xander

Thank you so much for your detailed review - all very helpful information. Sounds like you had a really wonderful trip. We sail in just under 6 weeks - can't wait!

On 8/24/2022 at 9:22 AM, franski said:

I look forward to hearing about your trip.   Will you come back and post?  Or perhaps post along the way??

 

Fran

Hello guys,

We too are booked on Emerald Harmony, and very much looking forward to finally actually going on this trip! Although we have been to Vietnam before, this will be our very first river cruise.

Like so many others, we also booked back in 2019 for a 2020 sailing and we've ended up rebooking several times. I must say that we have been very impressed with the helpfulness and flexibility that Emerald Cruises have shown through all this pandemic uncertainty. We usually book our own airfares but for some reason on this cruise I decided to book air with the cruise line  .... and that turned out to be the best thing. One call and it was all taken care of, and then all rebooked. 

We sail on the 31st Dec from Saigon up towards Siem Reap. 

TriMomma - yes please, we'd LOVE to hear about your trip departing in October!

Yes, we are on this sailing. Looking forward to it.

Just back from our HK - Singapore trip on Azamara.

Our tour in Danang with Smile Tours was fantastic , and our guide Bic , excellent. I would use them again , and recommend them.

We had two tours in Bangkok, both with Tong .

1st tour was a night food tour , was good but had issues with Songkran , and also with our guide - we just didn't click. After speaking with Tong (she's always available by phone) she arrange to change our guide for our "Floating market / Train market / fish market" tour the following day . Tong was very professional , and I would recommend calling her if you have issues - email takes days to get a hurried reply.

This 2nd tour was fantastic , and was the highlight of our BKK visit. Our guide was Ni Wat , and was superb.

Before the trip I was in two minds as to whether to do the floating market or not.

I am so glad we did the tour ! Yes the floating market is very touristy but very interesting ,the rest of the itinerary was very local and had very few tourists so felt very genuine/ real. Starting the tour an hour earlier at 6 AM to go to a local fish market was definitely worth . The "swallow" temple was amazing and totally unexpected and the train market was superb.

If you are a keen photographer then this itinerary is a feast , you will be trigger happy !

We are experienced cruisers and have always booked our own private tours in most ports we've been to.

I've been trying to book a tour to Hoi An with Ha for our visit to Danang for the past 8 day , and am fed up with the slow response from her (3 day to get a reply) and the lack of detail in her response (confirming a tour with just 2 lines is not enough).

While waiting for on of her responses i emailed Smile Tours and i got an answer right away to my questions and she send a full itinerary for the tour discussed within 12hrs , and feel confidant booking with Smile (unlike i did with Ha) This is disappointing esp since there is so much great feed back on these boards about Ha and her tour company.

We have also booked 2 tours with Tong in bangkok , again she emailed me within hours to discuss my tour requirements , and with in 2 days from first contact i had paid my deposit, and am now looking forward to our tours there.

Saigon , we have booked a half day food tour / cooking class with Saigon Cooking School . They too emailed right away and within a day we had confirmed our tour.

Maybe "Ha" has become a victim of her own success ?