all still here. Google and Facebook etc all work with no restrictions. There are government warnings out for the new broad security laws both here and in the mainland, but no one is being snatched off the streets. I think it’s more of a concern for people for people who might work in “tricky” fields, like journalism or international relations government type jobs, doing some type of business on their trips. Then I would think twice. But there’s been no feeling of concern as an everyday tourist going out and about doing everyday tourist things. If I never watched the news I honestly wouldn’t know anything had changed.

A few photos from today - Hong Kong Disneyland - the littlest of them all! It was hard to get good pics today with the glaring sun. I don’t know what the temperature got to, but walking around Disneyland was very hot and humid. As a result we felt pretty done by 5pm, and ended up leaving at about 6.30. I never thought I’d leave before the fireworks! But with sore feet, and feeling tired, hot and sweaty, we decided to leave after just a couple more things to see and do. My conclusion for HK Disneyland is that it’s a fun day out, but it lacks the magic and wow factor of the US parks. So it’s good to go if you’re here anyway (if you like Disney parks), but it’s not a destination park. Crowd wise it was great in the morning, but by afternoon it was very very crowded, especially the new World of Frozen. There were even roped queues to get into the shops. I think WOF would definitely have the wow factor, it’s just hard to enjoy when it’s that crowded! Winners of the day ride wise were Frozen Ever After and Mystic Manor. I really loved Mystic Manor! Loser was Hyoerspace Mountain - while still fun, it just wasn’t as immersive as Anaheim, and you could see the tracks when it was supposed to be dark which kind of ruins it. The parade was exceptionally tiny too! What I loved was the celebration for Chinese New Year - Year of the Dragon. I assume there’ll be more of that at Shanghai, which I’m looking forward to! Also, Mickey speaking Cantonese was pretty fun too. I hope we can last the day in Shanghai, our driver is picking us up after the fireworks. It will be cold there though, which I much prefer over heat and humidity! The cute train from Sunny Bay station to Disneyland: New Year Celebrations: World of Frozen: Mystic Manor: And the castle!

That worked! Here’s some more - Hak Dei, around Mong Kok, and our little shopping haul: I love the bamboo scaffolding: Kam Wah Cafe & Cake Shop:

I love Hong Kong. People are so kind. If you look even remotely confused, someone will help you. Today we went and saw some public housing architecture including Peng Shek Estate, ate at some cha chaan chengs for Hong Kong style French toast and pineapple buns and egg tarts, wandered Nan Lian gardens, shopped at a lovely kitchenware store (Hak Dei), got a Made in Hong Kong Camel flask, did some other shopping and wandered some more around Mong Kok including Flower Street and Sneaker Street. The caramel egg tarts at Tai On Coffee & Tea Shop are to die for! It’s time for bed, and tomorrow we go to Disneyland. Ok here goes my first attempt at posting multiple pictures: Choi Hung Estate Ping Shek Estate Nan Lian Gardens Tai On Coffee & Teas Shop

Looking forward to sailing with you! And feel free to jump in anytime with your own experiences. Thanks for the explanation of the categories - that makes sense!

We made it to Hong Kong! It’s 6.40am now on Wednesday morning, we arrived at the hotel about 4pm yesterday. Very tired since our flight had left home at half past midnight and neither of us sleep on planes. MH was .. okay. They got us here, that’s the main thing, but old planes and old entertainment systems. Immigration was a breeze, and we got the A21 bus to our hotel for about $4 each. We are staying at Eaton HK, on Nathan Road, about a 4 minute walk from Jordan MTR station. I’ll take some pics later. Hooefully after today and going forward I’ll have some good pictures to share, we were just in recovery mode last night - showers, food, bed. I was probably asleep by 8.30! We got our cabin assignment!! Balcony towards aft on Deck 6. That was definitely worth waiting for. “VD” category if that means anything to anyone, I don’t understand the categories. But it looks good and I’m very happy!

We made it through the very long and slow MH bag drop off line - almost everyone had overweight baggage and they are pretty strict. Security was a breeze though! Sitting at the gate now, and will have a 3 hour stopover in Kuala Lumpur. and then, Hong Kong! The daily schedule has started filling out on Navigator, and my daughter was very excited about the History of China talks with Dr Kam. She studied history at Uni and did her dissertation on China. I remember reading about him in someone’s live, so I will go and try to find that again. We still don’t have a cabin assignment which makes me nervous, but guaranteed means guaranteed, right?

The hard part of travelling: explaining to lil Lemon that she too is going on a holiday and promising I will be back in 4 weeks to pick her up!

Thank you! I was looking at TeamLabs and wasn’t sure whether to do Planets or Borderless. Planets does seem to be the most popular. I will look at getting tickets.