In Reply to: VOUCHERS posted by JAB on Tuesday, 9. November 2004 at 20:36 Bali Time:
Hiya,
I have heard great things about the Island Cruise from other travellers, so I reckon you probably can't go wrong with either.
I didn't go on the Island cruise, but in June went on the Sunset Dinner Cruise. I went by myself which turned out not to be the best idea - it was definitely a couple's/group environment.
Usually I love to travel alone, my passion is getting to know the locals and meeting other travellers, but for some reason, travelling alone on this cruise felt really out of place and it wasn't the right atmosphere to just start talking to people. I felt myself wishing that I had gone with a group but I still made the most of it.
I sat on a table with a 3 Japanese tourists who couldn't speak English and we spent some of the time pointing to things, smiling, and taking photos of each other. Everyone had a good time (including myself). The groups definitely had the best time, it's very much catered for big groups of friends/family.
I expected (and wanted) some local food, but the food was a selection of Western and Japanese, rice, beans, potatoes, chicken curry, chinese beef, roasted pepper salad, olives, salads, etc. Safe ordinary "just-like-home" food :)
The entertainment was awesome. There was a singer who really knew how to work the crowd, she sung both English and Japanese songs, she was fantastic and I really admired her and enjoyed her music. There was some cabaret dancers who danced and mimed, one of them was so funny - she had the knack of making everyone on the ship laugh hysterically. Upstairs there was some guys playing the guitar with big sombrero's.
We didn't get to see the sunset, it was a bit cold that night so everyone was inside, and although you can see the view from inside, no sunset was to be seen that night :)
I would definitely recommend the dinner cruise to anyone as long as they are going with someone or with a group, and will definitely do it again (but not alone). If you have the time, maybe you can go on both as it wasn't too expensive, I didn't get any special deal and paid the full price which was AUD$60/USD$40 including the 30min drive there and back, you can negotiate cheaper when you know how...it was my 2nd day in Bali and I was HOPELESS at bargaining :)
Kind Regards,
Ches