Semi LIVE aboard the MILLIE Gems of SE Aisa!!!

[yayvacation!]

Welcome to Semi-LIVE aboard the Millie!! I have found these posts helpful in the past, and since we are on the first SE Asia r/t Singapore cruise I wanted to try and get some information out to future cruisers. Please be patient for me to answer, but feel free to ask any questions and I’ll do my best to answer them for you! These are only my impressions and opinions and I know there are many opinions out there.

 

Overall:

 

The Ship is in great condition, well kept, carpets look nice in all public areas etc.

 

Seas have been VERY choppy throughout our week, Leaving Bali tonight has been our best, least choppy night so far.

 

Staff has been great, very friendly, helpful, and very approachable

 

Food overall has been ok to good. We have only been in the MDR twice, it was good, Quisine was very nice, Olympic good, and Blu good. The only really bad thing I have had so far is the chicken noodle soup (very watery and NO flavor in the broth, although it has been very good on past cruises so I suspect this was just a bad batch.)

 

Embarkation:

 

Singapore’s cruise center is a pretty good distance to the hotels/downtown area, it can take a little time to get a cab from here back downtown, but if you are patient the terminal people will call someone or sometimes cabs will circle the downstairs area and you can grab one. The cruise center is brand new and VERY efficient. We checked in at 12:30 and were onboard by 1pm.

 

Lombok:

 

This stop was pretty poor in my opinion. First, the cabs are charging $80 USD at the port to take you either on an island tour or Senniggi beach. We found another couple and shared a cab to Senniggi. There is NOTHING on the beach so be warned. No beach chairs, no facilities. There is a little shopping and a few restaurants, but nothing that you could spend a day enjoying I don’t think. We did find a Sheraton, and asked them if we could use their chairs if we bought lunch there, which they agreed to. Then 3 or 4 of the ship tours dropped everyone off at the same spot and the Sheraton went insane kicking people out because there were just to many of us. When we returned to the pier to tender back, the cab driver tried to swindle us big time, first he said it was $80 per couple (the boss at the beginning said $80 per car), then he tried to tell us it cost $40 USD to get on the beach, also a lie. Bottom line, if you don’t have something lined up already, try and find an island tour or something organized for this port.

 

Tending in Lombok was pretty efficient, overall the tenders are tough, they were running 2 tenders, and around 9 am the Lombok officials halted any more people from coming ashore. We arrived in Michaels club around 9:30am and were on a tender by 10am, so I consider that successful. Others were VERY upset by the tender process. The main problem was that only 2 X tenders were running and there was a long line waiting to get back on board at 4pm before sail away, so getting back to the ship took about an hour.

 

Komodo:

 

You are on an island with DRAGONS. Some people on the cruise tours seemed to forget this very important concept and where preventing people from getting onto bridges or to safety when the dragons were charging. Also important to note is that your guides will have 6 foot long sticks to protect you from the Dragons and that can be scary.

Our tour was booked privately and a fellow cruise critic member organized it. I’m sure she will have more to add when she returns, but for now it is safe to say that even after her extensive communications with the tour operator (Komodo adventure tours, maybe?) we did not end up getting exactly what they promised her.

 

Tending here was an adventure to say the least. The island dock is 6 2X4’s cemented into the ocean floor with a dock about 7 feet x 12 feet floating on barrels in the ocean. The seas were very rough the day we tendered and docking took forever. We ran about 4 tenders back and forth that day, and tendering was pretty efficient after they got the docking down in the morning.

 

Bali:

 

My absolute favorite stop so far. The first day we tendered around 12:30pm, X was running about 4 tenders and Bali shore operations were running 2 huge ferry boats of their own. Loading the ferry took about 20 minutes with around 20 minutes to shore. The first night there were some problems with the tendering at night as the swells picked up and positioning the tenders took some time. Overall, they are doing the best they can so please be patient with the tendering process. Tendering back this first night took some people 2 hours.

 

We rented a car and driver from Amertha Dana (Drive was Komang) If you are still in need of a guide I would highly recommend Komang!! He was great, total price for the whole day was $40 USD and Komang treated us like royalty. He had all of our “must – see’s” included and offered up some great recommendations based on our preferences. Then he took us to diner at Moziac (absolutely wonderful experience) and waited outside for us to be through, then drove us back to the cruise ship port. If anyone needs the email information please let me know and I’ll forward it along.

 

Second Bali day we did a Halo Bike tour, and had another great day. We drove around a bit, biked for about 2 hours, saw some incredible scenery, then had lunch at Yoga (the owner’s) house. The lunch was amazing, authentic and very very good!! After lunch we headed back to the cruise ship dock.

 

Final thoughts on Indonesia:

 

Bali was the only stand out stop so far, also be warned that there are people in the parking lots and tender places in Lombok and Bali that will touch you, push their necklaces and other junk on you, beg for money (or send their kids to do it), and ask for your beach towels. It was bizarre and I was unprepared for it.

 

Tendering is long and sometimes difficult, all I can say is be patient. The ship and shore are working as hard as they can to get you off of the ship.

 

Please let me know what questions/comments you have and I'll do my best to respond!! :)

 

Andrea

[eldercruser]

Thanks for your comments. Glad to hear you have been happy with the food. That has been a complaint on some of the earlier Asia cruises.

 

The tendering issue seems to continue. It does seem curious why only two tenders in the water for such a large ship.

[florence11]

Hi We are on that cruise in Jan 2014 can you send me details of the driver you had in Bali.

Thanks

[CrusinNana]

Thank you Andrea for the post. :)

I will be on the same Southeast Asia cruise departing on Jan. 20.

 

I was wondering if there is a need for currency for each country ?

Are there places to shop or just the typical souvenir shops ?

 

Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[nantravls]

Thanks so much for the info - will be sailing 1/20. Little scary to hear the tender stories. Worst tendering ever was Antarctica but I was younger (and thinner!) then and managed ok. Not so sure about Komodo - hope they have some strong guys to help! And hopefully will have calmer seas which will make a huge difference. Appreciate the heads up and and still very excited about this adventure. Hope the rest of your cruise goes well!

[yayvacation!]

Hi We are on that cruise in Jan 2014 can you send me details of the driver you had in Bali.

Thanks

 

Sure thing! We booked through Amertha Dana ad3rc@hotmail.com (he has a website also) Our driver was Komang Santosa just request him by name and the company will get you all set up!

 

 

Thank you Andrea for the post. :)

I will be on the same Southeast Asia cruise departing on Jan. 20.

 

I was wondering if there is a need for currency for each country ?

Are there places to shop or just the typical souvenir shops ?

 

Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

We did exchange a little USD in Indonesia (we waited until we were in Bali) but found that USD is widely accepted in all bigger shops and with most restaurants/drivers, etc.

 

Shopping I found to be great in Bali but we didn't do much wandering around shopping in Lombok. Bali had great Batik and Silver stores that I really enjoyed. There is nothing typical about these island which is the best part I think! It was so nice to get off the ship and not have 12,000 jewelry stores lining the streets ;)

 

 

Andrea

[ghstudio]

Please keep the info coming...we're on the 1/20 cruise so this feedback is very helpful.

[yayvacation!]

Ok here is some more info on the Malaysia ports:

 

Port klang:

One hour to KL we fit in KL tower, lunch at a Thai place in the central market (excellent food) and some general city sightseeing.

 

Penang is a little difficult to navigate but the ship has some nice tours available.

 

We have needed the ringitt at both stops, USD not widely accepted.

 

Blu for dinner last night and I was very impressed! Manicotti was delicious !

 

Full review when I return!

[SuwaneeCard]

Ok here is some more info on the Malaysia ports:

 

Port klang:

One hour to KL we fit in KL tower, lunch at a Thai place in the central market (excellent food) and some general city sightseeing.

 

Penang is a little difficult to navigate but the ship has some nice tours available.

 

We have needed the ringitt at both stops, USD not widely accepted.

 

Blu for dinner last night and I was very impressed! Manicotti was delicious !

 

Full review when I return!

Andrea,

Thanks so much for doing this! We are also doing this schedule in January 2014 and have been scouring your RC and the one for the 20th for ideas and info. Good info on currency, Lombok and Komodo.

[SuwaneeCard]

Please let me know what questions/comments you have and I'll do my best to respond!! :)

 

Andrea

 

After catching a few hours sleep trying to recover from jet lag, I do have a US Citizen question. How are visas handled for the cruise? Did you or your TA handle them individually or did the cruise line do everything and the charge your stateroom account?

Sometimes getting the correct information from X or an agent can result in different results, so I thought I'd go to a "Semi-live" expert.

Thanks!

[IMNiles]

Thanks for posting! Do you happen to know who the loyalty ambassador/captains club host(ess) is now? Juliana was fantastic, but she's moved on to a different ship.

[Christine Frances]

Did you take Malaria meds - especially for Lombok and Komodo?

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!