Catherine Cruise 3 Days/2 Nights with 6 Star Cruise

The views were amazing. The room very comfortable and pretty. Cleanlines is outstanding. The 3 day 2 night made the difference, as on the second day we were able to be on more isolated areas away from the overwhelming crowds that we encountered on the first day activities. And although the food was a bit of a let down especially for a 6* claim, it all was made better by our ray of sunshine Butler Julie! She was so sweet, friendly, attentive and genuinely warm that I could have eaten plain rice everyday and not even care! Thanks to beautiful Julie for her hard work and dedication to outstanding service!

It’s described as a 3 day, 2 night tour. But it’s really just a day and a half, and of that 8.5 hours is spent touring the bay on a dayboat which is a traditional junk lacking any of the amenities, ambience or style of the much more modern ship you’ve paid to be on. See more below. Day 1 Catherine Cruises arranged a private luxury limousine transfer for 7 of us. The cost was USD140 each way. The car was comfortable and cool but the experience was anything but 5 star. Our driver spoke loudly on the phone for most of the 3 hour trip. He pulled over after 45 minutes leaving us in the locked van while he sat on the side of the road smoking out of one of the long bamboo pipes and drinking tea with his mates. When we arrived at the terminal we were herded into the air conditioned holding pen of the cruise company and processed along with the other guests before embarking about an hour later. We had booked on booking.com to pay at the property. Catherine Cruises tried to add a 4% credit card charge on to the booking.com price. Beware of these hidden charges. We encountered quite a few. The cruise is advertised as all inclusive except for drinks. You have to pay for all drinks including basics like tea, coffee, sparkling water and soft drinks. As you would expect, the drinks prices are steep and then they try to slug you another 4% for the card fee. We embarked at about 12. The accommodation is really nice with big rooms, comfortable beds and expansive balconies with gorgeous views across the bay. The Airconditioning works well and the shower and baths were good. This is really what you are paying for when you join Catherine Cruises or I suspect any of the big, modern boats. They are just floating hotels that moot close to shore. To explore the bay you need to transfer to the tender or junk boat. Lunch was a pretty basic buffet with sushi, a range of meats in bain maries and some seafood you could cook in a hot pot. There was some yoghurt and fruit but no other desserts. We enjoyed the afternoon excursion to the caves and to Ti Top island beach. We were here at high season so everything was very crowded. Happy hour (buy 2 cocktails get one free) occurred twice each day at 5.30 and again at 9.30. The cocktails are pretty good and cost around 300,000 each. Cocktail hour snacks are lackluster - a small plate of grapes, one of soggy biscuits and a platter of prawn crackers. Drinks and cocktails occurred with a back drop of people still decorating the space for the cocktail hour and carrying out loud sound checks while the entertainer struggled to be heard Dinner menu was abalone soup, green water jelly with shrimp floss salad, a small lobster mornay and chunks of tough meat advertised as Australian beef. Dessert was a jelly and Janna outta like slice. The lobster was ok although drenched in an artificially coloured yellow tinted sauce. The menu sounded much better than it tasted and the focus seemed to be on featuring luxury ingredients rather than preparing them well. Vegetables were cold and soggy. We travelled as a group of 7 so wanted to enjoy the karaoke that featured in the marketing material. We were told that we had to book and pay for it by the hour -1,900,000 per hour. We argued the toss given that a fee per use was not disclosed in our booking conditions. They agreed that we could use it. No one else on the boat was so it would otherwise have sat empty. The music choice was very limited but the room was great and we had fun. Apparently the sauna is also available on a fee per use basis. There are other reasonably pricef services but we didn’t have time to try them out. We were startled awake at 6.45 on Day 2 by a voice coming through the loud speaker in our room announcing a kayak tour starting in 15 minutes. One of our group was keen and got up to attend but was showed back to bed because the tour was apparently only for guests departing that day (although ALL guests were awoken with the news given without this qualification). Breakfast had been at 6.30. We didn’t make it. One of our group tried to get something to eat or a coffee at 8am but was told breakfast was “finished”. You had two choices for day 2. You could either stay on the boat although no activities were arranged and there were no excursions available or you could leave the ship at 8.40 for the entire day not returning until about 4.30pm. 5 of us chose to go on the “excursion”. That involved transferring to the tender and from there boarding a day junk boat which pools guests from lots of other cruises and heads out to explore the Bay. We had a great day and really enjoyed the activities (kayaking, cycling to a small fishing village and swimming) but the boat was very basic, the food was traditional Vietnamese food and was ok but nothing felt particularly clean or comfortable. The tour guide on board was helpful and made every effort to make guests feel welcome. The 2 that stayed on the boat reported that it was quiet, there was no activity and the whole boat was directed to repeating day 1 for the new group embarking. The lunch service was identical to the day before. Dinner tonight was a bit better - a vegetable soup, coconut salad, lamb chop and salmon. There was a small fire show and fireworks off the bow of the ship at 9.30. Day 3 again commended with the loud speaker announcement about kayaking. This time our group qualified and a few attended. Breakfast was at 7.30. It’s a basic breakfast buffet - 3 star at best. We are required to leave our rooms at 8.30 for brunch at 8.45. We had only just finished breakfast so it seemed weird to be eating again. Brunch was a little better than breakfast. And then that is it, it’s time to check out, pay up and get off the boat . Return - we disembarked at 10.30 back into the holding pen. No water or drinks provided while we waited around until the “limousine” chose to arrive - about 45 minutes later. There was no clear system, no help provided and seemingly little care for the plight of “yesterday’s” guests. Halong Bay is spectacular. We were happy to have seen it and we appreciated the comfortable rooms on board Catherine Cruises but I wouldn’t do it this way if I had my time over. I think it would be better to get on a smaller boat that can travel further around the bay so that you can avoid the day junk and the transfers from boat to boat. It was a 5 star boat but the experience as a whole was less than a 3. Other info - they say there is WiFi but that is not true. None of us could get WiFi at any time day or night. There was patchy data available if you could use data roaming. You will need cash to buy drinks and anything else you want on any of the excursions. Be clear about times for your transfer. Unless you want to sit around in the holding pen for between 45 minute to an hour, specify a clear pick up time if 10.30 and ask them to confirm that

Great experience and service. We were with our three year old daughter and we all had great time. Food was delicious, day trips were amazing and staff, especially Joana were very friendly and helpful.