Kodi'smom

Last cruise we were on (HAL) a woman was unjustified in her complaint to front desk staff. A very well spoken and patient asian staff member was trying to help as she went on a tirade about the cruise ship industry's practise of deducting tips. The young woman suggested she would simply take the tip off her bill but the passenger was having none of it saying it was offensive and this made her feel bad and it shouldn't have been there in the first place...blah blah blah you get the picture. She was looking for not just the tip refunded but also money back for offending her. When the young asian staff member tried to move her along explaining she couldn't do that the passenger said "I want to speak to someone English, not a foreigner".

REALLY NAUGHTY

Thank you, Kodismom, for all of the valuable information. We are going on the Roof of the World tour October 8...leaving a couple of days early. Planning on making reservations at Black Sesame Kitchen...have read lots of good things about it. Did you have problems with baggage with the intraChina flights? Just one bag plus a carry-on for each person or did you have more than one bag? We are also taking the extended trip to Hong Kong. Thanks again for all of the information.

We had no problem with the intraChina flights except when we flew from the mainland to Hong Kong. They weigh all the passengers on Viking as one heap, so to speak. Our weight was over the allowance and word had it that our guide had to pay a bribe to get us through. Our hand luggage was never weighed and we took a bag each plus a large camera case and large purse. On our return to North America from Hong Kong they weighed our luggage and we were 2 lbs over which same as here they made us shift stuff around to our hand luggage. Thjey were stricter on the international flight home than the intraChina flight. Go figure! Have a great trip.

While in China we bought some great souvenirs. While in Shanghai we went to the pearl market and bought some great large gold coloured salt water pearls. Still expensive but less than half what I could ever get them for at home, I've since had them valued and been told they were a great price. Now on this item our guide erred but luckily we didn't listen to him. He told us to wait until we got to Hong Kong as the jewellery was a better quality and price. We checked out the store he recommended and it was much more expensive than the string we bought in Shanghai.

We also bought a bronze Terra Cotta Warrior bust in the Xian museum store. They shipped it back to Canada and it arrived 2 weeks after we returned home in perfect condition. It was about $1900. but for a bronze this isn't bad and it is stunning. We also brought back 2 6" warriors which came free with the bronze.

We bought one Mao watch as a gag but it only worked for 1 day. From that point on we decided we didn't go all that way to bring back cheap knock-offs. Some of our smaller items included large silk kites very reasonably priced that pack flat and weigh nothing. Silk kimono wine jackets which worked out to about $1.50 - $2.00 each and were a huge hit with neighbours and as Christmas wine bags. Jade medallions from the Jade market in Hong Kong which were about $2.00 each and were about a 2" diameter and carved in Zodiac shapes (dragon, rabbit, snake, etc). They look smashing on a black cord and worn as a pendant. We also brought back fans and paper sun umbrellas. Also in the Jade Market in Shanghai we bought "chops" these are like a wax seal we use to seal envelopes but with your western name carved into the surface in Chinese characters. In a nice silk box with ink they were about $10.00 each. The stone ones were the cheapest, slightly more expensive were the wood and verdigris copper ones. Everyone loves this more personal gift. We have some little girls next door and we brought them back some colourful floral Chinese headresses which they love. Lastly we bought some lots and lots and lots of tea chrysanthemums. We pay a lot for these and we bought them for about .50 each. For those of you that have never heard of them, they are round greenish brown balls that when dropped in hot water open up like huge pink or yellow flowers. The tea is both beautiful and very tasty. They are quite a novelty for your tea drinking friends. I also brought back little silk gift bags to put the gifts in.

Hope this helps at least one of you with trips still in the planning stage.

Don't know what happened to the pictures, so they are here now. Click on them for a larger view.

No comparison! When we drove from the airport to the hotel in Shanghai the traffic had to go slowly as you could barely see one car length ahead. The Great Wall is not fair as it was legitimate fog, Beijing was the same white sky but you could only see one building ahead of your hotel. I am a reasonable photographer so I tried to utilize the smog in my photos to add some mystery and asian flair!!!! I will dig through my photos and post a couple of examples. One thing I forgot to mention was the Black Sesame Kitchen. Our taxi sent us the wrong direction on foot, so after about 10 minutes I thought something wasn't right. We stopped a young couple (if you need help the youth often speak some English) and they decided they had enough time to personally walk us to the restaurant. They delivered us on foot to the restaurant where we had the best Chinese dinner of our lives. This is just one example of the positive experience we had with Chinese people.

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5. The lower Yangtze is a work horse river which is far from beautiful. Other than no more than 2 or 3 attractive boats we passed, the other boats numbering in the hundreds were either rusty old tubs or equally ugly barges. The only 2 days on the river where the scenery was either beautiful or interesting were the days we went through the Three Gorges Dam and our day cruising in the Three Gorges vicinity.

If I could go back in time with the knowledge I now have:

1. don't fret about which direction you go Shanghai to Beijing or the reverse. The Pandas you see on the one direction aren't worth the trek (although many people reported the zoo as deplorable and we were very impressed with it)

2. I would have started in Beijing and taken 2 extra days before the tour started to tour the city on your own. You see very little of it and it looked like an amazing city.

3. On the day you have a choice do the caves not the city. Our guide had us believe it was much more strenuous than it was and we made a bad choice selecting the city.

Of Interest:

1. takes cough drops and cipro and only the medical supplies you would normally take on a vacation. Most things can be found there and you will not be eating unhealthy food or put in suspicious circumstances.

2. most of the sites have stone surfaces for sidewalks which are very slippery. Because of the humidity they are always slippery, not just in the rain. Take shoes with good grips.

3. This holiday is not too strenuous. Many in our tour group were very overweight and many had health issues. There were a couple of sites with many stairs but both sites had a place to wait for the group to return. the walking, although in some cases quite far, was at an extremely leisurely pace.

4. The shorter cruise, Imperial Jewels, with some added days in Beijing would be much better then the longer cruise with the lower heavily industrial river.

5. Take the Hong Kong extension if you can. The day on the Li river is one of the most idyllic days I've ever spent and Hong Kong is wonderful.

6. I hauled my Canon Rebel with all the lenses on this trip. I had bought a new Canon Powershot SX230 with 14x optical zoom but didn't trust it's capabilities against the Rebel. I decided I didn't want to get all that way and regret not having my old reliable with me. To sum it up the Rebel was used for the first half day and from then on never even came out with me. My pictures are excellent with the added bonus that a few times I took pictures of people playing instruments or cultural activities with sound and the new camera shot movies with sound.

7. We did the two "optional" evenings. The Tang Dynasty Dinner Show was worth the money. It was eye appealing, food was good (not great), the orchestra of ancient instruments was pleasant to listen to. For the money, great. The Peking Opera was, let's just say it was a cultural experience. You wouldn't call it enjoyable, even the modern day Chinese don't enjoy it. If you are looking for beauty in music you won't find it here. For all the complaining about the Peking Duck at the Opera night I found it quite decent. There are many other dishes for dinner as well and the food quality was good for the money. If you compare what you pay for a dinner show back home it's not overpriced. If I could do it again I would do the Tang Show and possibly not the Opera, however, I don't regret the experience.

8. The boat is very attractive with decent size rooms and hotel style mattresses, pillows, and bedding. For me the comfort of the bed and pillows is extremely important and the Emerald gets full marks for this. In fact it gets full marks for everything except the food. The service is as you expect on a cruise, the wait staff are charming and attentive.

The reason I left this review for awhile before writing it was the pollution every day, the filth, and less than acceptable food was very fresh in my mind and I wanted to leave this until I could put everything into proper perspective. This was our first river cruise after about 25 ocean cruises. When we first returned we vowed to never take another river cruise but after some time to rethink our experience we have decided it was not Vikings fault and except for the food they can hardly be blamed for filth and pollution. We will try another river cruise with Viking, but I think we are more the Amsterdam to Budapest kind of travellers with beautiful scenery from the ship, fine cuisine, wonderful music, and luxury. Life is too short to put up with discomfort.

I have been putting off writing this for the last few weeks as we had many negative comments of our China Cultural Delights trip to China. There were also many positives so I'll start there:

1. Hotel accommodations: all outstanding, we stayed in Westin Bund in Shanghai, Westin in Beijing, Shangri la in all other locations. Everyone we talked to from the other hotels were equally satisfied.

2. major sites visited were also wonderful ie; Great Wall, Forbidden City, Bell Museum (outstanding), Terra Cotta Warriors (outstanding)

3. Chinese people were charming and as interested in us as we were in them. Small children trying out their "hello" on us.

4. Inter China airports and planes were very modern and efficient. The planes had larger seats than most of ours.

5. Viking's logistical efforts were outstanding. Everything was planned and executed with fine precision.

6. The guide you are appointed from Viking is knowledgeable about eastern and western cultures and will answer any question intelligently and philosophically. Our guide was Simon and he was the best guide I've ever experienced but everyone said the same thing of their guide.

7. Hotel buffet breakfasts were extremely good with great variety. If you don't like your breakfast it's your own fault.

And now for the negatives:

1. China is horribly polluted. They will call it fog but the US embassy has it's own monitoring equipment and on a day Beijing reported the air particulate level as "fair" the US embassy monitored "hazardous"

2. We went in cooler November when the temperature is a lot more moderate and the humidity is a killer. We didn't have a problem with the boat but hotels in China can't cool and heat at the same time so if your hotel has the heat on you can't effectively aircondition your room. It wasn't too crazy hot in November but the rooms in 2 hotels were uncomfortable (82 which we attempted to reduce to 65) and when we called the concierge the best they could manage was about 72.

3. Filth everywhere except the main attractions.

4. food on the boat (except the buffet breakfast) was only just passable, and for many meals just edible. Food in local restaurants with the exception of a very good dim sum in the silk carpet factory was not good. Two meals offered, my husband and I chose not to eat and instead ate some granola bars I had in my purse. One lunch was in a restaurant/hotel where the carpets were so filthy you could barely make out the design on it.

It's finally here! Tomorrow we leave for Shanghai. We're both so excited I doubt whether either of us will sleep a wink. Thankyou everyone for all the helpful information posted here, we've used most of it to plan our China adventure.

My last name is Rosenthal,but if you've met anyone on a cruise, it was most likely my husband Howard. He's the one who knows half the people on the ship before I even come out of my shell! We are big fans of Oceania and Viking, but have cruised Princess to Alaska too.

 

As to Andasol, Martha is my husband's aunt. She is not a cruiser, but if you ever meet a neighbor named Martha (in her 80's) you might want to ask if she has a nephew named Howard in Maryland!

 

Wow, berkshire boy, free beer, wine and sodas now, huh? Maybe I should have waited another year - although in July, I'm guessing you'll be drinking a lot of water, too!

I wonder if it depends who you book with as we leave next week and we also have free wine with dinner.

Has anyone stayed at the Westin in Shanghai or in Beijing? What were they like? also has anyone stayed at the Shangri-La in Hong Kong? Were there bathrobes in the hotels and on the ship? Were they midget sized? I'm trying to decide whether or not to pack my robe.

You will not be able to access the internet with a netbook in the cabin. However, if you go to the 4th deck and sit near the computer room, you'll get access there. There are some chairs and small tables near the coffee pot/cookie area, and you can sit there and log in. If access is slow, you can also check out the scenery. I was very annoyed one day while sitting there, as we passed very close to a herd of small goats on the hillside, and I had left my camera in the cabin!

 

I was glad I took my netbook, even though it added more weight, and also had to be taken in and out of my carryon all the time due to the multiple flights involved. I was able to load pictures onto it just in case something happened to my cards, and I used it on the ship as well as in the hotels. The Shanghai hotel had free internet use in its biz center, which was open at night, so I really didn't need it there. Perhaps the hotels in Xi'an and Beijing did too, but if so, I wasn't aware of it. They both did, however, have free wifi in their lobbies, so I was glad I had my netbook and mouse with me.

 

Just FYI, although I was glad I took the netbook, I did take some stuff I didn't use: hand wipes, which were plentiful in China and on the Emerald, a few plastic forks, Immodium and Pepto, Cipro, couple packs of tissue (only had to use one), insect repellent, shampoo, poncho, and an extra converter and adapter set. (We barely ever used the one set.) Of course, I suppose if I hadn't taken this stuff, I would have needed it!

 

I agree with a previous poster in that lack of signing off contributed to the problem on the Emerald, and that rebooting did usually help. The first day or two things were shaky, but seemed to get much better later on. There were numerous times when I walked by and all 8 computers were being used, so maybe they now have someone checking the computers periodically. Of course, when you're going through a lock, you need to sign off and stay off, as you're likely to lose what you're working on during lock transit. I learned that lesson the hard way in Germany last year! On the Shanghai to Beijing trip, you won't be going through many locks unless you stay up late for the "big dam" with its multiple locks, but there IS one lock you'll traverse during the day time.

Thanks so much for the after cruise post. We are leaving in 10 days so this up to date (and seasonal) post are so useful to me. I imagine some things are seasonal as the bug repellant and flu as they are here. I was interested in your info as to internet access in the business centres as I don't intend to take my computer.

Does anyone else think it is really cool that Viking monitors these boards!!

I think it's wonderful that Viking cares so much about customer feedback. Like you I'm very impressed they read this blog. They are smart businessmen if they can read the pulse of their clientele.

Fall Colors and Live Report: Well, I am now in Beijing, at the Westin Chaoyang Hotel, which is the nicest hotel I've ever been in. This morning we were in Xi'an and saw the terra cotta warriors - pretty amazing. We were the first people in, before the gates opened, so we had the place to ourselves for the first 15 minutes or so. Then we flew to Beijing. Tomorrow is Great Wall and Ming Tombs day. Beijing is a much more attractive city so far than any we've been in.

 

Our tour escort, Shan Shan, is beyond fabulous. My husband has bad feet and can't walk long distances. She keeps arranging wheelchairs at the airports and had one waiting for him at the terra cotta museum. In the airport, we have been tipping (around $10, I think) and today at the warriors the price was $42. In Chongqing airport, which serves a huge population of people, there are only 2 full-sized wheelchairs for use, so that was a bit tricky as they were both in use when we needed one, but we made it on time to the flight. By the way, the internal flights have been on China Eastern (2 flights) and Sichuan Airlines. All have been fine. People are bringing fairly large carryons on board these flights, and nobody has said a word, but you might want to keep in mind that you're going to have to cart the stuff a ways through the airports and often through the parking lots to a bus. Viking, of course, takes care of the checked bags. You don't need to worry about taking small amounts of liquids in carry-on bags - they ARE allowed.

 

Viking has done a fabulous job, and with all the advice here on cruise critic, I've been prepared, almost too much so. We haven't used the converter or adapter plug, have only used my toilet paper a few times for "happy rooms" without paper, and haven't used any of the drugstore yet (Cipro, immodium, etc.) Nobody has gotten sick as far as I know, and nothing but good has happened. My traveling companions are great, the local guides are great, and the accomodations have been great. Food is almost always good. Feedback on the Tang Dynasty show was very positive; the group has not been to the opera yet. That's tomorrow night, and we are passing on that. Today we visited the Bird's Nest, and got out of the bus for a walk to see it, plus the Water Cube. That isn't really on the program, but our wonderful tour escort took us there on the way from the airport to the restaurant and hotel.

 

As to the fall colors, I haven't seen any, but Shan Shan mentioned that we may see some tomorrow t the Great Wall. However, she says they only last a few weeks.....

Thanks so much, I'm loving these live reports keep them coming.

They look great .... Nice box with name on them! The weight is the give a way! Most venders on street and in market have them or variations. Also ornamental chopsticks and MaJong sets. We brought back over 150 pounds of booty not counting silk rug.

 

wife had guide write out in Chinese several notes "PLEASE GIVE TO SOMEONE WHO NEEDS THEM.... IF YOU DON'T WANT". Wy wife brought all older outfits which she left at hotels and on boat to make room for purchases!

 

We had 2 large suitcases each with a suitcase inside and 2 carryons.....left China with 4 suitcases full of new stuff as well as 3 carryons and a silk rug! Felt like a Jewish Santa when we got home!

What a hoot! I laughed till my stomach hurt when I read about your packed suitcases for the return journey. We were in Turkey last fall but didn't buy any rugs as they were too patterned. I like the Chinese carpets more as they are often floral and the colours aren't generally so dark. I imagine if you buy a larger one you can have it shipped. Thanks so much for the shopping tips, I'm definitely coming home with Mont Blanc pens, Terra Cotta Warriors, and if I can find them antique books.

The terra cotta warriors were in nice gift boxes... 4 to a box 6" tall.

 

I took them out of boxes(even though they were nice cloth lined) because of size limitations!

 

I wrapped each in paper while on Vikings bus and put them all in a small backpack. We had no problems on any of the intranet china fights including caring the silk rug and 30 Mont Blanc pen sets(lol)!

 

They look like chess pieces on a large chess set.

 

They were bought at the Ming Tombs in Beijing...... The first days of our trip!

I'm very interested in the 30 Mont Blanc pens. Are they easy to find? I gather they looked good or did you buy them as a joke. I bought 10 pair of Oakley sunglasses in Mexico that had Oakley spelled wrong as a joke for stocking stuffers. I plan on buying some joke type items this trip, like the Mao watches.

We leave tomorrow to fly to San Francisco and then fly to Shanghai on Saturday. From what I can tell, now is a good time to go to China weather-wise and crowd-wise. It is supposed to be about 70-75 degrees F. in Shanghai, and about 5 degrees lower elsewhere. Crowds are supposed to be less, too.

 

We chose Shanghai to Beijing so that the most strenuous, packed days would be at the end of the trip, when we had hopefully recovered a bit from jetlag. However, we really only have one day in Shanghai, so that may disappoint some folks. I am really wishing now that we had added a day or two before the trip, as I know the jetlag will kill me. I can't even fly from the east coast to the west coast without waking up at 3AM for several days, so I know I will be in a fog in China. Well, I may be in a pollution fog, too, I guess...but hopefully that's a little better in early October than it would be in August!

 

Turtles, that's a wonderful picture of one of the National Zoo pandas. I have a nice one of Tai Shan (or however you spell it), but that's about it.

Have a fabulous trip. By the time you return we'll be starting to organize the packing. I'm looking forward to your comments and what you have to say about visiting in the cooler weather.