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Finally.... Im back


tjandluke
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Hi Everyone,

 

After a long absence from cruising due to Costa not co-operating with itineraries, times etc... Well not with the cruises that I was interested in....

 

It looks like we have finally found a few options that work for us.

 

Not sure which one as yet but we will be going to Asia on the Fortuna in Dec/ January 2018. There are several options showing- just need to work out if we want to go Dec 16th or Dec 23rd and for how long? It will either be 14 nights or 16 nights with a B2B.

 

Im sure that lots has changed since I last went- I went with a 7 year old now he will be 13 by the time we sail so its been a while.

 

Im sure I will have lots of questions...

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Hi Everyone,

 

After a long absence from cruising due to Costa not co-operating with itineraries, times etc... Well not with the cruises that I was interested in....

 

It looks like we have finally found a few options that work for us.

 

Not sure which one as yet but we will be going to Asia on the Fortuna in Dec/ January 2018. There are several options showing- just need to work out if we want to go Dec 16th or Dec 23rd and for how long? It will either be 14 nights or 16 nights with a B2B.

 

Im sure that lots has changed since I last went- I went with a 7 year old now he will be 13 by the time we sail so its been a while.

 

Im sure I will have lots of questions...

 

About time too.:*

 

Tanja, welcome back after being away so long. So Little Luke is now turning into Lucky Luke.

 

I have looked at the Fortuna's cruises especially the repo back to Europe, but not many ports and a lot of sea days.

 

One of the things I am a bit apprehensive about the Fortuna, is that it has been active in the Chinese market for the last 6 years and I'm wondering about her condition. Every ship that returns to Europe from the Far East under goes dry docking and refurbment before being realsed for the European market. This is happening to the Victoria in early 2018.

 

We are jumping ship and going on a Celebrity cruise in March 2018 (Hong Kong, Vietnam and Taiwan).

 

Any questions - just ask.

 

Ron

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Hi Ron,

 

Wow! Celebrity! I also looked at this cruise but again could not make the dates work for us. Its not just school with Luke- its all his other activities/ sports. And he is a pretty serious swimmer these days. It all has to be taken into account when planning a trip- as much as he loves to travel- he wants to compete in swim meets as well- the big ones always seem to be when I would like to cruise. And after all the training he puts in (up at 5:10 am to be training) I just could not get him to skip the big ones.

 

I also looked at Princess- several times in fact.

 

I was not aware that the Fortuna had been in Asia for so long. I thought it was only the Atlantica and Victoria. I did check back and read several reviews of the ship from 2014 and 2015 she was in the Med and the Fjords at various times then.

 

Which ever itinerary we go for is pretty port intensive so minimal time on the ship is expected. I have to do some working out of hotels as we will extend our trip and have some time in Singapore both pre and post cruise. We will be on board for Christmas and possibly New Year- depending on which we choose.

 

A drink package is a must!

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Hi

 

We are doing the Asia cruise on the Victoria(despite GMT's warnings about it being in Asia for so long) starting in 2w, for 2w with a couple of days in Singapore before.

 

I am the one boring everyone to tears with my trip reports and photos and might do one of this cruise as I have spent hours on CC looking for info of the ports and could not find enough.

 

The Asian feel of the ship does not bother me. Large casino, I don't gamble. Small gym, you won't find me there. Hopefully some Asian food, bring it on the Italian food gets a bit boring specially if you have cruised 4 times the previous year (and the one before that).

 

I was a bit miffed that they only showed the Fortuna itinerary after we booked our cruise. I would have preferred to go later in 2018. It's a big birthday year and this is my treat though months before the day.

 

Hope your plans work out.

 

Alicat

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Hi Alicat,

 

You will be doing the same itinerary on Victoria as we will be doing on the Fortuna. Or I think its the same from what I can see by searching the Costa site. I have done all but one of these ports before on Costa- but the last time was in 2012. and it did not include Cambodia. We have done 3 Asian cruises with them. On the old Classica and Romantica before they were Neo'd!

 

We thoroughly enjoyed our time.

 

I'd love to hear what you have planned for each port.

 

We have no family apart from us unless you count an Uncle that lives in the UK and is busy with his own family at Christmas so I thought we would try something totally different for Christmas. I wanted to do it years ago but the cruises did not work for us and to be honest Luke (my soon to be teen) wanted Santa to visit at home rather than on board.

 

He has now finally decided that being away for Christmas might be fun. I have not yet mentioned this trip to him and may well keep it as a surprise.... I quite like the idea of waking him and and saying, "Guess where we are off to today?"

 

We will do a couple of days pre-cruise in Singapore- will treat him to the Marina Bay Sands- being a swimmer he fancies the idea of the rooftop infinity pool- and I quite like the idea of just chilling for a couple of days. Last time we were in Singapore- it had just opened and for some reason was not accepting children- no idea why.

 

We will then do 4 or so days post cruise again in Singpaore- but probably stay around Clarke Quay- have stayed there many times and find the location to work for us.

Edited by tjandluke
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Hi

 

I am still working on what we will do.

 

Singapore:DIY

Port Klang: I found the name of a private driver on CC and booked him for the day. Very reasonable. About $90. Going to Batu caves but not the steps, then just KL and see what he suggests.

Langkawi: Not sure. Fancied the ecotours untill I read they feed the eagles and I disagree with that. Likely go to the cable car but not the sky bridge. I am a wimp and don't like heights. Not bothered by the cable car somehow.

Phuket: 2 days. No idea. We don't do beach. Will have to go and find temples and stuff.

Penang: Hope to do a DIY looking at street art and old buildings. I might even get hubby too eat ashore but it is highly unlikely.

Malacca: As above

Koh Samui: Dunno

Bangkok: Booked the overnight stay with Costa. Expensive but I looked at alternatives and they were even more.

Sihanoukville: Probably arrange a tour. I found one on the other travel site and it looks OK.

 

My daughter did a gap year in Sydney, met an Aussie from Perth, came back to study, he moved here and they now both work in London and plan to move back to Sydney in a few years.:loudcry:

 

I am jealous of your Marina Bay plans. I looked at the hotel and thought a bit pricey. I saw photos of that Infinity pool and I am sure Luke will love it. It looks amazing.

 

Alicat

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Alicat,

 

Sounds great!

 

As I said we have done this itinerary before- twice in fact! But I like Asia and its close enough to home without the massively long air trips to Europe.

 

We will probably do much the same as we did before- doing it with a teen is much different to with a 7 year old.

 

KL traffic can be manic- depending on what day your there. We happened to be there on a Muslim holiday/ special day and it crawled. We did the ships On Your Own where they drop you into the city and leave you for several hours. We caught the sky train to China Town and explored there. It was easy enough to do- although without dragging out my notes which are filed away somewhere safe??? I can't remember the exact details.

 

Langkowi was the port we enjoyed the least on our last trip. But we arrived with no set plan in place. This time I will sort something out before we go. It was overcast when we were there. We caught the ships shuttle and were dropped somewhere? But everything was closed? We then somehow found our way to a deserted beach- I like beaches and in fact live at the beach- we beach all over the world but this just did nothing for me. Yet I have heard so many people love Langkowi. I think we somehow missed the best parts of it. Im a wimp too- cable cars are ok but not in a million years would I even think about the sky bridge.

 

Phuket- we have been several times. Last cruise, many on board did the evening Fantasea show. Its not something I have done but everyone seemed to love it. I do know that its much cheaper to book it from shore rather than the ship. Or to even book directly.

 

Malacca- try a bakery- the cakes etc are delicious. Goes back to its Portugese heritage. We caught a rickshaw and just got the driver to take us around - he picked where we stopped- for us it was a short port visit with not enough time to plan a full day. From memory the ship was delayed in arriving due to weather or something?

 

Bangkok- we had a fantastic day last time we were there and Im happy to just do it over again. We have been to Bangok several times. I booked a driver in advance. He took us to a skytrain station on the edge of the city. We caught the skytrain to a major shopping area and wandered for a while. He then met us again and dropped us off for a river cruise. After that the driver took us to the Aquarium (which I wont do again- it was good but Luke's interests have changed now). We caught a tuk tuk! Im not sure where we went- I just wanted Luke to go on one in the Bangkok traffic! I know our driver thought we were quite mad- to want to be out and about in the heat and traffic on tuk tuks and skytrains when he was at our disposal in an air conditioned vehicle- but he got into the day with us. With traffic and travelling time it was a long day. Last time we stayed on the ship the next day as we had a early afternoon departure and we were tired. This time we will head to Pattaya for the next day as we are in port longer.

 

Koh Samui will just be a beach day for us. We will rent chairs, have massages and watch the world go by.

 

Im really interested in your tour of Sihanoukville. But it will be Christmas Day for us- so we will want something quite low key.

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