BJC

Hi Kuldalai, and all you lucky lot on SS Gemini,

Last day at work today, supposed to have the Stocktake finished today before I go, and guess what, the “System” fell over last night and none of my valuation reports have run, might have to work over the weekend, just as well I packed my bags a month ago!:p

Anyway so glad to hear that you are all having a super time on Gemini, hope you don’t eat and drink them out of supplies before we get there, I suppose that because of the passenger demographics, one could expect to get real bacon for breakfast?;)

Anyway fly out Monday morning, and will catch up with Gemini on Wednesday.

Happy cruising.:)

Regards, Bruce

Hi all, sorry have not been able to respond until now, but we’re right in the middle of Stocktake, which I’ve got to get done before the boss will let me go cruising, and the B..dy computer system fell over and we lost everything, bugger!:mad:

Anyway we’re back up again now, and I’ve got the “cat of nine tails” out, so everyone is getting stuck into it.:p

So those of you on the first half only, you all have a good cruise, and the ones on the second half, we will see you on the Gemini in a couple of weeks time.

Hi Vera, interesting that they are going to send the Gemini to Aus at the end of the year, sorry but I did 10 years of “cruising” around Aus, NZ and PNG when I was in the Navy, so will opt for the more exotic cruises.;)

By the way I have submitted a small piece to the West on "Cruising", which they will be publishing in their Cruising Special in the Travel Section on the Sat 9th June, and I will sign autographs later!

If I don’t catch you lot before, I'll write up a "Just Back Report" after we get back, so till we meet on the high seas, I wish you all smooth seas and a fair wind.:)

Regards, Bruce

Hi Frank,

It was some time ago that the S&D were there and the whole thing had only been going some months, so don’t know what it is like now.

However having said that, they did say that the Buffet was not all that brilliant and they kept running out of the more fancied dishes, but that’s the same everywhere, at the time they went they thought it was good value for money, but then again they were only just wed and didn’t have two bob to rub together!:p

They recon the show was simply stunning, however they said when they went it was first in best dressed so you had to queue up early to get a good seat which meant you hung around for a long time before the show started, I did see from their website that you can now reserve your seats, might be worth asking them.

They also went to Simons Cabaret which they thought was magic, I must say that at the time I don’t think that they knew that all the “Girls” were blokes!;)

Regards, Bruce

Hi Frank,

Glad to hear that you are extending your holiday, if only my “she who must be obeyed” would make such pronouncements, I would have no problem in obeying her.

Anyway while having been to neither myself, my Son and Daughter-in-law reckon these are must see’s, so have attached the websites.

http://www.phuket-fantasea.com/

http://www.phuket-simoncabaret.com/

They tell me that both are visually stunning and a good night out, especially Simon's.;)

Regards, Bruce

Hi Tracey,

We all await with baited breath, hope Australia Post are not like the Internal Mail system in our office, it took my Holiday Application 3 days to get from the Supply Dept. on the first floor, to HR on the second floor.:p

The other option is I have a friend with a valid passport who would be happy to go in you place! ;) Keep us posted.

Regards, Bruce

Hi Tracey,

Celebrity Cruises in association with Cruise Critic put on a “Connections” get-together, normally a Morning / Afternoon Tea which is something a bit special, and they normally send along the Cruise Director or Assistant CD with some people from the Cruise Sales Desk, so as well as a meeting and get to know you thing, there is a good opportunity for a bit of PR / sales.;)

Also Royal Caribbean put on “Meet and Mingle”, which is the same thing, I believe there are others as well, however Star are not big on any of this, they need to take the lead from the Cruise Lines that service the US Market.

Which you would have thought they would have picked up on through their experiences with NCL and NCLA, also many have a loyalty club of some kind or other, with Celebrity it’s the Captains Club, whose members get an invite to the Captains Cocktail Party, normally held in conjunction with the first Formal Dinner.

Quite an occasion with everyone in the finery, I normally wear my small Submarine Dolphin Lapel Badge, which most of the ships Officers seem to recognise, I recon it’s always good for an extra couple of free drinks!:p

Unfortunately it looks like the only loyalty program that Star have is related to how much money you’re prepared to drop at the Casino, but that’s the Asian Market they service.:rolleyes:

Anyway as you said both departures from Singapore and Hong Kong are both late departures, but both are followed by Sea Days, so might I suggest that there may be an opportunity to meet for pre-dinner drinks in the Gemini Bar say 6.30 for 7pm on these first sea days.:)

By the time we get there in HK you lot will be old hands at it, but there may be others lurking out there who are boarding in HK, who would front up on the night, if nothing else but to just to see what we look like.:eek:

Anyway it’s a start what do you recon?

Regards, Bruce

Hi Hazel,

If you go to the Star web site, and look at the Cruise Itineraries all show Singapore as the Port of Embarkation, which I suppose has a lot to do with flights and linking it up as packages with the major Airlines and the like.

Having said that I thought that for English and European Passengers, where the Ship was doing the same trip one after the other, they used to allow them to embark at Phuket and do a round trip from there, which is better for them with their flights.

I believe it was never advertised in Australia, as Star’s Wholesaler in Aus packaged the Cruise with flights on Singapore Airlines or Qantas out of Aus and into Sing.:rolleyes:

If I were you I would try to look at some English Travel Agent Sites to see if they still do a Phuket Cruise, and if so then ask your TA to hook you up with one of these!:)

Hope this helps.

Regards, Bruce

Hi Vera,

That has latterly created confusion from day one for us, from memory Tracey was originally told by her TA that she had to organize her own Visa, then I was told that Star would organize a group one for the Ship.

The next we heard that yes, it was a group Visa, but that you needed a “Passport Photo” just like you do if you get your own, and that was the last we heard!:rolleyes:

The problem for us was that Beth’s last passport Photo, only last year, was digital fortunately mine was from about 5 years ago so I still have a spare, but Beth had to go out and get a “real” photo to take with us.:(

If I were you I would get take a passport photo with you when you go just in case, having said that I am sure that the Photo Shop on Gemini does a roaring trade in Passport Photos when they go to Vietnam, and it will only cost you an arm and a leg!:p

Someone above was talking about the lack of Cruisers from Aus, and in my response I indicated that the communication from Star and their Agents in Aus was all but non existent, and when I have contacted them direct they have been very short and less than forthcoming with their response, it’s like pulling teeth!:eek:

Hope this helps.

Regards, Bruce

Well done T & T, on 25 years, and you are still taking holidays together, that's marvelous, hope you get lots nice Silver jewelry while in HK, or at one of the other POC!:)

We just past 35 so I am having to lash out on some Jade at the Jade Markets while in HK, on other occasions like birthdays we don’t give presents rather we take Cruises, they are the best presents of the lot!;)

Anyway hope you have a nice dinner or something on Tuesday, best wishes form us.

Regards, Bruce

Tracey, Tracey, Tracey,

What are you doing my dear, loosing your Passport with only a few days to departure, better get a new one chop, chop!;)

Hope you didn’t loose the photos for the Vietnam Visa’s!:rolleyes:

We’re down to just 30 days now so you must be less than 3 weeks from off, bet your getting all excited, despite the Passport! What a Wally.:p

Regards, Bruce.

Hi Vera,

Sorry my dear but have not been to Vietnam as yet, was going to do a land tour this year, but opted for the Cruise first.

An acquaintance who has been, when asked about HCMC said it was an interesting and bustling place, and the only advice he gave us was “never cross a street together, that way if you get bowled over the other one can call an ambulance!”;)

It was said very much in jest, but I believe it’s best to provide the smallest target, and they do say walk straight across do not try to dodge the scooters they will dodge you, anyway hope you have fun.:p

Did you see the trip I asked Mike about above, looks very good value for money?:)

Regards, Bruce

Hi Vera,

Glad to hear from you and that you are all settled in, well as much as one could expect, I see you were moved to book another cruise so there is still some energy left, or is it to recover.:p

I see you are on the 7 night round trip Singapore to Ho Chi Minh City and Ko Samui, with a couple of sea days to unwind, should be nice.:)

Are you going to have time in Singapore as well?

Anyway glad to have you back on board, we moved about 3 years ago after 30+ years in the one house and I know what it’s all about.:rolleyes:

Regards, Bruce

Hi Mike,

Welcome back mate, hope your trip was successful.

I know this is not Gemini, and not even Star Cruises, however speaking of China, I recently had a flyer from my TA about the Rhapsody Of The Seas repositioning to Asia in '08, and a Cruise Package out of Shanghai for 8 days 7 nights visiting Seoul, Cheju Island, and Pusan in Korea and Kagoshima Japan, and return to Shanghai.

They are quoting $2,880AU for an Outside Cabin, Return Flights Perth to Shanghai, one nights accommodation pre-cruise at the Crowne Plaza Shanghai, and all Tax’s and Port Charges, it sounded too good to miss, any thoughts please mate?:)

Regards, Bruce

It's your Honeymoon, and you're worried about the Night Life! :eek:

I'm sure you'll find plenty to do. ;)

Have a Magic Cruise, regards, Bruce

Hi Deck 10,

Mate In can tell you that the $400AU appears not to be reflected in the Package Prices from Australia, even with cheap Airfares from Perth, which for a 7 night Straits Cruise in an Inside Cabin based on Twin Share come out at over $2,600 EACH.

If they were selling in Aus for these prices I reckon you would get a boat full each time, as it would appear that P&O and Princess don’t seam to have a problem filling their cruises in Asia, at about the same price from what we hear, but could be wrong.

If they are not selling these cruises in Sing or KL at the prices you have quoted then they, Star Cruises, would appear to have an image problem or something is wrong with their marketing.

7 or 10 or more nights are better for us I would suspect, as if you are going O/S you don't want to travel all that way for just 3 or 4 nights or less!

I suspect they probably need to find their niche in the market, either as a Cruise line or a Floating casino Line, having said that it would appear that neither is working, which is sad, as we enjoyed our cruise and look forward to our next on Gemini.

Regards, Bruce

Hi there Deck 10,

Sorry to hear that the rest of Aus is not supporting the Gemini but there are still some of us cruising on her.

I must say that Star don’t seem to have the same level of “promotion” of their Cruises that P&O and Princess have, they seem to leave it up to the Wholesalers and Travel Agents to do their promotion for them.

They don’t seem get out to the Travel Agents for “Cruise Nights” and the like as others do, even Celebrity and Royal Caribbean, HAL, Carnival, all of which are mostly associated with the US market get out and about and sell their cruises.

The other point I would make is that the Star website would have to be one of the most ordinary sites I have come across, it is almost 20th century in its operation, I reckon it is the same as it was 10 years ago.

They do not provide the user and potential Cruiser with the same level of interactive information on ships, itineraries, ports of call, and shore excursions that other Lines do, simple things like you can’t pre-book shore excursions and the like.

It would appear that their main focus is on the Asian Gambling Market, and anyone else can come along if they like, which is a bit sad as back in the 90’s when Gemini first burst onto the cruise scene it was 90% Australians!

Too many choices now for us down under, as such all Cruise lines have to offer “something Special”, Star is somewhat lagging in this area.

Regards, Bruce

Hi Tracey,

From what I have read it is supposed to be the longest over water cable car in the world, at 3.31 KM, but they also say it only takes 9 minutes, which is moving at about 20 KPH!:eek:

Don’t know which side of the island they come in from, but looking at the way the harbour and wharf is set up it would appear that the come in from the south and under the cable cars.

The highest that the cable cars are above the water is between Pylon 2 and 3, (there are 8 in total), which ties in with the wharf.

The problem with the bigger ships docking is with their length, in that they are longer than the wharf and when they tie up alongside their after section sits under the cable cars, as the cable car station at Nha Trang end is built right at the end of the wharf.

But that is not a problem for Gemini as she is just a little shorter than the wharf, the good thing is that you will only have to walk a couple of hundred meters to get to the cable car station, and it only costs 100,000 Dong return ($7.50AU), might be worth a ride.:)

Regards, Bruce

Hi Frank,

The same applies to us, I also read that on a TripAdvisor review of the Majestic if my memory serves me correctly.

Anyway thanks for reminding me to get on to my TA, she said, at the time we booked when I mentioned the noise that she would, closer to the date, e-mail them and request a room for us on floor 10 or above.:)

I don’t suppose we will know if she is successful until we get there, however we will take some ear plugs just in case!:rolleyes:

Regards, Bruce

Hi Frank,

Ship organised Shore Excursions is the one topic that everyone has an opinion on, and it seems to be slightly biased towards “doing your own thing” for the more seasoned cruisers, and using the Ships Excursions for the new cruisers.

You might get the impression by reading all the Boards on CC that most people don’t tend to use the Ships, but that is because the vast majority of those who contribute to CC are the seasoned cruisers, so they tend to slant the argument their way, well that’s my theory anyway!

Having said that on our last cruise in the Med on Celebrities Galaxy, which was made up of mostly seasoned cruisers, at least 75% I would say, anyway at most ports of call when those of us that were booked on the Ships Shore Excursions met in the Theatre, I suspect from the numbers, better than 75% of the passengers were doing the ships excursions, which shoots my theory down.:p

There are certainly Ports Of Call where it is simple and easy to do your own thing, like Rhodes where it was a 10 minute walk from where the Galaxy was docked to the Old Walled City, which we just spent hours wondered around visiting the Castle of the Knights and other most interesting places, for which the ship had guided walking tours for $40 each.

Where as all it cost us was the entry fee to the Castle, 2 cold beers and a delicious lunch, which they didn’t get on the ships tour, and cost less than $30 for both of us!:D

And on Gemini, depending what you wanted to do, for both Hong Kong and Singapore we would do our own thing, because they are such easy places to get around, and of course we have been there before so know what we are doing.

However elsewhere we would tend to use the Gemini’s Excursions, mostly because there are not that many Tour Operators in many of the POC, and from quotes that Tracey and I have received from them, there is not a lot of savings to be had, only if you are in a party of 6 or 8 where you can hire a mini bus and split the cost between you.

The other concern that I have is that if, for whatever reason, your private driver runs late and or breaks down in the middle of the bush, or the like, and you miss the ship then it’s at your cost to catch up at the next POC, or fly home, where as if it is a Ships Excursion that is running late I expect they would wait, well I would hope they would wait!:eek:

And no matter where you go, or who you get to take you out and about, including the Ships Excursions, you’ll end up in a Carpet Shop, or Wholesale Jewellery, or Pewter, or Pottery, or, or, or, which just happens to be owned by their cousin, brother, uncle, nephew!:rolleyes:

44 days for us, but still not counting!;)

Regards, Bruce

Hi Frank,

I managed to get the Shore Ex List out of Star for the cruise before in May/June, it should be the same, so e-mail me at BJC49@telstra.com and I will send it to you.:)

By the way they will not let you pre book, but say that they will not sell the Shore Excursions for the return leg until they leave HK, so that is somthing I suppose.:rolleyes:

Regards, Bruce.

I believe that they have taken the 1.5M average height of the tide into consideration when they set the 50M height restrictions, also the same for the swell, I understand that at the lowest point of the span between pylons, the underside of the cable car is 53M above the water.

Apparently the Aurora, which was the first Cruise Ship to pull out of a visit, is 49.5M however the Captain decided that he did not want to risk his ship.

Quite frankly I don’t blame him, they probably measured the 53M when the cable car was empty, a few big tourists and it might just sag another couple of meters!:p

Anyway it looks like the Gemini will be OK.:)

Regards, BJC

For those of you who have been following the goings on at the Nah Trang Port in Vietnam, they have built this Cable Car from the port to the Vinpearl Tourist Resort, that precludes Cruise Ships of over 50M heigh from berthing.:(

There have been a reported number of Cruise Lines who have decided not to risk calling in, as such my concern was for the Gemini, given that Nah Trang is one of her Ports Of Call on the 3 Asian Odyssey Cruises this year.

I managed to get on to the Contract, with specifications, for the lease from Cunard of the Braemar, formally the Crown Dynasty, the sister ship to the Gemini, which was formally the Crown Jewell.

Anyway they are 43.2M to the mast head, so it looks very much like she will fit under the Cable Cars, it should make for some interesting photos as we sail into the harbour.;)

Regards, Bruce

I’ve just read where the Aurora, and other Cruise Ships, have had to cancel their visits to Nah Trang in Vietnam because of the new Vinpearl Cable Car, which runs from Nah Trang harbour to the Vinpearl Tourist Resort on Hon Tre Island, that has just commissioned.

It appears that if a ship is over 50 meters from the waterline to the mast head, given allowances for the tide and wave height, it will not be able to pass under the Cable Car and dock in Nah Trang.

So how tall is the Gemini one must ask, probably one for you Mike, as I’ve looked everywhere and can not find anything, they all tell you length, breadth, gross tonnage and draft, but not height to the mast head?

I remember being in Singapore, and using the Cable Car to Sentosa Island, about a month before the Oil Rig took it out, not a nice thing to happen, and don’t want the same in Nah Trang.

Regards, BJC

Hi Kuldalai,

Thanks for your thoughts, must agree with you, we were lucky that on the only “organized” tour we did on a visit couple of years ago, the young Tour Operator took us to his local Wet Market, out in the New Territories, what an interesting place and upstairs was the dry goods and clothing, where the locals buy, and about a third of the best price on offer in Kowloon!:p

Where do you normally stay in HK, we recon the Salisbury (YMCA) Hotel on the harbor front in Kowloon, right over the road from the Star Ferry Terminal is the best kept secret in HK, and for a couple of hundred a night, a harbor view room has the same view as the thousand dollars a night rooms in the Peninsular Hotel next door, but don’t tell anyone!;)

I see you have found the May / June Asian Odyssey Roll Call, I will respond there, glad to have your lot on board, as Tracey and I were starting to feel a little lonely.

Regards, Bruce

Hi Tracey,

I meant to say May/June, and it would be nice to be able to join you for the first half as well, but it's not to be, bugger!;)

Got some info on HK walks in Kowloon, if I havn't already sent them to you, or if you havn't organised your shore excursions yet, let me know?

Don't recall if I mentioned 73 days, could have!!!:p

Regards, Bruce.