Vietnam Visa for Independent Vietnam tours

[Pat317]

Hi, my group of 8 will be cruising  2 weeKs on Diamond Princess Asian cruise this coming January 6th.  One of the group traveler was just informed by the TA that because we booked independent shore excursions in Vietnam (with Tours with Xuan) that we will need to get our own Vietnam Visas b/c Princess will apply short term visa for us ONLY if we booked the ship excursions with Princess. Is this true? I am currently in Turkey, so I can’t call Princess to verify. We were hoping to get our visa through Princess b/c it is cheaper (?) and more convenient. Thank you in advance for any info you can help me with.

[TheRabbit]

1 hour ago, Pat317 said:

Hi, my group of 8 will be cruising  2 weeKs on Diamond Princess Asian cruise this coming January 6th.  One of the group traveler was just informed by the TA that because we booked independent shore excursions in Vietnam (with Tours with Xuan) that we will need to get our own Vietnam Visas b/c Princess will apply short term visa for us ONLY if we booked the ship excursions with Princess. Is this true? I am currently in Turkey, so I can’t call Princess to verify. We were hoping to get our visa through Princess b/c it is cheaper (?) and more convenient. Thank you in advance for any info you can help me with.

We did only private tours in three Vietnam ports last October and got our Visa through the ship. Do not know if policy changed.

[Aus Traveller]

3 hours ago, TheRabbit said:

We did only private tours in three Vietnam ports last October and got our Visa through the ship. Do not know if policy changed.

Our visits to Vietnam were earlier than last October, but the ship organised the visas for everyone. I also do not know if the policy  has changed but I suggest you verify this with Princess rather than take the TA's word for it.

Edited September 17, 2019 by Aus Traveller

[azbirdmom]

On the Sapphire in January, Princess secured visas for everyone automatically.  You could opt out but if you didn't, they got it for you.  $56 for each visa was charged to the on board account.  You should see something about this on the Travel Summary for your cruise.  I've copied a screen shot from the Travel Summary for our cruise below.

 

[Roatanfans]

In December we did Tours with Xuan and had no problems (his tour was great by the way!)  Just like above Princess took care of it and charged our stateroom!