Flight to Hong Kong

March 15th-17th
Flight to Hong Kong

So here we go again, another cruise adventure, another blog to document my travels, and this cruise already seems like it’s going to have some great stories!
It all starts with the flight from Chicago to Hong Kong. Well, it’s a flight, 16 hours worth of sitting in one place trying to sleep. I actually did enjoy the flight, it was just really long. The cool thing, however, was that we flew to China by going over the North Pole. It was neat being able to look out the window at endless stretches of white. It’s hard to tell what the actual landscape is 40,000 feet in the air, so be it glaciers, frozen lakes, or lots of snow, I’m not sure, but it was something you don’t see every day.
We made it to Hong Kong without any problems. I got my stuff together, left the plane, followed the signs till I got through customs/immigration, and picked up my luggage. From there, I was supposed to call a phone number I’d been given in regards to getting picked up at the airport. After finding a courtesy phone, I called up what was supposed to be the hotel number only to get a message saying the number was no longer in use (the message was in both Chinese and English…so no, my Chinese isn’t that good). I called again and asked the guard by the phone if the number looked correct, which it did, it just simply didn’t work. So he sent me over to the hotel booths where I could find representatives from the hotel I was looking for, the Marco Polo of Hong Kong. I found the booth, gave them my name, only to not be found on the guest list. After explaining I was here to work on the ship and I’d been trying to call their number, they sent me over to the Burger King in the terminal where they said I was supposed to meet with my ride to the hotel. Luckily, they were right, and I did indeed find my ride waiting for me with a couple others who had just flown in. We then drove off in his Toyota minivan kind of car, on the left side of the road, and I enjoyed looking at the scenery from the passenger side. This area, Hong Kong and whatever surrounding cities we drove through, were absolutely gorgeous. Seeing the buildings juxtaposed against a mountain backdrop was just beautiful and was undoubtedly Chinese. Maybe I’ve seen too many Chinese movies, but there was no mistaking the look and aura of this place. We made it to the Hotel with no problems, less the few pedestrians the driver almost flattened. We arrived not at the Marco Polo, but at L’Hotel, a change I had no idea about, but was pleasantly surprised. The high-end looking lobby was certainly on par with the elegant elevators, handsome hallway, and stylish suites. But seriously, this room was great! I was on the 36th floor with a great view and a room that was so hip and modern it took me a few minutes to figure out how to work the fixtures, not to mention finding the toilet (not that the room was huge or anything, but the bathroom certainly had some tricks up it’s sleeve…not to mention one of it’s four walls being made entirely of perfectly clear glass). But along with the steel clawed bathtub, flat screen TV, and motion sensing lights, came my surprise that the company would actually put all of it’s employees at a hotel like this, wow!
So, from there I took a nap before calling home, both because I was tired and because the time change meant I should wait a couple hours before waking up my family. The bed was rock hard. Like really, I’ve never been on such a stiff bed in my life. The pillows were some of the softest, but that bed was barely a step up from the floor, I guess it’s an Asian thing. Later that night I headed downstairs to check out the restaurant and free meal the ship was paying for. This restaurant was certainly at the same level of the rest of the hotel, and the food was great! I started with some sashimi which was really good and included octopus – slightly strange. I’m really looking forward to sushi in japan, but Hong Kong is still going to be a lot better than the Midwest. The chicken dinner was great too, I don’t know quite what it was, but real Chinese food was nice to experience. So I finished up there, went outside for a walk along the waterfront (there was a really nice park), and then back to the room for bed.
I woke up the next morning, took my shower, grabbed breakfast at the same great restaurant, packed my things and left with the shuttle that took 20+ sign-ons to the ship that morning at 9AM. We got to the ship no problem and I started the sign-on process with the couple dozen others there to do the same. Well, the ship’s nice, I really like it. It’s a lot smaller, and the lay out is completely different from the Navigator, but it’s not bad finding my way around. So I went through the process, and then got to go on the scavenger hunt for my room. The rooms here are about 50% bigger than the Nav’s, so that’s nice. They’re still really small and make even the smallest dorms look huge, but this change is certainly welcomed. My roommate is a really cool guy from Argentina. He seems like a great guy though, I think the rooming thing is going to work out fine. After finding the room, I had some time to wander the ship before my pre-departure training. It’s a nice ship, completely different than the Nav, but interesting in its own way. I did my training though, had fun faking my way through the passenger boat drill, and then had a quick run through with the band for the welcome aboard show. It seems I’ll be working even less on this ship! Supposedly, the horn players don’t play any production shows, which was a good majority of the work on the Nav, meaning more days off!! Yeah, ship life in Asia is hard, I don’t know how I do it. That night we played our two welcome aboard shows, each consisting of a single 4 minute tunes, and that was it. Best of all, NO WELCOME ABOARD PARADE!! The Parades will now be a thing of the past seeing as this ship doesn’t have the promenade for such a stupid activity. But that’s about it, the rest of the night I spent trying to meet some different people. The people on the ship do seem really friendly and open to new crew, maybe cause it’s such a smaller community. But I think it’s going to be really fun here, so far everything’s off to a great start.
Thanks so much for reading again and I’m so glad that you’ve decided to come back for a second helping of my tours of these worldly adventures. I’m really excited to be where I am and doing what I’m doing and hope that you’ll get some enjoyment in reading these posts. I don’t know how often I’ll be able to actually make the posts due to not having internet in the room, but I’ll figure out a way. Thanks and have a great one!