Iluvcruising2

Some more pictures from tender ride.

You can see the Star Pisces (a small cruise ship belonging to Star Cruises) docked at Ocean Terminal. The Legend OTS docked at Ocean Terminal for our June 2011 Singapore to Shanghai cruise. (Will post some pics from that!)

Speaking of Star Cruises, I would avoid that line if you are a fan of Royal Caribbean. It is pretty much a gambling cruise line.

Great review. We decided due to several things to shift Asia to next year instead of this Summer. We saw Collin though for our Christmas cruise and of course he recalled us from the Legend a year ago.

 

Only a few days until we go see Alaska again.

I believe we were on the same Legend cruise in 2011.

Journey back to the Pier took slightly longer as there was more traffic now.

There was a tender waiting for us and it left less than 5 minutes after we boarded. Picture from the tender. As expected, there were very few passengers going back to the ship at this time. I think it was about 7pm. The night hadn't even started but we were headed back to the ship.

The sun was setting during our tender ride. Awesomely beautiful.

After the quite bites and taking some photos, we proceeded to take a cab back to Central Pier 4. It was about 6pm. I think we spent slightly more than an hour at the peak.

This is the taxi stand at the basement of Peak Galleria. You can see a steady inflow of cabs at this time. Many people were cabbing up to the peak.

For info, the taxi fare was about HK$70 each way. (Peak to Central Pier 4)

Supermart in the Peak Galleria. We bought a few bottles of water to bring back to the ship.

This was a piece of wallpaper.

My kids were hungry. McDonald's seems to suit them very well. The Macs is located in the Peak Galleria. Service staff speak very good english.

Later, adults went to a small noodle restaurant.

More info on the peak.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Peak

This was the Peak Tower.

The taxi stand is at the peak Galleria.

Views from the roof of the peak Galleria.

They say a picture speaks a thousand words.

Then a movie must speak a thousand pictures and more!

(gotta factor in the sound too)

I took a video clip of the taxi ride up to the Peak.

Part 1

http://youtu.be/aMg1qCAVErg

Part 2

Hong Kong taxis are plentiful and relatively inexpensive. The official ones are all metered and very easy to recognize. Most drivers are able to speak at least some basic English. If you have the exact address of the place you want to get to, it shouldn't be a problem.

Remember, Hong Kong is now part of China!

Just left Central pier. HK is full of skyscrapers.

We pass IFC on the way from Central Pier to the Peak. Note, the global legacy of the late & great Mr Steve Jobs.

Back to Hong Kong.

Central Pier Hong Kong is on Hong Kong island. We decided to make a quick trip to Victoria Peak. My wife and I hadn't been there since before our kids were born. Our kids hadn't been there. So, our plan was to visit the peak, then head back to the ship.

http://www.thepeak.com.hk/en/

The peak has a very famous peak tram. But we decided against taking the peak tram because the queues were infamously long.

So our mode of transport? Taxi! Turns out taking the taxi would be cheaper than the peak tram anyway, since there were 4 of us.

We hailed a cab from right outside the Central Pier. Got one within 5 minutes.

You can see the overhead bridge linking the IFC mall to the Central Piers. IFC stands for the International Finance Centre, Hong Kong.

http://www.ifc.com.hk/en/index.html

This has been a fantastic review! Thank you for all your work posting the wonderful pictures. Having never been to Singapore or any of the ports, it has been really fun to follow along.

Thanks

Sharon

Glad you are enjoying this.

Hope you come to Singapore and other parts of Asia some day.

This is Singapore's official tourism website -

http://www.yoursingapore.com/content/traveller/en/experience.html

We are getting more and more happening these days. Come visit us!

The Singapore Tourism Board has a free iPhone/Andriod app. Check it out!

http://www.yoursingapore.com/guide

Let me first explain that we have been to Hong Kong multiple times as a family. HK is a place where you ought to spend a few days. Obviously, one wouldn't have enough time during this cruise to do all the touristy things.

I will first go through what we did during this cruise, which I must say would be very different from most people, especially tourists going to HK for the first time.

Thereafter, maybe I post a few pictures from previous trips so you can get a fuller picture.

Having to tender from Junk Bay was quite a chore. Thankfully we managed to secure tender ticket number 6 and we were out on a tender quite early. We arrived Hong Kong Central Pier Number 4 at about 4:30pm in the afternoon, after a 30 minute ride.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Piers

Where there a lot of platinum and above members?

Pinnacle Club -1 (Supermario)

Diamond Plus - 6

Diamond - 46

Emerald - 26

Platinum - 110

Gold - 389

If I didn't hear wrong! :)

It is past 1am, local time. Time for me to get some sleep.

Will continue to post tomorrow. Good night people!

View from the balcony.

Well, the docking arrangements in HK were rather complicated. Ship was scheduled to arrive at 4pm and anchor in Junk Bay. Tender operations would begin and tenders would continue till 1230.

Then at about 4am, the ship would move to Modern Terminal. The next day, shuttle bus services would be available from Modern Terminal to Central HK.

The tenders could seat about 250 to 300 passengers.

But before we arrive, we had Dreamworks Character Breakfast again! Back-to-back! We got to move-it, move it!

Day 5! Today, we reach Hong Kong! Exciting... ;)

View from the balcony in the morning.

Dessert menu. Nothing spectacular, so I won't be posting the dessert pics. Berrymisu was quite nice though.

After dinner, photo of Royal Promenade. I quite like the colours!

People walking around.

Loving your pictorial review. Thanks so much for taking the time!

Glad you are liking it.

I thought of just creating a wall of text.

But that wouldn't work well.

We all have different perspectives.

Words just can't convey what the pictures can.

This was the Con-something pasta. I hope I didn't get conned. Not too bad, but then again, I'm no pasta expert. I cruise to try food.

My share of the Lasagne. Decent quality. Ok, the secret is ok. Bread plates are for eating Lasagne & all sorts of other stuff. We belong to the nation of Why Not?

The pan-seared fillet of soul.... oops, sorry I meant sole.

Thai style beef salad - 'moos' not included.

Crab cake, claws were nowhere to be found.

Kung-Pao chicken. Seriously, not up to mark. I suggest to rename "Kung-Fu chicken" instead. Kung-Pao chicken creates high expectations amongst many Chinese.

Day 4 - dinner @ MDR

After being majorly disappointed with RCL´s menu items in the past 3-4 years and especially onboard the Brilliance this last April with the worst food ever (yes, it was that bad!), I am very happy to see lot´s of new items on the menu. Looks like I can await a big improvement there for my October cruise.

 

No need to say how much I also love your review with all the pictures! Thank´s so much for sharing this with the world...

 

Mike

Thank you. My wife and I have benefitted much from reading cruise critic over the past year or more.

This is pay-back time. ;)

More pictures coming up.

Loved their change in costumes and all the vibrant colours. Quite a sight.

Ok, ok, you're strong.