Colours of the far east 1- excursions

[thepeb]

Hi all and sorry for being lazy and not checking through threads. We've cruised quite a bit now but never to Asia. Normally we are comfortable with booking one or two excursions and then doing our own thing. This time it looks very different as we are really not aware of  surroundings. We also take up the option of onboard bike tours for a number of days.

Couple of questions:

 

Are there any on board bike tours available? if not are there some reputable ones on ports?

 

Also is there any sort of 'guide' around for this cruise on recommendations on excursions or things to do?

 

This looks like an amazing cruise and we want to make the most of it obviously.

 

Any help, tips and advice would be really appreciated 🙂

 

[suekay]

We haven't done this cruise on Marella but have on other cruise lines. The best advice I can give is to go into each port of call on Cruisecritic.  Most posts there are from cruisers and that's where we got our ideas for private tours. We prefer tours with 8-10 people in a minibus rather than the coachload who go from the ship. If you can find others on your roll call to share it is often cheaper too. Unlike the Caribbean, the ports are often commercial docks far from the tourist areas. So if you dont arrange something in advance,  there'll be nothing to do in the local area

Edited September 7, 2019 by suekay

[thepeb]

18 hours ago, suekay said:

We haven't done this cruise on Marella but have on other cruise lines. The best advice I can give is to go into each port of call on Cruisecritic.  Most posts there are from cruisers and that's where we got our ideas for private tours. We prefer tours with 8-10 people in a minibus rather than the coachload who go from the ship. If you can find others on your roll call to share it is often cheaper too. Unlike the Caribbean, the ports are often commercial docks far from the tourist areas. So if you dont arrange something in advance,  there'll be nothing to do in the local area

Thanks you for this much appreciated 

[jaxw17]

We did this cruise earlier on this year. we have travelled to the far East extensively in the past but not cruised 

Some of the ports are way out from where you want to go and i would say that this is the big failing on this cruise, Mallaca and Lankawi are easy to do as well as the Cambodia one but you need to be prepared to run the gauntlet if you want to do this on your own. koh Samui is another easy one lots of taxis and tour operators waiting for the boat to come in. Vietnam is a long way so in kuala Lumpa and nothing round the dock worth seeing.Singapore is easy and considering it is quite pricey the taxis are reasonable 

The cruise is really good but can be exhausting. 

Looking on the roll calls should give you some answers.

[C@lm-Se@s]

On 9/7/2019 at 12:51 PM, suekay said:

We haven't done this cruise on Marella but have on other cruise lines. The best advice I can give is to go into each port of call on Cruisecritic.  Most posts there are from cruisers and that's where we got our ideas for private tours. We prefer tours with 8-10 people in a minibus rather than the coachload who go from the ship. If you can find others on your roll call to share it is often cheaper too. Unlike the Caribbean, the ports are often commercial docks far from the tourist areas. So if you dont arrange something in advance,  there'll be nothing to do in the local area

What date are you going we have just booked this cruise for the 12 dec flying ut on the 11th from Birmingham sorry that was meant for The Peb 

Edited September 27, 2019 by C@lm-Se@s

[thepeb]

On 9/12/2019 at 7:48 PM, jaxw17 said:

We did this cruise earlier on this year. we have travelled to the far East extensively in the past but not cruised 

Some of the ports are way out from where you want to go and i would say that this is the big failing on this cruise, Mallaca and Lankawi are easy to do as well as the Cambodia one but you need to be prepared to run the gauntlet if you want to do this on your own. koh Samui is another easy one lots of taxis and tour operators waiting for the boat to come in. Vietnam is a long way so in kuala Lumpa and nothing round the dock worth seeing.Singapore is easy and considering it is quite pricey the taxis are reasonable 

The cruise is really good but can be exhausting. 

Looking on the roll calls should give you some answers.

Sorry for the delay, missed the reply. Thank you for the tips. Much appreciated

[thepeb]

8 hours ago, C@lm-Se@s said:

What date are you going we have just booked this cruise for the 12 dec flying ut on the 11th from Birmingham sorry that was meant for The Peb 

Going in Feb, hope you have a great cruise

[suekay]

I know Cruisecritic frowns upon mentioning the fb site, but there is a very large and active group of cruisers going on Marella Far East cruises so you'd get lots of info and meet others on your sailing  there. I wish this site was as active for Marella as it is for other cruise lines as I much prefer it

Edited September 28, 2019 by suekay

[Woodies 2]

Hi This is  a message to The peb . We are going on the Far east cruise in January . Can you tell me if you went through immigration at Pattaya Airport or were you classed as  "in transit " (have you got a "Visa" stamp in your passport ) The reason i am asking this is because we are hoping to stay on in Thailand & not having the stamp may cause us problems when we go though immigration at the return airport . (we wont be travelling home with TUI )

Thank you for reading this  

[thepeb]

To Woodies2, sorry we are not going until Feb so cannot help you. Have a great trip!