Marella Discovery Itinerary Change. Colours of the Far East (Merged threads).

[Southendweather]

I notice looking at the ship time on the tracking site they are now on Thailand time which is 7 hours in front of us, unlike Malaysia and Singapore 8 hours.

[ekco]

Bed time then.

[Margaret Rees]

Apparently we are going at 16.7 kts and the Captain expects us to be ready to start tendering in Koh Samui tomorrow at 9 am .

[Southendweather]

1 hour ago, Margaret Rees said:

Apparently we are going at 16.7 kts and the Captain expects us to be ready to start tendering in Koh Samui tomorrow at 9 am .

 

Looks good from a frosty morning here in the UK.

 

Keith (Southend)

[Southendweather]

 

A storm in Kuala Lumpur producing over 2 inches of rain. From what I can see from the animated satellite images they seem to form late afternoon and hit in the evening along the west coast of the Malaysian penisular, I don't whether Margaret has noticed that?

 

http://www.weather.gov.sg/weather-satellite-geo-stationary/

 

However, don't those temperatures look devine. 🌡️🌏🏝️☀️

 

Keith (Southend)

[Margaret Rees]

We have had good weather throughout ,no bad days or heavy rain .

[Southendweather]

8 hours ago, Margaret Rees said:

We have had good weather throughout ,no bad days or heavy rain .

That's what we want to hear 🌡️😀🌞

Interesting though as I think you were in Kuala Lumpur on the 19th.

I can see you are off the west coast of Ko Samui today.

 

Keith (Southend)

[Southendweather]

 

😀

[Southendweather]

AAXX 22094 48550 21558 61108 10290 20252 30114 40121 57024 71022 81246
                   333 59017 60007=

9am (gmt) 4pm local time, synop shows an air temperature at Ko Samui of  29.0°C and reporting mist (haze I should imagine).

Reports from Ko Sumui Airport on the eastern side of the Island, ship is anchored off the west side.

Edited January 22, 2020 by Southendweather

[Southendweather]

On a late today hence playing on the computer this morning.😁

 

Discovery just heading off north from Ko Samui.

 

The Thailand weather office has quite a lot of information on it:

https://www.tmd.go.th/en/

Scroll over 'Home' and there is the rainfall radar for the Bangkok area.

Scroll over 'Weather' then area 'Southeast coast' in this case, scroll over that and Ko Samui is listed with the decoded synop report listed that I previously reported.

[Southendweather]

In fact Ko Samui narrowly missed rain today that passed east to west from the north.

 

https://weather.tmd.go.th/srtLoop.php

[Margaret Rees]

Koh Samui was great. The tendering worked well ,they used some large local boats which were more comfortable than the lifeboats.

When we got off the tender we were greeted by hundreds of drivers wanting to take us anywhere. Very like in the Caribbean. We went to a beautiful beach resort called Niki Beach. Very pleasant ,no charge for sun beds, swimming pool etc if you bought drinks.We hired a jetski and it was very good. 
You can easily walk to the town from ship ,no distance at all .Loads of shops ,bars,massage etc.

Really pleased they reinstated the port ,made a lovely final day .

[ekco]

How nice, glad you had a lovely day.  We might just do what you did as the ship excursions aren’t doing it for me, the big Buddha seems to loom large if you’ll forgive the pun.  The posh hotel trip is sold out but at £80 plus is a bit steep for a day out there and just one cocktail. How much did you pay for the taxi to Niki Beach?  Thanks for all the updates the last two weeks, they have been more helpful than you’ll ever know. Have a good trip home.

[Southendweather]

14 minutes ago, ekco said:

How nice, glad you had a lovely day.  We might just do what you did as the ship excursions aren’t doing it for me, the big Buddha seems to loom large if you’ll forgive the pun.  The posh hotel trip is sold out but at £80 plus is a bit steep for a day out there and just one cocktail. How much did you pay for the taxi to Niki Beach?  Thanks for all the updates the last two weeks, they have been more helpful than you’ll ever know. Have a good trip home.

Yes, I'll mirror that, thankyou for the updates.

 

Keith (Southend)

[ekco]

I forgot to ask Margaret.  Are they still providing town maps on the ship? Last year in Norway they stopped providing them which I thought was a bit penny pinching to say the least after spending over £4000.

[Margaret Rees]

Haven’t seen any town maps. 
we paid far over the odds for taxi to Niki beach because our driver stayed there and waited for us .Another group paid $50 return for 8 people in one vehicle so $6 or 7 per person .It is a bit overwhelming when you leave the tender as so many screaming at you to use them .Just take a deep breath and a few minutes to decide who to use.

 

[ekco]

Thanks Margaret, our usual modus operandi is to barge straight through and go for a stroll for a bit by which time the first flush has gone and things have hopefully quietened town a bit. It’s too much mayhem at first.

 

Have a safe journey home.

[Margaret Rees]

We have now arrived back at Laem Chabang on time. Captain Chris has been fantastic. Very friendly and visible around ship and got us to all the ports except Mallacca. He is on until end of March but has a week or two off sometime before then to attend a court case as a witness for a murder on a ship 10 years ago !
 

[Southendweather]

7 hours ago, Margaret Rees said:

We have now arrived back at Laem Chabang on time. Captain Chris has been fantastic. Very friendly and visible around ship and got us to all the ports except Mallacca. He is on until end of March but has a week or two off sometime before then to attend a court case as a witness for a murder on a ship 10 years ago !
 

Captain Chris, we had him on Discovery 2 in 2018 for our Cuban Fusion and Panama cruise. We had a couple laughs with him, very approachable and always around the ship. Hopefully we won't miss him.

 

Keith (Southend)

[Southendweather]

[Bertie Doe]

7 hours ago, Southendweather said:

Captain Chris, we had him on Discovery 2 in 2018 for our Cuban Fusion and Panama cruise. We had a couple laughs with him, very approachable and always around the ship. Hopefully we won't miss him.

 

Keith (Southend)

Yep he's one of the most hard working caps I've met. We did 3 back-to-back trips on Disc 2, starting on 5th Dec 2017 - Exotic Explorer, Cuban Fusion and Pride of Panama. It popped back into Montego at the end of each week but took in loadsa countries - Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Costa Rica and Columbia.

Highlights of the trip was Panama and the Grand Cayman stingrays. The lowlight was yellow 3-wheeler taxi in Havana, a cross between an open air TukTuk and a bubble car. It's top speed was about 20 mph and it broke down 200 yards short of it's target 🙂 a tobacco factory, which was closes anyway

Edited January 23, 2020 by MrSilversurf
not 2 yards

[Southendweather]

 

Yes, we did the Panama Canal trip and was a great excursion. Columbia, from Santa Marta we finally got on the Tayrona National Park excursion, excellent day it was.

 

Keith (Southend)

[Southendweather]

 

Anyone getting fed up with this cloudy dull raw damp cold weather here in the UK atm?

[ekco]

Just packing ready to leave on Thursday.  Difficult to get into light clothes mode and having to think about dressing for meals on the ship, trips, temples, beach, evening wear, etc.  Then there’s the shoes, what goes with what outfit.  It’s actually easier packing for the Arctic Sun cruise.  It’s all your fault Keith posting all of those scorching temperatures. Tried to check in on Thursday, dead on time but already closed.  They must have reached 80% so check in at the airport then, saves printing out the boarding cards.  First Defence nasal spray bought and face masks ordered and in the post just in case, you never know.  Better to be safe than sorry, anyone sneezing near me on the plane and the mask goes on.  I speak from experience, on a trip in Tenerife a woman behind and across the aisle sneezed constantly out in the open air and even though I covered my face with a scarf I caught it and was really ill for a month, thanks a lot whoever you were and take a tissue next time.

Edited January 25, 2020 by ekco
Predictive text.

[Margaret Rees]

Now we are home thoughts turned to our £1000 refund for 4 people. We have been checking account for a while but no refund. We rang and were told we had to go to a TUI shop to sign for refund ! Pity nobody told us . We went into local shop and signed so hopefully money will appear overnight ! You