Diamond Princess Asia Cruise: Flight to Hong Kong!

It's 4:30 in the morning and we drag ourselves out of bed. We're totally packed - two 50 lb. suitcases and two carry-ons - and by 5:00 AM when our airport shuttle arrives, we are ready to go! Tired, excited, ready to go!

Our United Airlines flight takes us to San Francisco (3 hrs. 59 min.), and from San Francisco (4 hr. lay-over) we board another UA flight (14 hrs. 30 min.) to Hong Kong. ETA-HK is 6:45 PM (with time differences - the following day!).

For our South America cruise in 2007, we flew overnight to Buenos Aires. I think I prefer to spend 8 hours of a 14.5 hour flight sleeping. There's only so much reading, conversing, working, watching movies that one can do in (almost) 15 hours; the rest of the time one is trying to doze, or eating, or drinking. A long daytime flight seems to me much tougher on the body than a long night-time flight. What do you think?

We were, nevertheless, as comfortable as one could possibly be on a 14.5 hour flight, because I 'carried on' all the little comforts - eyepatches, blow-up back pillows and neck supports, earplugs, earphones, blankets. We were even equipped with our own miniature necklace air-purifiers!

So...14.5 hours later - 6:45 PM - we arrive in Hong Kong!

What an airport! Talk about 'people-friendly!'