OntarioCruiser38

Thank you Debbie.

Can you tell us about your experience travelling Around Hong Kong?

Ease of travel from port?

Thanks again.

Debbie,

Did you leave out of Singapore at 5 or at 6 pm?

Did you have to pay any extra fees to use ports?

Thank you!

J

1. We left Ho Chi Ming/Saigon at 7:00pm, originally scheduled to leave at 8:00.

 

2. Muster Drill: 5:15

 

3. No meet & mingle. Not enough signed up. Our roll call was not very active.

 

4. Answered above

 

We may have an itinerary change after we leave Hong Kong, as there is a typhoon currently passing over the Philippines, and heading our way . . . Captain has told us he will do another report Saturday morning when we arrive in Hong Kong.

 

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Thank you so much

Debbie,

Thank you for making these live posts.

1. Do you recall if there were any changes to your itinerary in leaving Singapore or Saigon?

2. As well, do you recall when the muster drill was?

3. Did you have a meet and mingle meeting? If so when was this scheduled?

4. Finally, I know you are on a sea day on your way to Halong Bay however I am very curious about your tendering in Halong Bay. When it commences, what the procedure was and how much you were charged for port fees? Could you please post this information after you Halong Bay experience?

Thank you

Jon

Ours is coming up in December. We are still planning the last few excursions and our pre and post cruise. The cruises in signature are all upcoming.

Capt Ron,

I would like to thank you for having set up this thread. Your information has been bang on. We have customized our vacation with some of the excursions you did and in other cases have gone our own way which was exactly what information we needed.

Word of mouth information helps provide confidence that we are making good decisions. Without your help I would not have questioned some of the advice I have seen on other threads. Namely researching the Visa issue needs to be done by each individual as the cost depends on your nationality and seems to be constantly changing.

Some prices are increasing. Indochina has indicated their prices have gone up across the board as of January 1st 2017. If doing the Ha Long Bay cruise there are two things one needs to remember:

1. You may have an additional port usage fee however you would have this fee no matter what you were doing for the day. The point being that one should add this to their budget.

2. The cost of the visa is important due to the fact that you need a visa that will permit you to stay overnight if you are taking the overnight Ha Long Bay tour. This price changes dramatically whether or not you are American. At this moment it seems that for non-Americans that the best game in town price wise it Celebrity. I contacted them on the weekend and they will help with obtaining a Visa that will permit an overnight stay. We are told you do not have to be going on a Celebrity overnight excursion to get this visa. (This was verified twice). I am Canadian and this is what is working best for us at the moment.

The main thing with all information it is important to do your own personal verification.

The other huge variable is the cost of airline flights. I was lucky as I met an Australian travel agent a number of years ago who has guided me on flights internal to South East Asia. She was able to give me advice on one flight, Hong Kong to Siem Reap to keep looking as the prices I found were in her opinion overpriced. In the end she was correct. I dug a little more and found a cheaper flight.

Finally for flights from Canada to the cruise, I looked for two months, I found the itinerary I wanted in terms of the airline and connections however for the flights I wanted were not opening up the economy seating. I was patient and in the end used another website that provides a booking service at a nominal fee. In the end I save hundreds and go exactly the flights I wanted at the economy rates that on other sites were not showing as open. Know your prices and be persistent. All this being said I know at some point the prices might drop or go up however I had to have my flights from Canada to Singapore and Hong Kong to Canada in place so that I could plan around the rest of the vacation.

Capt Ron, I again want to thank you for your time. You have saved me a load of time. You have been a gentleman by providing your time and advice. I will pay this forward and am paying this forward by helping others out where I can. I will post how things work out when I return in January 2018 (we leave November 30, 2017 and return January 1st 2018)

Regards,

Jon

Hi Capt Ron,

Was able to find out through Embassy and through Celebrity the visa issues.. seems different by nationality. Different prices for all however it still seems to be cheaper for most by doing it through Celebrity.

Regards

J

Capt. Ron,

How much did you pay for multiple entry visa for Vietnam. There is a debate going on that it is $155USD. Do you remember what you paid.

Regards

Jon

Hi Capt Ron,

I thought I would add this as you have been so helpful to us. I prepared a comparison of currency today with a little idea of Purchasing Parity based on Beer, Coffee and the Economist Big Mac comparisons. It is hard to keep all the currencies straight. Hope this helps others out.

Regards,

Jon

CANADA

- $1 CDN = .748 USD

- $1 USD = 1.34 CDN

- $1 GBP = 1.23 USD

- $1 GBP = 1.64 CDN

- 10 CDN = $7.48 USD

- 10 USD = $13.38 CDN. (My friend from Philly says Canada is on Sale so come up and spend your money

-

What will it Buy

- Pint Beer. $5.37 CDN

- Big Mac. $4.51 USD

- Coffee. 3.03 USD Latte

- Transit $10.25 CDN. $7.65 USD

SAN FRANCISCO

- $1 CDN = .748 USD

- $1 USD = 1.34 CDN

- $1 GBP = 1.23 USD

- $1 GBP = 1.64 CDN

- 10 CDN = $7.48 USD

- 10 USD = $13.38 CDN. (My friend from Philly says Canada is on Sale so come up and spend your money

What will it Buy

- Pint Beer - $7.56 CDN

- Big Mac - $5.06 USD

- Coffee. 1.95 grande - $5.08 Latte USD

- Transit - BART ONE WAY $8.95 USD SFO to Downtown

SINGAPORE

- $1 CDN - 1.05 SGD

- $1 USD - 1.41 SGD

- $1 USD - 1.71 SGD

- $10 SGD will cost $9.48 CDN

- $10 SGD will cost $7.09 USD

- $10 SGD will cost $5.77 GBP

What will it Buy

- Pint Beer - 8.09 CDN

- Big Mac - $3.89 USD

- Coffee - Latte 4.91 USD

- Transit EZ Link $10 one day +$10 for card = $14.10 but you get $7.10 for card back. USD

BANGKOK

- $1 CDN - $26.2 Baht

- $1 USD - $35 Baht

- $1 GBP - $43 Baht

- $10 Baht will cost $0.38 CDN

- $10 Baht will cost $0.29 USD

- $10 Baht will cost $0.23 GBP

What will it Buy

- Pint Beer - $2.94 CDN

- Big Mac - $3.35 USD

- Coffee $2.89 Latte USD

- Transit - MRT 18 stations - 120 Baht = $3.43 USD

VIETNAM

- $1 CDN - $17,078 Dong

- $1 USD - $22,842 Dong

- $1 GBP - $28080 Dong

- $10,000 Dong will cost $0.59 CDN

- $10,000 Dong will cost $0.44 USD

- $10,000 Dong will cost $0.36 GBP

What it will buy

- Beer - Depends on city $0.61 -0.77 CDN

- Big Mac = $2.66 USD

- Coffee - n/a

- Transit - n/a

HONG KONG

- $1 CDN = 5.80 HGK Dollars

- $1 USD = 7.76 HGK Dollars

- $ 1 GBP = 9.54 HGK Dollars

- $10 HGK dollars will cost $1.72 CDN

- $10 HGK dollars will cost $1.29 USD

- $10 HGK dollars will cost $1.05

What will it Buy

- Beer - Depends on region $5.89 CDN

- Big Mac = $2.48 USD

- Coffee Grande $4.38 Latte $5.14 USD

- Transit - MRT $65 HGK $8.50

BALI

- $1 CDN - $ 9,960 IDR. - Indonesian Rupiah

- $1 USD - $13.323 IDR

- $1 GBP - $16,375

- $10,000 IDR will cost $1.00 CDN

- $10,000 IDR will cost $.75 USD

- $10,000 IDR will cost $.61

What will it Buy

- Pint Beer - $1.19 CDN

- Big Mac = $2.33 USD

- Coffee 2.25 Grande - Latte $3.00 USD

- Transit - Car and Driver for day $40 USD

CAMBODIA

- $1 CDN - $ 3033 KHR. - Indonesian Rupiah

- $1 USD - $ 4057KHR

- $1 GBP - $4986 KHR

- $10,000 KHR will cost $3.30 CDN

- $10,000 KHR will cost $2.46 USD

- $10,000 KHR will cost $2.01 BPS

What will it Buy

- Beer - $0.58 CDN

- Big Mac = $2.33 USD

- Coffee n/a

- Transit - Car and driver for day $25 - $35 USD

CHINESE YEN

- $1 CDN - 5.16 CNY

- $1 USD - 6.9 CNY

- $1 GBP - 8.48 CNY

- $10 CNY will cost $1.94 CDN

- $10 CNY will cost $1.45 USD

- $10 CNY will cost $1.18. GBP

*Pint price from Pintprice.com

**Big Mac from Economist

*** coffee.. various.. not consistent.

**** transit.. looked up...

Greetings Avcruz,

Thank you for the information regarding visas and pictures. This has been very helpful. We will hold off and do it on the ship for Vietnamese visa...

Was Bali worth the trip? Any ideas or insights you might have would be greatly appreciated. I was thinking of getting a car and driver for at least a day to see some of the island. Sanur Beach seems central. Would you have chosen another area to stay?

Thank you

Jonathan

Captn Ron,Could you tell me where Celebrity dropped you off in Saigon?

Did you expect to be dropped off at another location?

I see that they pick you up either at Rex Hotel or Notre Dame. Do they pick you up at a different location than they drop off in the morning?

Thank you

Jonathan

We are on the December 10th, 2017 Celebrity Millennium Cruise that is similar to this itinerary discussed only in the reverse direction.

We have decided to extend our vacation.

We will stay more than a week after the cruise and are thinking about Siem Reap for 4 days and then Hong Kong. I would like to be in Hong Kong for the calendar New Year eve fireworks.

I am learning about visas. As a Canadian it is easier and cheaper to get the Cambodia visa at the Siem Reap airport as the only other way is to send our passports and application to Washington.

I am now trying to figure out if we will need a visa for Shenzhen as we want to go shopping from Hong Kong. There is a mixture of information on-line saying you do or do not have to pay for a visa to visit Shenzhen. One site indicates that you can get a 5 day Shenzhen only visa for free or for a small administration fee. We have decided that we will get the visa at the boarder. It also seems that this information may differ depending on your nationality.

We went today to get visa pictures for Viet Nam, for Cambodia and for China so we are covered for the photo at least.

As well we are thinking about a week prior to our cruise in Bali.

We are now looking at flights from North America to region and flights within the region. I am hoping that United will open up a few more of their fares to economy class so that I can book a flight that will not take 36 hours to come home.

If anyone has some information about visas, about hotels in Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong or even if you have been to Bali, I would be greatly interested to hear your experiences.

Thank you

Jonathan

We did this itinerary in December 2016 and used Oriental Escape www.orientalescape.com for our overnight tour. We were very happy with the service.

 

As far as a visa, that will depend upon your passport. As a Canadian, Celebrity issued the visas for us and charged our onboard account USD $6. You will probably do best to consult your govt travel website.

 

 

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Hi Avecruz,

I was surprised and delighted to hear that the visa for Vietnam was only $6 USD. Did you have to take visa pictures with you?

Thank you for posting your experience. This is helpful.

Jonathan

Last month we arrived in Bai Chay Tourist Wharf by tender for our pre booked Indochina Junk Cruuse there were 10 of us on the trip. We were informed to walk up to the Wyndham Hotel where a our mini bus would be waiting to avoid paying this tax (he did not have a sign or board on display), we all boarded the vehicle and then waited and waited, after 20 mins our driver kept coming and going from the vehicle and then returned with our tour operator on his phone wishing to speak to me along with a 'port agent' . They would not allow us to leave until we had paid 15USDpp. At this time we hadn't picked up our English Speaking tour guide and the driver did not speak much English so we paid up. It delayed our tour itinerary for the day. Further along the road the same thing was happening to other small group tours. I would use Indochina Junk again though, the day cruise was very good despite this.

 

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Santrah,

Thank you... this is good to know what we are going to be dealing with. We have arranged to have the operator outside the gate however I suspect we are going to have the same issue. I will request that Indochina have the English interpreter available. However, i don't think this is going to help as they know we will be trying to get to our excursions.

My question is why is the cruise line not dealing with this? At the very least they should be informing us of this issue.

Do you know if they charged individuals that were walking through the port terminal? Would it help if we do not walk together as a group of 10 couples?

Thank you again for this information.

J.

No, any bribe was paid by the tour operator, which we ended up paying but not directly in the other cities we visited in Vietman. When we landed on the tender there was a time that the operator had to work things out in Ha Long Bay, which didn't cost us any more, I feel bad as this import tax/bribe seems to be applied not on a regular basis. Welcome to Communism in Vietnam.

Capt. Ron

Capt. Ron

Had the tour operator met you inside the port or outside the gate.

We were hoping to avoid bribe by walking out of the gate and picking up tour shuttle on other side. Do you think this might be an option from the set up of the port?

J

Cptn Ron,

Happy New Year!

Did you have to pay a port fee when getting off tender at Hanoi port?

Tour operator warned me that they my charge a fee.

J

Tender ports are: Ha Long Bay, that's it, all the other ports, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Hanoi, Saigon, Singapore are docking ports. Although the cities are quite a ways from the ports except for Hong Kong and Singapore, where you dock right in the ports.

Hope that helps,

Happy Planning,

Capt. Ron

Thank you.

Capt Ron,

Not sure if it is in all the posts.

What ports are tender ports?

As well when you took excursion into HCMC, when did you leave and where did they drop you?

Thank you for all your help.

J

Happy Planning,

Capt. Ron

Sage advice. Thank you once again :D

This has been a very helpful thread.

Thank you for paying it forward.

J

Cpt Ron,

I have contacted Vu and Barbara and hope to arrange either a day or half day for Saigon. I get the impression you did a full day in Danang. I appreciate the open forum and will not need to email but thank you anyway. I was just having trouble in the last day getting their email address but got it this morning. I didn't think it proper to have you provide over the forum.

I appreciate you paying it forward. This has been invaluable.

I read your posts on Trip Advisor and again they provided excellent detail.

I am now planning Bangkok and am thinking of doing it on our own with a transfer in with the ship or if I can find reliable private transfer. We will stay overnight.

FInally I will then concentrate on Singapore and Hong Kong - with a week at either end somewhere else, perhaps Bali and Phuket.

Again thank you.

J

Cpt. Ron,

Was finally able to get the address for street food in Ho Chi Minh.

Would you have done anything different for this tour in terms of transfer in or any other. Did you do a full day or just the morning?

Thank you again.

J

Hi Capt Ron,

First thank you so very much for providing this resource. This is fantastic of you.

Could you tell me more about your food tour in Saigon?

I am having great difficulty accessing their site and email. By any chance could you send me the email address. My address is at bottom of post #57.

Is there anything you would do differently for this tour? Do they take you to a local market?

J

Capt. Ron.

Were you on the Dragon Pearl?

On the junk would you have been able to take 10 couples comfortably?

J

I will read what you have provided and then come back with my questions.

Have contacted company ... thank you so much!

Did not see your specific post for trip advisor.. can you tell me what day you posted it.

Thank you again!

Captain Ron,

We are going on this cruise next year in December. Could you provide information related to your food tours. I like the idea of learning about a culture through their food. If you have any information or recommendations of tour operators and prices it would be very helpful. You could always send this information to my email address if that makes you more comfortable.

Could you as well talk about the overnight on the junk. What made it so memorable? Was the food good. I will look into the operator it sounds like a special time and perhaps I will try to set up a group through CC.

Thank you in advance.

Traverse64 at hotmail dot com

Jonathan