Halcyon Galactic Starcruiser

It felt as though our whole trip had been building up to this moment...We even set aside nearly a whole suitcase worth of space for costumes and dragged it literally around the world for 5 weeks for the "3 day 2 night" adventure. We booked this immersive star wards adventure on the Halcyon galactic starcruiser way back when. The premise is that it is a leisure space "cruise" which gets swept up in a galactic adventure. And we as guests get to participate in the storyline. 

The price was astronomical. However, we had to do it once. Was it worth it you ask? Here are Mal's thoughts...I must admit that the theming is amazing. The cast members in particular were phenomenal and made the trip. The food was better than expected and we had so much fun as a family. For me it was probably a once and done, I have a feeling the husband though may be planning a return trip...

I won't give spoilers but instead will just post a whole heap of photos to cover our time "onboard". Here are some from our first day

Outside of the "hotel"

Yes he bought a contact to make it look like he had a robotic eye...

Lots of things to do. If you don't own your own "datapad" Disney will loan you one

Our cabin

There's a murphy bed too for the 5th person

One of the first to go onboard so was able to take photos of empty public spaces!

The dining room

Lunch was "buffet" style but the food was beautifully present in individual servings

The children were instructed to drink as much "blue" and "green" milk as they could while it was free and included when onboard

The choices were plentiful. I couldn't fit them all on my try...

Really tasty salad!

From memory this was a cheesecake...

Espresso based coffee available. Tick!

The "climate" simulator in case one needed fresh air

Practising sabac at the bar

The stormtroopers were THE best! Hilarious

Hurray for Hong Kong

The children reading their kindles before boarding

We survived the flight...phew! Jonah thankfully slept for enough of the flight. I had expected a lot less and so was pleasantly surprised! The Qantas staff also surprised me by being extremely friendly and helpful. It was definitely an added bonus. We breezed through immigration, baggage pick up and customs. We arrived at the Cosmo Hotel in Wan Chai a little after 7am. Our rooms were understandably not ready!

Malcolm freshened up and we caught the free shuttle bus provided by the hotel to the Convention centre. The children waved goodbye to Daddy and we wandered off towards Admiralty in search of some food. We stopped in the first place that was open. It happened to be Delifrance! By this stage, Jonah had fallen asleep so it was rather peaceful drinking iced coffee, eating cinnamon scrolls and studying maps of Hong Kong, shuttle bus timetables and the information pamphlet of the MTR. The shops took forever to open. We had given up on admiralty and made our way to Times Square instead. We had to make another food stop at Starbucks. You would think that the children had not been fed for a year...

By this stage it was nearly 11am and some of the shops were starting to open. Hurray! My eyes popped at the numerous camera stores with all those awesome products. It was handy dragging three children along as they were rather inhibitory for purchasing purposes. I had just excitedly spotted the Zara store when the whining began. I walked in stubbornly but the whining became unbearable. We waited unsuccessfully for the hotel shuttle bus. I decided to walk back to save time much to the horror of the children.

Inside the huge Convention Centre

A humungous thing inside the cavernous hall. Still not sure what it is...

A cloudy and rainy Hong Kong. Jonah was fascinated by the building "in the cloud"

Delifrance!

Cinnamon scrolls and iced coffee

Thankfully our rooms were ready. They turned out to be another pleasant surprise. The Cosmo Hotel is a budget arm of the Cosmopolitan Hotel. The rooms were small but were clean, modern and comfortable. We also got free breakfast and free internet for the ridiculously low price we paid for our interconnecting rooms. The fresh daily plate of fruit and selection of pillow didn't go astray either! We lightened our load, and ducked into the upmarket arm of the hotel next door for a quick lunch of friend rice and noodles.

I was delighted to discover that the cavalry had arrived from China and were checked into the room down the hall! They took Lara and Elliot out for a second lunch whilst Jonah and I had some much needed sleep. By the time we woke up, Malcolm had finished for the day and we wondered back to Times Square for some shopping before meeting up with my father's long time friend for some very delicious dinner.

A great way to end our first day in Hong Kong!

Lara glad to be in our room

Small but comfortable

Fresh fruit

Lane Crawford take two!

Hurray for Oma and Opa! Shopping at Times Square for the second time today

One of my favourite stores! A few things were purchased...

The traditional tiny cups of tea to start and end the meal

Jan 4 - The Gathering of The Troops

This morning was another leisurely affair of exploration. We had breakfast at the Dolphin'sPicabu after which we went in search of a venue which offered men's haircuts. The choices within the Boardwalk area were somewhat limited so we settled for a $35 hair cut at PeriWig. Ouch! Both the men parted ways with their money in exchange for a clean-cut look. We wandered around the Yacht and Beach Club admiring the wonderful themeing and their awesome pool area, Stormalong Bay. We found ourselves at ESPN club for lunch. Hmmm...I wonder how that happened. Our waiter was fantastic, he made sure our orders came out quickly and we were able to get out within 30 minutes.

At 1pm sharp, we were picked up by the lovely Alby. He arrived with a very nice 20 seater van, complete with a Disney DVD for the kids. He was an instant hit! After a false start with the wrong Hilton, we picked up the Parsons en route to the MCO. We managed to pick up Sharonand Sam relatively quickly as well. We were glad that she managed to arrive safely and relatively unscathed from snowy London, Ontario. We were off to La Quinta at Cocoa Beach. I was so excited to see the Disney Dream on the way! She had just arrived that morning from her transatlantic voyage.

Some last minute photos of the details in our room...Base of lamp!

Chair

Close up

Our suitcases all ready to go

One last longing look at the Boardwalk

The children owning the lounges at ESPN Club

Our minivan has arrived!

Bye bye WDW!

I was rather nervous about La Quinta as we had acquired rooms at a very cheap price via priceline. I needn't have worried. We were welcomed with a lovely sign reading "Welcome to the Belinda Bahari Group!". I felt like a great pioneering leader! The rooms were very basic but it was spacious and clean. Our bargain price of $78 per night also included breakfast and wi-fi, so I couldn't really complain! La Quinta's best asset though, had to be their uberfriendly staff. They couldn't bend backwards far enough to cater to our needs. My only minor complaint would be that we seem to be unable to open our windows. With the rooms recently painted, the smell was over a little overwhelming when we first walked in.

Anyhow, we walked to the nearest Publix to stock up on supplies. We bought some fruit, snorkels, and alcohol! The Marrs were still on their transfers from MCO and we made arrangements to meet up at dinner. We thought we'd brave the restaurant at the motel. It was a Thai, Japanese AND Chinese eatery! The choice on the menu was phenomenal, page after page of favourites were listed. Sharon, Malcolm and I opted to share our dishes in the end as we couldn't decide on any one dish. The food was surprisingly quite good. They had my favourite Thai iced milk tea so I was appeased no matter how the dishes turned out! As for the Marrs, they arrived towards the end of dinner, tired and and not too impressed with the shuttle company. It turned out to be the one and the same that I had been having difficulties with, Cocoa Beach Shuttles.

The full complete of children at La Quinta's lobby

Sushi boat for 2...fed 4!

After dinner, Malcolm checked out the Sports bar and has decided that he loved this place. He has taken notes for his den in the new house that we are building...

Saturday survival

Today is the first day of the long weekend with Malcolm being on-call. Preparations included shuffling Lara off to my parents so that I could take Elliot to soccer. For the first time, the team didn't win. It was a draw and a far cry from the 20 nil victories that the boys were used to. The boys took it well. Jonah thankfully was happy to watch for most of the game.

We hurried to Macquarie shopping centre for a fabulously healthy lunch of McDonald's. They've been good to me in the past in my hours of stress and I thought I should show some loyalty. I was lucky enough to get a parking spot straight away. Lunch also went by uneventfully. After a quick visit to the bookshop, we headed towards the hospital for a long overdue visit of grandpa. We were again bestowed with parking good luck and got a spot right outside.

We took some home-made banana and date muffins along with some lime curd. He looked much better and was a lot less short of breath. An angiogram has been arranged for Tuesday and hopefully that will yield positive news as well. Jonah again decided that he was happy to sit still...for over an hour! Was this really my son?!?!? Okay, so it helped that he had an endless supply of food.

By late afternoon, Malcolm still hadn't finished (he was working at the same hospital) so we decided to call it quits and head home. I tried to make new reservations for the Novotel at New York. The rate at surprisingly dropped to US$280 last night. I managed to make a reservation for our family this morning but by the time I finished making our reservation the price had gone up to $355 per night! As we had to go to soccer I left the rooms for the other 2 families for later. I could have kicked myself. When I tried again at 5pm, the cheapest available room rate was...$425 per night! And you had to pay upfront. I couldn't believe my eyes.

Moral of the story when a price seems too good to be true, book it straight away! I tried to soothe my annoyance with some Disney but I couldn't find my all Disney CDs! An incomplete collection?!?!? Arghhhh!!! I could take it no more...so I bought myself the complete 5 CD set on ebay for $24. Money well spent I think. I am feeling a lot more relaxed already...