Hoi An, Vietnam (Thanksgiving 2014)

During our one week stay at the Hyatt Regency in Danang we took advantage of the free shuttle for Diamond members to the nearby town of Hoi An. Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was once a large South East Asian trading port. The ride from the Hyatt only took about 15 minutes and while it's always a risk to leave the comfort of our resort with the girls, they were troopers while we explored the chaotic streets and were rewarded with ice cream at the end. We only stayed about an hour which was enough with young kids - sans children I could have walked around for a few more hours, I think! 

Just dropped off by the shuttle, random cow hanging out in the grass

Lizzy photobomb!

The girls got some $2 manicures, the ladies couldn't stop fussing over Annie and Lizzy's blonde hair.

Showing off our nails!

Lots of fat, friendly unleashed dogs were wandering in and out of the shops.

Time for ice cream and these girls were more than ready to head back to the resort! 

The Marble Mountains

While staying at the Hyatt Regency in Da Nang we took an outing to the Marble Mountains which were just down the road from the resort. We walked from the resort along the sidewalk and quickly crossed the busy road leading to the site.  There were many people in cars and on motorbikes that stopped to try to get us to come with them for a tour or give us a ride to our destination.  Everyone was so friendly! We kindly declined putting our kids on a stranger's motorbike. 

We purchased a ticket at the base of the mountain to take the elevator up - you can also hike up, but for obvious reasons we passed on this option. There was quite a bit of difficult climbing even after getting off of the elevator and Joe and I had to take turns carrying the girls up some of the crazy staircases carved into the stone. 

There were numerous caverns you could enter that contained Buddhist sanctuaries. While not an ideal outing for young children, I really loved this place and wished we could have explored a bit more.  

A very persistent saleswoman that had befriended us on our way through the village earlier was waiting for us when we departed the elevator on our way back down.  The village was filled with stone and sculpture shops and she was very hopeful/insistent that we purchase something at her family's shop. Unfortunately for her, the Becherers are not big souvenir people, especially of the rock variety. 

We arrived around 10am and it was a HOT day!

Lizzy making a donation/trying to pull money out of the box

It was hard to get a good photo of the largest cavern because of the lighting, but it was breathtaking!

Huge holes in the ceiling that filtered in light

Inside the main cavern

Annnd they've had enough. Time to go back to the pool!

Tokyo to Da Nang

After taking a few trips where we packed in multiple destinations, we thought we would try out a single one city itinerary over Thanksgiving week.  We also know from recent experience that the girls like a pool/beach-based vacation much more than a city-based one, so we looked for a beach destination.  To keep it simple, we wanted a non-stop flight from Tokyo and preferred it to be to somewhere we hadn't been.

Joe was also looking to use up some of the difficult-to-use Delta miles we have accumulated, so Vietnam moved to the top of the list since Delta partners with Vietnam Airlines and we had never been to Vietnam.  We then checked what hotels Starwood and Hyatt had in Vietnam, since those are our preferred chains.  Nothing great at Starwood but Hyatt had a nice resort in Da Nang, and Vietnam Airlines happened to have 3x weekly non-stop service.

We first checked for availability at the Hyatt Regency Da Nang for seven nights, and there was Points and Cash availability.  6,000 points plus $75 per night was a decent redemption.  We were then excited to find out there was suite upgrade availability so we used a confirmed Diamond Suite upgrade certificate to reserve a suite.  We had heard the property had a nice Regency Club so we were looking forward to the breakfast and snacks there.

Once we had the hotel portion locked down (it was cancellable up until 24 hours before arrival) we tried to find airline tickets on Vietnam Airlines using Delta miles.  We lucked out and there were three coach seats and one business class ticket on the Saturday flights Tokyo-Nartia (NRT) to Da Nang (DAD) on 11/22 returning 11/29, so we grabbed those.  The coach seats were 45,000 miles each plus $40 in taxes and fees and the business class might have been 60,000 miles with the same fees.  Not good redemption values but we were trying to economize on the cash outlay for the trip and were happy to use the Delta miles since they are very hard to use when you need 4 tickets.

With all the planning out of the way, we were ready to go!

We left our apartment at 12:30pm on Saturday, November 22 and made the drive to Narita in less than an hour. We were met by DAD parking at our gate to drop off the car.  After checking in for our flight we made our way through security and headed to the Delta Sky Lounge to enjoy some snacks and drinks while waiting for our flight.

Carrot apple soup, gyoza and veggies in the lounge

Joe also ran and got the girls some chicken nuggets from McDonalds to have for the flight just in case, since he and the girls would be sitting in coach and we weren’t sure if a meal would be served.

I got to enjoy a kid free six-hour flight in Business Class and while Joe warned me it wouldn’t be anything nice, I thought it was great! Nice big seats that reclined about halfway back and had a little footrest.  The food wasn’t anything great but I had a decent meal of a salad, some fresh fruit and a beef fillet with a spicy sauce and steamed rice. The entertainment selection was pretty awful with only a handful of English movies so I ended up just reading the book I had brought with me, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me by Mindy Kaling which had me LOLing most of the way through.

Had a few minutes before takeoff to give Joe a hard time about the awful conditions in coach

Back in coach things weren’t going so smoothly as the brand new pair of children’s headphones we bought were useless since they had a volume limiter on them.  Joe was kicking himself for not picking up an extra pair of Bose noise canceling headphones that we had been looking at the night before at the mall in Tokyo.  Lots of crying and whining went on as the girls had to take turns watching the iPad with the one pair of Bose headphones Joe brought. Poor spoiled darlings. We also forgot to bring water onto the plane (amateur mistake) and because of turbulence couldn’t get any for the first few hours. Since we were delayed on the ground for over an hour it was well past the girls’ bedtimes by the time we arrived in Vietnam - Lizzy ended up falling asleep for the last 90 minutes of the flight and Annie was a tired mess getting off the flight.

It wasn't one of our best flights but the time of the flight made it tough for the girls and the lack of water and headphones made it a lot more difficult than it needed to be.  We have many discussions on whether the premium for sitting in a nicer cabin is worth it.  This one reminded Joe that even with the little legs on the girls, the extra space in a nicer cabin is definitely worth something when having to be on a plane for seven hours with these two little girls.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a main pick of the trip

After a bit of confusion and standing in line for immigration with everyone else we noticed a small window labeled “Visa on Arrival” so went there to pick up our Visas that we had arranged through a third party online agency two weeks prior.  We were required to bring two passport photos for each traveller and decided to try using our leftover photos we had from when we renewed our passports in the US over 18 months ago. Shockingly, they accepted the photos even though Lizzy looked VERY different from her dated photograph. Visas in passports we went through immigration and collected our luggage.

We had checked our MacLaren stroller and even though this ended up being the ONLY time we used it during the entire trip, I’m glad we had it! Annie was SO tired and immediately climbed in and almost fell asleep.  We headed through customs and out of the airport to find a nice Mercedes R300 from the Hyatt waiting for us. The round-trip Hyatt-provided airport transfer was about $90, probably 4x the price of taking a cab.  It definitely felt worth in on the way to the hotel since everyone was tired and it decreased the stress in figuring out what to do. On the return trip, we felt a cab would have been fine, so we may only book a one-way next time and see how it goes.

It was dark when we arrived to hard to get any real first impressions of Vietnam but because of the abundance of motorcycles it had a bit of a similar feel to Bali, though much more developed. Da Nang was a much bigger city than I expected (not surprising since I knew nothing about it) with some modern architecture, a few large suspension bridges and some pretty big skyscrapers. Even though motorcycles greatly outnumbered cars everyone drove slowly and carefully and it didn’t have the chaotic feel of being on the roads in Indonesia. The Hyatt was a 20 minute easy ride from the airport and Annie quickly fell asleep on me in the car. 

Upon arrival at the Hyatt we were taken to the Regency Club Lounge to check in and then escorted to our room which had an anniversary cake, bottle of wine, sweets and fruit platter set up on the table. It was a great suite and I’ll write more about it in my next post all about the resort. The girls were, as always, super excited to be in a hotel but eventually fell asleep around 10:30pm Vietnam time, well past midnight in Tokyo! It was probably the latest they had ever stayed up.  Despite the busy day of travel and the late bedtime, they were up and ready to go at 6am the next morning.

Woke up to this gorgeous view

Hong Kong Disneyland

The forecast for our time in Hong Kong was pretty rainy most days, but since things looked clear on Saturday we decided to risk it and try Disneyland. Originally we had planned on going on Monday to avoid any weekend crowds, but it ended up not being an issue. We didn't wait longer than 5-10 minutes for anything! 

Getting to Hong Kong Disneyland from the W Hong Kong couldn't have been easier. We walked to the station in the adjoining Elements Mall and Joe bought us some Octopus Card for the subway system. We had a bit of confusion trying to buy the passes, but ultimately it was a billion times easier than trying to figure out the public transportation system in Tokyo. 

Headed down to the subway

There are airline check in counters at the train station! You can check in for your flight and drop your bags here

One way trip to Disneyland for 2 adults and 1 child was a little under $7 USD. Children under 3 ride free

Waiting for the train! Station was spotless and I liked the glass partition between the platform and train

You can dress her up but you can't take her out

We had to do one transfer onto the Disneyland line (monorail) and the total trip time was about 20 minutes. The park was a short walk from the station and after a bit of confusion about tickets (we were using our Silver Passes) we made it into the park.

Walking up to the park - felt so tiny and empty!

Even though we had wanted to get there right at opening we got there about an hour after and it didn't make any difference. We immediately headed back to Fantasyland to do some of the kid rides there while Joe walked to the other side of the park to try to get Fast Passes for the newest atttraction, Mystic Manor. Turns out Mystic Manor didn't have Fast Passes and there was no line whatsoever. After making the rounds in Fantasyland we rode Mystic Manor which ended up being Annie's favorite ride of the day and we rode it several more times.

Strutting her stuff in her new Minnie Mouse sunglasses

The weather turned out to be perfect that day - sunny and warm but not too hot.  It was warm enough for the girls to enjoy the splash pad in Tomorrowland where we had flashbacks of our trip to Universal Studios Singapore as a ton of people wanted to take pictures of the girls. It really doesn't bug me, as long as it doesn't bother the girls and people aren't too aggressive, but I do wonder what in the world they do with all these pictures of strangers' kids.

Rules required shoes

She couldn't believe her good fortune that mom let her have some frozen Coke

Strategically moved further and further away from me

"Just gonna finish this off"

Her funny bottom baby teeth are especially noticeable here

After finishing up at the splash pad we headed over to Toy Story land which was just adorable! The girls loved riding the slinky dog ride, which just went around and around, and we also rode a green army man parachute ride. That one brought you up really high - high enough to see the city in the distance - and then quickly dropped you down. It wasn't a super fast drop but Annie got REALLY scared.  Lizzy was just fine, although I am kind of surprised that they allowed kids as little as ours to ride this one!  It certainly made my stomach a little queasy.

Afterward we stopped at a snack window for a Pizza Cone and a Dole Whip.

Snack break!

Toy Story Land - I bet this looks really cool at night

Mango Dole Whip, Sprite and mango boba bubbles

We left Toy Story Land and headed back to Mystic Manor to ride it again when we were stopped by some workers who did a fun little activity with the girls.  They were shown a sample necklace and asked to make a matching necklace with big colored beads. This was right up Annie's alley since she is currently very into patterns. Afterward both girls received certificates with their names along with their thousandth stickers of the day. Hong Kong Disneyland employees are VERY generous with sticker distribution - it felt like every five minutes someone was handing Annie and Lizzy a stack of stickers!

After a few more rides and snacks, Annie finally crashed in the stroller. We only had one stroller that day so Lizzy didn't nap, but I'm sure if she had the opportunity she would have as well. Joe and I grabbed a few things from a bakery on Main Street and rested on a bench near the entrance while Annie napped. It was around 4pm by that time and we decided to head back to the W with the intention of coming back another day before our visit to Hong Kong was over.

Disney-ed out for the day

Maybe the only good family picture we've ever gotten on a trip! Notice how small the castle looks in the background.

We had plans to also visit Ocean Park on another day but ended up just going back to Disneyland since the girls had so much fun and it was so easily accessible. I usually have to psych myself up to visit Tokyo Disneyland so in comparison Hong Kong Disneyland felt super relaxing.  Since we plan on going back to Hong Kong sometime in the future we weren't too upset about not getting to Ocean Park this time around.

We took a day to explore Hong Kong Sunday and went back to Disneyland on Monday.  The weather again cooperated and crowds were again not bad at all! We pretty much did most of the same rides, but by far the highlight of the visit for Annie was her encounter with a talking garbage can robot.  She talked about it for days after! The highlight of this for me was seeing the Disney employee who was the voice of the garbage can robot dressed in plain clothes sitting nearby talking on his phone discreetly. I felt like a detective who had cracked a big case.

Another day, another Dole Whip

Unappetizing plastic food displays just like Tokyo

Space Mountain wait time: 5 minutes.  Proof it wasn't Tokyo

Adorable little graduates

Before leaving the park we let Annie pick out one small present. We are not big souvenir people but I had promised her a prize since she had been doing very well on staying dry overnight. She ended up choosing a miniature Lotso Huggin Bear plush toy, and since returning home she has completely reverted to wetting her pull up every night. Nicely played, Annie. 

We had a great time at Hong Kong Disneyland and are already looking forward to our next visit. We had heard from other people that it was super small and you could only spend a few hours there, but we had no problem staying the entire day. There is definitely enough to do and see plus the short lines mean you can ride your favorite attractions multiple times. The girls have now been to every Disney park except for the two in Paris - hopefully we can get there in the next few years.

Action shot

See you next time, Hong Kong Disneyland!