Join Pete and Judy on their FIRST World Cruise on the Amsterdam

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Disneyland in hk is very small compared to the others around the world, not as many rides. I quite like ocean park with its huge aquarium. Lamma island is a good day trip if people have seen a lot of hk. An artsy community lives there and you can hike from one village to the other and have a seafood lunch before catching ferry back

 

 

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We are here now. Less rides but land area seems similar. Park completely empty! Rides leaving half full. No lines anywhere

 

 

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[teamflames]

We are here for 3 days and 2 nights. Will have to investigate the horse races. Thanks for the tip

 

 

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Your welcome. We used to live there. The races are in the heart of the city so it's spectacular. The locals are gambling fanatics but the expats use it for socialising. It is super cheap to go in public entry or you can investigate paying more to spend the night in a special bar/restaurant in the stands.

Don't forget the awesome nightly light show (assuming still going). There are restaurants that overlook it (struggling to remember the name of some).

Enjoy Dl it's always a nice time

 

 

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[teamflames]

Oh btw there is a private club called the China club, used to be next to the Hsbc building. The food was ok but it had a terrific atmosphere, it can be very difficult to get in but if you have Amex it can worth calling there help line to see if they can get you in

 

 

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[The-Inside-Cabin]

Oh btw there is a private club called the China club, used to be next to the Hsbc building. The food was ok but it had a terrific atmosphere, it can be very difficult to get in but if you have Amex it can worth calling there help line to see if they can get you in

 

 

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Thanks. When I was here in 1991 with US Navy the Brits had something called The China Fleet Club. I wonder if it is the same

 

 

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[The-Inside-Cabin]

Fun day at Disneyland

 

 

 

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[kenphy]

Correct...no art auctions...

 

About 10 years ago we met an older couple (then late 70s) who always went to the art auctions and bought a lot (unframed). When they got home, they had them framed and donated to lots of organizations -- boys and girls clubs, hospitals, schools, colleges, etc. They always took a tax deduction for them and claimed that deduction paid for their many, many cruises. They were among the most charming couple we ever met, and we cruised with them several times later and even visited them in Tucson when traveling on business. I always thought that was a smart thing to do when God gives you a lot of blessings, but no children. Even though they were 20 years older than us, I still smile thinking of meeting them for pre-dinner cocktails in the Crow's Nests. If we hadn't attended that first auction, we might have missed meeting the nicest couple we have ever met on a cruise.

[USN59-79]

Thanks. When I was here in 1991 with US Navy the Brits had something called The China Fleet Club. I wonder if it is the same

 

 

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Not the same. The China Fleet Club closed November 30, 1992. In my Navy days beginning in 1959 we enjoyed an older China Fleet Club which closed in 1982 and was replaced by the one you are familiar with.

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Day 57, Hong Kong

 

Around 7:15 this morning the Hong Kong Harbor Pilot boat maneuvered alongside the Amsterdam’s port side and paused for a few seconds, not very long, but long enough for the Pilot to grab a hanging rope ladder and climb aboard. Now that the pilot was onboard, the ship picked up speed and we continued toward Victoria Harbor. Temperatures were in the mid-sixties but seemed cooler with overcast skies and a light mist covering the open decks. I missed seeing other boats bringing out the Chinese immigration officials who would set up in the Hudson room to process people face to face who were leaving Hong Kong during our visit and to review the passports of everyone else.

 

The bow was open for viewing with a table set up with coffee, orange juice and the famous Star Ferry rolls (aka Panama rolls, Sydney Rolls etc) which are very light and tasty pastries filled with jelly. They are always fresh and very good. Everyone was in a good mood as Hong Kong appeared out of the mist and the harbor filled with boats and ships of all sizes. Barbara, our location guide, was providing commentary as we proceeded toward our berth at the Ocean Terminal. My last time here was on the USN aircraft carrier, USS Midway (CV 41) back in 1990 and Judy was able to fly down from Japan and join me for a few days of fun.

 

 

I wandered all over the ship visiting the various vantage points and enjoying the view from different perspectives. One spot that was more interesting than I would have thought was back by the Seaview pool. While you miss seeing what is ahead, you have great visibility of where you have been and are much higher off the water. The Star Ferries continued their steady work crossing the harbor but started to maneuver around us as we slowed to start our final spin toward our berth alongside the Ocean Terminal.

 

 

By 10 AM we were moored, bow first, alongside the Ocean Terminal. We were cleared almost immediately to allow guests to start going ashore. The gangway was on deck 2 forward, but there was some talk about using a second gangway that would only be used by guests on HAL excursions. The main gangway leads into a huge shopping mall which requires walking about ¼ mile to get to the street. I suspect that a second, lower gangway would allow guests to walk off the ship directly onto the street level and that HAL sponsored tour buses could drive directly onto the pier and cut down the walking distance. Cruise Director Gene emphasized on several occasions that people on HAL excursions should pay close attention to their meeting spot and not attempt to go ashore and find the busses on their own, as the busses may be inaccessible to guests unless they leave on the alternate gangway. Gene mentioned a tactic, I was unaware of, that some folks use to get the front seats of tour buses. They go ashore on their own, bypassing the Queens lounge where they pass out the tour dots, and find the tour busses on the pier well ahead of the rest of the people leaving the ship. Since the tour operators only care about tickets, not dots, once you present a ticket for that tour, you are on the bus ahead of everyone else.

 

We left the ship at 12:20 and walked thru Harbour Place, a very high end mall, toward the street and started looking for a spot where we could request an UBER car. While Hong Kong Taxis are everywhere, they don’t take credit cards and the English speaking skills of the driver is usually OK, but not guaranteed. With UBER, your location is already in the drivers GPS and you can pay with a credit card. We found a good spot in front of the Marco Polo Hong Kong Hotel and requested a driver, who arrived in 5 minutes, and we were on our way. Twenty five minutes and US$25 later we were at the entrance to Hong Kong Disneyland.

 

 

Disneyland has theme parks in California, Florida, France, Japan, Shanghai and Hong Kong. We have been to all of them except the 2 in China and this was an opportunity to see Hong Kong Disneyland.

 

Once inside the park we picked up one of the maps and at first glance it appeared to be about the same size as the one in Anaheim. However, as we examined the map more closely, we noticed that many of the familiar rides were missing or in some cases replaced by a Hong Kong version of the same attraction. For example – Mickey’s Toontown is called Toy Story Land, Frontier Land is called Grizzly Gulch and New Orleans square is called Mystic Point. Pirates of the Caribbean, The Matterhorn and the Submarine ride were some of the more notable attractions missing. Other attractions were replaced by something similar – for example – the Haunted Mansion was replaced by Mystic Manor. The park was completely empty and there were only a couple of rides with any lines at all.

 

Signs throughout the park are in English only – except for those with safety and emergency instructions. We learned that the reason for this was that Walt Disney modeled Disneyland’s Main Street after a small Midwest town in the USA which of course doesn’t have any signs in anything but English. There were some accommodations for Asian culture in the types and offering of the food in the restaurants and the park was laid out according to the rules of Feng Shui where they incorporated a bend in one of the approaching walkways so the good energy wouldn’t flow into the South China Sea.

 

We walked thru all the various lands, and went on almost all of the rides. The weather was perfect and we finished our day watching the amazing main street parade followed by a spectacular fireworks display. It’s been a while since I watch Disney fireworks, and they really put on an incredible show. We left the park around 9PM and jumped in a taxi that was waiting in the nearby taxi line. The nearest UBER driver was 15 minutes away and we weren’t sure where they may be able to pick us up, so we went with a Hong Kong Taxi. We were back outside the Ocean Terminal in 20 minutes – traffic was very light.

 

Starbucks makes coffee mugs with the names of cities where they are located. Judy collects these mugs and there was Starbucks in the basement of the Ocean Terminal complex where they had Hong Kong mugs for sale. Hong Kong is a high energy city and as we walked back toward the ship at 10PM there was no sign of activity slowing down and if anything, was probably just starting to pick up.

 

The Amsterdam is very prominent outside the Ocean Terminal mall and many tourists were posing for photos with ship in the background. With the mall so large we wondered if finding our way to the gangway would be difficult, but the path to the ship was very well marked and it was a breeze.

 

 

About 200 people will be leaving the ship tomorrow, with 80 people joining. Our hallway was sprinkled with bags outside the doors waiting to be picked up for the departing guests. It was a nice feeling that we were not among them and were only approaching the halfway point of our incredible adventure.

 

More pictures on the blog at http://www.theinsidecabin.com

Edited March 3, 2016 by The-Inside-Cabin

[jig]

You are the first ones I've ever read that went to hk Disney. Did you notice anyone else from the ship? I would have never thought of that.

[The-Inside-Cabin]

You are the first ones I've ever read that went to hk Disney. Did you notice anyone else from the ship? I would have never thought of that.

 

No, we saw very few westerners at all and no one from the ship

[jig]

When you are in Singapore you dock near Sentosa. Huge amusement park there. We were heading into the city on the train and masses of people were heading for Sentosa. Would not liked to be there then.

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Day 58, Hong Kong

 

Today was a rest day for us after a long day yesterday. We slept in and spent the morning in our cabin catching up with laundry, reading, organizing our cabin and backing up all of our pictures on our external hard drives. Around 3pm we were ready to leave the ship and explore Nathan Road and the Mongkok shopping area and points in-between. After winding our way thru Harbor Place we headed over to the Star Ferry terminal and picked up a few post cards to mail later. The weather was perfect and while we wore light jackets, we really didn’t need them. Continuing along the waterfront we came across the Hong Kong Space Museum which was closed for renovation till later in the year. We did wander thru the gift shop, which remained open, but didn’t see anything interesting enough to buy.

 

 

Across the street from the Hong Kong Space Museum was the Peninsula hotel – very high end – with rooms starting around $500/night. They had two doormen, one for each door, dressed in all white, and opening the door yourself was impossible. Bentleys, Rolls Royce’s and Ferraris littered the circular driveway. One of our readers from cruise critic, Jig, recommended we check out the view from the men’s room on the top floor. We learned that the restroom is in a restaurant called The Felix, but that it didn’t open until 7pm and coming back then wouldn’t work for our schedule. So we did a quick internet search and discovered, believe it or not, that someone has a website dedicated to urinals around the world and they rank the men’s room in the Peninsula among the top ten. Here is a link to the page with some photos and you can be the judge yourselves and also wonder how this web site ever got started in the first place. We wandered around the hotel for a bit and were a little surprised to see plain clothed security guards positioned at the entrance to each of the hotels high end shops. They looked very dour, almost scowling, and not a place that seemed to welcome customers. We didn’t see anyone shopping inside and we weren’t interested in exploring them either.

 

Back on the street we summoned an Uber, which arrived promptly and took us 2 miles down Nathan Road to the Mongkok shopping district. Total cost $5 US. Bus fare may have be 50 cents to a dollar, so taxis and Uber are more expensive, but not by a lot.

 

Mongkok is bustling and crowded. The streets are lined with shops selling pretty much anything. We were on the hunt for yarn shops and Judy had a list of 3 shops in the Mongkok area. The MAPS.ME app (Free on the app store) on our phone proved its worth once again as we were able to use our phones to search the various shop addresses and track our progress as we moved about the Mongkok district. The first shop on our list was closed and replaced by store selling decorative items for your home. The second shop, called Double Knit, was a few blocks away and we saw its sign over a door leading to a dimly lit hallway and stairs. While we hiked up to the third floor, we got the feeling we were in a scene from a movie where trouble might be around every corner. When we opened the door to the brightly lit shop, a bright melody burst out that sounded like something you would expect on your neighborhood ice-cream truck. The shop keeper was very friendly and had a nice selection of yarn. Judy browsed for a bit and saw a scarf she liked on display. She bought the yarn so she could make one just like it. The shopkeeper also reviewed our list of other yarn shops and let us know that they were all closed and his was the last remaining shop in the area.

 

 

Now that we were finished with our “Yarn Crawl” we headed down Nathan Road back toward the ship, taking the time to peruse any shop that caught our eye along the way. After a couple hours of wandering about the various streets, we realized that we still had a ways to go to get back to the ship where we wanted to see the 8pm light show followed by the ship’s Chinese cultural show scheduled for 9:30. Time to get another Uber and within a few minutes we were on our way back to the Star Ferry Terminal to see the sound and light show.

 

Next to the Star Ferry Terminal is an elevated, curved viewing platform, probably 200-300 yards long, overlooking Victoria Harbor and Hong Kong Island. We climbed up a set of stairs and found a spot to watch the show that would be starting in about 15 minutes. The 8PM light show, sponsored by Hong Kong Tourism Board, is called “A Symphony of Lights”. The show originated from various buildings across the harbor on the Hong Kong side and consisted of 13 minutes of lights flickering on the various buildings with the occasional laser bursts from the roofs, all synchronized to music playing from outdoor speakers. Here is a

to a youtube clip of the show. Once the light show ended, we headed back to the ship to watch the “Lion Show” in the Queens Lounge at 9:30.

 

I realized after the light show ended, that we probably could have seen the show from the Sea View pool on the ship. After we returned I went up to the pool to find it covered with chairs with Debby Bacon playing music under the stars. This show was on the schedule from 7-9:30 pm and by the time I arrived only a handful of people remained, but it looked as if it was full for the light show earlier.

 

The “Lion Show” was a fascinating performance of various Chinese cultural performances. The show started with a duet by two young girls playing stringed instruments I wasn’t familiar with. Other performances included a lively dragon show where a group of men raced around the stage holding a long paper dragon with sticks and causing it to loop and swirl to the beat of a drum playing in the background. The final performance was by a quick face change artist. This person, dressed in a very colorful costume, was wearing a hard theatrical mask which he would change, almost instantaneously, after passing a scarf in front of his face or while spinning around. It was amazing to see these different masks appear and disappear.

 

[erewhon]

Thanks for the update.

Is there still a coffee shop at the far end of the cruise terminal?

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Thanks for the update.

Is there still a coffee shop at the far end of the cruise terminal?

 

 

Yes

 

 

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[RMLincoln]

Thanks so much!! Love the way you share your process with us, how you make your way around, especially using Uber and it's costs. Keep safe and healthy. Blessings, m--

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Currently on the city bus with another couple going to Stanley Market.

 

Bus Fare is $1.35 US pp vs $25 US per UBER car or $6 pp

 

 

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Edited March 4, 2016 by The-Inside-Cabin

[Scrapnana]

Are you using your regular cell phone or a special one that can be used in most countries?

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Regular ATT iPhone. Works everywhere so far

 

 

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Edited March 4, 2016 by The-Inside-Cabin

[Scrapnana]

Regular ATT iPhone. Works everywhere so far

 

 

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Wow! That was fast! Thanks for answering while you are busy touring.

[jig]

There is a website for everything. I don't think the room was the attraction but the view. One thing easy to check out is in the lower level of the ocean term there are many, many designer shops for children. I have never seen anything like that. One after the other of the most expensive names just for babies and kids. They are for rich mainlanders. With the crackdown I think they are mostly empty. I assume you are going to the island next. Check out the double deck trams. Only ones in the world.

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Enroute to Victoria peak using UberTaxi. Some taxi drivers signed up with uber!

 

 

 

 

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[The-Inside-Cabin]

Heading back to the ship. All aboard in 45 minutes.

 

Took Victoria tram down the peak, bus to the ferry and we splurged for an upper deck ticket on the Star Ferry.

 

 

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[jig]

20 Hong Kong cents?

[jig]

Extra.

[teamflames]

Heading back to the ship. All aboard in 45 minutes.

 

Took Victoria tram down the peak, bus to the ferry and we splurged for an upper deck ticket on the Star Ferry.

 

 

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How much was that? 50c I am guessing?? [emoji2]

 

 

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