Voyages of Discovery 12.3.16

Anyone booked on this cruise? Going solo and would welcome any advice.

Not on this cruise, but have enjoyed three prior cruises on this unique cruise line. Can I help?

Thank you for your response. I have cruised before but not alone. I feel more reassured today having received my tickets and relevant information. I am just assuming that there will be opportunities to meet with other lone travellers otherwise it will be a long trip! It's good to know that you have enjoyed your cruises with this cruise line as there is very little information available on this site about them.

It felt like there was a higher percentage of solos traveling on this cruise line, probably because it is small, comfortable and has a high level of engaging activities. Lots of them were repeat passengers so it must work for them. I think they are pretty good about single supplements and may even have solo cabins.

The fellow travelers were some of the nicest people I have ever met. No one was intrusive but they were just so interesting and (old fashion term) well-mannered but never stuffy. It was kind of a wait to see who speaks first, but once there was a conversational ice-breaker of some sort, it was always the most pleasant exchange.

If you want to be left alone, that is okay too. It is easy to get around this small ship so faces start looking familiar after a short time. The key to this ship are the enrichment lectures, both the port lectures and the general topic lectures. Full house for both, and the shore excursions were all top rate too.

Hope you report back as it is interesting to get other perspectives. This is a "utilitarian" ship - just the basics, but one does travel with a certain style in the old sailing traditions.

We thought the food was fresh and wonderful and the desserts actually tasted as good as they looked. Hope they still have the same young Dutch chef. Best thing is you get to see and talk to all the ship officers and key hotel people.

My wife and I have cruised 4 times on Voyager in just over the last 2 years.

Although Voyager is quite basic in her amenities, ( classic small ship ) she is comfortable and the Crew are exceptional.

We are itinerary driven and Voyages of Discovery certainly provide very interesting itineraries!

On each of our cruises there were a high number of solo passengers. VOD appear to target solo passengers with very low, if any, single passenger supplements.

You will have no problem meeting other single cruisers, they have special cocktail parties etc. specifically for solo travellers.

We spent many hours onboard and on excursions chatting to people travelling on their own.

The food is very good, lectures excellent, excursions very good, drinks prices very reasonable, (UK pub prices) and as I said earlier, the Crew are exceptional.

Unfortunately our last experience with VOD was spoiled with horrific return flights from Barbados, I am far from happy with VOD with their use of low grade Portuguese charter airlines such as Privilege Style, Euroatlantic and I now understand they are using Hi Fly.

Each cruise however on Voyager, we very much enjoyed. If you are lucky enough to fly with a decent scheduled airline or a reputable charter Company I'm sure you will have a really enjoyable cruise and meet some lovely people.

I hope you have a great cruise, if you have any queries I'd be happy to help.

You remind me of our VOD arranged flight home to LAX from CapeTown - luckily for us it was fabulous.

They used Emirates and we flew first to Dubai and then a daylight route across Iran, Central Asia and over the North Pole - so clear we could watch everything from the window of the belly cameras on the inflight entertainment screen for each seat. That was one unforgettable flight - almost another trip in itself.

So far our experiences with VOD flights, and we have now used them each time have been excellent -- to and from the US. Sorry to learn things might have changed ...a lot. But agree with everything else you like about VOD. Definitely a niche cruise choice but when this unique enrichment cruising package works for passengers seeking basic but engaging adventure cruising, VOD is among the best.

Still recollecting fondly our last one that went from England to Archangel, White Sea and Solovetsky Islands. Wow, what an itinerary and what a group of terrific lecturers onboard.

Hi OlsSalt,

Yes, until our last cruise with VOD in December, 2015 we too had always been happy with their flight arrangements.

We were told we would be flying Virgin when we booked, we flew out to Barbados with Virgin but were then scheduled, after booking, to return with an Airline called Privilege Style ( Portuguese charter flight ).

Privilege Style didn't have an aircraft serviceable so we ended up on a carrier called Euroatlantic ( another Portuguese charter ).

We only learned of this at Barbados airport on check in, the flight was also delayed!

This was the flight from hell! I've had a few bad flights in my lifetime but nothing that compares to this.

The only good thing that I have to say about this flight was that we arrived safely! This was our fourth cruise on Voyager, the cruise itself was great, Caribbean, Colombia and Venezuela.

I complained to VOD, my first ever complaint, I've never had any cause to complain before. Their Customer Service Staff have been less than helpful, I've a feeling that they have been inundated with complaints over this flight.

I know personally of five others who have complained but I think this is only the tip of the iceberg!

Its a shame that VOD head office decisions detract from the great job the Staff do onboard Voyager.

These cost cutting moves by VOD will rebound on them, past satisfied customers will be very wary, this unfortunately is not an isolated incident, several cruises have, and are earmarked, to use these " low grade charters ".

I was considering a Spring cruise, but this experience and my dealings with VOD Customer Services put paid to that.

You mentioned you are in the U.S. and flew back to LAX, do you live in LA or thereabouts?

My daughter and son - in - law were living in Santa Monica and we were out there last year. We did a fantastic road trip up the Pacific Coast to SF stopping en - route then on to Yesomite, Las Vegas and down to Arizonia, what a trip!

We're coming out again very soon and driving down from SF to Palm Springs, we've taken a house there, really looking forward to it.

Stopping off in Solvang on the way down, and SLO on the way back to SF.

As an old " Rat Pack " fan, ( giving away my age! ) it's great for me, I get the chance to visit some of their old haunts!

Anyway OlsSalt, I only hope VOD get their act together and we might be back onboard Voyager sometime in the future, we'll look out for the reviews!!!!

:)

I have just found this thread and find it concerning.

We did a Greek/Turkish cruise on Voyager last Sept and the flights were fine (Turkish Airlines out and Aegean rtn). We have, however, booked a back to back cruise for February 2017, when we will be flying out to Hong Kong and returning from Colombo, Sri Lanka.

We were originally told they book flights about ten months out, as schedule flights are released 11 months out, but I was told a few days ago that they were still arranging the summer season for late this year. I am now wondering if all next winter's flight plans are in a state of flux as they look for cheaper flights.

We have asked for our return flight to be delayed by 9 days as we have booked an independent land tour in Sri Lanka. This includes 3 nights in a beach hotel at the end, so at least we can return more rested than we would from a cruise. VOD are happy to delay, but there will be an admin charge, which is not an issue. We also asked a few days ago if we can be quoted for premium economy. We do not usually upgrade on schedule flights, because of the high cost, but with two journeys which will probably be overnight it seemed worth thinking about. We will be starting at Manchester, so neither flight will be direct.

Fairsky1 - You mention that you have heard of another cheap airline being used by VOD. Do you have any other knowledge of the fights being used?

I have just found this thread and find it concerning.

 

We did a Greek/Turkish cruise on Voyager last Sept and the flights were fine (Turkish Airlines out and Aegean rtn). We have, however, booked a back to back cruise for February 2017, when we will be flying out to Hong Kong and returning from Colombo, Sri Lanka.

 

We were originally told they book flights about ten months out, as schedule flights are released 11 months out, but I was told a few days ago that they were still arranging the summer season for late this year. I am now wondering if all next winter's flight plans are in a state of flux as they look for cheaper flights.

 

We have asked for our return flight to be delayed by 9 days as we have booked an independent land tour in Sri Lanka. This includes 3 nights in a beach hotel at the end, so at least we can return more rested than we would from a cruise. VOD are happy to delay, but there will be an admin charge, which is not an issue. We also asked a few days ago if we can be quoted for premium economy. We do not usually upgrade on schedule flights, because of the high cost, but with two journeys which will probably be overnight it seemed worth thinking about. We will be starting at Manchester, so neither flight will be direct.

 

Fairsky1 - You mention that you have heard of another cheap airline being used by VOD. Do you have any other knowledge of the fights being used?

Hi tring,

Until our last cruise on Voyager we had never encountered any problems with flights with Voyages of Discovery.

I have no complaints re: Voyager having cruised 4 times on her.

We were scheduled to fly back from Barbados on a Company called Privilege Style but ended up returning with a Company called Euroatlantic because Privilege Style didn't have a serviceable aircraft!

I know Voyages of Discovery have also been using a Company called Highfly.

These are all Portuguese, low grade charter airlines, google them and their reviews speak for themselves!

I cannot describe how truly bad our return flight to the UK was with Euroatlantic.

Hopefully Voyages of Discovery have learned that using these low grade charters doesn't sit well with their clients, I would suspect that many of their dedicated clients like ourselves will be extremely wary of booking again if any of these Companies are still being used.

This is quite obviously a cost saving exercise by VOD but it will, I am sure, effect future bookings.

Given the age profile of VOD's clients long haul flights on charters such as these are just not acceptable.

I won't be contemplating booking again until I am satisfied that these low grade charters are no longer used.

I am in contact with several other dissatisfied clients, one who has cruised with VOD over 20 times, she is of a similar mind having experienced all three of these Companies in the last few months!

Hi tring,

 

Until our last cruise on Voyager we had never encountered any problems with flights with Voyages of Discovery.

I have no complaints re: Voyager having cruised 4 times on her.

We were scheduled to fly back from Barbados on a Company called Privilege Style but ended up returning with a Company called Euroatlantic because Privilege Style didn't have a serviceable aircraft!

I know Voyages of Discovery have also been using a Company called Highfly.

These are all Portuguese, low grade charter airlines, google them and their reviews speak for themselves!

I cannot describe how truly bad our return flight to the UK was with Euroatlantic.

Hopefully Voyages of Discovery have learned that using these low grade charters doesn't sit well with their clients, I would suspect that many of their dedicated clients like ourselves will be extremely wary of booking again if any of these Companies are still being used.

This is quite obviously a cost saving exercise by VOD but it will, I am sure, effect future bookings.

Given the age profile of VOD's clients long haul flights on charters such as these are just not acceptable.

I won't be contemplating booking again until I am satisfied that these low grade charters are no longer used.

I am in contact with several other dissatisfied clients, one who has cruised with VOD over 20 times, she is of a similar mind having experienced all three of these Companies in the last few months!

Thanks for that. Given the experience of your contacts it does seem there is fairly widespread use of these flights. From what I understand they are all chartered by VOD, so can I ask if you and your contacts were flying to/from London, or were some regional flights?

We are booked from Manchester so neither Hong Kong nor Colombo can be direct flights if scheduled, but they could send us to London, then put us on a charter to Hong Kong. Coming back we would have to be on schedule as we are delaying our return, but they will charge us the difference in cost to the flight we would have had if travelling straight home. All flights are overnight so will be pretty miserable, even on the best of planes.

When we booked we asked if they would book cruise only, but there was no discount for doing that. It would seem a better option if people could book their own flights, even with a small discount. For future holidays we have decided we would arrange our own flights and have stop overs if travelling a distance, it would put the cost up a lot, but could increase the enjoyment of the holiday with chance to spend a few days in another destination.

We will have to wait and see what happens, thanks again for your reply,

Barbara

Hi Barbara,

Our flights were from London/Gatwick, as were the others that I am in contact with.

We flew out to Barbados with Virgin but the return flight from Barbados was a charter that ended up being Euroatlantic.

Two years ago we flew back from Colombo with Sri Lankan airlines and the outbound flight to Dubai was with BA, this was a VOD cruise on Voyager down the west coast of India.

I'm not opposed to charters providing they are reasonable airlines.

I did a Black Sea cruise with VOD and they used Monarch, it was perfectly fine!

I have read VOD are using Thomson on some of their cruises, we did a P&O cruise some years back and they too used Thomson, I rated the Thomson long haul flights better than some scheduled economy flights!

I was amazed at your comments regarding cruise only prices with VOD and NO discount? I've never heard of any other cruise line operating like that, truly amazing!

Anyway Barbara I hope it all works out for you and you have a great cruise.

We were planning to do a Far East cruise with them but we are now thinking of booking with another Company, we'll monitor events with VOD and hopefully see some reviews in the coming months.

Although itinerary is foremost with us and VOD have interesting itineraries we simply wouldn't be prepared to endure a repeat of our last flight experience with VOD.

Swan Hellenic used to have set discounts allowed if you booked cruise only, which is why I asked that of VOD, but it looks like situation has changed. If they are looking at chartering planes that is understandable as they will want to ensure they can afford the charter. I suspect that will also mean we will be taken via London, but we will see. The strange thing is that for our back to back cruise they have taken off the cost of the flights for the change over port (Singapore).

We were booked on a brilliant VOD Black Sea itinerary a couple of years ago and they had booked us on Easyjet from Manchester to Piraeus. Putin walked in on the Ukraine that summer, so they lost the three Ukraine ports and Odessa was looking iffy. VOD said we could cancel at no loss because of that, (which we did), so I do not know what the flight would have been like. We have not flown with Easyjet, but we did look into it and tried to upgrade to their extra legroom seats, but that was not possible due to it being a block booking.

As I mentioned earlier we did a VOD Turkey and Greece cruise last September and we were flown to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines and back from Piraeus on Aegean (so they did not put us on Easyjet for that). We were impressed with both those flights, particularly Turkish Airlines.

I will try to remember to post about which flights are allocated to us and will do a cruise review, but we do not travel until early next February and return mid March.

We rang VOD again and they have arranged our flights back to the UK from Sri Lanka next March. Flights are with Emirates, leaving Colombo at 21.55 and returning to Manchester at 7.00am UK time, with a two hour break in Dubai. So that is a 4.5 hr flight to Dubai and 8 hrs on to Manchester. Not best timed, but I do not think any flights are from there. They have charged us £59pp supplement to delay the date of return, which we thought was quite good - just an admin charge, I imagine. The flights are on Boeings which have less seat pitch and width than the Airbuses that are operated by Emirates, but there goes - an upgrade would have been the price of another holiday so we will try cattle class once more.

Not got our flights out to Hong Kong for the start of the cruise at the beginning of February, but if they are with Emirates at least they seem to use Airbuses on that route. It would be two 7 hr flights so nice half way break of journey. They could take us to London to join a charter though - they could be waiting to see how many people want to fly from where before committing themselves.

We will see,

Cheers,

Barbara

Good to hear that a lot of you liked the ship. We are looking for a change from Fred Olsen and P&O. We like small ships and are thinking of giving her a try sailing out of the UK.

Hello Jean,

I would certainly rate Voyager over Fred and certainly over P&O, though it is still an older ship with the problems of noise/vibration in some places. One of the main differences is the clientelle and general feel of the ship. VOD are slightly more academically based, in that their speakers tend to have a real knowledge of what they are talking about and the talks are related to the area you are travelling in, rather than some odd subject, and the passengers have an interest in that. Entertainments are not as prominent as on Fred, so sitting in a quiet lounge, with the chance to converse, is more the thing on board. I think there were shows, but it is not something we are keen on so did not go to them. Hence the ship is much more focused on where you are travelling, rather than the Butlin's type experience of Fred and certainly P&O.

Dinner is open sitting on Voyager, but time limited to something like 7-9pm. There are mainly quite big tables in the restaurant, but we did find the passengers to be well travelled and interesting people, even on a cruise we went on last year that had been discounted quite a bit. We found that whenever you turn up for dinner, you tend to leave at much the same time as service is very slow when the restaurant is busy. We turned up 20 mins before the restaurant closed a couple of times and were put on a table on our own (it was a large table, but I think everyone else was already eating) and were served very quickly - the staff do not want to be late finishing! There is also a self service, but like Fred that is only open at meal times.

Structurally, I would think Voyager is more like Braemar than the other Fred ships as it is more of that age and probably has a round bottom rather than the keel in the other Fred ships, which makes them more stable. Voyager seems to be fairly rocky if the sea gets a bit choppy (as Braemar) in force 5 for instance. It is smaller and has less passengers than Fred's ships. Unfortunately the chairs in the observation lounge are very basic and uncomfortable with no cushions. I could not sit in them, which was a shame as we tend to like observation lounges. The central lounge was very nice though.

You have probably gathered that I am not keen on P&O - we think it is going downhill and would only use them now if the price was low and the itinerary good. Cheap is something P&O do and I think it shows - their food has got particularly bad.

We have got good deals on Fred with the book 3 type offers, but have gone for Voyager for the Far East early next year as the itinerary is much better than Fred, with 6 ports in Vietnam for instance and long times in port. Fred's flights are a ridiculous price, so we are unlikely to fly long haul with Fred, unless we linked it with a land based holiday and booked our own flights - but that always has risks of course.

If you cruise to see the destinations, it is well worth trying Voyager.

Got our flight details to go out to Hong Kong from Manchester in February and they are with Emirates, (changing at Dubai), like our return flights. So we have not been put on budget airlines.

I do not know what are being used from the London airports though as we were told on Voyager last September that they were tending to arrange charters from London. We had to pay a supplement from Manchester.

Got our flight details to go out to Hong Kong from Manchester in February and they are with Emirates, (changing at Dubai), like our return flights. So we have not been put on budget airlines.

 

I do not know what are being used from the London airports though as we were told on Voyager last September that they were tending to arrange charters from London. We had to pay a supplement from Manchester.

Good to get your VOD updates. Great start - Emirates. Looking forward to your Voyager cruise report when you get back. I have such fond memories of all our VOD cruises.

Got our flight details to go out to Hong Kong from Manchester in February and they are with Emirates, (changing at Dubai), like our return flights. So we have not been put on budget airlines.

 

I do not know what are being used from the London airports though as we were told on Voyager last September that they were tending to arrange charters from London. We had to pay a supplement from Manchester.

Hi Barbara,

Well that's good news about your flights.

Another person I am in contact with has had her flights also confirmed, she is on a Far East cruise this Winter.

She will be flying BA outbound and Malaysia Airlines inbound, both overnight flights.

I think she's flying from London. Anyway the omens are good regarding flights.

It's unusual, is it not, to know your flight details so far in advance? I've not experienced this in my 4 cruises with VOD in the past.

I'm tempted to go again this Winter to the Far East,

Regards

Frank

:)

The scheduled airlines put their flights on sale 11 months prior to departure and the best prices are usually when they first go on sale, but I do not know what sort of contract VOD will have - except it will obviously be on favourable prices! The only fly/cruise we have done with VOD was a late booking one.

I have just been looking into the ports for our cruise over the last week or so and am appreciating the fact it is a small ship, so can get into better docking locations - especially for the Vietnam cruise.

The port I am really interested in though is Yangon where we have two days, as we hope to do that independently. I cannot find a cruise schedule for the port, but have found the port authority site and discovered Voyager is small enough to dock in town, whilst even ships like Fred's Black Watch (28,000t) are not. Our itinerary does say Yangon, whilst Fred and other cruise companies give the name of the out of town port which is down river and the CC port of call site does say that smaller ships dock in the city, so we are keeping our fingers crossed.

Both our flights for Feb/Mar are overnight and coming from Manchester means we cannot get a direct flight, which will make the ordeal even longer (two lots of 7-8 hours on each leg + down time). We looked at upgrade prices, but it was the price of a whole holiday again, so will slum it. For package land hols etc we go for premium economy or at least extra legroom, (even on short haul), so we will really notice the difference. The flight out to HK is on Airbus, which has slightly more seat room than the Boeing flights back from Sri Lanka, but the airbus has a 3-3-3 configuration so we are dreading both of us poss being away from an aisle. Going out will presumably be a block booking so we will not be able to get into the net to confirm or change seats. Our changed departure date for the return probably means we will be able to get into the system for that.

Glad we have decided to make the most of it and stay out there for 5.5 weeks and we are really looking forward to it now.

When we were on the old VOD Discovery stop for Yangon, we were quite a way out of town in a lovely wooded area but not much else - it was quite a trip to get into town as I recall, but what a city to see and then use it as our base for the onward excursion to the Bagan (sp?) temples.

Mainly at the port itself we had views of the timber loading that was intended to go to the Singapore market and in the process get "laundered" in order to escape any economic sanctions in place against Burma at that time.

Plus getting early warning of what our toilet bowls would look like for days once we entreated the river drainage areas of the mighty Iriwaddy - Road to Mandalay. Sea water was used to flush these old, but highly reliable, Discovery plumbing fixtures.

When we were on the old VOD Discovery stop for Yangon, we were quite a way out of town in a lovely wooded area but not much else - it was quite a trip to get into town as I recall, but what a city to see and then use it as our base for the onward excursion to the Bagan (sp?) temples.

 

Mainly at the port itself we had views of the timber loading that was intended to go to the Singapore market and in the process get "laundered" in order to escape any economic sanctions in place against Burma at that time.

 

Plus getting early warning of what our toilet bowls would look like for days once we entreated the river drainage areas of the mighty Iriwaddy - Road to Mandalay. Sea water was used to flush these old, but highly reliable, Discovery plumbing fixtures.

Sounds like you had an authentic visit to Burma then! Do you know if the port you docked at was called "Thilawa" - that is the downstream port that bigger ships visit and is an industrial port?

We decided we will be quite "templed out" by the time we finish the 4 week cruise and following Sri Lanka land tour, so hope to just get a feel for the country there independently. Do you have any tips regards other peoples views of the port of Yangon - particularly from anyone who may have decided to just "go it alone" there. We do not really want to be tripped, but appreciate it may have it's advantages.

Cheers,

Barbara

Sounds like you had an authentic visit to Burma then! Do you know if the port you docked at was called "Thilawa" - that is the downstream port that bigger ships visit?

 

We decided we will be quite "templed out" by the time we finish the 4 week cruise and following Sri Lanka land tour, so hope to just get a feel for the country there independently. Do you have any tips regards other peoples views of the port of Yangon - particularly from anyone who may have decided to just "go it alone" there. We do not really want to be tripped, but appreciate it may have it's advantages.

 

Cheers,

 

Barbara

I know the feeling of being "templed out" but please do not think about missing the main Shwedagon pagoda in Yangon.

At night this is the most phenomenal sight I have ever witnessed. The lights, the people, the buzz, the vistas - something just viewing it during the day cannot possibly reveal, magnificent as it is. Which I am sure is on your list of DIY city visits.

If you are not docked near downtown (sorry I can't remember the name, but that sounds right), I hope you might consider doing at least an overnight in town and then poke around on your own so you get the day and night effects of the place. But what a bonus if you do get close to town to become your floating city hotel, like Hong Kong or Cape Town was on the old Discovery.

You are going to have a fabulous time with this itinerary. At every port we would see people striking out on their own for whatever local experience they could find close at hand. Reminds me of some travel advice that has always paid off for me: there is never an uninteresting street in India. So even finding a place where the maritime crews has a snacks or drinks is an adventure in itself.

Plus we passed one of the most iconic rural scenes on the bus trip from the port into town -the classic stilt house amid the rice paddies and lush tropical greenery, that I never saw anywhere else on our tour. Same rule, there is probably no uninteresting street in Burma (Myanmar) either.

BTW: I took that travel advice to heart one time on solo land tour in India I was stuck out by the Madras (Chennai) airport in a very dull business hotel for a full afternoon and overnight to be able to catch an early morning flight. I asked the front desk if there was anything around to see and he claimed there was nothing and maybe I should just go the hotel's internet lounge. So bravely I struck out on the nearby busy concret highway with my motto there is no uninteresting street in India squarely in mind.

And lo and behold after a short distance with cars buzzing by I soon came across a former international games housing complex, a mass of the new yuppie high rises towers, the city's main and huge fruit and vegetable market where the shop keepers welcomed me with small flower bouquets and smiles everywhere I poked around, and then the city's main long-distance bus station which was a swirl of saris and families all going hither and yon on a long holiday weekend. I just sat there eating Indian milk sweets and watching the people go by.

On the way back I discovered some small tree lined side streets that had the feeling to stepping out into the quiet countyside where they still chalked their front entrances with designs to bring out the good spirits. I let the hotel desk clerk indeed there were interesting thing to see close by. He shook his head in disbelief - as seeing "real daily life" in India was not something he thought would interest this foreign tourist.

I know the feeling of being "templed out" but please do not think about missing the main Shwedagon pagoda in Yangon.

 

At night this is the most phenomenal sight I have ever witnessed. The lights, the people, the buzz, the vistas - something just viewing it during the day cannot possibly reveal, magnificent as it is. Which I am sure is on your list of DIY city visits.

 

If you are not docked near downtown (sorry I can't remember the name, but that sounds right), I hope you might consider doing at least an overnight in town and then poke around on your own so you get the day and night effects of the place. But what a bonus if you do get close to town to become your floating city hotel, like Hong Kong or Cape Town was on the old Discovery.

 

You are going to have a fabulous time with this itinerary. At every port we would see people striking out on their own for whatever local experience they could find close at hand. Reminds me of some travel advice that has always paid off for me: there is never an uninteresting street in India. So even finding a place where the maritime crews has a snacks or drinks is an adventure in itself.

 

Plus we passed one of the most iconic rural scenes on the bus trip from the port into town -the classic stilt house amid the rice paddies and lush tropical greenery, that I never saw anywhere else on our tour. Same rule, there is probably no uninteresting street in Burma (Myanmar) either.

We were planning to see The Shwedagon pagoda and I have seen a recommendation to go around sunset. I got the impression you had done the overnight to the Bagan temples, which did not appeal - though we are doing the much cheaper overnight to the Mekong Delta.

The experiences you mention are just what we are looking for - I agree with the view that there is never an uninteresting street in...... probably the whole far east!

Will look into hotels in town - I can see the point of that so we could have some rest time and easy access to clean facilities. I will see if I can get clear info from VOD about docking location nearer to the cruise date.

Thanks a lot and enjoy your future travel adventures,

Barbara

We did do the Bagan excursion but it also included an overnight in Yangon so we would get to the early morning flight, so that is how we got to see the famous padoga at night too. Bagan was pretty exciting but the air views one sees in the travel posters are the most spectacular way to really see this area.

A balloon tour perhaps? From the ground it is more just so more many temples to see one by one. But there was no way I was going to miss seeing this post-card experience even though I realized it was those evocative arierl view ...in the mists .... that had set my heart ablaze to see it.

It included lunch at a resort by the mighty Iriwaddy when it finally clicked the Road to Mandalay was a river. After all it was the only way one could see ...... dawn come up like thunder over China 'cross the bay. And what proper flying fish play on asphalt anyway. File me in the "well duh" category because I had always thought the road to Mandalay was a road, a real road and not a sea road. Oh, we colonials. Such bumpkins.

I would have thought it was a real 'road' too!

I have looked at the Bagan Temples tour for next February and it says the travel time into Yangon is half an hour, so not as far as I thought, but it sounds like it can take much more than that to travel a shortish distance in Yangon!

If we stay overnight we will need a visa ($85pp) but may still be worthwhile. I have found some trips (no prices) on Fred Olsen's website as one of their ships went there this year and returns in 2018. There are a couple of overnights, but also nine others, some of which sound interesting - including one to a ceremony for novice monks:-

http://www.fredolsencruises.com/places-we-visit/shore-tour/NOVITIATION-CEREMONY--TOUR-F--RGNF?continent=asia&country=myanmar-cruises&port=yangon--myanmar&referrer=9&isback=1

OK that ship takes about 800 people, but it may be interesting to see what is offered by VOD as we could still do one day on our own and perhaps a morning and evening/night trip on the other day.

It is just a shame that we are away for 31 nights in Nov/Dec and the VOD trips will not be published until just before then, and if they are late, perhaps we won't get them till we return mid Dec. Oh well if we will travel so much.............

By the way I note you were asking about tables for two. Fred (who do some unusual itineraries) do have a number of tables for two, but they do set sittings for dinner, so you would have to be confined to early or late dinner on a set table and there would be no guarantee of a table for two, especially if you do not book early. Their ships are old and not quite the same quality of passengers as VOD, but they have a lot of older (mainly English) passengers - especially on longer cruises. They now offer an AI option for £10 pppn so I do think the clientelle is changing a bit on some cruises - especially if a cruise goes cheaply. There is no probs getting a table for two in the self service, but I did not mention them on your thread as I thought you would want something better.

If you do book earlyish then, for no extra cost, you can ask for the Grampian on Braemar and the Spey or Avon on Balmoral, which are smaller, and much nicer, restaurants on an upper floor. That is what we do if we can, but there are still set sittings (early or late). They have various offers at times, but they are usually multi book things that will not be a lot of use to you - they will likely offer one of those earlyish in Dec and into the new year. Late sitting less popular, but perhaps more chance of a table for two. I have found the restaurant managers helpful if we are not happy with dining arrangements - sometimes with the chance of changing to a two - but of course there has to be availability. I think Black Watch has less twos than their other ships.