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Hong Kong w/Westerdam


USN59-79
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We are booked on the Westerdam from Hong Kong to Hong Kong boarding in less than a month.  I looked into whether or not we should be concerned about the civil unrest that has been going on there in the last four months.  My bottom line is that we are not endangered, just inconvenienced.  Unfortunately, since almost all of the demonstrations happen on the weekend, the Westerdam will be there on a Saturday.  The MTR used to run until 1:00 AM, but not shuts down at 8:00 PM.  The U. S. State Department lists travel warnings for U.S. citizens.  They go from 1, meaning no problem to 4, meaning do not travel.  Hong Kong is now at level 2, exercise increased caution.  If you have purchased travel insurance, it might make sense to look at whether civil disturbance is listed as something they won't cover.  If you want to keep up with the latest happenings there, check out the online edition of South China Morning Post at www.scmp.com.  It will give you up to the minute info on where demonstrations are planned or happening.

Ray

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54 minutes ago, USN59-79 said:

We are booked on the Westerdam from Hong Kong to Hong Kong boarding in less than a month.  I looked into whether or not we should be concerned about the civil unrest that has been going on there in the last four months.  My bottom line is that we are not endangered, just inconvenienced.  Unfortunately, since almost all of the demonstrations happen on the weekend, the Westerdam will be there on a Saturday.  The MTR used to run until 1:00 AM, but not shuts down at 8:00 PM.  The U. S. State Department lists travel warnings for U.S. citizens.  They go from 1, meaning no problem to 4, meaning do not travel.  Hong Kong is now at level 2, exercise increased caution.  If you have purchased travel insurance, it might make sense to look at whether civil disturbance is listed as something they won't cover.  If you want to keep up with the latest happenings there, check out the online edition of South China Morning Post at www.scmp.com.  It will give you up to the minute info on where demonstrations are planned or happening.

Ray

 

There is considerable discussion of the Hong Kong situation on FlyerTalk.com -

 

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hong-kong-macau/1974998-impacts-demonstrations-travel-19.html

 

We are scheduled to have airline connections at HKIA in just about a month, so we are watching this carefully.  Ordinarily, we'd have had time to head into the city for several hours, but given that transportation may be disrupted, and we have such a limited time, we'll pass.

And we'll let our memories of our trip there 2 years ago... those can remain as our memories!

 

There will be an election in about a week or two, so things might get a bit more tense before then ??  And hopefully a bit less tense a few days after that is over?  But who knows?

I can't believe it has gotten this bad.

 

We are trying to find a Plan B for our trip home, so that we connect some other place, but we are dependent upon awards availability.  (If things get *really* nasty, then if necessary, we'll just pay cash to get home, but I sure hope it doesn't come to that, as we need Business class/flat bed for our aging bodies for those lengths of flights.)

 

I hope you are able to have a pleasant stay in Hong Kong, in addition to just the boarding/disembarking process!

 

GC

 

 

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On the Asia boards, there is a lot of discussion with some good information that may be of help.  Best of luck, we have wanted to go for a long time but we will wait until the situation improves.  They still have two Canadians in prison as retaliation  for the  arrest in Canada of Huawei executive, at the request of the US and awaiting extradition to the  US.   

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4 hours ago, GeezerCouple said:

 

There is considerable discussion of the Hong Kong situation on FlyerTalk.com -

 

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hong-kong-macau/1974998-impacts-demonstrations-travel-19.html

 

We are scheduled to have airline connections at HKIA in just about a month, so we are watching this carefully.  Ordinarily, we'd have had time to head into the city for several hours, but given that transportation may be disrupted, and we have such a limited time, we'll pass.

And we'll let our memories of our trip there 2 years ago... those can remain as our memories!

 

There will be an election in about a week or two, so things might get a bit more tense before then ??  And hopefully a bit less tense a few days after that is over?  But who knows?

I can't believe it has gotten this bad.

 

We are trying to find a Plan B for our trip home, so that we connect some other place, but we are dependent upon awards availability.  (If things get *really* nasty, then if necessary, we'll just pay cash to get home, but I sure hope it doesn't come to that, as we need Business class/flat bed for our aging bodies for those lengths of flights.)

 

I hope you are able to have a pleasant stay in Hong Kong, in addition to just the boarding/disembarking process!

 

GC

 

 

Thanks for the link to Flyer Talk.  There is some very useful and pertinent info there for persons travelling in and out and around Hong Kong at the present time.  Some of it is kind of scary, such as gasoline bombs being thrown in MTR cars and stations and rocks being dropped on cars from overhead bridges.  The election will be on 24 November.  Westerdam will be there on 7 and 21 December.  I wouldn't expect any problems in the airport itself, but transportation from there to the KaiTak cruise terminal could be impacted.  It will be interesting to see if HAL provides us any information before the cruise.

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6 hours ago, USN59-79 said:

Thanks for the link to Flyer Talk.  There is some very useful and pertinent info there for persons travelling in and out and around Hong Kong at the present time.  Some of it is kind of scary, such as gasoline bombs being thrown in MTR cars and stations and rocks being dropped on cars from overhead bridges.  The election will be on 24 November.  Westerdam will be there on 7 and 21 December.  I wouldn't expect any problems in the airport itself, but transportation from there to the KaiTak cruise terminal could be impacted.  It will be interesting to see if HAL provides us any information before the cruise.

 

We'll probably be dealing with our connecting flights in between your dates, and the uncertainty is because we have someone trying to find us another way home... but still with awards...

Originally, we had that agent trying to find something a day or two earlier, and through HKIA would have been fine.  (We had hoped to get back a bit sooner, but the flights we got are flights we were initially delighted to find available, as we already had paid for our cruise, which was an almost last minute decision.  Flight preferences are a bit different now.)

 

You might want to double check with your hotel about various logistics.  That includes possible pickup at airport, and also transport to the dock.

 

GC

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We are sailing the Westerdam to Hong Kong in March and because of the riots/demonstrations, we are only staying one night post cruise rather than our usual 4-5 days.

 

I've been to Hong Kong about 14x as my husband was born there and I will miss our visits there shopping, eating and visiting family.  We are only staying one night so he can renew his HKID card on the same day we arrive.  I'm a bit concerned that this is a Saturday and we'll be flying out on a Sunday but have booked our hotel on the Kowloon side for the first time in 26 years so we'll be closer to the airport and further away from the financial district where I think most of the stuff is happening.

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52 minutes ago, Betty in Cozumel said:

We are sailing the Westerdam to Hong Kong in March and because of the riots/demonstrations, we are only staying one night post cruise rather than our usual 4-5 days.

 

I've been to Hong Kong about 14x as my husband was born there and I will miss our visits there shopping, eating and visiting family.  We are only staying one night so he can renew his HKID card on the same day we arrive.  I'm a bit concerned that this is a Saturday and we'll be flying out on a Sunday but have booked our hotel on the Kowloon side for the first time in 26 years so we'll be closer to the airport and further away from the financial district where I think most of the stuff is happening.

 

Please read through the FlyerTalk link I posted above.

According to some first hand accounts, some of the disturbances are now in Kowloon as well.

People who are currently in Hong Kong have some differing views of the situation in Hong Kong.

 

And it seems that allowing extra time to get to the airport will probably be prudent.

 

GC

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