terry&mike

We sail the Jewel on March 21, 2023, Panama City to San Diego, and picked it for both the ports along the way, and for the embark/debark ports. I like the idea of starting in Panama City so we could take a few days there pre-cruise, as there is a lovely old town, and the Panama Canal museum at the Miraflores Visitors Center is very interesting. I was there a few years ago and had wished I had more time. I also like the ports along the way as there are some more unusual choices, some ports we already love, and then a few of the usual on that route. I'd pick it based on the itinerary that appeals the most to you.

I have traveled with Scenic and with AMA, as well as several other river cruise lines (Viking, etc). Scenic and AMA are at a level above the other lines, and will deliver a excellent experience, so you can't go wrong with either. No doubt the discouraging remarks you have read about Scenic are with their administrative side (before you leave, documents, etc), as that has been a weak link for them; although it appears that this area has improved. I give the edge to AMA in the pre-trip communication. In the actual trip itself, I give the edge to Scenic over AMA, as they deliver a slightly superior product, a bit more high end. I will be sailing the Mekong with Scenic and will be joining them in Siem Reap for 3 nights on December 31, then boarding the ship to sail south from Siem Reap to Ho Chi Minh City. I am doing Hanoi and HaLong Bay, as well as several days in HoiAn, before I join Scenic in Siem Reap, and HCM City afterwards, all independently. This is part of a longer Asia trip that begins this Friday when we depart for Thailand.

I'm not sure if your itinerary works for you to visit HaLong Bay before or after your cruise, but that may be an option. We are traveling independently in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia (leaving in a couple of days) and I booked a 2 night sailing on Lan Ha Bay (the less crowded bay attached to HaLong Bay) over Christmas. I booked it through a local tour operator halongbaytours.com which is a travel agency in Hanoi known as Blue Dragon bluedragontours.com I will try to paste my itinerary below - DAY 1: HANOI - LAN HA BAY 09h00 You will be collected from Hanoi Old Quarter to take the new highway to Got Ferry Terminal – Cat Hai Town, Haiphong City where we arrive at around 11h30. The passengers have a chance to experience on longest and newest bridge in South East Asia area. You can take special tea at Orchid Cruise’s lounge by warm welcome. 12h15 Transfer by tender to the ORCHID CRUISE. 12h30 We welcome our guests onboard the ORCHID CRUISE and then check in, enjoy Welcome Drink, receive cruise briefing, safety instructions and check in. Start cruising and explore Lan Ha Bay. 13h00 ORCHID CRUISE proceeds to Da Chong islet, where you can see a lighthouse built by the French over 100 years ago. Have International Buffet Lunch while passing via the islets of Con Vit area. These amazing limestone karst formations rise up out of the sea in an impressive manner. This area is untouched, as not many cruise ships use the route via the Cat Ba Island - Thoi Quyt area - Coc Ngoi islet - through Gia Luan area where is belong to Cat Ba National Park 14h15 We progress to Trung Trang cave by our bus on Cat Ba island which is located in the middle of Cat Ba National Park with Kim Giao forest around the cave. Trung Trang Valley is the largest valley on Cat Ba Island. The valley covers an area of approximately 300 hectares, has a depth of 10m to 30m and is around 15km in the middle of Cat Ba National Park. Trung Trang Cave measures 300m lengthwise through the mountains. The cave was carved by nature for more than 2000 years. The cave has many stalactites that take on various shapes that will awe and inspire visitors to use their imagination. 17h00 Orchid Cruise gets in the less populated area at Tra Bau where is located in Lan Ha Bay. You will enjoy the green emerald and cool water by swimming or kayaking. 17h45 Returning ORCHID CRUISE, you can watch the magnificent sunset over the Gulf of Tonkin. Onboard you may join a traditional cooking class. Our chef will instruct you in the making of some Vietnam dishes. In the early evening the boat has its Happy Hour deal Option: Massage service available. Please book with Cruise Manager directly (please see massage menu) 19h30 Sumptuous Candlelight Deluxe Dinner Set Menu is served. Enjoy delicious local food prepared and served for you by our wonderful onboard catering staff. This is a delightful meal in an intimate romantic setting 21h30 Enjoy the landscape of the bay at night up on the top deck. Relax whilst enjoying drinks from the bar. Try your hand at night squid fishing, watching a movie in the restaurant. Overnight on board. Option: Massage service available. Please book with Cruise Manager directly (please see massage menu) 23h00 End of Day One program DAY 2: LAN HA BAY 6h15 The day starts early onboard ORCHID CRUISE with Tai Chi session on the sundeck. The breakfast is served in the dining room with morning view of bay’s landscape, then continue our journey. 8h30 Transfer to Orchid Day Boat to visit Viet Hai village. You will take the bicycle trip along the village path and go through rain forests and dark tunnel. Enjoy stunning scenery of rice fields on the way. Stop at the village to relax. Visit an ancient local house, made from straw, mud, bamboo…you will have chance to see the local life on a valley of local people. Optional electric car service is available (at an extra cost). Back to day boat for visiting Lan Ha Bay. Lunch served on day boat. 13h30 Visiting Lan Ha Bay, taking a free breeze at area with the path less visited. You will use your imagination to name any beautiful islands in Lan Ha Bay or get the interesting introduction of our professional tour guide on Orchid Day Boat 15h00 Return to ORCHID CRUISE. Enjoying swimming at the untouched area. Then, you will join a traditional cooking class. Our chef will instruct you in the making of some Vietnam dishes. Watch the magnificent sunset over the Gulf of Tonkin. In the early evening the boat has its Happy Hour deal 19h30 Deluxe Dinner is served. Enjoy delicious local food prepared and served for you by our wonderful onboard catering staff. This is a delightful meal in an intimate romantic setting 21h30 Enjoy the landscape of the bay at night up on the top deck. Relax whilst enjoying drinks from the bar. Try your hand at night squid fishing, watching a movie in the restaurant. Overnight on board. Option: Massage service available. Please book with Cruise Manager directly (please see massage menu) 23h00 End of Day Two program DAY 3: LAN HA BAY – HANOI 06h15 Why not rise early to witness the bay at its very best whilst enjoying an invigorating Tai Chi session on the sundeck; after which we serve the breakfast. Upon completing breakfast continue our journey and head out to explore the bay in the area where Ao Ech is situated. 7h45 You enjoy on your own to kayak at Ao Ech area to discover the hidden charm of Lan Ha Bay 9h30 Orchid Cruise welcomes you back on board and it is time for checking out 10h00 Whilst cruising back you can enjoy a delightful brunch 10h30 Tea Ceremony is served at the restaurant. You will learn how to enjoy Vietnamese tea and Vietnamese cultural at this ceremony. Joining Tea Ceremony with our crews team and have great fun with us! 11h35 We return to the quay side in the south of the bay, where our visitors disembark. We bid farewell at GOT ferry, this is the end of the program.

It is a legitimate question to ask. Azamara allows you to use OBC in advance of your sailing to book Shore Excursions. Some lines allow it, some lines do not.

We are on the Onward, scheduled to end in "Venice" on September 10, 2023, along with some friends. I have not heard anything yet as to where we will actually be porting. I have a few logistics to work out, as we'll be traveling on to the Puglia region afterwards, but will try to remain flexible. If anyone has seen anything on the Onward for September 10, 2023 - either disembarking, or you are embarking then, please post if you know the port location.

Thank you for putting that thread together. I'm excited to see we get to experience different evenings (Black & White, Masquerade) on our next sailing than we enjoyed on our last sailing (Red & Gold, Roaring 20's)! Fun!

In post #3 of this thread (just before your last post) you can click through and read details in another thread; on my September 6 post on that thread it gives a step by step as to what I did. I have about 8 days between exiting Vietnam and entering again. I have seen posts over on another popular travel chat site for land based trips of people being successful in this scheme, so we are feeling like it will work.

I found the thread I was referencing

We recently went down this road for a trip we depart on next week. We'll spend some time in northern Vietnam, and then go to Cambodia, and join a river cruise that will later sail into Vietnam, which required a multi-entry Visa for Vietnam. Post-Covid, these are very difficult to acquire, but can be acquired for a very high cost. There are some threads over on the River Cruise boards. After researching, our solution was to apply to 2 different Single Entry e-Visas.

Personally, I would not risk this. In January 2020, I was with a group of 29 friends sailing the Diamond Princess from Singapore to Tokyo for 14 nights (the sailing before the sailing that got stuck in quarantine). We had all booked on a special with a drinks package included, with the exception of just a few of us. My friend J had been occasionally getting drinks for friend M who did not have the package. On night 3 several of us were in the disco, dancing and hanging out together. J had just returned to the area we were all sitting in and slid a drink over to M. Shortly after that, a supervisor came over and asked J and M if they could step away from the group. He took them to the side of the club and we could see them all talking. Looked like lots of apologies from J and M. They then all 3 walked over to the bar area and M completed a transaction. Then J and M came back to the group to say that they had gotten in trouble for violating the drink package rules, and M was made to pay for 6 drinks (2 drinks a day for the past 3 days) and both were given a warning. They felt embarrassed, and felt fortunate that the penalty wasn't higher. They did not violate the package again. The next afternoon, my friend V, who did not have the package (and was not at the club the night before with us) asked if I would get her a glass of bubbly from the bar. I declined and relayed the story from the night before. V then just purchased herself a glass of bubbly, and we had an enjoyable time.

When your TA made your booking with Cunard, they would have received a confirmation email with the attached documents of "Deposit Confirmation - Guest Copy" and "Deposit Confirmation - Agent Copy". Please ask them to forward to you the Guest Copy Confirmation that they received from Cunard. If the cruise is paid in full, they would also receive Guest and Agent copies of invoices showing you are fully paid.

This. Agree. And to the poster's earlier question of has anyone ever seen a breakdown of the FAS charges, you should have a very clear breakdown on your confirmation invoice that you receive from NCL via your travel agent.

DH and I sailed an Iceland and Greenland itinerary on Princess in August of this year, and we sailed a Norway Intensive itinerary on Hurtigruten before Covid. Of the two, we preferred Norway, as it had more charm. We rarely do excursions, preferring to get off the ship and take a long walk into/around town when it's a port that lends to this (Reykavik, Icelend), or take a scenic/nature hike (Qaquortoq, Greenland). In Akureyri, Iceland we did a private tour with GoHusky where we went hiking with Husky dogs that was a lot of fun. We also missed one port in Greenland due to the weather. In Norway, we did similar things of strolling through the charming little towns with a bit of shopping and stop for a snack, and nature hiking, depending on the port.

DH and I, along with a group of our friends, were on the Diamond Princess in January 2020. We sailed an amazing 2 week itinerary that started in Singapore and visited 3 ports in Vietnam, 2 days in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and several stops in Japan. It was such a fabulous trip. We also spent some time in Bali pre-cruise, as it's a short flight from Singapore. We debarked in Tokyo on January 20, 2020. The sailing after ours was due to sail the reverse itinerary from Tokyo to Singapore, but we all know how that played out, with the ship sitting in the Yokohama Harbor for several weeks in quarantine. We were all thankful we chose the earlier sailing, for sure. DH and I are excited to return to Asia in a couple of weeks for a 5 week trip. We'll go by land first to Thailand, a return visit to Vietnam to spend more time there (Vietnam was everyone's favorite from the cruise), and then sail a river cruise down the Mekong through Cambodia and more Vietnam. Our return flights from Ho Chi Minh City connect through Haneda in Tokyo, and when I first booked the plane tickets back in March 2022 there was a rule in place that we could not layover more than 12 hours in Tokyo and that we had to stay airside. This rule was lifted a couple months later, and now there are no restrictions on our connection through Tokyo. Wishing you all fabulous travels in Asia - enjoy!

I have an upcoming 2 night cruise in December that I organized myself, for my husband and I. It is on Orchid Cruises, and I booked it through halongbaytours.com which is Blue Dragon Travel based in Vietnam. I did not put together a group, but booked onto a sailing that will have other guests onboard. We are actually choosing to sail on Lan Ha Bay, which is next to HaLong Bay, just as scenic but less crowded with tour boats.

Someone pointed out that what I was given was a 10% Quarterly Azamara Circle member discount, not a Discoverer Platinum discount. I did not realize these were different things.

Ahhh, that's what it was, a 10% Quarterly Savings Discount for Azamara Circle members. I didn't realize the 2 were different.

On a booking made on Tuesday (while not onboard a ship), a 10% loyalty discount was applied to the booking.

I believe that Azamara has plans to upgrade it's internet systems onboard - Azamara Alert Due to technology upgrades, we expect Wi-Fi connectivity to be affected on a portion of three Azamara voyages: Azamara Pursuit- 11/19/22 Azamara Journey – 1/15/23 Azamara Quest – 2/19/23 Only these voyages will be affected. Wi-Fi will be available in The Den. For the inconvenience, every stateroom will receive a $300 Onboard Credit.

For travel agents, it is a bit easier as payments can be posted online rather than called in. Currently, it involves logging in through the CruisingPower site (Royal, Celebrity, Silversea, Azamara), then accessing the reservation and posting payment; Azamara is working on it's own site and will be moving away in the near future. There was some sort of glitch on the website on Thursday for most of the day in to late at night that gave an error message when trying to post a credit card payment, but it was resolved by early Friday morning. Other functions available for TA's through the site are making bookings, adding CruiseCare, checking air prices/routings, and so on. Whether you book direct or use a TA, that is a personal choice and everyone has their own preference, but it is certainly easier to send a quick email to your TA saying "please go ahead and post my final balance to the card you have on file", and then receive back a Booking Confirmation email showing you are paid in full, than to be on hold for several hours.

Thank you. We do use one credit card for the both of us. That would be great if it works out this way.

A further question in regards to purchasing the Experience More package when we board. We have a $1000 OBC from Azamara, it is applied on the booking as $500 OBC for myself, and $500 OBC for my husband. If the Experience More package costs $699, will they be able to take $500 OBC from one of us, and the other $199 OBC from the other of us? Or will one of us use our $500 OBC towards the package, and then need to pay the additional $199 fee with a credit card, leaving the second one of us with $500 OBC still intact?

Thank you!

In regards to the "Experience More on Short Voyages" plan, the cost is $699 usd, and it lists several items, the last being "Chef's Table or 3 Table Tour". As this does not specify that it is for 2 guests, am I correct that it is just for 1 person? For example, is it that we will receive 1 Chef's Table dinner credit, and then we would be buying the second Chef's Table dinner for $95? Thank you for the information in this post. As I have a $1000 OBC from Azamara it was helpful to learn that I need to wait until I board to be able to purchase the Experience More package, and then use it's benefits.

Agree. We did not take them up on the option to have backpacks mailed when they become available, as we have had them before and gave them away. While the Scenic ones are very nice backpacks, my husband prefers to travel with one he specifically chose for trips.