Superstar Gemini

[helga38]

I really remember all those times.There used to be guards on Victoria dock where the cargo ships berthed.seasy to walk up the gangway ,no one checked.

 

Big Al---and there was another person boarding Gemini in

Singapore on 1st June--perhaps we can meet in the bar at 6pm on the day at sea-2nd June ?

 

helga

[jansim]

Hello to everyone. We are cruising on Superstar Gemini on the 24th September - HongKong to Singapore. Would be delighted to hear if anyone else is on the same cruise.:)

[hbellman]

we are doing the singapore to Hongkong 14th September to the 24th, so we will be disembarking when you are embarking

 

have a good time

[hbellman]

Can anyone tell me if you have to reapply for the world card each time you cruise or can you use your card from a previous cruise

 

Hazel

[jansim]

Hello Hazel,

 

Thanks for your reply. Cant wait - time just cant go in fast enough at the moment. Hope you have a great time too.

 

Cant help about your world card. I am trying to apply for a card before we go on the cruise. Any idea on how we can do this.

 

Regards

Janet

[boeckli]

Can anyone tell me if you have to reapply for the world card each time you cruise or can you use your card from a previous cruise

 

Hazel

 

You can keep on using the same card

[RayL]

We are doing the 21 night Hong Kong - Hong Kong on 26th July.

There are a couple of excursions we want to include but they are just too long.

Exquisite Bangkok - over 10 hours.

Hue Highlights - 10 hours.

They are all great tours but we have been to both places before so do not want to do the whole tour eg. Just do the Citadel and Mausoleum in Hue and reduce the Bangkok tour to say 6 - 7 hours.

Has anyone investigated outside tour companies for these or any other ports on the cruise?

[RayL]

Sorry, just realised our cruise leaves Hong Kong on 16th July.

[kuldalai]

Application for Star World Cruiser Card . Just apply once you are on board at Reception on SS Virgo or Gemini .

 

Laem Chebang (Bangkok) & Da Nang berths are miles from anything and are basically both in huge Container Port / Industrial areas way out of town . Taxis are scarce and walking is out of the question .

 

In respect of going up to Bangkok you either take the Star Tour or arrange a hire car to pick you up and take you where you want to go .

 

Ditto with Hue . But both are long trips and private hire car would be much dearer than using the Star tours .

 

But CAVEAT EMPTOR you make your own arrangements and are late back and you may well find yourself keeping company with the seagulls on a desolate container wharf as your boat sails over the horizon . On the other hand take the Star tours and you are guaranteed boat will not sail before all tour coaches are back .

 

Yes Bangkok is long drive from Laem Chebang and likewise Hue from Da Nang; but it is no longer or shorter whether you do it by bus or car . In the case of Da Nang / Hue the forward journey is via the Coast Road and very picturesque whilst the return trip goes through a new 19 km long road tunnel .

 

We were anxious about such long days last year but the coaches are all fully air-conditioned and the tours up to Bangkok Highlights and Hue Highlights were very good . Hue especially was the best value and scenically most diverse tour of the trip - recommend all Cruisers not to miss that one.

[RayL]

Just about worked out our excursions.

How do we work out what is available for Singapore?

[Ocean Adventurers]

Hi all,

 

it's been a while now, but we've got back from the straits of Malacca cruise a few weeks ago now. I had a great time and would do it again, but I have a few pointers / reviews which may be useful to any others who wish to do the same:

 

1) Cruising with Infants /Toddlers

2) Shore-ex tours

3) Tender transfers - the annoyance of the "free and easy" traveller

4) Powerpoints

5) Laundry

6) Dining

7) Entertainment

 

1) Cruising with infants / toddlers.

You're doing what with you child, going on a ship of all things, what are you crazy? We love our little one, but we love our holidays too! We had our 8month old and my brother-in-law and his wife had their 23 month old in tow.

I have decided that cruising and kids are a great mix, and particularly on the Gemini. From helpful crew and sleeping to dining, going ashore and child-minding it works out wonderfully.

a) crew:

All the crew seemed to love the little ones and were always happy to help out.

b) sleeping arrangments

We were worried how the sleeping arrangements would work, but a port-a-cot provided for us fit quite snugly into our cabin, which didn't really matter because we didn't spend much time in there. The ability to drop back to your room during the day and put the little one down for a rest was great! Word of note though you're not supposed to leave your little tacker in the room on their own.

c) Eating

There were high-chairs (or baby chairs as they are known to the crew- don't ask for a high-chair, they'll look at you blankly and wonder what you are going on about).

d) child-minding

The daycare caters for children over 1 year and only runs at certain times, so if you want to you can leave the kiddie for the (early) evening and go off and have some fun.

e) going ashore

Get yourself a baby backpack / carrier and you're all set for shore excursions.

 

2) Shore-ex tours

We only did two shore-ex tours: Kuala Lumpar - Chinatown and Phuket - Fantasea show.

The KL trip to china-town was great. It was great to get in and really haggle with the locals to get a good price. By the time you get the bus to KL you only have 4 hours so it wasn't too long and after you stop for lunch it's really not that much shopping time (even by male standards). It sounds like the tours can be make-or-break depending on who your guide is. Our guide was great and she gave us good tips on shopping etc on the way to chinatown.

Phuket- Fantasea show. About a 45 trip to the Fantasea show. It's inside a big theme park with rides and shops etc. The place is pretty spectacular. In places the actual show was good too, though there were places where I was getting bored. I don know I would do it again, but it's probably something worth doing once.

The rest of the time we did our own thing - hired a taxi and went for a drive - I reckon it's the way to go, just leave yourself plenty of time.

 

3) Tender transfers - the annoyance of the "free and easy" traveller

There was one thing I wanted to do on this cruise, go rock-climbing at Railay Beach near Krabi. The tender transfer / long-boat transfer nearly ruined this plan and made for a rather stressful day out. In fact it could be the one thing keeping me from going on the Gemini again.

At Krabi apparently the local government has decided the only way that you can get to the shore is on a long-boat. Long-boats only carry 8 passengers at a time, which takes around 10 minutes each to load. There are over 600 people on the cruise ship and only 2 points from which you can get from the Gemini to the long-boats. I was ready and chomping at the bit at 8.15 but due to the long-boat transfers we didn't leave the ship till around 11am. The rule is that those who have got a shore-ex tour go first, so you have to wait for all of those to get to shore first.

The last transfer back to the boat left at 3.15pm. By the time I go to the shore at 11.30 I had less then 4 hours to catch another long-boat to Railay beach; find a guide and some gear go climbing and get back to Ao Nang (where the long-boats from the cruise ship came in). I was told by locals that I wouldn't have time, but somehow I managed it.

 

4) Powerpoints

We took a 3-pronger ?British adaptor which worked well

 

5) Laundry

Just bought extra clothes, which worked out cheaper then if we got our others done by the laundry service! Washed our underwear and hung on the line in the shower / blow-dried with the blow drier.

 

6) Dining

Mostly ate at the Buffet restaurant on level 6 (the level that our room was on). Dress is casual which appealed to me, as did the all-you-can-eat factor.

 

7) Entertainment

Went to a couple of the morning aerobics sessions, which were fun!

Karoake was great - we hired a room between the 4 of us and had a great time for only 10 singapore dollars.

The shows were great too - especially the crew show - a real - not-to-be missed event!

 

Well hope that's of some use to people!

[cosamlin]

Thanks for the review on your Malacca Straits cruise. We are looking forward to ours as we only have 16 sleeps to go til we leave. Thanks for the heads up on Krabi and the long boats as we have been umming and arrring about actually going ashore there anyway. Sorry to hear that you were not overly impressed with Fantasea as we had heard it was a must do. We will give it a go to see what we think anyway.

 

Glad you had a great time.

 

:cool:

[kuldalai]

Well the night time departure down Hong Kong Harbour to the South China Sea has to be one of the worlds most spectacular light shows and tarvel experiences. Wednesday arvo we had Star Pisces, SS Gemini and SS Virgo all in port in HK !

 

As for Gemini the popular Captain Lennart Jegerfalk signed on in HK and is in command, Ricky is now Cruise Director and fitting very comfortably into the job . We have a good loading on board, and well the Gemini experience just gets better. Seas are smooth and tomorrow we arrive into Halong Bay .

 

For those still contemplating a cruise on Gemini remember she departs the Star fleet at the end of 2008 . So book now to secure your place and experience the Gemini magic whilst you can out of either Singapore, and also out of Hong Kong till Septeber 2008 .

[RayL]

Thanks Kuldalai for your update and look forward to hearing more particularly on what excursions you are doing.

How is the onboard enertainment?

[Sydney Oz]

Hi fellow cruisers

 

Cruising first time on Gemini with husband, sister and BIL Singapore-Hong Kong.

 

Anyone else out there?

 

Sydney Oz

[kuldalai]

Well I find the current offerings very good and of great quality . So far we have had the Dancers from Brazil, a troupe of Chinese Acrobats who are just World Class, Dasha and Deema - World ballroom dancing champions from Belarus. Then we have resident pianist Roland, the SSG Lounge Band, and the just sensational and much under rated SSG Big Band. Last night they played a 40 minute Tribute Show to the music of the Beatles and Bee Gees and they bought the house down, and deservedly so . If you like dancing when on board Gemini be sure to dance to their wonderful music each night in the Galaxy of the Stars . Then we have also Twice as Nice (Westley and Shelley) from the US with their dynamic R & B and popular music numbers . Their first show was chockers, sort of musical genres from the 1940,s till now. Another show to come from those two on Wednesday night . Tonight we have the Gemini Crew Show which always reveals some very talented Crew members and is always a lot of fun .

From mid way Vietnam to Borneo on SS GEMINI best wishes to all past and booked SSG Cruisers .

[mummsie]

well back from our adventure on the Aquarius. An interesting cruise with not too many highlights except for the entertainers - the Brazilian dancers and the acrobats. Service was non existant. We only saw our room steward once when he came to turn our bed down on the second day. Never came back to turn down the bed - we must have scared him off. !! The ship is looking very worn - our shower recess had rust everywhere. The buffets were all pretty ordinary for meals except for Spices - we basically ate Indian vegetarian (which was excellent) for the entire cruise as the main buffet was noisy and crowded and the food was really dry and overcooked. But saying that, I would still rather be on her cruising than being at work. :D Other than the shows, there was no entertainment - we were back in our cabin by 9pm watching TV. - mummsie

[jansim]

Hello Kuldalai,:)

 

Hope you are thoroughly enjoying your cruise still. Sounds like you are having great entertainment on board.

 

It would appear that we share the same itinerary as yourselves but we go in September - cant wait!!:D

 

Do you have any tips about the shore excursions in Kuching? My husband and I are great wildlife lovers and really fancy the trip up river into the national park.

 

Any information and advise will be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers

jansim

[ging466]

Back home after a wonderful cruise on the Superstar Gemini. What a great ship she is...I must say I'm a convert to smaller ship cruising now. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and the itinerary southbound from Hong Kong and would recommend to anyone interested to jump on board before the ship leaves Star Cruises. The food was fantastic and I only have superlatives for the crew who were absolutely brilliant. When I've got some time, I will post a review.

 

It was great to meet Helga and Kuldalai...I hope you have made it back home in one piece. I had a problem with the Qantas flight ex Singapore being delayed 4 hours but this was nothing in comparison to all the flights that have been cancelled due to the engineers' strike.

 

Cheers

Jennifer aka Ging466

[helga38]

Ging, I heartily agree with you !

We really enjoyed our cruise,even when we did not do the excursions,but did our own thing in HongKong,walked for ages,got a taxi back to the ternimal and then asked for wheelchairs back to ship--as usual no problem.

The crew are fantastic-nothing is too small for them to do for you.

This has been our best holiday for a long time.There are so many places for a quiet time, or to join in,if that's good for you too. From the remarks that I heard from people,the excursions were great,and I really hear any complaints.

Everyone on board is so unhappy about the Gemini returning to Norway next january,but i can see the reason why-we were not at all at full capacity,so the company must be losing money on her.

It was beaut to meet up with Ging and Kuldali.

 

Cheers and Happy Sailing !

helga

[Scoot'n'cruise]

Hi fellow Gemini cruisers

I have searched this thread and the cabin selection one but have found nothing about cabin #2317 on SS Gemini. I am worried that this cabin is right next to the door where passengers get on & off the vessel and that we will get woken up early as staff get set up in the mornings (we had a similar problem on the Tahitian Princess when we were above the access way). Does anyone know whether we will hear things and if we should try and get another cabin further back on deck 2 (or even 'downgrade' to an inside cabin)?

 

Hi also to RayL - we are on the Singapore to Singapore round trip leaving on the 27 July so will be on the 2nd half of your leg. (We were also on the Tahitian Princess in Nov 05).

[kuldalai]

I would not be too concerned about 2317 . Firstly arrivals are usually between 0700 and 1000 and one should be well up and breakfasted by then and raring to go ashore . Secondly, that Starboard doorway is not used at every port for boarding/disembarking pax. In many ports it is done from the Promenade Deck 5 level . Relax and enjoy the cruise.

[RayL]

Hi Scoot & Cruise,

Welcome aboard. Should be a great cruise as Gemini gets some very good wraps. The TP was a great cruise.

Kuldalai is probably right and it will be of no great concern.

But - if you are not happy get your travel agent to start screaming at Star and get a change or even go to Reception on Deck 5 when you board when you board, but better to do it now.

[Scoot'n'cruise]

Thanks kuldalai & RayL, I'll stick with what we've got and see how we go.:)

Waiting in nervous anticipation until we are on our way! Can't wait!:D

[Limeycruiser]

Hello to all from the UK

 

To Kuldalai, would you please help me out, I am joining the Gemini in Hong Kong on August 6th and at the first port of call, Halong Bay, I have booked a Junk cruise and the Travel Agent I have been dealing with in Hanoi has asked me for Visa numbers, my Travel Agent in the UK was unable to get them because as you have previously stated the ship gets a blanket Visa for all aboard. When you go ashore does the Gemini give you a Visa? Thank you.

 

To scoot'n'cruise, looks like I shall be joining you on your return leg, please bring fair weather with you.