City Tour Rating:

Saigon is a sea of motorcycles. I hired my own private guide from Viator for the first day and we spent the day shopping. We had a great time. My favorite store was Khai Silk. We had lunch at the Temple Club and then followed that up with Ice Cream at Fanny's downstairs. The ice cream is all natural and yummy! We went to a water puppet show the first night and enjoyed the 45 minute performance but would not lose sleep over missing it.

We stayed at the Saigon Nikko Hotel. It was nice but we would have been better off at the Sheraton which is closer to town.

Halong Bay Rating:

The was the highlight of the entire cruise for us. We arrive in Halong Bay at 1:00 pm. After a delay 40 minutes to tender to shore, we walked to the Royal Pier where our private tender was waiting to take us to the Violet. Apparently there was someone waiting for us at Bai Chay when we arrived but we did not see them. It would have saved us the walk. It took about 40 minutes to get to the Violet by tender. We saw some beautiful scenery. When we arrived they showed us to our room which was the Cloud Suite. This being a luxury junk, we had a beautiful room with wood floors and floor to ceiling windows. I was traveling with my mother and the bed could be made as a king or pulled apart for two twin beds. We also had a gorgeous bathroom with lovely shower and huge bath tub.

The food on the Violet was delicious. They served a dinner with many options and also a yummy breakfast.

The events included a visit to the floating museum and village by row boat which was magical. The water was clean and emerald green. We also visited a cave and the next day a beach for swimming. Everything was done very professionally and such a difference than Celebrity. We did not want to leave. The Violet only holds 12 people and it was wonderful to spend the time relaxing on the junk. During the night we anchored and you could see a few boats which were lit up nearby drifting near us. It was one of the best excursions I have ever done!

When we came back to the ship the next afternoon we had a ship tour which was called Countryside and Shopping. The tour was awful. There was no shopping, no farm, and we only saw the buildings at the foot of the mountain for the Yen Pagoda. You actually have to take a cable car to the real Yen Tu which was 20 minutes from where we were. We stopped three different times for a bathroom break. It was the worst tour ever.

Port Rating:

The Ocean Terminal was not our favorite place. It was hard to find our way back to the ship. There were very few signs for Millennium and we met many other passengers who were also lost. You had to walk through the mall to get to and from the ship. Easy to do in the morning when the stores were closed but a real challenge in a crowded mall.

On the second day we went to Macau which was very crowded right before Christmas. It was sort of disappointing. There were too many people and the Turbojet left often but immigration was very slow each way. I am glad we went but would probably not go back to Macau.

When we returned from Macau we went to have dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. They have a fabulous buffet in the Clipper Lounge. I am so happy that we ate her. It was fantastic and one of the best meals we had the entire trip. We then went to the airport where we had left our luggage earlier in the day. We had checked in online for our Cathay Pacific flight but just needed to check our bags. The Cathay flight was in Business Class to San Francisco. It was one of the best flights ever. The seat, food, IFE all great! Looking forward to flying Cathay again for a return trip to Hong Kong.