Seabourn Hong Kong -> Singapore via Manila

During the northern hemisphere winter months Seabourn usually has one ship shuttling up and down between Singapore and Hong Kong via Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh etc. We've done it, although not with Seabourn, it's fine but we've seen those cities enough not to want to cruise them (especially with the BKK stop being far from the city and not an overnight).

Once a year they go the other way, down through the Philippines, Manila, Boracay. But only once a year at most. Has anyone sailed that route and can comment on the itinerary and ports? It's tempting because HK is a few hours away, the ship overnights there the first night so we could fly in and go straight to the ship, then cab home in Singapore. But only if the ports are worth going to.

We have done the reverse trip on Silversea. Ports included stops in Borneo (chance to see the Orang Utans), Brunei and islands in the Phillippines. You will see more of the islamic part and culture of South East Asia on this routing. Boracay is overrun today, but we enjoyed the other places.

We have done the reverse trip on Silversea. Ports included stops in Borneo (chance to see the Orang Utans), Brunei and islands in the Phillippines. You will see more of the islamic part and culture of South East Asia on this routing. Boracay is overrun today, but we enjoyed the other places.

Thanks - I'll take that as a +1 then. This one doesn't hit either Borneo or Brunei but does quite a few islands in the Philippines and overnights at Manila, a place we've also never been.

We did this on the Sojourn last year, it was an enjoyable cruise, it ticked a few places off our list and some of the ports of call were interesting. I'd never been to China before. The 100 Islands were very pretty. Manilla is crazy - they don't seem to have road rules, just suggestions no one follows. In Manilla (where we were lucky enough to have a tour guide and driver courtesy of a friend) we visited Art in Island, a fascinating, fun 3D art gallery. At most of the Philippine POC you do get hassled quite a bit with people offering taxis etc, they're not unpleasant but it doesn't make it relaxing. Security can be an issue. What was nice at Manilla, where we stayed overnight, was to see so many crew members showing their family members around the ship. Our Cruise Director was Sophie so our time on board was fun with excellent entertainment.

We did a similar itinerary on Silversea this January. Our Manila stop was interesting as we did a half day excursion sponsored through the cruise line. Let me just say bus tours in Manila's heavy traffic and narrow streets in old town don't go together very well. :D. However it was interesting place to visit. If you can organise a private tour and car it would be still tricky but much better.

Boracay and some of the smaller ports were interesting for beaches and snorkelling. But we are reasonably adventurous and go off exploring and walking. We never felt unsafe in the smaller places or even Manila where we used the above ground flyover monorail after lunch. That was easy to use. The transport guard directed us to use the "seniors" line which had no queue. We were happy to do so, and it gave us a giggle, but we felt older then usual. :')

Julie

Hello Julie,

Could you tell me where your Silversea ship docked in Manila.

Jane

We had that section as part of our Sojourn itinerary earlier this year .

It’s ok. Manila is a little hectic, the other stops were island stops where the main activity was snorkeling. Borkay was closed buy the government so we stopped somewhere else, something like 100 islands... Honestly the highlight stops were Georgetown and Saigon .

Our cruise stopped extensively in Indonesia, at least nine ports. Indonesia was interesting but mostly undeveloped humid without too much to see that didn’t become repetitive.

Once a year they go the other way, down through the Philippines, Manila, Boracay. But only once a year at most. Has anyone sailed that route and can comment on the itinerary and ports? It's tempting because HK is a few hours away, the ship overnights there the first night so we could fly in and go straight to the ship, then cab home in Singapore. But only if the ports are worth going to.

Hello

Mrs Machotspur and I are booked on that itinerary with Seabourn, embarking at Hong Kong on 2nd Feb 2019.

Like you the primary reason for taking this cruise, other than an excuse to visit Hong Kong/Singapore again, is the Philippines ports, particularly Manila. And this is where the problems begin :(

Manila is quite a challenge to do by oneself (problems with taxi's, traffic, lack of decent subway, personal crime etc.). Yet the availability of private guides & cars doesn't appear to be great, compared with most other major Asian cities.

We try to avoid ship tours wherever possible, and in this case they understandably appear to be very US-centric due to the significant WW2 history.

Most of the city was wrecked during the war so it is not somewhere that has a lot of heritage/historical areas & buildings remaining. In cities like this we would normally concentrate on trying to soak up life in the city today but the practicalities of this are proving to be a challenge..

We will probably end up asking our TA in the UK to try and arrange a private guide/driver through an agency. This will cost us, but i'm not sure we are left with much of an option.

Your post is very timely for us too, so we very much look forward to any replies we get. .

We walked around the downtown area in Manila and also did a Shopping with the Chef there. Was busy, but no problems.

We also did the Singapore Hong Kong Singapore cruise with Seabourn Jan 2017 which was one of the better cruises we have done

One of the highlights for us was to go to the underground caves at Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park

Hello Julie,

 

Could you tell me where your Silversea ship docked in Manila.

 

Jane

Hi Jane,

I can't remember the name but it was right near the city centre. I know we walked back through the large People's Park after getting off the monorail to get back on the ship.

I will have a look through my old paperwork and see if I can find the port name.

Julie

We read with interest the posts of those having sailed this Cruise.

" Rols " mentioned it is a winter cruise in Asia. We have cruised Asia, largely HK, Singapore , Malaysia, Vietnam, Bangkok , Taiwan and Myanmar at this time of year. So far we have not ventured toward the Phillipines.

May we ask what the weather was like in the Phillipines in February?

Our other question is where does Seabourn dock in Hong Kong, Tai Tak port or Ocean Terminal?

The timing for this cruise will probably be close to Chinese New Year which adds a festive flavour.

My recollection of the weather for our cruise last year was that it was warm and sunny most of the time. Although I think it was a little cooler in China,the first night it was pretty windy. The time in the Philippines was definitely warm during the day, high 20s.

Funny you should ask about the dock in HK. All our documentation from Seabourn said it was from Tai Tak but it got changed at the last minute. We didn't get a notification from Seabourn but luckily a few days before we left home I checked the port lists for HK online. And on the actual day from our hotel (the Island Shangri la) we could clearly see the Sojourn so would have worked it out then. However there were a lot of people who didn't and got understandably stressed and frustrated.

When we did depart from the pier at HK the Sojourn only got a few metres out when we had to return, a crew member had been taken ill and was evacuated.

We left HK in January and certainly there were lots of New Year Celebrations and displays which were fun to explore and enjoy.

Funny you should ask about the dock in HK. All our documentation from Seabourn said it was from Kai Tak but it got changed at the last minute.

Appreciating all the views here, we're still thinking but this info is certainly helping.

Never been to Kai Tak the cruise terminal, when I was last there you arrived by plane and hoped you did NOT end up in the water. The new airport is much safer but no where near as much fun.

[quote name=jcbdigger;57146301

When we did depart from the pier at HK the Sojourn only got a few metres out when we had to return' date=' a crew member had been taken ill and was evacuated.

.[/quote]

I remember that . Captain Tim announced that he had never been to HK before and now he had been there twice in one day

Thank you for the weather recollectionon "JCBDigger" that sounds encouraging.Yes "Rols" the old Kai Tak Airport runway was exicting. I remember it well, looking into peoples apartments as you flew in and crossing your fingers that you would ascend before you reached the harbour.

Love the fast train from the new airport and the check in at the station outward bound.

Why I asked this question is that the new Kai Tak Port is a lemon. A few years old now it has not been developed due to its inconvenient locatation and no public transport linkage. I hope Seabourn is still able to dock at Ocean Terminal.

Tho' if we are lucky enough to take this cruise, because we love Seabourn and we are au fait with Hong Kong we will grin and bear it if happens to be a Kai Tak embarkation. :rolleyes::D;)

Has anybody any info on the visa requirements for the first stopover in mainland China? Are they dealt with on-board or are we going to have to go thru the expensive process of obtaining them before travelling? I'm UK based and my TA is still investigating but would appreciate heads-up from anyone with info.

Has anybody any info on the visa requirements for the first stopover in mainland China? Are they dealt with on-board or are we going to have to go thru the expensive process of obtaining them before travelling? I'm UK based and my TA is still investigating but would appreciate heads-up from anyone with info.

China's complicated. I would wait for your travel agent to confirm but my understanding is

There are no visas on-board, if you need one, you have to get one beforehand. I'm pretty sure about this one.

The first port is Xiamen. Whereas there are visa free exemptions for cruises arriving in Shanghai (although you need to be on a group tour) and a few ports if you are transiting and leaving again, I know of no exemption for Xiamen port. There is a 72 hour visa free transit for some nationals including the UK however that is, again as far as I know, only for travellers arriving by air and oddly enough only if going on to a different country. I assume only the airports are set up to process this.

So my feeling is you'll probably need to get the visa, annoying and costly though that is for one port, but again I'd wait for the travel agent. There's also a China Visa centre http://www.visaforchina.org/, several branches in the UK, who might be able to give you information.

We were on a cruise which stopped in China a few years ago, SS I think it was. As Singaporeans we don't need visas for China, however the ship's crew had never come across this and we had a fretful 30 minutes whilst they called various people on the ship until they confirmed we were good to go.

Has anybody any info on the visa requirements for the first stopover in mainland China? Are they dealt with on-board or are we going to have to go thru the expensive process of obtaining them before travelling? I'm UK based and my TA is still investigating but would appreciate heads-up from anyone with info.

We are on this cruise - Hong Kong - Singapore - in February 2019.

The only stop in China is Xiamen and we plan to obtain a visa in advance, as per the requirements.

The China Visa website states that one cannot apply for a visa until 3 months before travel. We have diarised 5th November.

On 9/23/2018 at 1:58 PM, machotspur said:

 

Hello

 

Mrs Machotspur and I are booked on that itinerary with Seabourn, embarking at Hong Kong on 2nd Feb 2019.

 

Like you the primary reason for taking this cruise, other than an excuse to visit Hong Kong/Singapore again, is the Philippines ports, particularly Manila. And this is where the problems begin 😞

 

Manila is quite a challenge to do by oneself (problems with taxi's, traffic, lack of decent subway, personal crime etc.). Yet the availability of private guides & cars doesn't appear to be great, compared with most other major Asian cities.

We try to avoid ship tours wherever possible, and in this case they understandably appear to be very US-centric due to the significant WW2 history.

Most of the city was wrecked during the war so it is not somewhere that has a lot of heritage/historical areas & buildings remaining. In cities like this we would normally concentrate on trying to soak up life in the city today but the practicalities of this are proving to be a challenge..

 

We will probably end up asking our TA in the UK to try and arrange a private guide/driver through an agency. This will cost us, but i'm not sure we are left with much of an option.

 

Your post is very timely for us too, so we very much look forward to any replies we get. .

My husband and I will be on this cruise. Maybe we can meet up. Only our second SB cruise. He spent his first 8 years in the Phillipines.

In respect of the above posts, my documentation states Tai Tak which agrees with current port listings. However things may change as has the China stop. Recently advised not stopping in Xiamen (and been refunded excursion money) but Hainan. I had not applied for costly visas (as presailing documentation suggested I should do) altho some have and may have paid out a couple of hundred GBP for no reason as there appears to be the possibility that Hainan is visa exempt. Still have to follow up with TA/Seabourn bot unable at present as am on Oddessey in Canaries.

14 minutes ago, IanL said:

In respect of the above posts, my documentation states Tai Tak which agrees with current port listings. However things may change as has the China stop. Recently advised not stopping in Xiamen (and been refunded excursion money) but Hainan. I had not applied for costly visas (as presailing documentation suggested I should do) altho some have and may have paid out a couple of hundred GBP for no reason as there appears to be the possibility that Hainan is visa exempt. Still have to follow up with TA/Seabourn bot unable at present as am on Oddessey in Canaries.

We were advised of the change from Xiamen to Hainan a few days ago by our TA.  We actually had an appointment today at the Chinese Visa Service in London to apply for the visa. (I have to admit that I had misread the online information regarding the fee for the visa and didn't realise that it is £175 per person !!).

Hainan is visa exempt for 59 countries, but only if you take a tour organised by an authorised Hainan travel agency. According to the various authoritative websites you cannot just get of the ship independently. 

So - we are left with these options :-

1. Apply for a visa - a crazy amount of money, for not a great place.

2. Take a ships tour.

3. Try and organise a local tour with an organisation that is 'authorised'

4. Stay on the ship.

Not sure what we will do yet but in the next few weeks we will be seeing what we can do to organise a local tour with an authorised agent, although we are not optimistic.

Failing this we will probably be stuck with having to do a ships tour, which is still likely to be cheaper than paying £350 for visas !      

On 11/15/2018 at 3:46 PM, IanL said:

In respect of the above posts, my documentation states Tai Tak which agrees with current port listings. 

For the avoidance of a confused taxi driver, the name of the cruise port is Kai Tak. I hope the documentation from Seabourn doesn't actually misspell it. 

On 11/15/2018 at 4:16 PM, machotspur said:

 

1. Apply for a visa - a crazy amount of money, for not a great place.

2. Take a ships tour.

3. Try and organise a local tour with an organisation that is 'authorised'

4. Stay on the ship.

That's rather like our trip to Russia last year. We did 3. which had the benefit of not requiring an also expensive visa, not costing any more than the ship charged and doing exactly what we wanted. So I'd try 3. and if you can't get it done, do 2. 

I assume you've ascertained that 4. is possible and you don't even need some kind of visa just to allow you even to travel there and stay on the ship? We've been to some places we had no intention of getting off but still needed the visa in order to travel, eg India ..