Stepping into a new continent – a week in Hong Kong COMPLETED - Page 27 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
I do have one question - if you were going again where would you stay? I get the impression that you felt you could have been better located.
Thanks very much for such an interesting and entertaining report!
You're right - I did feel we could've been better located. We were in Causeway Bay, which was a little way out. I'd have prefered to have been more central in Hong Kong Island, somewhere closer to the Star Ferry maybe or perhaps in Kowloon. Ideally I'd have loved one of the hotels on the waterfront in either area, overlooking the buildings on the other side of the water, but you're talking big bucks for that!
I think Mark summed it up well before we left, when he said that he was excited to be going to Hong Kong, but was also a little scared, as it was a part of the world we had never been to before. We didn’t have to be sacred, as it was such a safe and friendly city.
It’s impossible to comprehend how densely populated this place is until you see it for yourself. Essentially it’s seven and a half million in a not very big area and everywhere you look, even in the suburbs, there are high rise tower blocks. It’s fascinating to see, but not something I’d ever want to experience for myself. I couldn’t imagine living in those things. It’s something that is very difficult to take and makes you feel very grateful for the green friends and houses that we have at home. Not everyone is that lucky.
I was expecting Hong Kong to be more of a culture shock than it was. It’s very British and that did surprise me, as it’s been more than 10 years now since it was handed back, but there’s no sign of any real change here yet. I had heard all sorts of stories about the things that would be different out here, but actually they weren’t. Best of all, there was no real language barrier, which makes it a great place to visit as an introduction to Asia.
What did amaze me was how slowly people move here. I thought it would be rush, rush, just like New York or London, but not a bit of it. In fact, it was quite slow. A lot of that was to do with the fact that people here seem to live their lives on their cell phones. Even worse, there’s no escape, even on the subway.
When I was deciding where we wanted to go for this holiday, I wanted to find somewhere that would have plenty to do for the seven nights that we would be there and Hong Kong certainly fits the bill. There’s no way we could see and do everything, even in that time, although we gave it our best shot. It was so nice to be able to stay in one place for so long, as all too often, we are literally flying all over the world, as I like to visit a lot of different places in one vacation. I know I have got no-one to blame, but it was such a nice change to stay still and enjoy one place for so long.
Our hotel was nice, but it wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t my first choice and I would’ve preferred something nearer to the centre of Hong Kong Island. Fortunately, it was very convenient and the fact that it was about 20 minutes away on the subway only cause a problem once on our last night. The breakfast buffet here was certainly excellent and often led to us having late lunches or snacks during the day, as we were so full, so I couldn’t fault that.
I found the jetlag over to Hong Kong much easier to cope with than when we go over to the States, which bodes well for our next planned trip in that direction, over to Japan next year. Arriving at night when you’re tired is much easier than getting there in the afternoon and having to try and stay awake until bedtime.
It’s hard to pick a few favourite experiences out of this vacation, there were just so many. I think the biggest one was being able to enjoy such a different city that’s halfway around the world. To me, that’s what travel is all about – seeing new places and new cultures and we were certainly able to do that over the week we were there.
Highlights for me included the Peak, both during the day and at night, although I did prefer it at night, as it was easier to see with less pollution in view. In fact, the skyline at night was very dramatic and perhaps one of my favourite views so far in the world.
I also loved the Museum of History, this is really how all museums should be done and our visit to Aberdeen was well worth it. Those floating restaurants were quite something! Let’s not forget Macau and the amazing flower market.
I have to give Hong Kong Disneyland a special mention here as well. We went for the day, not really having high hopes for the park at all. After all, it had only been open for a couple of years and we knew it was lacking in attractions. Well, what it was lacking there, it more than made up for with theming, enthusiastic Cast Members and some wonderful Chinese New Year celebrations that really made our visit.
Looking back, that was probably the best part of our visit to Hong Kong, the fact that we were there for Chinese New Year and all the decorations were still up. They were stunning and it was lovely to see them everywhere we went. I guess in that respect, it’s a bit like visiting Walt Disney World at Christmas when the decorations add so much to your experience.
I hope we do get to go back to Hong Kong again one day and I wasn’t sure that I would feel that way after seven nights there, but there is still more to see there and I’m not ruling out a return there in a few years time to see what’s changed. Previously I had looked with interest at guided tours of China and most include Hong Kong, but I figured that we wouldn’t want to go back. Well, I can now say that I do and maybe that is something that we’ll consider doing in the future, but that’s a long way off yet……
Next: a new trip report, Berlin – a newly reunited city
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Thanks for sharing your trip to Hong Kong with us. I really enjoyed all your pictures. It's some where I'll never get to see so seeing it through your eyes was really nice.
Liz
Just finishing up! What a wonderful trip you & Mark had!! Now I'll have some idea about some of the places they are bound to feature during the Olympics!! for sharing! I have enjoyed reading!
About This Page: 
PassPorter Guide Author
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Cathy
Linear Mode
