
Celebrity Millennium

Steps
9,933
Distance
7.12 KM
Flights Climbed
6
We were still annoyed Guest Services would not let us move our excursion for this day to the next day following the decision to add an extra night in Hong Kong. They were offering the excursion to guests who did not have it already booked. We would have liked to spend today going to Sentosa Island or Hong Kong Disneyland as other guests did and then have this half-day excursion tomorrow. But we made the most of it and boarded our bus that took us to Victoria Peak Tramway. We couldn't get away from the Mouse as the tramway was decorated with Disney items and playing the Mickey Mouse March on our way up the mountain. The Peak Tram went into service in 1888 as Asia's first funicular railway, connecting The Peak to Central. Originally it served the governor and residents of luxury properties on The Peak, but has since transported tens of millions of passengers and become one of the city's top tourist attractions. The steep 1.27km-long journey, rising from 28 to 396 metres above sea level, with a gradient of 4 to 25.7 degrees took about 10 minutes.
Upon arrival at the Peak, our guide took us down part of the 3.5 km-long paved pathway that loops around 552 metres Peak, the highest point on Hong Kong Island. We did not have enough time to complete the entire loop, which takes an hour so we just stopped and took some great photos of Hong Kong from high atop the mountain before going back to meet our guide at Peak Tower, a wok-shaped shopping center which sits above the Peak Tram Upper Terminus.
While we took the tramway up, we boarded our bus at the top for a winding drive down the peak, which Janie did not enjoy. Luckily J. R. had taken the window seat so she was able to avoid looking down over the sharp embankments.
We arrived in an area known as Aberdeen on the southwest side of Hong Kong Island, named after George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and former Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1841-1846). Aberdeen Harbour is one of the nine harbours in Hong Kong, known for its views of the city and the bay. The area of Aberdeen Village was originally called Hong Kong. Foreign visitors mistook the name to mean the entire island which lead to the entire area being named Hong Kong and Aberdeen being renamed. We boarded a sampan which took us past multi-million dollar yachts as well as local fishing boats as we toured the harbor.
We drove through the island to Stanley Market, a popular open-air market with a variety of shops selling clothing, souvenirs and art. We found some souvenirs we had been looking for, including some "made in China" scarves for Janie before taking the bus back to the cruise terminal.
We thought about heading back out to see the light show in the harbor but our guide said it was not really that impressive as compared to the one in Singapore which we planned to see later in the trip. Once again, the Cruise Director scheduled only one show, right in the middle of our 8:15 dining time. J. R. went to Guest Relations to ask about this and they didn't even know about it until he showed them in the app. They tried to call the CD but she did not answer. It took her two days to call back where she offered to 'explain in person' if we found her after one of the shows, which was impossible for us since we had to head to dinner right after the show. She could have just explained on the phone.
We wanted to see the show, so we went to the buffet for dinner. The show was a magician-comedian named Johnny Balance and he was really funny. He billed himself as a 'fabulous idiot' and while some of his tricks intentionally went wrong, he actually impressed us with some of his sleight of hand. We finished up our night at Rendezvous with Zin making Janie his signature spicy margarita and serving J. R. his daily Macallan 12.