Kai Tak cruise crush leaves tourists frustrated

Poor transportation at the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal hampered tourists' plans when it started to host more ships after the pandemic.

Resorts World One docked yesterday at Kai Tak for seven hours, but the long queue at the terminal's taxi stand hit visitors' plans for outings.

The ship, owned by Resorts World Cruises, has 928 rooms and can carry 1,856 passengers. It is based in Hong Kong and returned to the SAR yesterday after visiting Taiwan and cruising in international waters.

One tourist slammed the transportation to and from Kai Tak, saying there was no time for them to travel around Hong Kong after waiting for a taxi for up to 40 minutes at the terminal.

"It's a bit troublesome," said a male visitor named Lu. "There should be more taxis. We must wait for a long time, leaving us no time to visit other places.

"We had to wait for as long as 40 minutes. Such waiting time is way too long, and we hope Hong Kong authorities can look into the issue."

Only a few taxis drove to the terminal, and tourists at one time were waiting for 30 minutes without the sight of one cab.

"It's inconvenient there are too few taxis," said a visitor named Zhao. "A taxi driver told me the roads to the terminal are often jammed, implying they don't want to drive into the terminal.

"In other cities there are usually subways connecting the cruise terminals. For example, terminals in the mainland are transportation hubs."

Staying at the terminal is not a good option either as only a few restaurants are operating.

Foreign traveler Alexander was disappointed he could not get refreshments from a cafe or store at the terminal.

"Hong Kong is a very convenient city," he said, "but when we came here we never could have expected such a big problem at the terminal."

Alexander said there was "absolutely no information" showing tourists where they could go, and the commuting arrangement was bad as some roads were blocked and they had to walk for a long time.

"When we got here we found absolutely no shops, no cafes - nothing," he said. "It's hard to say why it's like this. For foreigners like us it was a very, very disappointing experience."

Meanwhile, Royal Caribbean's cruise ship Spectrum of the Seas arrived in Hong Kong from Singapore for the first time after the Covid pandemic and moored at the Kai Tak terminal for over a day before leaving at 8pm on Saturday.

Although tourists said they had a great time in Hong Kong some complained about the inconvenient transport arrangement at the terminal.

A traveler from Hawaii, Dereck Wong, said he visited Victoria Peak, Stanley Market and Chi Lin Nunnery in Diamond Hill upon arriving in Hong Kong.

But Wong said he could only take taxis to the attraction sites as there is no other public transportation at the terminal, and it cost around HK$70 for him to return to the terminal from Diamond Hill.

And a tourist from Toronto grumbled at having to outlay HK$160 to get from Tsim Sha Tsui to Kai Tak.