Doris Cruise by Hag

Very good service and friendly staff. Good worth for the price. Was a little let down to not be able to kayak the Dark and Bright Cave. The transfer service was great and member of staff on the bus ride was super friendly and helpful. He was kind enough to help us book our last night stay in a hotel in Hanoi.

I have given Doris Cruise a 1 star but this is not reflective of the majority of staff, as they do their absolute best despite working horrendously long hours for very little pay. I would not recommend this cruise to anyone, unless you want very poor value for money. The price of drinks on board is ridiculously high, and it's not as though they're in the middle of an ocean miles from land. Tea and coffee is supposed to be provided free of charge in the cabin but getting a replenishment of supplies over and above the single serve each is impossible, which was clearly an attempt to get you to buy it in the bar/restaurant. Food ran out, to the extent that there was no butter for breakfast on our 2nd morning. The itinerary was not as advertised and when I complained about this following our cruise and said I planned to post a bad review, they asked me to wait 24 hours for them to respond. In that 24 hours they updated their website and as I'd stupidly not taken screenshots in advance, I then had no evidence. Doris Cruises then stopped replying to me, despite saying that they wanted to remedy my complaint! Yes, the scenery is stunning but the cruise is not worth the money we paid. A much better experience and the opportunity to see far more of Cat Ba island could be had by taking a day cruise and staying on the island itself. I only wish that I'd known this before as I could have saved a lot of money.

Deadly diesel fumes Horrible stay in the Executive Cabin (was supposed to be higher comfort, and was 180° opposite). The pipe with deadly diesel fumes is located exactly (!) behind the terrace. You can't breathe, can't switch to air conditioning as the air inlet is also located on the terrace. When next night we changed to another (lower class) it was ok. But we still do not recommend the experience. The fumes, even if not in a cabin, surround the cruise and fill the whole bay (there are numerous ships parking next to each other overnight)