Hong Kong, China | Our Day Trip

Our short day-trip to Hong Kong, China where we shopped, ate, drank, and saw some sites.

I was dreading this stop.

Hong Kong, China

We had received paper after paper after paper from the ship describing this disembarkation procedure on this leg and what those that we in transit (us and 220 others) would have to do to go ashore.

For those disembarking, they would have to gather their passports and visas (if applicable), get off for a “face to face” meeting with immigration, get back on the ship, gather their carry off items, wait for their luggage tag color to be called, and then disembark!

We saw many buses arrive to take people to the airport from the window of our room.

The cruise director at one point was on the loud speaker begging people to meet with customs and immigration officers. Then, there were announcements in Spanish and German! That was the first we heard of any language other than English announcements.

At 9am anyone with a tour was called down to get off. Hubby and I had a tour booked with three parts: panoramic, wet market, and jade market (where the paperwork we received from the ship told us not to buy anything!)

We talked it over, and Hubby wanted no part of the panoramic portion of the tour, and I was not interested in the wet market. Combined with being told “the bus would be more crowded than usual,” we decided to pass on the tour. We later saw those buses and they were definitely 20-25% smaller than other tour buses. More people, less seats.

Our Plan B was to go by ourselves to the Harbor Mall that was attached to the cruise terminal, find a grocery store for Hubby, and grab lunch.

The attached mall was the nicest, most expensive mall I have ever by in! From Louis Vuitton to Dior to Channel to Patek Philippe, and many more, I have never seen so many luxury stores in one place!

I purchased some shampoo, Hubby looked for some electronics, and off we went to find a grocery store.

There were 7-Elevens and other small convenience stores close to the port, but Hubby wanted more “local” stores. Alas, it was not to be.

We ended up at a Marks & Spencer which was shades of London. Chocolate, cookies, and tea were purchased, and then it was off to lunch.

We found the well regarded dim sum restaurant Hubby found online – or so we though! and went in for lunch.

We tried chicken wings – why not? They were just deep fried, no sort of sauce, and they were edible. We ordered soup with dumplings and fishballs for Hubby. Hubby said the fishballs were not good, unlike the ones we had in Bali. We also ordered duck (Hubby liked it), satay (no stick!!), beef sandwich (the meat was excellent) and my favorite, the Hong Kong French toast.

That was two toast with peanuts and peanut sauce topped with margarine and served with peanut syrup (in a bottle like pancake syrup).

After that, we went outside to take a photo of the guy cooking in the window, and I noticed that the dim sum place we wanted to go to was actually next door!

Since they no longer do carts, we went into the wrong side and did not realize it. The food at the wrong -restaurant was super cheap (our bill for everything I listed plus two cokes was $35) so we just thought “wow! It’s not like it used to be!”

So, circling back to the beginning of this post… for all the scary scenarios from the ship telling us to have a color copy of our passport (the ship had collected passports to make checking on us and passport stamps easier for customs. While I hate, hate, hate having it out of my hands, I have collected some awesome custom stamps on this voyage. Custom stamps are seldom given anymore.) Plus we were to have our ship’s card, and in-transit card available. We were also told that Chinese immigration would take 10% of us randomly for questioning!!

So, with all that!? This was BY FAR the easiest get on, get off port that had a disembarkation and embarkation on this trip (Melbourne, Auckland, Singapore, were the other three for us, we disembarked in Tokyo).

We walked off the ship, customs nodded to us (there was a quick facial recognition photo that was taken while we walked, we were never stopped for it) on the way off. On the way back on, it was even easier. We were asked which ship, shown to an elevator, and waved on board.

I am so glad Hubby talked me into getting off in Hong Kong. We had a pleasant day, a fun, local meal, and were able to replenish some “essentials.” The ship really was over-the-top, and I even fumed about it again to Hubby as I was writing this up.

Now, on to Taiwan.

The stops on this long vacation:

● Japan Cruise Stops: Yokohama, Mt Fuji, Kobe, Nagasaki & Kagoshima
● Kyoto & Osaka: Our Four Day Itinerary
● Japan Short Break in Fukuoka & Hiroshima
● South Korea 4 Days: Seoul, Incheon, Busan, Jeju Island
● Our One-Day Taiwan Itinerary
● Hong Kong, China | Our Day Trip
● One Week in Vietnam: Our 7-Day Adventure
● Short Stay in Thailand: Elephants, Food & Cultural Gems
● Our Two Days in Singapore: Itinerary & Attractions
● Bali, Indonesia | Two Days on the Island
● Adelaide to Perth: Our Australia Travel Stops
● Two Days in Melbourne, Australia: Our Itinerary
● Two Days in Tasmania: Short Stay Itinerary
● Exploring New Zealand North Island
● Auckland, New Zealand – Sightseeing and Our Itinerary

● For more travel posts on Ann’s Entitled Life, click here.

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