Was booked on Voyage of the Seas out of Singapore but as friends pulled out of the holiday, we cancelled our RC cruise and booked with Norwegian as the dates matched our flight times.....wished we hadn’t now.
We’re big fans of Norwegian hence why we swapped to this trip. We couldn’t fault our previous cruise on the Breakaway so we had high hopes for our first cruise to the Far East. Firstly, let me say the places we visited were excellent as were the people and our only complaint would be that we didn’t have enough time in them so we are planning to return and spend a few days in each as one day in Bangkok for example just isn’t enough. But as for the cruise itself.... we weren’t happy.
The good parts.... as mentioned, the itinerary was great, the frontline cruise staff (waiting staff, cabin steward, bar staff etc) were all great, polite and lovely as they usually are. Food in the Garden Cafe buffet restaurant, Chin Chin’s and Cagney’s speciality restaurant was excellent. The ship’s public areas were nice and smart due to a recent refurb and the ship itself was a smooth sailer.
Noisy as it was next to some room the crew use when docking so lots of banging and clanging when close to docking. Small cabin, bed you had to climb over to get into it. Tiny bathroom. Shower was ok though.
Go a few days before boarding a cruise to see the city. Lovely
Loved Bangkok itself but didn’t have enough time there. It’s quite a journey to Bangkok from the port (over 2 hours each way). Not much near the port. Maybe go to Pattaya and spend longer there??
Didn’t see enough of Ko Samui as there were issues with the tendering.
It was interesting so we’re glad we went but it’s being developed, probably over developed, and it’s like a huge building site with Chinese companies throwing up hotels everywhere. The people were lovely though.
Great beach, great resorts. Relaxing
We did our own Halong Bay cruise for $40. Loved it. Will go back again,