Many people waiting for the bus in the rain.
We were here first, but since we were sitting, these people walked in front of us in line. Different culture; many others would let whoever was there first go first.
I bet you get a good view from the very front of the second story.
The 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China was on October 1st.
On the bus ride to our hotel, we saw a lot of people here, so we jumped off the bus at this stop.
Posters for various events.
A LEGO dragon.
Other artwork.
A LEGO apartment building.
With clothes hanging outside.
Many tour groups are here.
Entrance to the Sik Sik Yeun Wong Tai Sin temple. The Sik Sik Yuen religion promotes the worshipping of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, all three of which have separe halls in this temple.
Ogii petting the baby dragon.
Shrine of Wang Ling-guan, guardian deity in Taoist religion.
Inner area.
Picture at the entrance.
Zodiac animals.
Me with my monkey.
Ogii with her tiger.
Praying with incense.
Temple inside.
Knee pads for praying.
Cute characters on this patio.
Golden shrine.
Below.
Horse sculptures along the edge.
Many pillars.
Down below.
Yue Heung Pavilion.
Which houses the Lamp-burning Buddha (Dipankara) and the Bodhisattva Wei Tuo (Skanda), the Guardian God of Buddhism.
Golden wall.
Which has many stories...
... engraved on it.
I'm not sure what the story is, though.
There seem to be many birds involved.
The end.
Maybe this plate at the end explains more?
Google could only translate a few lines, though, and they weren't that helpful.
Guardian lion.
With a cub under her paw (whereas the male guardian will have a ball under his paw).
Confucian Hall.
Intricate door carvings.
Entrance to the Good Wish Garden.
Goat family.
A large pond.
With koi.
Including some very bright gold ones. I didn't know this color existed in animals.
A very bright silver and orange one.
More.
Even some turtles.
Walking along this path...
... leads you to this other pond.
Cute pandas.
A wall of their beliefs and customs in Hong Kong.
From 1915...
... to today.
Many people here.
In Chinese culture, tying a red string onto a sculpture symbolizes a connection to fate or destiny, often representing the 'red thread of fate,' an invisible red cord around the finger of those that are destined to meet and marry as they are their one true love.
Many small bottles.
Large dragons at the exit.
Ogii between them.
Colorful apartments.
Now it's time to board the ship. It will take around half an hour by bus from our hotel.
On the bus.
There's the ship.
We gave our Octopus cards, which still had some money for transit on them, to these two people.
This way to our entrance.
We decided to board around 2pm so we could do more stuff in the morning and also so we could go straight to our cabin rather than waiting around on the ship with our luggage. A third benefit is there was almost nobody in line at this time, as opposed to boarding in the morning when there are hundreds of other people.
Almost there.
The back of the ship.
And we're on! They had some free champagne and cookies at the entrance.
Time to get started.
Cool purses at one of the shops.
Instead of them giving us the card for our stateroom at checkin, it was by the door.
Inside.
The bathroom.
Two US and one European plug by the desk.
The balcony.
A necklace to hold the free charms given daily on the cruise and the daily planner.
Resting on the balcony.
The Conference Center was reserved for our Card Player Cruises group.
We had to check in and get our tickets for the excursions we booked through them. On this cruise, most of the cities were far away from the ports, so we decided to use excursions at all of our stops instead of walking around on our own.
We had applied for and received a Vietnam visa months ago. If you hadn't done it yet, the ship might still be able to get one for you, but you wouldn't be able to go ashore the first day in Vietnam.
Checking out the daily planner.
Celebrity's is quite similar to the other cruise companies.
Although they have a couple of extra pages of random info.
And highlighting events.
Daily schedule.
Food.
Nothing open for dinner in the early afternoon or very late at night; you pretty much have to eat between 6pm and 9pm.
The Sky Observation Lounge at the front of the ship.
Sculpture and chairs.
Central bar.
Seats at the front.
The view.
Card Player Cruises had a private event here.
The waiters said we had to pay for the drinks, so we didn't take any.
The appetizers were free, though.
So we grabbed those.
Keep them coming.
The organizers clarified and said the drinks were free.
So then we took some.
Tina and Mark Napolitano, CEO and CFO of Card Player Cruises, who have been in the poker business for 25 years. The other employees, Linda Johnson (partner), Jan Fisher (partner), Tyler Willse (tournament director), and Beverly Thomas (shift manager) have also all been in the industry for a long time.
A marriage proposal and acceptance.
A partial double rainbow.
Interesting clouds over the mountain.
It seemed many people were having trouble getting on the internet.
There was a help desk specifically for that by guest services.
We had free internet as a perk, but we paid $100 to upgrade to the premium internet (which would be $300 on its own). It was Starlink, with OK speeds, similar to previous cruises.
Headed out.
We had to go to the Main Dining Room the first night to select our table.
As that would be our table for the rest of the cruise.
Some of the menu items are the same every day, and a few are different.
I got the New York steak.
Ogii got spaghetti.
The steak wasn't that good, the service was really slow, and you have to dress up a bit, so I think we'll eat at the buffet more than here.
Cheesecake for dessert.
And chocolate cherry trifle.
The show on the first night was illusionist James Cielen, but since dinner took so long, we were quite late to the show; it started at 7pm and it was now 7:35. Shows last 45 minutes, so there was only 10 minutes left.
Why are we still seeing buildings?
Uh oh, we're back in port.
We were there for a couple of hours fixing or checking on something. Better now than when we're out in the middle of the ocean. Except they can't open the casino or poker room while in port, so there would be no poker tonight. That's OK; we'll just go to bed early.