visa for a cruise passenger

Honestly speaking, the situation with Nansha port that you will use when you arrive to explore Guangzhou is still is some kind of an undefined status regarding visa free transit rule. According to the strict interpretations you would have to obtain a Chinese visa in advance, but also according to recent first hand experiences, the cruise companies have done an agreement with Nansha port authorities to allow the issuing of temporary entry permits to the travelers on cruises, effectively recognizing them to be eligible for 24 hour visa free transit. Again, hundreds of cruise travelers have been able to enjoy a temporary entry permit so far and it appears that this will be defined also through the formal regulations regarding the eligibility of Nansha port for 24 hour visa free transit.

As you can see, I cannot guarantee to you that you really don't need a visa looking at strict visa free transit rules interpretations, but the practice by Nansha port authorities strongly indicates that the visa is not necessary if your itinerary looks like:

Country A - Nansha port (Country B = China) - Country C (within visa free transit Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau are considered as separate countries)

Or with the names

Vietnam - Nansha (China) - Hong Kong

I understand that you didn't receive a definite answer, but I encourage you to direct this question also to the cruise provider although they usually run away from any responsibility and will tell you that the visa subject is your responsibility and also they will plainly tell you that you need visa and it could easily turn out that you really didn't need one.

I would suggest you to wait for a month or two and to appear here again and hopefully, we will have a definite answer to this question until then.