Biggest 700 MISTAKE Halong Bay Luxury Cruise Worth the Price Mon Cheri Cruise 2023

Now a couple years ago we were planning a vacation to Thailand and to Vietnam and one of the things that we knew that we wanted to do top on our priority list was Halong Bay cruise. Now we changed plans and now we travel full-time and we're also budget travelers. So Halong Bay cruise kind of is out of our price range a little bit but we're here in Vietnam and it is something that we wanted to treat ourselves to so here we are. We just decided to do it. Now we're going to share the complete cost with you. We're going to break it all down and bring to you what it includes and what it doesn't include. Right so the cruise for us we're going to just tell you right out the gate what the price was. It was $697 for the two of us. Okay now if you're staying in Hanoi you've got to get here and one of the things that we chose to do was get a one-way ride from Hanoi and you have to stay in the French Quarter or the Old Town to be able to take advantage of this and so we got a one-way ride here. That was not included in the price of the cruise right and that cost us $25. Yes that was $25 each. You can do a round trip and it's $35 so a lot of people are returning right back to Hanoi so that makes complete sense and they will take you back to the right where you started. So yeah and they stop right before you get here to take you to a little pearl shop and kind of show you around but it is nice. Yeah I use the restroom. It is yeah and you know you're not riding in a shabby old van or anything like that you're riding in. They call them a limousine. Now when you are looking to book your Halong Bay cruise you're going to find yourself very overwhelmed by how many different ships that you can choose from and so for us I really just we were watching a ton of YouTube videos. I was reading blogs and I just kept doing a lot of research and ultimately we wound up with we are staying on the Mon Cheri. So Brian likes to say it a different way. The Mon Cheri. Now when you first get on the boat they're going to take you all up to a dining hall. They're going to sit you down. They're going to ask you if you want any drinks and they're going to feed you lunch. It's a buffet and it's a ton of seafood, rice, different kinds of meats, desserts which is key. So it was a fantastic meal. We over ate and we're going to eat again at six o'clock so like three hours from now. I won't even be hungry but we're going to eat anyway because it comes with the price of the ticket. Two beer? Two beer how much? Let's see if I fall overboard here. Two? Here. Let's see if I get my change here. Did you get change? Change? Okay well I just bought two more. Okay okay I just bought two more by mistake but I think she uh she's smarter than I am. Thank you. Okay so I got four beers uh because she didn't have change or she wasn't willing to give me change instead of giving me change she just sold me two more beers and I got four beers. And I think they cost about two dollars and ten cents each which is less than they are on the boat. So it's a good deal I guess because alcohol on the boat is not included in the price. So Carrie you almost knocked me out of the boat. How much did this kayaking excursion cost us? So this kayaking excursion didn't cost us anything. I love kayaking but it's one of those things that we don't typically pay for but this one is included so you get to go and enjoy all of this in the price. All right now kayaking's not your thing if you just uh don't feel like you want to do it you could get on one of these as well. They offer that where you just sit and take everything in and they do the paddling for you. So that's that's also an option then. Honestly a pretty good one or or what you could do even better is you can so the larger person sits in the back of the kayak like myself and Carrie's in the front. So what you could do is you could do what I'm doing and have Carrie do all the work because she can't turn around and see what I'm doing. Oh my god look at those bass. Are you liking this? Yeah he needed some time between all the work. This is really beautiful. Unfortunately it's a little bit hazy today so not seeing as much maybe as clear of the mountains but going through the cave is really pretty. Yeah the fog is free too. The fog is free. Sunshine's free too. Hopefully we get that tomorrow. So it is day two and we are headed off on an excursion. We're not really totally sure what it is. We know it involves some I don't know biking maybe and kayaking. We'll see. Yeah and if you went kayaking yesterday like we did and you got wet you're still wet. Your clothes are still wet. Everything's still wet. It's very humid. Yeah. So take those same clothes with you if you're gonna go kayaking again. Bring a plastic bag. I brought a black bag to put my wet stuff in so. Yeah I did not. She's smarter than I am. So when you get onto the boat this is just kind of we thought it was going to be a small boat they just took us out. They actually put you on another kind of bigger boat and we spend the day on this boat. We'll be served lunch on here and it takes a couple hours to get us out to the actual place where we're gonna I don't know venture out onto the island. But it's a really beautiful ride so yeah. This isn't something that we typically do as far as being told where to go, when to go there, how to do it. We kind of like to freelance and do things on our own. However this is kind of nice. It is kind of nice. Everything is just kind of done for you and there's not a lot of prep and planning we have to do. So they just tell you where to go. So it's our couple day break from having to think a whole lot. Yeah we don't like thinking if we don't have to. My bell doesn't work. Should have grabbed on. Much easier going down. Nice work man. Yeah I'll throw up here in about five minutes. So first excursion here was a bike ride and it was what it was five kilometers. Five kilometers yeah. And really not bad. There's one hill we still have to do that hill on the way back as well. So that's okay. Brian gets a beer when we're done. Yeah I got a beer here and we'll get a beer on the way back too. If you know how to ride a bike you can do this. You can do this. If you if you're just not comfortable doing it like I said earlier they got these little electric electric cars that will take you up here. Now one thing I do want to point out is this was also free. It was free. It was part of the ticket. It is. Yeah so the bikes are free. The one thing that isn't free is when we did get up here if you do want to have a beverage or you want to have a snack you are going to pay for that. But honestly the prices up here even though we're in this small little remote little village were less than they were if we wanted a beer on the boat. So there you go. Ride your bike here and have a beer. There you go. Maybe you have two. Three? Carrie gets to check out her view. I get to check out my view. Yeah it's funny. It is funny. Just the way he likes to tell me all about it. So now we are on a little kayak too. This is kind of a nice one because there wasn't so much just where you had to go and everything. This one you get to kind of do your own thing. So I wasn't even thinking about having a beer with a tray full of beverages. I mean totally twisted my arm. So Carrie and I each got one. The sun's come out. The guns have come out. Yeah but it's not covered in the So like on any cruise ship people wonder what's the food like because that's kind of one of the parts of the experience that we look forward to. It's been great. You know we've had two breakfasts which are both buffet style breakfast. So you just go through what you want. And then yeah and then the lunches are you get a lunch when you arrive which is just a buffet lunch. And then the second day because we're on the boat for two nights and three days the second day you actually have your lunch out on the day trip. And then tomorrow before we leave so our final day they do kind of a brunch at about 11 o'clock. So they feed you something right before you leave which is nice. It's been great. You know if you have any food allergies they'll ask you that question as you're getting on the boat. If you're vegetarian they'll adapt to whatever you need. So that's not it's the the meals you get or what's on the menu. But they can adjust that menu according to your liking. Yeah and we've had people all around us that have had things changed. So it's not a big deal. And then the the dinners are actually really nice. They are a five course sit down. The food just keeps coming and you kind of want it to stop because you're so full. But it is fantastic. So thumbs up for the food here and that is fully included in your price. All right last day final excursion. We're not sure what this one involves either but it involves a little walking and a cave we think. Yeah and you know they do load you up. They don't give you a whole lot of downtime. You do get some but they have activities constantly throughout the really two and a half days. They are and I would also point out that we don't normally have to set an alarm because of our lifestyle. This is the only time we've had to set an alarm in a while because the excursions are early in the morning. So you do have an option though to go. I'm not sure if you have an option on all the excursions but you do have an option on some of them to not go. Yeah and if you want to you can get up super early and do tai chi at six o'clock in the morning which we opted out of. Yeah. No we don't. Yeah positively. My glutes are killing me. Okay so the part of this excursion is that you come down into this really cool cave. It's actually really nice but it's if you have any issues of like I don't know you have to crouch down the long ways and and go up some stairs. So yeah mobility might be an issue for some people. So that is really cool. The one thing I would note is if you do the one day or the one night you're gonna do this and then you're gonna do the first day kayaking. If you do two that's when you're gonna get the biking through the in the middle of the island to the village. Right and you know take note also like Carrie just said if you have any mobility issues this might be kind of difficult. Might be kind of tight for you. I mean for me I got a good glute workout today so that's what I was looking for anyway but but yeah just keep that in mind as well. Yeah we got a good workout. We've been eating while we needed it. So much food. Those like areas in the middle there you go through the first one thinking okay I got through that and then they got harder. Right. You know and then you're kind of stuck in there. You think you're stuck? Yeah. The Aussies they didn't have any problems. A cold beer. So there will be other guides also on this hike through so you won't be the only group. Our guide pointed in the direction we were supposed to go and just said to go which I prefer. So that wraps up our cruise on Halong Bay. What were your thoughts? Well you know I think it's fantastic. I think it's a great deal. They feed you. If you're catching a theme here everything's included with that final cost except for your drinks. Yeah so yeah if you drink a lot then then you might have a little bit at the end there but we're probably gonna I don't know we had some beers. We're probably looking at maybe 20 bucks so it really wasn't bad. Yeah I would highly recommend doing the cruise. We really appreciated the two nights because I just think that by the time you get settled on the boat and not having that next day to fully enjoy it might have felt a little rushed especially because they do try and put a lot into the time that you're doing it. Yeah they're very well organized very polite. Double thumbs up for the boat. Cheers.