Travel & Holidays Holiday ideas - Bali and Phuket

id like to think im not a drunk bogan, and admittedly I dont do it everyday, but I do enjoy visiting those bars, having a drink alone or with freinds or misses and watching the world go by

maybe that makes me a bogan,
as for doing it here, thats one of the things that attracts me to overseas travel, not being in OZ is the biggest drawcard, and makes me feel like a holiday even though I love oz

 

This does sound good value for money. But I have a phobia for being locked up in a ship with a bunch of tourists. I need to meet the locals

 

wow $800! i would do it for that price, which countries do you go?

can you send me a link?

if its $800 ill book right now, and post a screenshot here!

 

dont get me started on compulsory "tipping" grrrrrr

 

@skater $800 for 10 nights is a bargain! Tell us more!

$200 onboard credit isn't going to be enough though...


We're flying to Phuket for New Years (2 nights) then getting on a dive boat (7 nights) and another night in Phuket. Honestly Thailand isn't really my cup of tea, I'm there for the diving, hence the boat. We do one or two of these a year and have been to some amazing locations, as well as a couple of dodgy places.

 

https://www.ozcruising.com.au/ship/cruises-from-all-australian-ports~explorer-of-the-seas/cruises

Ours is the middle one. We got it a bit cheaper. There was some advertisement & followed the link. One of those 'book now' deals. We didn't know we were getting on-board credit, so that was a nice surprise. We got a cheap cabin, as we've got a friend who is always cruising around & she said that they've never bothered with a more expensive cabin, as they really only go there for sleeping, and knowing me, that's probably all we'd do too.

There IS compulsory tipping, but it still works out less than $100 per day each, which isn't too bad. I know $200 credit won't be enough, but hey, it's better than nothing. Besides, we don't drink much of either soft drinks or alcohol. I prefer to drink water most times to anything else.

 

I just checked that link & it gives all their cruises, not just the ones that were on my list, so try this one instead.

https://www.ozcruising.com.au/detail/cruiseEX14FEB16

 

See, I found Bali to be over crowded and over westernised and I stayed in Sanur.
I have sat on beaches in Vietnam in a thriving city with Sheratons, Mercure and the like in sight less than 1klm away and barely seen anyone all day.
Get away from that few block tourist area and you can have it to yourself during the day, the locals are either working the tourist area or afraid of the sun so wont come onto the beach.

 

Yep, basic cabin is the go. The first cruise I ever did I chose a balcony room but we never really made any use of it and just made the cabin space smaller!

So these days I tend to go for the restricted ocean view cabins (generally restricted because you have the lifeboat restricting the view). You sometimes get upgraded (I guess frequent Cruisers are more likely to get the upgrade?) so don't bother with paying extra for a fancier room. I'd avoid rooms near the engine room as it can be noisy.
Otherwise I think cabins near stairways are handy and cabins near the centre of the ship may suffer from less extreme rocking, so might be better for those with a weak stomach on the water. Some people will get seasick. I never have. The Tasman Sea between Australia and NZ can be bad.

 

Hey @skater is "ozcruising.com" the latest incarnation of Ashley Maddison?

 

$100 per day tipping!?!?!?!?!?!

Is that a typo?

 

Correct! Total cost is less than $100 each per day which INCLUDES the tipping!

 

thats good!

unfortunately, none from melb, I would have to fly to syd for this!!

why does melb always get left out :0

 

Skater, you realise February is cyclone/monsoon season. There are always cheap cruises then.

You've got everything else in Melbourne. Stop complaining!

There's none from Brisbane either on that site

 

oops. sorry, haha!

 

They are cheap because it's no longer School Holidays and many people have spent their money over Christmas. I'm happy to not have the ship over-run with school age children, and that's the time of year that suits me best.

Actually....I had a look and there were a few that were OK departing Brisbane.

 

Just had a look at several of those cruises and thought yeah, looks reasonable but then I looked at drink prices and balked so opted for the drinks packages and that brought it up to $3000/week.
That's probably more than we spend a month in Vietnam. 30 days vs 7 hmmm.

 

Spend a little more and do an MSC cruise through the Mediterainian. Cost me about $3,000 for a 12 night cruise (that includes the cruise and return flights to port in Genoa, Italy). It was worth that alone just to see Pompeii, walk through Cairo Museum and stand on the Pryamids. And that was only 2 day trips out of 9! Great food, and an onboard theatre show every night after dinner. If you MUST drink take a couple of bottles of Duty Free Alcohol. There was an onboard bottle shop and in International Waters its Duty Free 24/7.

 

and on day 3?
And can I drink it wherever or do I have to hide in my cabin like a naughty schoolgirl?