Live: Dec 22 2023 Solstice 12 Night Thailand & Vietnam Holiday Cruise!

[mchell810]

On 1/1/2024 at 6:19 PM, mahdnc said:

Here are some photos of our balcony cabin aboard the Paradise Grand during our Halong Bay overnight excursion:

 

 

Just catching up with the last couple of days.

 

The Paradise Grand looks lovely!  I agree those "banquet" tables would awkward.  I am glad your cruise went well; I hope you will post a bit about your time in Hong Kong.

 

[mahdnc]

10:45 am: All Solstice debarkation groups were called ("everyone off the ship!").

10:52 am: We are in line to go through immigration

 

11:00 am: We arrive at baggage claim to get our 3 suitcases in Group 27 which are really easy to find.

 

11:08 am: We exit the terminal and line up in the long taxi queue line.  It's long, but it is moving

 

11:20 am: We get to the front of the line only to find out the taxis here in modern day Hong Kong take cash only, no credit cards!  There are no nearby ATMs, I am directed to a currency exchange office which is just inside the terminal from where we are.  There is a small line at the currency exchange.  I give them $100 USD and receive $740 HKD.

 

11:37 am: We get into our taxi (van).  We are taken to the Ritz Carlton in West Kowloon ($142 HKD).

 

11:55 am: We are dropped off at the hotel and we check in.

 

12:14 pm: We are in our room.  It has a beautiful view of the harbor.

 

[cavaaller]

Thanks again form this marvellous review!

I hope you have a wonderful post cruise stay and a safe trip back home!

 

[Viveash]

On 1/2/2024 at 4:28 PM, mahdnc said:

It’s hard for me to make an apples to apples comparison with food and dining service on this sailing because this is our first cruise dining at Blu.

 

However I found that I didn’t like the menu that much although the service was good. I ordered at least one course from the MDR menu during the six dinners we had there (we ate twice away from the ship and four times at the specialty restaurants). 
 

We ate several breakfast and lunches at ther Oceanview Cafe and MDR and I was fine with the food and service.

 

We ate at Murano and Tuscan Grill twice each and service and food were top notch. 
 

 

We skipped Le Petite Chef on this cruise. 

 

 

Thanks for your reply to my queries. Glad to hear that food quality is still as good as we remember it to be.

When dining in Luminae on previous cruises, we have also occasionally ordered a dish from the MDR menu.

Once again thanks for your overall trip report so far and pics along the way. It has been great to, in a way, "share" the experience with you.

Enjoy Hong Kong and safe travels home.

[Bullswood]

Did you have any ship internet for last days? We are waiting to depart and no connection so pretty concerned about our “premium” purchase. Stii using own shore connection.

[mahdnc]

37 minutes ago, Bullswood said:

Did you have any ship internet for last days? We are waiting to depart and no connection so pretty concerned about our “premium” purchase. Stii using own shore connection.

 

I was not happy with the internet overall.  Although I haven't done it, I will post the speed test results for the different days that I measured it. Some days were ok, many were not.

 

Note that our sailing between Halong Bay and Hong Kong (includes the At Sea Day) was affected by Starlink not always being available while we were in Chinese Territorial waters.  Here were the images on the iLounge desktops (alternated with the login instructions).  So that should be affecting you right now.  Run up to the iLounge on Deck 6 and talk to one of the techs there for a clearer explanation.

 

Edited January 3 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

We had a view of the beautiful Hong Kong sunset from our room--pretty much right at the same time that Solstice pulled away from the dock.  

 

 

For a while, I thought that our hotel room would afford us a view of Solstice as she sailed out of Hong Kong. But after looking at our track coming into Hong Kong (screenshot below), I see that we approached the pier from the east.  Our hotel is west of the pier.  Darn, we will not see Solstice sail by us after all.  

 

 

Looks like I will have to wait until Apr 2025 to see her again when we board her in Sydney to do the 17 night Transpacific sailing to Honolulu.

[mahdnc]

Incidentally, here is a time lapse video of our sail into Hong Kong before sunrise: link

[Farthings45]

Wonderful review, thank you so much for sharing with us.

[Torfamm]

Thanks for the fantastic review and hope the rest of your trip goes smoothly!

[alyssamma]

Thank you so much for the detailed and excellent review...it is greatly appreciated 

[mahdnc]

1 hour ago, alyssamma said:

Thank you so much for the detailed and excellent review...it is greatly appreciated 

 

I never was able to go back to Guest Relations to re-ask your S2S question about bags in Singapore.  Sorry about that.

[mahdnc]

Good night from Hong Kong....

[Visitors4]

Thank you for this very good, informative cruise report! Your itinerary is one that we had booked in the past but had to cancel for variety of reasons including the pandemic. We hadn't consider booking it again as we weren't sure from reading vs. reality how accessible the countries were to travelers. Now, we're definitely putting it back on our radar for future cruise! Happy new year and more wonderful and exciting travels to all! 

[alyssamma]

2 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

I never was able to go back to Guest Relations to re-ask your S2S question about bags in Singapore.  Sorry about that.

Lol not a problem at all. You went above and beyond as it was...thank you again!

[mahdnc]

After we checked in yesterday, we went to a food truck center in West Kowloon for a quick lunch. 

 

 

Then we went to the M+ Museum which is a modern art museum located within easy walking distance from our hotel.

 

 

Although I am not an art enthusiast, I found some of the exhibits interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And of course there were interesting architectural elements.

 

 

Edited January 4 by mahdnc

[NMTraveller]

15 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

I was not happy with the internet overall.  Although I haven't done it, I will post the speed test results for the different days that I measured it. Some days were ok, many were not.

 

Note that our sailing between Halong Bay and Hong Kong (includes the At Sea Day) was affected by Starlink not always being available while we were in Chinese Territorial waters.  Here were the images on the iLounge desktops (alternated with the login instructions).  So that should be affecting you right now.  Run up to the iLounge on Deck 6 and talk to one of the techs there for a clearer explanation.

 

Premium on Millie was slow also.  I suspect that it was due to a large number of upgrades to premium internet…

[mahdnc]

For today we had pre-arranged for a guide through Tours By Locals to do a full day tour to get us oriented to the city in preparation for our 5 nights in Hong Kong.  The cost for the tour was $798 USD which is pretty expensive however the guide we hired had an excellent resume'.

 

Virginia took us on the MRT to Hong Kong Island and taught us how to buy and use the Octopus Card.  She educated us on the MRT system itself and some tips that will help us cut down on rookie/tourist mistakes.

 

Our first stop was at Statue Square where there used to be statues of British royalty leftover from the British colonial period.  All of the statues were removed by the Japanese however one statue was ultimately returned back to the square (one of the founders of the Hong Kong bank, HSBC):

 

 

On the east side of the square stands the old Supreme Court built during the colonial period.  The building is in the photo below right behind the fountain.

 

 

Our guide (Virginia) pointed out the various tall buildings and discussed their history and how feng shui was incorporated in their external design.

 

We also saw an interesting scaled map composed of lights on the ground which among other things, showed the Hong Kong Island shoreline which changed over time because of land reclamation.

 

Edited January 4 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

We then took the tram to Victoria Peak for a panoramic view of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island.  This was a special request by me to visit not just because it is a major tourist attraction, but also because my mom and dad had their first date there over 60 years ago. 

 

Because she knew I liked to take photographs, she made sure we was sitting on the correct side of the tram to get a good view and photo (going up and down).  Getting the best seats can be somewhat of a free for all which she warned us about.  As we were seated and waiting for the tram to start, Ceri (@Bloss20) was also on the tram and she saw us first and came by to say hi.  That was a very nice coincidence and nice of her to say hi.  We previously enjoyed the company of Ceri and her family during guided tours of two different ports in Vietnam.

 

Virginia offered us the option to pay to go to the Sky Terrace which we declined as we decided to go to the viewpoints that did not cost extra but were essentially as good.  In the photo below, Hong Kong Island is in the foreground, Victoria Harbour is in the middle, and Kowloon is in the background.  the hotel we are staying at is the very tall skyscraper in the background all the way to the left.  

 

 

Compared to the rest of the ports that we visited so far (including Singapore) Hong Kong weather is quite cool (high of 70 degF) and when we were at Victoria Peak, it was even chillier.  I regretted not bring my sweatshirt with me (left it in the hotel room), but I survived.

 

 

Edited January 4 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

Virginia then took us to a dim sum restaurant in Hong Kong Island.  It is a very authentic restaurant pretty much frequented by locals.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 4 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

We took the famous and historic Star Ferry back to Kowloon.  The ride across Victoria Harbour was fairly quick but with lots of fine views.

 

 

We got a nice view of our hotel which is housed in the upper floors of the tallest building in Hong Kong--the International Commerce Centre.

 

 

We also saw the cruise ship, Vasco de Gama (Nicko Cruises) which we saw in Singapore and Halong Bay. 

 

 

[mahdnc]

I need to circle back and talk about the dim sum lunch mentioned two posts earlier.

 

The lunch was the highlight of the day for me.  It is not a restaurant that is tourist friendly and requires an education in local habits and customs--an education that our guide was able to provide.  In fact if my wife and I had showed up to this particular restaurant by ourselves, we would have run away after 2 minutes.

 

 

The system for seating is a free for all.  You are not seated by a restaurant employee nor is there a line to wait to be seated.  You have to share a table with others.  The custom for getting a seat when the restaurant is full is to stand behind a seat that you think will be vacated.  To increase our odds for gettig a seat, our guide had my wife and I stake out seats at two different tables while she looked around for a potential 3rd table.  I didn't know whether to be annoyed at our guide for not setting up something in advance or to be appreciative of this very foreign experience (in the end it was the latter for me).

 

A regular local patron of the restaurant recognized our guide and, voila, in short order we had 3 seats at a table crammed in a corner.  Virginia's seat was next to a tea kettle of hot water and she asked if she could hang her bag on the back of my chair lest the bag get melted by the hot tea kettle if she hung it on the back of hers.  Another gentleman seated in the corner was also a regular patron.  He recognized the Celebrity logo on my tee shirt and mentioned that he saw Solstice the day before from his home.

 

 

Then Virginia proceeded to teach us how to properly clean our chopsticks, cup, and spoon using hot tea that is poured into a larger bowl which is used as a tiny wash basin.  I was so amazed (and a bit horrified) that we had to do all this that I forgot to take photos.

 

Our guide explained that she was taking us to a place so authentic with the locals that we would never have gone on our own as tourists--so I totally got it as far as why we were there.  It was like we had a family member from Hong Kong taking us to a local restaurant that she frequents.

 

 

I had the presence of mind to take out my iPhone and I immediately started a FaceTime video call with my parents who lived in Hong Kong in the 1940's and 50's.  They now live in Kentucky and it was late in the evening for them when I called.  The restaurant was so loud that I didn't (and couldn't) bother to talk to my parents to tell them why I called (they knew I was in Hong Kong). I just engaged the camera in the back of the phone and let them watch the scenery in the restaurant, the people, the carts, the chaos, our table, and us washing our cups and eventually getting our dim sum.  In their 90's and no longer able to travel, I wanted to give them a live view of their old home and perhaps a glimpse of their life in the past.  Although I could not hear what my mom was saying, I could see her watching intently with very wide eyes.  That moment was the highlight of the tour and my day.

 

Edited January 4 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

I will stop now and post the rest of the tour tomorrow.  Good night from Hong Kong.

 

 

Edited January 4 by mahdnc

[goofysmom99]

1 hour ago, mahdnc said:

We also saw the cruise ship, Vasco de Gama (Nicko Cruises) which we saw in Singapore and Halong Bay. 

 

 

I sailed her when she was the Statendam, one of her previous lives.

[cococruiser]

Many thanks for such a wonderful review. We board Solstice in HKG on 27th Jan. I’ve enjoyed every minute of your trip! Wishing you a safe onward journey.