Halong Bay 3 Days - 2 Nights with La Regina Legend Cruise 5 Star

First and foremost I state that the staff are amazing on this cruise, the rooms are beautiful and the food is very good. Upon arrival at the port it was chaos, there was no instruction on where to go or what to do. They had people leaving boats in the same area as people arriving to board the boats. Our bags were loaded by the crew and We finally boarded a speed boat to get to the big boat. We were greeted aboard by the sound of drums and a welcome drink. We sat down to a set menu 5 course lunch, the staff were very attentive. After lunch we settled in our cabin for a bit of relaxation, we were not interested in doing any of the excursions, all we wanted was to relax. In the evening we had a BBQ dinner with music, it was Christmas Eve and they made it very special. Now here is where a few negatives come into play. Since the first lunch everything else was buffet style. I don't mind a buffet breakfast and lunch, however, for the price you pay we feel that a sit down meal, served to you is warranted. The price of drinks is very expensive, and the price of a massage is more expensive than we pay in Australia. On the day of coming home our bags were loaded by the crew. This time however, it was not the speed boat that took us back, it was a smelly diesel tender that had seen better days. Once back at port, our bags were put on the dock and we had to carry them ourselves. The feeling that we got at that point was that they had gotten our money so service no longer mattered. All in all the staff and scenery make the cruise worth while, but don't expect everything that is the brochure to happen. As an aside there was no entertainment at all on our second night which was very dissapointing.