Transfers To Beijing From Port

[dundalkspur]

wE ARE GOING ON THE DIAMOND PRINCESS in november. We are trying to arrange our own transfers from the port to our hotel in BEIJING. Can any one help us on this?

Does any one know of any reputable cab/limo companies ?

[arlenemilt]

Greyline charges $99/PP. Why aren't you using Princess? We're going in July and Princess is charging $119/PP including a hotel overnight. If I recall correctly from 1992, the port is quite far from the airport.

 

 

Arlene

[Druke I]

The port is better than two hours out of Beijing - at least when we visited on Regal Princess 3-01.

 

Not speaking the language, I wouldn't dare a cab - Princess transfers worked for us.

[Crowsie]

Take the Princess transfers.

 

You've never seen traffic til you've been to Beijing. 12 million citizens and 9 million bicycles..plus the cars.

 

When we went to see the Great Wall our coaches had to have police escort...like a funeral..because the traffic is so bad that if we didn't have the escort we would never have arrived at the same time.

[Smiles3usa]

We are going in October of this year. Princess wanted $188/pp for transfers, and it did NOT include the hotel overnite--which is far from the Beijing sites (add in the extras if you decide to come in earlier on Princess Air). In April of this year, Princess required folks to check-in at hotel in Tiajin, and then make their way to the ship. The train from Beijing to Tiajian is @ $5.50/pp and from there to the port is @ $10.00 per cab. Yes, it is easier to take the Princess transfers, but by no means cheaper. In fact, Princess charges more than 500% more than a lone taxi to the port would cost ($60.00 for the cab--for at least 2 folks & luggage). I understand how some don't want confusion on their cruise, but, for us, the ship departs at 5 pm from Xingang....and there is no way we could miss the ship taking ANY means to it.

 

If you check out our Roll Call (Princess 10/23/05) you will see 2 sites that had prices ranging form $199-$217 for 10-12 passengers from Beijing to the checkin at the pier. When queried further, both Chinese tours raised their prices by almost 200%....they are use to "rich" tourist paying whatever for convenience. My chat on various forums leads me to believe that $60-70 per couple is the maximum one would pay alone--in a taxi...and about $25.00 on public transportation, which is plentiful and at convenient intervals.

 

I had never been to Rome, before our cruise tour. I felt confident in the train from the port...and it worked out fine. But that was only after doing my own research, and asking questions on the boards. If you are the type who prefers convenience at any costs, by all means take the Princess transfers. If, however, you have any bit of adventure, don't even think about Princess' overcost and from what others have said are smelly, cramped buses.

[arlenemilt]

Having been to China twice, including an extensive 3 week tour, we don't need any extra time in Beijing. We are therefore flying directly from Florida to Beijing (a very long haul), landing late at night, being transferred to a hotel and the next day transferred to the ship. This is costing us $119/PP. We bought our air thru Princess; couldn't beat their one way price.

 

I do not understand the great discrepancy in quotes. Why $119 for us w/hotel and why $188 w/o hotel for you? Is that what happens when you do your own air? :confused:

 

Arlene

[btrojanoski]

We went to Beijing in 2ooo, spent 5 days there before boarding the Regal Princess for a 15 day cruise to Bangkok. We're adventurous, in our early 50's and have travelled extensively around the world. We were in Rome last October for 6 days and used only public transport, buses and subways. And we have used public transit in most places in the world without much trouble. Unless a lot has changed there is no way I would try taking a private taxi in from Xingang. While in Beijing we took a cab across the city to go to the Hard Rock Cafe (I collect HRC guitar pins) and that journey took over 1 1/2 hours and $40 US ONE WAY and was probably only 9 or 10 miles. The traffic is simply horrendous. The Princess bus to the port took over two hours and it had a priority police escort with us travelling part of the time on the wrong side of the highway to get out of the congestion. I would only attempt a private taxi deal if you can speak at least one Chinese dialect fairly fluently and you have lots of money if the trip turns into a nightmare. At least with the Princess transfer you know what the charge will be, but you won't with a private cab. And don't even THINK about public transit unless you have adequate language skills. IMHO

[patlanta]

Last week we did the Princess transfer from the port to the Great Wall Sheraton (across from the Hard Rock Cafe) for the cruisetour portion of our trip. The buses were fine (no restroom on board) but the trip took almost 3 hours. The rest stop was at a rather new turnpike-type facility with Eastern accommodations (porcelain hole) and no tissue available (It may have had some Western fixtures (toilets with seats) but by that time most women had gotten used to turning up their pant legs and carrying tissue.). Someone explained that the restroom stop for other coaches is that the women go on one side and the men on the other. This could be true as a woman had to-had to go and one of the coaches stopped for her to visit the woods on the side of the road.

 

There was a mob of private operators at the pier upon disembarkation. Tour people went out the forward gangway and that's where all of these folks were standing with signs trying to finding the parties that had booked their services. Although we were almost first off the ship the Princess-hired coaches did not proceed until all four in our cavalcade were full. By then most people had gotten off to go back on the ship to use the restroom and many were visiting on the pier. In other words, it was another hurry-up and wait situation.

 

Must tell you that you should try to get on either the first or last coach on any tour. In Korea our guide explained that in Asia the supervisor and the next best tourguide take these two coaches. It turned out to be really true on our cruisetour portion in that bus #2 found their guide to be totally unacceptable and after the second day she was relieved on her duties. Interestingly though, the remaining tour guides became somewhat sullen. It was as if their performance was going to be judged on the basis of the whole tour group. On the way to the airport the guide asked that in our evaluations we take into consideration their nationality and that their English was what they learned in their own country.

 

Enjoy your cruise. I really am going to give some future thought to the size of the ship on the itinerary. Visiting container ports was not expecially pleasant and the distance/cost from the cities, certainly took away from the pleasure of a cruise experience. In the case of Shanghai the port was so secure and so far out that only the shuttle bus was available so people didn't connect with their privately arranged tours and the time in all that traffic to go on the Princess tours took up as much as 3 hours. (Neither are the container ports used to accommodating cruise ships. The Sapphire Princess was rammed by a tanker while at the berth--notice two dents under the name on the hull of the ship.)

[ADVANCEDJK]

dundalkspur

 

Which cruise in November are you on?

We are on the Nov 8th Sailing from Bangkok.

We are using Princess for the transfers in Beijing as we are going on there tour after the cruise. In Bangkok we will organize our own transfer

[dundalkspur]

dundalkspur

 

Which cruise in November are you on?

We are on the Nov 8th Sailing from Bangkok.

We are using Princess for the transfers in Beijing as we are going on there tour after the cruise. In Bangkok we will organize our own transfer

 

We are on the same cruise.We have organised our hotel ourselves saves a lot of money.

 

reg

[barriedavis]

We were in the Novotel Peace Hotel in Beijing last week and they have an in- house taxi firm with very nice cars. We got a driver who was good, cheap ($35 for a whole morning tour around the sites) and he even drew a map for us to show where to go if we wanted to walk back to the hotel. He works privately as well. His name is Yang Zhi Ming and his e mail is bjxsp@sina.com. Fax No is 64210541.

[MCCruiser]

We recently (beginning of April) transferred from Beijing to the port in Xingang. We had a group of close to 100 people via our travel agent - so our travel agent arranged separate (from Princess) transfers. Independent of the cost - here's my input:

 

- The trip from Beijing to the hotel transfer point in Xingang was about 3 hours, including a 15 minute pit stop. We travelled on a Monday, so there was a ton of traffic getting out of Beijing. Once out of Beijing, you travel through alot of rural areas. If you car, minivan, or bus were to breakdown you could be in trouble. Obviously, if you go through Princess, they will take (supposedly) responsibility for any such misfortunes.

 

- You better make sure your drive knows where to go. Our drivers go lost going to the hotel and to the ship. This resulted in at least additional 30 minutes of travel time.

 

Recommendation: unless you're extremely confident with making your own plans, and make sure you give yourself plenty of buffer time - the Princess transfer (for this transfer in particular - not all ports) is quite reasonable.

[dundalkspur]

Has anyone used a cab from the port to beijing?

How was it?

 

We have booked our own hotel -so I dont think there is a princess option for us!

 

wE ARE GOING ON THE DIAMOND PRINCESS in november. We are trying to arrange our own transfers from the port to our hotel in BEIJING. Can any one help us on this?

Does any one know of any reputable cab/limo companies ?