Day-21: Hong Kong: Retail & Glitz

Day-21: Saturday, February 22, 2014

Beginning Location: Hong Kong
Final Location: Hong Kong

For the morning, after breakfast we hung around the ship. Everyone completing their cruise in Hong Kong was in the process of disembarkation and the housekeeping staff was busy readying the rooms for the incoming guests. For us we knew that we would be moving from room 8044 to 8006, a mirror image room. Suspected for the first day or so we would be banging into walls but we soon adapted. The room staff moved everything for us and by 1100 we were in our new room with everything restored to normalcy. This also gave us a chance to break-out the cold weather clothing and put some of the shorts and light shirts into storage.

We headed down to lunch in the Grand Dining Room where we were seated with a Mother/Daughter team from Louisville, Kentucky. Strangely we were sitting next to folks we had met earlier from Louisville, Colorado. You call it Louisville, I'll call it Louisville, ... (an "inside joke" for those from Colorado).

Our plans for the day had been to travel to Macau. Though we had no tour planned we took it on our own to find our way to the Kowloon-Macau ferry. To reach the ferry building we transited through an enormous shopping mall, one of several on the main street of Kowloon. Every glitzy retail store is represented and there to spend new-found money are thousands of Chinese, mostly residents of the mainland visiting Hong Kong on holiday. What a change that is; in years past the concept of mainlanders having disposable income was nonexistent, but now the wealth of the great Chinese nation was before us first hand.

Mrs. Tom Brady

To reach Macau you pass through immigration and customs as if transiting from one country to another and we would repeat the process on our return. After buying our tickets we waited in the local Starbucks sipping down a chocolate for me and a mango smoothie for Sheila.

When boarding time approached we passed through security and boarded the high-speed ferry. Our seats were similar in nature to those on an airplane. The trip to Macau took about an hour.






On arrival we quickly passed through immigration and customs and arrived at the casino shuttle bus area. We opted for a ride to the Wynn Casino and after a 5 minute ride we were there. The skyline of Macau is lined by the glamour and glitz of the new casino & hotel buildings. For our time there we visited both the Wynn and the MGM Grand.

Once again we had found not only tourists and vacationers from Europe, Australia and the Americas, we had come upon another example of China wealth, thousands of vacationers from the mainland.

We couldn't depart Macau without trying to pay for our trip so with HK$100 Sheila hit the machines. The attached picture shows the result, after finally finding a Wynn slot machine that she understood (without Chinese characters) and a fair number of plays the results were in, Sheila was a winner!






Following our forays into gambling we had some time before our scheduled return to Kowloon. We walked through the MGM Grand, and grand it was before returning to the Wynn.





We then settled into the Bar Cristal for a drink and as often happens had a good bar experience.  The bar is a small place, about six small tables and only two seats at the bar. Sheila was impressed with the crystal refrigerator door and the booze display in the crystal cabinets over and behind the bar. I had a Hendrick's G&T with cucumber, Sheila ordered up a Kir Royale. In the end, I had found my newest favorite bar in the world (Woody's and Willy's had no chance) and Sheila had met a real Irishman and Irishwoman, a couple from where else but Kinsale; they lived in Hong Kong and were celebrating an anniversary in Macau. To top all of that we had witnessed one of the bartenders set her hair on fire, only a minor fire, frizzing just a small bit of her long black hair.

Nick's Newest Favorite Bar In The World!

Real Irish People!

Around seven we took the shuttle back to the ferry terminal and were soon on our way back to Kowloon. We found our way back through the mega-mall and by nine were back aboard the Nautica.

Cachaca Cocktail

In passing to our room we stopped by the Martini Lounge for one more Margarita. While there we met a couple that had just arrived for the upcoming cruise. We shared stories and ordered up more drinks. The couple were from the U.K. employed in the "caravan" business. Turns out in translating UKese to Americanese, "caravan" translates to "recreational vehicle" aka RV and/or mobile home park. Nice folks, hope we see them as the cruise progresses.