JimmyDee54

Just thought I’d add an update to our present situation. We have now booked a Venice - Venice, 7 night cruise, on Royal Clipper, in August 2022. Will it go ahead ? Who knows, but we all need a bit of hope and something to look forward to don’t we ?

We were hoping to do a European river cruise next year, but I think that is now on hold. I mentioned to my wife that we still have a tent in the garage from when the kids were small, and we could take that somewhere. Apparently I will be doing that on my own !

Finally. Royal Clipper cruises cancelled until 3rd October. At least we can move on and get a refund now, - next year not an option as already fully booked. It’s a shame, as we were really looking forward to this, our second Clipper cruise,  when we booked it  way back in 2018. Not committing to 2022 as I think the whole cruise industry will struggle for a long time now, at least until there is a vaccine for COVID-19.

Royal Clipper cruises  all now cancelled until 5th September, so we are just hanging in there. Next update will probably be beginning of August.
Part of me wishes they would cancel, then we could look at rebooking for 2021. 
There again, it could be a great opportunity to see Venice, Rome, Dubrovnik, Kotor etc without all the usual crowds.

To further complicate things, - our return flight from Rome to Manchester, with Jet2, is now cancelled !  Alternative looks like BA via Heathrow. Will have to change car park timings at Manchester also. Hey ho.
 

Hi everyone. Just paid the final balance for Venice - Rome cruise, leaving 5th September 2020. Must say, I was ( and still am) very doubtful that this cruise will go ahead, but was advised to pay up in full, in order to get a full refund if the cruise is then cancelled. (If I cancel my booking now, I lose the deposit and flight costs). 
Just wondered if there are others out there hoping to go on this cruise. Not sure if we are actually looking forward to it now. If there are social distancing measures and compulsory masks etc. It will be a very different trip to the one we had hoped for, but ...fingers crossed.

The voyage up through Phang Nga Bay was beautiful. Being quite a small ship, the Clipper gets right in amongst the limestone outcrops and islands. They also do a trip to James Bond island / floating village from the ship. We didn't do this as we had visited both on a previous stay, so we opted for the beach/snorkelling option.

I would advise doing Phi Phi, but go with one of the best tour companies like Phuket Sail Tours or Simba. They will try to avoid the crowds.

Have to say that our week long cruise from Singapore to Phuket was terrific. We loved everything about this great "little" ship - Star Clipper.

This is not 5* cruising, but more of a sailing adventure.

The cabins are "cosy", but have everything you need. The food was fantastic at every meal time, - great crew, and a wonderful group of passengers from all over the world, - you will know most of them by the end of the week.

You do need to be reasonably fit as most of the embarking & disembarking is done by tender, and there are a lot of stairs on board.

We are not fans of the huge floating hotel type cruises, but would recommend this to anyone who fancies a small ship cruise with a difference.

Now where shall we book our next Star Clipper cruise ?

Have to agree with you Ional, it's not exactly a hive of activity on here is it. However, we board Star Clipper in Singapore next Sat 1st April. We sail for one week, then in Thailand for a further week, but I will post our thoughts and experiences on here when we return home.

We are sailing Singapore - Phuket on 1st April, on the Star Clipper. Have done quite a lot of S. E. Asia in the past, but this will be our first cruise. Looking forward to it, and to reading any comments or tips you have Aeros.