Tour Company and Guide For Asia Cruise

[canonade9]

We are a group of 8 going on the Diamond Princess cruise of Asia on 10/8/2012 to the following ports;
Ports:Beijing (Tianjin), China | Busan, South Korea | Nagasaki, Japan | Shanghai, China | Hong Kong, China | Nha Trang, Vietnam | Ho Chi Minh City (Phu My), Vietnam | Singapore | Bangkok (Laem Chabang), Thailand

We will be in Bangkok for 2-3 days after the cruise.
Do you reccomend any specific tours and guides in these ports?
What tours do you recommend? and how are they different from the ships tours?
What type of van, driver and guide and tour company do you reccomend?
What are the costs?

I look forward to your reply

[caribill]

Originally Posted by canonade9

We are a group of 8 going on the Diamond Princess cruise of Asia on 10/8/2012 to the following ports;
Ports:Beijing (Tianjin), China | Busan, South Korea | Nagasaki, Japan | Shanghai, China | Hong Kong, China | Nha Trang, Vietnam | Ho Chi Minh City (Phu My), Vietnam | Singapore | Bangkok (Laem Chabang), Thailand

We will be in Bangkok for 2-3 days after the cruise.
Do you reccomend any specific tours and guides in these ports?
What tours do you recommend? and how are they different from the ships tours?
What type of van, driver and guide and tour company do you reccomend?
What are the costs?

I look forward to your reply

You can find more information at the ports of call section of Cruise Critic.

I can give you some information about four ofn the ports:

Bangkok
I very highly recommend Mana Thongkhamphant http://www.thailanddriverguide.com mana.t@windowslive.com
He will charge very reasonable rates and probably be also able to bring you from ship to Bangkok for less than the ship's transfers. He can also get youto the airport at the end of your stay. Just make sure he can handle a group of 8.

Singapore
Also highly recommend Anna-Maria Champalbert camaria69@yahoo.com
She charges by the hour (rates include van and driver, but admissions are additional).

Phu My
I suggest smiletoursvietnam info@smiletoursvietnam.com contact: Hoang Thi Minh Thi (Ms.), Director


Nha Trang
I suggest Dung Pham, from Nha Trang River Company I do not know how small a group he can handle.

I have not listed prices as I do not know the current pricing. All will cost less than a Princess excursion to see as much or even more.


Also read the thread at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1615221 This covers many of the ports you are asking about.

[Bowie MeMe]

I am following you on this cruise getting on Diamond Princess Oct. 25. Check in with your rollcall (Princess rollcalls/Diamond Princess/Oct. 8) There is an active and great group on that rollcall. They might already have some tours etc set up that you may be able to join or at least set up a similar tour for your group. 8 is really a great group and will be pretty easy for you to get set up.

Warning that your cruise/arrival in Beijing is during Golden Week -- the major holiday for Chinese and one where the Chinese do their own travel. You will need to arrive at least the day before embarkation which is 2 1/2 hours away in Tianjin port. (The reason I did not join you on the Oct. 8 sailing -- I moved to the Oct. 25 sailing from Bangkok and will arrive in Beijing Oct. 14 for a 12 day precruise private tour). Make sure you have hotel, transportation and transfer set -- it is a super busy period of time.

I have booked with tour@chinaodyssey.com and my agent is Susan Su. She has worked very hard to make the tour of Beijing and Xian exactly what I want it to be. The price for 3 without hotel but with private car,guide, driver, tours, peking duck dinner, dumpling dinner and transfers from airport to hotel to airport to hotel to airport with full tourist tours was about $1,600 per person for 7 days. That is the price for 3 and 8 would probably be less per person. We are booking our own Marriott hotels with family plan discounts so that is cheaper than the cheapest group
In Bangkok I am booked with Wandeetours.com for 5 days and includes 3 tours outside of town (ancient city, elephant kaaral, floating market,River Kwai day and the city tours and temples etc. This includes transfer to ship which is 2 1/2 hours away also. The price for this (without hotel rooms) is in the range of $800 pp. I picked my guides from reviews by CC members and from Trip Advisors. I am so excited to see all my plans actually come true.
Hope your cruise is wonderful. bt

[canonade9]

Thanks for your help and input. Being new to this I do not know how to get on the roll call. Any help will be appreciated. I will be contacting your sources for guides and costs.
Thanks,
Joe

[Lassiepoo]

We just did the Singapore to Beijing route with Diamond Princess. What a great trip! We did shore excursions in Bangkok, HK, both stops in Vietnam.
It was easy to see the Atomic Bomb Museum and the Peace Park on our own in Nagasaki, as well as Glover Garden. Be sure to get the local map NOT the "port report" provided by the ship. We got totally turned around. Lots of other Princess passengers wandering around so we found our way.

Bangkok: I booked 4 of us with BKK Tours @ www.bkktours.com. We were picked up in an air-conditioned luxury van, given ice cold water and cold towels throughout the day. Our guide, Ms. Gift, was fantastic. Her English is great and we felt we'd known her forever. We saw the Grand Palace and its ground, Wat Pho with the enormous recling Buddha. Visited the vegetable and flower markets, took a quick ride in a tuktuk, boarded a longboat for a visit to some of the canals off the river. Lunch was at the Navy Club near the Grand Palace. We were the only foreigners there, so we knew this would be good! Ms. Gift asked our general food preferences then ordered a generous meal for us. And it was better than expected! Pad thai, fish, pork, vegetables. All fresh and delicious. We had a view of the river to boot! The cost was about $525USD for the four of us and everything was included -- entrance fees, transportation, lunch. Great deal and we got back to the ship in plenty of time ~ as we passed the huge cruise ship buses. . .
I then booked with Dung Pham in Nha Trang to snorkel and do a little sight-seeing. He's at www.nhatrangrivertour.com. Our guide was a sweet gal named Thuy who was pleasant and accomodating. We tired out after snorkeling, dining, shopping and seeing the Hindu temple, so we asked to eliminate the Catholic church from the tour. She had to problem with this at all. For $80pp, we had a private speed boat take us out to the snorkeling site, take us to the restaurant on another island and return us to shore. Thuy provided bottled water too. An air-conditioned mini-van handled the rest of the transportation. Lunch was included and fun as we were the only foreign tourists there. The food was very good and the facilites were 5 star. We paid extra for drinks. Two beers and a Coke cost about 2USD. Snorkel gear was provided but only large fins. Even with small feet, I did all right. Great day!
www.toursbylocals.com handled our excursions in Hong Kong and Shanghai. We were disappointed with the tour in Hong Kong because of lack of communication regarding which port, and where to meet once we found the right terminal. It was still nice to have a private van with only 4 of us. This tour was very expensive. Lunch was included at the Jumbo floating restaurant. Food was good, but this was not a sumputous meal.
Shanghai was entirely different. The local guide there was in communication with me frequently before the trip and a few times once on the ship. We asked for something different as we'd been to Shanghai before and had seen the major attractions. Lilian took us to the French concession where we walked through one of the communist party founder's home, the antiques market, the pet market. My quest was for a soup dumpling since I'd seen Anthony Bourdain eat one 6 years ago in Shanghai. Finally! Lilian took us to the local outlet (vs. the tourist) of NanXiang restaurant and the meal was great and so were the soup dumplings! We paid for this separately. Her service for the day was 130USD and we paid the driver in cash equivalent to roughly 150USD. I was in communication with Lilian's sister Sunny. She's the one on the tours by locals site but came through with a great substitute. Toursbylocals asked for a review and replied immediately when I didn't give Vinci a great review. They are concerned about their "product" and seem to be reliable.
We paid for these tours in advance via PayPal with the exception of the Shanghai driver.
Our ship excursions were in Saigon and Hong Kong. The Mekong river trip took 3 hours to get to. And back. Good news, we were only 6 people in a van. The meal provided was exceptional but the river was disappointing since we were expecting some remote jungle experience. Not the case. The sampan ride felt like Disneyland. A little strange actually. We were shown a few interesting things, such as some local houses. Just not sure how real they were. We spent time sampling honey tea, local fruits and coconut candy. After which, they were more than happy to sell us honey and coconut candy.
We did the vintage tram and Peking duck dinner and were very happy with that. The local guide was Sue and she escorted me across the street because I hadn't found postcards by the end of the day. (Amazing, right?) She was great about giving some facts and figures about Hong Kong. Thumbs up for this tour.
I'm glad to answer any questions. Have a bon voyage!

[gottagocit]

Originally Posted by canonade9

We are a group of 8 going on the Diamond Princess cruise of Asia on 10/8/2012 to the following ports;
Ports:Beijing (Tianjin), China | Busan, South Korea | Nagasaki, Japan | Shanghai, China | Hong Kong, China | Nha Trang, Vietnam | Ho Chi Minh City (Phu My), Vietnam | Singapore | Bangkok (Laem Chabang), Thailand

We will be in Bangkok for 2-3 days after the cruise.
Do you reccomend any specific tours and guides in these ports?
What tours do you recommend? and how are they different from the ships tours?
What type of van, driver and guide and tour company do you reccomend?
What are the costs?

I look forward to your reply

Make sure to check your dates. More than one poster here who is on the Diamond, as am I, when it arrives in Tianjin on OCTOBER 9th were under the impression it arrived on the 8th. It seems some travel agents are using material showing the 8th vs the 9th. Check with Princess to be reassured of the correct date to be safe but it looks like the TAs aren't allowing for the lost day caused by crossing the IDL.

Chris

[laughing husky]

I have had very good luck with Flora Lin in Shanghai....She did an over the top tours for us for several days....She is on FaceBook and her email is bestchinatrip@gmail.com I found that she she speaks English quite well, will do the things that YOU want to do....and will also bargain for you if you want her to do so.....She has several other people working for her...and she is a certified quide which is quite an important thing there....

[Asialover]

Originally Posted by canonade9

We are a group of 8 going on the Diamond Princess cruise of Asia on 10/8/2012 to the following ports;
Ports:Beijing (Tianjin), China | Busan, South Korea | Nagasaki, Japan | Shanghai, China | Hong Kong, China | Nha Trang, Vietnam | Ho Chi Minh City (Phu My), Vietnam | Singapore | Bangkok (Laem Chabang), Thailand

We will be in Bangkok for 2-3 days after the cruise.
Do you reccomend any specific tours and guides in these ports?
What tours do you recommend? and how are they different from the ships tours?
What type of van, driver and guide and tour company do you reccomend?
What are the costs?

I look forward to your reply

For Phu My, you can contact Mr. Van from VietnamAlive.com

[2fairweather]

I just canceled my upcoming cruise to Vietnam and I had a great tour company, Zoom. I haven't gone on the tour but my dealings with the company over email have been great! He very fair in pricing and responsive to my questions and requests. I just canceled my tour with them and hopefully will receive a refund soon.

[2fairweather]

Hi,
Well Mr. Nguyen Tri Dung of Zoom Tours just sent me back my deposit that I had given him for our upcoming tours. Boy, I think this was exceptional as he could have refused to pay me and what could I have done? As I mentioned earlier I did lots of research in finding tour guides for my trip to Asia and I constantly ran across people who recommended Zoom tours. I will definitely look up Nguyen Tri Dung when I plan my next trip.
Mike

[vancouverfan]

Originally Posted by caribill

You can find more information at the ports of call section of Cruise Critic.

I can give you some information about four ofn the ports:

Bangkok
I very highly recommend Mana Thongkhamphant http://www.thailanddriverguide.com mana.t@windowslive.com
He will charge very reasonable rates and probably be also able to bring you from ship to Bangkok for less than the ship's transfers. He can also get youto the airport at the end of your stay. Just make sure he can handle a group of 8.

Singapore
Also highly recommend Anna-Maria Champalbert camaria69@yahoo.com
She charges by the hour (rates include van and driver, but admissions are additional).

Phu My
I suggest smiletoursvietnam info@smiletoursvietnam.com contact: Hoang Thi Minh Thi (Ms.), Director


Nha Trang
I suggest Dung Pham, from Nha Trang River Company I do not know how small a group he can handle.

I have not listed prices as I do not know the current pricing. All will cost less than a Princess excursion to see as much or even more.


Also read the thread at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1615221 This covers many of the ports you are asking about.

I also highly recommend Thi (smile tours) for Saigon and Dung for Nha Trang. We have used them both and their tours were exceptional and well organized. They also were very good at responding our numerous questions by email before the tour.

[happyglobetrotter]

Originally Posted by vancouverfan

I also highly recommend Thi (smile tours) for Saigon and Dung for Nha Trang. We have used them both and their tours were exceptional and well organized. They also were very good at responding our numerous questions by email before the tour.

I agree, we can also recommend these 2 companies. We were very impressed by the quality of their tours. We toured with them during our last WC on the Amsterdam. We had a large group and everything went very well.

The full day tours were also very affordable (including lunch, water, etc) at $60 for Saigon and $50 for Nha Trang.

[CRUZGAL53]

Originally Posted by canonade9

We are a group of 8 going on the Diamond Princess cruise of Asia on 10/8/2012 to the following ports;
Ports:Beijing (Tianjin), China | Busan, South Korea | Nagasaki, Japan | Shanghai, China | Hong Kong, China | Nha Trang, Vietnam | Ho Chi Minh City (Phu My), Vietnam | Singapore | Bangkok (Laem Chabang), Thailand

We will be in Bangkok for 2-3 days after the cruise.
Do you reccomend any specific tours and guides in these ports?
What tours do you recommend? and how are they different from the ships tours?
What type of van, driver and guide and tour company do you reccomend?
What are the costs?

I look forward to your reply

We just returned from a 35 day cruise from Singapore to Vancouver. We used Tony at Ann Tous (in Vietnam) for a trip from Bangkok to Siem Reap (Angkor Wat) and then back to Ho chi Minh City to catch the ship in Phu My. We had a fabulous 3 day/2 night tour. Out flights, hotels, meals and tours were all fantastic!! We would highly recommend Ann Tours. Since you have time in Bangkok, I'd recommend going to Angkor Wat (it was the highlight of our trip!)

In China, we used Jeff from Beijing Discovery tours and would also highly recommend them for any of the China ports!

[canonade9]

I am still looking for a tour company and guide for a 1/2 day trip in Busan Korea, and surrounding area as well as a day tour in Nagasaki Japan, and surrounding area. Can anyone give me a lead, or company they have worked with.
Thanks,
Joe

[Queenk2]

Joe,
We are on the July 2 princess trip around Japan,the only tour guide info I have is the volunteer guides and I don't think that is what I am looking for. Please post if you have any other info on Japan
Thanks,
Karen

[maryann ns]

Here is your Roll Call, I believe. Join the conversation:
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1384793

Busan:
boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1617094

boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1683901

boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1639162

boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1634851

boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1564648

[canonade9]

Just finished our cruise of Bejing to Bangkok.The tour guides that we had are as follows;


"Shannon Lefebvre" shannon@tour-nagasaki.com One of the best guides we had and was a highlight of our tour of Nagasaki.
.
"Anna-Maria Champalbert" camaria69@yahoo.com another outstanding tour guide for Singapore and she had given us a young guide called Ashi who was excellent.

"Thi Hoang" thi_travel@yahoo.com Good tour company of Viet-Nam had outstanding guides for us for the cities we visited.


Mana - Phisitchai Thongkhamphant" mana.t@windowslive.com Does not know what he can do for you and bends over backwards to meet your desires. Not as verbal as the others but does a great job.


"Tony Nong- Ann Tours" tony@anntours.com We used this company for our tours of Hong Kong and Shanghai. This company was highly recommended by cruise critic and Fromers.


For Busan South Korea we used Bluko Tours.


For Nan Trang we used "dung pham" <phamtandung2002@yahoo.com> His tour was also excellent with a great guide.

Hope this helps someone for a future cruise.
Thanks,
Canonade9

[canonade9]

Originally Posted by Queenk2

Joe,
We are on the July 2 princess trip around Japan,the only tour guide info I have is the volunteer guides and I don't think that is what I am looking for. Please post if you have any other info on Japan
Thanks,
Karen

For Nagasaki please contact;

"Shannon Lefebvre" shannon@tour-nagasaki.com One of the best guides we had and was a highlight of our tour of Nagasaki.
.
"Anna-Maria Champalbert" camaria69@yahoo.com another outstanding tour guide for Singapore and she had given us a young guide called Ashi who was excellent.
"Thi Hoang" thi_travel@yahoo.com Good tour company of Viet-Nam had outstanding guides for us for the cities we visited.

Mana - Phisitchai Thongkhamphant" mana.t@windowslive.com Does not know what he can do for you and bends over backwards to meet your desires. Not as verbal as the others but does a great job.

"Tony Nong- Ann Tours" tony@anntours.com We used this company for our tours of Hong Kong and Shanghai. This company was highly recommended by cruise critic and Fromers.

For Busan South Korea we used Bluko Tours.

For Nan Trang we used "dung pham" <phamtandung2002@yahoo.com> His tour was also excellent with a great guide.