Arriving at midnight to BKK and have 5 nights before getting on a princess cruise. Would love suggestions on what to do and how to do it. How to work our way to ship.

First, you need to check if your ship is really docked in Bangkok, or Laem Chabang. The larger cruise ships use the deep water port at Laem Chabang, which is close to Pattaya, about 2 hours from Bangkok. You'll definitely want to use a limo service - or the cruise line's own transfer service - to get to Laem Chabang. That might not be a bad idea for Bangkok's port as well, since most taxi drivers probably don't know it.

IF you do a search here, you'll find lots of ideas on what to do in Bangkok.

Princess has a land tour to Siem Reap for Angkor Wat......great spa hotel at the Westin in Chiang Mai..book thru a much less expensive Thai travel agency!! Am leaving on Princess out of BKK as well on Nov 23rd...Happy Travels

guess one of the first things to do is to pick a bkk hotel...most of us prefer the river locations...depending on how much you want to spend there is the oriental at the top of the range, followed by the peninsula (my upscale choice), then the shangri-la, then the hilton, then the royal orchid sheraton (ugh) and the marriott resort and spa, my overall favorite for many reasons...

you probably also want to hire a guide/driver for a few days in bkk if you are unfamiliar with it...they may also transport you to the ship...cherry, tong and ratt are the ones most often suggested here....i have used them all and love each one of them...they all book up fast...

make a few of these decisions and then come back to us with SPECIFIC questions

many thanks to all of you !

bocadoll, just curious, how did you know i was leaving nov 23 ? would love to share more info on cruise and tours etc

riverside area looks best suited to us too. anybody know about a place to stay 1st night at airport ? also ship leaves from laem chabang. would pattya beach area be a good place to stop w/o shopping or nightlife ? would it be worth an overnight ?

pattaya can be quite nice away from the downtown area...

take a look at the sheraton it is fabulous...

anybody familiar with travel bound for hotels and tours ? or welcome inn sawaseed Bangkok ?

thanks rhkkmk !

i see easy hotels (easy cruise/jet) uses the exact same tours and hotels (exact wording) as travelbound and is cheaper. anybody tried them ?

If you just want to book a hotel, try www.sawasdee.com a Thai booking service many of us use. Depending on which hotel you choose, the hotel's own website sometimes has better deals.

I would not bother staying around airport area, stick with your riverside hotel if you decide on Bangkok.
As Bob says Pattaya is very close to the port, some good places as suggested the Sheraton, also the Royal Cliff, Dusit etc.

Depends really whether you want to see Bangkok or you just want to relax, though of couse you do have 5 days so enough time.

Depending on traffic you can make port Laem Chabang very fast to/from Pattaya but it's only a couple of hours into Bangkok also.

http://www.imagelimo.com/ are a good Limo service for Laem Chabang and to/from Bangkok or Pattaya/Jomtien area. If you are into Golf there are also Golf Courses within easy reach of Pattaya area if that appeals at all.
http://www.imagelimo.com/golf.htm

thanks so much james and kathy !

on the way from Bangkok to Laem Chabang, is there anything else worthy of a stop besides Pattya ? and what is there to do there?

what about Ko Lan ?

and thanks all for being so helpful !