Which mass-market to Vietnam?

We are equal-opportunity cruises. Currently thinking about Volendam in 2018 because it also goes to Pnom Penh (gotta try that weed pizza) and it has an aft-cabin type I like.

Nothing wrong with Celebrity, either. About the others I know nothing.

Any ideas, recommendations, experiences?

We are equal-opportunity cruises. Currently thinking about Volendam in 2018 because it also goes to Pnom Penh (gotta try that weed pizza) and it has an aft-cabin type I like.

 

Nothing wrong with Celebrity, either. About the others I know nothing.

 

Any ideas, recommendations, experiences?

I doubt the ship will go to Phnom Penh - nearest port for a ship that size would be at least 3/4 hours drive each way.

We are equal-opportunity cruises. Currently thinking about Volendam in 2018 because it also goes to Pnom Penh (gotta try that weed pizza) and it has an aft-cabin type I like.

 

Nothing wrong with Celebrity, either. About the others I know nothing.

 

Any ideas, recommendations, experiences?

A cruise may not be the best option to see Vietnam....would you consider a land trip instead?

A land vacation, due to my wife's medical condition, is not possible. We have been to Vietnam before. Which mean that we would again tour Saigon together but I'd be on my own in Da Nang, from where I would hope to visit Hue.

A land vacation, due to my wife's medical condition, is not possible. We have been to Vietnam before. Which mean that we would again tour Saigon together but I'd be on my own in Da Nang, from where I would hope to visit Hue.

Enjoy however and whatever cruise line works best for you...We loved Saigon and the new highway makes getting there from where our RCI ship docked much faster. Hope to go back at some point in time. Have you been to Cambodia? That and Thailand is were we hope to go./B]

A land vacation, due to my wife's medical condition, is not possible. We have been to Vietnam before. Which mean that we would again tour Saigon together but I'd be on my own in Da Nang, from where I would hope to visit Hue.

Hue is well worth a visit, even for just a day. You guys bombed the crap out of the imperial palace (out of necessity) but the walls and moats are basically intact and a lot of restoration work has been done and is going on to the imperial buildings.

Try also to take in a couple of the tombs of the emperors.

Hue is well worth a visit, even for just a day. You guys bombed the crap out of the imperial palace (out of necessity) but the walls and moats are basically intact and a lot of restoration work has been done and is going on to the imperial buildings.

 

Try also to take in a couple of the tombs of the emperors.

Are the tombs south of the city? We are doing a land trip next year. I was having difficulty fitting in Hue, but then decided that if we got our butts out of bed for a very early flight from HCMC we would get in early enough to see the palace and a bit of Hue. The next day, I was hoping to arrange a tranfer to Hoi An that included a visit to some tombs.

We did all the standard ports, overnighting at Halong Bay, on a month-long Costa cruise. I happen to be a fan of Graham Greene and have repeatedly read his book The Quiet American about the French colonial period in Indochina. To my mind, it captures the time and place splendidly. So when we saw on our tour many of the landmarks of the American involvement, it was living his book.

In Saigon we simply took a superb Costa tour. We saw all the great hits, including a water puppet theater. Had a buffet lunch, with Vietnamese entertainment, at the top of an art deco hotel overlooking the Saigon river. Our guide was a young Vietnamese whose iPad had pictures of all the landmarks in the American times, including the CIA station which became immortalized as staff was being evacuated from the roof by a helicopter. All things considered I cannot imagine why anyone would try to Saigon on their own.

I'd like to see Burma, which isn't in the cards at this time. But the probable Zaandam itinerary (not announced yet) at Christmas 2018 would take us Cambodia. Everyone does this differently. We are not big on museums any more, we just want to experience the atmosphere and see how the rest of the world lives.

Finally, at the first Vietnamese stop my wife and I found ourselves sitting on forlorn loungers in a beach club that had been closed since when. I looked at the water and thought about all those friends whose live changed as a result of the Vietnam war. Here is one of them.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/robert-timberg-marine-and-journalist-who-wrote-about-vietnams-scarring-legacy-dies-at-76/2016/09/07/1895d268-744c-11e6-be4f-3f42f2e5a49e_story.html

 

 

Finally, at the first Vietnamese stop my wife and I found ourselves sitting on forlorn loungers in a beach club that had been closed since when. I looked at the water and thought about all those friends whose live changed as a result of the Vietnam war. Here is one of them.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/robert-timberg-marine-and-journalist-who-wrote-about-vietnams-scarring-legacy-dies-at-76/2016/09/07/1895d268-744c-11e6-be4f-3f42f2e5a49e_story.html

I know what you mean, I was there during the war with the Australian Army

What a beautiful church!

I wish I had the courage for travelling like you in Vietnam. I was barely able to cross the street in Hanoi! :eek:

I reread The Quiet American on the plane back. Very good novel and much better once you've been there. The first time I read it was many years ago and although much closer to the novel's time frame, I did not really understand it then.

If you have a detailed interest in Vietnam, Voyage of discovery's 'Voyager', is sailing from Hong Kong to Singapore next February, spending seven days in Vietnam.

It is a very small (about 15,000 ton), older ship, so very unlike the modern cruise ships and cruise style, so it may very well not be the ship for you. You would have to read reviews and other information you can find carefully and decide for yourself. It is largely a love it or hate it experience, as some people book expecting it to be like the modern large ships, which it is not. There can be a lot of vibration in certain areas (low down and to the rear mainly), and I would suggest something fairly central as it has trouble in rough seas because of size, though cabin availability will be fairly limited at this stage.

We had been to Da Nang and HCMC on the Costa Allegra about 7 years ago and were thinking of a land holiday, but this itinerary took our fancy and we love the ship and cruising style. We are looking forward to it a lot and are staying on for the next cruise when we will spend two days in Yangon (docked centrally we are told).