Christmas Cruise 2016

I have been away at Christmas before but always a big house in the UK with all the family, this year I was heading to the sunshine and a Cruise, really not sure what to expect and would it feel like Christmas?

11 Day South East Asia Cruise on board Diamond Princess, I have cruised many times and love it mainly for the fact you are entertained day and night, there is great food and you wake up in a different place every day, this cruise was no different leaving from Singapore and visiting

Kota Kinabalu - Borneo Nha Trang – Vietnam Phu My – Vietnam – stop for Hoh Chi Minh City/Saigon Sihanoukville – Cambodia Laem Chabang – Thailand – Stop for Pattaya and Bangkok Koh Samui – Thailand

I would recommend pre booking excursions as the ports are a long way from what you actually want to see, my favourite stops and highlights were Hoh Chi Minh City. It's an amazing city - best way to describe is it is like Bangkok with its hustle, bustle and mopeds! It's very clean and lots of history from the Vietnam war I would definitely go back. Feeding the Elephants at Pattaya Elephant Village, visiting a school in Cambodia, next time I will take more pens and paper as gifts, not an iPad or computer.

But did it feel like Christmas - it was hot, the ship had a tree and decorations, each port we stopped at there were trees and decorations but it didn’t really feel like Christmas even watching Christmas movies on the big screen under the stars all felt a bit strange. On Christmas Eve singing Christmas songs with the officers around the Christmas Tree in the Atrium was magical, and Santa arriving to the ship by Tender on Christmas afternoon before gifting presents to each of the children on board it - these were one off experiences. It made Christmas albeit a different type of Christmas, I missed my pigs in blankets for Christmas Dinner and it did feel very strange to say “Merry Christmas“ in my swimsuit but would I recommend it? Yes I would!

Would I recommend cruising in Asia? If you love cruising and you have been to the Med and Caribbean what feels like a million times try Asia, the ports are amazing, the boats are the same, the clientele is mainly Japanese, Asian and Australian with probably around 20% being British, the food does have a more Asian feel to it than other cruises but still plenty of choice for all tastes. The only downside is the ports are quite small to get the big ships into, so many of the stops were Tender ports with transfers of around 20 – 30 minutes.