Maredog

I hope so! Please try and find us - on our ocean cruises, all the CC members wear mardi gras beads on embarkation day - maybe we can do something like that...:)

I may have marti gras beads. I'll look for them. I am registered under Mary Davis if that helps. See you soon.

You were right the package from Viking was really nice and informative. To anyone reading this that has not made this trip, Viking provides a booklet with info on almost everything you need to know. It arrives a month before you leave.

We received our travel documents yesterday for our Aug 29th cruise - was very impressed with the lovely portfolio it came in, leather luggage tags, etc. Really liking Viking already!:)

Still waiting on our package. I expect we will have it next week. Now I am really looking forward to it. I'm sure we will meet somewhere along the way, since we are on the same trip.

Not to nitpick too much, but there is only one Chinese embassy--it's in Washington DC. The other offices around the country are consulates. Visa services should be the same at all of them however.

 

Very smart! The Chinese price all their visas for US citizens the same so why would anyone not check the box for the 12-month, multiple entry visa? You never know if you might return within the year and you have NOTHING to lose! :)

 

If it is more convenient for someone other than the applicant(s) to dropoff and/or pickup the paperwork, then you should do it. There is very little advantage for the applicant themselves to do it. With that said, be very careful to follow the directions in filling out the paperwork and to provide the required documentation--the visa office can be very particular in rejecting your application for any number of reasons: missing or incorrect information on the application, photo not right, missing supporting documentation, etc. etc. In my case, I had to redo parts of our applications and provide new photos (requiring another trip).

Getting the Visas at the consulate was fairly easy. They are very efficient. Good advise about making sure you have filled it out perfectly in caps. We didn't ask for a year but they gave it to us anyway.

Maredog, where in LA? We live in Northridge. Our trip is coming up--10/10 out of LA. Our current flights are listed as Air Canada to Vancouver, and on to Beijing. Do you know yours yet? We are still going back and forth regarding changing to non-stop, but the times for most of these flights aren't very good, so still wondering. We live very close to Viking's US Hq in Woodland Hills, so let me know if you need anything from them.

 

What trip are you on? I think you mentioned it a while ago, but I forgot. Anyway, maybe we can get together and compare notes. We also plan to use the LA Consulate for our Visa's. They claim the turn-around time is only about 4-5 days, but I don't want to wait to the last minute.

We leave on 9-29-12 for Shanghai and return on 10-10 from Beijing. You are on the sailing after ours, I think. We are going to the Embassy this week so we may have better info after that. Have you gone online to download the Visa application? You can do it from the LA Chinese Embassy web site. The Visa is only good for the days you are traveling and have restrictions as to the earliest dates you can get them. The Embassy is near downtown. It is cheaper to go direct to the Embassy.

We live in West LA. Email me and maybe we can chat before our trip. Email is mdavis@lunatextiles.com

From my experience with the Chinese visa office in DC, you do not need to put the specific hotel nor air itinerary information for your visa application. You just need the names of the cities you plan to visit, and the general travel dates for your trip.

Thank you!

Hello Mary!

 

Thrilled to hear another CC member will be with us on our tirp!

 

I have had our hotel assignements for several months now - as far as the visa, as I was in China just over a month ago for another trip, I already had that - I went to Mychinavisa.com, very fast and easy service. Regarding putting in the hotel names for your Visa, I don't think I had to do that - the detailed instructions on how to fill out the application are on the site I used and I don't remember having to specify the hotel. However, if you like, I will be happy to tell you the hotels we are booked into - if they are not the same, I don't think it will be a big issue.

 

Let me know if you have any other questions - having been over there already, I found out a lot I didn't know, so I'd be happy to help you with anything. Looking forward to seeing you on board!:D

 

Thanks for your reply! We used a new TA for this trip which was a big mistake. Terrible communication. I finally called Viking and directly and they gave me the info. Our TA told us we would not get hotel and air info until 30 days out... First Viking Cruise for us so we believed her.

Anyway we are excited about the trip and are going to the Embassy in LA for the Visa next week. We have friends in Shanghai who said it was fast and easy.

Looking forward to meeting you.

Hello Everyone,

 

Just returned from a 10 day trip to Beijing - our Viking tour is Aug. 30th 2012 but I wanted to chime in about Peking Duck for those interested - had it on 2 occasions while I was there, the better of the two was in a restaraunt called Duc de Chine - in the Hidden City area. Expensive and hard to find but the duck was fabulous.

 

Great shopping low $ to high $ at the Pearl Market, bargaining is fantastic!

 

I'd be happy to answer any questions about Beijing - the weather was in the high 70's to low 80's and I was sweating most days and I live in FL.

 

Hope to see a fellow CC member on my Viking trip in August!:)

My husband and I will be on the August 30, 2012 Imperial Jewels of China trip. Sounds like you will be as well... We still have not rec'd any info on hotels and air and notice the Visa applications request that info. Do you have any experience with Viking in this regard?

Looking forward to meeting you.

Mary