AMA Vietnam

[deec]

We were very happy with Vantage on both our Irrawaddy Trip and the Amazon Trip with Machu Picchu. Each of the ships that they chartered through Haimark were great with good food and very nice cabins. The naturalists on the Amazon Discovery were outstanding. Cruise directors on both trips were excellent.

Hotel choices very good. Excursions for the most part were well planned and executed. Group meals OK. Sometimes I felt that the groups were too large and we did not have voice boxes on the Amazon trip and that made it more difficult when the group was large. The average age on these two tours was high (we are 65) and to be truthful there were quite a few individuals who did NOT belong on a trip that was this strenuous. Their slowness and mobility issues did impact us negatively. Don't really know what Vantage can do about that as they do warn it is an active itinerary.

[Vineyard View]

You are correct Amyr - it was Viking Maiden Voyage we were sharing threads on - we took Barcelona to Stockholm - loved it.

 

Thanks for your input on this itinerary. It does sound pretty amazing. And good to know about your opinion on the land portion - since we have not ventured to this part of our world before.

 

I am wondering about the air pollution - I have been reading some blogs that are worrisome if a traveler has a compromised breathing condition at times. any input on this would be helpfu....

 

Also the bus transportation when the lake is low - having trouble finding when that typically occurs.

 

Thanks again!!

[ewizabeff]

I'm in Hanoi right now, and I have mild asthma. I started to get a minor cough from the pollution within a few hours, and now it's keeping me up a bit at night. Since we have 2 more days here and many more in cities like this, I will be buying a mask and carrying my inhaler.

[Vineyard View]

I hope that your inhailer and the mask helps you. It is difficult when you have to worry extra about breathing due to compromised systems.

[amyr]

We were very happy with Vantage on both our Irrawaddy Trip and the Amazon Trip with Machu Picchu. Each of the ships that they chartered through Haimark were great with good food and very nice cabins. The naturalists on the Amazon Discovery were outstanding. Cruise directors on both trips were excellent.

Hotel choices very good. Excursions for the most part were well planned and executed. Group meals OK. Sometimes I felt that the groups were too large and we did not have voice boxes on the Amazon trip and that made it more difficult when the group was large. The average age on these two tours was high (we are 65) and to be truthful there were quite a few individuals who did NOT belong on a trip that was this strenuous. Their slowness and mobility issues did impact us negatively. Don't really know what Vantage can do about that as they do warn it is an active itinerary.

 

That's one thing that has me worried about Vantage. It seems like they cater to the elderly rather than the active senior? Most of the folks on our AMALotus trip were between 65 and 80, but our two 80 years olds were absolutely keeping up. There was one excursion in Halong Bay that the guide didn't feel they should do and she told them they couldn't. They were mad, but the guide was right. Lots of muddy, slippery steps. They did manage to climb up to the tower at Angkor Wat, though, and some of the younger folks skipped it. I'm not sure any of the companies (or travel agents) give honest information about how strenuous some of these exotics can be though. I'd like to think that when they assign smaller tour groups they would do it by fitness level, but I think that's done before you even get to the airport. Rather than pre-assign groups, they should structure them according to activity like they did on our Galapagos cruise.

 

VV - We did the trip in early December, and we took the bus to the ship. I wouldn't worry so much about booking around that as booking around the heat/weather. We went in the coolest time of the year, and while it was chilly in Hanoi and Halong Bay, it was still pretty brutal in Cambodia. When we took that bus to the ship, we stopped at a 'rest stop' along the way and it felt to us like an average August day in Florida. It was about 85-90 degrees and extremely humid. The locals at the market were bundled up in sweaters and hats and had socks on with their flip flops. How much hotter is it usually that they had to wear hats and gloves????? The bus ride wasn't great, but we were entertained by the sights and our guide. Not worth worrying about, IMO.

 

deec, I'm sorry it's so smoky there right now. I had been reading that all those fires in Indonesia were blanketing Southeast Asia. I packed masks in our luggage, but we didn't need them.

[ewizabeff]

I hope that your inhailer and the mask helps you. It is difficult when you have to worry extra about breathing due to compromised systems.

 

We did a buggie tour through the Old Quarter today for about 45 minutes. I put my mask on immediately, and I was fine. One of the other women in our buggie asked me where I got the mask, as she was holding her baseball cap in front of her face after a few minutes. I bought it in a little convenience store in the Old Quarter for less than a dollar.

[Vineyard View]

Amyr - thanks for the suggestions - trip if it happens for us will be during early-mid March. That is quite the image in my mind all the sweaters and hats in the heat! If that was their cool time of year I just hope that March isn't too terribly bad - it is supposed to be before the high rains and heat but who knows with all the weather changes in our world.

 

Ewizabeff I am glad to hear that the mask really helped you. I am thinking it is the same type of mask that you buy in the states at say a home improvement store for for when you are ill........enjoy your trip and keep us posted on your adventures!

[OBX Cruisers]

Thanks for "bumping up" the AMA Waterways Vietnam thread! We're booked on the March 7, 2017 trip so have a while to "chill" and enjoy reading the posts here. Vineyard View - are you considering that sailing too?

 

I noticed on their Web site that AMA offers "Limited Edition Tours" but there doesn't seem to be a listing available yet. Can anyone who's sailed the AMADara give us an idea of what the "Limited Edition Tours" might include?

Don't want to pay "an arm and a leg", but would love to experience the seaplane that flies from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay.

[Vineyard View]

OBX - yes....we have mutual friends 😊

We are thinking about it but just not sure yet. We honestly had another couple places on our radar to be looking at, however, I believe you did a lot of homework on this one and it caught our really good friends attention enough that they have booked! So after the holidays we will spend some time on this idea.

 

Small world......

[Host Jazzbeau]

Thanks for "bumping up" the AMA Waterways Vietnam thread! We're booked on the March 7, 2017 trip so have a while to "chill" and enjoy reading the posts here. Vineyard View - are you considering that sailing too?

 

I noticed on their Web site that AMA offers "Limited Edition Tours" but there doesn't seem to be a listing available yet. Can anyone who's sailed the AMADara give us an idea of what the "Limited Edition Tours" might include?

Don't want to pay "an arm and a leg", but would love to experience the seaplane that flies from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay.

 

On their European river cruises, AMA "Limited Edition" tours do NOT involve any extra cost. They are excursions that AMA thinks will only appeal to a few people, but they still want to offer them -- especially for repeat cruisers who have already done the regular tours. They are only "limited" in that they are capacity-controlled -- as an example on the Rhone cruise we were able to go after dinner to a Boulangerie and help the baker make bread. It was not a tourist-trap but a regular local boulangerie, so he didn't have much room -- therefore "limited edition" -- but it was free.

[OBX Cruisers]

Host Jazzbeau - Thanks for the insight on "Limited Edition Tours."

 

Vineyard View - I agree "small world." :) I feel like I already know you from the Viking Oceans forum.

I wanted to mention AMA Waterways is offering a small discount - $500 per cabin if you book by December 31. Not a huge savings but enough to entice us.

We actually will also be joined by a couple from Red Deer, Canada that we met on a trip to South Africa, and another couple from our Del Webb community here in Fredericksburg. Should be a fun group to travel with. Would love to have you join us too . . . and no, I don't work for AMA.:) This will actually be our first time with them.

[Vineyard View]

Thanks for the heads up on that discount. It absolutely adds up!!!

 

Yes - LOTS of dialogue on Viking Oceans threads.......

 

We May have to bump up making up our minds on this possibility......planning South Africa this coming May with our mutual friends has been a priority......we haven't sailed AMA before either....thanks again. It does sound like a great adventure!