Stellar of the Seas Cruise

Stellar of the Seas is priced from the operator’s own tariff, and the cheapest room on the one-night trip is $732 for a couple: $366 each for two sharing, on the Aclass Cruises tariff page read on 8 October 2026 and unchanged on 14 October. She boards at Tuan Chau Marina by speedboat and spends the night in Lan Ha Bay. The operator bills her as a five-star cruise.

Aclass Cruises Group also runs Elite of the Seas; the two boats’ websites give the same Hanoi head office, the same hotline and the same representative office in North Sydney. Stellar is the smaller of the two: a steel, double-hulled boat of 65 metres, launched in November 2018, with 22 suites for up to 62 guests over four decks, and a basement for the wine cellar, the kitchen and the crew.

Which suite should you book?

The Junior Suite, which is the figure we would budget from. Every suite has a private balcony or a sun terrace. These are the operator’s prices per cabin for two, with sizes, counts and decks from its suite pages.

The same tariff prices the whole boat for charter at $18,711 a night, and prints a column for one person travelling alone, from $477 for a Junior Suite to $1,326 for the President. That is about two-thirds of the double rate. An extra bed in a Junior Suite is $311.

Under the operator’s child policy one child under four is free, four to six pay half, seven to eleven pay 75%, and twelve and over count as adults. A suite takes two adults and two children under twelve, or three adults with an extra bed, and a baby cot is free. The operator’s cabin photograph shows a freestanding bath beside the bed, with glass running the width of the room, so ask which suites are laid out that way if you are sharing.

What does the fare include?

A lot. Every meal on the programme (a set western lunch, a barbecue dinner by the pool, a light breakfast and a Vietnamese brunch on the one-night trip), the speedboat, a welcome drink, live music, room service around the clock, refilled water, the cooking demonstration, entrance fees, tai chi, the gym, the pool, the library, a tea ceremony, kayaking, the bamboo boat, squid fishing, wifi, an English-speaking guide and insurance on board. The operator warns the wifi signal can be poor.

Drinks are the exception. Beverages and tips are extra, and paying by card adds 3%. Both critical guests paid for drinks, one of them for a cappuccino at brunch on a trip they had taken to be full board. The operator sometimes sells a free-flow drinks package at meals as a special offer, so ask whether it applies to your date.

The road from Hanoi is cheap or free. A shared limousine for up to nine adults leaves the Old Quarter between 08:15 and 08:35 and is currently free; a shared people carrier costs $10 a head each way, a private one $50 a car, and a 2025 Toyota Alphard $200 each way. What is not included covers the usual extras.

What do the critical guests say about the food?

Both critical guests land on the food. The complaint is that the menus lean European and arrive reheated rather than cooked, and one finds even the Vietnamese dishes at breakfast thin, which on this coast is a strange thing to get wrong. The other critical guest adds that the printed itineraries handed out on board disagreed with each other, that the day is built tightly around meals, including a four-course dinner that runs an hour, and that the pool was heated on a hot summer afternoon. That is not a fault, but it is not what you want in July either. Ask whether the pool is open on your dates. Both of those guests also say staff on board asked them for a good review, one with a discount on a coffee.

The four-star review is the practical one. Travelling with children, that guest found nothing on board aimed at them, a swimming slot that ended too soon, and a road transfer crowded enough that the luggage would not fit.

Where does Stellar of the Seas go?

Out of Tuan Chau and across into Lan Ha. Check in at the marina between 11:15 and 11:45; the speedboat leaves at noon and you are aboard by a quarter past. Keys come at two. The afternoon stop is Ao Ech, a lagoon where you swim and kayak. Next morning you go through Dark and Bright Cave in a rowing boat or a kayak. Keys go back by 09:45, the speedboat leaves at eleven, and the operator has you back in Hanoi soon after two.

The two-night trip adds a day on Cat Ba. A speedboat takes you to Viet Hai village, where a guide leads a bicycle ride past local houses and a farm, lunch is in a bamboo house, and there is a swim at a natural beach; the cave moves to the last morning. If you have not yet chosen between the bays, how the three differ is the page to read before this one.

Say Tuan Chau out loud to your driver twice; the harbours here are easy to confuse. The operator’s cancellation terms are simple: free more than seven days before arrival, the full fare inside seven days. If bad weather cancels the trip on the day, you are refunded in full.

Who it suits

Couples buying a named suite at a tariff price, who want a deck and a pool at the top of the Lan Ha market and who will eat what they are given. Solo travellers, who get a published single rate.

Who should look elsewhere

Anyone for whom dinner is half the holiday, and anyone travelling with children. Neither is a small objection at $366 a head; the rest of the Lan Ha boats are worth a look first.

Where these facts come from

Prices are from the Aclass tariff page for Stellar of the Seas, aclasscruises.com, read on 8 and 14 October 2026, which carries no season dates; confirm yours on the quote. The pier, the times, both programmes, the suites, the boat’s size, launch and hull, the inclusions, the transfer fares and the cancellation, child and weather terms come from stellaroftheseas.com, read on 14 October 2026; three agencies name the same pier. Guest remarks are from reviews we collected.