Ship of horrors: Aussie traveller’s nightmare cruise in Vietnam
When Lynne Ryan booked what appeared to be a dream holiday experience, she never expected how utterly different the reality would be compared to the glossy brochure of a luxurious cruise ship.
The Australian traveller booked a cruise for six people on Halong Bay, Vietnam, with a local travel agent last week. The group paid $100 per person for the two-day experience with Gala Cruises.
But what the group actually found on board the Hoang Phuong ship was shockingly different to expectations.
Lynne took to Facebook to warn others, labelling her experience: “Horror trip, Halong Bay”.
She wrote: “I was shown a glossy brochure with a beautiful boat with lovely rooms and dining room.
“Day of trip arrived. A 20 seater bus arrived to collect us. We all spread out and thought this is OK.”
According to Lynne, the bus stopped at another hotel and picked up 14 “very loud” fellow Australians, then they continued on the three-hour trip.
She continued: “We parted with our travelling companions as they were only doing a day trip. Was escorted to a junk boat thought this one was taking us to the one that we saw in the brochure. No way hosay, this was our boat.
“Where do I start? Our first room had two beds with about 8 inches (20cm) between them. Hard as a rock. Guide explained that air conditioning would be turned on at 8pm but hang on a minute the air con in this room broke last night.
“Let’s move you to another room. Has air con but no cover on it same amount of room between beds.
“Off to the bathroom when you wash your hands the water goes on your feet as the pipe isn’t sealed.
“We did fare better than our friends, one room had a broken toilet and door. Toilet was blocked as well. The others had one single bed and a half a bed in their room.
“Enjoyed the food and kayaking around the caves.
“Sun decks on the top of boat had wood borers and were falling to pieces.
“When it came time for bed none of the air cons were working. After a lot of mucking around finally got them going. We were lucky for most of the night as ours wasn’t set to low. Others froze all night we cooked from 4am onwards as they turned them off.
“Friends had a furry friend in their room (a rat). Came in through a whole above the window and proceeded to wander around their room. Lots of yelling and screaming. Saw his mate outside the rooms.
“Woke up to find rat poo on their stuff.
“After a horrific night we woke went to breakfast. Slight problem bread was mouldy. Oh well noodles instead.
“I realise that we didn’t pay much money but would have paid more if we weren’t lied to.”
Lynne says that when she complained to the travel agency, they “had all the excused in the world”. However, the group did receive a $30 refund between the six of them from the Spring Travel Agency.
“Seems funny now a week later, but (it) was nightmare at the time,” she said.