I don't know how you would get the visa, but I do know why you don't need one when you're with a group, especially on a ship. When my daughter and I cruised Southeast Asia with Royal Caribbean 3 years ago, we were told we didn't need to get a visa for Vietnam. The cruise line gets a type of visa that covers all the passengers. The only thing I didn't like was that we had to leave our passports on board in case they needed to be checked while we were gone on our tours.

Actually, we didn't go on a tour, but just walked around the seaport town that we were ferried to from the ship way out in the shallow harbor (took almost an hour!). So we didn't need a visa even with not going on a tour. So you might want to check that out if you go with a company that gets one visa that covers everyone.

Regards,

Diana San Diego, California