27 April - Hong Kong, Day 1

After 23 nights at sea our cruise finally came to an end this morning when we arrived at the Kai Tak Ocean Terminal in Hong Kong. As a sharp contrast to the near perfect weather we've enjoyed since we left Melbourne, the weather here, while still warm, was overcast, quite hazy with a light drizzle. We had opted for a late departure from the ship as hotel rooms are generally not ready till 2-3 pm, and so, after a leisurely and final breakfast we made ourselves comfortable in the Explorer's Bar, our designated holding area for disembarkation. At 10:20 it was our turn to walk off the Golden Princess for the last time, through HK Immigration to join the longest taxi queue any of us had ever seen. However the departure organisation was ultra efficient and 45 minutes later we were packed into a medium size taxi (all four of us + luggage) on our way to downtown Kowloon and the The Prince Marco Polo hotel. We had booked our rooms here more than 6 months ago through booking.com and it is always a bit surprising, and quite a relief, when you arrive and they are expecting you. This was certainly the case here - the staff were terrific and although we had to wait for our rooms to be ready, by 2pm we were settled into the biggest hotel rooms we've been in after a while. Certainly, after 23 nights in a very compact ship's stateroom it was nice to be able to spread out and settle in for the next five days. After unpacking and a bit of rest we walked down Canton Rd to find a liquor store to buy a few essentials and a bit to eat. Our hotel is located right in Harbour Town which is the largest shopping centre (3 levels) we've ever encountered. Tonight we opted for an early night so that we can be fresh and ready to explore Hong Kong tomorrow. It was also nice to find that our rooms provided free high speed internet access, which meant I could finally catch up on all the updates on all my devices and to finally download all my email.