Lyrical71

Im sailing on Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas leaving from Singapore on June 8th 2013.

Port of call are Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam), Hong Kong, Naha (Japan), Jeju (South Korea) and finishing in Shanghai.

 

I've a couple of questions regarding money, instead of me bringing 4 or 5 different currencies for each port (im travelling from Ireland, if you didnt guess by the user name!!) its impossible to know how much to take for each port.

 

Does the ship have an ATM and if so will it give out the different currencies for each port or will it only give American Dollars or Singapore Dollars?

 

Or is there a bureau de change on the ship either, although I'll probably get charged alot in commission!!!

 

Ill be using my credit card to pay my sea account, for excursions etc, just dont want to have to use it for small things when in port, rather just use cash.

 

Thanks,

 

Craig.

Hi Craig

Just wondering what you ended up doing? We are doing a trip with Mariner of the Seas and I was wondering whether to use their ATM, or get some currency here at the bank before I leave.

Thanks! Lyn

Thanks so much for your help Suvat! Really appreciate it. Looking forward to it now.

By official shore excursions, are they the ones done through RC?

Do you know exactly where you tendered? Off Patong beach? Are there different locations to tender off Patong beach?

I am now looking at doing a private charter and might even stick to the Phuket area, as we are not keen on getting seasick! And don't want to spend a lot of time just speeding somewhere. This other one i found is called River Rovers and they don't go out far from Phuket.

Do you know what time you were supposed to tender? Ours says 7am, but maybe they get in later sometimes.

Thanks for all your help - we are first time cruisers too!

Did you enjoy your experience?

Hi all,

 

First time poster, first time cruiser.

 

My gf and I will be going on Mariner of the Seas at the end of the year and the ship will be tendered in Phuket. A must do for us is the Phi Phi island speedboat tour. However, the official RC tour costs at least 2x as much as the others I see online.

 

Therefore our options are:

1. Book with RC

2. Book another tour online

3. Book something on the day once we get onshore

 

Our ship is supposed to be tendered by 7am. Most of the tours start around 8:30am and we don't want to book something and miss it just because the process to transfer onshore is delayed or takes too long.

 

Does anyone know:

1. The exact location in Phuket which the ship will be tendered.

2. What the process for coming onto shore is, how long it is expected to take and whether the cost is included in the cruise fare

3. The operating hours of the transfer vessels

4. How frequently the transfer vessels operate

5. Whether passengers who book shore excursions through RC get priority boarding on the transfer vessels

6. Which tour operator RC uses for its official Phi Phi island tour?

 

Any insight to any of the above would be greatly appreciated, including suggestions on which option to go with. I've also emailed RC but judging by the time it took for them to reply to my last email it may take a while before I get a response from them.

 

Thanks everyone!

Suvat, what did you end up doing? We are doing the same cruise in a few weeks time and I have exactly the same concerns! I was wondering how it all turned out for you and what the tendering process was like!

Thanks!!