Passenger Feedback

This trip exceeded my high expectations the crew were always accessible, sensitive to our needs and wishes, but not subservient. the food was outstanding, with lots of choices-- and the soups Aah! I liked the amount of advance information we were given. The picnic on the beach was great! (though I was sorry that all the food was pre-cooked)I needed to see a doctor in Luang Prabang, and Sy arranged the whole thing and accompanied me-- thank you. The cabins were well designed, so we had everything we needed, and like the rest of the ship, were visually attractive. Some designer put a lot of effort into this. I really enjoyed the trips to the villages, though sometimes I felt a bit like an invader, coming into people's lives without giving anything in return. A couple of suggestions where there is a village store, invite Pandaw passengers to stop there and see if they want to buy something and in villages where there is a school, either Pandaw or guests could contribute notebooks, pencils, or Lao books from Big Brother Mouse. The only excursions that were too long were to the waterfall with the trapped bears bears, then water, butterflies and the buffalo farm, with a lot of walking in between. Maybe skip the butterfly exhibit, which you can see in many other places. Also the long walk around the streets of the large litter-filled town of -- I believe it was Pak Lay? without interaction, seemed pointless. I am so glad I went on this trip through Laos-- thank you

Minor issues. Excursions were to interesting villages/sights but guides spent too long talking after arrival. Would prefer the daily schedule and more detailed excursion information in a digital format to download on phone -- more handy and more detailed than paper schedule. Time to upgrade to more current technology for the younger passengers (shared google maps of route with embedded links to sites, QR code on schedule to download, group WhatsApp for cruise info etc). Would like more free time on excursions to explore and walk around to get some exercise. Movies were good choices but would have been better on a modern big screen TV rather than by projector. All in all -- trip was excellent and I will definitely use Pandaw again, very impressive customer service. Great concept.

Cabin was splendid, particularly loved the shower which was easy to use, very spacious, with hand rail & soap dish fixed to wall. All things often missing in hotel rooms etc. I missed off one star for the cabin though as I found the mattress a bit hard & gave me some backache. The food on board was nice, & I was very impressed by hygiene standards, plus dining, cooking & kitchen staff were all excellent. However, I did feel that the food overall lacked much variety & spectacle as one might expect from a premium company like Pandaw. There were of course a few stand out dishes such as huge prawns, a duck dish, and a rack of lamb dish. But I would have expected more special food moments particularly with starters and desserts. Starters were often just salad or watery soup, and desserts mostly fruit. My last Pandaw cruise was in 2015 & I recall the food being a great highlight with lots of quality, variety & spectacle! Hopefully that standard can be followed again in future Pandaw cruises. Finally, I would just like to add that without doubt Pandaw's greatest asset is its tremendous crew members.

All the crew were outstanding and worked hard as a team to make sure we had an excellent time. I was very impressed with the docking team and their kindness to our passengers who had some mobility concerns. Sey our purser helped everywhere, all the time. Service was professional and friendly. Food was good and occasionally very good especially curry and good diversity of dinner desserts. Menus need more balance some days were all fish and all fried. Love the alternative chicken, but too many hard to eat chicken wings. Soups were very good especially coconut based. Too much food served and seemed to be wasted, made me feel very sad with such poverty in Laos. I was glad to see beach BBQ left over skewers given the next day to village kids. The boat is lovely and housekeeping excellent! James Talbot in operations was excellent in answering all questions, very promptly. Overall we loved this cruise and the wonderful service by all Pandaw crew members. While onboard, I wrote an article about the Pandaw Laos experience, which will probably be published in Porthole Magazine in the next 4 months.

Just a pity about not being able to join the ship at Vientiane, but the substitute arrangements worked ok. Although my wife and I were fit enough for the strenuous climbs from the ship to the villages, the caves and Luang Prabang, many fellow passengers struggled and constantly had to be assisted by the crew, so perhaps more accurate rating of the degree of difficulty may be helpful for some. Having had a week beforehand in Thailand, we appreciated the laundry service on board. Overall, we loved this trip, even more than our previous one on the Chindwin - Pandaw clearly has a winning formula. Laos is a beautiful country and I think Luang Prabang is now our favourite Far East city!

Having now completed seven different cruises with PANDAW, we were happy with this one as well. The ship was gorgeous as usual and the food was always delicious and variable. We found the Ganges part of the cruise less interesting than most others because of the lack of river traffic and the distance to the shore. Additionally, the excursions were generally interesting and informative, but we have no outstanding and spectacularly memorable experiences. All in all, if some of our friends and family wanted to partake the first time on a PANDAW cruise, we would recommend the Angkor Wat trip or the Laos route which we much enjoyed. Plus of course all the Myanmar cruises which we loved very much as well, but are currently out of the question of course. How sad this is for you as well as us! We wish you all the best for the future, however, and keep our fingers crossed for you always! Many thanks!!