Philip217

This year there is a new helo service between Hanoi and Halong Bay. Smaller helicopters.

There is no minimum number of pax required.

They fly 7 days a week.

R/T Hanoi-Halong is around US$300 per person.

Caroldoll,

Sorry, I don't have the contact info with me.

But if you go through any large TA in Hanoi, they can set it up for you.

Any of the Halong Bay Junk operators can also do it.

I live and work in the Halong Bay area.

There is nothing of interest in Halong Bay that you won't already see from your ship.

It's a long, dusty, bumpy trip from there to Hanoi, but Hanoi is a very exciting place.

Great restaurants, great hotels, great shopping, great sightseeing.

There is a helicopter transfer service between Hanoi and Halong Bay.

You shouild look into it.

freddie got it right.

I work for a competitor of the line he recommends.

I wish I worked on the Violet.

Emeraude would be your next best bet.

.....and the biggie for me and many others, a luxury line like Regent makes sailing solo more affordable -- I have not seen one reduced single supplement on HAL - on luxury lines you can get single supps for max 75% all the way down to a mere 10% -- big savings for a solo traveler that would be paying 200% for a suite on HAL!

heidik,

Great statement.

I almost believed you - until I saw your future cruises listed.

Jan 2011 - Princess

March 2011 - HAL

May 2011 - Celebrity

It appears that the "biggie" for you with Regent is not quite big enough to convince you to actually sail on their ships anytime soon.

To paraphrase Groucho Marx:

"It's too bad that the people who really know how to run a cruise line are so busy driving taxicabs, cutting hair, - and posting on Cruisecritic."

Lowest common denominator? Maybe.

But then how do you account for the wild success of Apple?

It's computers and I-things, are the top priced in general, yet they seem to be the most successful.

You're joking, right?

Apple is the Chevrolet of the computer world.

Low price, mass produced, one size fits all.

They try to give away the IPhone in Asia, but nobody will take them - even for free.

Nobody has ever lost any money under-estimating the taste of the American Public.

The most wildly successful company in American History is Wal-Mart.

They make all their money by going for the lowest common denominator.

The most wildly successful Cruise Line in history is Carnival.

Once again, lowest common denominator.

What happened to those great elegant cruise lines like Royal Viking, Sea Goddess, and Royal Cruise Line?

Their owners claimed that they would NEVER lower their standards - even if it killed them.

Rest in Peace................

Why is it that really great cruise lines like Seabourn, Sea Dream, Silver Sea, and Crystal have NEVER made a penny of profit in their entire histories?

Because the cruising public is more interested in Quantity over Quality.

Everybody claims that they want the quality, but when it comes time to ante up, lowest price always wins.

Thank goodness that the owners of the truly great cruise lines have such large egos and large pocketbooks they can continue to operate at a loss.

To be fair, C Y TUNG was technically Taiwanese, and the Elizabeth burned in Hong Kong

Bravo for you ! I thought that they had closed all the schools in America to save money for petrol. Apparently a few people learned something.

Obviously the Americans don't care about their historical treasures.

Perhaps you can convince the Chinese to buy it.

They have more money than the Americans anyway.

May I ask you to explain this further? To which ships does this apply, and what is the internationally valid legal basis for this?

 

Almost all ships are not US-flagged. Cruise lines' structures are complicated and often include companies registered in various countries. Ships stop in many countries and passengers do come from many parts of the world. Can every country in the world expect their maybe contradictory legislation to be followed by cruise ships?

Excellent questions. But the answers are not as easy. The US Government has taken the liberty of claiming that certain US Laws apply to foreign flag ships that:

1. carry US Citizens

2. have offices in the USA

3. sell passage to people in the USA

4. call at US Ports.

5. sail anywhere on the "high seas"

Is this legal? Who knows. I'm not a lawyer. It sounds a bit dodgey to me.

But if the foreign flag ships do not agree to the US Government's wishes, they (and possibly all the other ships belonging to that cruise line) could be summarily banned from calling at US Ports. The cruise lines dare not take that chance.

Examples:

A German citizen flies to Miami and boards a foreign flag ship that is crossing back to Europe. He walks into the ship's casino a few days later and wins US$10,000. The cruise line is required by the US Government to deduct US Income Tax from his winnings before paying him out - even though he is not a US Citizen or Resident, and he won the money outside the USA, in International Waters.

You are a US Citizen who walks into Diamonds International (at the advice of your onboard shopping hostess) in Aruba and buys something Duty Free. Since the cruise line promotes Diamonds International, we are required to report your purchase to US Customs before the end of the cruise. If we don't, there will be many unexpected "problems" getting the ship cleared in future US Port stops.

P&O Cruise ships are primarily calling at ports outside the USA. But the US Government claims that since some of their ships occasionally stop in US Ports, none of their ships is allowed to carry or sell Cuban cigars even if those ships NEVER enter US Waters. There is a US$1 million fine for P&O (and all other cruise lines) if they are caught.

If a cruise line has 20 ships, and just one ship visits Cuba, all 20 ships in the fleet are banned from entering any US Port.

The CDC ruled that all ships from my cruise line - even if they never visit the USA - must follow CDC guidelines for purchasing, storing, preparing, and serving food. (I don't disagree with this rule by the way). But if they find out that one of our ships sailing in China is not following some of their guidelines, they can ban all of our ships from entering US Ports.

njhorseman,

The design of today's modern cruise ships is very difficult to understand. In order to maximize profits, the lines have dramatically reduced onboard storage ( and increased passenger cabins) to the point where many can no longer store enough food and beverage for even a 7-day cruise. As a result, we are often forced to have two provisionings per cruise. More immediate and less heat-sensitive items are usually loaded in Florida, leaving large quantity/weight items and less heat-sensitive items for loading in places like St Thomas and San Juan.

Despite the longer distance and shipping issues, it is often more cost-effective to go through these essentially tax and duty free "US Zones" than it is to go through Miami or Ft Lauderdale.

Passengers in St Thomas and San Juan rarely even notice that loading is happening there, as most of them are on tour or shopping while it happens. But we know it's happening, because we are out on the pier all day, trying to stop the stevedores from stealing everything.

I think the per diems you posted are high. Maybe that was the case a few years ago but not today.

 

Also...... Seeing as Carnival Family of Ships are all supplied by Carnival Corporation, their buying power is immense.

 

Costa, Carnival, Cunard, Seabourn, HAL, Princess..... They buy lots of eggs, milk, ketchup for amazingly low prices.

 

By the way, the "Punters" notice. Some of us actually pay for those Suites and know what the per diem is that we pay for our cruises. We are well aware caviar has disappeared from the menus.

 

 

I was coinicidentally at a meeting with a large number of my industry colleagues a few weeks ago. One of the subjects that always comes up is costs. The two big ones are food and fuel.

Fuel we cannot really control too well. Food we can - to some degree.

Food costs have been rising steadily over the past 10 years. Not because we are offering higher quality ingredients, but because the actual cost of food stuffs has risen dramatically. Some of this increase is due to fuel costs being passed on by the farmers and wholesalers. Part of the challenge is the requirement by the CDC that nearly all food served on a ship must come from CDC Certified Sellers. All of the sellers certified by the CDC are in North America. This becomes a very big and expensive logistics problem when your ship is in Africa, Europe, or Asia. The rapidly dwindling US Dollar is another negative. Since most passengers pay in US Dollars, the cruise lines have plenty of those. But if they want to purchase anything (beverages for example) outside the USA, they will - in most cases - take a huge hit on exchanging the weak dollars to pay in local currency. The rest of the cost increase is just plain inflation.

The food costs I posted above were generally valid as of this month. But they will be going up soon - unfortunately for all the wrong reasons.

One of the issues raised by several posters was the cost of staff that prepare and serve all that food. For the mass market cruise lines, the total cost of keeping a rank and file employee onboard a ship for one day is around US$14. Since we contract employees to work for 13 hours per day, our total non-management labor cost runs just over $1 per hour, per employee. Probably a smaller number than most would guess.

For the past 3 decades I have been the guy who chooses menus and menu items for specific itineraries on cruise ships. The trick is to remove enough of the pricier items to reduce overall costs, but hopefully without taking away so much that the punters notice.

In your case, I was apparently very successful.

I also compute food cost reports every day of the year.

I'm also standing on the pier supervising provisions loading in places like Miami, Ft Lauderdale, St Thomas, and San Juan (yes, they are in the Caribbean).

The numbers you are looking for are very carefully guarded secrets in the cruise industry. The cruise lines are even reluctant to give them to each other.

The numbers do vary quite a bit as well, depending on ship, itinerary, and time of year.

Here is a general break-down, per passenger, per day:

Seabourn, Silver Sea - $24 - 26 per day

Oceania, Regent - $18 - 20 per day

Celebrity, Princess - $12 - 15 per day

RCCL, HAL - $12 - 13 per day

Carnival - $8 - 10 per day

NCL - $7.50 - 8.50 per day

Bear in mind that itinerary has a lot to do with these numbers:

Flying tons of food from USA to a ship in Europe is very expensive.

European Cruisers have paid substantially more for a cruise and have higher expectations. Their menus are usually pricier.

Caribbean Cruisers generally pay far less for a cruise. Their expectations are generally lower, so menus carry less expensive items. Loading food in the Caribbean is usually far less expensive as well.

Alaska Cruises are generally pricier, people eat more there and spend more time in the restaurants. Shipping and loading are more expensive in Alaska. Menus are generally higher cost on these itineraries.

Transatlantic cruisers eat far more than those on a "regular" cruise. This pushes costs about 50% higher.

Cruises with more sea days have far higher food costs than cruises that are port-intensive. It seems that when cruisers are not going ashore, they are eating, eating, eating.

Most passengers gorge themselves for the first 3 or 4 days of their cruise. When they finally realise that they are eating themselves sick, they back off a bit and eat more normally. As a result, food costs on a 3 or 4 day cruise are far higher than on longer cruises.

Repositioning cruises usually attract the bargain hunters. The mass market cruise lines just wants to break even on fuel costs to get the ship from the old itinerary to the new one. Most of the higher priced items disappear from these menus to cut costs.

By the way, there will be a percentage of readers on this board who will say that these numbers are impossible. Next time you want to complain about food quality on a ship, think about how they are able to sell you such a low priced vacation..................

In this age of terrorism, widespread stupidity, happy hours, smuggled alcohol, moving ships decks, and many cruise staff whose first language is not English, handing loaded shotguns to clueless passengers is probably not the wisest action to take.

The pollution issues also come up:

The lead shot and plastic wadding from the shotgun shells is strictly prohibited from going into the sea. The lead shot can be replaced by other materials, but this is very expensive. There is no commercially available replacement for the plastic wadding.

The "clay pigeons" are strictly prohibited from going into the sea. These can be made from fish food, but are quite expensive.

Rubber golf balls are prohibited from going into the sea.

Golf balls made from fish food are available, but are quite expensive.

You may want to google the safety records of the US Airlines. You will find that most or possibly all of the US Airlines have worst safety records than Singapore Airlines.

What causes increase in blood pressure while on a cruise?

Driving 1200 miles to the cruise terminal because you can't/won't afford the airfare.

Arrving at the pier 3 hours before embarcation starts and getting upset that you have to wait 3 hours to board.

Pushing and shoving to be first onto the ship.

Eating 8 meals per day.

Having 2 main courses and 3 desserts with dinner.

Having 3 dishes of ice cream "because it's free".

Waiting 20 minutes to take an elevator one deck up or one deck down.

Getting upset every time 3,000 other passengers decide to do the same thing you want to do - at the same time.

Getting de-hydrated because you can't afford the bottled water and are afraid to drink the tap water.

Drinking 8 diet cokes every day, hoping to cancel out the obscene amount of fattening food you have consumed.

Going to the pool and finding that you can't get a sun chair directly next to the pool.

Getting a sun chair directly next to the pool and then getting splashed and bothered by all the unruly children and adults in the pool.

Pushing and shoving to be first off the ship.

Driving 1200 miles home, completely losing any benefit you received from a relaxing cruise, because you cannot afford the airfare.

smeyer,

More than I want to know as well. But I deal with it on a daily basis.

Actually the cost of the chlorine and bromine are quite high.

But even higher is another related cost that many do not consider.

We put so much chemistry into the pools that many bathing suits are ruined.

Every week I have to spend substantial time with cruisers who purchased new suits for their cruise and now demand a refund for the damage.

We pay out quite a bit of money onboard for this issue.

Cruise ships would prefer to have salt water pools because salt water is free.

You should probably feel the same way.

Depending on the ship and the itinerary, fresh water can cost as much as $6 per ton to produce onboard.

With ship swimming pools now holding 100 tons of water or more, it can get very expensive to fill a pool regularly.

Next time you use a ship's pool, have a look at how many pax shower before swimming. This is easy to do, as the number is usually around zero.

All the sweat, lotion, cologne, deodorant, perfume, fecal matter - and many other substances atttached to those un-showered people - go into the pool water. E-coli levels grow very quickly in tropical climates. It takes a great deal of chlorine and bromine to kill this nasty bug.

How many people urinate in a swimming pool while they are swimming?

Acording to the pool water tests we run every few hours, the number is very high.

We add large quantities of chemicals to counteract the uric acid levels from the urine.

You should be aware that urine is sterile and does not pose immediate health risks.

Some people - like me - do object to swimming in it however.

As time goes by, more and more people urinate in the pool, and more fecal matter, suntan lotion, and perfume contaminate the water. We add more and more chemicals to balance the chemistry, kill the e-coli, and keep the water from clouding up.

After several days of this we cannot keep up and must dump the pool water. We reluctantly drain $600 worth of polluted water into the ocean and fill it up with another $600 of fresh water.

A ship with sea water pools rarely needs to treat the pool water. They dump it every night and fill it fresh for the morning.

I vote for the salt water pools.

It is not so much the cruise line as the governments you need to worry about. Cruise ship passengers and crew have a different visa status than people who travel via other means.

It is usually the local government that will not allow you to disembark a ship early. But there are ways around that problem. You need to speak to some embassies.

Anybody who plays "sucker games" like Bingo, the Lottery, or penny slot machines is just setting himself up to lose. If they are that dumb, they deserve everything they get - or lose.

You can catch the Narita Express train from Yokohama. Takes about 2 hours.

http://www.jr.com for English information.

There are also limousine buses from most hotels.

Buses take a bit longer.

Ncl35 didn't quite get it right.

Carnival purchased HAL 18 years ago, just before HAL was about to declare bankruptcy.

HAL instituted the new gratuity policy just 3 years ago.

Carnival Corp has almost nothing to do with the operational designs of the lines under it's umbrella.

HAL was forced to change it's tipping policy in order to stop losing all their well-trained crew to the other cruise lines.

HAL's "No Tipping Required" policy was being interpreted by far too many cruisers as "No Tipping Allowed". Their crew were earning far less at HAL than they could at just about any other line. So many of them left and went to work elsewhere. HAL had to do something to stop this bleeding and so joined the other mass market lines with the auto-tip that makes it more difficult for the more "frugal" passengers to avoid tipping the service staff.

Over the past 3 years, with the new tipping policy in place, crew turnover at HAL has returned to it's original low numbers.

Luxury Lines like Seabourn have a "No tipping" policy that really is NO TIPPING.

They pay a rather high salary to their specially trained crew. Those high salaries are possible due to the fact that Seabourn has a very hig per diem that seriously discourages "Frugal" cruisers.

One shouldn't expect to see any tipping policy on Seabourn any time soon. But then, those who bother to complain about tipping policies are never going to be able to afford to sail on Seabourn anyway.

Emergency codes do tend to vary between different cruise lines.

But Code Alpha is nearly universal in identifying medical emergencies on ships.

Why use codes instead of naming the actual event?

1. Codes are easier for trained ship's crew to understand.

2. Codes are quicker to use.

3. Privacy issues for the victims and their families.

4. Most importantly, as soon as some of the "ghouls" onboard get an inkling that there might be a death or medical debark, they immediately run to the reception desk to try to get their hands on a free upgrade. I have had cruises where there were dozens of passengers at the reception desk within minutes of announcing a death onboard. They all wanted that cabin - even before the body was cool.