Muerz

Hi,

I'm currently planning a trip to Hong Kong and Macau and I do need a little bit of help with planning. Let me first start by saying that I already was in Hong Kong but the last time I've been there was 15 years ago.
Right now, I'm to arrive in Hong Kong on a Saturday at around 3:30 in the afternoon. I haven't booked tickets or hotels yet but I plan to directly head over to Macau for the first two nights. Do I need to purchase the ferry tickets ahead or can I do that upon arrival at the airport? What about my checked luggage? Do I need to retrieve it or will it be checked to the ferry boat?

Since I'm a Marriott Platinum, I plan on staying at the Sheraton in Macau as the JW is fully booked. Any opinions on this place?

Upon my return to Hong Kong, I do need help with hotels. I'm going to stay here for 5 nights. I've stayed at three different properties in the past: The Mandarin Oriental, the Grand Hyatt and the JW Marriott which all are too expensive on this trip. I'm not planning at staying inside the hotel a lot on this trip so I'm not going to need a top notch luxury place. I'd like to pay less than 1500 HKD and preferably have an outside pool and a harbour view. I don't mind using non chain hotels as long as they are clean, safe and new or a least recently renovated with a few modern features like USB charging or even a free smartphone for use during my stay etc. Most locations would work for me (Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, Central, Kowloon). As I've said, it's been 15 years since I've been there and don't know if "new" parts of town could be an alternative.

Burning off points could also be an option (I still have lots of Marriott/Starwood points as well as Hyatt points) but in this case the only cheap points options would be in Sha Tin (Courtyard and Hyatt) but I've got no idea if that location is good or at least well accessible via Subway or Uber). By the way, I saw that Uber is available in HK but are they reliable there?

Thanks in advance for all your help!