live from Millennium - Asia

[sandancer]

The port is definately a good 2 hours from Saigon. We were there during Tet when traffic was lighter and it still took over 2 hours.

[relo]

The port is definately a good 2 hours from Saigon. We were there during Tet when traffic was lighter and it still took over 2 hours.

 

Thanks, just what I was thinking.

[emileg]

Hi,

 

First of all, thanks for all the information. We will do March 31 cruise from Singapore to Hong Kong and can really use a lot of the tips for our cruise.

 

I still have a question left, namely where is the port for Saigon. The itinerary says Phu My and I thought that means the port near Vung Tao (2 hours from Saigon). But I know hear also about a port called Phu My port district 7 and almost in the city itself.

 

Can somebody who already did the cruise please clarify is for me.

 

Thanks

Take a look on the map. Find Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and Vung Tao. The port of Phu My is about 2/3 of the way traveling from HCMC to Vung Tao.

[WhitsEnd]

The Phu My port is approximately 2 hours from Saigon - in traffic. It is a container port. None of the tour guides had trouble identifying the "Phu My" port when we told them we were coming on a cruise ship and looking for transfers/tours, so if this is your worry, don't. I hope this helps.

 

Take a look on the map. Find Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and Vung Tao. The port of Phu My is about 2/3 of the way traveling from HCMC to Vung Tao.

[Yertiz1883]

You said "I am on the Millennium right now, but at a hotel in Bangkok."

Did you use the ships transport to Bangkok or organise it yourself.

We are doing the same cruise in March next year and are trying to get all the info we can together before go. Any useful info would be great about this or the cruise in general. Thanks.

Enjoy your cruise. x:rolleyes:

[FL1stLady]

Did you book your own hotel? If so, how did you know which to book?

 

In Saigon, the tour operator (Stefan/Stephen of Best Tours) included the hotel in our price. So he chose. Not 4 star hotel, but clean and PERFECTLY located - especially for TET). In Bangkok several were recommended by the tour operator (Tong). We had 4 different groups. We voted and one of our group negotiated a great price for all of us. VERY nice hotel, good rate.

 

We chose not to overnight in Hanoi. I know that some seemed to think that the trip was too long for one day, but we did not find it so. We normally only do 4 to 6 hour tours so we were expecting a very long day. It was certainly long, but our guide was the best we had and kept it interesting for us. We left the ship about 8 am (had to wait for the ship's tours to tender), and got back to the ship about 8:30. Very rewarding day. My husband is a Vietnam vet and career Air Force, so this tour (actually entire itinerary) was important to us.

[tomtnt]

Our (long) video from the 2/15/2013 sailing from HK to SINGAPORE:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=1_j2O6uPxKk&vq=hd1080

[suekay]

It might be long......but not long enough:-) It was great! Thank you for posting. I can't wait for our turn next March

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[cheffip]

Our (long) video from the 2/15/2013 sailing from HK to SINGAPORE:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=1_j2O6uPxKk&vq=hd1080

 

Really enjoyed it...thanks so much for posting!

[Yertiz1883]

Thanks so much for posting your video. Really enjoyed it. We do not go on this cruise for another 11 months but cannot help getting excited!!! Itiniery looks amazing. Do you arrange all your own private tours, if so who did you use, or did you use the ones from the Millenium? :)

[JoePDX]

Super video! WOW! We embark Millennium in Shanghai on 4/25. Can't wait! :-)

 

Thanks for sharing your memories!

 

Joe

[TeaBag]

This was an awesome video. You are very talented and your children are adorable. You had some great looking food too. We will be on Millennium Apr 11. I loved the pictures of Hong Kong and they have got us really excited. I love HK, love Singapore too but we are not going there.

[Christine Frances]

we had an incredible night....our guide took us to a pancake restaurant and we all ordered/ate together....wonderful meal..then back to the main event, flower street....thousands of young people looking at the flowers...flowers everywhere in tremendous arrangements...everyone polite, what a terrific scene/memory. Then at midnight the fireworks....15 minutes of the most beautiful fireworks display I've ever seen....they made NYC and Disney fireworks pale....no breaks, just the most incredible bursts of colors at all levels continuously...with some hearts and some star fireworks thrown in. You could hear the crown cheer for many of the displays. Unforgetable night....and yes the noise died down and we slept like logs from the day's events. Even the water puppet show, very tourist of course, was terrific. Today we are going to watch some of the dragon dances...right in front of the hotel again...we are in the heart of things. If you ever get a chance to visit Saigon on Tet....do it.

 

The folks who did just the day trip to Saigon and didn't stay overnight last night really missed a once in a lifetime experience.

 

GH

 

Any chance you remember the name of your hotel?:)

[ghstudio]

Hotel was the Duxton.

[sandancer]

We stayed at the Rex Hotel on Tet Eve and attended the Gala event at the rooftop restaurant. I would say that it was worth taking this cruise just for that. It was wonderful. The food, the entertainment, the free flowing wine and champagne. And of course the fireworks. Ahhhhh! What a wonderful memory.

[Swissers]

Hi everyone

 

We will be on the same cruise in February 2014. Can anyone tell me how far it is to get to the port gates in each port? Can we walk? Are there any shuttles in any port to the gates or nearby places (no regular shore excursions!)? Are they free? Any taxis at the gates?

 

Ports: Singapore, Laem Chabang (Thailand), Phu My and CHan May (Vietnam) and Hong Kong.

 

Thank you so much!

Swissers

[emileg]

Hi everyone

 

We will be on the same cruise in February 2014. Can anyone tell me how far it is to get to the port gates in each port? Can we walk? Are there any shuttles in any port to the gates or nearby places (no regular shore excursions!)? Are they free? Any taxis at the gates?

 

Ports: Singapore, Laem Chabang (Thailand), Phu My and CHan May (Vietnam) and Hong Kong.

 

Thank you so much!

Swissers

The only ports on this itinerary where you can walk right into town are Hong Kong and Halong Bay (tendered, which you left out). In Singapore you can walk out of the terminal, but there is nothing around for about two miles. There are sporadic taxis as passengers are dropped off. The rest are industrial ports with no passenger infrastructure, shopping, towns or sites within walking distance. Nor are there any taxis. There are no free shuttles.

 

Best bet is to arrange private tours in vans up to eight people. Highly recommend Tour with Tong for Bangkok with an overnight at the Pathuwan Princess. Also, Smile Tours in Vietnam. Be aware that vans in Vietnam, though air conditioned, are not up to the comfort level of Tong's. However, the guides on all the tours were universally excellent and flexible in our experience. All the tours we were on provided plenty of bottled water and sealed wet wash cloths.

 

Unfortunately, most of these ports do not lend themselves to on your own touring. However, you can take a paid ship's "... on Your Own" shore excursion into each city. But, the cities are pretty large. On our cruise, those who took the "On Your Own" shore excursions missed some very important places to visit, such as the Grand Palace in Bangkok. In our experience, it was worth the entire trip to Southeast Asia, even if you did nothing else but to see the Grand Palace.

 

If you have a couple of extra days in Singapore and Hong Kong, I would highly recommend taking the Hop On, Hop Off type buses. Also, in Hong Kong, public transportation is very easy, clean and inexpensive. Signs are all in English.

[ghstudio]

The ports in Vietnam are near nothing and as emileg said, the port in Singapore is too far for any normal person to walk...on a winding road through a yet undeveloped park. Hong Kong is closer to civilization, but they are changing where they dock from the wonderfully convenient Ocean Terminal to a new port built at the old airport which will require some public transportation to get to civilization/shopping.

 

My advice (and I think everyone elses as well) is to book private tours in Vietnam...and if your budget allows, stay overnight in Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi. The drive to Hanoi is extra long...three hours if you don't have much traffic...so doing a round trip in one day is grueling.....made more painful by the other drivers (and I use that term very very loosely) and the roads (I use that term very loosely too).

 

Agree with Smile Tours...they did a great job in all three vietnam ports.

[love to sail - brian]

Thanks for the informative and well balanced review of the Millennium and your cruise. We sail on the April 25th, 16 night repositioning from China to Alaska. We too are in AQ, which we love on s-class ships. Did a 7 night last May to Bermuda on Summit in AQ and had some of the same experiences you did with Blu. Oh well...was hoping some of the logistical issues would have been worked out by now. Regardless, looking forward to the vacation and thanks again for the effort you put into the review.

 

Btw, I may have missed it, but, do you mind sharing your secret on how to keep the AQ shower door from leaking onto the bathroom floor...that was annoying!

[eldercruser]

Hi everyone

 

We will be on the same cruise in February 2014. Can anyone tell me how far it is to get to the port gates in each port? Can we walk? Are there any shuttles in any port to the gates or nearby places (no regular shore excursions!)? Are they free? Any taxis at the gates?

 

Ports: Singapore, Laem Chabang (Thailand), Phu My and CHan May (Vietnam) and Hong Kong.

 

Thank you so much!

Swissers

 

I would like to echo the comments already made. We were on the March 3 cruise and "did" Viet Nam slightly differently. One of our party had a Vietnamese travel agent contact from a previous trip and she arranged our Vietnam tours. Her contact was a Mr. Le Thuc of Asia Pacific tours. The company has an office in Hanoi and HCMC. He is in HCMC. They were very flexible in how we wanted to schedule and how much services we needed in each city. Their vans and drivers were first rate in all three Vietnam stops. We didn't use a guide in Saigon, but the driver took us everywhere we wanted to go. We had a guide and drive for Hoi An and Hanoi. Our driver to Hanoi was particularly good handling the extreme traffic conditions enroute. We booked our own hotel in Saigon and the agency booked the hotel in Hanoi (with our approval). They can include dinner or not on the overnight trip. Our Hoi An trip included a nice lunch.

 

While I wasn't directly involved with the booking I can recommend them with no reservation. The agency even gave a partial refund to one of our couples who had to cancel Hanoi at the last minute. Le Thuc's email is thuc@sapatours.com. There website is www.asipacifictravel.vn. Eight people is the optium number for affordability, but even with six the cost was very reasonable.

 

Hope this helps.

[Lew's cruise]

Our (long) video from the 2/15/2013 sailing from HK to SINGAPORE:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=1_j2O6uPxKk&vq=hd1080

 

Wonderful movie! We are sailing next February and it excited as well as informed us of some of the great things to see and do. I also would like to know if you were on a tour (operator?) or all on your own.

Thanks,

Lew

[ghstudio]

 

Btw, I may have missed it, but, do you mind sharing your secret on how to keep the AQ shower door from leaking onto the bathroom floor...that was annoying!

 

the doors are obviously meant to close together, however if you let them do that, they then leak from the bottom...every time. I found that if I closed the doors to the shower so that they didn't overlap correctly, the doors actually pushed slightly into the shower and the door leaked much less. Hope that makes some sense....put the door that is supposed to be on the inside on the outside so they don't mesh together :)

[emileg]

I would like to echo the comments already made. We were on the March 3 cruise and "did" Viet Nam slightly differently. ...

Gerry - Welcome back. Let's keep in touch.

[love to sail - brian]

the doors are obviously meant to close together, however if you let them do that, they then leak from the bottom...every time. I found that if I closed the doors to the shower so that they didn't overlap correctly, the doors actually pushed slightly into the shower and the door leaked much less. Hope that makes some sense....put the door that is supposed to be on the inside on the outside so they don't mesh together :)

 

I will give it a try, our bathroom floor on Summit was a wet mess. I would use half of the provided towels to dry it after showering and made the mistake on more than one occasion of walking into the bathroom in socks, LOL.

 

That said, I appreciate the fact that they installed the doors, hated the shower curtains.

[ghstudio]

I will give it a try, our bathroom floor on Summit was a wet mess. I would use half of the provided towels to dry it after showering and made the mistake on more than one occasion of walking into the bathroom in socks, LOL.

 

That said, I appreciate the fact that they installed the doors, hated the shower curtains.

 

It's a shame that they didn't spec the doors with a gasket that long enough to actually adct as a gasket between the bottom of the door and the sill. Just a stupid oversight in drydock that I guess no one thought important. Until I discovered my little trick, I just left a towel on the floor outside the shower and threw the wet towel in the shower stall when I was finished....I bet our room steward loved that. I mentioned the problem to the head housekeeper (very nice guy) and it was the first he heard of the problem ???