Another excursion challenge - Macau, from Hong Kong

[Steerpike58]

Following on from my post about Bangkok, we also observed a bit of a problem with our excursion to Macau from Hong Kong. The excursion was scheduled to leave the ship at around 8am.  The excursion coach left pretty close to on-time, and reached the ferry terminal by 8:40am.  We then discovered that our tickets for the ferry to Macau were not until 10am - over a 1 hour wait in the ferry terminal.  That's around 25% of the excursion time spent sitting in the (not very pleasant) ferry terminal.

 

I imagine they bulk-buy the ferry tickets well in advance, and buy them for the 10:00 am departure to allow for delays in the ship's arrival, and/or delays getting the excursion on the road - fair enough.  But - there is now a brand-new road from Hong Kong to Macau (apparently a spectacular series of bridges and tunnels), providing an alternative to the ferry.  I asked our tour guide why we weren't using the road, he made some reference to traffic, but - even if the traffic were heavy, I can't imagine it would have taken an extra hour. My own reading about that road suggests it is under-utilized.  Does anyone have any idea why they don't use the new road for the excursions to Macau? 

 

Once in Macau, we thoroughly enjoyed the old town, full of fascinating food options. But we only got a quick walk through the old town, no time to stop, and then on to the next venue (a temple). After that, we were taken to the 'revolving restaurant' at the top of the observation tower for lunch, then on to a very fancy casino. The lunch was outstanding, I have to say, but - we'd have much rather spent more time in the old town area and would have gladly skipped the modern restaurant and casino. Having the option to stay in old-town and re-join the group later would have been ideal (or just make our own way to the ferry terminal for the return trip).