durante

:eek::eek:No, please don't try walking this one, unless you are doing a hiking holiday in the area. Extremely steep, many twists and turns.

Hi,

Hope there's a Beijing traffic and airport expert who can help answer/give an opinion on my questions

We will be staying at the Novotel Xinqiao in Beijing next month prior to flying down to Shanghai to start our cruise.

Our UK travel agent has us booked on an Air China flight leaving 7.15am on a Wednesday from Beijing Capital International to Shanghai Pudong. It has to be early in order for us to transfer to the cruise ship in time as it leaves early evening.

We have a transfer from the hotel to PEK included, however having read that it can take an hour by car, what time do you recommend we leave the hotel. I know it will be super early.

We have never been to China before, so unsure of how long it would take at that time of the morning or how long we can expect to go through everything at the airport.

To add to this, we are also having to do check in at the airport, because Air China does not allow us to access our reservation online, due to the flight not being booked on the Air China website.

Does Air China have a good record of not cancelling this flight?

Am wondering if I need to have a backup plan, in case something goes wrong, what would the advice be?

Many thanks and look forward to any replies, comments etc

Hi,

Hope there's a Beijing traffic and airport expert who can help answer/give an opinion on my questions

We will be staying at the Novotel Xinqiao in Beijing next month prior to flying down to Shanghai to start our cruise.

Our UK travel agent has us booked on an Air China flight leaving 7.15am on a Wednesday from Beijing Capital International to Shanghai Pudong. It has to be early in order for us to transfer to the cruise ship in time as it leaves early evening.

We have a transfer from the hotel to PEK included, however having read that it can take an hour by car, what time do you recommend we leave the hotel. I know it will be super early.

We have never been to China before, so unsure of how long it would take at that time of the morning or how long we can expect to go through everything at the airport.

To add to this, we are also having to do check in at the airport, because Air China does not allow us to access our reservation online, due to the flight not being booked on the Air China website.

Does Air China have a good record of not cancelling this flight?

Am wondering if I need to have a backup plan, in case something goes wrong, what would the advice be?

Many thanks and look forward to any replies, comments etc

Lottie A, thanks so much for posting that link, I can now see our cabin numbers at long last!

Yes, I have number of guests showing as 0 too. really annoying. The whole point of this thread as I see it is nothing to do with the booking confirmation sent by the travel agent, but what information we can see on the Azamara website.

Lottie A, I totally agree. I don't think the people in charge of the shore excursion team know much, it's actually embarrassing to see some of the errors, especially when Azamara promotes itself the way it does. For example, we did the Auckland to Sydney cruise last year and were horrified/amused to see Sydney being promoted as the capital of Queensland. I get the jokes, but this was on the excursion booking area. We noticed many errors regarding New Zealand ports.

We are booked on another cruise this June which mentions going to Mykonos and Delos, however the itinerary does not include Mykonos...

And now, their shore excursions are so expensive, on a par with Oceania, which is something I never thought I would say about any other cruise line.

I've just reread and see you are wanting a hotel post cruise not beforehand. I would still recommend Hilton MS as it would be so easy to do the 10 min walk from San Basilio at the end of your cruise to where the free Hilton shuttle would pick you up and cross the canal to the hotel. It was great getting that shuttle boat and using it as a means to explore Venice on foot, and avoid paying for expensive water taxis or massive amounts of people on the water buses.

No, my Express pass is not yet available, which is the reason I was hoping to actually view my cabin number somewhere in My Reservations area.

We stayed at the Hilton Molino Stucky for 3 nights and thoroughly recommend it. It's a huge converted former old factory right on the canal where the cruise ships all go past. Azamara ships are docked right opposite at San Basilio pier. The hotel provides free boat shuttle throughout the day which has one of its stops on the other side of the canal, only a 10 minute walk from San Basilio, from memory there was only one bridge to walk over. The other shuttle stop was near St Marks.

To get from the airport we took the Alilaguna ferry as it has the Hilton as one of its stops, so very easy.

The location of the hotel is very quiet compared to the rest of Venice and we enjoyed watching the cruise ships arriving in the morning from our window.

I have tried following these steps but still can't see cabin number anywhere. I first logged into My Azamara, then selected My Reservations, saved this page as a favourite. Then opened an additional tab with the My Reservations favourite. I can go into the booking via online checkin, but it only shows itinerary, shore excursion, spa, and the online checkin area

We have had a quote from Cunard for full world cruise, where gratuities are included as well as a few thousand OBC, Not sure about the other things you mentioned, but priority disembarkation has always worked for us

If you arrive in Canada by cruise ship, then fly back to the UK, you don't need an ETA. We did this last September.

The only passengers in that photo are the couple in the middle...in case anyone was wondering...

For the last 3 years I have seen prices varying between £499 to £799 for a sheltered balcony,for Oct and Nov on the Cunard website, this included flight back to London. This price was offered a few weeks before the cruise date, however usually a few hundred more than that earlier on. The October TAs seem to be more expensive than Nov. I think they are excellent value compared to spring/summer TAs.

Tap water is ok to drink.

Interesting. We like both Azamara and Oceania, but after at least 10 cruises on both lines, overall prefer the ambiance onboard Azamara. Some of the food has been better on Oceania, not always though. If you get the chance, do try either Marina or riviera in the future, they are very nice. But yes, I do understand!

Upsell to the OS not from the OS

I really enjoyed your review, thanks so much!

Sorry, which part of the OPs comment didnt I read?

If you are walking around the back of Deck 7, the whole area actually stinks when smokers are puffing away. It's really horrible to smell, makes me feel sick, and I am so surprised to see anyone backing the OPs opinion that smokers are treated badly on qM2. They have a really nice designated area there, with chairs, not to mention the ones that use the back of Deck 8 right outside the Verandah restaurant. Both those areas are ruined for non smokers.

Someone said the fume is gone with the wind quickly, sorry but this is wrong . I am sure smokers would love to think they aren't causing any distress to fellow cruisers, but they have no idea that it does.

The Hilton Molino Stucky is literally across the Canal from San Basilio Pier. It's a lovely hotel, we had a canal view room and enjoyed seeing the cruise ships gliding past in the early morning, including Quest. You can use the hotels complementary shuttle boat to take you and your luggage over to the other side. From then it's just a 10 min walk max along to the San Basilio Pier.

I am assuming Azamara will be docking at San Basilio as it always has done in the past, but to be sure you should check directly with Azamara. We did another cruise on another same size as Quest, Oceania Insignia and that actually docked at the main Mariitima terminal.

I could not stand the fumes from smokers at the back of deck 7 on our recent QM2 cruise, as we were walking round the deck, sorry, but so depressing, you all looked very unhealthy too. Also we had our diamond lunch in the Verandah on deck 8, view consisted of yet more smokers puffing away outside.i think there should be a designated smoking Area way up on deck 13 where it won't impact anyone

4192 is a great location I think we had 4191 on the other side of the ship recently.

. So handy to Stairway D which provides quick access to Kings Court on Deck 7, also for going down to the Queens Room. You can also pop down to the Britannia Dining Room using the back entrance, upper and lower levels, really good if you are going there directly from cocktails in Queens Room to dinner. We used to prefer cabins near the front of the ship but now find it better near the back on QM2.

I woul not recommend your strategy as you call it, for the reason given by azam71209, also it seems a very convoluted way of going about things as you seem more interested in getting a refund as refundable OBC and chancing your luck once you get onboard.

Regarding the discount on buying the package of 4, in our case the discount was applied at the time of purchase directly on the Oceania website. I assume this is still the case.

You said the reason you were not opting for the free shore excursions option was because the one you want most was not included under that offer. Were the other 3? Are you intending to take all 4 excursions? Depending on cost, it might be cheaper to take the free package and then pay for the other one.

It's $600 OBC per stateroom or 6 shore excursions per stateroom. If you select the shore excursion option, both of you have to sign up for them so it is 3 excursions each.