CAcruzfunatic

What a fantastic over of your trip and the Joy! You covered it all! Thank you!

Welcome to the Boards! We are newer to NCL but really have really enjoyed our NCL Cruises. We have sailed on the Bliss and Joy and have upcoming trips this year on the Joy in March and then the Viva in September. We are returning to the Joy primarily to due to the staff and also the addition of the thermal suite being currently added in the Rotterdam dry dock. The Bliss, which is a very similar ship, has an amazing thermal suite and on our Bliss Panama Canal sailing we had a spa stateroom and used the facilities every day. We're looking forward to seeing what this new space on the Joy is like. You can no longer get a spa stateroom with access included but we're planning to purchase the duration of the cruise pass. I mentioned the staff, our first sailing on the Joy was a back to back Canada New England and then Bermuda out of New York for 14 days total. Our experience with the staff on that sailing was fantastic! That experience ranged from the bar staff in several bars, the bar management staff, the hotel manager and his staff, the ships wine educator, and a couple of exception dinning staff. Several of those folks we have continued to stay in touch with and are returning because of them and looking forward to seeing them again. We enjoyed the various alternative dining venues and tried them all. Our favorites were Le Bistro, Cagneys and La Cucina. The broadway style production shows on NCL are exceptional and some of the best shows we have experienced at sea. Hope you get lots of good information here and hear about many folks experiences. Planning and dreaming is an awesome part of the journey! Happy travels!

We just returned from a 14 day back to back cruise from Singapore on the Spectrum of the Seas. We had stops in Ho Chi Minh, Bangkok, Port Klang, Penang and Phuket. We did an overnight in Bangkok and totally enjoyed it. It is two hours into Bangkok from the port and at least 2 hour in Ho Chi Minh. One of our days in Ho Chi Minh we went to the Mekong and it was more like three and a half hours drive. But the drive times were worth it. We used ToursByLocal guides in Ho Chi Minh, Bangkok and Penang. They were all fantastic! Our Bangkok guides were Tommy W and Ling. Both were GREAT! For our overnight in Bangkok we stayed at the Salil Riverside Hotel along the Chao Phraya river and it was very nice for about $120 a night. If we stayed long we would pay a bit more for a pool or river view room. What the city view rooms look out at is not great. This areas was close to the grand palace and other temple sites which was great. We had only been to Asia one other time and that was to Bali. We totally enjoyed our time in each port and found travel in Southeast Asia much easier than we had anticipated. The guides were careful to find us important sites and important (clean western) facilities. 😉 Have an amazing trip.

We just returned from a 14 day cruise departing and returning to Singapore. We stayed at The Clan Hotel and loved it! The hotel is adjacent to an MRT station and right on the edge of Chinatown. It was three blocks to a hawker center. Great area! We found the hotel a great choice for everything we wanted to do in Singapore. Their rooms felt very high end, the breakfast was fantastic, many nice touches they provide at The Clan. We also went to the Gardens by the Bay. The prior response is correct that there is a good bit of walking to just get to the entrance of the Gardens. The Gardens and the Cloud Forest are right next to each other but also inside each is a great bit of walking. Both were beautiful and worth to walk! Enjoy your trip!

We had no issue exchanging USD for Thai Bat in Phuket when we got off the ship. There was an exchange right along the beach where we were dropped by the tender. Not sure it was the best rate but we weren't exchanging a bunch of money. Just always like have some local currency if you want to buy a drink or something else.

We just returned from a back to back sailing on the Spectrum of the Seas and our last port was Phuket. We did a 9 night sailing to Vietnam and Bangkok and then a 5 night with the last port of Phuket. We did the Phang Nga Bay by wooden motorboat excursion and enjoyed the day! We had planned a portion of the day in Bangkok in a longtail boat so decided to do the other boat here. I have attached a photo of the boat we traveled in, which was comfortable, not super windy, and protected from the sun. I have also attached a photo of a longtail boat we saw. Not sure if this the one the cruise line uses. There were all different sizes of longtail boats we saw during the tour. It was a long drive but were all happy with the day. Have a fantastic trip!

We just returned from a cruise on Spectrum of the Seas out of Singapore. We did a back to back and the first 9 night cruise included a overnight stop in Bangkok. We were in Bangkok the beginning of March 2023. We used ToursByLocals for five of our ports including Bangkok. Our guide in Bangkok was Tommy W. (Wisawasompop). He was fantastic! He had a driver pick us up at the port and drive us to Bangkok where he met us. It took about two hours for the drive. We also spent the night in Bangkok. We stayed at the Salil Riverside Hotel, fantastic hotel in the area of many of sights we wanted to see, right on the Chao Phraya River. I think we paid $120 for the night. Hotel opened in late 2022 so everything was beautiful and new. We couldn't have been happier with that choice. Tommy planned out every aspect of our day. He was open to any changes we wanted to make but we just trusted him with the itinerary for the day and it was great. Tommy then delivered us to the hotel for a rest and refresh. He then had another guide, Ling, pick us up and take us to dinner, (He had to take his visiting mother to the airport) then a sky bar along the river, tuk tuk ride. Ling was also amazing. She is also listed on ToursByLocals. Tommy and the driver picked us up in the morning and returned us to the ship in plenty of time for the ships departure. We would definitely use Tommy and Ling again without hesitation. We saw so many things, ate local food, had lunch at a Michelin Star Thai restaurant ($40 for the two of us). Tommy's communication was fantastic during booking and subsequent follow ups. He used What'sApp in country so we could communicate as long as we had some form of WIFI. We used our cell phone service in each port without problem. All of our TourByLocals guides on the trip were fantastic. We did have one port canceled due to weather and had no issue canceling the tour and received a refund. Have a fantastic trip!