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

[mahdnc]

29 minutes ago, goofysmom99 said:

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

How cool is that?!

[RenRan]

"she made sure we was sitting on the correct side of the tram to get a good view and photo (going up and down)."

 

We will be there in March for 5 days. What was the Best side to sit on the tram going up and coming down?

 

Thanks

[Bloss20]

7 hours ago, mahdnc said:

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.

 

It was great to see you too! Looks like you had a very busy day as did we! We have enjoyed this beautiful city and fly home later today. 

It has been a pleasure to meet you both and join your tours. We are enjoying following your reviews and hope that we may cruise together again in future. 
Best wishes to you both!

Ceri & Ian. 

[mahdnc]

6 hours ago, RenRan said:

"she made sure we was sitting on the correct side of the tram to get a good view and photo (going up and down)."

 

We will be there in March for 5 days. What was the Best side to sit on the tram going up and coming down?

 

Thanks

When the tram is going up, the side with the view of the city is on the right hand side (starboard). The left side has views of brush. 
 

When going down, you want the benches on the left side for the view of the city. 
 

On the way down we took the benches in the front car because they faced forward going down. The others benches faced backwards. Some people really like riding backwards because there is supposed to be a cool optical illusion. 
 

When we lined up to get the front car seats going down in the very next tram, we found that there was no queue/line control. It’s a bit like lining up for a subway door (although for this tram, passengers enter on one side of the car and exit on the opposite side).  While waiting, people pushed past us presumably to line up to get the seats we wanted. Then they encouraged other members in their group to come up with them. When I looked behind us, I realized we went from fourth/fifth person in line and became last in line for the front car—the crowd behind us had now all moved ahead of us.  So I told my wife that we should go around the crowd in front of us to try to reclaim our place in line which we did. 

 

The tram ride is around 1.4 km long and took about ten minutes  
 

Also note that there are two waiting lines at the lower tram terminal station. The first line is to buy tickets and then when you walk past that line, there is a second line to get on the tram itself.  If you buy tram tickets ahead of time online, you can skip the first line saving some time. Alternatively you can use your Octopus Card (which is like a subway pass that you load money into) to pay for the tram ride which also allows you to skip there first line. Our guide purchased our tram tickets for us ahead of time and then we paid her back. She just purchased the tram only tickets as we skipped all the combination offers (such as buying a combo that included Sky Terrace admission). 
 

[mahdnc]

We saw another beautiful sunset from our room last night:

 

 

[mahdnc]

The service in the hotel has been excellent.  And when small problems do come up, their compensation is very generous.

 

When we first checked in to the hotel we waited in our room for over an hour for our bags.  When my wife called the front desk to ask about it, the front desk apologized and said that the bags were not on their way to us because they did not properly communicate it to their staff.  Because of that, they compensated us with a free breakfast.

 

The front desk contacted us yesterday after we got back from our long tour.  The duty manager told us that our in-room safe was broken (disrepair).  I was aware of this already as the plastic electronic part (LED + keypad) was starting to separate from the safe door, but I didn't contact anyone about it--so how the hotel knew this is beyond me because the safe is hidden away inside a dedicated drawer).

 

Anyway, for the inconvenience (and maybe because they need extended access to the safe for repair), they moved us out of our standard room and into a much larger corner room with spectacular sweeping views of Kowloon, Victoria Harbour, and Hong Kong Island.  We lose seeing the sunset from this room, but I can live with that.  We were very appreciative of the upgrade.

 

I will tell you one thing though--in our old room (112th floor) and this new room (111th floor), you can feel the building sway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The building architecture is a bit peculiar.  It is designed in a way to double the amount of corner rooms.  The drawback to this design is that your window views on the edges include seeing the opposite corner rooms.  In the floor plan below, our old room was 27 and our new room is 16 (the top of the photo is roughly north).

 

 

 

You take two elevators to get to your room.  The first elevator takes you from the ground floor to the 103rd floor where the front desk and concierge are located (photo).  That elevator ride is long and and I have to equalize the pressure in my ears 2-3 times during the ride up or down.

 

[RenRan]

Thank you for your quick and detail response. This information will really be helpful during our stay in Hong Kong.

You mentioned the taxis only take HG dollars and no credit cards. Did you find you needed HG dollars for lots of things, street food, restaurants, admissions to sites, vendors or your Credit cards accepted? We have Thai Baht & Singapore Dollar but no HG dollars.

One more thing is you don't mind. We have Verizon cell service. Did you get an international package or were you able to use what you had.

 

Thank you again and I have so... enjoyed your review.

 

Renee

 

[mahdnc]

1 hour ago, RenRan said:

Thank you for your quick and detail response. This information will really be helpful during our stay in Hong Kong.

You mentioned the taxis only take HG dollars and no credit cards. Did you find you needed HG dollars for lots of things, street food, restaurants, admissions to sites, vendors or your Credit cards accepted? We have Thai Baht & Singapore Dollar but no HG dollars.

One more thing is you don't mind. We have Verizon cell service. Did you get an international package or were you able to use what you had.

 

Thank you again and I have so... enjoyed your review.

 

Renee

 

No problem with your questions. That’s why I’m posting this live thread. 

If I had to do it all over again, I would have called for an Uber XL to get my wife, me, and luggage to the hotel from the cruise pier and avoided a taxi altogether because taxis only take cash.  That would also avoid having to get cash immediately at a foreign exchange office at the pier where rates are not likely to be favorable.  
 

I asked our guide yesterday how widely accepted credit cards were in Hong Kong. I think it was almost the first question I asked her. Virginia said that the lower end merchants would not likely take credit cards. And if they did, usually the transaction needed to be $200 HKD or higher.  Every where else does. The local dum dum restaurant we sent to yesterday took credit cards. 
 

Taxis do not take cash. There is another complication with taxis that Americans are not use to: Virginia told us that for various practical reasons, many taxi drivers do not cross from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon and vice versa. It is not a rules or regulatory issue. She said that sometimes it is a familiarity thing because driving on there Kowloon side is very different from Hong Kong Island. She went on further to say that sometimes you have to pay the taxi driver for the tunnel toll for his return trip after dropping you off. She also said that the taxi drivers also have (or sometimes have) symbols on the taxi sign mounted on top of their car to indicate whether they will cross the harbor or not. On the other hand, our guide’s first attempt yesterday to flag down a taxi in Hong Kong island was not successful because the driver wanted to cross the harbor (while we did not). 
 

We are Verizon cell phone customers and we are always on our phones. With six days in Singapore + six days in Hong Kong + two days in Bangkok + five days in Vietnam, we knew that the TravelPass option of paying $10 USD per day to access our regular phone plan minutes and data was going to be more expensive than paying $100 USD/month for the International plan which gets us 250 min + 20 GB. So we got the International Plan for both of us. 

Cell tower WiFi with our phones was pretty good. For us we have found the following WiFi relative performance: hotel WiFi is better than cell phone WiFi ashore which was far better than Solstice’s WiFi. 

[mahdnc]

After sleeping in this morning, we took an Uber over to there Peninsula Hotel ($70 HKD) for afternoon tea. 
 

My mom said that she went to the Peninsula Hotel for afternoon tea back In the 1950’s when she lived there with her family. She urged us to go. And our guide, Virginia, recommended it as the iconic place to go for afternoon tea. So here we are. 
 

 

Afternoon tea at the Peninsula is done in their lobby. Live music, people to watch, tea, and scones. Life is good. I wish our daughter was here with us as she loves this kind of stuff. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Why not get a a Hong Kong SIM card ?🤔

https://www.traveltomtom.net/destinations/asia/hong-kong/sim-card-hong-kong

[mahdnc]

1 hour ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Why not get a a Hong Kong SIM card ?🤔

https://www.traveltomtom.net/destinations/asia/hong-kong/sim-card-hong-kong

 

That's a good point, there are much more cost effective solutions.  I was too lazy to pursue them.

[alyssamma]

@mahdnc, no offense to any others, but this might be the best blog I've read on CC. I wish there was a way to sticky it. I will definitely bookmark it.

 

[mahdnc]

After our time at the Peninsula, we walked over to Shanghai Street and strolled the street there.  There were beautiful banyan trees that lined the street.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 5 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

We visited the nearby fruit market next:

 

 

 

 

[mahdnc]

Soon it was evening time and so we went to the Temple Street Market to look at the merchandise, performers, fortune tellers, and the restaurants.  There was one restaurant in particular that had a huge line of people waiting to be seated.  With no other restaurant in mind, my wife and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and proceeded to stand in line there.  The food was pretty good, but we did not like their specialty dish--oyster pancakes.

 

 

 

Edited January 5 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

By the way, the restaurant that we had dinner (previous post) was named Hing Kee located on Nathan Road.

 

Before we left the hotel to go exploring today, we stopped to talk to the Ritz Carlton Concierge Manager, Marshall Sze.  He is a very nice and knowledgeable gentleman.  He proudly wears the Golden Keys on both lapels of his jacket indicating that he is a member of the prestigious Les Clefs d'Or--an exclusive professional concierge society.

 

 

I asked him for the name of the dim sum restaurant that our guide took us to yesterday.  After describing the restaurant and the jarring experience, he told us that we ate on the famous second floor at Lin Heung Kui located at 40-50 Des Voeux Rd W, Sheung Wan on Hong Kong Island.  He was familiar with the place and was impressed that our guide, Virginia, took us there.  He said that this restaurant operated/served dim sum like he remembered as a kid growing up in Hong Kong and that there were only a very small number of these old style teahouses left that still operate that today.  He had two young assistants standing beside him at the concierge desk.  He looked at them and said to my wife and I that he doubted that either one of them have eaten at a place like that (both of them concurred).

 

Now knowing the name of the restaurant, I went back to look at the Tripadvisor reviews.  It is littered with good reviews and bad reviews from customers that were intimidated by the culture, customs, and service.  Again, if you are interested in going to something like that, my advice is to get a guide who can show you the ropes so that you can soak up the experience.

 

By the way, this restaurant took credit cards and our meal cost exactly $35.24 USD according to my credit card statement.

 

From left to right: my wife, our guide (Virginia), and a regular patron of Lin Heung Kiu.

 

Edited January 5 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

24 hours ago, I was posting about our guided tour experience from yesterday (Thu Jan 4) and I ran out of gas and went to bed.  Although it is late right now (midnight), I want to give you a run down on how the rest of the day went.

 

We rode the famous Ding Ding double decker trams on Hong Kong Island to get to our restaurant for lunch.  I forgot to mention that.  It is a unique experience, cheap, and very well worth doing.  The charming ride reminded me of the San Francisco cable cars.  You can pay with your Octopus Card.

 

Once we got off the Star Ferry (mentioned in a prior post),  we stood on the waterfront promenade in Kowloon and took in the nice view of Hong Kong Island.  Our guide, Virginia, pointed out the local landmarks that were visible.

 

 

 

 

After taking a few photos, we took the MTR to the famous Wong Tai Sin Temple.  Although we had visited a bunch of temples/pagodas during the cruise, this one was still interesting and different.  Wong Tai Sin Temple is a large complex.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course having a guide with you was handy in having her explain what we were seeing.  For example this woman visited the god of love and marriage.  Part of the ritual for finding a mate involved tying a red string as she is doing here in the photo.  I asked Virginia whether she has tied a knot there as well in the past--she said that she has.  We will see how well it works. The oranges in the foreground of the photo below are a gift/offering (something sweet) to this god.

 

 

Virginia helped us both participate in a ritual involving fortune sticks and a consultation with a professional fortune teller to help you read them.  She first explained the ritual to us--please refer to this link for a better explanation of the mechanics of the ritual than I can give.

 

Here is a photo of my wife shaking the ritual sticks while praying (she might have been praying that this be over with soon).

 

 

Here is the stick that fell out.  It had 86 printed on it.  When it was my turn, a stick with the number 17 fell out.

 

 

Each stick number has a poem associated with it (link).  To have your fortune read, the stick number and the subject that you prayed about are told to a professional fortune teller located on the temple grounds.  You can choose one from a large number of available fortune tellers.  For $30 HKD, the meaning of the poem in regards to your prayer will be revealed to you.

 

 

Edited January 5 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

We ended our 8 hour tour with Virginia at the Lady's Market.  She made sure we knew how to get back safely to our hotel from there (we ended up using Uber) and then we said our goodbyes. The day went very well and we have Virginia to thank for it.

[mahdnc]

I took another photograph from our hotel window tonight. Good night from Hong Kong.

 

[mahdnc]

Here is an important tip that I was reminded of today while eating our dinner.  You need to stock up and bring a few packs of tissue paper for your cruise to Asia.  In every country that we visited--Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Hong Kong--napkins are not provided by any restaurant except for the higher end places.  Most of the restaurants that you will visit on tours are likely to be locally authentic and not high end.  As such, those places do NOT supply napkins (paper nor cloth) when you eat.  So during your meal if you need to wipe your hands, your mouth, or the table surface, you need to bring your own pack of tissues.

[travelfan20]

What a fantastic review, We have enjoyed Travelling "virtually" with you . 

It was especially helpful for us as we are doing similar voyage in February including same private tour guides and hotels so what a wonderful sneak peak 

 

save travels 

Edited January 6 by travelfan20
spelling

[mahdnc]

We are taking the high speed ferry to Macau today ($190 HKD per person for economy seats payable by credit card).  To get to the ferry terminal on Hong Kong Island from our hotel in West Kowloon, we took an Uber for $116 HKD. The ferry runs every 30 minutes. We will check things out for a few hours. 
 

 

Edited January 6 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

To gain access to the ferry after buying a ticket, you have to pass Immigration. There were several different kinds of lines to stand in. A line manager guided us to an empty line where we could simply have our passport and face scanned to get through. 
 

The ferry (TurboJET) is fairly full and the rides smooth.  The seating arrangement is similar to a 2 aisle wide body jet complete with tray tables.  You can buy different classes of service.  No WiFi though, but I can get a cell signal most, but not all of the time. 

The 33 nautical mile trip takes about an hour to do. 

Edited January 6 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

When we arrived at the Macau ferry terminal, we had to pass Immigration.

 

Although there are much better cultural things to see in Macau (aka The City of Dreams), we headed to the debauchery of the casinos.  Getting to the casinos is easy and free--when you exit the ferry terminal in Macau, there are large casino motor coaches that will take you to every casino.  We got on the bus that took people from the ferry terminal to the Londoner, then the Venetian, and then the Parisian. 

 

 

The ride to the casinos is picturesque with nice views of bridges and the other casinos.

 

 

 

If you are going to a Macau casino, choosing the Venetian lacks imagination since you can find it at Las Vegas.  We probably should have gone to the the Londoner because you cannot find it in Las Vegas.

 

 

We left our hotel at 1 pm and arrived at the Venetian at 4 pm.  So overall, it took 3 hours to get from our Hong Kong hotel to the Venetian in Macau.  

 

 

Although we have visited the Las Vegas Venetian several times (most recently this past February), I still found Macau's version an interesting place to visit.  I could not find the traditional able games that I was familiar with--blackjack, craps, and roulette.  Instead the casino floor had tons of Sic Bo tables and Baccarat tables.  These are games that are wildly popular in this area of the world.  So in that way, it was a very foreign experience.   One experience that was not foreign was losing money--my wife lost about $20 USD at the slots.

 

 

After eating dinner there, we left the restaurant in the Venetian at 6:40 pm. By the time we got back to our Hong Kong hotel room, it was 9:55 pm--so again, about a 3 hour trip.

 

I am not sure what possessed me, for the return trip to Hong Kong I decided to buy the more expensive Super Class ferry tickets ($415 HKD per person) versus the Economy tickets ($190 HKD per person).   

 

 

Compare to the Economy seats we had going to Macau, the Super Class seats gave you slightly nicer seats up on the second deck (Economy was on the 1st deck).  You got to bypass the huge immigration lines to leave Macau which was nice.  Super Class had their own dedicated waiting area in the terminal.  We got to board first and when the ferry arrived at Hong Kong, we got to get off the boat first.  And finally, Super Class was served a meal which was interesting since the transit time was only an hour.

 

 

One surprising thing was that we had to fill out the Hong Kong Arrival Card again to get back into Hong Kong.  It was surprising because it was the same paperwork that we had to fill out aboard Solstice.  It was no good to use to get back into Hong Kong.

Edited January 6 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

Here is a photo of Super Class seating on the ferry.