Mrs Machotspur and I are booked on that itinerary with Seabourn, embarking at Hong Kong on 2nd Feb 2019.
Like you the primary reason for taking this cruise, other than an excuse to visit Hong Kong/Singapore again, is the Philippines ports, particularly Manila. And this is where the problems begin 😞
Manila is quite a challenge to do by oneself (problems with taxi's, traffic, lack of decent subway, personal crime etc.). Yet the availability of private guides & cars doesn't appear to be great, compared with most other major Asian cities.
We try to avoid ship tours wherever possible, and in this case they understandably appear to be very US-centric due to the significant WW2 history.
Most of the city was wrecked during the war so it is not somewhere that has a lot of heritage/historical areas & buildings remaining. In cities like this we would normally concentrate on trying to soak up life in the city today but the practicalities of this are proving to be a challenge..
We will probably end up asking our TA in the UK to try and arrange a private guide/driver through an agency. This will cost us, but i'm not sure we are left with much of an option.
Your post is very timely for us too, so we very much look forward to any replies we get. .
My husband and I will be on this cruise. Maybe we can meet up. Only our second SB cruise. He spent his first 8 years in the Phillipines.
Seabourn Hong Kong -> Singapore via Manila
in Seabourn Cruise Line
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My husband and I will be on this cruise. Maybe we can meet up. Only our second SB cruise. He spent his first 8 years in the Phillipines.