Very soon after coming to Hong Kong, I was strongly recommended by one of local Hongkongnese to join the popular tour on the sea, the Star Cruises. In Japan, some retired rich Japanese love to take the around-the-world cruise travel. Definitely I think it must be a very fantastic travel, but usually young people don't have so much time (several months), and can not afford the big expenses (10 thousands JPY). Up to now, I have had a lot of travels, visited about 10 foreign countries and 20 cities. Sightseeing is very enjoyable and relaxing. But long time flight in the economy class is not relaxing at all.  

Last weekend, I had an pleasant weekend vocation on the giant cruise ship with some of my friends. The travel impression report this time is written in English instead of Japanese, not only for my friends in Japan, but also for those living in China, Hong Kong and northern America.

3. Titanic --- the huge cruise ship (SuperStar Leo)

I have watched the movie "Titanic" for two times ( I like the movie and music very much), but I don't know how big the Titanic ship is. The size of SuperStar Leo is really huge, not imaginable. When it is parking at the ferry terminal it really looks like a giant "lion" laying there. It has 13 levels (floors), several hundreds long. It is Titanic!  Passenger rooms are designed in several classes at quite different price. If you pay a relatively expensive fee, you can have an executive suite, or a deluxe room with sea-view balcony. We selected two mid-class rooms with a sea-view hole in the room (the price for this class is  1,200 HK$ for one person including hk immigration tax). Actually, I regretted selecting this class. Only a regular room without sea-view is enough, which would have saved us about 300 HK$ for one person. Because you don't have so much time staying in the room. There are so many things to do on the ship, most people spend most time in the public areas!

4. Room, Food & entertainment 

The room is not very big (it is on the ship after all) (about 8 square meters?), but very clean and is equipped with all necessary facilities like beds, TV, toilet and shower for all types of rooms. The bed is very comfortable and bath towel is also very big and soft. I can say it is not worse than regular 4-star hotels in China.  The huge ship has a varieties of restaurants. As the one part of package, all passengers can go to anyone of the four main dining halls (each one, I think, could contain at least 500 people at the same time) to have breakfast, lunch, dinner and even night refreshment without charges (alcohol and soft drinks are chargeable). There are also a lot of special restaurants available like Japanese, Taiwanese, Italian, American, etc. to meet the needs of different customers. The free-charge food they offered actually are not bad. I think each meal has the value of 100 HK$. For 1200 HK$ package price, do you think it is expensive? 

There are also a lot of bars, coffee shops and snack bars around the ship. We went to different bars and personally I most like the bar in the lobby with live band, where we spent about 1.5 hour. Some one sung Karaoke (Theresa's "Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin"). The price was quite reasonable too (28-35 HK$ for cocktails and original coffee). 

Night life is very very arranged well. A very nice theater called Moulin Rouge, with the same name as the famous American movie of last year, is located at the end of Deck 7-8. Every night they arrange several programs in the theater by the time periods. They invite some TV stars in Hong Kong to have a show in the theater. This time the guest was Ken Chan, a very popular TV star recently hosting the program "The Millionaire". At the middle night, there is an adult show. Disco? of course, it has.

There are also a lot of other recreation and healthy facilities on the ship, including the roof swimming pool, gym, sauna, beauty salon etc. Children can have a very enjoyable time in the game center. 

It is not a ship, not a building, actually it is a small city, covering every kind of service.

5. Casino Hall 

It was the place where we spent the longest time. The hall is not so big but has every kind of gambling games (Small/Big, Roulette, Black Jack, Pakalo etc.) All tables are a little smaller than the ones in Macao (I never been to Las Vegas), but the service is 200% better than the service in the fucking Macao's casinos. When you change some tokens the staffs will say "Good luck". When you win, they never ask for any tip. Even we all lost money (I lost 1800 HK$ totally), we had a lot of fun. One interesting thing I have to mention is that the casino is only open 1.5 hours after departure and 1.5 hours before arrival. Can you guess why? Actually, gambling is prohibited by law in Hong Kong. But after the ship departed and enter the " Public Sea" area, which is not governed by Hong Kong, gambling is allowed. Interesting!   

6. Cruise staffs 

Most cruise staffs come from Philippines, Thailand, and China. Very few come from Hong Kong. So basically they only speak English and Mandarin, no Cantonese. It is quite strange. Most customers are from Hong Kong, but they don't understand Cantonese.   

The holiday on the sea was funny and attractive. For only one day, you maybe feel very short. But obviously all passengers look tired after enjoying so many activities. I only slept for 3-hour, felt very tired and sleepy when getting off the ship!

Finally, if you are interested in the cruise, you can get more information in details by visiting:
http://www.starcruises.com.hk

トップページに戻る