My Sweetie Love's 7th Birthday (Planning Stage)

It's our sweetie's 7th birthday and we made sure everything will be very special. I started the planning stage earlier this year. When I ask my daughter what she wanted for her 7th birthday, she starts narrating. Ha-ha. She said she wants to celebrate it in school with her classmates. Sometimes, just a simple birthday dinner with the family will do. Other times, she wants to go to Hong Kong Disneyland. And as a mom, I was like “Yes! *drum rolling* Hong Kong Disneyland it is!”

But of course I do not want it to be just like, "Okay baby, we're going to Disneyland." That's too easy! He-he. We planned it one step at a time, as discrete as possible. It began as a BIG TOP SECRET!

Okay let me start the planning process. In March this year (2015), Cebu Pacific offered a promo of Php1000 base fare to Hong Kong and I immediately grabbed the offer and booked round trip tickets for us (Daddy, Mommy (Me), Kuya and Baby Girl). Our airfare total was Php15,545.07 with all the taxes and fees. If there is no available promo on your intended date of travel, you might as well want to visit SkyScanner to compare flight rates in different airlines flying to Hong Kong.

Now that we have our plane tickets, I was thinking of the cheapest way to go around Hong Kong. Would it be in a package land arrangement or just DIY (doing it yourself way). I chose the latter because after reading a lot of blogs about touring Hong Kong, I want to experience the city just like the locals do and not like tourists. I thought if we opt for the package land arrangement, we would be deprived of experiencing the 'real' Hong Kong and how they do it there. I know DIY Itinerary is really a difficult task but surely it would be fun!

I started with the hotel arrangement. Since my Dad knows a lot about hotels, I asked him if he can book a hotel room for us. He asked me to send him a list of hotels in specified districts so he will review each of them. I told him that I trust him so much about hotels and I leave it up to him which hotel to choose. Then he chose The Luxe Manor in Kimberley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui (pronounced as chim-sa-chuy) and booked not one but two hotel rooms for us! They call it family room, a combination of Premier Room and Studio Twin Room. The Luxe Manor is a boutique hotel located in the midst of busy shopping district! Ours was booked via Booking.com.

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When I saw the photos in their website, it was love at first sight! It seems like my Dad really chose this hotel for his one and only granddaughter! Very girly, royal, sophisticated and elegant - all fit for our birthday princess! The best thing about this was Dad settled all the payments and it's ours to experience for free! Thanks Dad!

Now let's move on. Airfare checked! Hotel accommodation checked! Next, the itinerary! My imagination started to wander where should we go, how should we get to each destination, how much? Then my job has officially begun! 

I wanted a hassle and worry-free tour: specific, itemized, and precise. I made a lot of blog readings, again and I came up with this itinerary:

As you can see from four pax, we're now 6! We invited the two grandmas and we're sure our kids will be delighted if they come along. But still it's a surprise. He-he.

Entrance tickets to Disneyland/Disneyland Meal Voucher, Peak Tram, Madame Tussauds, and Airport Express to and from our hotel were purchased from Klook. Thanks other bloggers for sharing this tip! Klook is a local travel agency in Hong Kong, which offers discounted tickets to different attractions in Asia. Discount ranges from HK$30 to HK$50 each. Here's the link to their website. Thanks to my brother for sponsoring this! I love you to bits!

You might think everything is settled already, but you know we all need pocket money to enjoy the trip more. So I came up with this expense table where approximate cost of how much cash should we bring with us – shopping not included. Below is the sample table of expenses I prepared.

Now we're all set! Watch out for our HK Adventure on my next post. By the way, Cebu Pacific, Booking.com, and Klook are all available for download in Appstore and Googleplay. 

Keep smiling lovies! :)