Hong Kong (Dec 2018)
JJ in HKG (16th – 20th Dec 2018)
Type: Free and Easy
Day -1
Daddy J comes in with the usual “LIGHTS-OUT-kids-please-sleep-since-you-have-a-long-day-ahead-tomorrow-no-story-time-tonight” yadda yadda; and we try hard to fall asleep, thinking what movies might be screening in the IFE tomorrow (hopefully no more Frozen or Peppa Pig, though Paw Patrol, PJ Masks or Ninjago would be fun) and soon dozing off with Mommy Koa and Elsa.
D1
I’m still surprised at how the kids will be up and cheery in mornings like this instead of the grumpy i-didnt-get-enough-sleep-last-night on regular school days…
Kids jump right out of bed and are literally jumping on their (actually our) beds!
OKIE DOKIE, you know the drill, transport comes in 30mins, go washup and remember to pack whoever’s going with you on the plan into your bags – Mummy J yells from the hall, frantically doing the last minute squeezing of stuff into the bags, which she does so really well (the latter only of course!).
We get to the airport, pickup our WIFI dongle from Changi Rewards counter and off we go to the checkin counters. Was a breeze as usual and off we head for some breakkie.
Soon its boarding time!
On arrival at Chek Lap Kok airport we clear immigration rather quickly and collected our luggage, upon exiting customs we keep a lookout for our KLOOK driver (we had pre-booked return airport transfer via KLOOK) but to no avail. Walked on further to the rendezvous point outside Tai Hing Restaurant (Arrival Meet & Greet Hall, 5/F, Terminal 1) and saw a group of other folks talking to what appeared to be the KLOOK agent. Apparently our driver was running behind schedule and we were given a swap, which would only arrive in 30min.
No drama. we made ourselves comfortable, TAKE MORE PHOTOS and it wasn’t long before the chap arrived.
When we finally settled into the MPV, it didn’t take long for the kids to doze off.
We did have some issue with getting the wifi to work this time.
Disclaimer – we’ve used the Changi Wifi umpteen times in the past and hadn’t had any issues whatsoever. Issue here was that the device wasn’t able to connect to the internet despite multiple attempts which including rebooting and resetting the device.
Tried eventually to get in touch with support, and took almost all day before someone eventually got back to us. Good thing was that once that happened, we went through the remote troubleshooting process and finally got it working. Phew!
Daddy J was actually feeling rather unwell at this stage (probably caught on the flu bug from T1 who had been sick the week prior). We decide however to go to look for some dinner around Mongkok and eventually settled for Tim Ho Wan!
D2 – Disneyland!
We head to Mongkok MTR station which is a short 5min stroll from Hilton Garden Inn Mongkok. No fuss as there were plenty of sights and sounds to take in (the area around the hotel is predominantly hardware shops. Kiddy Caution! The area around Soy Street seemed a little seedy when we were walking back to the hotel at night, with what appeared to be some working ladies lurking in the street corners.
Apart from that it was a lovely hotel which provided us free upgrades and breakfast for the gang (Grandpa J and Mummy J are both HH Gold Members and kids < 7 years eat for free. See our other post on HH Gold fasttrack tip!)
MTR ride was smooth and comfy on a wintery December Monday as most people were already at work when we boarded the train from Mongkok station en route to Sunny Bay station before crossing over to the other side of the platform for the Disneyland Resort-bound Monorail.
We get to the turnstiles around 11am, clearly missing the rope drop (10am). We had prior to this downloaded the HK Disneyland App (similar to other Disney parks) which basically shows you the map, schedule and queue time at each destination). We will not go through the review in detail as there are heaps of other blogs which offer a lot more in-depth reviews on the attractions, rides, shows and tips and tricks).
Once inside there was a clear beeline to the Mickey meet and greet which we steered clear from. Instead, we patronized Donald whose queue was way shorter.
At the end of the day after clearly achieving more than 10,000 steps that day, we were thankful we had prebooked pickup/transfer from Disney back to the hotel.
D3 – Causeway Bay, Star Ferry, Sogo Causeway Bay and Light Display
[JJ hack] FYI kiddy ergonomic bags are at least 30-40% cheaper than those of the same brand in SG.
Armed with this info, we made our way to Sogo Causeway Bay to grab the Moonrock Bags after doing some comparison between Dr Kong and MR (we had prior to that ventured to the Toys R Us @ Harbour City Shopping Centre as that was listed as one of the available locations on the MR website. Unbeknown to us (until we got there and spoke to the staff), this was only available as a summer item at that location. Because it was now winter these bags were no longer stocked there! Plan B then ensued and we tracked our way on the iconic Star Ferry from Tsim Tsa Tsui to Wan Chai (Mummy J at the onset of flu which explains the facemask!). Our friendly Octopus Card was really handy and was seamless in our transitions from MTR, bus and Ferry!
*Caution: Your Octopus card is eligible for a refund which we completely forgot about until we arrived home!
Note: On departure from Hong Kong you can return it to the Customer Service Centre at the airport or to any Customer Service Centre at any MTR station to get the refundable deposit of HK$50 and the remaining value. A refund fee of HK$9 will be deducted if the card is returned within 3 months from the date of issue.
The famed MoonRock kids’ ergonomic bags…
(Picture 4 below from Dr Kong in comparison with the MoonRock ones which come in an assortment of design including Ninjago Masters of Spinjitsu!)
The awesome display of lights at the Symphony of Lights from the Hong Kong Cultural Centre (Tsim Tsa Tsui). The other alternative location is at Golden Bauhinia Square in Wan Chai. The shows run nightly from 8pm.
Nice looking junk sailing along amidst a dazzling display of sound and lights.
Highlight was the horseman busker in the underground
D4 – HK Science Museum/Victoria Peak/Tram ride and Trickeye Museum
We were deliberating on whether or not to bring the kids to Ocean Park but decided to take it easy this time. We ended up going to the HK Science Museum (yay for Free Admissions on Wednesdays!) and onward to the Peak.
Note the museum is conveniently tucked in between theTsim Sha Tsui, Tsim Sha Tsui East and Hung Hom MTR stations.
Very visibly tired kids who fall asleep in no time after a long day out…
D5 – Olympic City playground
Without battling an eyelid, the kids were unanimous (quite uncommon!) about wanting to spend the morning after breakfast at the nice playground across the street from the hotel before heading to the airport for our flight home.
Flight home… JJ crashing Grandma J’s sleep pod.
