Just starting on Asian research

I'm just now starting to look into Asia cruises for the winter of 2016/2017 and I'm finding it overwhelming. I guess I've gotten as far as thinking that a Singapore to Hong Kong itinerary is a good "starter" trip. (Is that true, btw?)

I've been looking at a couple of different lines itineraries and I see different ports even on that route. What are the "must do" ports that I should be looking at for a first-time Asia cruiser? What ports are not worth the bother or are too far from where we want to go?

What are the typical number of sea days for a 2 week (plus or minus) itinerary?

Our most recent lines have been Azamara which we're a little tired of, and Seabourn which looks prohibitively expensive for this length of time and itinerary. I'm looking more seriously at doing a Celebrity AquaClass as a potential compromise between price & size, but I don't know how good their itineraries are (vs. Azamara which has always had great itineraries). I can't seem to find Oceania's itineraries for that far out, but they'd be of interest as well.

I'm happy to start reading guidebooks from the library but I can't even find one that talks about Asia cruising. Please advise away! Thanks.

Yes, something like Singapore to HK is good place to start. :)

You do need to take cruise lines' destinations with a pinch of salt - the ports are often hours from the quoted destinations.

Must-see:

Bangkok. Warrants an overnite. Or ideally a few pre or post-cruise days, though few cruises turn around here. Some smaller ships berth close to the city, the others berth at Laem Chabang which is a bare minimum of a 90 minute drive (depart the city a bare minimum of 2 hrs before back-on-board time).

If the ship is berthed at Laem Chabang overnite, consider an overnight hotel in the city to avoid duplicating the travelling & to spend an evening there.

Saigon. Warrants an overnite. Small ships, including Azamara's sail right up the Saigon River & berth in the city. The others berth nearer the coast at Phu My, again a 90 minute drive. Some berth at Phu My for just a day visit & frankly that's woefully inadequate.

As with Bangkok, if your ship berths overnite at Phu My consider an overnite hotel in Saigon for the same reasons.

Halong Bay. It's usually an overnite but most itineraries are a day and a half rather than 2 full days.

It's a drive of 3 hrs+ to Hanoi.

Some overnite in Hanoi, mostly on ship's excursion.

Six hours travelling in a day is no fun, but it's possible if the first day is the full day (no rush to get back to the ship).

A junk cruise amongst the eerie karsts (limestone islets) of Halong Bay is amazing. But it needs a 6 or 8 hour cruise to get the full benefit, a four-hour cruise hardly suffices. And even a four-hour cruise is difficult or impossible on a half-day. Ships offer their own 2-hour junk cruises - over-priced of course but more importantly over-crowded, and since it takes a while to cross the bay to the karsts you'll get little of the atmosphere in two hours - you need to go deep amongst the karsts & away from other boats.

So you're torn between Hanoi or a junk cruise - or a pretty poor combination which does justice to neither.

Hong Kong. One of my favourites. Again needs an overnite - or preferably a few pre or post-cruise days. Various cruise berths, best is the old cruise terminal by the Star Ferry terminal on the Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) peninsula of Kowloon - the mainland side of the harbour - where you're right in the middle of everything & close to those cross-harbour ferries. Most cruise ships now berth at Kai Tak, the old airport, but it's only five minutes by mass-transit railway (MTR) from TST.

I'm guessing Beijing, Shanghai & some Japanese ports are must-do's but they're still on my bucket-list. These are north of HK. There are lots of Asia cruises late winter & spring, and north of HK life is rather cold at that time of year.

Well-worthwhile

Sihanoukville, Cambodia. Some will argue about this, cos it's rather grubby, the people are poor, it's changed very little over the past few centuries, and I doubt you'll find a McDonald's or a KFC. But the contrast is what fascinates me. The tiger economies of SE Asia - Malaysia, Thailand, even Vietnam - are developing fast, each year they become more "westernised". But I suspect that Cambodia will change little, it's been left behind - but that's what charms the traveller.

Da Nang. Smaller ships (?Azamara?) berth in town. Handy to China Beach & Marble Mountain. And not a long drive south to Hoi An or north to Hue. Larger ships berth at Chan May, about 40 minutes north of Da Nang. Hue is tolerably convenient, Hoi An less so.

Bali, Indonesia. Another favourite of mine. On cruises which sail down the Indonesian islands. Bali has a lot to offer, the people are friendy, artistic & religious (Buddhist - the rest of Indonesia is predominantly Muslim)

Phuket, Thailand. A resort island. Similar to Koh Samui (bottom of my list) but with the saving grace of Phang Nga Bay - not as eerie as Halong Bay, but there are similarities.

Bottom of the list.

Singapore. Again, lots of folk will disagree. But I find it just too neat & clean & ordered, to the point of being clinical. But whatever floats your boat - and it's a turnaround port for a huge proportion of cruises - therefore you'll likely be going there anyway, so you can make your own mind up.

Nha Trang. Vietnam. Not a great deal to offer.

Semarang, Indonesia. Good for a coach trip to the temple at Borobadur, but little else.

Kuala Lumpur. We broke a UK to Aus flight there for 24 hours. I think (???) it's some distance from the port. The Petronas Towers are spectacular, but otherwise we found it a boring modern city - even the palace. And much more expensive that elsewhere in silly-cheap SE Asia.

Koh Samui, Thailand A resort destination for lots of westerners.

Dial some of the names (not just the bold-type places) into Google Images for a flavour.

For a beach vacation I'd put Phuket & Koh Samui further up the list (had a great week on Phuket), but not for a cruise.

Tired of Azamara? Some of the SE Asia ports may persuade you to give Azamara another try because Celebrity has the same size disadvantages as the other leviathons.

All just MHO as always.

JB :)

John Bull did an excellent job of summarizing the ports. Some other things to consider.

Where are you departing from? If it's a long flight you might want to break it up and visit a city one the way to the departure port or on your return trip home. We normally go a day or two prior to the cruise (since we typically book our own flights and want to make sure we do not miss the cruise and then stay a day or two after the cruise ends if it's a different city than the embarkation port. So in your example, we went two days early to Singapore and stayed two days after the cruise in Hong Kong. In both cities there are many things to see and in Hong Kong you can go to Macau.

If you want to see China (Peoples Republic of China versus Taiwan) I would suggest a land tour. Most cruises stop at Shanghai and / or Beijing, there are many things to see in each of these cities, but there is so much more inland to see that you won't see on a cruise, Terra Cotta Warriors for example.

You might check out a Celebrity Cruise on the Millennium in October 2016 that departs from Yokohama (near Tokyo) stops at three ports in Japan then Shanghai, Okinawa, Keelung (1 1/2 days to go to Taipei) and ends in Honk Kong.

Most of the cruises are 14 days - and some take back to back cruises since the plane flight is long and costly.

Good luck.

What a wealth of good information! Thanks so much for taking the time to advise me. I've now got some direction for my research.

I'm just now starting to look into Asia cruises for the winter of 2016/2017 and I'm finding it overwhelming. I guess I've gotten as far as thinking that a Singapore to Hong Kong itinerary is a good "starter" trip. (Is that true, btw?)

 

I've been looking at a couple of different lines itineraries and I see different ports even on that route. What are the "must do" ports that I should be looking at for a first-time Asia cruiser? What ports are not worth the bother or are too far from where we want to go?

 

What are the typical number of sea days for a 2 week (plus or minus) itinerary?

 

Our most recent lines have been Azamara which we're a little tired of, and Seabourn which looks prohibitively expensive for this length of time and itinerary. I'm looking more seriously at doing a Celebrity AquaClass as a potential compromise between price & size, but I don't know how good their itineraries are (vs. Azamara which has always had great itineraries). I can't seem to find Oceania's itineraries for that far out, but they'd be of interest as well.

 

I'm happy to start reading guidebooks from the library but I can't even find one that talks about Asia cruising. Please advise away! Thanks.

We are Diamond + on Royal and also Elite on Celebrity. However, in February 2014 we opted for Azamara Journey 14 day from Singapore to Hong Kong. The chief advantage was sited by John Bull. The smaller ship goes downtown, thus saves lots of time getting from the larger commercial port to the touring sites. In fact, the Millennium was on almost the same itinerary, and we could see it way out of town at several stops. That cruise had two overnights in Bangkok and one in Saigon, plus Danang and Halong Bay. The Viet Nam stops were great. We did not go into Hanoi, but had a delightful day on Halong Bay on a private boat. The trip into Hanoi was 3 hours on a sub-par road each way. Our picture was taken at Halong Bay. Weather wise, February was a great time as the weather was not too hot (80's) with the exception of Halong Bay which was maybe 70 degrees. As we cruised toward Hong Kong via Hainan Island it was a bit cool. We loved when the attendants brought blankets out to keep us warm on the stern of the ship.

Azamara is running a special now through the end of August, book inside and get a veranda.

David

We are doing a cruise from Tokyo with four other Japanese ports as well as Shanghai, Taiwan ending in Hong Kong.

It has been sold out for a year.

There are very few cruises that go to or stop in Japan. Celebrity and Princess offer cruises, but you have to book early. We are on Celebrity Millennium.

We did Singapore to Dubai on the Century and that was great. We loved Singapore, India, Oman and Dubai.

We have a done a Japan cruise on a Ponant ship in March. The ship did several and then continued on to Alaska. It's worthwhile looking beyond the large cruise lines. Several other upscale lines offer Japan cruises, some with ports in China, some Japan and Busan in Korea.

Yups, Singapore is pretty 'boring'. Too clean and orderly.

We do have a neat skyline.

If culture and nature is what you are looking for, we do have some interesting options that I am still uncovering. I chanced on this canopy walk just a short while back.

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