Results tagged “Ships” from East Asia 2017

Got woken up at 05:54 by a ship's horn blasting. Then at 06:00 the next door neighbours had an alarm go off (we have a double room, and we can hear the neighbours talking through the door). So no hope of getting back to sleep. So got up and looked out, and we were still in the Yangtzee river (we were meant to have docked at 05:00). We didn't end up docking until around 07:00, so was able to watch the whole thing from our balcony, including seeing Quantum of the Seas docking just before us. The terminal is way out on the Yangtzee River, not on the smaller river in the city that for some reason I was expecting to go to.

Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal

Quantum of the Seas in Shanghai

We had breakfast delivered so we wouldn't have to fight the crowds in the buffet. It was a bit average, although it didn't help that I'd let it get a bit cold while watching us dock.

At 9:30 we disembarked. We had to go to the theatre to get allocated a coach group, and then we got off the ship. And walked into a hall of chaos. We were mixed up with people who were leaving the ship for good, so they were all trying to sort out baggage. And suddenly we lost everyone that had the coloured stickers. We did eventually go out the right exit and through a security check, but then outside there was one solitary sign saying where the Cunard tours were going, but after going that direction the signs stopped and everyone was going outside but there were no coaches out there and we had no idea where to go. Eventually I saw someone with a sticker and asked them and she said she was just following her guide, so asked the guide and she said she was looking for the coaches as well!! Gah!! She asked someone though and it turns out they were around the corner. We were almost the last to board our coach, so that was very stressful.

Also, random camera died. It's been a bit funny with the memory card since I dropped it in Hong Kong Disneyland a year ago - the memory card mechanism got a bit screwy, and the door for the memory card and battery always looked like it wasn't sitting flush. Well as I was getting off (after having downloaded the SD card before we got off), it decided it didn't want to work at all - couldn't read the card - reinsert. Fricken sigh.

And it was raining. And the coach windows were steaming up.

The tour we had was "Free time in three sites" which was described as they give you a map and you have time to explore three different parts of Shanghai. Except the map they gave us was a general tourist map of a huge area of Shanghai. No actual detail of any of the places we went to. So that map was completely useless.

Our first stop was in the financial district, and they gave us an hour and a quarter from 10:45 to 12:00. Which might have been enough to go up either the World Financial Centre, Jin Mao tower or the Shanghai Tower, as they are right next to each other, but Stu wanted to go see the Oriental Pearl Tower. But that's a fifteen minute walk away, twenty to twentyfive if you take a wrong turn or want to stop and take photos. So it was about 11:15 by the time we got there. Which isn't enough time to go up it. Well, it might have been, but only if there were no queues, but you can't tell that from the outside. So we didn't go up it. Instead we went to Starbucks. Yay. Did I mention it was raining? I wanted to go to the bathroom, so found one downstairs, but there were was no toilet paper. I knew this was a possibility, so had brought tissues. But they were in my bag upstairs at Starbucks where Stu was waiting, weren't they. Fricken sigh.

Looking across to the Bund from Mingzhu Roundabout

Disney Store

Mingzhu Roundabout

Oriental Pearl Tower

Oriental Pearl Tower

Oriental Pearl Tower

Walked back along the sky bridge thingie back to the coach.

Shanghai World Financial Centre, Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai Tower

Oriental Pearl Tower and other Shanghai buildings

Our second stop was in the "Old Town" which is a mega tourist trap. Old buildings are all shops and tea houses and I would have enjoyed it except we hadn't had much for breakfast so I was starving and low blood sugar which meant even trying to find something to eat was too hard (no English subtitles pretty much anywhere so there's all this random food you have no idea what it is). Eventually we found a popular dumpling place and had some xiao long bao. Felt infinitely better after that, so we went to the Yu Gardens to have a wander around. Even though it's not very big it's like a little rabbit warren of passages and gates and completely disorienting with a new view through every turn. Would have enjoyed it more if we didn't need to be back at the meeting spot in time for our departure. We got toffee fruit on a stick on the way out which was a bit of fun.

Me and Stu having dumplings for lunch at Yu Garden

Bridge in Shanghai Old City

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Stu with fruit on a stick at Yu Garden

Fangbang Middle Road

Our third stop was at the Bund. In the rain. I didn't even get my big camera out for the last two stops (I took Stu's random camera which he's barely ever used since he uses his phone). Got some pics of the city from the Bund, then wandered most of the way down and back. Would have been sooo much nicer without the rain.

Me and Stu in the rain in Shanghai

Monument to the People's Heroes

The Bund

Shanghai skyscrapers

The Bund

The Bund

The Bund

The Bund Bull

The Bund

The Bund

The Bund

Then back to the coach by 16:20 (actually we left a bit early because everyone was tired and over the rain and just wanted to get back to the ship).

Scooter raincoats

Getting back onto the ship was a lot easier than getting off it. Just walked straight in and through security and had our passport photocopies scanned on the gangway and straight back onto the ship.

Quantum of the Seas departing Shanghai

Looking towards the five Queens Grill suites, and The Verandah restaurant on deck 8

View of deck 6 and 7 from deck 8 while berthed in Shanghai

Terrace pool in the evening

Chilled out in the room for a while then went to the pub and had a drink and played the trivia again. We got 17/20 this time, but again a table got 20/20.

For dinner Stu had Indonesian chicken salad, cod with oxtail sauce (weird right?) and rocky road (which was a chocolate mousse not rocky road). I had cream of chicken soup which was lovely, steak which was nice enough but a huge meal - much bigger than they normally serve, and creme brulee which sadly hadn't been blow torched so was just liquid on top.

Then crashed into bed.

Woke up at 05:30 and couldn't get back to sleep - doh! Eventually got up and did GPS/blog/photos.

Headed down to the street and went to a few different places to pick up coffee in a can, fruit and bakery bits. Ate those in the hotel.

After breakfast I left Stu to wake up and headed down to the waterfront. Our hotel was near the midlevels escalator and once on the overpasses (these ones are all outdoors) it was easy enough to get all the way to the Central piers without crossing roads. Walked all the way to the water and could *just* see the Queen Mary 2 berthed at Kai Tak through all the gloom. I chose not to go on the ferris wheel because, well, what would be the point.

Hong Kong Observation Wheel at Central

Queen Mary 2 at Kai Tak through the gloom

Victoria Harbour

On the way back I went past a couple of old Hong Kong buildings I'd never actually stopped to take photos of before, then took the street route back to the hotel.

The Cenotaph

Former Legislative Assembly Building

Packed up and checked out, then took the three trains from Central -> North Point -> ?? -> Kowloon Bay. In hindsight maybe taking the trains was not a great idea. So many damned sick people :(

At Kowloon Bay we had to negotiate another poorly signposted shopping centre to find the taxis to Kai Tak (we weren't going to take a mini bus like we did last time!). Even though Kowloon Bay is the closest MTR station to Kai Tak, the taxi driver didn't understand "Kai Tak ..... cruise terminal" .. What's with that? In the end Stu showed him a map and then it was ok. Although the meter said 49.2HKD at the end he charged us 60 ?

Anyways. At the terminal there were heaps of people arriving. Cunard had their bag drop right there in the lower hall, so once your Cunard luggage label is attached you just give your bag to them and they send it through the xray machines to be delivered to the ship. So that was pretty handy.

Then we headed inside and upstairs. To a hall of chaos. There were people queuing so we lined up with them, but there were also people just wandering through. It was all very confusing. Turn out our queue was the right one, and they gave us a Hong Kong arrivals card (for when we get back to Hong Kong in two weeks) and a "wellness" form asking us if we were sick. They also gave us a number (07, seemingly at random) and told us to take a seat and go up when our number was called. So we did that but we couldn't hear the announcements very well so we weren't really sure what was going on. We'd arrived at 12:45 (our boarding time was 13:00), but they didn't call number seven until 14:00 :(

Crowds waiting at Kai Tak Cruise Terminal

Queen Mary 2 from Kai Tak Cruise Terminal

Queen Mary 2 from Kai Tak Cruise Terminal

So we joined another queue, which was to check in, have our photo taken and get our onboard cards. Then it was off to security, and then immigration, both of which were quick.

Then it was onto the ship!!

Stu on the gangway boarding Queen Mary 2

Oddly, there were half a dozen staff standing around, but you walk past them to the "Grand Lobby" and then you're left to your own devices. There were no offers to show us where to go which I thought was a little odd. Fortunately I had a reasonable idea of where we had to go based on looking at lots of deck plans and photos. So we headed to our room.

Entrance threshold of the Queen Mary 2 on deck 3

The Grand Lobby

The Grand Lobby

The room is actually relatively spacious. There's the two single beds pushed together to make a king, a couch, desk, pretty decent sized wardrobe and drawers, and the bathroom, which is on the small side. There's two UK and two US power outlets on the desk with another two US outlets on top of the fridge part. At first I didn't think there was a shaver outlet in the bathroom for my nightlight. It turns out there is (under the bathroom light), but it only works when the light is on, which kinda defeats the purpose of the nightlight. We have a balcony, but it's an in-hull balcony on deck 5, so you can't really see the view if you're seated on the deck chairs. But it is quite sheltered.

Room 5.127 sign

Our stateroom aboard the Queen Mary 2

Our stateroom aboard the Queen Mary 2

Our bed on the Queen Mary 2

Desk area of our stateroom

Couch in our stateroom

Huge wardrobe in our stateroom

Bathroom in our stateroom

Bathroom in our stateroom

View of Hong Kong from our balcony

Deck chair on our balcony

Deck chairs and table on our balcony

In our room was a welcome small bottle of bubbly - basically enough for a glass each. So we sat and enjoyed that.

Welcome glasses of champagne in our stateroom

Welcome bottle of champagne in our stateroom

Me and Stu enjoying champagne in our stateroom

Then went up to Kings Court for a very late spot of lunch. Basically the Kings Court has buffet food going pretty much all day, so you can eat whenever you want which is pretty handy.

After lunch I went to the Pursor's office to ask about the Behind the Scenes Tour. Sadly they're not offering it this trip which is a bit sad-making, but at least I won't be disappointed if I can't get a ticket for it (there's only 16 tickets and usually only one tour per entire cruise).

Britannia Restaurant from the top level

Britannia Restaurant

The Grand Lobby

While I was doing that, Stu got unpacked and went and found the laundry. When I got back we took our clothes to the laundry, and got that going just after 16:00. Then I unpacked. It's going to be nice not having to rummage around my suitcase for two weeks. Just before 17:00 our washing finished so we moved it to a dryer.

At 17:00 was the emergency drill, where we all had to take our life jackets to our mustering area on level 7 and have the talk about what to do in an emergency. And that's where we had our first introduction to argumentative and complaining people. And I thought I was bad... hrmmm....

Me at the emergency drill

After the drill I dragged the sweetie all the way up to level 13 to have a look around the top deck, then down to the lookout on deck 11, before heading back to the room.

The Lookout on deck 13

Stu next to the Queen Mary 2 sign, deck 12

Hydrant from New York and lamp post from the UK, deck 12

Kai Tak cruise terminal from the Queen Mary 2

View aft on starboard side of observation deck, deck 11

Bow from observation deck, deck 11

Deck 11 Observation Deck

We chilled out for a while before getting ready for dinner. We were going to have a drink somewhere first before dinner, but our house alarm had been going off so Stu was trying to sort it out with Kit and Ben and Chris. Most likely a huntsman set it off, but they couldn't find one. So that, as well as having to dress up, was stressing me out no end.

View of Hong Kong from our balcony

So a bit before 20:30 we headed down for dinner. We are on table 1, right in the very back corner of the lower floor. We are on a table with six others - two couples from Australia (Bob and Virginia from Tweed Heads who'd come all the way from Sydney and are getting off in Shanghai, and Licia and David from Perth), and a couple from England (Kay and Norman). David said the chaos in the terminal was the worst he'd ever seen on a cruise.

Our dinner table for two weeks - table 1 in the Britannia Restaurant

Lower level of the Britannia Restaurant

For dinner Stu had a parfait of duck, salmon, and a pear tart tatin. I had a fried goats cheese dish which was very tasty, roast lamb which was amazingly tender and a white chocolate panna cotta which I liked. Overall a lovely meal to start the trip. We chatted for a bit after dinner, then headed back to the room.

Me on our balcony with view of Hong Kong

I was pretty tired and just wanted to collapse, but I also wanted to watch the departure at 23:30. I ran into Bob on the level 11 lookout and we hung around and eventually went up to 13. They were running a bit late and we didn't actually depart til 00:05. The lights of Hong Kong had gone out, but we sailed to the east not past the city anyway. Collapsed into bed at nearly 01:00.

Preparing to depart Kai Tak Cruise Terminal

Departing Kai Tak Cruise Terminal

Tsat Tsz Mui from the Queen Mary 2

Sai Wan Shan from Queen Mary 2