Scenic apirit mekong

Wondering if anyone has been this cruise yet. Been thinking about booking a 13 day tour from diem reap to hi chi min city.

David

We are leaving an about 5 weeks to do the Wonders of Vietnam and Cambodia 17 night trip, very excited. We have done a trip with Scenic about two years ago and loved it.

The Spirit looks awesome. Can't wait.

I will do a review when we get back home.

Cheers:)

I too am interested to hear about this ship. It looks wonderful but can only find artists impressions, no actual photos or reviews. I will look forward to hearing about your experience.

We are also looking at Indochina and will be most interested in anyone's impressions who have done/are doing this voyage. We are on Scenic Jasper September 5th for 15 day Budapest to Amsterdam. Stay in touch.

We did this tour on the AmaLotus in reverse with APT. Check further down for reviews of Mekong River cruises. I loved it, saw the Scenic Spirit docked in Phnom Penh. April and May are the hottest month according to our guide.

Could we have some feedback on this cruise as thinking about it for January 2018!

Many thanks

Brisbanlionsfan,

How was the the Mekong on the Spirit?

Have just booked Treasurers of the Mekong on Scenic Spirit for 11th Feb. They include a 2 night stopover in Singapore. All the Hotels look top class and when you look at whats included its reasonable value. Would have been cheaper overall if we had booked earlier, especially the flights.

We always book bit late - as we now get nervous of heavy handed cancellation policies, although in the UK there is now a move to limit this to reasonable expense in reselling holiday. I am sure in the online age they all get resold. What you might call a nice little earner ! There is always some reason why your travel insurance never quite covers it all

Will give a review late February - Will be a bit more searching than that of the Editors !

Many thanks guys, will look forward to your reviews as I'm looking at this trip for my 60th Birthday present for 2018. Very interested to hear what the demographic of age group is and what the itinerary is like. I'm sure the food, boat and staff will be good.

We did a Danube cruise this year with Scenic and had a great time as itinerary, food, boat and most especially staff were fab. Having said that if we had not gone with friends, the demographic was not only old , but quite staid in attitude. I say this as I'm not ageist as we have lots of elderly friends but they have a very young attitude and are great fun.

Am on the tour at present- totally brilliant. Most people are mid to late sixties. Not staid at all! It's a hectic programme with lots of early starts.

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Also looking for others who have done this or will be doing this trip as well. Planning on going Jan/Feb 2018. Biggest question I have is how were the Visa's arranged for the two countries? I know that you can get ones that can be handled when landing at the airport. But when travelling between the two countries, how was that handled? Would like to avoid having to send passport via mail and no office locally to get it done,

I will be doing Ama's Vietnam and Cambodia in Nov 2017. This is what I think that I know.

I think the visa situation has changed. I believe that you have to have an actual visa (not a visa on arrival). According to the Vietnamese Embassy in Ottawa a visa on arrival is only allowed in emergency cases. We Canadians can send for the visa by email, without actually sending our passports to Ottawa.

Americans now have only one choice of visa, a multi-entry visa good for a year that I believe costs $200.

I can't find anything on the visa website about these choices, so I don't know whether Canadians can get the old 1 or 3 month single entry or multiple entry visas, because you can't see that without filling in the information. I also can't see the costs.

Depending on your trip, you might need a single or a multiple entry visa for Vietnam.

I haven't looked into Cambodia yet, but I have heard that Ama will arrange for that when I am in Hanoi before we fly to Siem Reap, which will simplify things.

Brisbanlionsfan,

How was the the Mekong on the Spirit?

Scenic Spirit is a fantastic ship, we loved it. The cabins are very luxurious and large with a separate bedroom and sitting area. The bed was one of the most comfortable we have had on a cruise, bathroom was also great with lots of room and a glass shower screen! The lounge area is very comfortable with plenty of seating and the dining room is also very good with tables for 2,4,6 and 8. The food was excellent and staff were very informative and friendly. Only down side was the excursions, very basic and some were a bit uncomfortable.

Also I would have liked some longer time on the ship, 7 days was not enough, just seemed like we were getting into everything and it was time to get off.

Also we didn't really enjoy the land part of the tour, we felt like we were loaded on and off buses too much. Group meals on very long tables, usually about 20 or 30 people long, and a set menu didn't suit us either.

Had I known all that before hand we probably would not have gone, it was very expensive and I felt not value for money.

We did a river cruise with Scenic 3 years ago from Budapest to Amsterdam and loved every minute of it.

Hope this helps

Cheers:)

We have been making our plans for February next year.

Vietnam Visa

The following is on The Gov UK website

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/vietnam/entry-requirements

Visas

Until 30 June 2017 ‘British Citizen’ passport holders travelling for tourism or business can enter Vietnam for up to a maximum of 15 days without a visa. If you have a different type of British nationality – for example ‘British national (overseas)’- you’ll need to get a visa before entering Vietnam.

Cambodia

There is an application form on the Cambodian London Embassy site but no details of the fee . There are E Visa's, but they only cover certain entry points. I am not sure the Mekong is one from towns listed.

In view of the previous post will need to look at the excursions carefully, first impressions were that they were top notch, but as they say the devils in the detail. We have had problems with Group meals in the past. On Day 3 the Group rebelled, ran Amok and were allowed to order from the Menu after that.

Better finish by saying we are definitley young in attitude

Do check your itinerary though, we were travelling on UK passports earlier this year with Viking, but we still needed a Vietnamese Visa as we started in Hanoi, then left Vietnam to complete the cruise portion and returned to Vietnam at the end of the cruise.

So if you use the option to not have a Visa, as a UK citizen, you cannot return to Vietnam within 30 days of your departure so that didn't work for our itinerary.

Good point Mark. We are only in Vietnam for the cruise and do not return once we cross into Cambodia. Being a river I am assured we do not loop back in, or similar

Where does your river cruise start and end?

Curious mostly as it seems like you'd miss out on some interesting places if it only goes from Siem Reap and stops before the Mekong enters Vietnam.

... or do you spend time in Vietnam first and then cruise up the river from Saigon to Siem Reap?

Scenic Spirit is a fantastic ship, we loved it. The cabins are very luxurious and large with a separate bedroom and sitting area. The bed was one of the most comfortable we have had on a cruise, bathroom was also great with lots of room and a glass shower screen! The lounge area is very comfortable with plenty of seating and the dining room is also very good with tables for 2,4,6 and 8. The food was excellent and staff were very informative and friendly. Only down side was the excursions, very basic and some were a bit uncomfortable.

Also I would have liked some longer time on the ship, 7 days was not enough, just seemed like we were getting into everything and it was time to get off.

Also we didn't really enjoy the land part of the tour, we felt like we were loaded on and off buses too much. Group meals on very long tables, usually about 20 or 30 people long, and a set menu didn't suit us either.

Had I known all that before hand we probably would not have gone, it was very expensive and I felt not value for money.

We did a river cruise with Scenic 3 years ago from Budapest to Amsterdam and loved every minute of it.

Hope this helps

 

Cheers:)

That's really informative and helpful as to me the whole point of going on a luxury cruise on luxury boat is to enjoy it. So if you took out the land part of the trip, was the 7 day cruise good and did you get day time cruising to enjoy the boat and scenery or were you out all day on excursions and travelling at night?

That's really informative and helpful as to me the whole point of going on a luxury cruise on luxury boat is to enjoy it. So if you took out the land part of the trip, was the 7 day cruise good and did you get day time cruising to enjoy the boat and scenery or were you out all day on excursions and travelling at night?

No, not enough time during the day to just relax and sail down the river. We would have loved a few more days of no excursions to do just that. They tried to pack too much into every day, and we found it wasn't relaxing at all. It got to the stage where I took a couple of days off because I just wanted to relax and read on my balcony! 7 days of rushing around, and it's over too quickly.

Cheers:)

I felt that there was enough time to relax on our cruise. The towns along the river are not large and we always returned for lunch. The only very strenuous place was Phnom Pen. Traffic jams, horrendous memories of the killing fields. After/before the cruise, Siam Reap is very tiring because of the heat, humidity, and the crowds.

I felt that there was enough time to relax on our cruise. The towns along the river are not large and we always returned for lunch. The only very strenuous place was Phnom Pen. Traffic jams, horrendous memories of the killing fields. After/before the cruise, Siam Reap is very tiring because of the heat, humidity, and the crowds.

We didn't find the excursions too strenuous, just too time consuming, morning and afternoons on most days. I would have liked a few days just cruising and relaxing by the pool looking at the river and surrounds. As I said before I don't think 7 days on board is long enough.

I think the all inclusive part that Scenic lists as one of their selling points is to pack as many things into the day and make it seem like you are getting value for money.

I certainly don't recommend the killing fields tour.

Apart from that I loved the cities of Phnom Pen and Siam Reap.

Cheers:)

We didn't find the excursions too strenuous, just too time consuming, morning and afternoons on most days. I would have liked a few days just cruising and relaxing by the pool looking at the river and surrounds. As I said before I don't think 7 days on board is long enough.

With respect, I think you may just have picked the wrong cruise.

Our itinerary with Viking was similarly filled with excursions and activities, but we booked knowing that and booked it because we wanted to see as much of the places we visited as possible.

If we were looking for lazy afternoons drifting down the river we would have booked a cruise that offered that.

The cruises in Vietnam/Cambodia, China and places like this are more active than a typical river cruise and do not spent the whole time on the river either, but this should be no surprise based on the advance information all the cruise lines provide.

Also it is always worth remembering that even though there may be a planned and included activity, you are usually free to decline and relax onboard during the cruise portion of the trip.

Even on the land portion, you can often just stay in the hotel if you need more time to unwind.

If you view these trips as an active holiday though with plenty to do every day then you'll be richly rewarded with sight and experiences, if you really wanted a relaxing trip with plenty of free time then it is probably better to consider the cruises in Europe which aim to provide that experience.

Maybe a word of warning when it comes to the Killing Fields in Phnom Pen. APT included them automatically and they colored the entire country negatively for me because it was our first stop in Cambodia.

At the famous site with the tower of bones, I sat on a bench crying. We then went to the notorious prison. After one building, I was outside again on another bench. I was not alone.

It is beyond me how these places can be treated like tourist attractions. They are reminders for Cambodians to deal with their past and work towards a healing present and positive future, but they are full of European and American tourists. House of horror in the morning and shopping mall in the afternoon.

Maybe a word of warning when it comes to the Killing Fields in Phnom Pen. APT included them automatically and they colored the entire country negatively for me because it was our first stop in Cambodia.

That is indeed an unfortunate itinerary.

We traveled down river starting in Siem Reap, so by the time we got there we had spent several days in the country and had been slowly led up to this particular visit with a lot of careful and sensitive preparation, along with a good number of warnings and suggestions that perhaps this wasn't something that everyone would wish to do.

It was not presented as an 'attraction' nor was it treated that way before, during or after our visit and to be honest there were not that many non-Cambodians there while we were at the site.

It certainly didn't affect how we felt about the country, but it did help us to better understand just how much the people had suffered during that time and to appreciate better just how far they have come since then.