Ha Long Bay Cruise Question

We are thinking of booking an Asia cruise on Celebrity and for the port of HaLong Bay it says we don't get there until 12pm. We are there overnight until 10 p.m. the next day but in order for us to do an overnight Junk Cruise we would have had to arrive earlier. We have no desire to go to Hanoi too much driving. We really didn't want to do any tours through the ship. Any suggestions or has anyone had the same situation when visiting Ha Long Bay?

Consider not doing an overnight but just a one day junk cruise on the second day.

Keith

Also I would see what others on your roll call plan to do.

Keith

12pm arrival probably means well after 1pm by the time you can disembark, especially if you're tendered (there are both berths and off-shore moorings at Ha Long Bay).

Overnite junks go out about 11am, back about 9 to 10am. The vast majority of their clients come from Hanoi (packages include return transfers from Hanoi) & the timing is to accommodate them.

BTW, folk say that the clientele from Hanoi tend to be back-packers etc so probably not the best shipmates to share a junk.

The junks don't sail in the dark, they moor-up from dusk to dawn or beyond. You could probably pre-book a late departure with curtailed itinerary if you were prepared to book the whole junk, either to yourselves or get a group together on your RollCall.

But there are also day junks. And an 8 hour day boat would cover the same ground (errr..... would cover the same water) as an overnite cruise, tho of course you don't get the overnite experience.

Its a few years since we were there, but we arrived at broadly the same time & sailed early evening next day. We went with nothing booked, & on the first afternoon negotiated a junk for the next day. About 20 of us (folk we met on the ship) negotiated two junks between us, one for 4 hours & the other for 6. About 10 per junk is the ideal number - room to lay out on the roof etc - whereas ship's junk trips (same size junks) carried the max, about 30 to 40.

It was waaaaay cheaper than an overnite, or a pre-booked day cruise, or ship's prices.

Problem with that is whether you want to take the small risk of no junks being available :eek:.

You can overcome this by putting a group together on your RollCall & booking ahead. If you get a stack of shipmates wanting to join, choose a number that you rate as the best compromise between ideal numbers and an acceptable price per head.

JB :)

I wanted to add that we've done Junk Boats on two different occasions.

On our last one we booked it in advance.

Both times we did several hours and found that worked well.

If you work with your roll call you could find a couple of other couples and really make it special.

With four other people you could do this at the same price or lower then the ships tour where you would be with 50+ people.

Keith

Any companies you can recommend for a full day Junk Cruise? The ones I looked at require a 50% deposit is that the normal amount? They also said they add 3% for credit card?

You're right, we probably won't get off the first day till 1 p.m. or after so we're still looking into what to do around the area for such a short time. I read on other threads that there's a small temple nearby and some stores or market. Still doing research on that. Any suggestions as to what's in the area for a few hours the first day?

How does it work if you want others on your roll call to join? Do you leave the deposit with the company and charter the Junk Cruise and then the other people pay you? Or do they give their information to the person that you've booked with and pay them when it's due?

We paid 50% up front. That is not unusual. The one we used we paid with PayPal and there is a fee for that.

We did it with a few people so I paid it up front and and they paid me back in cash.

Keith