5-star Halong Bay Cruise 2 days 1 night

Staff were very attentive.. boat needed some TLC but over all was ok.. the food was the biggest thing for us it was very local cuisine so mainly fish and if you didn’t eat fish you got the vegetarian option.. we are both big meat eaters so food didn’t work too well. It’s a beautiful location and I’m glad we visited.

This cruise ended up being really disappointing. It started off negative because we were informed that we needed to meet the bus at 8.30am. We were in the lobby at 8.20am. Hotel staff then told us that someone had come in looking for us 10 minutes before we came down. We then had to email the company to find out what was happening to which we were told "the guide is looking for you." 5 minutes later a tour bus parks itself outside our hotel. We assume its for us and we go to board it. My boyfriend asks the driver if the bus is for the cruise and the driver said it was. As I'm then getting on the the bus to join my boyfriend I have a man who was obviously the tour guide behind me, waving a clipboard at me and shouting, if not screaming very loudly for us to get off the bus. It turns out it wasn't our bus. He continues to shout at us once we are back on the pavement. This left us very shaken up and we went back to the hotel lobby. I then send an email out to whoever was meant to be organising the cruise to explain what's happened. Later on when we actually get on the boat we do not get an apology for the mix-up. However when we finally get picked up, the person collecting us looked annoyed and told us to "come on" as if it was our fault they were behind when we were actually on time. They made no attempt to ring either of us to let us know they were going to be earlier than the agreed time. Halfway through the journey we get told to come off the bus and we get put on another. Again we had no explanation as to what was happening. We just had to hope we were heading the right way. Once it's all sorted and we're on the tender boat to get to the cruise, a large family joins us. They're extremely loud, over-excited and moving all over the boat. They were like this for the 2 days. They were often late for activities, which held everyone else up. Saying that, we were very happy with our room, and the tour organiser was friendly and enthusiastic. It's just the little things that build up that make it a negative experience. The crew members on the boat didn't seem happy at all and the prices of drinks on the boat were extortionate. There was no WiFi at all despite being told there was. It was then suggested that we may not have transport for the way back to hanoi which panicked us but we couldn't do anything about it because of the lack of WiFi. When we get back to the port it turns out we do have transport back but we're not told for another 10 minutes. I could go on more but I'm aware of how long this review is. Perhaps we just got unlucky as the other reviews seem positive.

Lee, the cruise director, was awesome and went out of his way to make sure we had a great time. He was so personable, speaks excellent English and was extremely helpful, accommodating any special requests or needs. The whole staff was friendly, smiling all the time and super nice.