HKDL Booked - Now a PTR!!

[Princess_Melanie]

Our booking request that we sent to DVC member services on Friday came back this morning as a fully fledged booking - we're going to Hong Kong!!

We just booked our flights and planning is in full force here

We fly out on Oct 26th and leave HK on Nov 6th so we'll be there for Halloween which I'm really excited about.

The Disneyland Hollywood Hotel will be our home while we're there and we have a huuuuuuuge long list of everything we'd like to do while we're there!!

Any suggestions and tips - gratefully received

 

[PrincessInOz]

I should have come back here to double check how long you were going to be in HK for.

Looks like you'll have 10 days in Hong Kong. Plenty of time to do everything.

I'm nearly up to moving to Hong Kong proper in my TR and I'll have pictures of the Hollywood hotel to put up as well.

Definitely get an Octopus Card to travel around. I'll have details ....

 

[Princess_Melanie]

Yup - 9 full days and our flight home departs at 11.45pm so a big chunk of that day too!!

We have Oyster cards here in London in the UK which DBF and I use daily on the buses and tubes, so when we read up on the Octopus card a lot of it was pretty familiar - a LOT cheaper than here in London though!! Although I can't really complain - DBF is a senior accountant for Transport for London so we travel for free anyway

REALLY looking forward to seeing the HK part of your TR - we have Ocean Park on the list and apart from the official website there are few reviews and TR on it...

Really glad we joined the DVC in 2007, if it wasn't for that, HK would not happen this year!! We'll miss skipping Orlando for a year, but it's good to see other countries right?!!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Yup - 9 full days and our flight home departs at 11.45pm so a big chunk of that day too!!

We have Oyster cards here in London in the UK which DBF and I use daily on the buses and tubes, so when we read up on the Octopus card a lot of it was pretty familiar - a LOT cheaper than here in London though!! Although I can't really complain - DBF is a senior accountant for Transport for London so we travel for free anyway

REALLY looking forward to seeing the HK part of your TR - we have Ocean Park on the list and apart from the official website there are few reviews and TR on it...

Really glad we joined the DVC in 2007, if it wasn't for that, HK would not happen this year!! We'll miss skipping Orlando for a year, but it's good to see other countries right?!!

I might even have Ocean Park to post as well....

It is good to see other countries. But HKDL is a lot smaller than the US parks, so just be aware that it will suffer in comparison.

The good news is that come Oct/Nov, it is more likely that Grizzly Gulch will be opened. It is slated for opening in 2012. And then I'll be looking at your TR to see how it looks.

 

[Princess_Melanie]

The good news is that come Oct/Nov, it is more likely that Grizzly Gulch will be opened. It is slated for opening in 2012. And then I'll be looking at your TR to see how it looks.

That's what we're hoping - something new

By staying on Disney property and using DVC points we have passes for the length of our stay so will obviously have a full day in the park and will also be able to dip in and out as the rest of our schedule allows...and of course, we intend to spend October 31st in the Park

 

[PrincessInOz]

Sounds great! You'll have a ball. Lots of different things to see and do.

I better get working on my next installment. Hoping to finish breakfast and then move on to Hollywood Hotel.

Did you consider staying at the Disneyland Hotel instead of Hollywood hotel?

 

[Princess_Melanie]

Sounds great! You'll have a ball. Lots of different things to see and do.

I better get working on my next installment. Hoping to finish breakfast and then move on to Hollywood Hotel.

Did you consider staying at the Disneyland Hotel instead of Hollywood hotel?

Looking forward to seeing your pics of the hotel and your thoughts on it

We did look at the Disneyland Hotel, but....it was a lot more DVC points. We're using up points banked from last year that we have to use or lose, and a big chunk of this years points to stay at the Hollywood. To stay at the Disneyland Hotel would have meant borrowing points from next year which we try not to do. We figured that the hotel is mainly a base, and as long as it's Disney we're happy Staying at the Disneyland Hotel would be nice but maybe next time We'll definately be going there to have a look around and eat of course - Disney Dim Sum is big on the list and we have 1 Saturday and 2 Sundays there to try and get it in!!

 

[Lewdannie]

Edit...worked out what DVC stands for.

 

[ehsmum]

That's a great amount of time to spend in HK! We just stayed at the Hollywood Hotel and loved it. I know the Disneyland Hotel is more beautiful but HH was great as well.

We went to Ocean Park - it is huge! We only spent about 4 hours there and did maybe 4 rides? It was really way to big and spread out. We enjoyed it for what it was, but it's no Disneyland

 

[Princess_Melanie]

Edit...worked out what DVC stands for.

No worries I always forget that DVC means a few things when it comes to Disney

That's a great amount of time to spend in HK! We just stayed at the Hollywood Hotel and loved it. I know the Disneyland Hotel is more beautiful but HH was great as well.

We went to Ocean Park - it is huge! We only spent about 4 hours there and did maybe 4 rides? It was really way to big and spread out. We enjoyed it for what it was, but it's no Disneyland

Yup - originally we were looking at 5 night stay and then DBF looked at flights, figured out if we extended the trip, jiggled the days about a bit, and used some of the current year points....we could have a really decent vacation - I 'aint complain

We hope to do a full day at Ocean Park - it looks massive from the website - I want to see the giant and red pandas and DBF wants to do the thrill rides - we both want to see the huge aquarium. Any tips or pics from Ocean park? Any must-dos or skips?

 

[ehsmum]

Ocean Park is massive. We weren't really prepared for the size of it. We didn't end up seeing any animals (except for the eagles that swooped our cable car!). We went directly to the upper park and the thrill rides.

Our original plan had been to spend a full day there, but with our limited time we decided to cut it down to half a day. That really was fine for us because we did the major thrill rides and the cable car which was the most important to us. With a full day there you'll get to see a lot more, including her shows

 

[Princess_Melanie]

Ocean Park is massive. We weren't really prepared for the size of it. We didn't end up seeing any animals (except for the eagles that swooped our cable car!). We went directly to the upper park and the thrill rides.

Our original plan had been to spend a full day there, but with our limited time we decided to cut it down to half a day. That really was fine for us because we did the major thrill rides and the cable car which was the most important to us. With a full day there you'll get to see a lot more, including her shows

Depending how I feel after flying - I may skip the thrill rides and let DBF do them solo (I had acute vertigo last year and although I've not had an attack since, I havn't flown since the attack and I still get mild travel sickness from time to time now)

Excited about the shows though - we really do hope to spend a whole day here

 

[Princess_Melanie]

So, now the hotel and flights are booked, planning what we're actually going to do on our trip can actually begin!!

This is the 1st pre-trip report I have done for a few years, so bear with me

This trip is just me (mel) and DBF (aaron) - NO parents or friends on this trip

Here we are celebrating DBF's 30th in 2009....

Usually we head to WDW every year - buying into the DVC in 2007 was the best thing we ever did for our vacations But in 2011 we bought our 1st home together and the WDW trip went on hold that year. We had a few shorter trips/weekends to Belgium and to see friends in the UK but were in neeeeed of a Disney fix!! We'd banked some points from 2011 and these had to be used this year or we'd lose them. A friend in the US was thinking of renting them from us but changed her plans, so we looked at what we could do with them....and it dawned on us that Hong Kong could be an option!!

We had to wait till the 6 month mark to make our request with DVC Member Services but we were in luck and our reservation was booked!!

We're flying on Virgin Atlantic and have scored Premium Economy seats at a great price. We leave the UK on Friday 26th October very late at night, arriving in Hong Kong at tea time on Saturday. We leave Hong Kong just before midnight on November 6th

We're staying at the Disneyland Hollywood Hotel for the whole stay and will hop on the MTR to get around. Living in London we have a similar system to the Octopus, called Oyster which we use on the Underground system here - so we'll hopefully find this part of the trip easy to get used to

And so the planning begins...we have a long list of things we definately want to do - but in no real order yet...

Disneyland (obviously!!)
Halloween Night in the Disney Park
Disney Dim Sum
Afternoon Tea at the Peninsula (we adore afternoon tea)
Victora Peak (both day and night views)
Ocean Park
Ngong Ping - cable car, buddah and village
Markets
Avenue of Stars
Symphony of Lights
Star Ferry (DBF only - I can't get on any kind of boat)
And probably more that I can't think of right now.

Something we are very keen on and only just heard about is the Hong Kong Foodie Tour - a 3.5 hour tour, around some eateries, to give you a taste and an education in the food and area. We'll do this as soon as we can on the trip so we are prepared Maxiumum of 12 to a group and it includes a tea ceremony which DBF is very excited about.

More to come as the plans develop, and I'llupdate/reply as often as I can. We don't have internet in the house yet (new build and a bit of a nightmare...) so we hop across to my Dad's to steal his and I also have my step-dad and best friends baby girl both in ICU's at the moment so we're running back and forth between London and Oxford too!!

LOVING all the TR on this forum so far - very helpful and great fun to read

 

[zanzibar138]

Congrats on your booking! And good work getting premium economy too

Looking forward to seeing what you get up to in 10 nights. Can't wait to see HK Disneyland decked out for Halloween, and will be very interested to see if Grizzly Gulch is open for you - it certainly seemed pretty close to opening when we were there in March. We could see if from Tarzan's Treehouse.

 

[Princess_Melanie]

Congrats on your booking! And good work getting premium economy too

Looking forward to seeing what you get up to in 10 nights. Can't wait to see HK Disneyland decked out for Halloween, and will be very interested to see if Grizzly Gulch is open for you - it certainly seemed pretty close to opening when we were there in March. We could see if from Tarzan's Treehouse.

We're really hoping Grizzly Gulch is open by the time we go (should be as it's due to open this summer I think) - very excited!!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Congratulations on your plans! Great work to be travelling PE. That foodie tour sounds great. I'll be looking out for your views your TR with interest if you decide to do it.

 

[Princess_Melanie]

Congratulations on your plans! Great work to be travelling PE. That foodie tour sounds great. I'll be looking out for your views your TR with interest if you decide to do it.

We were lucky with the price, dropped a little bit when it came to booking!!

The tour really sounds like fun and when I emailed them about a dietary concern, the emailed back really quickly and were really friendly. If I can get the time tomorrow I'll try and post a little bit about it on here - time for bed here!!

 

[Princess_Melanie]

1st bit of actual planning/booking - Done!! I just booked DBF and I onto the Hong Kong Foodie Tour Being total food addicts - we thought this would be a great idea, it isn't too long (at 3.5 hours) but is long enough and will hopefully give us an insight into what to expect (or ask for!) when we're in HK.

What is it?
A 3.5 hour walking tour in the Central and Seung Wan neighbourhoods. We'll be taken to 6 food/drink locations along the tour - all family run - and inbetween we'll learn bits about how HK has changed/developed as well as interesting facts and info about the location, architecture, history etc.

Where will we eat?
1 - Wonton Noodle Shop - shrip and noodles in soup (mine will be a different noodle as I can't have fish/shellfish)
2 - Roast Meat Restaurant - BBQ Pork and rice - nom nom nom!!
3 - Fresh Juice Shop - I think this is the stop where you get to try sugar beet/cane juice (??) everyone raves about the juice on the reviews page of the tour...
4 - Tea House - DBF is really looking forward to this stop - a private Chinese Tea Ceremony in a traditional Chinese courtyard
5 - Dim Sum Corner - various for us to try (again - no fish/shell fish for me)
6 - Local Bakery - where everyone raves about the egg custard tarts!!

The cost for an adult was HK$600 per adult - with a service charge of $31 on top - HK$631 each - when I paid, it came out to £105 total - which for us, living in London and used to higher prices anyway - for a small 3.5 hour tour, including all costs (except tip for guide if you think they deserve it ) this is good value for money.

We'll also be shown en route to our food stops, other places that are recommended byt the guide, which I'm sure will come in useful!!

We booked the tour for Monday 29th October - the tours don't run on a sunday and as we arrive on a Saturday, this is the 1st day we could do it. They recommend doing the tour as soon as you can when you arrive to get the most out of it - ie - you know what your're eating/ordering (hopefully!!) for the remainder of your stay!!

 

[PrincessInOz]

YUM!!! I'll want food porn.

sounds like a great deal.

 

[zanzibar138]

Sounds like a great idea to get an idea about the food for the rest of your stay!