The Travel Sage
Planning in Progress
Our next big trip is in the works – a 28 night cruise leaving out of Singapore on January 20th, 2024 and ending in Yokohama (Tokyo) Japan on February 17th. My husband and I will be joined by my adult nephew, Will, who will have his own cabin. The cruise on Holland America has been booked, and the flights have been purchased, but now it’s time to figure out what we want to do in each port so that we can book tours in advance if necessary.
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To help others see my planning process, I’m going to document what I’m doing in the form of a travel planning diary. The oldest entries are at the top and the most recent are on the bottom. Feel free to ask questions in the comments field at the end of the post.
October 5th, 2023 – Cruise Booking; Ha Long Bay, Vietnam; and Bangkok, Thailand.
So I actually started planning this trip back in June but have just started keeping my “diary” today. I watched the prices for a long time, thinking they would come down. Unfortunately, they didn’t, they went up. I screwed up because 1) I was used to watching prices of European cruises which are a lot more plentiful and therefore have more competition to drive down prices, and 2) I didn’t realize that cruise industry was seeing a boom in 2023 now that people finally feel more comfortable about the Covid-19 situation. Anyhow, by the time I booked on August 7th, I ended up paying about $400 more per person than I would have if I hadn’t waited! And I found out that I could have rebooked the cruise at a lower fair until the final payment date of October 15th! Live and learn. (Update: It turns out the fare did go down, after the final payment date – see 11/14/2023 entry below.)
For the past couple of weeks I’ve been researching what to do in what I consider to be the most important ports. First on my agenda was Halong Bay, Vietnam. This bay has been on my bucket list for sometime now, ever since I first saw a photo of it. One of the most popular things to do here is to take a one night cruise on the bay, so you can experience it without the day trippers. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be possible for us since our cruise ship was not docking here over night. So I looked into daytime cruises of the bay – there are lots of them! But in the end I decided that I didn’t want to experience this on a large boat full of strangers so I started searching for private boat excursions. I found the Halong Bay private shore excursion tour that I was hoping for on Tours by Locals. I contacted the guide and asked him if he could extend the tour since by a couple of hours since we would be in port over 12 hours. He happily agreed and didn’t charge me anything extra for his time (I just had to pay an extra $50 to the boat captain.)
Halong Bay, Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Lonely Planet.
Once Halong Bay was checked off the list I turned my attention to Thailand. Our cruise is only making two stops in Thailand. One stop is to the island of Ko Samui which doesn’t seem to offer much sight-seeing; it’s more of a beach destination. But the other stop in Thailand is Laem Chabang which is the closest port to Bangkok. Our ship is scheduled to arrive at 7:00am and depart at 3:00pm the next day. Unfortunately, the drive from the port to Bangkok takes between 1 1/2 and 2 hours. Typically, you are required to be back on your ship no later than 30 minutes prior to departure, which would mean we’d have to be back no later than 2:30pm on the second day. But I know better than to cut it close getting back to a ship when you are almost 2 hours away, so I figured we’d have to plan to leave Bangkok by around 11:30 on the second day. Because of that, it made no sense to return to the ship on day one and then go back to Bangkok on day two. Either we would stay over night in Bangkok or just not go there on the 2nd day. So I looked into hotel prices and I was happy to discover that they are very inexpensive. We can get a really nice hotel for about US$50! So that’s the plan. I’ve been emailing two different tour operators, one on Tours by Locals and another tour company, Thai Tour Guide, I found by just searching the web. I hope to finalize the plans for this cruise stop in the next couple of days.
October 11th, 2023 – Bangkok and Ayutthaya
I decided to book the tour with Thai Tour Guide for both days in Bangkok. They pick us up at the ship on the first day, take us to Ayutthaya after which they drop us off at our hotel in Bangkok at 5pm. On the second day they pick us up at our hotel and take us on a canal boat ride and to visit Wat Pho temple. You can see our actually itinerary here. The reviews of this company were comparable with the Tours by Locals guide, but the price was a little less and I felt that Thai Tour Guide was somewhat more organized. The only potential downside that I recognize with my choice is that with Tours by Local, I’m reading the review of my actual guide, but Thai Tour Guide is a company with many guides so you don’t know who you are going to get until after you commit. But on the plus side, Thai Tour Guide didn’t ask for any money up front (not even a credit card to hold my reservation), you pay your guide after the tour is complete.
In addition to the tours I booked with Thai Tour Guide, we are also booking an evening food tour of Bangkok* through Viator. We’ll be driven around in a tuk tuk (open air 3-wheeled taxi) and the guide will give us a taste of Bangkok’s street food scene.
Since we won’t have much time after we are dropped off at our hotel to get ready for the evening tour, I opted to book a hotel that was very close to the meeting point for the food tour. I got a room for 2 people at the 4-star Mandarin Hotel* for a total of USD$78.76, including taxes, breakfast, and free cancellation. I also booked Kiwi Taxi to pick us up at our hotel on day two and take us back to the ship. The tour company would have taken us to the ship but they would charge US$125 and Kiwi Taxi only charges US$69. (Update: Check out the actual trip report from the Bangkok (Laem Chabang) port of call.)
Photo courtesy of Russiau.com
October 23rd, 2023 – Visa Requirements
Today I looked into Visa requirements for this cruise. I started by looking through Holland America’s website, including within my reservation, and I couldn’t find anything about it. Finally, I found it on the actual travel documents that I was emailed at the time I booked. From what I read there, the only countries on my itinerary that currently require Visa’s for U.S. citizens are China, Cambodia, and Vietnam (South Korea has temporarily waived their requirement through the end of 2024). According to my documents, I can purchase the Cambodia and Vietnam Visas onboard the ship. So that’s easy, although not cheap – approximately $150 per person. On the other hand, China seems to not be easy at all! I’m glad I didn’t wait any longer to look into this – they say you need at least 30 days to get the Visa and the process is not straight forward… More to come.
November 13th, 2023 – Chinese Visa
I finally got around to doing more research on a tourist visa for China. From what I read, I think some of the procedures changed this year and it might be easier than it used it be. I’m going to try to apply directly through the Chinese consulate rather than use one of the services that charge you a hefty fee to supposedly help you through the process. The one thing I still need to get before I can go through the online process is passport photos. I can get those for free from AAA since I’m a member.
November 14th, 2023 – Cruise Price Dropped
Today I made the mistake of checking Vacations-to-Go to see if the price changed on my cruise. I’ve been hoping to try to upgrade to a suite if the suite prices got down to not much more than what I paid for a balcony cabin. Unfortunately, the suite prices didn’t come down but the balcony cabin prices are $900 per person lower than what I paid! It says “limited availability” but it’s been saying that since I started looking at the cruise over 5 months ago!
November 19th, 2023 – Chinese Visa
So, I can’t use the passport photos I got at AAA. It turns out that the specs required for the China Visa are not the same as for U.S. passport photos. Also, I didn’t read the fine print and apparently China wants to see my ears in the photo. Very strange! So, now I’m going to try to take the photos myself.
November 20th, 2023 – Koh Samui, Thailand
I’ve been working on our cruise stop in Koh Samui, Thailand for the last couple of days. I’ve narrowed down my options but I’m having trouble deciding. Unfortunately we will only be in port from 7am until 3pm and from what I read we will likely have to tender. Most of the tours seem to be on the other side of the island and only a few offer pickup at the port. I thought about renting a car but the only decent car rental places are at the airport on the other side of the island. So, this is what I’ve come up with:
— We can hire a driver through Viator* but the driver will not be a guide and may not speak English. So, we’ll have to do our research and know where we want to go and we won’t be able to count on learning anything from the driver.
— There’s a 6 hour private 4X4 tour of the countryside* that offers port pick up for an extra fee, but we’ll have to cut the tour short to make sure we get back to the ship in time.
— There’s a very inexpensive 4 hour group tour*, but they don’t offer port pick up. Fortunately, one of the hotels where they pick up is about a 10 minute drive from the port. However, I don’t know how difficult it will be to get a taxi when everyone is getting off the ship at once.
— Another tour that caught my eye was a 4 to 5 hour ATV tour*. This isn’t something that my husband and I feel up to, but I’m going to recommend it to my nephew. They don’t say they pick up at the port, but they seem pretty flexible about their pick up points.
January 16th, 2024 – On Our Way, Despite a Lost Passport and Canceled Flight
I’m sorry that I haven’t update this in a while. It’s always hectic between Thanksgiving and New Years, but Mark and I have been stressing over a lot more than just the holiday madness. Following the advice of Holland America, we used CIBT Visas to process our Visa application with the Chinese consulate in Washington D.C. The only reason we needed to use a service at all is because you, or a representative, has to show up in person to the consulate to present your application. CIBT acted as that representative. I had considered just flying to DC for the day to do it myself but CIBT said their fee was only $79. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. This is a rather long story, so I’ll just give you the gist of it.
- My passport came back quickly, but Mark’s was lost by UPS.
- The $79 fee was just the tip of the iceberg. In addition to the $185 fee charged by China, CIBT charged us over $280 a piece in miscellaneous charges.
- AND as it turns out we didn’t even really need the Visa!
The one good thing I will say about CIBT is that when Mark’s passport went missing they assigned him a supervisor who walked him through the process of applying for a new passport and he helped get it expediated. They were hopeful that his passport would arrive in time but there was no way another China Visa could be obtained that quickly after the new passport got to us. My big fear was that Mark might not be allowed to board the ship in Singapore without the Visa. The communications from Holland America talked about the various visas needed for the trip and how to get them, followed by the statement that “passengers without the proper visas may be denied boarding”. I was even told by my Vacations-to-Go travel agent that he wasn’t hopeful they would allow Mark to board the ship. Once I finally reached the right department (documents department) at Holland America, I was told that not only could Mark board the ship, Visa’s weren’t required in Hong Kong, and he could get off the ship in Shanghai as long as he went on a tour with a company that was approved by the government (essentially the tour company gets you a day visa). At this point I wasn’t sure what I felt more of – relief or anger! We had spent over $900, and countless hours of stressing, to get visas we didn’t even need! Why doesn’t Holland America tell you this upfront? Ugghhh!
So, I booked the Zhujiajiao Water Town and Shanghai City Private Day Tour* for our first day in Shanghai. I told Mark that on the second day I was wondering around Shanghai on my own just so I could take advantage of that damn visa.
The passport/visa fiasco wasn’t quite the end of the pretravel stress. Four days before our departing flight, Mark told me he had just read an article that said that all of the Boeing 787 Max-9 planes were still grounded. This was the type of plane that had a portion of the fuselage blow out during a flight over a week prior. I had heard that the FAA was grounding the planes until they were inspected, and I knew that our first flight was on this type of plane, but I had put it out of my mind because I had read shortly after the incident that a lot of the planes were already inspected. Apparently, the FAA changed its plans and Alaska Airlines and United (our airline) were cancelling hundreds of flights a day. We hadn’t heard a word from United but I thought I’d better see about changing to a different flight to be safe. So I called United and was put on hold. After being on hold for a while Mark and I both received a text saying our flight was canceled. I was so happy to have already been on hold with the airline before everyone else got their text. Thankfully, other flights that day were still available. However, the new flight into Singapore got us in on the evening before the morning we were initially expected to arrive. So, I quickly contacted the hotel in Singapore and thankfully was able to their last room for that night! Whew, that was a close one.
So here I am now, on the plane to Singapore; hopefully all of the travel hiccups are behind us. Travel reports from this trip will be coming soon.