March 2, 2019 - Hong Kong, Hong Kong - Saturday, Day 55
We again took the shuttle to the MTR station. It is beneath Plaza Hollywood, a large shopping center. Alice is looking for a pair of sandals, so we window shopped for shoe stores. We would buy when we return in order to use our MTR refunds. This will be our last opportunity to use up Hong Kong dollars.
Stores would not open until 11:00 so we headed into town.
Our goal was the Apple Store. We knew where it was from a previous visit. The charging cord for Alice’s iPad has failed. We wanted to replace it.
With just 1 change of trains we were at Hong Kong Central. Elevated pedestrian bridges with great direction signs pointed us to the Star Ferry. We knew that the Apple Store spanned a highway just before the descent to the ferry terminal. After stopping to take pictures of the large ferris wheel we turned around and there in front of us was the Apple Store.
Inside the crowded store we were greeted by a rep as soon as we entered. We told him what we needed. He looked it up on his iPhone and placed the order after confirming the price with us. He said it would be out in a few minutes and stayed with us to demo the Apple Pencil on an iPad while we waited. Alice seemed to enjoy it. It could be a useful embroidery tool, but it would require a new iPad. Who knows. After2 minutes the cord was presented. He opened it to let us make sure it was the one we needed. We paid in cash since we are using up our HK dollars. Apple Pay would have been much easier. He bid us good day and we left.
On the way to the train station we passed the Pandora store. we wanted to get a Hong Kong charm. They had several nice ones and a buy 2 get 1 free promotion. We left with 3.
Now we took the subway to the end of the line at Kennedy Town. This is a vertical suburb of Hong Kong. There are no buildings less than 10 stories that we could see. Street level was shop after shop. Most of these were food shops. This was OK, but we were still looking for sandals. That was a lost cause. No shoe stores. We did see several markets and some interesting repair shops.
We took the subway back to our Diamond Hill station and surrendered our Octopus cards for refunds. We got back $51 HK per card. All of our trips cost just $10 HK. With the processing fees the total for both of us was $38 HK or just under $5 US. What a deal for all of that efficient and comfortable, even when standing, travel.
We looked for sandals again in Plaza Hollywood and finally settled for 3 chocolate bars for $90 HK. A little over $11. That left us with the equivalent of $1 in souvenir change.
After a short wait we boarded the shuttle back to the ship.
Our sail away had been delayed by the captain, since he was able to secure permission to sail out past the city center during the 8:00PM light show. This route is usually barred for cruise ships because it crosses several very busy ferry lines.
After dinner we went up to deck 12 to find a spot along the rail near the open roof over the pool. This enabled us to watch over the rail or turn and see the other side of the harbor beyond the pool. This turned out to be an ideal choice. The Hong Kong buildings around the harbor are beautifully lit at night. At 8:00PM a laser light show begins. This lasts about 15 minutes with many beams of light flashing above and across the harbor. We lowly cruised right through the middle of this.
This was our 4th visit to Hong Kong. We have seen the buildings lit up before. We have seen the laser show from a fixed point on shore. That was good, but this was spectacular. We were right in the center of it all. The captain was able to arrange this because this was Maasdam’s maiden voyage to Hong Kong.
After passing through the city center we continued out between Lantau Island and Hong Kong Island. We have never gone this way before. We cherish the experience.
We learned the net day that the captain had arranged to have the ship photographed from shore as we passed through the lights.
Thank You Captain Arno!
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