Victorious Cruise

The cheapest cabin on Victorious is 32 m², and $25 more a night buys a 35 m² suite with its own balcony. That is the case for booking this 36-cabin steel boat on Ha Long Bay. Guests add a second one: 97 of the 100 reviews we have collected give five stars.

How big are the cabins on Victorious?

Twenty-three of the 36 cabins measure 32 to 40 m², and the largest suite is 90 m². At the bottom are four Junior Ocean View cabins of 32 m² on the second deck, with a partial sea view and no balcony on their amenity list. Fifteen Senior Balcony Suites of 35 m² and four Elite Balcony Suites of 40 m² fill the rest of that band. Above it the sizes jump. Two Executive Terrace Suites of 75 m² and two VIP Honeymoon Suites with Terrace of 90 m² each have a jacuzzi out on the terrace, and the single VIP Ocean Suite is 80 m². Families get eight rooms: six Family Grand Suites at 83 m² and two Family Connecting Senior Suites at 70 m². One listing gives every class a bathtub.

By cabin count Victorious comes 11th of the 60 boats in our data, where the median is 22.5. A guest writing on 1 July about a weekday one-night trip counted about 24 people on board, a few families among them. The shared pool is billed as a mini pool, and only two of the 100 reviews mention it or the jacuzzi.

What do guests say about the crew?

They name them. Ten of the 19 reviews that mention the waitress Rose are written in Chinese, and several say she speaks the language. A family writing at the end of July thanked the kitchen for cooking to their kosher rules for the whole trip. Parents with a six-month-old, writing on 1 July, said William and Lisa looked after the baby while they ate dinner, and an August family found pizza and chips put out for the children at breakfast and lunch. William turns up in 16 reviews; one July reviewer noted that he speaks French, as does a colleague called Chloé. Of the 90 Victorious reviews we have sorted by topic, 82 bring up the staff.

What did guests report going wrong?

Power cuts, a flooding bathroom and building noise, all in one three-star review. A family wrote it in German on 17 May 2026, thirteen days after the earliest review we collected, having taken the three-day trip after being moved across from another boat. They counted five power cuts, which frightened their small child. The bathroom flooded whenever they showered, and the hot and cold taps were the wrong way round. Loud angle-grinder noise from building work ran through the stay, worst in the mornings. They still praised the staff, William by name.

No other review we collected, up to 11 August, mentions power cuts, flooding or building noise. We cannot tell whether the problems were fixed, so ask when you book.

The other detailed complaint concerns booking. A guest writing on 11 August said the reservations team left a twin-bed request and the transport arrangements unanswered until less than a day before departure, and raised the rating to four stars because of the crew and the food. Get the bed configuration and the pickup time confirmed in writing when you pay the deposit. A single one-star review from June gives no detail we can check.

How do the two days run?

You check in at Victorious’s lounge at Tuan Chau and board at about noon, with check-in on board at 12:30. The first stop is Luon Cave, entered by kayak or rowed bamboo boat, then Titop Island, where you either swim off the beach or hike to the viewpoint at the top. Canapés and happy hour on the sundeck fill the sunset, followed by a Vietnamese cooking class, dinner, and squid fishing for anyone still up.

Morning two opens with tai chi on the sundeck and a light breakfast before Sung Sot Cave. Check-out is at 11:00, brunch is served on the sail back to Tuan Chau, and you should be in Hanoi at around 3:30pm.

On the three-day trip the middle day moves to Lan Ha Bay on a separate day boat: kayaking at Trinh Nu and Trong caves, lunch aboard, a swim at Ba Trai Dao, then Me Cung Cave or a pearl farm. You cannot get back to Victorious or your cabin until late afternoon. Two English reviewers recommend the longer trip, one of them for that second-day excursion. Two days or three weighs up the extra night.

What does a cabin cost?

A cabin for two costs $340 to $850 for one night, or $680 to $1,670 for the whole three-day trip, on the halongbaytours.com rate sheet we read on 6 August 2026. Each figure is the highest rate that listing published, so treat it as a ceiling.

The sheet has no rate for the Family Connecting Senior Suite.

Victorious’s $340 entry cabin sits above the middle of the market. Across the 51 boats for which we hold a one-night sheet, the median cheapest cabin is $310 and the upper quartile $375, though those sheets were read on different dates from different sellers.

The second night on Victorious barely discounts. Divide the three-day price by the one-night price and every class lands between 1.95 and 2.00. Across the 46 boats with both sheets on halongbaytours.com, the seller this sheet comes from, the median ratio by boat is 1.94, so Victorious charges a little more than usual for the extra night.

What does the fare include?

Halongbaytours.com lists meals on board, entrance fees, a welcome drink and VAT as included, along with the kayak or bamboo boat, the cooking class, squid fishing, karaoke, tai chi, and bottled water, tea and coffee in the cabin. Tips, drinks and the spa are extra, as is a surcharge if 2026 tour ticket prices go up.

Whether the road transfer from Hanoi is in the price depends on the seller, and the two listings we read do not settle it, so ask. See what is not included for the rest of what can land on a cruise bill, and cancellation policies for terms, which belong to whoever sells you the cabin.

Is Victorious a good boat for families?

On the one-night trip, yes. The Family Grand Suites take four adults and one child up to 12, and one August reviewer singled out the connecting rooms. With a toddler who naps, the three-day trip is harder, because the middle day is spent on a day boat with no cabin until late afternoon. The luxury boats and family boats categories list the alternatives.

Who should pick another boat?

Anyone who books on a track record. Our reviews of Victorious start in May 2026, and the Ha Long Bay page lists boats on the same water with years of reviews behind them. Travellers after a cheap three-day trip should look elsewhere too, since the second night here costs almost as much as the first.

What we could not confirm

Nobody publishes Victorious’s length, deck count or guest capacity. Two listings date the boat to 2026, and the earliest review we collected is from 4 May 2026. Both listings put the departure at Tuan Chau; only halongbaytours.com gives an address, Lot 39, Tuan Chau International Port.

The room count for each class, the terrace jacuzzis and the mini pool rest on halongbaycruises.com alone; the clock times and the inclusions list rest on halongbaytours.com alone.

Listings that give one cabin size for this boat quote 32, 40, 75 or 90 m², two sources each. Those are four different classes, so check the square metres against the class name on your invoice.

The per-person figure listings advertise is $170 for one night, read on 7 August 2026. We could not match it on a second source, which is why the per-cabin sheet leads the price section. Of the 100 reviews, 37 are in English, and the owner has replied to none.