Bangkok to Dubai on the Voyager 2025--Your Thoughts Are Appreciated

[Snackdaddy]

Greetings,

 

We are thinking about booking the April 26-May 16, 2025 Bangkok to Dubai cruise on the Voyager.  Since we have never been to that part of the world, we would appreciate your thoughts about the itinerary.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

[HotRoot]

Spend a couple of days pre-cruise in Bangkok.  The port is something like an hour from the city.

Ko Samui is a long tender ride (maybe due to tides?)  Our understanding was it was a beach day.  We stayed on the ship.

Singapore has lots to offer.

Kuala Lumpur port is about two hours from the city.  We took a city tour.  

Penang has lots of sightseeing.  We have been here twice and saw completely different things.

Phuket has always been on our wishlist.  So, we took a tour to the mainland to see James Bond Island.  Needless to say, Phuket is still on our wishlist.  

Cochin has lots to do.  We took the Backwater Tour.

Mangalore had lots of choices.  We took Highlights.

Goa we went to the Taj Exotica Resort.  I would go back.

Mumbai we really liked.  So much to do.  We had two full days.  We did Highlights on Day 1 and Elephant Caves on Day 2.

Fujairah was fun.  We took the Desert Safari.  

Dubai is a city.  Some people love it.  It was on our wishlist.  We would not come back.  We did Discover Diubai

 

Is this what you were looking for?

 

 

[Snackdaddy]

Hello HotRoot,

 

Thank you very much for sharing your experiences.  Yes, they are what we are looking for.

BTW, Regent is offering a "FREE" 3-Night Pre-Essence of Bangkok Tour.

[Gilly]

It was one of the first Regent cruises we did and we enjoyed it immensely.  Many "classic" ports with genuine things to see and do and no need for artificial tourist "experiences" .   I'd say it's one of the best itineraries on offer.

[cwn]

1 hour ago, Gilly said:

It was one of the first Regent cruises we did and we enjoyed it immensely.  Many "classic" ports with genuine things to see and do and no need for artificial tourist "experiences" .   I'd say it's one of the best itineraries on offer.

So true. In fact it is hard to pick which tour to do. Go for the extra time Bangkok. It is one of our favorite cities. 
Be prepared though,  you will be exhausted after the cruise….so much to see and do and so hot! 

[Snackdaddy]

Hello Gilly and cwn,

 

Thank you so much for your responses. 

[jillyf]

We cruised Dubai to CapeTown in 2015 and called at several ports you would go to. 
Here are tours we did:

Cochin. Tranquil Backwaters. Enjoyed seeing the way people lived along the way. Visited a church, then on to lunch at a waterside resort. 

Mangalore. Not sure what it was called but saw cashews processed and visited a large house. 

Goa. Taste of Goa was a tour of a spice farm with lunch. Visited two of four Catholic Churches within walking distance to each other. One built by the Jesuit order,  the other by the Dominican order. 

Mumbai. Old Bombay with lunch.  Visited a lovely house in the Portuguese quarter and were shown how to put on a sari. Had lunch in Khyber restaurant a traditional restaurant.

Mumbai by lights. I see you have the choice of a meal with this. 
 

Fajairah. Desert Safari. Fun day with 4 passengers in a Toyota Land Cruiser driving up and down dunes. There were 52 cars waiting at the dock for us, so a popular excursion. 
 

Dubai. We had our pre cruise 3 day tour here. We had flown in two days before and visited the Malls, had a day on the Hop on Bus. Visited the Gold Souk and the Deira area. 
Had dinner in a restaurant overlooking the Dubai Fountain Lights one night. Very touristy, but that is Dubai. 
Like HotRoot we were glad we had visited but not in any hurry to return. 
 

 

[rich48100]

We think you will love this cruise.  Did similar itinerary in 2017, our first cruise on Regent .since others have talked about the cities, let me just mention that Angkor Wat was on our to do list, and they had a pre-cruise trip to it. Spectacular.  They also had an overland trip to the Taj Mahal, another bucket list item.  A little pricey, but glad we did it.  In Dubai, there was an excursion, high tea in the building that is shaped like a sail.  Wonderful experience.  Enjoy that part of the world on your cruise.

[Snackdaddy]

Hello jillyf and rich48100,

Thank you very much.

[1982CruzStart]

1 hour ago, rich48100 said:

let me just mention that Angkor Wat was on our to do list, and they had a pre-cruise trip to it. Spectacular.

We did this as a post cruise trip with Regent. Echo the Spectacular comment. In our case it was the end of a Bejing to Bangkok trip and were able to take this as the included trip and paid for the pre-cruise trip in Bejing.  

1 hour ago, rich48100 said:

They also had an overland trip to the Taj Mahal, another bucket list item.

This was part of our Dubai to Cape Town cruise and it was very well done. We missed Goa, 1 day in Mumbai and arrived back in Mangalore so saw very little of it but the trip to the Taj Mahal and just as importantly the Red Fort were well worth missing the other ports. We left Mumbai on the 2nd day there so we did get to tour Mumbai for 1 day. 

12 hours ago, jillyf said:

Fajairah. Desert Safari. Fun day with 4 passengers in a Toyota Land Cruiser driving up and down dunes.

This was alot of fun.

 

It took us 2 cruises to get to some of these ports but they were both well worth it. 

[UUNetBill]

On 8/19/2022 at 4:14 PM, cwn said:

Be prepared though,  you will be exhausted after the cruise….so much to see and do and so hot! 

Hot is the word - I'd never been to Asia or the South Pacific before - I knew it's often hot and muggy there but I wasn't prepared for actually experiencing it.  We live in SC and we're used to 90* days with 90% humidity, but we just got back from a trip to Guam last week and...Oh.  My.  Gawd.  It's oppressive.  Like a physical presence.  I have a newfound respect for our troops who fought in the Pacific and in Vietnam...how they managed to deal with that is beyond me.

 

So yeah, be sure to drink plenty of fluids and take it easy.

[cwn]

30 minutes ago, UUNetBill said:

Hot is the word - I'd never been to Asia or the South Pacific before - I knew it's often hot and muggy there but I wasn't prepared for actually experiencing it.  We live in SC and we're used to 90* days with 90% humidity, but we just got back from a trip to Guam last week and...Oh.  My.  Gawd.  It's oppressive.  Like a physical presence.  I have a newfound respect for our troops who fought in the Pacific and in Vietnam...how they managed to deal with that is beyond me.

 

So yeah, be sure to drink plenty of fluids and take it easy.

So true!!! My family is from Spartanburg but I have lived in Texas most of my life. We use to go back to my Grandparents to be a little cooler in the Summer. 
I find the heat and humidity much worse in Bangkok and that part of the world partly because they AC is not as good as ours. And on many port days, the ship’s AC can’t keep the humidity down either. Just be prepared.

[forgap]

We went in 2014 with many, but not all, of the same ports.  I agree that since you are in that part of the world don’t miss Angkor Wat.  On another trip we did the included highlights of Bangkok.  It was good but not as good as AW.  
 

i did a blog on the trip, if you care to read it.  It is LONG - but it has nice photos!

http://culinerrion.travellerspoint.com/

 

[carolina cruisin]

11 hours ago, UUNetBill said:

Hot is the word - I'd never been to Asia or the South Pacific before - I knew it's often hot and muggy there but I wasn't prepared for actually experiencing it.  We live in SC and we're used to 90* days with 90% humidity, but we just got back from a trip to Guam last week and...Oh.  My.  Gawd.  It's oppressive.  Like a physical presence.  I have a newfound respect for our troops who fought in the Pacific and in Vietnam...how they managed to deal with that is beyond me.

 

So yeah, be sure to drink plenty of fluids and take it easy.

We chatted briefly before about Guam - you hit the nail on the head.  Lived there for 3 years.  Had to run A/C 24/7 or water would bead up on furniture.  Use to lose 7-10 lbs in a single softball game.  But - was my favorite location in a 25-year Navy career.

[UUNetBill]

On 9/16/2022 at 9:50 PM, carolina cruisin said:

We chatted briefly before about Guam - you hit the nail on the head.  Lived there for 3 years.  Had to run A/C 24/7 or water would bead up on furniture.  Use to lose 7-10 lbs in a single softball game.  But - was my favorite location in a 25-year Navy career.

My daughter (Navy LT, Nurse) is just over halfway through her 2-year tour there and has definitely been taking advantage of being there - lots of hiking, scuba, traveling, etc. - it's really a great 'stepping off' point for Pacific travel opportunities.  It can be a tough assignment, but there are also a LOT of positives.

[carolina cruisin]

3 hours ago, UUNetBill said:

My daughter (Navy LT, Nurse) is just over halfway through her 2-year tour there and has definitely been taking advantage of being there - lots of hiking, scuba, traveling, etc. - it's really a great 'stepping off' point for Pacific travel opportunities.  It can be a tough assignment, but there are also a LOT of positives.

Responded on a different thread but agree with all you mentioned.