アンバサダーデイクルーズ： ハロン湾の美しさを発見

Overall it was fine but will summarise the positives and negatives (+/-) below. + Well organsed. Staff all spoke good English, were careful to make sure of passenger comfort and safety at all times. + Lunch was excellent. There was a wide variety of fresh food to cater for most tastes. + The pick-up driver from Ha Noi was very good; smooth driver, efficient, polite and careful. The coach was modern and comfortable and with working seat belts. - The breakfast was pretty ordinary. Hotel style pho ga and/or croissant. - Drinks all have to be paid for and at very high prices (with the exception of a cup of tea or coffee after lunch, and a dentist style paper cup half-full of water after a return from excursions). Being asked to pay (at twice the street value) for juices, tea or coffee that are offered around by trolley when you get in for breakfast feels mean and sets a bad feeling from the start. It looked to take most of the passengers by surprise and surely can be accommodated within the price. - The excursions (while arranged professionally) look to follow the itinerary of practically every other cruise on the water (and there are a lot of cruises). Meaning passengers are brought to Sung Sot cave (worth it) and Ti Top island (not worth it) at the same time as thousands of others. - There is no quiet outdoor space that is non-smoking. The only space outside on the same deck where passengers are seated contains 2 tables and 4 sun loungers. These are almost always populated by smokers. The above decks are more spacious, but dance music is played constantly and at ear-bleed volume. Meaning that the only quiet, non-smoking space is inside. A non-smoking section of the deck and a break from the music would be very welcome. - When inside, if you do not get allocated a table next to the windows your view is obstructed by fellow passengers. - The boat does not really cruise so much as head slightly toward the islands in the bay, then come back again. Excursions take you slightly further into the group of islets but nothing like as far as hoped. Maybe this is a matter of license and the authorities protecting the bay though.

Booked Ambassador as it was a large, modern boat which would be safe. The issue is that it is too big to drop you at caves etc so you need to transfer to a tender. This is a hazardous process . It would be safer to book a smaller boat to avoid using tenders.