Hong Kong - P1 induced 5 day family trip

[amaroo]

Another cracking day, and the Manor Club is the perfect place to welcome it.




I recognised a few people from the FS exec lounge ... experienced crew means you can hit the ground running.

The Manor Club staff are so eager for you to enjoy your time.... breakfast Mimosa!

 

[craven morehead]

Hong Kong - who doesn't love it? The perfect destination for a long weekend.

This trip basically came about due to the spoils of having P1 status. The special attention Qantas showers on these flyers is pretty impressive. I made P1 for the first time earlier this year, and from the get-go I've been super keen in maximising the benefits that come with it ... the #1 P1 benefit - getting premium award seats released. In the 4 months I've held P1 I've requested and been ticketed 6 x F and 16 x J long haul flights.... all at short notice or during heavy travel periods (School hols).

When I called to get these seats released - they did it on the spot 3 x J BNE-HKG-BNE. Then #1 son woke up, changed his mind and decided he also wanted to come.... I was back on the blower requesting another return flight, however they could only release the HKG-BNE in J. Fair enough, no problems I"ll just test out the #2 benefit of P1 - upgrades.

So I purchased the cheapest upgradable BNE-HKG whY ticket ($637), and submitted an upgrade request using my P1 account. Boom - right on T-7 days, the boy was sitting in J

P1 is certainly a powerful tool if you have points to burn!

The Trip

Flight

QF J BNE-HKG-BNE

Hotel

Rosewood Hong Kong

Itinerary

Food

Itinerary "Food" now there's a shock who would have thought ?

 

[craven morehead]

We took advantage of their stay 3 pay 2.... in our case stay 4 pay 3. We also used a TA that got us a ton of perks including an upgrade at booking.

Our suite - Grand Harbour Corner Suite, 123m2 of pure indulgence!

The main living room

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3 frame view from the living room - from right to left

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Bloody awesome !!

 

[amaroo]

View from the Rosewood driveway ..... even the driveway has a cracking view.



Another Star Ferry trip - unbelievably I think this is the first time we’ve caught the Wan Chai ferry.



The new St Regis hotel .... we were going to blow all our Marriott points and stay here. Very glad we didn’t.



Some general photos on our walk to Time Square

 

[amaroo]

cont....

 

[amaroo]

After a good round of shopping including the purchase of two smooth as silk heavy duty frame/ fabric 4 wheel Delsey luggage with in-built digital scale- it was time to eat.

Lei Garden - Times Square... Ok, but nowhere near as polished as their Singapore Chijmes restaurant



Liquor store in the shopping centre .... fantastic array of stock

 

[rbjhan]

I used to love Lei Bistro Times Square (Lei Garden would be difficult for solo diner...), closed now, sigh.
Their dumplings with sesame filing are the best

 

[amaroo]

After more shopping we headed back to the hotel to checkout their pool...









The pool... this is one area where the Four Season is the clear winner. Although it's a nice pool and would probably beat all others in Hong Kong - it just doesn't compete with the Four Seasons.

Anyway the swim was still very nice and a welcome relief after walking in the heat.

 

[amaroo]

Soon enough it was back up to the lounge for pre-dinner drinks and coughtails.



This photo gives you a good idea how much development has occurred as part of the Rosewood / New World / K11 developments..... all owned by the same family.

Right next to the IC is K11 Artus - luxury apartments

Behind these are the K11 Musee and K11 Atelier - luxury shopping, entertainment, hospitality ... you can see a roof top waterpark getting the final touches.

Then you have the Rosewood Hotel (also apartments & commercial offices) that towers over all of it.

The family have certainly spared no expense. I was told they've spent > HK$5billion just on the hotel room/suite furniture




No TR is complete without sunset photos..... all taken whist enjoying G&Ts on the club balcony

 

[Pushka]

I can't believe the fabulous weather you are having. It's so clear

I was about to say the same. We were there in June and it was disgusting. Pool closed. Couldn’t go anywhere without the rain dumping down. Not a great place to be when that happens.

Great photos amaroo. I think I need to try HK again....

 

[amaroo]

Peking Duck. We did our own research, asked friends, and got the concierge to recommend a place ..... all fingers pointed to the same restaurant.

Mott 32 .... if you come here and want the duck, you will need to pre-order at-least the day before.

The duck was delicious, the restaurant was packed, and the night was wonderful!








This is another dish you need to pre-order - BBQ Pluma Iberico Pork..... delicious.

 

[amaroo]

After dinner we caught the star ferry back to the hotel.... another bonus for staying on Kowloon.



Next morning the gardeners were out bright and early



More photos of the Manor Club

 

[amaroo]

Based on views, facilities, service, benefits, quality of F&B, the Manor Club would have to be the best hotel lounge/club on the market ... certainly the best I've seen.

 

[craven morehead]

After dinner we caught the star ferry back to the hotel.... another bonus for staying on Kowloon.

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Next morning the gardeners were out bright and early

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More photos of the Manor Club

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Spectacular hotel @amaroo absolutely top notch and a brilliant location.

 

[amaroo]

Belon - Sunday lunch

This place has had a stella year! The chef is a young Australian that was awarded his first Michellin star earlier this year at the age of 31 - the youngest ever for HK ... and this week the restaurant was named at #96 on the World's best list.

Another interesting fact about this place - it's housed in the same building/room/kitchen as an old HK favourite of ours Cecconi's which has featured in other TRs of mine, they vacated the space 3 years ago, and Belon moved in..... there must be something about this little piece of SOHO.

The meal was sensational - definitely eat here!









On recommendation we added this dish to the Sunday set menu - Hokkaido Scallops .... simply delicious.

 

[amaroo]

Some photos of SOHO and mid levels - really like this part of Hong Kong.



This is the queue at the Star Ferry Central Pier at 5.45pm on the day that 2 million marched in protest. It was the only time we were caught in a large queue and apart from reading the news you would've had any idea there was a massive street protest happening. The protest didn't have any negative impact on our stay at all.

Given the queue was full of locals using transport cards and we already had Star Ferry tokens in the pocket - we skipped the line and were through the masses pretty quickly. Might have been a little different if we had to divert to buy the tokens.

 

[jase05]

Hong Kong is probably my favourite city in the world and those photos are absolutely stunning

 

[amaroo]

After a relaxing swim it was back up to the club for drinks and prime viewing of the light show



Then a family billiard challenge .... I really like this club.




Not feeling like having a large meal, we walked over to Harbour City for a bite at Crystal Jade - La Mian Xiao Long Bao. Delicious.



Walk home via the best driveway in Hong Kong

 

[Major]

Who won on the pool table ?

 

[drron]

That's not billiards.Only 3 balls on a billiards table.
From the Captain of the RPAH billiards team.