Southeast Asia Holiday Cruise on Millenium-- Special excursion to Angkor Wat

[djheck67]

Has anyone done the special 2-day excursion to Angkor Wat during the 14-night Southeast Asia Cruise on Millenium? We have it reserved, but we will be missing the entire stay at Ho Chi Minh City. This is our first time in Asia, so we're not sure if it is worth sacrificing seeing this area of Vietnam in order to see Angkor Wat. Of course we still will get to see 2 other areas of Vietnam as well as Bangkok, but Ho Chi Minh City seems to have a lot to do and see. Any advice?

[jelayne]

We did HCMC while on the Connie this year. Did a private tour and it was great. I haven’t done any research on Angkor Wat but we did did the Taj Mahal during our cruise and Celebrity wanted $2398 pp for a tour to the Taj; we booked with a tour operator in India for S750pp 5* hotels, our own car & driver. Point is if you decide to do Angkor Wat check out private tours you may find, like we did, a better tour 1/3 the price.

[cruiseerf]

For first trip to Asia I would not rush it and "Run" to Anchor Wat....it needs a good 2 full days to really see and enjoy the ruins.....They have survived for 700+ years, they will survive until your next trip. Enjoy Vietnam and remember to bring lots of new crisp 1's, 5's and 10's USD for shopping and taxis etc......Cheers!

[Globehoppers]

Scheduled this cruise for 2020. Planning to fly into Singapore several days before the cruise starts to enable a pre-cruise side trip to Siem Reap for Angkor Wat. R/T Air runs about US$250. Do not want to miss HCM City.

[Globehoppers]

We did HCMC while on the Connie this year. Did a private tour and it was great. I haven’t done any research on Angkor Wat but we did did the Taj Mahal during our cruise and Celebrity wanted $2398 pp for a tour to the Taj; we booked with a tour operator in India for S750pp 5* hotels, our own car & driver. Point is if you decide to do Angkor Wat check out private tours you may find, like we did, a better tour 1/3 the price.

 

Several years ago did a 6-day pre-cruise of the Golden Triangle (Delhi/Agra/Jaipur) with another day in Mumbai prior to embarking Journey. Five-star hotels, small SUV aways at our disposal with driver, flight Jaipur-Delhi, local tour guides in each city arranged by Magic Tours of India. Perfect!

[anniegb]

Has anyone done the special 2-day excursion to Angkor Wat during the 14-night Southeast Asia Cruise on Millenium? We have it reserved, but we will be missing the entire stay at Ho Chi Minh City. This is our first time in Asia, so we're not sure if it is worth sacrificing seeing this area of Vietnam in order to see Angkor Wat. Of course we still will get to see 2 other areas of Vietnam as well as Bangkok, but Ho Chi Minh City seems to have a lot to do and see. Any advice?

 

In a word don't.

 

On my Millie cruise, the AW excursion was reported as a disaster.

 

Check out the pricing of doing it on your own.

 

As a solo, I spent 4 days in Bangkok, 4 days SR, 3 days in Singapore. Private driver etc plus airfares and I still saved $1000.

 

Annie

[Dawg67]

We did the Asia cruise last October. We took the Angkor Wat excursion and totally loved the trip. Recommend the excursion. Some travelers take a tour from Singapore while others take the cruise excursion. Either way GO!

 

 

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[smtcan]

We are taking a Millennium cruise next year and have arranged our own trip to Angkor Wat from Hong Kong after the cruise. A four night trip with non stop flights and a highly rated hotel is costing us under $900US for both of us. A precruise trip from Singapore would have been slightly cheaper, but the dates didn’t work for us.

[floridafolks]

We are taking a Millennium cruise next year and have arranged our own trip to Angkor Wat from Hong Kong after the cruise. A four night trip with non stop flights and a highly rated hotel is costing us under $900US for both of us. A precruise trip from Singapore would have been slightly cheaper, but the dates didn’t work for us.

That is exactly what we did last fall. We disembarked Millenium in Hong Kong and arranged our own flights and hotel -4 day/3 nights Loved it! We did have private driver and guide arranged through Sam Sophia for touring and airport pickup and drop off. We stayed at Park Hyatt and could walk to Pub Street. Great and easy trip to plan on your own at fraction of cost of ship tour.

[sasset]

We did the Asia cruise last October. We took the Angkor Wat excursion and totally loved the trip. Recommend the excursion. Some travelers take a tour from Singapore while others take the cruise excursion. Either way GO!

 

 

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Hi. Reading the Celebrity Website description of the Angkor Wat excursion left me with some questions. I assume that we leave the ship at Ho Chi Minh City and fly to begin the tour. Where do we rejoin the ship? Will we need Visas?

 

Thanks

[waggie]

Scheduled this cruise for 2020. Planning to fly into Singapore several days before the cruise starts to enable a pre-cruise side trip to Siem Reap for Angkor Wat. R/T Air runs about US$250. Do not want to miss HCM City.

We flew London/ Singapore pre-cruise, stayed 1 night and then flew Silk Air to Siem Reap for 4 wonderful days then back to Singapore for 2 nights to pick up Millennium. The Singapore hotel (Novotel Clarke Quay) kept our luggage and we just took what we needed. We had the services of a tuktuk driver for the whole stay.

Cambodia is such a different experience try to give it enough time.

[sailco]

Check the details of your itinerary. The port of Phu My is about 1.5hrs from Ho Chi Ming City and most of the tours do a short drive through of the city with a 'comfort stop' before the airport with the same set up on return. When are you sailing? Ask on your roll call if anyone else is thinking about doing the long shore excursion. People there may have already done a lot of research.

[Turangi!]

Angkor Wat is definitely worth seeing and spending a couple of days. For what you will pay for the ship’s Shore Excursion for 2 days in Siem Reap including flying back and forth you can spend a lot more time seeing the extensive Khymer sites that are spread out with a professional tour guide and a beautiful hotel before or after your cruise. We spent 6 nights before our SEAsia B2B on the Millie and had a private guide and driver for 4 days for just the two of us arranged through a tour company we have use many times in different parts of the world on our cruises. It was a fabulous experience and we could go at our own pace and see what we wanted to see. The trip out to Beng Melea was a highlight and something you can only do if you have a couple of days. Our guide Dara was a fabulous photographer who made sure you got all the right shots from the right angles of these magnificient ruins. On our first morning we went in the back way to Angkor Wat and I knew we were going to have an unforgettable experience. If you do the ship’s tour you will want to go back because you will realize there is so much more to see. 

 

[smtcan]

1 hour ago, Turangi! said:

Angkor Wat is definitely worth seeing and spending a couple of days. For what you will pay for the ship’s Shore Excursion for 2 days in Siem Reap including flying back and forth you can spend a lot more time seeing the extensive Khymer sites that are spread out with a professional tour guide and a beautiful hotel before or after your cruise. We spent 6 nights before our SEAsia B2B on the Millie and had a private guide and driver for 4 days for just the two of us arranged through a tour company we have use many times in different parts of the world on our cruises. It was a fabulous experience and we could go at our own pace and see what we wanted to see. The trip out to Beng Melea was a highlight and something you can only do if you have a couple of days. Our guide Dara was a fabulous photographer who made sure you got all the right shots from the right angles of these magnificient ruins. On our first morning we went in the back way to Angkor Wat and I knew we were going to have an unforgettable experience. If you do the ship’s tour you will want to go back because you will realize there is so much more to see. 

 

Would you mind sharing the name of the company you used for the Siem Reap tour please.

[juanita1767]

8 hours ago, Turangi! said:

Angkor Wat is definitely worth seeing and spending a couple of days. For what you will pay for the ship’s Shore Excursion for 2 days in Siem Reap including flying back and forth you can spend a lot more time seeing the extensive Khymer sites that are spread out with a professional tour guide and a beautiful hotel before or after your cruise. We spent 6 nights before our SEAsia B2B on the Millie and had a private guide and driver for 4 days for just the two of us arranged through a tour company we have use many times in different parts of the world on our cruises. It was a fabulous experience and we could go at our own pace and see what we wanted to see. The trip out to Beng Melea was a highlight and something you can only do if you have a couple of days. Our guide Dara was a fabulous photographer who made sure you got all the right shots from the right angles of these magnificient ruins. On our first morning we went in the back way to Angkor Wat and I knew we were going to have an unforgettable experience. If you do the ship’s tour you will want to go back because you will realize there is so much more to see. 

 

Yes please share the name of the company. We are heading there after our cruise. 

[Turangi!]

SMTCAN and Juanita,

I can highly recommend our Angkor guide but not sure what I can share publically on CC so please private message me and I can give you our Cambodia guide info. I think it is allowed on roll call  but not on general info postings! There are official licensed guides at Angkor in light peach coloured shirts, which our guide was.

My email is turangi at tbwifi dot ca   for Canada.... There is \ was a link on my CC signature.

 

We did 4 days of touring the historic temples and also did the Floating Village and the Museum in Siem Reap, although Dara could not guide inside the Museum.    One woman stopped me after eavesdropping on our guide and asked how we had found a guide with such excellent English. I told her I found him on the Internet in Canada!   You can hire a Tuk Tuk driver to show you around but having an official licensed guide added to the experience.  At our hotel, which was lovely, it seems everyone on staff would ask if we had a guide for the day, so it was nice to be able to say we already had a guide... similar to when you get off at a port and have to run the local gauntlet, saying you have a guide, they leave you alone.

We did the evisa on line and breezed through Immigration and Customs in Siem Reap. We loved our hotel and their staff.  We found Cambodia to be a delightful place to visit although it is a very poor country, still with lots of scars from the political situation, the people were wonderful. 

 

Turangi!