aamum

The ghostly walk tour(s) is done by Discover the Past Tours. I have not done the Ghostly Walk tour specifically but have done their Chinatown tour a number of times (school field trips, Chinese New Year celebrations etc.) and they are always phenomenal. The creator of the tours, John Adams, is a wealth of knowledge. He has his son working with him now too, as well as (I believe) summer students who also give tours. I don't think you can go wrong with anything Mr. Adams/Discover the Past offers.

Thanks so much for chiming in. Helpful suggestions and good to hear form someone who has gone through it already.

Thank you also rajkr74 for this great (and very timely for us!) review!

aamum.. I forgot to mention that I'm now using a cane & find it difficult to stand in one place for any length of time.. We're taking a cruise with Friends in October..

 

Have been looking at cane seats..Amazon has many of them..I'm ordering this one only because I'm just 5 ft. tall & this is adjustable..

 

https://www.amazon.com/Drive-Medical-Folding-Lightweight-Adjustable/dp/B005JIMORU/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1469837601&sr=8-1&keywords=medical+folding+canes

 

Maybe your Friends could use something similar..

The trip is not physically taxing. You will not have to handle moving the suitcases to the bus or back, HAL handles all of that. All one will need is a small back pack for meds docs, rain gear and layers to put on or off as need be.

 

We had a lady in a wheel chair on our trip and she was accommodated every where we went. She could walk up the stairs in the bus if need be and we all helped her do that as needed. Some buses had wheel chair lifts and she would use them if available. At stops that we took on the long bus tours one could get off if need be or stay on board. Long walks are not part of the daily itinerary. We were bussed to all of our departure points so there was no long walks needed. There are restaurants in each of the hotels and feedback from people that used them was good. You don't need to walk blocks to find something to eat. The bus trip from Whitehorse to Dawson was not as long as I anticipated with many stops for photos and restrooms. I would not want to miss the train trip from Denali to Anchorage which was a GREAT trip and very comfortable.

 

I am not real sure HAL could change their schedule and allow them to stay on the ship back to Vancouver this late. HAL may have their cabins already assigned to cruisers getting on board from other land tours after you get off in Skagway. Do check with HAL to see if this is possible.

 

I would say have them stick with the land tour it was great.

Thank you so much for this input! Very helpful. :)

Looking forward to the rest of your posts! We leave on the Y2C on NA soon. I am wondering if you could please give your opinion on how taxing the land portion was? We are a group of ten, two of whom have some acute medical issues that have arisen since booking - they have been cleared to travel by their doctors, but we are trying to convince them to stay on the ship Vancouver to Vancouver (assuming their booking can be changed), rather than disembark in Skagway with the rest of us and do the land portion. Thank you!

Glad you are having such a great time! We leave on a Land & Sea tour in a couple of weeks. Hope the weather and wildlife sightings are as good for us as they have been for you!

Well of course they do. When a customer is spending the big bucks, it's only wise to be able to offer whatever they might like. Within reason, of course. ;)

:):):)

Don't fret if you are on the waitlist. On my last cruise I found out they keep a couple places open for Neptune Suite passengers. The day of the class, if still open the places go to the people on the wait list.

 

Also, if there are foods you don't like, ask when you make the reservation what the menu is.

Do Neptune Suite passengers get priority somehow? Not sure if this is suggesting a suite passenger can sign up later on and still get a spot?

Glad to hear the positive reviews! We are booked for Alaska in August 2016 on HAL. Grandparents' choice of lines and itinerary . . .

Great! Thanks for the quick reply. We really appreciate your review and info! It's nice to get it from such a recent Sinorama traveller.

Thank you so much for your detailed information! We will be taking the 19 day Sinorama tour in June with our two pre-teen/teenage children and are all VERY excited. I have a couple more questions if you don't mind: 1 - did you get a detailed itinerary at all before you left or are you given that sort of thing day by day through the trip? 2 - you've touched on the carry on weight limits for internal Chinese flights, which appear to be quite a bit less than other (North American etc.) carry on limits, but I can't seem to find anywhere on the big 4 Chinese carrier websites whether they allow a "personal item" in addition to that 1 carry on bag? For example, a purse, camera bag, briefcase, etc. as well as your "carry on". Thank you, in advance, for replying when you're able to.