Halong Bay boat Tour 4 hours from Halong city

Ha Long Bay was gorgeous! We enjoyed the tour and the beautiful scenery. However, the experience leading up to getting on the boat was quite an ordeal. I booked a boat cruise in Ha Long Bay as shore excursion when our cruise ship embarked there for a day. When I talked with a representative at Viator on the phone, I was told that there were 2 4-hour boat cruises to choose from and we would be taking the morning boat cruise so that we would make it back to our ship on time for departure. After I paid, I got a confirmation in my email. However, there’s no time specified on it. I was told to contact tour operator for details. I tried various ways to contact tour operator but couldn’t get a confirmed meeting time. On the day before our scheduled tour, I received an email from Viator that we were boarding an afternoon boat cruise. On the morning when our ship embarked at Ha Long Bay, I called the operator and told them that our ship was at the port but still awaiting permission to leave. I just wanted to make sure that they waited for us but I was told that the boat cruise was leaving soon and it’s suggested that we took the afternoon cruise. We knew that we wouldn’t be able to make it back to the ship with the afternoon cruise. I insisted that they waited while rushing to the meeting place as soon as we were allowed to leave the ship. It was quite an ordeal to say the least. I’ll never book another tour with Viator.

The tour itself is great and the views are amazing! However the organizational side of the trip could be improved, as almost 1 hour of this 4 hour tour is spent sitting in the port cafe place where tour operator is calculating people, double checking the lists and buying tickets for the places to be visited during the tour.