Volendam Far East Holiday Cruise - nobody on it? Getting Worried...

[Princess Jessie]

I have been searching on this forum and on the roll calls for various pieces of information and there is almost nobody on the above cruise?

 

What is wrong with it?

 

On the Roll Call there are just a handful of people....

 

I hope it will be a good cruise ..

 

I am trying to find out info re booking excursions .. possibly with other guests, sharing etc and there just does not seem to be anyone out there!

 

Getting worried!!!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Some Roll Calls are very active -- others are duds. When I used to join Roll Calls, there were a couple that had only about 10 people on it so we just had an informal get-together on the ship. One I joined had only 5 people.

Don't know the date of your cruise, but if it is several months away, some people may not join in until it gets closer to sailing time.

Good luck.

[kazu]

I have been searching on this forum and on the roll calls for various pieces of information and there is almost nobody on the above cruise?

 

What is wrong with it?

 

On the Roll Call there are just a handful of people....

 

I hope it will be a good cruise ..

 

I am trying to find out info re booking excursions .. possibly with other guests, sharing etc and there just does not seem to be anyone out there!

 

Getting worried!!!

 

There is not a thing wrong with your cruise - it's a great itinerary:D

 

It may be that most people who are on are not members of cruise critic.

 

Roll calls can really vary from being very active with many people to a smaller number of people. Sometimes there's just no rhyme or reason.

 

Keep on your roll call though as you will get to know those who you will be cruising with. As well, some people don't sign in until after final payment so you may still see some new people come on:)

[Princess Jessie]

Hi the departure date is 21 Dec 2013... so really not very far away....

 

Very frustrating.... am finding it hard to research for companies that do tours of Halong Bay....

[ldog]

Hi the departure date is 21 Dec 2013... so really not very far away....

 

Very frustrating.... am finding it hard to research for companies that do tours of Halong Bay....

 

Go onto a roll call from other dates. You might be able to find companies there. Or go to Ports of Call Vietnam. Another place to find companies is on Trip Advisor.

[magandab]

My cruise is coming up December 9 and I think our roll call has 16 members. Of those, about five were there at the beginning, found out that HAL doesn't have a cigar bar so they bailed and booked a different cruise. Some are busy, some are not, but neither way indicates how popular the cruise will be.

[OlsSalt]

I have observed the more off beat or exotic the itinerary, the more seasoned the cruisers who are attracted to it, resulting in fewer interested in group get togethers or shared tours.

 

There is nothing wrong with the ship or the cruise - in fact we are joining another version of it next March and it looks terrific. I can tell just from the photos I will like the Volendam very much. It just looks so cheerful and fun with its color scheme and Dutch flower industry theme.

 

Also when you have more of these off-beat port stops, I think there are fewer out there willing to arrange private tours. The traffic congestion in this part of the world alone makes me want to stick to shore excursions exclusively to ensure we get back on time, unless there are things to do right from the port itself.

[kazu]

I have observed the more off beat or exotic the itinerary, the more seasoned the cruisers who are attracted to it, resulting in fewer interested in group get togethers or shared tours.

 

There is nothing wrong with the ship or the cruise - in fact we are joining another version of it next March and it looks terrific. I can tell just from the photos I will like the Volendam very much. It just looks so cheerful and fun with its color scheme and Dutch flower industry theme.

 

Also when you have more of these off-beat port stops, I think there are fewer out there willing to arrange private tours. The traffic congestion in this part of the world alone makes me want to stick to shore excursions exclusively to ensure we get back on time, unless there are things to do right from the port itself.

 

Interesting observation - I thought our last cruise was pretty exotic and there were lots of private tours - in fact part of the reason our roll call was so busy is that there was a lot of planning, research and questions. Granted, it wasn't Far East but there was still a lot of research required and we had a lot of participation:)

[KirkNC]

Hi the departure date is 21 Dec 2013... so really not very far away....

 

Very frustrating.... am finding it hard to research for companies that do tours of Halong Bay....

 

That would make it harder. As others have said, roll calls participation is all over the place. The one for my upcoming X cruise has 1,300 posts and I have seen some that barely get two pages.

[indokiwi]

I do think that you might have a lot of Australian passengers as we did on our Asian Holiday cruise 2 years ago (by far the main majority of passengers). Although we have a bevvy of International posters on CC, the majority are American, so that might be why posting is lighter.

 

You can just walk off the tender in Halong Bay and book a trip through the park from one of the guys selling tours on the street. They are constantly running and really easy for negotiation, etc. We saved a lot of money this way. The ship tours will leave directly off of the ship from the back tender platform on to the junk ships. You will need to go ashore and then find a tour operator, which will take about 2 minutes! All of the junk ships leave from the same pier area (there seem to be 100+ ships) so no shortage of ships and our ship only had 8 people on tour on it versus some of the ship boats that had 50+. Beautiful tour!

[OlsSalt]

Interesting observation - I thought our last cruise was pretty exotic and there were lots of private tours - in fact part of the reason our roll call was so busy is that there was a lot of planning, research and questions. Granted, it wasn't Far East but there was still a lot of research required and we had a lot of participation:)

 

 

Ours on the Prinsendam had zero interest, though the group a few weeks prior were very busy. Just an observation why some cruises click with roll call and not others.

[OlsSalt]

I do think that you might have a lot of Australian passengers as we did on our Asian Holiday cruise 2 years ago (by far the main majority of passengers). Although we have a bevvy of International posters on CC, the majority are American, so that might be why posting is lighter.

 

You can just walk off the tender in Halong Bay and book a trip through the park from one of the guys selling tours on the street. They are constantly running and really easy for negotiation, etc. We saved a lot of money this way. The ship tours will leave directly off of the ship from the back tender platform on to the junk ships. You will need to go ashore and then find a tour operator, which will take about 2 minutes! All of the junk ships leave from the same pier area (there seem to be 100+ ships) so no shortage of ships and our ship only had 8 people on tour on it versus some of the ship boats that had 50+. Beautiful tour!

 

Be very, very,very careful about the safety provisions of ships for Halong Bay sold from the dock.

[indokiwi]

Be very, very,very careful about the safety provisions of ships for Halong Bay sold from the dock.

 

 

Of course! If we didn't feel comfortable with the boat that we got on, we would have passed, but it was operated by the same company that operated the ship tours and cost about 10% :D Just be smart about it.

[OlsSalt]

Of course! If we didn't feel comfortable with the boat that we got on, we would have passed, but it was operated by the same company that operated the ship tours and cost about 10% :D Just be smart about it.

 

 

What is good checklist for boat safety criteria for others to look for if they pick one from the dock? Did they let you go onboard to inspect things before you decided?

[Linda&Vern]

Personally I think the time of year (Holiday) may have a lot to do with the low CC Roll Call posts. IIRC the Christmas and Thanksgiving cruises we took had very few Roll Call members. I always assumed the interest was low because it was Holiday time and there were more "family" cruisers.

[Princess Jessie]

Of course! If we didn't feel comfortable with the boat that we got on, we would have passed, but it was operated by the same company that operated the ship tours and cost about 10% :D Just be smart about it.

 

 

Can you remember at all the name of the company? We might just do that.. as in walk off the ship and book a junk tour....

 

On Trip Advisor they are recommending various companies... but most presuppose that people are coming from Hanoi... and want to do 1-2 nights...

 

I have in fact followed Idog's advice and looked at the roll call for the Volendam in Jan and Feb.. doing a similar but not exactly the same itinerary... Their roll call is pretty impressive!!! Not like mine :mad:

[estebofarr]

Hi the departure date is 21 Dec 2013... so really not very far away....

 

Very frustrating.... am finding it hard to research for companies that do tours of Halong Bay....

 

We used Ann Tours. Excellent service, reply to emails quickly. You won't be sorry.

 

Just a word of caution, a couple hired a taxi from the tender drop off and he took them to an alley and robbed them at knifepoint. They were on our tender going back to the Volendam in March.

[indokiwi]

It's all hit and miss - not only in every country, but port by port. On our stop in Nha Trang, also on that same South Asian cruise, one of our party left her wallet in the taxi as we were leaving for our day's adventure. We didn't discover it until after we were back to the pier later that day. She talked to the main taxi person outside the gate and they called the driver and he said that it wasn't in the taxi. We noticed that all of the drivers, no matter what company they worked for, were checking in with a man who was sitting in a cafe near the pier entrance. When we went and talked to him, he actually tracked down the taxi driver by referring to his log that he keeps of every job people run from the pier. He demanded that the driver return to the pier and made the driver return the wallet to our friend as well as apologize for trying to keep it. Then the "taxi godfather" bought us all noodles as an apology for his fellow countryman.