Southeast Asia in 5 segments!

Having spent the last couple of days in Bangkok at a pretty exhausting pace we were looking forward to the much more relaxed pace of an ocean cruise on the NCL “JEWEL” for the next 2 weeks. Unfortunately, our previous experiences with multiple cruise ships di not prepare us for the extremely disorganised sign-in and boarding procedures as done by Norwegian was horrible. Instead of 15-20 minutes of normal embarkation, we were stuck in interminable lines for 2-3 hours before we finally made it onto the ship.! And then, we had to find our luggage in a pile on our floor and move it into our room-never happened before. Go with Holland America, Celebrity or the like.
Once on board things started looking up. The cabin stewards, dining room wait-staff, and Matre de’s were all excellent, although much more stressed than other cruises due to personnel shortages-another systemic short-sighted decision. Our group of 8 quickly set into a routine of meeting for meals and excursions, and resting well and often. Our schedule included stops in Koh Samui (Thailand Island), Saigon,Vietnam (overnight) then 2 days at sea as we sailed to Bali Island for 3 stops(Indonesia), then 1 stop on Lomboc Island(also Indonesia), before finishing up in Singapore for 3 days. I will dedicate a footprint to each of our stops.Read more