Marella Discovery Itinerary Change. Colours of the Far East (Merged threads).

[cruiser man 60]

10 hours ago, Southendweather said:

In Vietnam now  🇻🇳 The sea is a little choppy, caused by the NE trade winds, blew a gale last night, but never cold. Sunny, clear and hot here at Phu My ☀️

Are there many on the ship using face masks when in ports and generally are the locals mostly wearing them?

[ekco]

When we were on we were the only ones wearing face masks off ship, just one other while we were in Bangkok.  Lots of locals everywhere wearing masks, although a lot weren’t.  We used ours in the city on crowded streets, also First Defence nasal spray.  The ship carries on as if nothing is happening.  Four cases positive from that cruise repatriation yesterday, now in Arrowe Park quarantine.

[ekco]

You could get a taxi or a port side trip In Vietnam but everything is a long way.  Maybe brave the coach trip and do the Saigon on your own trip.  The beach day we did with the sightseeing knocked off was not worth the money at £46pp and I wish we had cancelled.  I overhead two ladies saying they couldn’t wait to get back to the ship.

[cruiser man 60]

Thanks for update, how far is the city from port?

Take it the beach was not upto much?

[ekco]

Almost an hour to the beach on the other side of Vang Tau.  If you look on google earth for the Imperial Hotel then it will give you some idea of the geography.  The beach is nice enough with fine sand BUT the strong incoming tide washed up a disgusting amount of plastic waste on the tide line.  Straws, bottles, cartons, fishing nets, etc.  Now, a lot of people couldn’t care less about this but I found it sad and disturbing personally.  How the sea life gets along I don’t know.  The same can be said of the harbour near Langkawi, lots of rubbish on the water mark on the breakwater, but we saw sea eagles flying near the ship early evening.  Langkawi, Singapore and Koh Samui are accessible from the ship, don’t know about Malacca as we didn’t go there (not even going to talk about Sihanoukville).  With a bit of research Singapore would be a good diy place as they use the western alphabet so easy to navigate and has a good transport system.  We did a trip which was very good, we went to the botanical garden with the orchid garden included, an hour not enough, drove past the Raffles hotel, same with the Indian quarter, had some time on the water front which was nice and then an hour in China town.  We had a fair amount of time to ourselves on this trip which is what we like.

[ekco]

Hurray! Finally! After countless phone calls and hours of time the refund is finally in the account.  Far from refunding it to the card as they said they wanted the bank account and sort code then had the cheek to say it would take 5-10 days, it took 7. A cheque would have arrived and been cleared quicker.  This started on the 20th December when they sent the email.

[Pensioncruiser]

Congrats ekco don't spend it all at once, cheeky question was it the £250 pp? 

[ekco]

Yes it was, hard earned too and it’s a good job we have free calls included with our internet package.  It could have walked here quicker. That’s the trips paid for anyway.  I think they could have organised the itinerary better in the first place, to keep Sihanoukville and Vietnam (3 days at sea in total) and knock off Koh Samui and Malacca was head scratching.  Luckily we just boarded in time for Koh Samui to return to the itinerary.

 

I noticed that the price of face masks has soared on eBay, average £1 each, we paid £2.99 for 50 four weeks ago.  Always an opportunity for some.  Maybe now Marella and Manchester Airport will start taking this seriously, hiding your head in the sand is not acceptable.  We have been responsible and kept to ourselves for nearly two weeks, we took precautions in port but lots of people on the plane coughing, all of which mysteriously stopped on landing when an announcement was made about reporting coughs and fever.

 

Rant over, lol.  It must be the weather getting to me.

[Margaret Rees]

When we got our £500 we gave it back to them same day as deposit on TUI Danube river cruise for May !

If they had cancelled Cambodia and Vietnam I think that would def have been a very significant change and forced them to offer full refunds etc .

 

 

 

 

Edited February 26, 2020 by Margaret Rees
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[Pensioncruiser]

17 minutes ago, Margaret Rees said:

When we got our £500 we gave it back to them same day as deposit on TUI Danube river cruise for May !

If they had cancelled Cambodia and Vietnam I think that would def have been a very significant change and forced them to offer full refunds etc .

 

 

 

 

To late now but for the future if you are doing this they will give you about 30% more if you take a voucher cheque. We used ours to pay for a holiday already booked. 😁

[Southendweather]

Okay, Malacca this morning was lovely and it made a good end to our cruise. A little late leaving but I have noticed Discovery doing 23 knots as we head to Langkawi. I don’t think there are many cruise ships now in the region, the destinations are quite free of crowds, but it must now be affecting the local economy. Hopefully we won’t have any problems returning tomorrow. Captain Chris has made a few light hearted jokes about the Corona virus situation and we can’t fault Marella for how the are managing the situation, especially when much is out of their control. Weather been great for our two weeks, just that short storm in Koh Sumui. The currently is like the Med. Keith (Southend)

[Pensioncruiser]

Great that you had a good one, have a safe journey home. 

[ekco]

Danube, nice.  I think I’m right in saying they are only flying from Gatwick so unless we travel not much use to us.  Maybe next year.  Good advice about the voucher Pensioncruiser.

 

Correction, just saw an offer on Travelzoo for a Tui river cruise flying from Heathrow or Birmingham.

 

Hopefully, as Keith says, things have improved on the ship and they are not sending passengers into markets in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok as they did to us.  We didn’t go in, maybe overly paranoid but having caught a virus on a trip in a Tenerife from the Majesty a few years ago which made me very ill for 4 weeks it’s understandable I think.

Edited February 26, 2020 by ekco

[Melaura]

We hopefully fly from Birmingham on the 4/3 ,any tips for this cruise would appreciated.We have not heard anything from tui of any changes to the itinerary so hopefully Cambodia will be back on .

[ekco]

It would probably be best if you read through this thread or check out the reviews section.  It looks as though you will miss out on Sihanoukville, no great loss, and have Malacca reinstated.  Paying £23 for a visa in Sihanoukville even if you stay onboard really rankled so you might be lucky and not go there, it’s derelict.

[brian1]

12 hours ago, ekco said:

It would probably be best if you read through this thread or check out the reviews section.  It looks as though you will miss out on Sihanoukville, no great loss, and have Malacca reinstated.  Paying £23 for a visa in Sihanoukville even if you stay onboard really rankled so you might be lucky and not go there, it’s derelict.

Is there anywhere of interest outside this place.Looking on the map,Ankor Wot seems hundreds of miles away.

[Melaura]

I could understand Malaysia’s stand re Cambodia if Cambodia was a hotbed of the virus but it’s only had 1 case . One of the posts did have a lovely picture of a temple they had visited in Cambodia so it can not be all bad

[Eade1]

We’ve been home nearly a week now and went to Cambodia. I know lots of people say it’s awful but for us it was one of our best days.  Visiting the school and seeing the children’s faces when they were given the rulers & rubbers we took was amazing. Ok so they don’t have much but all looked clean & healthy and had huge smiles. Then a trip to the fishing village where again everyone was smiling. The temple was amazing. It’s a very different world to the one we know but we’re so glad we got to experience it. 

Edited February 27, 2020 by Eade1
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[brian1]

37 minutes ago, Melaura said:

I could understand Malaysia’s stand re Cambodia if Cambodia was a hotbed of the virus but it’s only had 1 case . One of the posts did have a lovely picture of a temple they had visited in Cambodia so it can not be all bad

Being a major travel hub on their doorstep,I'd be more concerned about Singapore.

[ekco]

I thought the same thing.  On a side note we are watching the series of Great Railways Journeys in the Far East with Michael Portillo on the iplayer.  Quite a few episodes feature places that the ship visits so you can get an idea of what they are like. 

[Melaura]

I will try to get the program on catch up . Thanks

[Melaura]

We visited an orphanage in Egypt a few years ago and although we only took a few sweets and pencils and we read books and sang with them etc the smiles on the children’s faces made it one of our best days . We will be sad to miss Cambodia but not a lot we can do about it 

[Southendweather]

Well got home to Southend-on-Sea about 3am this morning, we were stacked over gatwick as they were doing repairs on one of the runways and then had to wait an hour for an Easyjet plane to move from our stand. M23 closed for roadworks and also last two junctions before the Dartford tunnel closed - welcome home 😞

 

Well after being screened on an almost daily basis while on Discovery,  walked strraight through Gatwick with absolutely nobody there! Sounds like the governments doesn't practice what it preaches, no surprises there then 🌡️

 

As far as the cruise goes we had a wonderful time and feel lucky we got through the two weeks with no major problems. Can't fault Marella, they are probably one of the few ships operating the area atm.

 

Weather was magnificent, just the short storm on Koh Sumui, here the weather for our Malacca day, which was unbroken sunshine.

*Asia 'Enchanting Far East Cruise' weather overview*
26th	February 2020
Max °C	Min °C	Rain (mm)	Bar(mb)	Trend	Hum%	Wind	(mph)	Weather	Location
37.0	25.0	-	1012.7	F	51	NW	4	Haze	Laem Chabang(81m)
35.0	26.5	-	1011.8	F	67	W	1	Mist	Bangkok Metropolis(3m)
29.3	26.9	-	1011.9	F	40	N	2	Haze	Ko Samui(7m)
35.7	26.6	TR	1010.1	Fs	55	NE	11	No change	Langkawi(8m)
34.7	26.4	-	1010.0	F	54	SW	10	Haze	Penang(4m)
36.0	25.1	67.0	1009.6	F	46	SE	3	Haze	Kuala Lumpur(27m)
34.9	24.6	-	1010.8	*	50	NE	10	Haze	Malacca(9m)
32.2	25.7	-	1011.1	*	60	NE	13	Haze	Singapore(22m)
34.5	24.8	-	1011.4	F	49	SE	2	*	Ho Chi Minh City-Nha Be(2m)
x	23.5	-	x	*	*	-	-	*	Kompong Som/Ville Ex Sihanoukville(16m)

 

Anyway, got to sort out two fence panels that got blown down while away.

 

Keith (Southend)

[Monarch93]

Anyone still booked to go on this cruise?

 

Not heard anything from tui regarding missed ports due to the technical problems or coronavirus.

[rickg8]

2 minutes ago, Monarch93 said:

Anyone still booked to go on this cruise?

 

Not heard anything from tui regarding missed ports due to the technical problems or coronavirus.

I just got off the cruise, only missed Cambodia, all technical problems fixed. Nothing to worry about really, just a lot of temperature checks going into ports and buildings.