Review Journey.- Hong Kong to Singapore

We had a wonderful cruise again. we embarked in Hong Kong jan 19th and were a bit anxious about the weather enroute. We had heard that the previous cruise was hit by lots of bad weather coming up from Singapore to Hong Kong.

First we were pleasantly surprised by Hong Kong. A lovely place and we got around a lot during our two days pre-cruise. Weather was at it's best for january and we had temperatures around 20 degrees which is very acceptable.

Embarkation at 11.30 was quick, and we got our stateroom (8010 within a few hours

First leg to Halong Bay was calm and we even had a fair amount of sun.

In Halong Bay we had a private tour to Bai Tu Long Bay with small junk for six people. It was an 8 hour cruise to a very calm and not-so-touristy area of Halong Bay.

Next stop in Danang we did a ship's excursion and was very pleased with that.

Moving on to Saigon we only had 8 hours in port and we just did a private tour with Zoom in the city itself. No time for anything more. We wish we could have stayed overnight in Saigon, and maybe Azamara should just do this itinerary a 14 days to accomplish that.

Bangkok was a nice stay with two nights and almost three days in port. Azamazing evening was on the arrival day and was, as always, a spectacular experience. Sadly we missed the White Night on the next day.- Many people chose not to be on the ship that evening. When in Bangkok we want to see Bangkok, so IMHO this White Night should be moved to another evening.

Koh Samui is just a short stop. We did no Land Discoveries and just had a short trip ashore. We tendered to Nathon on the west coast . Just a small town with a few shops. We thought it was obvious to tender into Bophut or Bangrak on the north shore as this is a more touristy area with lot of resorts and plenty of things to do shoreside. This is, however, probably a decision that lies with local port authoroties.

Singapore was our last port and we bought a Land discovery with hotel drop-off. Perfect for us this time, as we got a nice sightseeing and got dropped off on the doorstep to the hotel afterwards.

On board experience: We love it. The crew is fantastic and the food was fabulous in all venues. We bought the four table tour for Speciality restaurants and was more than content with that. We also had a fantastic Rijstaffel,- all set up un Sunset Bar.

We didn't go to all the shows as we tend to dine late and stay long. We did see a few and the cast is really good. Max played in the casino Bar so we had most evenings there. Lectures were intersting and a lot of activities during the day. Being from near the north pole we chose to stay in the pool area when we could, and the weather was very nice,- almost all of time. Some chilly hours in Halong Bay, and a few showers one afternoon. Apart from that we had mostly sun, interupted by some high clouds. We were lucky compared to the previous cruise.

We are always happy to come "home" on Azamara. The officers and crew of the Journey are always top notch. I cannot point out anything negative with this ship.

Would we choose this cruise again? YES. We would do it tomorrow. We had a fantastic cruise. just give us a night in Saigon as well.:D

Thanks for the review Odd. Glad you had such a good time on Journey. Halong Bay is on the bucket list and if I go I will request you put in a good word with the weather gods.:)

Thanks for the very positive review, We have yet to do Halong Bay and it too is on our bucket list. We love the Asia cruises on AZ and are looking forward to our Singapore round trip next year on the Journey.

Thanks for the review Odd. Glad you had such a good time on Journey. Halong Bay is on the bucket list and if I go I will request you put in a good word with the weather gods.:)

Phil:The tour we did in Halong Bay was very nice. The Land Discovery tour from the ship is about 4 hours and we wanted more. We joined a private cruise from the Roll Call and had a smal junk to ourselves for an 8 hour cruise into Bai Tu Long Bay. This area is not crowded with other boats and a much more tranquil experience than Halong Bay itself. I will send you details if you need.

Phil:The tour we did in Halong Bay was very nice. The Land Discovery tour from the ship is about 4 hours and we wanted more. We joined a private cruise from the Roll Call and had a smal junk to ourselves for an 8 hour cruise into Bai Tu Long Bay. This area is not crowded with other boats and a much more tranquil experience than Halong Bay itself. I will send you details if you need.

Great review glad you had a good time out East. Bet you find it cold now!

Can you FB pm me the details of the Halong provider as we hope to be there in December. We did the Land Discoveries tour last time but they put 35 of us on the same commercial junk. It sounds like yours was far better

Lot of ill will generated on one cruise we were on by closing off half of Sunset Bar for the rijsttafel.

Phil:The tour we did in Halong Bay was very nice. The Land Discovery tour from the ship is about 4 hours and we wanted more. We joined a private cruise from the Roll Call and had a smal junk to ourselves for an 8 hour cruise into Bai Tu Long Bay. This area is not crowded with other boats and a much more tranquil experience than Halong Bay itself. I will send you details if you need.

Yes, could you send me details too for future reference. Thanks so much.

Great review glad you had a good time out East. Bet you find it cold now!

Can you FB pm me the details of the Halong provider as we hope to be there in December. We did the Land Discoveries tour last time but they put 35 of us on the same commercial junk. It sounds like yours was far better

Oh it was a big difference. JoAnn (Fifi2u), who organized our trip actually did the shore excursion on the second day, just to get a comparison. She laughed and said it was a completely different experience. Not the same at all.

We also did a private tour of Halong bay. 12 of us in a private junk, all day with a great lunch included. Ours was with Vietland Discovery run by Madame Ha. We also did a tour of Ho Chi Minh City, a tour of Hanoi and a Mekong Delta tour with her. All excellent and about half the price of the ship's excursions.

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Thanks for the info on the excursions. It's the quality as much as the price that bothers me so personal recommendations are very welcome.

Apologies in advance for sounding like a grump but we were aboard the previous voyage to yours , arriving in Hong Kong on January 19th and I have to say it was the poorest cruise we have ever had , not in terms of the onboard experience (which was excellent) I hasten to add but in terms of the itinerary which we found completely uninspiring. The weather was poor overall , so much so that the Ko Samui stop had to be cancelled. There was plenty of advance notice of this and the Captain made noises about bringing forward the Bangkok stop except that it was not possible to sail up the river at night for some reason so that went by the wayside so we had the joys of an extra day at sea. In Bangkok we took ourselves off to the Grand Palace and Sleeping Buddha , great if you're into bling and rubbing shoulders (literally) with swarms of tourists but otherwise a complete waste of time. Onto Ho Chi Minh City where there's not a great deal of interest and Da Nang , an utter dump. Next Halong Bay where the arrival is admittedly impressive but little of interest when you get there other than a shopping mall. We didn't do any Azamara Land Tours but heard reports from fellow passengers that the HCM City walking tour , the Halong Bay tour and the Hanoi tour (where they actually spent 20 minutes in the city) were extremely poor value for money. Some people had done the Hoi An tour independently at approximately one third of the cost of the Azamara land tour. All in all , in a 13 night cruise we experienced 4 ports of call , none of which were in the least bit inspiring. The weather did play its part with literally only 2 days of good weather during the whole voyage. It's horses for courses I suppose but we found very little of interest in the Far East and given the travelling distances involved felt it wasn't worth the effort. Thank goodness for the onboard experience , in particular the staff and the entertainment which were truly outstanding.

Apologies in advance for sounding like a grump but we were aboard the previous voyage to yours , arriving in Hong Kong on January 19th and I have to say it was the poorest cruise we have ever had , not in terms of the onboard experience (which was excellent) I hasten to add but in terms of the itinerary which we found completely uninspiring. The weather was poor overall , so much so that the Ko Samui stop had to be cancelled. There was plenty of advance notice of this and the Captain made noises about bringing forward the Bangkok stop except that it was not possible to sail up the river at night for some reason so that went by the wayside so we had the joys of an extra day at sea. In Bangkok we took ourselves off to the Grand Palace and Sleeping Buddha , great if you're into bling and rubbing shoulders (literally) with swarms of tourists but otherwise a complete waste of time. Onto Ho Chi Minh City where there's not a great deal of interest and Da Nang , an utter dump. Next Halong Bay where the arrival is admittedly impressive but little of interest when you get there other than a shopping mall. We didn't do any Azamara Land Tours but heard reports from fellow passengers that the HCM City walking tour , the Halong Bay tour and the Hanoi tour (where they actually spent 20 minutes in the city) were extremely poor value for money. Some people had done the Hoi An tour independently at approximately one third of the cost of the Azamara land tour. All in all , in a 13 night cruise we experienced 4 ports of call , none of which were in the least bit inspiring. The weather did play its part with literally only 2 days of good weather during the whole voyage. It's horses for courses I suppose but we found very little of interest in the Far East and given the travelling distances involved felt it wasn't worth the effort. Thank goodness for the onboard experience , in particular the staff and the entertainment which were truly outstanding.

Just one question, why did you choose this itinerary, it seems that you had little or no interest in the ports of call?

Odd,

Thanks for posting. :)

Horses for courses I suppose, but we certainly disagree. We did that cruise 18 months ago and loved it. In Bangkok we did our own thing and got a water taxi to see the Royal Barges, because we have been to Bangkok before. In Vietnam we went on private tours organised by a roll call member - fabulous, we loved it. Loads to see in Ho Chi Minh City, did a Mekong river tour, tour to Hoi An and private junk tour of Halong Bay. One of our most memorable cruises.

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Apologies in advance for sounding like a grump but we were aboard the previous voyage to yours , arriving in Hong Kong on January 19th and I have to say it was the poorest cruise we have ever had , not in terms of the onboard experience (which was excellent) I hasten to add but in terms of the itinerary which we found completely uninspiring. The weather was poor overall , so much so that the Ko Samui stop had to be cancelled. There was plenty of advance notice of this and the Captain made noises about bringing forward the Bangkok stop except that it was not possible to sail up the river at night for some reason so that went by the wayside so we had the joys of an extra day at sea. In Bangkok we took ourselves off to the Grand Palace and Sleeping Buddha , great if you're into bling and rubbing shoulders (literally) with swarms of tourists but otherwise a complete waste of time. Onto Ho Chi Minh City where there's not a great deal of interest and Da Nang , an utter dump. Next Halong Bay where the arrival is admittedly impressive but little of interest when you get there other than a shopping mall. We didn't do any Azamara Land Tours but heard reports from fellow passengers that the HCM City walking tour , the Halong Bay tour and the Hanoi tour (where they actually spent 20 minutes in the city) were extremely poor value for money. Some people had done the Hoi An tour independently at approximately one third of the cost of the Azamara land tour. All in all , in a 13 night cruise we experienced 4 ports of call , none of which were in the least bit inspiring. The weather did play its part with literally only 2 days of good weather during the whole voyage. It's horses for courses I suppose but we found very little of interest in the Far East and given the travelling distances involved felt it wasn't worth the effort. Thank goodness for the onboard experience , in particular the staff and the entertainment which were truly outstanding.

I get the feeling that you didn't research the ports very well before choosing this cruise! I'm glad you at least enjoyed the ship, and I wish you a happier cruise next time.

Apologies in advance for sounding like a grump but we were aboard the previous voyage to yours , arriving in Hong Kong on January 19th and I have to say it was the poorest cruise we have ever had .

Sorry you did not enjoy your cruise and/or ports. I was in Viet Nam during the war, and I think I had more fun than you did. :D

HOW UNFORTUNATE....We were also on the same cruise and after reading your grim account , my observation would be that your expectations were unrealistic. We were also disappointed with the weather but the ports of call were fascinating to us and all the other guests we had the pleasure of spending time with. Weather didn't stop us from cruising up the river in Bangkok in rain capes to enjoy the colourful floating markets, or walking with intermittent drizzle through ancient Hoi An.....Saigon offered up some sunshine and extreme heat....and the Azamazing Evening was a splendid event.

Your review illustrates the value in doing some research to see the possibilities of each port. We booked tours in each of the ports and felt it was money well spent.

We loved our cruise and felt the long distance travel will make this part of the world a once in a lifetime trip.

Good to know you enjoyed your ship experience

HOW UNFORTUNATE....We were also on the same cruise and after reading your grim account , my observation would be that your expectations were unrealistic. We were also disappointed with the weather but the ports of call were fascinating to us and all the other guests we had the pleasure of spending time with. Weather didn't stop us from cruising up the river in Bangkok in rain capes to enjoy the colourful floating markets, or walking with intermittent drizzle through ancient Hoi An.....Saigon offered up some sunshine and extreme heat....and the Azamazing Evening was a splendid event.

Your review illustrates the value in doing some research to see the possibilities of each port. We booked tours in each of the ports and felt it was money well spent.

We loved our cruise and felt the long distance travel will make this part of the world a once in a lifetime trip.

Good to know you enjoyed your ship experience Tall Lad

Sorry you did not enjoy your cruise and/or ports. I was in Viet Nam during the war, and I think I had more fun than you did. :D

:D

Phil

We had a wonderful cruise again. we embarked in Hong Kong jan 19th and were a bit anxious about the weather enroute. We had heard that the previous cruise was hit by lots of bad weather coming up from Singapore to Hong Kong.

[...]

On board experience: We love it. The crew is fantastic and the food was fabulous in all venues. We bought the four table tour for Speciality restaurants and was more than content with that. We also had a fantastic Rijstaffel,- all set up un Sunset Bar.

We were on the same cruise and had a fantastic time as well. I think we sat across from you at the Rijstaffel - a really good evening!

Lot of ill will generated on one cruise we were on by closing off half of Sunset Bar for the rijsttafel.

I guess it could be held in the Patio as well. The table occupied basically 1/3 of the Sunset Bar area, and I see your point. :)

I guess it could be held in the Patio as well. The table occupied basically 1/3 of the Sunset Bar area, and I see your point. :)

A section of the Patio is where it had been done originally. Then, because of weather considerations on a cruise we were on and the large number of guests who signed up for it, it was done in the Drawing Room (Library). On a later cruise it was done on the starboard side of the Sunset Bar, and some not participating were very unhappy to see that area cordoned off with a "Private Function" sign.

When this was later pointed out to Philip, he seemed surprised and said they weren't supposed to have it there. He acted like he wasn't aware that much of the Sunset Bar had been taken over for the rijsttafel.

I hope this doesn't become standard practice (and we LIKE the rijsttafel and would likely attend), as it smacks a bit of the fortunately- and wisely- abandoned Asian restaurant that was going to take over the Sunset Bar open deck as part of the refurbishment.

A section of the Patio is where it had been done originally. Then, because of weather considerations on a cruise we were on and the large number of guests who signed up for it, it was done in the Drawing Room (Library). On a later cruise it was done on the starboard side of the Sunset Bar, and some not participating were very unhappy to see that area cordoned off with a "Private Function" sign.

 

When this was later pointed out to Philip, he seemed surprised and said they weren't supposed to have it there. He acted like he wasn't aware that much of the Sunset Bar had been taken over for the rijsttafel.

 

I hope this doesn't become standard practice (and we LIKE the rijsttafel and would likely attend), as it smacks a bit of the fortunately- and wisely- abandoned Asian restaurant that was going to take over the Sunset Bar open deck as part of the refurbishment.

I agree. We have seen it done inside in the buffet area before and was a bit surprised to see ours was set up outside in the Sunset Bar. Drawing Room would be perfect.

Phil:The tour we did in Halong Bay was very nice. The Land Discovery tour from the ship is about 4 hours and we wanted more. We joined a private cruise from the Roll Call and had a smal junk to ourselves for an 8 hour cruise into Bai Tu Long Bay. This area is not crowded with other boats and a much more tranquil experience than Halong Bay itself. I will send you details if you need.

Could you email me the Bai Tu Long Bay cruise company? I'm planning for my 2018 cruise. Thanks so much!

Could you email me the Bai Tu Long Bay cruise company? I'm planning for my 2018 cruise. Thanks so much!

Odd,

I'm not sure if I can PM or email for questions. I hope you wouldn't mind to share the Bai Tu Long cruise company here. Thanks a lot!