Pink15

I had Typhoid & Hep A vaccinations as recommended by my surgery. Just a point to note for some people, if you are travelling on an Irish passport you will need a full visa for Vietnam.

I got mine about 2/3 weeks before departure.

Just back from Far East and asked some of the staff if they knew if this would go ahead as planned - opinion seemed to be that they would not know until much nearer the time.

Just back from the Far East cruise, can recommend.

Hi Paul I'm on this soon 😁 and have had Hep A & Thyphoid as recommended by my surgery.

Thanks for the link 🙂

That's a great help CruiserGY. Just out of interest (and my usual pre holiday nerves/panic 🙄), did everyone get processed Ok? Did anyone that you know of get questionned/searched? It always worries me that I will fall foul of something that is normal here (e.g. Chewing gum) but very bad there! Wouldn't want to get busted for having gaviscon or something on my person!

Thanks CruiserGY. I was having a look at this yesterday and have downloaded the Singapore app and scanned in my passport, looks ok to use. Was worried about the Malaysian one as their website was slow and did not look user friendly, but won't worry about this now!

Thanks for the video link, very informative. Then I clicked on one of the videos next to it and it looks like I need a Malaysian entry card as well as the rules changed last week! Just when I thought I'd got all the rules covered! 🙄

In on this in February, and so far have booked: Best of Kuala lumpa 7 hrs £61 Heights & Sights of Penang 4.5 hrs £46 Temples, canals & shops in Bangkok 9.5 hrs £52 Ho chi minh city highlights 9 hrs £67 As said above I think the most expensive trip over the 2 weeks was £118 to James bond island, looks spectacular.

My direct line home policy includes worldwide insurance including cruises. Maybe your home insurer has an add on?

I've always tried to take the stairs as I am quite fit, am mindful of others need, and in an attempt to burn off cake. But on one cruise I was many floors away from the action and determined that the stairs wouldn't beat me, I continued up and down all week. It took weeks after getting home for my tendons to recover. Now, I try to pace myself a bit better. Stairs are hard work for a lot of able bodied people but I agree that wheelchairs etc should get priority, that's just manners.

PS: Miami covers a vast area. I did the tour that took in Little Havana, which is one road with cigar shops interspersed with Starbucks, Dominoes etc. We didn't see South Beach, that was a different direction. Then we did the bay tour where you gawp at rich people's houses! In my opinion you need to do a tour, whether that is with Marella or independently.

There were no shuttle buses when I was there in May. It looked at least a half hour walk by the side of a busy road to go to & from the port. I was intending to walk back from the Bay Side shopping area when we had done our bay cruise, but it was so hot that I decided to go back with the coach, although there were some taxis about, it would only be 5 minutes in a taxi.

I was in premium economy this time which included fast track. Literally straight through. This was in May. Now peak season so would expect some queuing.

I paid £90 for the top level package. I still had plenty of 'time' left on it when I left the ship after 2 weeks. There were much cheaper packages if you just wanted straight forward messaging etc, I went for the most expensive as I had a funeral to attend via zoom and wanted to make sure it worked (which it did, no problems).

Sounds like you will need sleep as much as food 🤗 As I said, I'm really not a fan of airplane food, I usually grab a meal deal from Boots etc.

I flew from Birmingham. Outbound there was a hot meal choice of beef or chicken. Later there was sandwiches. Inbound, can't remember the hot meal (obviously not great!), with a breakfast toastie thing later. I'm not a fan of airplane meals so only poked at them! Transfer was 45-50 minutes.

There should be some examples of excursions on the website with brief desciptions.

Had an email yesterday from Wolverhampton Tui branch (who?) inviting me to a launch event in July for Winter 24/25 holidays. Didn't say when in July, and didn't say if it included cruises. And I've never been to Wolverhampton branch, or any other branch for years. 🤔

Just a note for the less mobile - to get off the ship in Miami & Port Canareval is a bit of a hike, lots of zig zag air bridges etc, assume these are to cope with the bigger ships. One lady I was on a trip with was upset as she thought we had all been waiting for her to get to the coach as she was a slow walker, if she had been told how far it was she would have left the meeting place earlier than the group and she would have felt better taking her time getting through the terminal.

Its approx a 20/25 minute walk to Times Square from Manhattan Cruise Terminal, 50th Street/12th Avenue, pretty flat walk, not too bad but the second day I was there it was hot! I was over near Grand Central and hobbling quite badly so got a yellow cab, it was about 2pm and traffic was average NY bad, cost including tip was $30, First night i had gone to a show and wasn't going to walk back in the dark, was going to Uber but a yellow cab pulled up to drop someone off so I got in, fare was $13, gave him $20, Uber is supposed to be cheaper but i thought that was reasonable. The yellow cabs are all on meter which you can see, think the flat charge is about $5 as soon as you get in , then 80c per minute, make sure you are on a street where the traffic is going towards the cruise terminal otherwise it will spend 5 minutes getting round the block!

There is very little to do in Freeport, a small port side market. There are excursions to some gardens, and also a bigger market. I think Freeport is in the less pretty part of the Bahamas. Maybe they are having to rearrange the itinery for this one as well which is delaying things? If you have booked something and they change the day then they just roll it over to the new day. Even if things are full online they seem to be doing their best to put on another bus/a new trip an hour later so is worth checking as soon as you board.

Hi Jim, am home now after the overnight flight and missing it already! cruise was fab, everybody seems to have had a good time. Food & drink plentiful, weather warm (some rain on sea day out of NY but not much). Everything well organised, staff as friendly as ever. I would say about 75% full first week but more last week (half term). I had been to NY before and love it so did my own thing there, but it did seem a bit of a slog there and back. We were only in Freeport for 4 hours, nothing there. Key West straight off ship into town. Miami you need to do a trip as it is vast. Charleston nice. Grand Turk & Dom Rep you can walk straight off ship into resort but need a trip to go further.

Yes it feels as though we have had a lot of time at sea this week. The itinery was changed due to the currents, we wouldn't have made it from Bahamas to Port Canareval in the original time battling against the flow. In my opinion, Freeport was a waste anyway, but you only get to say that in retrospect.