Southeast Asia-Singapore to Hong Kong on Millennium

[Suzi66]

Going to be aboard the Eclipse in April & thinking about booking a Southeast Asia trip for 2019 or 2020- has anyone done this itinerary that could answer the following questions:

 

5. Has the ship been or are there plans to refurbish this ship?

:)

 

I can tell you now as our cruise has been cancelled in the last few days, Millenium will be going into drydock on Jan 5 2019. Those of us that were on the roll call were suspecting something of this manner as it had been taken from sale several months ago although the emails didn't get sent out until Friday this week.

[Bruin Steve]

I can tell you now as our cruise has been cancelled in the last few days, Millenium will be going into drydock on Jan 5 2019...

Wow! So...when I disembark on January 5, the ship goes straight to dry dock? It will feel strange leaving a ship with no one getting on...but, OTOH, I am sure our cruise will be just fine. Makes sense to do a dry dock AFTER the lucrative holiday cruise...

[juliep99]

I too have just booked this cruise and the same have never been to this part of the world. All the replies regarding private tours are very interesting and food for thought. Will be following the thread the same for some much appreciated information :)

I'm looking forward to reading the responses you get. I have never done a SE Asia cruise, however; I just booked on the Millennium for February 1, 2020 about three weeks ago.

The ship will sail from Singapore to Hong Kong with ports of call in Vietnam, Taiwan and Japan.

I'll try to follow along with the thread and hopefully learn a thing or two! :)

Let us know if you end up booking and which sailing you choose.

Safe travels to all! :)

[budbo]

There is a certain logic to returning same day.

 

Here's the port schedule again:

25 Dec 2018 Hanoi, (Halong Bay), Vietnam Arrival 7:00 AM

26 Dec 2018 Hanoi, (Halong Bay), Vietnam Departure 1:00 PM

 

Whether we do a tour that returns same day or do one that spends the night, we will spend that 3-4 hours each way on a bus (or other transportation) either way...It is merely a matter of timing. If we have a tour that departs reasonably soon after the ship lands and is cleared--say 8:00 am--then we should be in Hanoi around 11:00-noon at the worst...Say we spend six hours or so touring and are on the road back to the ship at 5:00--even 6 or 7, we get back to the ship that night...with no worries about being late...The next morning, we have the option of doing something locally or even staying onboard. What we miss is any night time activity in Hanoi. If, instead, we stay over in Hanoi, we get to eat dinner locally, go out on the town at night--if that's really a reasonable option--and spend a night in a hotel. But, remember, our ship departs the next day at 1:00 pm--meaning we'd likely have to be back onboard by noon...SO, in the morning, there really would not be any time to do anything else in Hanoi. We'd have to hit the road by, at least, 8:00 am or so for the long ride back to make sure we were back onboard in time...IF the ship were in port there for two FULL days, it would make a difference...but, with "1.5", it's just a matter of when we take the long ride back to port...

 

I haven't really started researching private tours yet, but looking at the Celebrity shorexes, they offer an overnight excursion for $389 pp...or a "Hanoi Past and Present" 12 hour shorex starting at 7:30 am for $129.75 pp and a "Hanoi in a Day" 11 hour shorex at 7:30 am for $129.75 pp. Interestingly, the only excursion offered for day 2 is "Ha Long Bay by Boat"--3 hours, 45 minutes, $62.75...

 

Hi Bruin Steve,

 

We were on the Millenium in March and also had an overnight in Halong Bay. If you're considering a private day trip to Hanoi on that 1st day, keep in mind that Halong Bay is a tender port. The tenders don't run all night so you need to be back in time to catch that last one or you'll be stuck ashore until morning. We spent the night in Hanoi so I didn't pay too much attention to the night tender schedule..... but I do remember being a bit surprised that it didn't run later. Maybe someone else has that daily to check it for you?

 

We used Hanoi Transfer Service to get us back and forth to Hanoi and overall we were happy with them. If I used them again, I would specify at the time of booking that we didn't want to make any of the tourist shopping stops along the way . (Pearl Market, Silk Market, etc)