Bangkok

[zitsky]

Singapore to Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.  Looks like 2 or 3 days in Bangkok.  Can you stay overnight?  Anyone know the hotel they use?  We are thinking to meet a friend there.

[TrulyBlonde]

37 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Singapore to Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.  Looks like 2 or 3 days in Bangkok.  Can you stay overnight?  Anyone know the hotel they use?  We are thinking to meet a friend there.

In Bangkok they use The Peninsula. My fav hotel in Asia. Yes, they have an overnight. 

[Von & John]

We did this cruise 3 years ago, on the Connie.

Loved it!

There was an overnight - you could arrange on your own or use Celebrity.

[mom says]

I shudder to think what X charges for an overnight excursion. Without even looking, I can tell you that you can probably stay at a 5* hotel  for a whole lot less. We organized a small group private tour and stayed at a wonderful hotel in Bangkok on our overnight last year. Maybe check your roll call to see if someone is doing something similar.

[zitsky]

5 minutes ago, mom says said:

I shudder to think what X charges for an overnight excursion. Without even looking, I can tell you that you can probably stay at a 5* hotel  for a whole lot less. We organized a small group private tour and stayed at a wonderful hotel in Bangkok on our overnight last year. Maybe check your roll call to see if someone is doing something similar.

 

Does anyone know what Celebrity charges for an overnight stay?  Looks like rooms start at $300 USD.

[jelayne]

21 minutes ago, zitsky said:

 

Does anyone know what Celebrity charges for an overnight stay?  Looks like rooms start at $300 USD.

 Checking our Cruise Planner for the 2day 1 night Bangkok excursion Celebrity is charging $447.50 per adult.  We are doing this in November and 6 of us have hired a guide for 2 days, we will be picked up & returned to the port and have booked Club Lounge Rooms at the Royal Orchid Sheraton ( includes breakfast, hors d’eouvers cocktails & dessert) cost per couple $440; half of the Celebrity excursion.

Edited January 5, 2020 by jelayne

[mom says]

15 minutes ago, zitsky said:

 

Does anyone know what Celebrity charges for an overnight stay?  Looks like rooms start at $300 USD.

I found the Millenniums excursions in Bangkok here:. https://www.celebritycruises.com/ca/ports/bangkok/shore-excursions

 

 Their cheapest price is obscene for Bangkok.

 

Our private tour (with 8 people)included a van and driver plus tour guide who picked us up at the pier, drove us into and back from the city, an evening food tour, and next-day city tour of palaces and temples came to $360 CDN per  couple. Our hotel with breakfast (the Easton Grand Sathorn) was $163 CDN for the night. So a little over $500 CDN for the 2 of us.

[mdpa]

We are doing a hybrid approach. We are using a Celebrity "drop us off in town and pick us up the next day" excursion. The price was reasonable and only about a block away from the St. Regis hotel (we are using points but the price also seemed reasonable).

 

The hotel is located directly across from the skytrain so we are looking forward to exploring on our own.

[dani negreanu]

Through our roll call, we booked Oriental Express transfer to BK "pier to pier". The drop off was at the MBK mall and most of our fellow travellers choose to stay there. We paid a bit extra and continued to Chatrium Riverside hotel, which offered an early check in (we were in BK by 10.30). The hotel was amazing and cheap (110$ including a somptous b'fast).

The transfer was 24$ pp retour (we were 10 persons in the van). So all in all our transfer + hotel stay was 158$ ....

 

[Jim_Iain]

19 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

Through our roll call, we booked Oriental Express transfer to BK "pier to pier". The drop off was at the MBK mall and most of our fellow travellers choose to stay there. We paid a bit extra and continued to Chatrium Riverside hotel, which offered an early check in (we were in BK by 10.30). The hotel was amazing and cheap (110$ including a somptous b'fast).

The transfer was 24$ pp retour (we were 10 persons in the van). So all in all our transfer + hotel stay was 158$ ....

 

Can you give me some information on the Oriental Express Transfer BK "Pier to Pier".    I did some googling and didn't find them.   We will be taking the same cruise on Nov 10 and I like the idea of spending overnight in Bangkok.   

 

Curious of the date you will be traveling as our Roll Call is pretty quiet so far.  

[dani negreanu]

17 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Can you give me some information on the Oriental Express Transfer BK "Pier to Pier".    I did some googling and didn't find them.  

 

Jim, sorry, my bad (and my age...). It's Oriental Escape

https://www.orientalescape.com/transfer/thailand

 

[Jim_Iain]

11 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

 

Jim, sorry, my bad (and my age...). It's Oriental Escape

https://www.orientalescape.com/transfer/thailand

 

 

Thanks so much.    I did find Oriental Escape.   I'll take a look.   The prices sounded great and I like the hotel you selected.   I'm pretty sure we will be doing at least one night maybe two.

[dani negreanu]

6 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

The prices sounded great and I like the hotel you selected.  

 

Besides allowing us an early check in, the "rationale" behind choosing this hotel was that we wanted to travel to all the main attractions by water/ferry -- not the horendous traffic ib BK, and also "mingling" with the locals. The hotel provides a free shuttle to the main ferry station, and from there we travelled to all the "Watts"....

B'fast was served outside, right on the river, which was also very pleasant, and in the evening we went to "Asiatique" the river front, a mere 5 mins drive from the hotel -- again, with lots of locals. It was an unforgetable day and night in BK, we were very happy with how we spent the overnight there.

 

[bubbachief]

Check out travelhub bangkok We just did an overnight tour with them and were very pleased.

[Nachosdelux]

Wife and I used Oriental Escape a couple years ago for transport from port to hotel and back. 

 

I highly recommend them and would use them again without hesitation.

 

We stayed at the Renaissance Ratchaprasong and loved it. (Marriott Property)

[Jim_Iain]

3 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

 

Besides allowing us an early check in, the "rationale" behind choosing this hotel was that we wanted to travel to all the main attractions by water/ferry -- not the horendous traffic ib BK, and also "mingling" with the locals. The hotel provides a free shuttle to the main ferry station, and from there we travelled to all the "Watts"....

B'fast was served outside, right on the river, which was also very pleasant, and in the evening we went to "Asiatique" the river front, a mere 5 mins drive from the hotel -- again, with lots of locals. It was an unforgetable day and night in BK, we were very happy with how we spent the overnight there.

 

 

23 minutes ago, bubbachief said:

Check out travelhub bangkok We just did an overnight tour with them and were very pleased.

 

3 minutes ago, Nachosdelux said:

Wife and I used Oriental Escape a couple years ago for transport from port to hotel and back. 

 

I highly recommend them and would use them again without hesitation.

 

We stayed at the Renaissance Ratchaprasong and loved it. (Marriott Property)

Thanks for all the wonderful recommendations.   Now time to start planning.

[woldridge]

On 1/4/2020 at 9:33 PM, jelayne said:

 Checking our Cruise Planner for the 2day 1 night Bangkok excursion Celebrity is charging $447.50 per adult.  We are doing this in November and 6 of us have hired a guide for 2 days, we will be picked up & returned to the port and have booked Club Lounge Rooms at the Royal Orchid Sheraton ( includes breakfast, hors d’eouvers cocktails & dessert) cost per couple $440; half of the Celebrity excursion.

Interesting to note that Celebrity has raised the prices of shore excursions.  I have three booked through them for our B2B2B transpacific cruise and Asia cruises for next Sept-November.  Two of the excursions I got at a discount when they were running a special, but all have gone up from the original cost.  The tour you refer to above is now $699 per person!

[4774Papa]

I read that the big heartburn with going to Bangkok is the terrible traffic and just getting to the city and back too the ship.

 

We  visited Bangkok in 1981, it was charming, except for being known as the sex tourist capital of the World.

 

Traffic was terrible even in 1981.

[Jim_Iain]

6 minutes ago, 4774Papa said:

I read that the big heartburn with going to Bangkok is the terrible traffic and just getting to the city and back too the ship.

 

We  visited Bangkok in 1981, it was charming, except for being known as the sex tourist capital of the World.

 

Traffic was terrible even in 1981.

If you think traffic was bad in 1981 it is far worse now.    Then again if I compare the traffic in Silicon Valley from 1981 to today it is about 10x worse.

[zitsky]

Is it about 3 hours from port to Bangkok?  Do buses in SE Asia have bathrooms or do they stop every 2 hours give or take?

[dani negreanu]

15 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Is it about 3 hours from port to Bangkok?

 

The journey in the morning to BK took less than 2.5 hours. 

The 2nd day we took off at 1PM at were back on the ship a few mins after 3PM — much quicker....

That’s why it was important to us to book a hotel which advertised “early check in”. We left our luggage, took a refreshing shower and were good for a long day of “work”...

 

Edited January 6, 2020 by dani negreanu

[NCHPcruiser]

The traffic in Bangkok is horrendous!  We had a private guide (this was a land trip) and used the sky train.  There is no way we could have seen and done everything we did had we been in a car, van or bus!  The majority of our time would have been spent in traffic.  A small group or private tour is the only way to see Bangkok.  

[zitsky]

I would like to hear back from anyone who did a tour through the cruise line on a Celebrity southeast Asia cruise.  Was it a mistake?*

 

*There seems to be agreement that private is much better.

[bubbachief]

 We had 3 days in Hong Kong on our recent B2B  cruise. The first day we booked a Celebrity tour that did Victoria Peak, Stanley Market and a boat trip around Aberdeen harbor. Cost was reasonable and tour lasted 7 hours. All in all, a good tour and we don't usually book Celebrity tours.

[bigbenboys]

On 1/4/2020 at 6:33 PM, jelayne said:

 Checking our Cruise Planner for the 2day 1 night Bangkok excursion Celebrity is charging $447.50 per adult.  We are doing this in November and 6 of us have hired a guide for 2 days, we will be picked up & returned to the port and have booked Club Lounge Rooms at the Royal Orchid Sheraton ( includes breakfast, hors d’eouvers cocktails & dessert) cost per couple $440; half of the Celebrity excursion.

I not do many tours not through Celebrity. But in this case as it is a 3 night stay and that Bangkok can be 3 hours away. Book a private tour.