3littlepigs

Thanks 3littkepigs I will check out that product, can you get it in Starbucks in Aust?

Sure can...it's in boxes of, I think, 12 sachets for about $10.

Over roasted, Over-Extracted, Over priced and Over here!

 

Starbucks American patron saint, Daddy Warbucks with his selection of four to five buck abominations...

 

Where is the barf bucket?

 

A pox on anyone who spends a red cent there...

 

:( :rolleyes: :eek:

 

.

As I posted, it's not like Starbucks normal coffee which I really don't like.

It's not something they make in the shop rather sachets you make at home...or on a cruise where the onboard coffee makes Starbucks look good!

Check out the Myanmar forum on Tripadvisor (Cruise Critic's sister site) they are able to recommend agencies and guides, we used an excellent agency in Yangon but you can't post agency names on CC.

Thanks 3littlepigs.

 

Do you know if water levels is ever an issue re itinerary?

There wouldn't be major issues on the one week Irrawaddy cruise from Prome to

Mandalay unless there were major floods in the rainy season. On the cruise that goes north from Mandalay they use local speed boats to access the second defile if the river level is low.

A local pilot travels with the boat, changes every 50 miles so they have expert local knowledge. It was always fun to watch the pilot changes. Often a small boat pulls out from the bank with the new pilot onboard, his family waving goodbye, and waving hello to everyone onboard, the new pilot climbs the access ladder to board and the previous pilot climbs down into the little boat with his bag of goodies for dinner from the cruise boat..waving happily back to the passengers!

Casual/Smart casual...it's not like a cruise ship.

Peak season is November to March when it's dry and "cooler" we went in a september which is officially still the rainy season but it only rained about 3 or 4 times in 3 1/2 weeks. It was VERY hot and VERY humid...hard work if you aren't used to it. It was in the 30's every day and in the 40's in Mandalay.

All beer and soft drinks are included, wine with lunch and dinner, and cocktail hour with a special cocktail each day...constantly refilled!

Just remembered...

There is a vessel called Irrawaddy Explorer that is pretty much Cruiseco Explorers older sister, would be a very similar cruise, when we saw it, it as chartered by Scenic.

If you are thinking of mekong cruises, a large number of people on Cruiseco explorer had done the Mekong on the sister ship Cruiseco Adventurer and raved about it, particularly the cruise director, I think her name is Rosie.

We've never had a decent coffee on a ship, or in the US! I find the tea pretty ordinary too. I take along a Starbucks product called "Via" which is micro ground coffee in little sachets. I don't like Starbucks coffee normally but his stuff is good and comes in a small boxes so is easy to carry. Being a tea addict I take my favourite tea bags too!

Mine was deleted too...I had no idea I couldn't link to an itinerary, my apologies.

Took me an hour to post my suggestions, unfortunately I didn't keep a copy so the short version follows...

We travelled on Cruiseco explorer, stunning brand new ship, highly recommended, worth seeking out as only sold in Australia. Loved the food, big, luxurious cabins, spotlessly clean and an amazing crew.

I have traveled to Asia at least every year for the last 40 years and still found Myanmar fascinating and surprising. It's like taking a time machine back to the days before Thailand was spoilt by hordes of tourists, with authentic culture, stunning architecture, fascinating history and incredibly friendly people.

We did two weeks on the Irrawaddy which included a week north of Mandalay where the locals are likely to have a tourist boat around 4 times a year. The area north of Mandalay up to the second defile was the highlight, particularly the village where they make the huge clay pots and the elephant camp outside Katha. In total we spent 3 1/2 weeks in Myanmar.

The main thing to be aware of when you travel to Myanmar are that as an extremely poor country with very basic infrastructure its not, in my opinion, well suited to anyone with limited mobility or likely to need any medical assistance on their travels. If anything other than the most elementary medical assistance is needed passengers would have to be flown out to Bangkok or Singapore and that would be a lengthy process from many of the areas we travelled to.

Like on the Mekong, going ashore means walking along a narrow gangplank and up either a muddy bank or steps. In Bagan we had to go up 60 uneven steps then walk about 300 metres to get to the bus, a few passengers didn't go off the boat there after the first time. Onshore excursions are mainly on foot although buses, pony carts and trucks were used as well. Lots of fun, but not for everyone. All religious sites, and that's most of the places we visited, require shoes and socks to be removed so there is a fair amount of barefoot walking in hot and/or uneven surfaces. I loved it!

Myanmar is a magical and relatively unspoilt destination with incredibly friendly people and beyond amazing historical sights and culture. I loved it and highly recommend it for anyone in hale and hearty health who has a spirit of adventure :)

Be aware that there is an election in Myanmar on 8 November this year. It's worth keeping up to date with the political situation when considering booking your trip.

We flew China Southern Premium Economy from Xian to Shanghai earlier this year. It was fine although not the premium economy we are used to, really just another small economy class cabin in front of a curtain. The only problem we found was the planes flying through China are pretty much ALWAYS late...China Southern is one of the better Chinese Airlines. We've flown China Eastern before and I would NEVER set foot on one of their planes again, the passengers took control of the cabin and the staff just let them, it was quite frightening, and that was a flight from Sydney to Shanghai this time last year.

We were on Legend earlier this year for a few days. I felt it was in desperate need of refurbishment, in terms of both layout and decor, it's tired, ugly and very badly designed. If Spirit has recently been refurbished I would definitely choose it over Legend.

If you have a deadline stay away from Tiger and to some extent Jetstar...any problems and you will soon discover you get what you pay for!

Long overdue!

I was on her in January and I think she was the most hideous boat ever, it was ugly, nothing matched, fake gold, angels on the ceilings, I doubt it has been refurb end since it was built

:eek: Never planning on going on her again!!

Hard to believe it could be as ugly as Legend which we found badly designed and eye blisteringly ugly!

I am sure there is abuse of elephants as with many other animals, however, it is pointless making generalisations without providing evidence to support your case. Suggesting readers do an internet search is not at all helpful. Providing links supporting your argument supports your statements and validates your generalisations.

Not being snarky...what was the "sigh" comment about then?

We have been there in Summer and Winter and love it. Not my number one choice in Beijing but well worth a visit if you have time. If you can get a private tour guide and car to pick you up and drive you around fir the two days you should be able to fit it in. We use Violet and Konglin and have been very happy with their price and service both times. ( google Violet tripadvisor beijing and you should find them)

In two days if you get an early start each day you should be able to cover the forbidden City and neighbouring Tiananmen Square, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven ( go early in the morning for best experience) and the wall at Mutianyu. Stay in the Wangfujing area and you can walk around at night and see the eat street and the crazy tourists eating spiders and scorpions...yuk! Don't be suckered into any "factory" visits...they are commission paying shopping excursions and a waste of your precious time. If you have time the Lama temple us another of our favourites, and Hou Hai is great at night.

Wynyard train station is about 200 metres from the Hotel, flat walking. You would have to change trains at Central. The cost would be around half the price of a taxi if there are two of you, but you would have to be able to handle your luggage easily.

We catch the train every time because the traffic can be unreliable but we always limit our luggage to what we can easily manage.

We took the cruise company bus, the few dollars we may have saved by hiring a taxi or a taxi and train wasn't worth the peace of mind that we weren't going to " miss the boat" like you we are very familiar with KL and found our way around on foot and by public transport once we arrived.

We stayed in Shinagawa, found it very central and easy to get anywhere we wanted to go.

We hated Shinjuku station with a passion, with 200 exits and crowds day and night it was my version of Hell.

For Pop Culture try Harijuku Street, we also enjoyed the walk from there back to Shibuya despite the pouring rain. Akihabara is Pop Culture Central and worth a visit.

You will love Japan!

KL is very easy to get around by Public Transport so Depending what you are looking to do in KL it may be easiest and cheapest to take the ship transfer to the city and find your own way around. We were given a good city map on the bus.

If you like to walk Penang is very compact and walkable (flat) from the wharf. We wandered around for a few hours then went back to the ship for lunch then wandered again. As you come off the ship there is a tourist info office on the street that runs to the right, grab a map there.

I am referring to the abuse of the elephants, not danger to humans! Sigh.

No need to be snarky when someone misunderstood your post.

People may understand your point better if you posted evidence and links rather than an unsupported comment.

On Princess we had an obstructed ocean view GTY and ended up with the 2nd highest balcony but it was a short cruise.

On RCCL we had a JS GTY and were allocated a Grand Suite midships.

On X Aqua GTY and got the most forward cabin highest deck...lucky the weather was good.

On HAL we booked a BB balcony and had a bargain upsell to a Neptune Suite that only took our overall price to an AA balcony.

Overall we have been extremely happy with our allocations but we are super careful and I am very analytical about checking what cabins are available and the minimum level of cabin we are willing to accept.

If you are careful and know what you are going to be happy with and make sure you don't have exposure to anything less than that you can get some real bargains.

I think the no single supplement was either APT or AMA, pretty sure it was APT. The no single supplement only related to their lowest grade cabin and only a certain number of cabins per sailing. I couldn't find it on the website, I don't think it had been updated yet so probably needs a call to an agent.

With Celebrity you can change an assigned GTY cabin to another vacant one in the same category (at least we can in the US). I figure you were assigned a 2C which have partially obstructed views. If there are any available, you might try for the last 8 on both port & starboard sides as these have larger verandas and are over the jut-out for the stern dining venues. Also, 6156, 6154, 6240, 6242 and 6155, 6157, 6241, 6243 have larger angled verandas, although lifeboats that come to the bottom of the veranda affect these cabins.

 

We chose 6240 for our NZ-TAZ-OZ Solstice cruise because of the great price and the triple-size veranda.

Celebrity changed our GTY cabin for another one in the same category, agent rang Celebrity in Australia who rang Celebrity in the USA who changed to the cabin we wanted.

We have been lucky with GTY cabins as well. Princess changed our allocation 3 times before sailing and we went from Obstricted Oceanview to 2nd highest balcony. On RCCL we had a JS guarantee and ended up with a Grand suite with all the bells and whistles that went with that...a crazy bargain!

I will always take a GTY at the right price and a high enough level cabin that I am happy with whatever I get. It is a gamble but you can definitely set the odds in your favour if you are careful when you book.

Have you thought of doing the China tour as a private tour. I would think that teenagers would probably hate the whole "group tour" concept. When we went to China we had a travel agent organise a private tour through a well known company (we are in Aust). Turned out the price difference between group package tour and our private tour was about the cost of the airfare. We chose the locations we wished to visit (included a Yanghtse cruise - excursions are part of the cost) had our own private guide and driver in each location

Took the words right out of my mouth!

We've been to China twice in the last 9 months, both times on our own with private guides. I was a bit apprehensive the first time but wouldn't do it any other way now. The bullet trains are amazing and private guides give you great flexibility at a very cheap price.

On our second trip we took our teenage son and on our last day in China he said he couldn't believe that we did something crazy amazing every single day...he's very well travelled but was still gobsmacked by China. His highlight was hiking on the Great Wall from Jiankou to Mutianyu with our private guide.

Our trip with him was Hong Kong ( been there many times ) Beijing, Pingyao, Xi'An, Shanghai. Great itinerary with teenagers.

If you are thinking of going it alone have a look on tripadvisor for some great suggestions

We were shocked at how lax the muster drill was on our Carnival cruise! it as nothing like the other companies we have cruised with in the past.

Passengers poodled down to the muster station at their leisure over about a half hour period, no names were marked off, the staff counted heads and recounted again and again when the numbers didn't add up. I was left a bit worried about his it would be handled in the case of a real emergency.