Two European cruise ships with a total of 3,755 international passengers aboard docked at the Ha Long international passenger port in Quang Ninh Province, northern Vietnam on the last day of 2023 to welcome New Year’s Eve and start their voyage in the country. 

One of the luxury cruise ships was the Portuguese-flagged cruise liner Vasco Da Gama, which carried 711 travelers, most of them Germans, and 410 crew members to the Ha Long port for the first time on Sunday morning, according to the port authority.

The passengers aboard the Vasco De Gama were scheduled to visit the capital city of Hanoi and Hai Phong’s Cat Ba Island before returning to Quang Ninh to visit Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The second cruise ship was the Celebrity Solstice from Malta, an island country in the Mediterranean Sea, which hosted 3,044 tourists from different countries, including the UK, the U.S., Canada, China, and others, as well as a crew of 1,183 members.

This was the fifth time that this cruise ship had brought international visitors to Ha Long in 2023.

Travelers aboard the Celebrity Solstice were scheduled to tour Ha Long City, enjoy Ha Long Bay from above by hydroplane, and spend nights on tourist boats in the bay.

Their itinerary includes a sightseeing trip to Hanoi.

VTV News cited Anna De La Torre, an American tourist, as saying that she was happy to visit Ha Long City and experience the bustling atmosphere of the New Year. 

Menachee, a traveler from Mexico, said he was really impressed with the beauty of Ha Long City, where there are friendly residents and an excellent gastronomy scene.

The Quang Ninh Province Department of Tourism held an official welcome ceremony on Monday morning for both ships and offered flowers to the first international visitors to the province on the first day of 2024.

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