Lori Dobson

Drinking water safety. My TA double checked with Viking and the water on the ship is "filtered". There is no information about the type of filter, how often it is changed, etc. Our pre-cruise 5* hotel in Beijing confirmed via email that they use tap water to make coffee, etc. To be totally safe I will not be drinking any water (or anything made with water) while in China unless I see it coming out of a sealed bottle! On the same note, does anyone know (or remember) if there are coffee pots in the hotel rooms (standard item in most North American hotels) - 4 cup or single serving. Thanks for the great info.

There is not a coffee pot but a pot to boil water and instant coffee in your room. A better option is the coffee station on deck 5 - it's 24 hours and has a machine that makes coffee, cappachino and cocoa.:)

Sorry, forgot about the evenings - light slacks and a short sleeve top are perfect - a light sweater or wrap if you tend to get cold. As has been mentioned before, you are so tired every night you don't want to do much in the evenings - except maybe a drink in the deck 5 bar and a stroll around the dance floor.

Hope you have a Fantastic time on your cruise!

Hi Lori

 

Thanks so much for your postings. I am right behind you, leaving this Saturday on the Shanghai to Beijing route and getting very excited after reading your posts. Sounds like a fantastic trip !

Wondering about the temperature, you mentioned it was cool in the morning doing tai-chi (which I am looking forward to trying). Are you wearing long pants, capris or shorts in the daytime ? Is the ship cool in the evening, do you wear long sleeved tops and slacks ?

Enjoy the rest of the trip and please keep talking !

Sorry for the delay in answering - was just able to get back on!

We arrived in Xi'an today, fortunately the flight only left 30 min late!

I have been wearing shorts almost the entire trip - I had one pair of jeans which I wore twice on the ship - for dinner on the more "dressy" nights. Although there was one or two suit and evening gown couples, most people were in shorts, capris, jeans or khakis - those and a nice collared shirt for guys will do nicely.

It was hard to leave the ship - we had such a great time and they could not do enough for us! We went to the Shizobai ( spelled wrong) pagoda yesterday - it was sunny and hot - bring lots of sunscreen and a hat ! You can buy $1 hats almost everywhere we have gone if you forget.

I was very pleased with everything on the ship - i thought the food was great, we had lobster thermodore for the last night and it was fantastic! - and the restaurant food everywhere else we have gone has been very good. Just open your mind, take a chance and try new things!

Bring lots of $1 and $5 for little gifts or you can change money for small bill yuan at the hotels. We are at the Crowne Plaza Xi'an tonight - cannot believe how luxurious it is! Terra cotta warriors tomorrow, then off to Beijing!:D

Were you able to take the excursion up the Lesser Three Gorges?

Yes, we just got back from that - gorgeous! I have a good pic of the hanging coffin. Weather is very clear and sunny.

We got little gifts from Viking upon our return to the ship today. I got a dress made at the tailor - it was done in less than a day - and it is beautiful! When we come back from an excursion, the crew greets us with hot towels and juice - lovely! Anyone who has not taken this cruise yet and are wondering if Viking is the right company to go with, I can only tell you we have been very, very satisfied with them - everything is first class and has been terrific.

sailing through the Three Gorges yesterday and today - amazingly beautiful! The locks are fascinating - so huge - the dam was a treat to see. Weather is sunny and warm, we got lucky. Doing tai-chi at 7 am on the back deck was surreal - a lovely, cool morning with jaw-dropping scenery in the background. How lucky we are to see this magnificent place!:D

Minor calamity! Our 10:30am flight to Wuhan was cancelled by the military - had to go to another airport and take 3 separate flights for our group- some didn't get to the ship til after 10pm - Viking reps moved heaven and earth to accomplish that! Missed all the stuff in Wuhan, ship left late so we didn't get to go to the school today - the kids came on board for a half an hour instead.

Internet is truly terrible, first time I've been able to connect since on board. Still having a great time, ship is beautiful, food is great. 3 gorges tomorrow!:D

Enjoy your cruise. I look forward to hearing about it. We don't go until next April but I am so excited.

You are right to be excited- this trip is a dream.

The acrobat show was fabulous- I wished I wasnt so tired but we still enjoyed it! It is about 7:20 AM right now, just had another Shangri La breakfast (they have a MAP at each table to help you find your way among the different bars!) waffles with caramel and mango creams, topped with whipped cream - among many, many other things! Unbelievable pastries, mango and raspberry smoothies, fresh watermelon juice - the chocolate fountain.... I could go on forever!

Just about to leave for the bus to the airport - off to Xian!:D

Get a good night's sleep! It is going to be almost non-stop now until you get back on the plane! Have a great trip!

 

BTW, the buffet in the ShangriLa is huge and you have to go all the way back to find the omelet bar and to check out some of the other non-American breakfast food stations. There are more food choices than you can even sample in a single meal!!

Boy, you weren't kidding about breakfast - I have never seen anything like that in my life!

1 hour down time before dinner and acrobat show. This trip is EVERYTHING everyone said it was and more. First class all the way. Loving everything so far!:D

first night in Shanghai! We are at the Shangri-La, FABULOUS hotel. The city is beautiful. Long day, very tiring - touring starts tomorrow!:)

Why not just exchange e-mail addresses and make a plan to meet before you leave? Either one of you can post an address here (using 'at' and 'dot' in place of those symbols, for security) or you can friend one another.

 

To friend someone on Cruise Critic, click on their screen name on any one of their post and then select 'Add to contacts.' That will bring up a new screen where you can then select 'send friend request.' This will only work if you both have a contact address included in your profile.

 

Bon voyage!

Thanks for the great ideas!:)

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.

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...:)

Great! Safe travels and have a wonderful trip!!!

Thank you!:D

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!:)

I never travel out of the country without my converter and plug adapters because even if a place is supposed to have them available, they might not.

 

On the ship, I was able to borrow a converter which had the right type plugs built in. However, they had a limited number to lend.

 

In the hotels I used my equipment. In one of the hotels I borrowed their equipment, but it was easier to use mine than to figure out what all the buttons and switches meant on theirs.

Thank you for the info - I always carry them too, normally, but I was hoping I wouldn't have to - they weigh a lot and are a bit bulky - but oh well! Better to have something and not need it...:cool:

Hello All,

For those of you who have already been on the tour, did you need to take plug adapters/power converters with you? Although I was in China several weeks ago, we used them constantly - but we were staying at budget hotels. What is the situation on the Emerald and in the high-end hotels we will be staying at on the Viking trip?

Thanks for your help,

Lori

I apologize for not being precise in my post;-) Our friends weren't purposefully trying to crack the Great Firewall of China which made the fact they posted on Facebook surprising. They just accessed FB and it was available, but only within the confines of the hotel. I knew FB was blocked so I never attempted to access the site while we were in China, but now I'm wondering if their hotel or any hotel for that matter circumvents the Firewall with their own software??

 

The Hilton Hotel in Xian defied the government mandate about using A/C too early in the season so what other regulations are skirted for their high end foreign guests??

No worries!:)

Not sure what the hotels do - would be nice tho if they did allow you to access it!

For all of you who have gone to China recently - how many months in advance do you need to get a Visa? Thanks

I sent mine in a month before I left and it was back within 1 week.

Thanks for the info, but our friends don't seem to have gone the route you describe. It appears they had FB access in the hotel in Shanghai only. Here is an excerpt from their arrival message on the Emerald in Wuhan and their traditional Chinese greeting from our friend:

 

--Hi bob,

 

I would have posted this to the Viking page on facebook but no longer can access this. Well, we met CaiChangJun and just as you said..she is the sweetest! She welcomed us with our names, a big smile and a hug. We felt like we knew her! XiaoLing is on holiday as well as XieWei.--

 

Nice way to start your cruise...a hug from an old friend, you've never met!

I can't attest to anyone's experience but my own - I had no problems accessing Facebook or any other site, in Beijing, Anyang or Laiwu with my VPN connection.

Friends sent me Facebook message indicating they had just checked to their hotel in Shanghai around 7pm local time on 7/1. I was under the impression that FB access was blocked in China?? I also noticed there is a large presence of Tencent/QQ on FB; Tencent is the Chinese corporation which created QQ, the largest IM provider in China. There's even a Tencent Boston...

Yes, FB is blocked in China - but you CAN access it and any other site you want, you just have to go about it a roundabout way. You get your own personal VPN connection - as long as you have access to wireless, you can use it. It's about $7 for 30 days access, which works fine for our China trip. Let me know if you would like the website to get this.

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

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

How was the pollution?

We had a mixed bag - there were 2 or 3 days where you could not see more than 2 blocks ahead, 3 days that you could see further than that but it was still very hazy and dull out and two beautiful, clear blue sky days. In addition to the pollution, if it is windy, there is a lot of dust, dirt and grit blowing around from the numerous construction sites all over the city - it's not only because of the smog that the natives wear face masks.

I took along a bag of cough drops but never needed them- my husband did use his eye drops frequently, though.

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!:)

Hello all,

We have been in Beijing since Sunday - our Viking tour isn't until August, we are here for the airshow in Anyang later this week. The smog here this week is terrible - looks like heavy overcast all day and visibility is very limited - but still having a great time. This is such an amazing country! If your tour is yet to come, you're going to love it!

I took adapters with us. There's a great on line site (I don't have the info in my office) that sells adapters for specific countries, and we bought the China set before we left. BUT it turned out that our hotels in Shanghai and Beijing actually had adapters built into the outlets. I would still try to find one if I were you, in case. (I'll see if I can locate the site we used.) I also have a universal adapter that I always travel with.

 

You are not likely to need a converter: most things that you'll need to charge (camera batteries, laptop, cell phone, etc.) are dual voltage now. All you need is an adapter (or a great hotel!). Check your appliances/batteries -- it will say if they are dual voltage.

 

Edited to add: I just found the web site I ordered the adapters from, International Electrical Supplies; this is the China page:

 

http://international-electrical-supplies.com/china-plug-adapters.html

Thank you!!

Hello All,

For those of you that have already been on the china cruise, especially those who had a few nights on their own, did you take a power adapter/converter with you? I am desperately trying to find a good one but all of the ones I have found online have terrible reviews. I leave for China trip #1 in just a few weeks so any help you can offer is much appreciated!:)

Lori