CTGirl

Welcome to the Viking China threadzilla! :)

 

We did Imperial Jewels last year. I have a Nikon D7000 with an 18-200mm lens. It's a fairly heavy lens, but I consider it a good walking around lens that obviates the need to change lenses a lot, which is important to me on trips like this. It was fine in China. There was one brief (and I mean brief) moment along the lesser Gorges when we spotted rhesus monkeys, and it would have been nice to have a longer lens. But those little guys were so quick, if you didn't by chance happen to have your camera pointed at exactly the right spot on the shore, you would have missed them.

 

I think for this trip, considering the weight, 400mm would be overkill, and you'll be okay with 300mm. There's a great deal of walking, particularly in Beijing, and you'd be schlepping the gear up the Great Wall and through a lot of airports. Only you can decide whether it's worth it to carry that weight, but this isn't a wildlife trip.

 

I'd be more concerned that your DSLR has no wide angle (unless you have another lens that you haven't mentioned). Not sure you are aware, but Nikon makes a 28-300mm lens; FX but can be used on a DX camera. (Not sure about the compatiblity with your camera//ability to autofocus.) Just throwing that out there....

Thanks for you comments. I also carry with me a little Nikon p&s. I use it for all my regular pictures and I use the D70 when I want close ups. The p&s takes very good pictures. I will often take the same picture using both cameras, one with more of a vista and the other a close up version. It can be very dramatic.

 

The one thing I really like about the p&s is that it is a bit older and uses AA batteries instead of the rechargeable kind. I get the Everready lithiums and they work very well.

 

I may also take (per peoples suggestions) my little underwater Olympus. That one does the panoramics as well. What I don't like about it is that it goes through a charge very quickly. It is my second Olympus underwater. The first one went through a charge pretty fast too. I just use it for snorkeling but it sounds like a good idea to take it in case of rain.

I would think that the 300 is sufficient.

 

Does it zoom down to 28?

Thanks. No it zooms from 70 to 300. My little Nikon p&s goes from 6.3 to 31.4. It has a 5x opticl zoom.

Hi Everyone,

 

It's my first time posting here. It took me three days to read the whole thread. We are booked on the April 14, 2013 Imperial Jewels, Beijiing to Shanghai with the Hong Kong extension. This will be our first river cruise but not our first cruise. There has been so much useful information here. Thank you all. I noticed a lot of discussion about cameras. One of my cameras is a Nikon D70, the other is a little Nikon p&s. I normally keep a lens on my D70 that zooms to 400. It is a very big and heavy lens. I also have a lens that zooms to 300. I would love to hear from all you camera buffs your opinion on which lens to take. I'm thinking the 400 would be too big and bulky. I use it for wildlife photos. I don't know if there will be much wildlife. So I am leaning towards the 300. All opinions are welcome. Thanks Shelly

DH and I are currently onboard the Island Princess and participated in the Princess Pop Choir that performed in the Atrium yesterday. This new Princess activity is great fun, so I'd like to share some information about the experience.

 

In preparation for our afternoon performance on a sea day, there were three rehearsals. Our instructor was Joe Sackenheim who is one of the lead vocalists onboard. Joe is charismatic, energetic, and very supportive of the passengers who opted to participate in the Pop Choir. We lost a few passengers after the first and second rehearsals but ended up with a group of 15, mostly women.

 

We received "scripts" with the lyrics for six selections that included: Oh, What A Night, Waterloo, Isn't She Lovely, It's Not Unusual, We Are the Champions, and Sweet Caroline. Joe coached our singing and taught simple choreography for each song. We were asked to wear black/white attire for our performance that was attended by about 100 passengers on various levels of the Atrium.

 

Whether you are a polished vocalist or sing in the shower, have had years of ballet training or two left feet, you will have enjoy participating in Princess Pop Choir. The program will soon be offered fleetwide, and musical selections will be rotated approximately every six months.

 

"Glee"fully yours,

Chris and Mike in Michigan

We did this on the January 9th cruise on the Island. Unfortunately, I developed laryngitis so I could not perform but my DG did. It was a lot of fun and Joe was great. We also did this on the Royal in November. We really enjoyed it.

My favorite is the bathrobes our cabin steward gave to us on our second Princess cruise. We had won a couple of bottles of champagne and we don't drink much so we asked our steward if there was someone she was responsible for that was celebrating an event. We gave the champagne to them. Our steward thought that was nice of us so she told us to keep the robes.

 

My most useful souvenir are the bungee cords they give out at the casinos. We use them for our room keys. You never have to take them off your neck when leaving or coming back on ship because the cord stretches.

Hi Gixer,

I'm curious if the Rockhoppers have left already. We had been contemplating a tour to see them but switched to Bluff Cove instead. I'm just wondering if we made a good decision.

Thanks, Shelly

Gixer,

 

After reading through the entire thread, we are going to email Patrick Watts about a Volunteer Point tour on April 3, 2008. We're on the March 30th sailing of Star Princess out of Buenos Aires.

 

I greatly appreciate your generous attention to responding to everyone's questions. The information was invaluable.

Hi Babydoc, I don't know if you have come to this thread recently but if you do and you read this.... I am on the Star on March 30 as well. We have a really nice Roll Call going on. Here is the link if you want to join us. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=380318. I noticed you are from Connecticut. I am too. What town do you live in?

Shelly

Hi Gixer,

I just got done reading this thread. Thank you for all the wonderful information and the beautiful pictures. I am on the Star Princess at the end of March (we will be in the Falklands on April 3rd). I'm curious about the Rockhopper Penquin tour. I didn't find much mention of it in the thread. Is it a good tour or are the others such as Bluff Cove or Sparrow Point better? I'd appreciate your views.

Thanks Shelly