L'amour Cruise

Above anything else, we must mention how incredible Miss Julie was on the cruise. She was so helpful and friendly and was so kind to our daughter, she made all the difference on the cruise. We scored it higher because of the outstanding level of service she gave. All the cruise team, from the tender pilot to the waiting staff, cleaning team and cooks were all making their best effort. It was an inexperienced team on a new cruise, but the smiles and friendliness outweighed everything else. Overall the cruise was good, but the poor organisation and information let it down a bit. The first day everything was good. Alex the cruise manager met us at off the tender, gave an introduction and a schedule for the first day, kayaking, visits to a cave and a really nice dinner on deck. The music had are very good too. For the second day, the entire day was spent on a different boat so that the cruise ship could return to port and drop off those only staying for one night. The day was actually great fun, kayaking, visiting caves and a secluded beach. You miss out on all this if you only stay one night. When we returned to the ship in the afternoon a new large tour group boarded and from that point forward the other passengers were pretty much forgotten about. Alex was nowhere to be seen and nobody shared any information about the schedule from that point forward, which meant we didn’t know about the afternoon tea on deck nor the Vietnamese cooling lessons, although we did manage to catch the end of it. Then in the evening, the tour group started a big party, with lots of drinking and really bad Karaoke at full volume that carried on until nearly midnight, echoing round the whole ship. They were only enjoying themselves, but not great for young kids sleeping, especially since each day starts at 06:30 sharp. Even less great when you arrive at breakfast and check out time has been moved to 9 am instead of 11am. The other thing to note is that the ship itself is not new like many reviews have stated, but an old vessel that’s been refurbished with mixed results, with parts still not finished and its age still showing in places. (They were still welding deck parts whilst we were sailing.) I am sure that as the management team get more experienced and organised, things will run much more smoothly, but given that this is billed as a luxury cruise and matching price tag, it needs to improve to be good value.