Doris Cruise

It was great

The care and attention of the staff really elevated this experience. Katie and all the the other staff working April 26-28 were phenomenal.

I have given Doris Cruise a 1 star but this is not reflective of the majority of staff, as they do their absolute best despite working horrendously long hours for very little pay. I would not recommend this cruise to anyone, unless you want very poor value for money. The price of drinks on board is ridiculously high, and it's not as though they're in the middle of an ocean miles from land. Tea and coffee is supposed to be provided free of charge in the cabin but getting a replenishment of supplies over and above the single serve each is impossible, which was clearly an attempt to get you to buy it in the bar/restaurant. Food ran out, to the extent that there was no butter for breakfast on our 2nd morning. The itinerary was not as advertised and when I complained about this following our cruise and said I planned to post a bad review, they asked me to wait 24 hours for them to respond. In that 24 hours they updated their website and as I'd stupidly not taken screenshots in advance, I then had no evidence. Doris Cruises then stopped replying to me, despite saying that they wanted to remedy my complaint! Yes, the scenery is stunning but the cruise is not worth the money we paid. A much better experience and the opportunity to see far more of Cat Ba island could be had by taking a day cruise and staying on the island itself. I only wish that I'd known this before as I could have saved a lot of money.

Horrible stay in the Executive Cabin (was supposed to be higher comfort, and was 180° opposite). The pipe with deadly diesel fumes is located exactly (!) behind the terrace. You can't breathe, can't switch to air conditioning as the air inlet is also located on the terrace. When next night we changed to another (lower class) it was ok. But we still do not recommend the experience. The fumes, even if not in a cabin, surround the cruise and fill the whole bay (there are numerous ships parking next to each other overnight)

Good. kindly staffs.

Our trip with Doris Cruise Line was amazing. Everything was flawless from start to finish. The communication was extremely easy for pickup and drop off. The bus was right on time and picked us up right outside our hotel. The bus was extremely comfortable and quick. From there the tender from the pier to the boat was quick and easy. The staff was extremely inviting and enthusiastic. The food during our stay was excellent. There was a wide variety for all appetites. Our room was fantastic and the views from the balcony were surreal. The entire boat was clean top to bottom. The location the cruise went to was very secluded during the day. We were worried about this because many travel blogs and forums said the Ha Long Bay cruises are over crowded with ships and not worth it. The Doris cruise was not like this at all. We spent a lot of time searching for a cruise and there were many to choose from. Don’t think any more, JUST BOOK IT!

A fantastic stay and a fantastic trip. Would highly recommend. Thank you

We absolutely loved our time on Doris. The staff were incredibly welcoming and helpful. Brian was a character, making mango daiquiri on request. Michael was incredibly helpful and was able to tell us a lot about the wildlife in the area. The food was amazing (sometimes a bit more than needed) and all of the days trips were great. Glad we did the 2 night cruise.

Honeymoon suite was incredible, huge and beautiful, very large outdoor private terrace (though semi overlooked by next door). Great experience, though would have liked more time cruising (we had a 45 minute tender boat transfer) and as all these cruises, tried to pack too much activity into a short time and sadly even Lan Ha Bay was busy with lots of rubbish in the water. Food was good including lots of vegetarian options. Overall very good.

Fabulous staff, wonderful trip. Tat was a great host, very sweet. Our butler Annie was lovely. The room was tired and really need updating however the private balcony was great! The most disappointing thing was the spa. It wasn’t accessible via the top deck bar area and you can’t see anything when sitting in the spa. Also on day 2 it was green!! Awful, we didn’t go in on day 2. Good on the buffet each meal was really good. The day trip to the village was great!

Service was simply amazing. Crew members are very friendly and helpful. The only thing that frustrated me during my stay was roaches. They were on the ship, and also in my room. We caught 3 little ones in our room on day 1. Cruise management has to take action before the infestation gets worse.

The experience 100% worth it , the room may need improvement, specially with the smell

The Doris is AMAZING! We felt well taken care of, from pickup to dropoff. We actually wished we would have booked two nights instead of one. The food is very good and caters to Western tastes while also offering local options. The activities were engaging, the staff were pleasant and all spoke good English. The rooms (and especially bathroom!) are very well sized for a boat room, and very comfortable. The boat itself is well kept, and has amenities like a hot tub. Balconies on this boat are very private, you don't get somebody else just behind a thin wall. Our complaints were very minor, like spa treatments only being offered in room without linen/pillow replacements, or the front desk not being staffed in the early morning. Overall, we would be happy to undertake another journey with Doris Cruise and fully recommend them.

Had a wonderful experience with Doris cruise!! Cruise ship was clean and spacious. Food was great, had lots of meals for a one night cruise. The staff service was excellent especially Mia. There was a lot of things planned for guests if they wanted to go on excursions or activities as well! Highly recommend!

Staff were very friendly and organized. Activities were fun but wish there was something other than squid fishing at night as it was not in season and you were not going to catch anything. Food was good but not a lot of variety.

Lovely boat and lovely crew as well! There are some others like Elite which look a bit more modern but this has a nice colonial feel. Also, it’s not as big so make sure where your room is for the noise.

Cruise was ok though the choice of food poor considering we told them I don't like seafood. There was NO entertainment we could hear the other cruises with karaoke and we had nothing on the 2nd night the crew had packed up by 8pm and we asked them to put the chair covers back so we could sit up top which they did. We felt like we were keeping them from their own party which was in the tender boat. We found that at the end there was alot of confusion on paying the bill and we ended up having to pay 3 separate bills which is unacceptable. It should have been put into 1 bill as we are unsure if we got charged double with all the confusion. So if you like no entertainment I guess it's ok

We had a fantastic time on Doris Cruise. Family friendly. The staff were very helpful and gave great service. Highly recommend.

This was meant to be the highlight of our 6 week Vietnam trip but it was really disappointing. It seemed Amazing first off, but soon we realised it definitely was not 5 stars. Our room had cockroaches in and we had to change rooms twice so that we could sleep without being covered in bugs. Due to having to move rooms twice, the second time at 2am, we missed the excursion on the last day which we really wanted to go on, but everything starts so early that you can’t really get good sleep and go out on the excursions. The food on the buffet on the first night wasn’t great. Also I wouldn’t bother booking the transfer back to Hanoi with Doris cruise- we got dropped off on a random busy road 1.5 hours away from our hotel instead of the Pan Pacific which we paid for! The crew were brilliant though. I would not choose this cruise again.

Bad service