SE Asia and China Cruise—Day 9 (Hong Kong)

March 22, 2012—Hong Kong

I wasn’t hungry this morning, so my parents went to Sabatini’s for breakfast while I headed to the Lido Deck for coffee and watched as the ship entered Hong Kong harbor.

We docked in the container shipyards since the Diamond was too big to dock at Ocean Terminal.  At a little after 9:00am, my parents and I headed for the Wheelhouse Lounge to meet our excursion tour group.  We were assigned to Bus 5 and headed off the ship.

The bus drove through the city while our guide pointed out points of interest, then we went through a tunnel taking us underneath Hong Kong Harbor to Hong Kong Island, which is also known as Victoria.  Our first stop was Stanley Market.

Stanley Market, Hong Kong

Stanley Market

Stanley Market

Yes, there's even a McDonalds at Stanley Market

I could easily spend all day at Stanley Market.  Unlike the market in Ho Chi Minh, this market was clean, and the items for sale were better quality.  There were some very good prices and I could have bought quite a lot here.  Unfortunately, we only had 45 minutes to shop—definitely not enough time!

We next went to the Hong Kong Jewelry factory.  All cruise ships seem to stop at a jewelry factory or jewelry store—or at least all the cruises I’ve been on seem to do that.  While the jewelry was beautiful, I didn’t buy anything.

Unfortunately, at this point, my Dad started feeling sick.  He and my mother ended up staying on the bus for the remainder of the excursion.

The rest of the excursion included a short cruise on a sampan—a small boat that apparently the “water people” actually lived on.

Sampan Cruise of Hong Kong Harbor

The "captain" of our Sampan

Then I took “The Peak” tram ride to the top of Victoria where the view of Hong Kong and the harbor was incredible.

View from the top of Victoria

We finally arrived back at the ship around 4:30.  My Dad was seen by the ship’s doctor who diagnosed Norovirus—the dreaded “cruise ship” virus (the virus is actually more prevalent on land than at sea, but of course, it doesn’t make the news when people get the “stomach flu” on land).

He was quarantined to his room, and a team was sent in to sanitize the room.  We were told that our cabin steward, Gerald, would not be servicing our room—to keep exposure to the other passengers down, I’m sure.  Instead, the sanitizing team would service our room several times a day and sanitize it each time.  I asked them if there were a lot of cases on board, and they said there were five.  On a ship this size, that isn’t too many cases, but time will tell if more cases occur.

Neither my mother nor I were quarantined, but were restricted to only eat in the restaurants and not go to any self-serve food areas, i.e., the buffet.  The medical center had given my Dad an injection for the nausea, which pretty much knocked him out and he was asleep by 5:30.

My mother and I went to the dining room for dinner, and I had an after dinner drink in, then was back in the room early.  My Dad was still asleep and ended up sleeping all night long without waking up once.  My mother and I sat out on the balcony that evening and looked at the night lights.  Even though seeing the lights in the container dock wasn’t as nice as the city lights of Hong Kong would have been, it was quiet and peaceful sitting outside, and the weather was perfect—not hot, not cold, with just a hint of a breeze.

We were both in bed by 11:30 and asleep before the ship let go her lines and left for Shanghai at midnight.  We have two sea days before arriving in Shanghai.  Hopefully, my Dad will be fine by then, and neither my mother nor I will come down with Norovirus.