Cruising in Asia: Hong Kong - Grand Hyatt, 10 McDonalds, and More Hello Kitty!

Intro and Planning
Getting to Tokyo - Southwest, Sheraton LAX, and JAL First Class LAX to Narita
Shinjuku and Beyond - Park Hyatt Tokyo, Shinkansen, and Kitty Chan?!
I'm On a Boat! - Sun Princess Yokohama to Hong Kong
Hong Kong - Grand Hyatt, 10 McDonalds, and More Hello Kitty!

Getting Home - Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong to San Francisco
___________________________________________________________________

This was our first time in Hong Kong and we had debated over staying at the Grand Hyatt or the Hyatt Regency TST. We ended up choosing the Grand Hyatt because it was only a few thousand more points per night and because I had heard such good reviews of the club lounge. Expecting full well that I would only be a Hyatt Diamond for 60 days with little chance of completing the challenge, I also wanted to get the most out of the Diamond Trial (which at the time I thought would be a once per lifetime trial, but more on that later).

Arriving at the hotel was easy and check-in was quite quick. I recall that we had booked a Grand King, but were upgraded somewhat to a Harbor View Grand King on the 32nd floor and given access to the Grand Club. As we were not actually in a club room, We had to take an elevator down 1 floor to enter the club on the 31st floor.

Looking back now 3 years at these pictures, I have to laugh at how poorly/hastily they were shot and framed. They should still give you an idea of how "Grand" the building is.

The room was laid out to maximize the view from any point you were sitting or laying, but wow it got hot when the sun was going down. 

I had let the hotel know we were celebrating our Anniversary (a bit late, but close enough!). and they had sent up a bottle of champagne and strawberries.

I have to agree with some other reviews, that while luxurious, the bathrooms are a bit gaudy with the black marble and gold fixtures, but definitely nothing to complain about. 

The best part of the room was the view of course.

We could see the Sun Princess we arrived on docked across the harbor.

We even watched it sail away the next day on its way to Singapore.



My favorite part of the hotel though, definitely the grand club. Somehow I only have one actual photo from the lounge with a plate of dim sum breakfast, I will have borrow from some other traveler's photos here to give you a better idea. Also, since our stay here, the grand club has undergone a major renovation which you can check out in another review here.

Courtesy of One Mile at a Time

Courtesy of One Mile at a Time

The breakfast and evening food offerings were plentiful to the point that we ate nearly all our meals here. The rest of the time, not entirely by choice, we ended up eating at McDonald's. Why would we do that??? It actually had nothing to do with the food, we really are not big fans of McDonald's at all. It just happened to be that the dates we were in Hong Kong lined up perfectly with a promotion that was running at all the McDonald's in Hong Kong. We just happened to notice Hello Kitty plastered all over the windows of one of the restaurants and we had to go in to check it out.  

Each of the restaurants was selling special edition Hello Kitty plush dolls for 25hkd (~3usd) IF you bought any food item. So, needless to say, we bought a lot of food items, even some we didn't eat!

The trick to this whole thing of course was that each restaurant only had 1 of the 4 individual items, and if you could find it in stock, a 5 piece set that came with an additional limited edition! It turns out there are quite a few McDonald's in the city that you can easily walk to. Seriously, look at this map of locations in Hong Kong.



Within two days we had visited 10 McDonalds, and picked up entirely too many Hello Kitties, that still are in the bags they came in! How Cute are these though!?



Luckily, as a break from all the McDonald's we did find time to have High Tea at the Peninsula Hotel in TST.

While a bit expensive at ~$70 for two people for tea and pastries, it was a fun experience. We did show up about 30 minutes early as the line was about 100 people long by the time afternoon service started.

I would do it again if we had more time, but on a 2 day stopover, I would probably not give up valuable time waiting in line for tea.

Cruising in Asia: I'm On a Boat! - Sun Princess Yokohama to Hong Kong

Intro and Planning
Getting to Tokyo - Southwest, Sheraton LAX, and JAL First Class LAX to Narita
Shinjuku and Beyond - Park Hyatt Tokyo, Shinkansen, and Kitty Chan?!
I'm On a Boat! - Sun Princess Yokohama to Hong Kong
Hong Kong - Grand Hyatt, 10 McDonalds, and More Hello Kitty!
Getting Home - Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong to San Francisco
______________________________________________________________


(Photo courtesy: Wikipedia)

You can read more on the details of this cruise here. It was the best itinerary we could find leaving from Japan and making stops in places we had never been. 7 Days from Yokohama to Hong Kong, stopping in Osaka, Kagoshima, Taiwan, and finally Hong Kong.

From Shinjuku to Yokohoma is pretty quick on a train, but again we underestimated how far it would be from the train itself to the station exit and a taxi. It was quite a trek with our bags in tow. Once we made it to the taxi it was just a quick 10 minutes to the dock. By the time we got there it was just short of total chaos. There were what seemed hundreds of taxis not only in line to get up to the check in area, but also a huge line to get back out. We spared our driver and walked the last 100 yards.

By the time we got into the building though, it was nearly empty. Unfortunately, it was also mostly empty of anyone to direct us where to go. At this point, you are left in the hands of the cruise staff and you get the same level of service you might expect from a TSA agent... We finally found someone to help us check in and it only took about 15 minutes to clear their version of customs and make it onto the ship.

Now at this point, I would normally have photos of the room, however it appears it was so underwhelming we never even bothered to take a photo! It looks like our excitement stopped at the door with the welcome balloons for our anniversary.



I mentioned in the planning phase of the trip that we had gotten a "good deal" on the cruise fare itself. However, we still felt it was quite a bit overpriced for a 7 day cruise in a balcony cabin. A few weeks before we left for the trip though we received a call from our travel agent letting us know the balcony cabin we had booked had been oversold. At first I thought maybe this meant we would get a free upgrade which would have been great, but everything from balcony up had already sold out. Instead we were offered a downgrade to an oceanview room and $1600 in onboard credit (60% of the cruise fare we paid!) We do like to have a balcony, but if this was the other way around, would I pay more than double to go from having a window to a deck... not a chance! This ended up paying for all our excursions, on-board expenses, and we still left with a $400 in cash as it was refundable credit.

Looking back we took hardly any photos on this boat, and for good reason. The ship was actually on its way back to Australia via Singapore after our trip to be overhauled. Interestingly enough at the end of the cruise following ours it caught fire and the final trip was delayed. (Story Here) Luckily we didn't have that to deal with, but it is another reason to consider trip insurance. We actually had insurance on that trip, but it was thrown in as a bonus by the agent we booked through.

The sun princess was tired, very tired. I am sure after the renovations its perfectly fine, but it was in dire need of an update. This was also a 1 time itinerary, so they were vastly underprepared for their shore excursions. We tried to book something for our first stop in Osaka, but it was sold out before we even got to the ship, for every outing! Luckily, I had lived in neighboring Kyoto in college and new just the place to visit. We hoped on a train to Nara that only took about 30 minutes. I had told my wife we were going to see some deer at a temple, and she was not exactly impressed. However, if you have not been, its pretty hard to explain what to expect.



Ok, some deer... hanging out by a temple, that's different. Oh, they look hungry do they? Not to worry, lets just buy some of these crackers to feed them.



Oh you have some friends that are hungry too?



Uh oh... running out of crackers! Here try my shirt instead...



After a bite to eat, you might want to step into a store to enjoy some AC.



Seriously, best part of the trip, I would go back again just to share this with someone.

alright, back to the boat, next stop Kagoshima



We saw some gardens... stopped by a volcano and back on the ship. We actually had some people on the tour that didnt realize we made it to the volcano until the trip had ended. Needless to say people had complaints about that tour ($175pp for what!). We did end up getting 50% back because there were so many complaints about the tour.



Volcano is up there somewhere... obscured by clouds and mist.


Next stop! Taipei via Keelung.
The port of Keelung is about 45 minutes from Taipei, and there really isn't much to see there, but they did greet us with some lion dancing. 

So off to the city we went. First a quick photo stop for Taipei 101, need to get back there some day to go inside.


Then off to the national museum, which was extremely strict about photos. We were not allowed to bring a camera inside.
 
The thing that was most surprising about this museum sounds pretty odd, but it was the number of Chinese visitors in the museum. No, I don't mean local people from Taiwan, but people that came from China to see Chinese artifacts in Taiwan's national museum. There was definitely a bit of a weird tension between those visitors and the staff. For us though on a tour group, everyone working there was great.

Another quick timed stop to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Followed by lunch at "The Grand Hotel" which was just a buffet, but quite nice.

If you look closely at the image below taken from the hotel parking lot, you can see just how much Taipei 101 stands out!


Our trip also included a stop at the Confucius temple and the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. 

Keep in mind, this whole tour, including the lunch, was the same price as the Kagoshima tour!

After a few days at sea, we made it to our last stop in Hong Kong. We were able to take a full day excursion that would take us back to the hotel at the end of the day, which was great. It included a tram ride up to the top of Victoria's Peak.


Lunch at the "Jumbo" floating restaurant. Which somehow we missed pictures of! And ended with a harbor cruise that dropped us off on Hong Kong island.

More next on our stay at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong.

Cruising in Asia: Shinjuku and Beyond - Park Hyatt Tokyo, Shinkansen, and Kitty Chan?!

Intro and Planning
Getting to Tokyo - Southwest, Sheraton LAX, and JAL First Class LAX to Narita
Shinjuku and Beyond - Park Hyatt Tokyo, Shinkansen, and Kitty Chan?!
I'm On a Boat! - Sun Princess Yokohama to Hong Kong
Hong Kong - Grand Hyatt, 10 McDonalds, and More Hello Kitty!
Getting Home - Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong to San Francisco
___________________________________________________________________

3 Years later!! I finally get around to finishing this. Lots of things have changed, but I look forward to sharing some of this. Also realizing that iPhone 4 photos are not what they used to be!

Even with a huge and completely lay flat bed, I can never seem to sleep on flights. That and it seems like they always keep the cabin temperature way up in the high 70s. We made it through customs without an issue, and headed off to pick up our JR East passes that we had purchased for ~$180 per person for a 3 day pass. We chose this option as we planned a short day trip to visit some friends in Niigata some 2 hours away by train. Picking up these passes saved us $40 each and we used our Barclay Arrival card points to pay for this, so no cash out of pocket. The staff at the JR office at the airport were very helpful, but it is a somewhat slow and manual process for them to prepare your passes. They explicitly told us we could not use them in the turnstiles but being so tired of course this quickly slipped my mind.

We headed downstairs to find the Narita Express which took about an hour direct to Shinjuku. I had forgotten just how massive some of these train stations can be, and when we arrived we had to find the right exit to catch a taxi to the hotel. The signage was easy to follow, but we were each toting large bags and it took at least 10 minutes walking through various underground shopping centers to get to the right exit. Here of course, is where the note about the turnstiles comes in. You are supposed to go to the kiosk where an agent is waiting that will check your passes and let you through. Instead... I try my pass at the gate (where the gates only close if you don't have a ticket) and I get stuck half way through with my bag jammed in the middle. After much struggling someone came to help and kindly reminded us to just go to the booth!

Outside we quickly found a taxi and we were off. Yet again my lack of sleep comes into play when I see we are turning towards the Hyatt Regency, thinking I had miscommunicated the hotel to the driver. Of course it turns out the Park Hyatt and the Regency are quite close to each other and we were simply passing it on the way and the driver reassures me he knows what he is doing (*embarrassing*).

Arriving at the hotel is kind of an odd experience, and in this case also comical. The hotel itself is on the top floors of an office building, but has a dedicated entrance on the ground floor. As we arrive at the door hotel staff immediately open the taxi doors and great us while they begin to unload our luggage. A bellhop took all of our larger bags and put them on a trolley, but the woman who greeted us insisted that she roll our carry-on bags for us personally. Up to the 42nd floor we go on our way to check in. Before you get to the front desk, you walk through an atrium, past the restaurant, through the library, and finally to the check in area.




  


To make the most out of this stay, I had emailed Hyatt and asked to take part in their Diamond Trial program (which has since changed to a 12 night challenge). They gave us 60 days of top tier elite status with Hyatt instantly, with the chance extended to a full year if we completed enough paid nights. The real benefit to this, is that if you apply for the Hyatt Credit card from chase as a Diamond member, it comes with 2 free nights in a suite at any Hyatt in the world. Considering 1 night in the "Park Suite King" is currently priced at $1,280 per night, we thought this would be a good place to use it.


 We were staying for 3 nights, so we used our 2 suite nights and added on a 3rd night with points (25,000 at the time, but now up to 30,000). When we arrived we asked if it would at all be possible to stay all 3 nights in a suite, which depending on capacity is not out of the ordinary. However, I later learned this hotel (or many in Japan), are an exception to this. Unless there are really extraordinary circumstances, expect you will get exactly what you book here. However, being ever so polite, someone went to go speak to the manager to inquire for us. Several minutes later they arrived to let us know that we could certainly upgrade to a suite for only $800 for the night. No thank you! We kept our "Park King" and headed up to the room. Of course with the same woman dragging our bags all the way for us!

For a standard room, I was pretty impressed, it was quite spacious and the walk through bathroom located behind the bed area made it seem even larger. Begin poorly taken photos here!


 


As a Diamond member, the hand written note, bottle of wine, and box of specialty cookies were the welcome amenity. Funny enough, both those bottles of water are still in our fridge at home!



Besides the welcome amenity, it seemed that each room came with another standard welcome gift of Japanese snacks. 
The fresh flowers in the room were a nice touch and definitely appreciated by my wife.

 

 Getting into the room itself was also entertaining. Within the course of 5 minutes we had the original hostess show us into the room and how to work things, the bellman arrive with our larger bags, room service show up to put out the welcome amenity, and housekeeping to offer turn-down service as it was already 8pm. By the time everything settled down we took some pictures, closed the shades and went to sleep!

We were up early the next morning to catch a train for a day trip, but we had time to stop in the restaurant for our complimentary breakfast, again thanks to being a diamond member. You have the option of having the buffet, or ordering al-a-carte off the menu. We had some time to spare so we ordered of the menu.












As far as hotel breakfasts go, this I think, is still my favorite. I loved how a "side" of bacon really meant an entire plate! The service was great and fast and everything was delicious! Would I ever pay menu price for any of this, not a chance!

Ok, now we were off and running to catch our train. This section I will make brief as this is already becoming quite a long post. Taxi back to the train station (so much easier without luggage).



We enjoyed the day with some old friends in Niigata, where we stopped for some Automated Sushi, Automated Sake, and couldnt resist a photo of our good friend "Kenta-san" from "Kenta's Friend Chicken"





As with every other departure from our friends, they joined us on the platform and continued to wave goodbye until the train departed!

 

Back at the hotel after a long day, we found the transition to our new "Park Suite" quite smooth as they had already moved all our bags for us during the day.

 

The room was definitely large for a suite, and by standards for hotels in Japan, it definitely seemed huge. The furniture with its distinct Japanese flair seemed a little dated though.

Not being quite so tired, I tried to go upstairs to take a photo of the top floor bar, made famous in Lost in Translation. However, it was quite busy and they insisted that I get a table and buy something if I wanted to come in. I wasn't quite up for that, so I took a quick glimpse and headed out. I was however able to go up and sneak a picture of the view from the pool.

The next day, we took a full day tour of Tokyo, which I won't barrage you with. However, one of our highlights was making our way over Sanrioworld as my wife is a huge Hello Kitty fan.

























Its been several years since taking this trip and I'm glad to finally get back to updating this page. I was definitely surprised to see that in the last 2 years the site had over 7000 page views. I feel a bit bad that I let the site go cold for that many people!