Enroute to Phu My, Vietnam, March 22 to 23, 2012
Trip Start
Jan 07, 2012
1
48
73
Trip End
May 09, 2012
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Thursday, March 22, 2012
After leaving from Hong Kong, we set on a southwesterly course across the South China Sea towards our next port of call, Phu My, (for Ho Chi Minh City) Viet Nam.
After having breakfast, Rick went to the Veterans Get Together and Chris went to Cruise Critic for information on Phu My and Laem Chabang, (for Bangkok) Thailand. Rick felt this was one of the best get togethers so far, with a group picture being handed out to all. There was some useful information from Cruise Critic, however we have decided that we will be taking cruise ship tours for both of these ports. While Rick went to choir, Chris attended a Diamonds and Exotic Gemstones event to promote an onboard sale. The afternoon was spent sending some e-cards and composing information from Hong Kong for the blog. Today, for the first time in several days we had some nice weather and saw the sun for most of the day. Also, there was no fog so it made for a nice day. Tonight, prior to dinner was the Captain's Circle Cocktail Party with our new Captain Andrea Poggi. It was also formal night, which is customary with this party held for each segment. We visited with many passengers that we have met during on time on board and finalized with a new group of tablemates for the next segment starting with Singapore. Following dinner, the entertainment was "Tribute" with the singers and dancers. Their performances were a tribute to music of the 60's, which were quite good and brought back lots of memories with music we grew up with.
March 23, 2012 - At Sea
We had a lazy morning starting with the usual "Wake Show" and then watching a documentary “Cities of the Underground-Vietnam”. This was quite interesting since we will be in Vietnam tomorrow and going to the Cu Chi Tunnels. There is so much information about the many tunnels that was so unknown during the war times. For our visit in Phu My, immigration required that we had special Vietnam Landing Permit Cards, which was granted to us through our required Visas. Immigration will inspect and stamp our passports, thus granting us “passenger in transit” visas. These were handled by the ship, with a “for your convenience fee of $31 USD”. Our passports are kept on board with Passenger Services where they will be inspected and stamped by immigration officers.
Following a light breakfast, we did some visiting while watching the ice carving of a mermaid for the luncheon buffet, “King Neptune”. Later in the afternoon went out to the pool for some warm sun and the pool and hot tub. Also relaxed and read for a while. We went back to our room and did some work up loading the photos for the blog before heading to dinner. After dinner we went on deck for the “Champagne Waterfall” and music. The weather was very nice and we were there for awhile before heading to bed for a busy day tomorrow.
