Mekong Princess Review - Feb. 2016

[Pudgesmom]

I cannot post this in the review section as Cruise Critic doesn't have it listed.

 

The Mekong Princess is a 6 month old ship sailing 7 day itineraries from Cambodia to Saigon. As it is a 24 passenger vessel, it is able to travel on some of the less-used waterways in the area.

 

We boarded the ship just south of Tonle Sap near the end of the dry season. This seven night voyage was part of a 2 1/2 week tour with Abercrombie and Kent. Traveling to the ship involves a four hour bus ride from Siem Reap. The bus was well-air conditioned and made two rest stops along the way.

 

Boarding the ship is done from a dirt hillside and the crew is there to help passengers down the hill. My first impression of the ship was that is was clean and exceptionally well appointed. We were given a short briefing by the cruise director, Chantel, and then shown to our rooms before lunch.

 

Our suite was beautiful, on the second of two decks. We had a four poster king sized bed, dressing room and covered balcony with two loungers. The bathroom had an oversized shower, whirlpool tub, and one vanity. There was a pillow menu. This suite included butler service with free laundry, canapes each night and packing/unpacking. Laundry took one day and was delivered hanging or folded in a beautiful basket. Shower toiletries and bath salts were included. Our butler, Makara, did an outstanding job for us during the week, including filling one or two special requests.

 

In addition to the twelve suites, the ship consisted of the restaurant, small gym, library, one room spa treatment room, and an indoor and outdoor lounge. Each guest receives a free one hour spa treatment during the cruise.

 

Breakfast and lunch are served buffet style, dinner from a menu. All meals included both Western and Asian selections. Service was excellent from the well-trained staff. We found the food delicious. Beer, house wines and some local liquor are included during cocktail hour and meals. The dining room was set up with a couple of tables for six and one four top. Passengers could choose where to sit. Our cruise only had 20 passengers. Our guides ate meals with us. We enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.

 

Shore excursions are included, and too numerous to mention all. Highlights for me were the mangrove swamp sampan tour, the small Cambodian village, and the Cow Dai temple. The ship provides a VOX to each passenger for listening to the guides. It was very hot and humid. We wore lots of linen, as well as some of the hot weather gear from REI. A good hat is a must. Most people showered between the morning excursion and lunch, and then again before dinner. Passengers wore their excursion clothes to breakfast and lunch. The dress at dinner was slightly less casual, more of a country club casual look. Upon returning from excursions, the crew collected and cleaned all of our shoes. We were always greeted with a clean towel and refreshing fruit beverage.

 

Entertainment consisted of shore excursions, watching the Mekong Delta float by, and two movies in the lounge. One afternoon our guide gave a one hour lecture on Vietnamese history and culture.

 

The staff is all Cambodian, other than the Vietnamese captain. They are friendly and hard-working. All speak some English, although now and then it took a couple of tries to communicate. The cruise director was from St. Lucia.

 

I would not recommend this trip to anyone handicapped. The ship has no elevator. Most of the excursions require boarding one boat to another or climbing hillsides or wooden plank makeshift platforms.

 

The ship is small enough to sail right into central Saigon and dock. This saves another bus ride from outside the city. We were served a lovely breakfast before leaving the ship at 8 in the morning.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Thanks for posting!

[Floridiana]

I love reading another Mekong River review.

 

 

... covered balcony with two loungers.

 

My husband saw the ship and was jealous of the loungers. lol

 

Upon returning from excursions, the crew collected and cleaned all of our shoes. We were always greeted with a clean towel and refreshing fruit beverage.

 

Same on our ship, but they did not collect the shoes. The countryside was bone dry, no mud collected.

 

Entertainment consisted of shore excursions, watching the Mekong Delta float by, and two movies in the lounge. One afternoon our guide gave a one hour lecture on Vietnamese history and culture.

 

We had one musical evening with professional musicians from the Saigon conservatorium, one dance performance by teenagers from a school, one talk about Cambodia by two of our guides, an introduction to tropical fruit by the consulting chef, a fruit carving and soup cooking presentation by the chef, two documentaries, not sure about a movie.

 

I would not recommend this trip to anyone handicapped. The ship has no elevator. Most of the excursions require boarding one boat to another or climbing hillsides or wooden plank makeshift platforms.

 

I agree. The crew helped passengers along by stretching out hands, but everybody needed to walk on their own.

 

The ship is small enough to sail right into central Saigon and dock. This saves another bus ride from outside the city.

 

How did the ship get from the Mekong to Saigon? Saigon is not on the Mekong but on the Saigon river which flows directly into the ocean. Our bus took 1 1/2 hours to get from downtown to the outskirts on the Mekong.

[Pudgesmom]

There are smaller tributaries in the delta which the smaller ship could use to get to the Saigon River - which travel west to east. One was the busiest waterway I've ever seen. I have NO idea how all of those boats of various speeds and sizes managed to avoid one another. And we did dock right downtown.

 

I felt like maybe some of the shoe cleaning was due to the nature of some of the small villages we visited, where cattle, other livestock and dogs were freely roaming.

 

We actually had most of that entertainment mentioned on our ship as well. I'm not much for group activities and I guess I was getting a massage during the fruit carving. We did, however, really enjoy a dance performance by some children in Phenom Pehn on the ship.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Pudgesmom
clarification

[Floridiana]

I would have loved going through the canals to the Mekong.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report.

[Keith1010]

Thank you for your review.

 

Keith

[Damaris1900]

Thank you for this review. You mentioned that this was one segment of a longer tour with Abercrombie and Kent; I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on A & K, and if you would be inclined to go on another of their tours.

[Solent Richard]

 

 

The ship is small enough to sail right into central Saigon and dock. This saves another bus ride from outside the city. We were served a lovely breakfast before leaving the ship at 8 in the morning.

 

Sounds fantastic and must have enhanced the insight into the Saigon suburbs.

[Pudgesmom]

Thank you for this review. You mentioned that this was one segment of a longer tour with Abercrombie and Kent; I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on A & K, and if you would be inclined to go on another of their tours.

 

Sorry for the late reply. I was traveling! We are already planning our next trip with A & K.

 

This was our second tour with them, the first was to China. Both were with the Luxury Small Group tours, and we added on a private tour in Hong Kong for a couple of days.

 

We like A & K on-site very much. The tour directors and local guides are outstanding. We travel to learn about culture, history and religion as much to see places and they do that very well. We picked up a local guide at the airport in the evening in Siem Reap who spoke to us on the way to the hotel. Our tour director wasn't apparently wasn't pleased and by morning had already hired someone else.

 

We had a woman sustain a serious leg injury on the first day in Bangkok. She was very well taken care of at a private hospital. The local A & K staff did well, and it didn't hurt that we had three physicians in our group of 20.

 

Hotels are excellent and generally have historical interest and are well-located, always on the club level and with the best views. Most, but not all, meals are included. There are never any shopping stops that feel forced. On the Yangtze cruise, the A & K passengers had a private dining room, on the Mekong, all 12 rooms were part of our tour. Group transportation, where needed is always the best of the local options, with of course VOX and plenty of water and handwipes. Our experience has been that they usually get a bus that would hold about twice as many people as are on the tour, so there is room to spread out.

 

The one issue I have is that the US operation could be run more smoothly. A few people mentioned some issues with the office here, none major, but certainly less well handled than one would expect for a top notch tour. As I said, it would not prevent me from using them again.

[nancydip]

I cannot post this in the review section as Cruise Critic doesn't have it listed.

 

The Mekong Princess is a 6 month old ship sailing 7 day itineraries from Cambodia to Saigon. As it is a 24 passenger vessel, it is able to travel on some of the less-used waterways in the area.

 

We boarded the ship just south of Tonle Sap near the end of the dry season. This seven night voyage was part of a 2 1/2 week tour with Abercrombie and Kent. Traveling to the ship involves a four hour bus ride from Siem Reap. The bus was well-air conditioned and made two rest stops along the way.

 

Boarding the ship is done from a dirt hillside and the crew is there to help passengers down the hill. My first impression of the ship was that is was clean and exceptionally well appointed. We were given a short briefing by the cruise director, Chantel, and then shown to our rooms before lunch.

 

Our suite was beautiful, on the second of two decks. We had a four poster king sized bed, dressing room and covered balcony with two loungers. The bathroom had an oversized shower, whirlpool tub, and one vanity. There was a pillow menu. This suite included butler service with free laundry, canapes each night and packing/unpacking. Laundry took one day and was delivered hanging or folded in a beautiful basket. Shower toiletries and bath salts were included. Our butler, Makara, did an outstanding job for us during the week, including filling one or two special requests.

 

In addition to the twelve suites, the ship consisted of the restaurant, small gym, library, one room spa treatment room, and an indoor and outdoor lounge. Each guest receives a free one hour spa treatment during the cruise.

 

Breakfast and lunch are served buffet style, dinner from a menu. All meals included both Western and Asian selections. Service was excellent from the well-trained staff. We found the food delicious. Beer, house wines and some local liquor are included during cocktail hour and meals. The dining room was set up with a couple of tables for six and one four top. Passengers could choose where to sit. Our cruise only had 20 passengers. Our guides ate meals with us. We enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.

 

Shore excursions are included, and too numerous to mention all. Highlights for me were the mangrove swamp sampan tour, the small Cambodian village, and the Cow Dai temple. The ship provides a VOX to each passenger for listening to the guides. It was very hot and humid. We wore lots of linen, as well as some of the hot weather gear from REI. A good hat is a must. Most people showered between the morning excursion and lunch, and then again before dinner. Passengers wore their excursion clothes to breakfast and lunch. The dress at dinner was slightly less casual, more of a country club casual look. Upon returning from excursions, the crew collected and cleaned all of our shoes. We were always greeted with a clean towel and refreshing fruit beverage.

 

Entertainment consisted of shore excursions, watching the Mekong Delta float by, and two movies in the lounge. One afternoon our guide gave a one hour lecture on Vietnamese history and culture.

 

The staff is all Cambodian, other than the Vietnamese captain. They are friendly and hard-working. All speak some English, although now and then it took a couple of tries to communicate. The cruise director was from St. Lucia.

 

I would not recommend this trip to anyone handicapped. The ship has no elevator. Most of the excursions require boarding one boat to another or climbing hillsides or wooden plank makeshift platforms.

 

The ship is small enough to sail right into central Saigon and dock. This saves another bus ride from outside the city. We were served a lovely breakfast before leaving the ship at 8 in the morning.

 

Thank you for this. We're trying to figure out how best to take a Viet Nam-Cambodia river cruise tour and I came across this boat.