Halong Bay Overnight Cruise 2Day,1 Night with 4 Star Luxury

Bamboo boat rower in Luon Cave is very lazy. He stopped at the middle of the lake, looking phone and went back to jetty. Other boats went at the end of the lake. But he didn't care and listened our words and just rowed back. Manager and rower didn't say sorry to us even they know it is their fault. They didn't think to say sorry to us. Very worse tourism.

We booked a 2 night luxury cruise on the “Violet” - 6 cabins. Big mistake. The cruise lines are not equipped to offer a 2 night itinerary since most visitors book one night only. They want us to leave the ship at 8am on the 2nd morning, have breakfast on a lesser priced sister ship, lunch somewhere else followed by a forced tour - an absence of 61/2 hrs from the ship. The reason: ship returns to the dock and picks up next group of one day tourists which you will then meet later the 2nd day. We refused to leave the ship and had to suffer thru deck cleaning, rooms cleaning, return to the tourists docks, Wait for new guests etc. And repeat the 2nd afternoon same as the first. This is not isolated we learned - And by the way, there are now over 400 ships in the bay - making it difficult to feel the romance.

Halong Bay must be one of the most beautiful places to visit once you get away from the city/port area and out in the bay itself. The rock outcrops are amazing and some of the bays, caves and climbs well worth doing. The downside is that all the boats seem to follow the same pattern so places can be crowded at the times the boat staff prefer to be there. Some of the boats are a bit dated and not brilliantly maintained or have good facilities. We were on the Royal Palace, 4 star apparently, which really could do with a refit. Staff though were great and catering good so one could ignore the non-functional windows, broken furnishings/fittings, non fitting cabin doors, high bar prices etc. Beautiful old boat in need of a bit more care. Evening entertainment karaoke! Not my cup of tea really but top deck enabled a more relaxed area albeit with occasional non-tunes from below. Overall a good experience but could easily have been much better (or worse). You need to do this to see the scenery but keep your expectations of everything else low and you will not be disappointed.