Celebrity Solstice - Halong Bay - 12 November 2024

[Peaofsweetness1]

Hi

 

a number of questions!

 

1.  Does anybody know where the ship will dock on that date please?

2.  My itinerary says gangplank down at 11.30 am.  Is that correct?

3.  I’m trying to book a boat trip, (2 days 1 night), but  it looks like we arrive too late for the one I hoped to join and it would be useful to know where we dock

4.  For those of you who have been to Halong Bay before, I would be grateful to know who easy it would be to get off the ship and organise a trip on the day.

 

Thank you so much

[chemmo]

1 hour ago, Peaofsweetness1 said:

Hi

 

a number of questions!

 

1.  Does anybody know where the ship will dock on that date please?

2.  My itinerary says gangplank down at 11.30 am.  Is that correct?

3.  I’m trying to book a boat trip, (2 days 1 night), but  it looks like we arrive too late for the one I hoped to join and it would be useful to know where we dock

4.  For those of you who have been to Halong Bay before, I would be grateful to know who easy it would be to get off the ship and organise a trip on the day.

 

Thank you so much

When we went we didn’t dock we were tendered but it was a few years ago now…Usual tendering process. Ship tours off first then suite guests, Elite and above then numbered (you can queue to get a number). Hopefully someone will confirm if it is still tendering or if the ship does now dock…
 

One of the most magical places we have ever visited, enjoy!

 

Re trips if you contact the vendor they will often reschedule trip times to ship times…worth an email. 

[ColoradoCruiser88]

Both @mahdnc and @Miaminice wrote up really good cruise reports that featured this port call earlier this year - I believe also on Solstice, so similar itinerary.

[Miaminice]

Here‘s the link to our above mentioned review.

Personally we much preferred our Halong Bay / Hanoi combo over just cruising in the bay.

 

We enjoyed Vietnam so much that we are currently on a Mekong River cruise. Or better just finished it. We are now in Siem Reap Cambodia. 

Edited September 25 by Miaminice

[jwlane]

Maybe someone in the Roll Call for this sailing would know.

[mahdnc]

4 hours ago, Peaofsweetness1 said:

Hi

 

a number of questions!

 

1.  Does anybody know where the ship will dock on that date please?

2.  My itinerary says gangplank down at 11.30 am.  Is that correct?

3.  I’m trying to book a boat trip, (2 days 1 night), but  it looks like we arrive too late for the one I hoped to join and it would be useful to know where we dock

4.  For those of you who have been to Halong Bay before, I would be grateful to know who easy it would be to get off the ship and organise a trip on the day.

 

Thank you so much

 

 

I had the same goal and questions as you did for our Dec 22, 2023 Singapore to Hong Kong sailing on Solstice!  I have some information that can help you. 

 

It is difficult to independently book an overnight Halong Bay cruise that works with the ship's port schedule..  That was my personal experience.  When I originally did my research for our Dec 22, 2023 Singapore to Hong Kong sailing, that was what I was reading.  However our original published port times at Halong Bay made booking independently possible.  But then two changes were made to our Halong Bay time (before we sailed) that forced me to cancel it and book it through Celebrity.  

 

Here is some information that I have for you:

 

1.  First, here is my Live Thread which has a lot of posts that detail our overnight cruise at Halong Bay that we purchased from Celebrity.

 

2. Our overnight Halong Bay cruise through Celebrity was on the Paradise Grand run by Paradise Vietnam.  Here is some information about the ship 

 

3. The price that Celebrity was selling the overnight excursion for was far more expensive than if you could book it independently.  It was sad.  There are nicer (higher end) overnight cruise options that still would have cost less than what we paid Celebrity.

 

4. Here is the detailed schedule that was given to us during our cruise that explained the schedule for the overnight tour.

 

5. Solstice docked at the Halong International Cruise Port.  We boarded a Celebrity bus that took us to the Tuan Chau Pier where the shuttle boat was docked that took us out to our tour ship (Paradise Grand) which was anchored off in the distance.  The buses picked us up near the ship.  The pier itself is very long.  It is safe to walk to the port city of Halong but a shuttle buggy-bus was offered in both directions.  Taxis were not permitted to drive down the pier, drop off/pick up was done at the entrance to the pier.

 

 

Once we got started, the bus ride was about 20 minutes long.  My understanding is that many, but not all Halong Bay tours start from this pier so you have to research that carefully.   The traffic was ok, but we were there on New Year's Eve and New Years Day so maybe it is worse during non-holiday times.

 

 

6.  It looked like there were Halong Bay tour boats that were docked at the Halong International Cruise Pier very close to the ship.  We saw a couple of boats while we were there (photo).  I didn't research it extensively afterward, but it looked like they did not do overnight cruises.  If I had to do this over again (knowing now what I didn't know then), I would look harder to see if there were any overnight tour boats that left from the cruise ship pier.

 

 

7.  It look like all the overnight tour boats were all about the same in terms of where they went, where they anchored at night, and the types of excursions that were offered (kayaking, etc).  The one company that I would have booked our tour with independently (Stellar of the Seas) advertised how they went to places that the other boats don't go to.  However our Celebrity shorex tour boat ended up anchoring next to Stellar of the Seas at night (along with other boats).  However there did seem to be a larger difference in the quality of the ships and service.  Here are a couple of time lapse videos of our cruise: Video 1 and Video 2.  The didn't load properly in my Live Thread.

 

 

I doubt that we will do the overnight tour again, but if I were to do it, I would work harder to find a tour on my own because of the savings involved.

Edited September 25 by mahdnc

[peaofsweetness]

Thank you so much for your response.  My apologies for not replying sooner.  I struggled to work out how! Interesting information.  How long did it take to get from the port to Tan Chau please? I can’t find any overnight cruises from the cruise port.

[mahdnc]

On 10/1/2024 at 5:44 AM, peaofsweetness said:

Thank you so much for your response.  My apologies for not replying sooner.  I struggled to work out how! Interesting information.  How long did it take to get from the port to Tan Chau please? I can’t find any overnight cruises from the cruise port.

 

The motorcoach ride was approximately 20 minutes long.  Celebrity had it listed as 30 minutes.

 

 

If you were to go independently, you would need to get a taxi at the cruise terminal.  However getting to the cruise terminal at the front of the pier will take time..

 

The cruise terminal (marked as a red hand drawn circle in the photo below) is about a 15 minute walk from the ship (red X).  I don't recall the taxis being able to drive up to the ship.  If you click or tap on the photo below you can see it more clearly.  There is a scale printed in the lower right hand corner.  According to the scale, the ship (X) and cruise terminal (O) are about 1 kilometer apart.   There is a large golf cart buggy shuttle used to transport people from the ship to the terminal which will save time but I don't know how long the queue is to get one because I imagine that they were real popular in the morning (I also don't remember how many golf carts that had operating at one time).

 

 

Just to be clear, here is the logistics/transport that you will need to get to your Halong Bay cruise ship:

 

1. Get off Solstice and onto the cruise pier.

2  Get from the cruise pier to the cruise terminal (on foot or by golf cart)

3. Walk through the cruise terminal to the front entrance.

4. Get a taxi at the front of the cruise terminal

5. Taxi ride from cruise terminal to Tuan Chau Port (20 minutes)

6. Get on the tour provider's shuttle boat which takes you from Tuan Chau Port  to your tour boat in Halong Bay.

Edited October 2 by mahdnc

[hubofhockey]

On 9/25/2024 at 8:16 AM, Peaofsweetness1 said:

Hi

 

a number of questions!

 

1.  Does anybody know where the ship will dock on that date please?

2.  My itinerary says gangplank down at 11.30 am.  Is that correct?

3.  I’m trying to book a boat trip, (2 days 1 night), but  it looks like we arrive too late for the one I hoped to join and it would be useful to know where we dock

4.  For those of you who have been to Halong Bay before, I would be grateful to know who easy it would be to get off the ship and organise a trip on the day.

 

Thank you so much

The indochinese junks for overnights are amazing.  If you have the time, you should do it.  We did take a taxi to the port where the junks leave.  We got in pretty early.  Bhaya was the company we used and loved everything about it.  The cabins are great, so is the food and drink.  They all do the same excursion off.  I think we had 4 or 5 couple on ours.  The smaller boats are better. 

[peaofsweetness]

On 10/4/2024 at 1:58 AM, hubofhockey said:

The indochinese junks for overnights are amazing.  If you have the time, you should do it.  We did take a taxi to the port where the junks leave.  We got in pretty early.  Bhaya was the company we used and loved everything about it.  The cabins are great, so is the food and drink.  They all do the same excursion off.  I think we had 4 or 5 couple on ours.  The smaller boats are better. 

What makes you say the smaller boats are better? Would we need to book in advance? Many thanks. 

[kfulwell]

We are doing Halong Bay from Solstice the following week and have booked this, which goes from the International Terminal:

https://www.incredibleasiajourneys.com/cruise/signature-cruise.html