CruisinSinceAge5

We are sailing Singapore to Hong Kong stopping at Bangkok on Voyager of the Seas in June. We feel the ship tours are very expensive and wonder if anyone can recommend a reasonably priced tour company who could pick us up at the port and give us a tour of Bangkok?

 

Thanks

We just returned from a 16 day Singapore to Hong Kong cruise on Oceania. I organized private tours for almost every port except a day trip to Hanoi. We took some of the tours with 2-3 couples we met on cruise critic and had a blast. EVERY single tour was perfect which is a rare occurrence. Don’t know what your exact itinerary is but we visited Singapore, Koh Samui, Bangkok, Cambodia, multiple ports in Vietnam and HK. I’m happy to share details. I just posted about our tour in Koh Samui and will be posting about each tour this week.

Singapore - hop on, hop off bus; plus visit to Long Bar for a Singapore Sling at Raffles, lunch in the courtyard at Raffles.

Bangkok - Tours with Tong - she takes a while to respond but 2 days of great tours; one in the city and one to train and floating markets which was a great experience.

Sihanoukville - tuktuk tour; not a lot to see but it was worth the price

Saigon - book early as he’s a one man show - Zoom - excellent 2 day tour - city tour and amazing Mekong Delta tour - fantastic lunches included

Hue/Da Nang - loved the tour guide - My Son Land and walked around Hoi An - a perfect day - Tommy Tours

Ha Long Bay - private junk boat tour to Sung Sot caves - a not to miss experience - one of the 7 natural wonders of the world - a great day

Hanoi - ship’s tour; it’s too far to go on your own; our bus arrived over an hour late because of traffic but ship had to wait since it was a ship tour

Hong Kong - hop on hop off bus; stayed at Island Shangri La Hotel - a perfect ending to a perfect cruise.

Please come back after your cruise and let us know what this tour was like (I think you may be on the cruise right now - hope you are enjoying it!)

 

We are looking at booking this same excursion - although I am interested in the entire 4x4 experience, what I am very curious about is how the elephants are treated - I was put off when doing research about how poorly elephants were treated in some of the parks. The tourskosamui website stated that where they go for the elephant trek the animals are treated better - what was your experience?

 

Hope you had an awesome time:)

On February 7th, 6 of us took the PRIVATE tour with Tours Koh Samui. We paid 11100 Thai Bahts - about $317 for 6. We could have easily accommodated more in the van as it was quite spacious. The vehicle, driver, and guide were EXCELLENT. The guide’s name is Nikie Takako Jang. She goes by Nid. We made a 3500TB deposit. We visited the rock formations, mummified monk temple, monkeys picking coconuts, Namuang waterfall, had a delicious lunch at the waterfall, did the elephant trek and found that they are well treated, and stopped at a beach. The guide was one of the best I’ve encountered and we take private tours everywhere we go. At the elephant trek for a small price they will take your picture. They do a great job with this and everyone bought their pictures. We had a wonderful time. The couples we were with we met on cruisecritic.

When we arrived in Venice a few years ago, I surprised both my husband and college-age daughter with a water taxi trip to the ship. Extremely expensive but an item everyone should have on their bucket list. If you're spending 10k on an O cruise what's a little more. Truly priceless.

I sailed on the Nili out of Miami. It was the first of the 33 cruises I've taken. My mom and dad still have the pictures of their three "girls" onboard the Nili. It was a three day cruise.

I was onboard the Nordic Prince for it's maiden voyage on July 31, 1971 out of Miami for a two week Caribbean cruise. I still have all the souvenirs from those maiden voyages. I was 12 years old and had the time of my life. The Viking Crown was the idea of one of the original owners of RCCL(three Norweigian families) and the engineers originally didnt think it would work. They tried it on the Song of Norway and it was a huge hit and became the trademark for many years of RCCL. At the time, this was considered very high and tall for a ship - of course, not compared to the huge ones built today. We cruised on the Nordic Prince a number of times including our honeymoon in September 1985 from NYC to Bermuda. We encountered Hurricane Gloria and sailed out of Bermuda early and stayed at sea an extra day. Ships have personalities and everyone LOVED the Nordic Prince - it was a wonderful, fun ship. We were docked next to it last summer in the Mediterranean. Nordic Prince was the second of RCCL's ships - the first one was Song of Norway in December 1970 and Sun Viking in Summer 1972. They were called the Ships of the 70s.

I spent a few mins. today with the Master of a Radiance Class RCI vessel

and took the opportunity to ask him what sort of staff card it is.

NOT a staff card, he says.

It is in fact a passenger card, a cabin-key to be precise! ;)

In Royal Caribbean's pre-SeaPass days, pax were given two cards.

The plain card seen above, which only provided access to their cabin..

-and another card (probably much like this pre-SeaPass cruise card)..

which pax used to embark/disembark the ship, and for purchases on board.

When SeaPass was introduced later, the new system integrated both card functions

(cabin access, onboard purchases and ship security re. going ashore)

into the one convenient card we know today. Much easier for everyone!

______________________________________________

Just thought you'd like to know

-and that I should correct my misinformation above. :o

.

In the early days (1970s) of RCCL(that was RCI's name back then) each passenger had a room key attached to a solid dark blue plastic room identifier(key chain for lack of a better word) (like hotels used to have) plus a card that you showed to get on the ship (pre Sept 11th security was much more lax), and you paid for drinks and other purchases with cash at each transaction - no credit cards or charges were accepted back then. Next came setting up an account that you could charge to and pay with cash or your credit card at the end of the cruise - you actually signed for each transaction and then came SeaPass cards that were your key, id and charge card and it's what most of us are now familiar with. I'm going to have to dig up mine from the 1970s - they are all in my photo albums and scrapbooks. This thread has brought back many wonderful memories. We leave Friday on what will be my 31st cruise.