anyone else on the 8/6 Yangtze River cruise?

[lynnrts]

If any of you are on the August 6 cruise let me know.

[lindberg]

I'm cruising up the Yangtze right now on the Victoria Queen. I have seen about 30 other ships in the last two days also cruising the Yangtze. What cruise line and what ship are you on.

 

By the way the Victoria Queen has been the most impressive ship I've seen on the river. Some look pretty rough. All the Victoria Cruise line ships I've seen so far have looked good. But the Victoria Queen has balconies for all cabins. I'm taking the cruise as part of an Overseas Adventure Travel tour. Heading to Tibet next......

 

Laura

[mmaskaly]

I am glad to hear your report. We are scheduled for the August 18th sailing upstream.

I have a couple of questions for you, as you are on the front lines.

Is a sports coat really required for the formal nights? How is the single bag 44 lb limit working out for your needs? What would you leave home & what would you bring?

Any hints, traps or suggestions for a newbie to river cruising.

 

Thanks

 

Mike

[CincinnatiMarty]

yes We are on the 8/6 with one other couple from San Antonio. My email is:

mpinales@cinci.rr.com

[gardencat]

I too am looking for any info on the Victory line river cruises in China. If I do this it will be the most adventuresome cruise ever for me and any and all info would be appreciated.

[mmaskaly]

Look under Pacific Delight Tours or China Yangtze River Cruise with yahoo or google. Some very good reviews and info there. We leave for a 13 day land/river tour on the Victoria Queen in August. The central focus of the trip is the destination and not the ship. But a reviewer on the Queen today states that she is the best looking ship on the river. Hope they are right.

 

Good Luck

 

Mike

[gardencat]

Thanks Mike

I'll check out those two sites.

[gardencat]

I am looking at booking a Yangze cruisetour through Pacific Delights Tours. I would appreciate an info from anyone who has done a tour with this company.

[lindberg]

I am glad to hear your report. We are scheduled for the August 18th sailing upstream.

I have a couple of questions for you, as you are on the front lines.

Is a sports coat really required for the formal nights? How is the single bag 44 lb limit working out for your needs? What would you leave home & what would you bring?

Any hints, traps or suggestions for a newbie to river cruising.

 

Thanks

 

Mike

 

Mike,

I was on the Victoria Queen. It was very casual. I saw no one wearing a jacket at dinner. Most people wore pants or slacks and nice shirts or blouses. I even saw shorts at dinner. I did the cruise as part of an advernture travel trip. So we were all quite casual and traveled light. My suitcase was 29 pounds. They had very quick (same day service) and reasonable laundry service available which I took advantage of. I limited the number of outfits I took and then washed them.

Even the staff was very casual. Keep in mind that in the summer it was quite hot and sticky. Because of the sceenery you want to spend a lot of time outdoors viewing the sceenery. Virtually everyone wore shorts during the day.

The Victoria Queen was more casual and less structured then a ocean cruise.

hope this helped,

Laura

[mmaskaly]

Thanks Laura, you have saved us at least 10 lbs of excess clothes. We are also taking the cruise as part of a land/river trip. Shanghai to Chingking (sp) then Xi'an then Bejing.

 

Is this similiar to your trip? If so, any suggestions? This is definitely going to be the most adventerous trip we have taken and I am trying to plan as best as possible.

 

Thanks

 

Mike

[gardencat]

mmaskaly

 

Can you tell me who you booked your tour through?

It sounds similar to one I am looking at for next spring.

[mmaskaly]

The tour is tour Pacific Delight. We picked up the cruise on Skyauction.

Hope this helps

 

Mike

[gardencat]

mmaskaly

That is the one I was looking at. I'm looking for next spring but it is a bit more complicated for me coming from Canada I'll have to get my own Visa etc. When you get back I'd really appreciate any info you can give. Thanks again.

Sorry, also,

Do you know if the Xi'an part of the tour actually goes to the tomb where the terra cotta soldiers were found or just to a museum where they have some of the soldiers?

[mmaskaly]

According to my itinerary, we go to the full size terra cotta army and then to the Imperial Museum.

 

In regards to your visa, Pacific Delight handled ours for $80 per person, you might call them to see if they can handle Canadian Passports for visas.

 

Keep you posted after our return

 

Mike

[gardencat]

mmaskaly

 

Thanks for the info I will be waiting very eagerly for your report when you return. I'd like to go for longer but money and family obligations mean probably not. I looked at 10 days (save money) but can't see flying for 24hrs. approx for basically 6 days then 24hrs back. Plus want to go to Xi'an.

 

I asked the phone rep at Pacific and she said for Canada I'd have to get my own visa. I know someone who did this a couple of months ago and said its not too difficult to do just wonder if there will be any difficulty if I'm the only one in the group with a non US passport.

 

Thanks again.

[llhlam]

We came back from China land tour and river cruise last march. DH and I were the only canadian, we got our own visa, and we have no problem with our tour that has their own American group visa.

[gardencat]

llhlam

Thanks so much for your info. May I ask how you booked your tour?

 

The price I have found from an on-line agency is much better than I can find with any local TA (even one here who specializes in Asia tours).

 

Of course the local agent keeps warning me of potential problems of using an on line TA based in US. ( I won't be cover if TA goes under before I travel etc.) I've booked other cruises on line without a problem but never done anything as exotic (or expensive) as this China tour and I'm a little nervous. Any advice?

 

PS ; How was the weather in March A couple of people I know who have a bit of knowledge of China sais March should not be too bad. Late April, they say would probably be better but for my life (family stuff etc.) late March will work better.

[lindberg]

Thanks Laura, you have saved us at least 10 lbs of excess clothes. We are also taking the cruise as part of a land/river trip. Shanghai to Chingking (sp) then Xi'an then Bejing.

 

Is this similiar to your trip? If so, any suggestions? This is definitely going to be the most adventerous trip we have taken and I am trying to plan as best as possible.

 

Thanks

 

Mike

 

Mike, I did four night cruise as part of a land tour. I did Overseas Adventure Travel, 22 days. You can check out the trip at the OAT website. http://www.oattravel.com The trip I took was the Imperial China, Tibet and the Yangtze. I see that next year it comes with a 3 night cruise instead of 4 nights. It was a great trip. OAT hits the normal tourist sights plus tries to give you adventure experiences. We actually stayed at a farmer village in private homes one night. We ate dinner and breakfast with our hosts and danced with the entire village in the park in the evening. Definitely not a 5* hotel but a very memorable experience! OAT is real great because there are always 16 people or less in the group. We had only 15. We did miss Shanghai on this trip, so I'll have to go back again. This trip did go to Tibet which was extremely interesting.

The cruise I went on started in Yi Chang and ended in Chungking. This was an upstream cruise. The three night cruises typically cover the same distance as the four night cruises but go downstream therefore the ship can go faster. You will really enjoy the cruise. It was the only restful time we had on our trip.

Laura

[llhlam]

llhlam

Thanks so much for your info. May I ask how you booked your tour?

 

The price I have found from an on-line agency is much better than I can find with any local TA (even one here who specializes in Asia tours).

 

Of course the local agent keeps warning me of potential problems of using an on line TA based in US. ( I won't be cover if TA goes under before I travel etc.) I've booked other cruises on line without a problem but never done anything as exotic (or expensive) as this China tour and I'm a little nervous. Any advice?

 

PS ; How was the weather in March A couple of people I know who have a bit of knowledge of China sais March should not be too bad. Late April, they say would probably be better but for my life (family stuff etc.) late March will work better.

Our friend booked this tour for us with an on-line agency in New York, they sent us the document (to Toronto) with no problem.

We were there in mid March, it was cold in Beijing, I would also recommend to go there around April.

[gardencat]

llhlam

 

Thanks again. Sorry to be such a pest but... Did your friend book it because it was a problem for you to book direct from Canada yourself or just cause he was doing a group or something?

 

I'm looking at my schedule to see if I could manage April instead. Since a number of people have told me it would be better then I guess maybe I should listen.

[llhlam]

My friend booked the tour for us because he got such a great bargain that advertised in the local newspapaper.

You should take a look at this website http://www.chinatravel1.ca that give general information for Canadian visitor to China, hope this help.

[gardencat]

Thanks again I'll check that out. I'm really getting psyched about this trip, hope I can pull it together!

[new_cruiser]

Gardencat,

 

Regarding visas for China, you can find out about the requirements by checking with the Chinese embassy on line. We booked our tour directly with Intrepid Travel in Austrailia which meant we had to arrange our own visas. I went to the embassy on line and downloaded the visa form. I also found out from their site that they were no longer accepting applications by mail for US citizens. In the US the visas have to be hand delivered to the embassy - though not necessarily by the applicant. The site didn't exactly say it but I got the impression that was partly in retailiation for changes to US visas so perhaps their policy on Canadian visas is different.

 

This didn't make it more effort to get the visas, but it did add to the cost. I had the choice of going to San Francisco to drop off the visa applications and going in again later to pick them up or using a visa expediter.

 

If it is like the US, the regular tourist visa is good for entry to China for 90 days from when it is issued and once you have entered your can stay for up to 30 days. Therefore, we sent in our applications about a month and a half ahead of time. It went pretty smoothly.

[gardencat]

new_cruiser

 

Thanks for the info. I think I have to go to the consulate in Toronto to get a visa but that is no big distance or problem for me. I'm also wondering what if any medical precautions people took. I have been warned to get hepA and hepB vaccinations at least and I think at least one of those is a series of 3 shots given a month apart. Did you do anything special in this line?

 

 

"The site didn't exactly say it but I got the impression that was partly in retailiation for changes to US visas "

 

I spoke to some one who went to China a month or so ago. They are originally from Hong Kong so did not use a Canadian or American passport, but Hong Kong ID papers. They did say that there was one part of the admission to China where there was a seperate, much slower line just for US citizens. They seemed to think it had something to do with some sort of retaliation for US thumb print requirements but I don't remember all the details.

[new_cruiser]

gardencat (cute name and I really like your avatar too),

 

We came in through Hong Kong in May. We didn't experience that. Entering at Hong Kong and later into the rest of China both went very smoothly. They may not be happy in general about the current American government policies but they welcomed us as visitors. The flow of tourists still hasn't entirely rebounded. Our cruise ship had only about 40 passengers so it was less than a quarter full.

 

I think you can get a visa expediter in Canada but if travel to Toronto is convenient it saves paying the extra charge.

 

Shots: Fortunately our HMO has a travel department. I tell them where I am going, they check the CDC site and other resources. They tell me what shots and such to get. Their recommendations tend to be extremely conservative. I've been to China before a number of times on business so I also have checked out the recommendations myself.

 

Hep A and Hep B are recommended for just about everywhere including the US where there have been a couple of outbreaks. Hep A is very important for China because of the eating style. It can be passed by saliva and a lot of meals are served where you get dishes for the group and use your chopsticks to transfer the food to your plate. (The last few days in China I had the flu and used an extra set of chopsticks to serve myself so as not to infect the rest of the group.) Check with your doctor - I think you have to start it weeks ahead to get effective protection, but it lasts a long time so you might as well get on with it. Hep B is passed the same way as AIDs: blood, etc. You can get the two in a combo shot. I wasn't sure about the need for Hep B because I wasn't planning on doing anything that might expose me. I eventually did I - I got tired of making the decision not too.

 

Your tetnus shot should be up to date - within the last 10 years.

 

They recommended typhoid vaccination - probably overly conservative, but we did the oral vaccine which is good for 5 years.

 

Check on the current recommendation for anti-malarial drugs. The CDC recently clarified that it isn't needed for normal tourist routes in China so we didn't take any. These are nasty drugs - they poison the malaria parasite and they aren't great for people. Hopefully you don't need them.

 

Do take bug repellant - please not the spray type. One of our fellow travelers had that and it was repulsive and very hard on breathing. There were mosquitos.

 

Our travel department also supplied a course of antibiotics to take in case we got a bacterial stomach. We didn't need them.

 

They supplied instructions for what is safe to eat. The CDC site and other places have basically the same information. In brief, the safest stuff to eat is cooked food delivered hot. We did eat fresh fruit at the hotel breakfast buffets and fresh vegetables at some meals on the ship without any problems.

 

I was in China on business one July (mainly Wuhan) and the watermelon was so good. In China they use a lot of what is in season and it is very fresh and good. Eating in upscale business restaurants, I had watermelon sliced open by others out of my sight at practically every meal. My HMO would not approve. In April you may see a lot of great baby bok choy - tender and yummy.