Hong Kong: Dinner Cruise

I wanted our first night out in Hong Kong to be special, so I went out of my way to book what I thought would be just that: a dinner cruise that soaks up the Hong Kong light show (yes, there is a nightly light show). After taking an evening dip in the hotel pool, we got all dressed up and made our way over to the designated pier and waited for the ship to arrive. It turned out that we overestimated the classiness of the event, as we were way overdressed compared with the rest of the guests that started to gather. Awkward number one!

Once we got on board, we found our assigned seat, which turned out to be part of a large table situated next to the dance floor/stage (with live music) that we shared with a group of rowdy Europeans and a Chinese family. Strangely enough, we preferred the Chinese family. Awkward number two! 

The dinner was a buffet of international cuisine, which Melissa and I appreciated very much. However, just after getting our food, we were informed that the light show would be starting momentarily. Awkward number three! So, we scarfed down our plates and joined everyone on the top deck for the viewing. The show was pretty good, but the photos I took didn't really come out very well. So, I hope the above video will suffice. One thing to note about the light show was the amount of Christmas lights on display. Entire squares were decorated to be included as part of the light show. Weird.

After the light show ended, we went downstairs to finish stuffing our faces. While that was awesome, what first was slightly annoying live music quickly turned into an unbearable cacophony of pop-noise, hardly better than karaoke. The trio was made up of two middle-aged women, one of whom sang while the other tried to get people to dance, and one keyboardist. The pain train skewered the atrocious hits of yesteryear, such as 'Don't Cry For Me, Argentina' and 'Dancing Queen', for an entire two hours straight. This would have been awkward number four had it not been for the constant heckling provided by the Europeans and the alcohol provided by the ship's bar. 

All in all, the cruise was not what we expected, but it provided a ton of entertainment for the night. 

Cullen