Celebrity Solstice - 12/22/2023 - Thailand & Vietnam - Live(ish) Report

[Miaminice]

14 hours ago, JackE said:

Oliver, your live reports are outstanding. I have already booked a tour with your recommended guide in Osaka/Kyoto for a March 2026 cruise! And I have bookmarked Rose's information. You are a wealth of incredible knowledge! 

 

Do you have any advice for Hong Kong guide? What about Nagasaki and Hiroshima?

 

Thanks in advance for your guidance.

 

Jack

 

Thank you!

 

I can only keep on recommending Rose! Since we posted about her quite a few people followed our recommendation and booked tours with her. They all came back raving abou the experience. She´s a gem!

 

About Hong Kong... we have been there many times so we don´t actually book a guide any more. However, when we booked a guide many years ago it was with www.hellohongkong.com.hk. It was a good tour, so we can recommend them. Otherwise you can try with toursbylocals.com.
As a hotel we can recommend The Kowloon Hotel. Very good location and reasonable rates.

In Nagasaki I would not do a tour at all. Nagasaki is extremely easy to do DIY. Take a taxi or tram to the Peace Museum and Peace Park, take a tram to Chinatown, walk trough Chinatown and up to Glover Gardens and you´ll have a great day. The ship is within just a few minutes walking distance from Glover Gardens. So really easy.

You can also do Hiroshima on your own. However, it is not as easy as Nagasaki. The iconic Hioshima Peace Memorial/Dome and the Museum are must sees. Then I also recommend seeing Myajima. Both can easily be done in one day. If you want to do it with a guide I can recommend trying toursbylocals.co or gowithguide.com (former triplelights).

 

We did Hiroshima on this cruise:

https://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/Celebrity-Millennium-Japan/celebrity-millennium-japan.html

 

The other Japan travelogues are:
https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2970853-celebrity-millennium-japan-10242023-liveish-report/

 

and

 

http://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/HAL-Westerdam-Japan-01/hal-westerdam-japan-01.html

 

[JackE]

3 hours ago, Miaminice said:

 

Thank you!

 

I can only keep on recommending Rose! Since we posted about her quite a few people followed our recommendation and booked tours with her. They all came back raving abou the experience. She´s a gem!

 

About Hong Kong... we have been there many times so we don´t actually book a guide any more. However, when we booked a guide many years ago it was with www.hellohongkong.com.hk. It was a good tour, so we can recommend them. Otherwise you can try with toursbylocals.com.
As a hotel we can recommend The Kowloon Hotel. Very good location and reasonable rates.

In Nagasaki I would not do a tour at all. Nagasaki is extremely easy to do DIY. Take a taxi or tram to the Peace Museum and Peace Park, take a tram to Chinatown, walk trough Chinatown and up to Glover Gardens and you´ll have a great day. The ship is within just a few minutes walking distance from Glover Gardens. So really easy.

You can also do Hiroshima on your own. However, it is not as easy as Nagasaki. The iconic Hioshima Peace Memorial/Dome and the Museum are must sees. Then I also recommend seeing Myajima. Both can easily be done in one day. If you want to do it with a guide I can recommend trying toursbylocals.co or gowithguide.com (former triplelights).

 

We did Hiroshima on this cruise:

https://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/Celebrity-Millennium-Japan/celebrity-millennium-japan.html

 

The other Japan travelogues are:
https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2970853-celebrity-millennium-japan-10242023-liveish-report/

 

and

 

http://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/HAL-Westerdam-Japan-01/hal-westerdam-japan-01.html

 

Thank you so very much! 

Jack

[Miaminice]

Dear friends,

 

After this fantastic experience, and especially the fantastic time we had in Vietnam, it didn't take long for us to book a different kind of trip to deepen our new found affection. So be booked a Mekong River cruise followed by a few days of touring Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
 

Now the time has come :-) We just finished packing our bags and we'll be off to the airport in two hours. Of course I would like to report from the trip as always - I just don't know where.
 

@LauraS Could you give me directions to where I could post about our Mekong River Cruise?

Edited September 14 by Miaminice

[Liao]

1 hour ago, Miaminice said:

Dear friends,

 

After this fantastic experience, and especially the fantastic time we had in Vietnam, it didn't take long for us to book a different kind of trip to deepen our new found affection. So be booked a Mekong River cruise followed by a few days of touring Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
 

Now the time has come :-) We just finished packing our bags and we'll be off to the airport in two hours. Of course I would like to report from the trip as always - I just don't know where.
 

@LauraS Could you give me directions to where I could post about our Mekong River Cruise?

Definitely following for this!  I don’t follow many “lives” as they can be full of self aggrandizement and fluff, but yours are always so well written and beautifully detailed.  Enjoy your cruise!

[chemmo]

1 hour ago, Miaminice said:

Dear friends,

 

After this fantastic experience, and especially the fantastic time we had in Vietnam, it didn't take long for us to book a different kind of trip to deepen our new found affection. So be booked a Mekong River cruise followed by a few days of touring Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
 

Now the time has come :-) We just finished packing our bags and we'll be off to the airport in two hours. Of course I would like to report from the trip as always - I just don't know where.
 

@LauraS Could you give me directions to where I could post about our Mekong River Cruise?

Once Laura directs you where to post then let us know then we can follow along?

 

Sincere best wishes for a fantastic experience!

[MamaFej]

5 hours ago, Miaminice said:

Dear friends,

 

After this fantastic experience, and especially the fantastic time we had in Vietnam, it didn't take long for us to book a different kind of trip to deepen our new found affection. So be booked a Mekong River cruise followed by a few days of touring Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
 

Now the time has come :-) We just finished packing our bags and we'll be off to the airport in two hours. Of course I would like to report from the trip as always - I just don't know where.
 

@LauraS Could you give me directions to where I could post about our Mekong River Cruise?

Only you can decide if you want to spend a few days at Angkor Wat. However, there is definitely more to see in the area. You might want to spend some of your time seeing other temples, like Temple Bayon and Ta Prohm, as well as enjoying other features of the region. 

 

You are definitely in for a (hot and humid) treat, no matter what you choose to do. the Cambodian people, as a whole, are amazingly delightful.

[Happy Texans]

On 12/21/2023 at 6:54 AM, Kiwifruit said:

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this cruise as we’ll be joining the Solstice in Hong Kong on 3 January for the reverse itinerary. Will be particularly interested to hear who the current Cruise Director is?
 

Happy Sailing !!!

For the days in Vietnam did you need a multi day Visa?

 

[Miaminice]

41 minutes ago, Happy Texans said:

For the days in Vietnam did you need a multi day Visa?

 

you mean multi entry… since the ship is not leaving Vietnam in between ports, a single entry visa was fine but I heard most people got a multiple entry visa.
We didn’t/don’t require a visa for Vietnam since we have German passports.

[Miaminice]

6 hours ago, chemmo said:

Once Laura directs you where to post then let us know then we can follow along?

 

Sincere best wishes for a fantastic experience!

will do! However, until now I haven’t heard back from her.

In case I can’t post here and you are interested in following our trip, please send me a message or email me at dehn DOT oliver AT gmail DOT com. I can send you a link to our blog.

[Suzi66]

9 hours ago, Happy Texans said:

For the days in Vietnam did you need a multi day Visa?

 

As Australians who did the reverse (the 3rd of January trip) we only needed the single entry Visa as previously mentioned.  The hardest thing was trying to work out what was the entry and departure ports.

[Liao]

20 hours ago, Miaminice said:

will do! However, until now I haven’t heard back from her.

In case I can’t post here and you are interested in following our trip, please send me a message or email me at dehn DOT oliver AT gmail DOT com. I can send you a link to our blog.

Is travellove.one the blog to follow where you'll be posting during this cruise?

[Miaminice]

8 hours ago, Liao said:

Is travellove.one the blog to follow where you'll be posting during this cruise?

yes, the Facebook group with that name - travellove.one 👍

[ColoradoCruiser88]

On 9/14/2024 at 2:04 PM, Miaminice said:

In case I can’t post here and you are interested in following our trip, please send me a message or email me at dehn DOT oliver AT gmail DOT com. I can send you a link to our blog.

@Miaminice Some of us are not on that other website and we (I) would really love to read about your new cruise experience - especially for Ankor Wat.  You always provide such relevant and useful information 💐.

 

is it possible for you to post your cruise experience on the Asia forum for now, and if perchance it gets moved, we will just follow it to its new home?

 

Wishing you and your wife a wonderful cruise!!

 

 

 

[Miaminice]

4 hours ago, ColoradoCruiser88 said:

@Miaminice Some of us are not on that other website and we (I) would really love to read about your new cruise experience - especially for Ankor Wat.  You always provide such relevant and useful information 💐.

 

is it possible for you to post your cruise experience on the Asia forum for now, and if perchance it gets moved, we will just follow it to its new home?

 

Wishing you and your wife a wonderful cruise!!

 

 

 

I haven’t heard back from the admins yet. So I guess I will do that. 👍

 

We are currently on the bus to the Mekong after two days in Saigon. 

 

[ColoradoCruiser88]

9 hours ago, Miaminice said:

I haven’t heard back from the admins yet. So I guess I will do that. 👍

 

We are currently on the bus to the Mekong after two days in Saigon. 

@MiaminiceThank you SO much for taking the time to do this!  Found you on the Asia board already this morning!  

We have a B2B SE Asia cruise with DIY precruise to Ankor Wat next year and your past trip reports are a fabulous source of insightful information.  Perfect timing now for Ankor Wat!

 

Thanks again and have a fabulous trip!

 

CC88

[Miaminice]

For those of you interested in the Mekong Trip. This is where you can also follow it

 

 

[Valentin53]

On 12/21/2023 at 5:12 PM, Miaminice said:

At the bay we allowed ourselves a rest at a Starbucks. We couldn’t resist the view - and a cold drink. After saying hello to our old friend the Merlion we continued to the Albert Center in Bugis.

 

 

 

For weeks we had already been looking forward to having Popiahs there again. Of course they didn’t come all alone. Fried carrot cake was our second course.

 

 

 

 

On 12/21/2023 at 5:12 PM, Miaminice said:

At the bay we allowed ourselves a rest at a Starbucks. We couldn’t resist the view - and a cold drink. After saying hello to our old friend the Merlion we continued to the Albert Center in Bugis.

 

 

 

For weeks we had already been looking forward to having Popiahs there again. Of course they didn’t come all alone. Fried carrot cake was our second course.

 

 

 

Where is this place to eat.

[Miaminice]

24 minutes ago, Valentin53 said:

 

Where is this place to eat.

it is the Albert Center in Bugis. 

[chemmo]

On 9/18/2024 at 2:43 PM, Miaminice said:

For those of you interested in the Mekong Trip. This is where you can also follow it

 

 

Just found you, thanks!