Westerdam February 2023 Indonesia cruise- lack of shore excursions

[Cayucan]

2 hours ago, Shogun025 said:

Does anyone know what port the ship goes to when it says  Bali. 

Benoa is a cruise port in Bali. It lists Benoa but also says Bali.??????

 

Also it says Java but that is the whole Island???????

 

Chris

The way I read it is that Bali is the Indonesian Island and that Benoa is the port on the Island.

[Coates55]

I presume it is indeed Benoa. 

 

Glad to say I can now see some excursions listed for various ports.

[SalisburyNick]

I'm on the 14th Feb sailing from Singapore. Some of the shore days now have excursions available, but not all of them. I'm particularly worried about the stop at Komodo, for which no excursions are listed. Seeing Komodo dragons was one of my main reasons for booking this.

[grayjay]

I saw that, too. Hopefully we'll see more excursions listed in the following weeks. I also must confess that almost none of the ones already listed attract us, as they always seem to include visits and more visits to factories and markets with the obvious aim to sell, sell, sell. And there aren't many of them, either: if you look at (for example) 9 offered ones in one of the ports, there are only three plus 6 offers of hiring a private car or van at eye-popping prices .

I also wondered at the prices asked - even if I do understand that the company wants to earn money the offered excursions are exceptionally expensive. So even if we usually book excursions by the cruise line in order to make it easy for us we'll also look elsewhere this time.

I don't know if offering too few and overpriced excursions is HollandAmerica's new policy or the effect of this cruise being offered again after two years of not being able to cruise in Asia.

[portpete20]

Re. The Kuala Lumpur call on 13 February, I booked an independent excursion to the city with pickup and drop off at the ship. The itinerary is flexible and I’ve got a couple of spaces to fill so if you are interested in taking these up please let me know.

[Coates55]

Komodo Island is also for us the anticipated highlight so want to make sure I book this one as soon as it is available. I too agree that the other shore excursions seem very expensive in this relatively cheap part of the World anyway, might just mean lots of relaxing onboard during certain ports of call.

[JulietCWright]

On 11/3/2022 at 6:08 PM, portpete20 said:

I am going through the process to obtain an India Visa for Port Blair call but don’t see any shore excursion offering from HA or their Agent. Looks as if we’ll have to go it alone or fix up with other cruisers for this call at least.

We have had cancellations on previous booked Asian cruises with HA.

I am booked on n this as well and confused about the Visa process.  
1.  It’s my understanding we do not need visa for Malaysia and Thailand.  Is that your understanding? 
2.  For port Blair, even though there are no excursions, will we be permitted to disembark?  
3.  I’ve heard multiple things about the visa for India.  Some say if we don’t get off, we don’t need one?  Some say we need a traditional visa and not an e visa no matter what.  I’m new at this how do I know which I’m applying for?  
 

thanks for any help anyone has. 

[JulietCWright]

22 hours ago, Coates55 said:

Komodo Island is also for us the anticipated highlight so want to make sure I book this one as soon as it is available. I too agree that the other shore excursions seem very expensive in this relatively cheap part of the World anyway, might just mean lots of relaxing onboard during certain ports of call.

Why is Komodo Island of interest?  Just curious…

[Sea42]

2 hours ago, JulietCWright said:

Why is Komodo Island of interest?  Just curious…

The dragons!

[Coates55]

Benoa excursions now available to book but still no excursions shown for Komodo Island

[Coates55]

Anyone else concerned about lack of excursions posted for Komodo Island- this port is the main reason we are on the Feb 14 2023 cruise on the Westerdam out of Singapore.