Aisa Cruise with NCL - Shore Excursion Advice Please :)

Hello,

Me and my other half are going on the NCL cruise on Norwegian Jewel sailing from Singapore to Hong Kong. The cruise itself, with flights from London and hotels for a couple of days in both Singapore & Hong Kong have been really pricey!

We have cruised before, but not to Asia so want to make the absolute most of our time there. However, shore excursions can be really expensive... one was £150 each for one tour....

So has anybody stopped in the following ports? If so what tours would you absolutely recommend to do? What do you think is possible to see and do on your own? Thanks! Ports are:

• Ko Samui - Thailand
  
• Laem Chabang - Thailand
  
• Shianoukville - Cambodia
  
• Phu Mu (for Hoh Chi Minh City) Vietnam
  
• Hue Da Nang (for Chan May) Vietnam
  
• Hanoi (for Ha Long Bay) Vietnam
  

Any recommendations for what is good to see/do in both Singapore & Hong Kong are appreciated as well, we will be spending 2-3 nights in both of those places before/after the cruise.

Thanks for your help fellow cruisers,

C x

I am on the NCL Jewel right now! Singapore to HK. Our port tomorrow is HCMC. I’m doing a live review of the cruise on the NCL board. Feel free to pop over take a look, you will see the tours we did - we booked them all independently off the ship. Our itinerary is a little different, we went to Bangkok, not going to Cambodia.

Koh Samui - sorry, can't help.

Laem Chabang for Bangkok - the port is about 90 minutes from Bangkok, there's no public transport & the taxis available on-spec at the port are in a cartel and will rip you off royally.

So it's important that you pre-book a transfer to Bangkok - either a well-reviewed private-hire taxi, or ship's Bangkok-on-your-own transfer or tour, or a shared private transfer or tour thro your RollCall (I see you've already joined your RollCall - anyone seeking sharers?).

If your ship is in port overnite consider a hotel in Bangkok - not expensive, saves the cost & time of double-tripping from the port, gives you an evening in the city.

There are closer options such as Pattaya (google "walking Street", quite an eye-opener) but if you can stretch the budget you really should go to Bangkok

Sihanoukville, Cambodia - you can barter at the pier with either tuk-tuks (for town only) or minibuses ("vans" to our American cousins). Ideally hook up with others on the ship, or on the pier. Very cheap, US dollars accepted. We shared a minibus to Ream Nat Park, trip also included a waterfall on the way, a long-tail boat ride to an island, and a very poor and grubby fishing village - another eye-opener.

Quite a few folk rate Sihanoukville badly - I can kinda understand that, but it's an education into how the other half live - we were fascinated.

Phu My - Haven't ported at Phu My, but have been to Saigon (HCMC).

Others will probably advise to fix up transport from the port in advance - private or shared (RollCall again) transfer or tour, or ship's "on-your-own" transfer.

Once in the city (vaguely in the Rex Hotel area) you don't need transport or a guide, the main sights are pretty easy on foot. Reunification Hall, War Remnants Museum, HCM Museum, Notre Dame ((and post office opposite), Ben Thanh market.

Chan May (for Hue or Da Nang or Hoi An) - again, haven't ported at Chan May (we ported in Da Nang).

You broadly have the choice of either Hoi An (+ Da Nang, China Beach, Marble Mountain on the way), or Hue.

Negotiating with minibuses at Da Nang was cheap and easy (US dollars), but I don't know about Chan May.

Ha Long Bay (for Hanoi if you want) - it's a drive of 3hrs+ e/w for Hanoi :( But I'd highly recommend forgetting Hanoi & taking a junk cruise & getting lost in the eerie watery moonscape of the limestone karsts of Halong Bay (google for images).

Ship will offer junk cruises but most ships' junk cruises are too short, too crowded, and over-priced. You need a cruise of 4 hrs minimum, preferably 6. Again, check your RollCall for folk wanting sharers. If you're prepared to take the risk, it's cheaper to wait until the day - tolerably easy if your ship is there pm and all next day cos you can book a cruise for the next day, not so easy if your ship is there all day then next am cos a cruise next am probably won't work in the timescale. We fixed up at the port with a dozen others, a great cruise and silly-cheap - but waiting to fix up at the port is taking a risk.

Research for this part of the world is hard work, you do have to be wary of clueless wannabe tour operators, and much of their English is poor (admittedly better than my Thai, Vietnamese, etc :D).

But research does pay off. As does hooking up with shipmates - which we managed on a small ship with no RollCall.

Happy huntin'

JB :)

Your itinerary looks like the one we had on our HAL Volendam sailing in 2016. You may find my reports on these ports under my signature.

Hong Kong is really easy to do on your own, you don't need any tour there. Singapore the same.

For the other ports it really depends on what you want to see.

We have spent time on Ko Samui on independent travel. It is very touristy. Some good beaches.

There are however some very good boat tours from Samui out to the National Park and islands. If you are into boat tours, snorkeling, kayaking etc. there may be some good offerings. Not certain about cruise excursions. When we were on land most of them left by 9AM and were full day tours. We have stayed on Lamai, Chewang, and Bophut beaches. Bophut is not so great, steep incline to water. Lamai is nice but higher waves. Chewang very popular, waves more moderate.

Just got back from Celebrity Millennium, did the 3 Vietnamese ports.

We had two days in Halong Bay, first day we had a rollcall group of 10 people do a nine hour junk, including lunch the price was US $80 p.p. Also included was a sampan row around the pearl fishing village. An excellent day - well worth it. If you do it, ask to go on route 4, away from the tourist areas.

The next day, we did a city tour, same 10 people, US $ 48 p.p. This tour was OK, we saw lots of the city (and the building boom) and had two stops, the market and museum. Not enough time in the market (including the fish market behnd it) and too much in the museum. This can be clarified when booking the tour. We did both tours with Authentic Asia, excellent service and tours - highly recommended.

Chan May, (we could not dock in DaNang as the Amerians have returned, this time welcomed and as protection, an aircraft carrier of marine helicopter carrier were in port), is an industrial port, not much there. If you book a private tour, you have to walk to the port gate a slow 5 minute walk. We chose to do China beach, Marble Mountains and Hoi An. Hoi An is very touristy and can get very crowded. The service and tour were very good and done through Tommy. Cost was US $65 p.p.

Phu My, very large industrial port, if you have booked a private tour you meet your guide at the port gates, which is a very long way to walk. TIP: there are shuttle buses (sometimes) organised not by and not advertised by Celebrity. Look out for smallish yellow buses with "School Bus" on the front, used them both to and from port gate. The traffic is like the worst from Rome and Mumbai. We did the tour via Zoom, cannot say how great the service and tour were - this and Halong Bay cruise were the best excursions.

Zoom keeps a tight control on his guests, but this gets you to see all the sights and back to the ship on time, Zoom is also a very kind person. We made a small change to Zoom's original itinerary, we left out the visit to the Lacware and Silk Factories and instead had a 45 minute trishaw (like a rickshaw but with the driver behind), cost US $5. Now if you are all stressed up or having a burn out, we are just a bunch of wimps, see what these drivers go through day in and day out. The ride was fabulous, sitting relative low down, it's a whole new world going through some of Saigon's 8 million population and 7 million scooters, absolutely great.

Although the buses could take upto 16 passengers, we kept our groups to 10 persons, the buses are built for Vietnamese not bulky Europeans / Americans, also more manageable and more cosy.

All participants were in contact pre-cruise (like a rollcall in a rollcall), exchanging information and photos so that we would recognise each other once onboard. Also arranged a meeting at a predefined location and time, to sort out any problems or questions and more important to break the ice, so that time the tours came around we were all on a very friendly level.

All three tour operators come very highly recommended by CC and Tripadvisor. If you would like contact information please let me know.

Have fun, I know we did.