Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

"LIVE" - Ovation of the Seas (April 9-26, 2018), Bill & Marie's slow boat to China

PCWalton1
 Share

Recommended Posts

PCWalton1

PCWalton1

Posted
  • Author
Posted
WOW!

Wonderful review and pix.

Enjoyed following along.

Thanks for following along
Bill and Marie, I hope you had an amazing cruise and enjoy your time in Beijing! When are you flying home?
We fly home Sunday morning. We still have two full days of touring including a Chinese opera.

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S8 using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites
accio_7

accio_7

Posted
Posted
We fly home Sunday morning. We still have two full days of touring including a Chinese opera.

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S8 using Tapatalk

 

Oh wow, I'm really looking forward to hearing about that!

 

Just out of curiosity, are you planning to post an overall ship review of Ovation?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
PCWalton1

PCWalton1

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Oh wow, I'm really looking forward to hearing about that!

 

Just out of curiosity, are you planning to post an overall ship review of Ovation?

Once we get home I will try to write up about the ship. Have to get my thoughts in order for that

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S8 using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites
xpcdoojk "Live from...." Rare

xpcdoojk

Posted
Posted
Bill

 

Did you need any special travel visas for this trip?

 

Were there any medical requirements?

 

Paul

 

I am not Bill but I can answer the question since we were on this similar 2nd cruise of Bill’s last year. You will need to get a Chinese Visa before you travel. We used a visa expediting company in Chicago because for the region of the USA I live in that is the Embassy / Consulate you need to use. Other states may use other Embassies. For Vietnam if you do ships tours the cruiseline provided them for us. I was told, but never fully found out that if we had stayed overnight in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) that we would need our own Vietnamese Visa. I do not know that is the case. The Chinese Visa was fairly expensive and I had to prepay for shipping both directions.

 

If you live in a city with a Chinese Embassy you can save quite a lot of money by visiting the Embassy on your own. For us it was not convenient to do that.

 

JC

Link to comment
Share on other sites
PCWalton1

PCWalton1

Posted
  • Author
Posted
I am not Bill but I can answer the question since we were on this similar 2nd cruise of Bill’s last year. You will need to get a Chinese Visa before you travel. We used a visa expediting company in Chicago because for the region of the USA I live in that is the Embassy / Consulate you need to use. Other states may use other Embassies. For Vietnam if you do ships tours the cruiseline provided them for us. I was told, but never fully found out that if we had stayed overnight in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) that we would need our own Vietnamese Visa. I do not know that is the case. The Chinese Visa was fairly expensive and I had to prepay for shipping both directions.

 

If you live in a city with a Chinese Embassy you can save quite a lot of money by visiting the Embassy on your own. For us it was not convenient to do that.

 

JC

Actually that is not accurate. You may not need a Chinese Visa, we don't have one. We used the 144 hour visa exemption which is free. We just have to stay in the Tianjin/Beijing area. Saved us hundreds of dollars.

 

For Vietnam the ship got the visa card for us that we used for both ports. It was $6 per person.

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S8 using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites
xpcdoojk "Live from...." Rare

xpcdoojk

Posted
Posted
Actually that is not accurate. You may not need a Chinese Visa, we don't have one. We used the 144 hour visa exemption which is free. We just have to stay in the Tianjin/Beijing area. Saved us hundreds of dollars.

 

For Vietnam the ship got the visa card for us that we used for both ports. It was $6 per person.

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S8 using Tapatalk

 

Thanks for clarifying. I was told that the transit visa was only valid for arrival at airports, but since you did not do that, it was obviously bad information. That is what I was told by people in this forum, and what it states on the State Department and Chinese embassy websites.

 

Would have been good to know.

 

I have found a website travelchinaguide dot com that does suggest what you are doing is perfectly legit. Wish I would have found that website a year and a half ago!

 

JC

Link to comment
Share on other sites
PCWalton1

PCWalton1

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Thanks for clarifying. I was told that the transit visa was only valid for arrival at airports, but since you did not do that, it was obviously bad information. That is what I was told by people in this forum, and what it states on the State Department and Chinese embassy websites.

 

Would have been good to know.

 

I have found a website travelchinaguide dot com that does suggest what you are doing is perfectly legit. Wish I would have found that website a year and a half ago!

 

JC

The 144 hour transit visa for the Tianjin/Beijing area only became available in December 2017

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S8 using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites
xpcdoojk "Live from...." Rare

xpcdoojk

Posted
Posted
The 144 hour transit visa for the Tianjin/Beijing area only became available in December 2017

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S8 using Tapatalk

 

Well, thank you again. I have been kicking myself for not being quite the awesome information person I thought I was. :confused:

 

That should help fill up there ships as that will probably save people $100-200 minimum a person. :(

 

I found another web page after the first, I was like how did I not find this wonderful tidbit.

 

Thanks again. So where are you staying in the big city, we stayed at the Regent it was very very nice, good breakfast good drinks and snacks in the evening.

 

We did a really fun/crazy tour called the lost plate tour, and the wonderful young lady who took us all over the city at night eating real China as she called it in Tuk Tuks drinking beer. We stopped at like 6 houses/restaurants and had a wonderful time. We literally were eating in people’s homes at their tables. Ended up in what is a Chinese microbrewery. Good night. Met some fabulous Norwegians tractor dealers who had been visiting Shanghai and the new Caterpiller manufacturing plant that had relocated there from Belgium, and an Australian doctor and her boyfriend. Fun night.

 

JC

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MindyJohn

MindyJohn

Posted
Posted
This final temple was where the emperor would go to pray for the crops. He would go three times a year, spring, fall and winter. The winter visit was to say thank you for the harvest.

 

b44e4b77919931dc179fe834ebd80c55.jpg

 

350381d5651be6e1953b4c25d82b033f.jpg

 

1be89239f51a8a6a9d85f11f96c0c3b2.jpg

 

0efcb524e99230a02323ed846676970b.jpg

 

dd3bbf9bf6ce09d0c1381c2a59e07083.jpg

 

 

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S8 using Tapatalk

 

Sorry I was slow to find your posts but I'm amazed and grateful that you find the time to share your adventures - THANK YOU!!! When we visited this temple in 2008 we were told they had a special tie with the state of Oregon to supply replacement timbers for the temple since there are not too many trees in the world large enough. I look forward to crossing paths with you and Marie one day, but in the meantime your posts are a genuine treasure!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
PCWalton1

PCWalton1

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Sorry I was slow to find your posts but I'm amazed and grateful that you find the time to share your adventures - THANK YOU!!! When we visited this temple in 2008 we were told they had a special tie with the state of Oregon to supply replacement timbers for the temple since there are not too many trees in the world large enough. I look forward to crossing paths with you and Marie one day, but in the meantime your posts are a genuine treasure!!!
Hi, welcome. Glad you caught up. We still have a couple days to explore.

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S8 using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites
PCWalton1

PCWalton1

Posted
  • Author
Posted

It's Friday the 27th and bright and early we were off to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden Palace.

 

Tiananmen Square is a city square in the centre of Beijing,China, named after the Tiananmen("Gate of Heavenly Peace") located to its north, separating it from the Forbidden City. The square contains the Monument to the People's Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China, and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China in the square on October 1, 1949; the anniversary of this event is still observed there. Tiananmen Square is within the top ten largest city squares in the world (440,500 m2 – 880×500 m or 109 acres– 960×550 yd). It has great cultural significance as it was the site of several important events in Chinese history.

 

af9c8feec22becb88d2f63ffd8d20aa7.jpg

 

Great hall of the people

 

79308ee61efddd86188508984b172593.jpg

 

b38a44c2037f42f9f4f76b8f1381c6fd.jpg

 

Monument to the People's Heroes

 

ba6d45d0e9e8cf952b787b50ec00353a.jpg

 

d311ed07576d51cf89df5b3674ef1f88.jpg

 

National Museum of China

 

aec5b90f3f2e0f31fd75e2c96c3b7afd.jpg

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S8 using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites
PCWalton1

PCWalton1

Posted
  • Author
Posted

The Forbidden City is a palace complex in central Beijing, China. The former Chinese imperial palace from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty—the years 1420 to 1912, it now houses the. Palace Museum. The Forbidden City served as the home of emperors and their households as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government for almost 500 years.

 

266c315b68ac56de27cd083bc74c7b5a.jpg

 

 

e0e64f49b64a87a8b7c07607e57ac186.jpg

 

769515a7f744e61396f4ecca96677786.jpg

 

88093f1d5bd7f634a95b16da6f5db771.jpg

 

ec6f7062654e34b48183bf4cf079d29c.jpg

 

4fca31f193920d26393f62b3062cc272.jpg

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S8 using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...