Questions about changing boat during a Halong Bay cruise trip

Question 1: I heard people talk about changing boat when they are on Halong Bay cruise tours. Is it real?

Changing boat does be applied in many junk tours when you visit Halong Bay, but just in 3 days 2 nights itinerary. Guests will be transferred to an excursion cruise, a smaller cruise, after having breakfast, and return back to big cruise (a different one than your first cruise, your luggage will be transferred also) before dinner time. This cruise will drive you to visit some islands, floating village for kayaking, swimming, or trekking and cycling if you visit Cat Ba Island. You will enjoy lunch on excursion cruise, or if you go with nice cruises like Signature, you have chance to have lunch on beach.

Question 2: Why do cruise operators do this?

There are some reasons. First, big cruise cannot go direct to shallow water areas, so you will go to most attractions by tender boat or excursion cruise. Second, to be honest, as there are less guests going for 3 days 2 nights than 2 days 1 night, the cruise operators combine 3 days 2 nights guests from different vessels of the fleet to accommodate them in a same boat from the second night of the trip. This arrangement allows the companies to save expenses and suitable for small operators who have not many boats in the fleet.