gtmarcus1

We charged the crew tips ($10/day/person) to our ship account. Think you can also charge the cruise director tips also, but we gave him our left over dong.

We were definitely not able to put the cruise manager/cruise director tip on our shipboard account. Not sure if you are able to do so if you are a cruise passenger only. We did the land/cruise package, and tipped the cruise manager/tour director at the end of the trip.

Thank you for all the tips.:D

Didn't realize there was 2 schools . Hadn't heard about the one in Siem Reap. Which is the one that is AMA sponsored?

Any suggestions for supplies ? I have only purchased a few pencils + notebooks so far because of luggage weight issues. Probably everyone donating that. I like to give stuff that is maybe different + can be shared (ie) calculators , post notes, etc. Was the stuff just put on a table or given to the individual kids.

Did you visit the school in the village or just hand out pencils to kids you saw on the street?

 

Gratuities... how many local guides were tipped & approx. how much per guide. I heard the boat is $ 10 / day / pp which equals $ 140 & you can put on your credit card ?? That was for the crew. What about the main ama guide ? Did you pay them cash or CC & how much since they were there ~15 days.

How much $ US do you think you spent on gratuities on the trip . Trying to figure how many $1 & $5 to bring.

Were you able to pay for all your non-ama meals in Hanoi, Siem Reap, + Saigon with credit card or did you use cash?

 

Ha Long Bay overnighter: any tips for that. Any activities requiring the bathing suit ? How many customers do the junks sleep ? There is 16 in our group.

 

Do you remember what sites were visited that required the covered shoulders + below knees clothing for going to the temples.; or did the guide advise the day prior what the dress code would be? Is Siem Reap in that category? Otherwise I plan to live in shorts & T.

 

How were the mosquitoes ? Any on the boat ?

 

The flight from Hanoi to Siem Reap I assume was on Vietnam Air. What time did you depart Hanoi ?

 

I'm sure I'll have more questions for you. ;)We are on the March 4 - 19 trip.

 

Tks , Marilyn

I'll try to answer all of your questions:

1. Schools: The school that Amawaterways sponsors is in the Seim Reap area. They offered us a choice of visiting 2 schools. One was the one that Ama sponsors, the other is an orphanage (ODA Village) where kids live and study. We opted to visit the Ama sponsored one. Any supplies would be appreciated and are given to the teacher, not to individual students. I brought mostly packages of colored pencils.

In the village, we did visit the school, as the teacher happened to be present. No students were there at the time. Felt bad that we had no supplies left as he clearly could have used them. It was an open air classroom, and he volunteers his time to teach.

I do see a problem with trying to hand out supplies to individual kids in the villages, as it would be a problem if you did not have enough for everyone. The kids all run to say hello as soon as the tourists arrive. Some are trying to sell things to you, others are just being friendly.

2. Tipping:You will receive some documents from Ama which includes guidelines for tipping.

Pre and Post cruise- tour manager $2 per person per day

Local guides: $2 per person per each full day tour

bus drivers: $1 per person for each full day tour

Cruise: cruise director (who is the tour manager for the land portion)- $2 p.p. per day. We gave him $2 per day for the land portion, and $2 per day for the cruise portion. So it was $30 per person total.

river guides: $2-$3 pp per day

crew $10 pp per day (X7 days),this one can be added to shipboard account and paid by visa.

The tour manager did indicate a range of suggested tipping that was higher than that recommended by Ama.

All the tips, other than the one to the ship crew were given in cash. We also gave $5 pp for the crew of the junk boat. If we had a land guide for several days, we tipped them at the end. We used a lot of $5 bills for tips in addition to $1's. We had 5 different land guides. One for Hanoi and Halong Bay (3 days), one for Siem Reap (1 1/2 days), one for Cambodia part of river cruise (3 days) , one for Vietnam part of river cruise (1 1/2 days), and one for Saigon (1 day).

I would guess that we spent about $160 per person in tips.

I brought $125 in ones, and $185 in fives. Did come home with $40 in ones, but used all of the fives. (Depends on how much shopping you will do in the markets) Also used $20's for larger combined tips and for combined purchases. Used a handful of $50's.

Most restaurants accepted visa. We did use cash for several and were able to get change in USD.

3. Halong Bay. There were 3 junk boats for our group of 65 people. People were assigned boats based on their color group for touring. One junk boat was larger than the other two, and so a few couples switched groups for the overnight on the junk. There is one excursion where you can swim at a beach or choose to climb 400 steps to the top for a beautiful view of Halong Bay.

We did use the pool at the hotel in Siem Reap, as well as the pool on the ship, and the one in Saigon.

3. Dress code. The tour manager does a briefing every evening before dinner and does alert you to when a dress code is required. There were several sites that required shoulders and knees being covered. Capris were fine. Even longer shorts to the knee were fine for men. Your guides will also keep you informed as to when dress code is required.

Just back from this fabulous trip. We were tracking the terrible storms in the area, and thankfully the typhoons missed us and we enjoyed great weather, with only one day of rain during our day at sea.

Here are a few travel tips that may be helpful to future travelers.

1. Metropole Legend Hotel in Hanoi offers free historical tours of the hotel to its guests including the recently discovered bomb shelter. Offered 4 X per day. Better to book in advance by emailing hotel directly. Takes about 1/2 hour.

2. If you are traveling with friends, ask Amawaterways to put you on the same bus. We easily switched buses on the first morning to be with friends. You remain with this same group for all tours, and for junk boat

3. Collect soaps/shampoos from hotels to give out at the Amawaterways sponsored school. Keep some school supplies to give out when you visit village school during river cruise. (in Koh Chen Copper Village. (Most of us had given all of our supplies to the school in Siem Reap). It is also permissible to give out pencils to kids in villages, although again, no one had any left to distribute, and could be a problem if not enough to go round

4. Tour director on the cruise is the same person as the “tour manager” who is with you during all of the land and river portions of the trip

5. Hotel in Siem Reap offered a full bag of laundry service for $33 USD

6. La Marguerite has a large drawer under the window seat which adds to the storage space

7 No separate conditioner on the boat. Only shampoo/conditioner. Bring your own if you require this

8. Free wine is offered only with meals on the boat. At other times you had to pay for wine

9. We brought several adaptors to plug in several electrical devices in hotels. Ship offers US style prongs

10. Found markets in Siem Reap to be cheaper than in Hanoi for scarves, pashminas. Was able to bargain more in Siem Reap (about 50% less paid for items). Could also bargain more in Saigon markets than in Hanoi.

11. Amawaterways was excellent dealing with a couple of medical issues of guests by accompanying guest to medical facility, getting medications, etc.

12. Audiovox headset system was used throughout the trip and was excellent

13.Umbrellas and ponchos available on ship, and we sometimes took an umbrella for sun protection

14. Umbrellas available on buses in Siem Reap, also helpful for sun protection

15. No problem ever using USD and were able to get low amounts of change back in USD from restaurants and even from market vendors . Found $5 bills to be very useful in addition to $1 bills, as often used these to tip guides and/or drivers who were with us for 3 days at a time

You are in for a wonderful experience!

Just back from our cruise on the AmaLotus.

 

How was your trip?

With respect to the currency discussion on this board, we will be booking a transfer from the airport to the hotel in Hanoi and the rates are all listed in USD, and payment is requested to be made in either USD or VND. We also have booked a tour in Saigon and payment is requested in USD. I don't have any problem paying in USD in a country where this is obviously acceptable or even beneficial to them. Would never consider using USD otherwise.

Bit confused as to whether USD are accepted in Vietnam or whether we must change money into VND.

As it is getting closer,wondering whether anyone from Cruise Critic is also on the November 11, 2013 sailing of La Marguerite. Land portion starts on November 5th.

Had decided to get the "loose leaf" type visas from the Vietnam Embassy in Ottawa. Process was very easy. We did not need to submit our original passports (even though the web site did indicate this. It apparently has not been updated), and we received the visas in the mail within a week. Cost was $133 Canadian dollars. With the increase in the rate for the stamping fee at the airport for "visas on arrival", we decided that entering Vietnam with the visa in hand would save a step at the airport.

Also booked a private half day tour of the Cu Chi tunnels on our free day in Saigon.

This forum has been very helpful! Thanks for all the information.

Thanks for all your information. Did you go to the prison at the Hanoi Hilton? This does not appear to be listed in the brochure but some have indicated that they did do this as part of the first day tour.

Did you receive a detailed itinerary for the touring day in Hanoi before leaving, or do you get this the morning the tour starts? We would like to do some planning in advance for our extra day in Hanoi, but don't want to duplicate visits to sites that will be covered on our tour.

Does anyone have the detailed itinerary to share?

Have put a cabin on hold for the November 11th, 2013 sailing (land package starts Nov. 5th. ) Anyone on this sailing? Looking at either flying Cathay Pacific from Toronto with a layover in Hong Kong, or Korean Airlines with a layover in Seoul. Cathay Pacific departs at 1:25 am and is one of the few flights that arrive in Hanoi in the morning rather than in the evening, giving us 3/4 of a day there On our day of arrival. Any advice from any of you who have flown these airlines?

Thanks.

Just checked the AMA waterways web site and all the sail dates for 2013 on both of their river boats start the land tour on a Tuesday, fly into Siem Reap on Friday, and tour Angkor temples on the weekends. Thought, if we booked, that we could arrange for a date that visits the temples during the week, but this is not an option.

Thank you everyone for your prompt and valuable input. Based on the feedback, it sounds like everyone is definitely recommending the cruise part of the AMA trip, with a variety of recommended options for the land portion. Now a bit concerned about the weather in Halong Bay mid November. Wondering about other people's experiences regarding the junk boat in Halong Bay at that time of year.

Thanks.

We are considering this trip for November 2013, and are currently comparing the AMAwaterways 14 day package to an 18 day land trip. The 5 star land trip covers more territory (there are 5 internal flights), and is far more economical, but the AMAwaterways trip gets rave reviews, and it would be an advantage to unpack for 7 nights on the river cruise part of the trip rather than move from hotel to hotel for the entire trip. We would miss out on the towns of the central east coast of Vietnam which are covered on the land package, but would benefit from seeing the villages and sites along the Mekong instead.

For anyone who has done this cruise, we are curious about the age range of passengers . We are mid-fifties.

Thanks.

Any suggestions as to the best time to embark on our upcoming Christmas 5 day sailing of the Liberty of the Seas (Royal Caribbean)in order to avoid major line ups. From the reviews posted of this ship it sounds like the embarkation and disembarkation involves massive line-ups. (recent reviews have been very disappointing in general!)

Also wondering about the disembarkation. In my experience there are often different lines for US and non-US citizens. Wondering about people's experience of disembarkation for non-US citizens.

Thanks.