Alisa Premier Cruise

You board around half past twelve and you have to be off by eleven the next morning. One guest sat down and counted the hours: about twenty-two and a half on board, which is not the two days the trip is sold as. Another counted the sailing rather than the hours and put it at roughly forty-five minutes of movement, taken over lunch, before the boat tied up for the night alongside a great many others. Neither of those is a complaint about Alisa specifically. It is what an overnight on this side of the water is, and it is the thing to understand before anything else on this page.

A two-star reviewer set the distinction out better than the operators do. One-night boats split into two kinds: those that anchor in Ha Long Bay itself, near the Sung Sot caves, and those that carry on through and spend the night in Lan Ha. Alisa is the first kind: on the operator’s timetable both stops of the first afternoon, Sung Sot and Luon Cave, are in the Ha Long channel. The Ha Long anchorage is the busy one. If the point of the trip is quiet water, read how the three bays differ and then decide whether you want this bay at all.

What does an Alisa Premier cabin cost?

From about $155 each for two sharing on the one-night trip. Origin Vietnam’s cabin table, read on 6 August 2026, has a Junior Suite at $309 a night for two, a Senior Suite Balcony at $319 and a Royal Suite VIP at $429. The three-day trip on the same table is $618, $638 and $857 a cabin for the whole trip.

The operator’s own cabin pages, read on 14 October 2026, print “starting from” prices per room per night that sit $1 to $11 above the agency’s: $310 for a Junior Suite, $322 for a Senior Suite, $440 for a Royal Suite VIP, $480 for a Triple Suite and $680 for the Family Connecting Suite. Drinks and the limousine from Hanoi are extra; agencies quoted the round trip at $30 to $32 a person in August 2026. Ask for a total per cabin that includes the transfer and get it in writing. A guest who booked a package through a third-party platform did not know which boat it was until the dock, and another had a reservation cancelled the day before departure with slow replies while it was sorted out.

What is the Alisa Premier like on board?

A 22-cabin steel boat on four decks, counting the sun deck, launched in 2017. The Junior and Senior Suites are 20 to 22 m², which is a modest room; the Royal Suite VIP runs to 30 to 35 m², and the Family Connecting Suite joins two rooms into 44 to 46 m². Guests describe the cabins as clean and roomy, and both things can be true on a boat where the fittings are kept in good order.

The balcony is the detail to check. Every class has a private balcony except the Junior Suite, whose balcony is shared, so pay the $12 a night more on the operator’s prices for a Senior Suite if you want your own. The jacuzzi on this boat is a jacuzzi bathtub, fitted in the Senior and Royal suites. The swimming pool is seasonal. There is also a spa and a fitness room, and kayaking and the bamboo boat are part of the fare. One guest called it the most beautiful boat they had seen in the bay, and another found it a good boat to walk around.

What do guests complain about?

The recurring specifics are small and fixable, and they recur anyway. Wifi is advertised and several guests found it barely worked. A television that came and went. An air-conditioning unit dripping water and a bath that had not been cleaned properly. Items brought by the crew on request that turned out to be chargeable once they had been eaten, which is worth asking about at the time rather than at checkout. Set against that, the four- and three-star reviews are the most useful ones to read: more than one says directly that this is not a five-star ship by European or American measure, that the food is plentiful rather than refined, and that knowing so in advance is the difference between a good trip and a sour one.

Where does the Alisa Premier go, and when?

The one-night trip stays in the Ha Long channel. You board by tender from the Alisa lounge at Dock No 16, Tuan Chau Marina, and the operator’s welcome on board is at 12:30. Sung Sot Cave comes at 14:30 and Luon Cave at 15:30, by kayak or rowed bamboo boat, then a cooking class and sunset party from 18:00. On the second morning you swim or climb at Titop Island from 07:30, give up the cabin at 09:45 and are ashore at 11:00 after brunch. The operator’s van from Hanoi collects from Old Quarter hotels between 08:00 and 08:15 and leaves the marina again at 12:00.

The three-day version adds a middle day on a smaller day boat: past the Face Stone and Horse Mountain rocks, kayaking around Trinh Nu and Trong caves, lunch on board and a swim at Ba Trai Dao beach. Me Cung Cave or a pearl farm comes last, before you are back on the Alisa at 15:00. If the authorities close the bay before you leave Hanoi, the operator changes the date or refunds in full; once you are on the road it charges only for what you have used.

Who it suits

People who want the Ha Long side, who are booking the three-day version, and who have read enough to know that a night on this water is spent at anchor. On that footing it holds its own in Ha Long Bay against the rest of the luxury list.

Who should look elsewhere

Anyone booking the one-night trip expecting to sail. The same goes for anyone whose plans might move: on bookings of fewer than seven cabins, the operator keeps half the fare from 30 days out and all of it inside 15 days. If the budget is the deciding factor, the best-value list has the other boats in this price band.

Where these facts come from

The pier, the timetable, both programmes, the cabin classes and sizes, the starting prices and the cancellation terms are from alisapremiercruises.com, read on 14 October 2026; two agencies name the same pier and three give the 22 cabins. The 2017 launch and the steel hull are from agency listings read on 6 August 2026, as is the Origin Vietnam cabin table. Guest remarks are from Google reviews collected in August 2026.