I am not planning to visit lantau Island for anything except big buddha and disneyland, which are connected by MTR and cable car. In fact, even within hongkong Island or Kowloon area, I feel MTR is better for all my needs, as it is about 2x faster than bus and time is costly as a tourist. Also, fares are not too high, even a disneyland trip via MTR seem to be about 300 INR only.
I will need only 2 buses in hongkong - Airport to Tung Chung Station and another from Hong Kong Island to Airport. I hope these allow visa card payments. Can you please confirm?
Apart from that, I plan 1 day macau trip and I see free shuttle buses from casinos to ferry terminals. So, I will probably need just 1 shuttle bus from old macau town area to new side like from Lisboa to Venetian. Even for this, I saw few comments mentioning about shuttle buses between casinos, but didn't find any concrete information.
So, I will completely avoid Octopus card and use MTR with visa card wherever possible. Will withdraw 100 HKD via Magnus and try getting change for those 2-3 bus rides from 7/11 stores or Hotel. Let's see how it goes.
Also, for sim, I saw a good deal in OnePlus ORoaming option with 1GB data and 7 days validity for both macau and hongkong region for just 2 USD. I guess this is sufficient for my commute with free wifi being available at many places.
Just completed my trip and it worked out pretty well.
Withdrew 100 HKD and Got change to 10/20/50 notes from Tung Chung MTR Customer Service and then 20 notes to coins from one of the big store (TASTE) in Citygate Outlets Mall.
Needed just 6+6 during 2 bus rides in Macao. Used one free shuttle also. Could have been used full shuttle also, but I started the day early and shuttles start only after 9-30 to 10AM and I didn't want to waste time specially since I already had required coins. So, potentially if one starts a bit later, he can avoid cash completely. Macao Museum accepted visa card payment.
Didn't need cash anywhere else. Used 78 at one of the restaurants for partial food payment along with card to finish it off. Kept 10 for any emergency, which didn't come. Last day took change of that too from hotel reception and used 4 in one bus. Brought back remaining 6 to India. So, overall just 100 INR loss.
Charges in MTR is same via octopus Card and visa card. Cash is costlier in MTR. In Tram, visa is 2 and octopus/cash is 3. In bus, all 3 have same rates.
Also, Buses are not cheaper than MTR on pretty much all routes I went. So, don't waste time in going through buses, if MTR is available. Airport is the only major exception.
For Airport, cheapest option is to take S1/S56 Bus to Tung Chung for 3.7 and then MTR from there. It will take about 15-20 mins more overall compared to Airport express or Direct bus, but is a lot cheaper than both of these.
Peak tram wait time is 1.5 hrs even if pre-booked. Views are nice, but May not be worth.
That disneyland queuing site is really bad and should not be relied on. It suggested me 26th and 30th as lowest crowd with 54% and 62% respectively. 26th was difficult for me, so I booked 30th. After visit, now they changed as per actual data to 16% and 95% respectively. 8% difference became 80%. No idea what is basis of their estimation. Btw, queues are shortest right at opening around 10-10:30 and closing 8-9:30, keep all high demand rides for this period. I was able to do all rides (except those I didn't want to) even with 95% crowd with proper planning.
Immigration on return from Macau to Hongkong is pretty bad. They asked me too about all flight and hotel details despite giving PAR and Arrival slip. And then moved to one room for 15-30 mins as well. After that, they issued the pass, Didn't ask anything more though. There were lot of people in that room. So, seems to be very frequent. And mine was ferry terminal, unlike op's bus terminal.
