Stepping into a new continent – a week in Hong Kong COMPLETED - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Stepping into a new continent – a week in Hong Kong COMPLETED
Stepping into a new continent – a week in Hong Kong
Dates: Thursday 14 February – Saturday 23 February Adventurers: Me, Cheryl (35) and DH Mark (42) Resort: City Garden Hotel Celebration: Visiting a new Disney park and a vibrant city and using up our grocery vouchers!
Pre-trip report – part one:
Anyone who knows me will know by now that I’m never happy unless I’m planning a vacation – Disney or otherwise. It’s just something I love doing and somehow, you always get better value for money out of a vacation when you’ve been working towards it for months. Well, that’s my excuse anyway!
Somewhere near the beginning of 2007, I realised that the vouchers that we’d been collecting from our major grocery store, Tesco (actually never mind grocery store – they’re probably our major store full stop in this country, as apparently £1 in every £10 we spend here goes to their coffers, but I digress..) would need to be used by the summer. You get vouchers that are valid for two years and the first set dated from August 2005, so we’d have to use them by August 2007. That got me thinking. What could I put them towards? A city break wasn’t going to work this time. Previously, we’d had free breaks to Disneyland Paris, Oslo and Stockholm and finally Stockholm using them with Bridge and Cresta, but neither of these companies participated in Tesco’s rewards programme any longer.
It took me ooh all about half a millisecond to decide that we should use our vouchers with Virgin Holidays, who fly all around the world, with brochures covering Florida, the Caribbean, Dubai and Worldwide. Yes, you read that right – Florida, but unfortunately that wasn’t going to work for us. To qualify, you have to stay for seven nights (OK that would work) and your package has to include flights (that would work too) and also accommodation. OK, that’s where it’s not going to work. We’re DVC members, why on earth would we spent our vouchers staying somewhere else on Disney property? And we are talking a heck of a lot of money here with their prices!
So Florida was out. I debated for a long time and thought about the Caribbean, then lingered on Dubai for a long time, but a friend of mine went out there and stayed at the hotel we were looking at. She told us it was good, but not wonderful and also said that five nights out there had been plenty. Hmmm, we would have to be out there for seven nights. The killer was when she told us about the prices and how much it would cost to eat there. This is meant to be a cheap vacation! OK, cross that one off the list then...
Back to the drawing board – I had a look through the Worldwide brochure and happened upon Hong Kong. A few calculations later, it turned out we’d got about enough vouchers to cover a holiday out there and, from a little bit of research, food prices seemed fairly low there. I later discovered that had something to do with the Hong Kong dollar being tied to its American neighbour of the same name. That meant, with our exchange rate against the American dollar as it was, we’d be looking at something like $15HKD (Hong Kong Dollars) to every pound! Suddenly anything that was $200HKD looked very cheap to us!
The brochure only ran up until April 2008 and we wanted to go before then anyway, as we knew that it started to get very hot in Hong Kong from May onwards. According to the brochure, there were lots of deals for people going in February, so we settled with flying out then. We also discovered that the Spring Lantern Festival (part of the Chinese New Year celebrations) would take place on 21 February and I liked the idea of being out there for that, so we ended up going with dates that took that in. Our flights would both be overnight, so we’d have to fly out on a Thursday, stay seven nights to qualify to use our vouchers, then fly back on a Saturday, arriving about the same time we’d leave Hong Kong. Yep, travelling through a lot of different time zones is mindblowing...
It was about this time that Mark started to ask me if we could go Premium Economy instead of Economy. Now remember this was going to be a very cheap trip, with the vouchers covering everything? Not if we flew Premium Economy, as that would cost another £1200! I couldn’t justify that, but told him I’d do a deal – if it meant that much to him and he could find the money, then we’d do it. It didn’t take him long to assess the money situation and to tell me that he’d take the deal. We called up and booked our flights, snagging the last two Premium Economy seats on one of the legs of our flight and enquired about one hotel. We were told that Virgin had no more rooms left there, so they’d check with the hotel. We then had an agonising wait to see if we’d be able to get in there.
About three days later, they called back... with the bad news. The place was fully booked. Fortunately, the person booking for us had had a long chat with someone in her department who’d been to Hong Kong and she advised which hotels to go for and which weren’t in a good location. Armed with that information, soon we were booked at the City Garden Hotel in Causeway Bay, which we were assured was a good location. We took the last room there, so I’m glad I made that decision quickly. It had a pool (not that I was sure I’d be swimming with temperatures at that time of year averaging in the 60’s, but you never know!) and was near to a Metro station, which I always figure is very useful. There’s nothing worse than getting a hotel that’s miles away from the nearest public transport stop. And best of all, it was cheaper than the hotel we’d originally gone for by about £150, so we did save some money – to put towards the Premium Economy flight upgrades!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Wow!! wish we had something like those grocery vouchers here!! I'd be traveling to Europe sooner if so! I can't believe the exchange rate is that good for HKD...i didnt realize they were tied to the american dollar. I cant wait to hear more!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Don't keep me waiting. I have never left the US (Canada doesn't count) and I am far too chicken to try something as exotic as Hong Kong! I can't wait to see the pictures.
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Yep, travelling through a lot of different time zones is mindblowing... 
I couldn’t justify that, but told him I’d do a deal – if it meant that much to him and he could find the money, then we’d do it. It didn’t take him long to assess the money situation and to tell me that he’d take the deal. We called up and booked our flights, snagging the last two Premium Economy seats on one of the legs of our flight and enquired about one hotel. We were told that Virgin had no more rooms left there, so they’d check with the hotel. We then had an agonising wait to see if we’d be able to get in there. 
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