Viking China (Part 2)

[Mark_T]

Don't count on the hotels that they told you. We were told the hotels months ago and they just changed all three of them. We leave in mid April.

 

Fortunately we only need to know a few days in advance so we can arrange our own transfer from the airport in Beijing, so late changes will not be too much trouble if they happen.

 

Can always find another way to get to BSK if necessary as well.

[Carol From California]

Which hotels did they first tell you?...and what have they changed them to?

 

Originally were assigned:

 

Westin Bund (Shanghai)

Westin Chaoyang (Beijing)

Sheraton (Xian)

 

Now we have:

 

Ritz Carlton Portman (Shanghai)

Regent (Beijing)

Hilton (Xian)

[Carol From California]

Of course, the shower and bathroom dimensions on the Rhine cruises may differ significantly.

 

I am sort of waiting to see just how roomy....or how tight...the cabins are on this ship.

I have a tendency to not trust the measurements reported by cruise lines...or anyone else for that matter.

 

I am a real estate attorney and have spent countless time arguing the measurement of and the standards for measurement of commercial property. There are actuall several different sets of standards and different standards are customarily applied to different types of property in the industry. But there doesn't really seem to be any agreed-upon set of standards in the cruise industry.

 

Different cruise lines report different numbers. Some include balconies, some separately report balcony sizes. Beyond that, we don't know if they are measuring from the inside wall, from the center of the wall or somewhere else...or whether they are including electical, plumbing or systems space within the cabin...or hallway space outside the cabin...or other variables.

 

We were recently on Golden Princess in a Caribe deck balcony cabin, purported to be "274 sq. ft. (includes Balcony of 81 sq. ft.)". The cabin felt relatively tiny...no real sitting area, no sofa.

 

Prior to that, we were on Celebrity Silhouette in a Concierge Class cabin, #2106...The website lists all Concierge Class cabins at "Stateroom: 194 sq. ft., Veranda: 54 sq. ft." However, #2106 is one of those "slant" cabins with a balcony nearly three times standard...So whereas the standard balcony is a rectangle approximately 11 wide by 5 deep, our balcony was an irregular shape, 11 feet wide by 10 deep on one side, 15 deep on the other...Of course, the cabin inside was "standard":, but, somehow, unlike Princess, the allegedly approximate same size cabin had a very nice sitting area with sofa and cocktail table. Of course, a lot has to do with the efficiency of the layout.

 

So, that brings us to the Viking Emerald.

 

According to the Viking website, our "F" category cabin (and all A-F cabins) is supposed to be 250 square feet. Interestingly enough, you really don't get that much more moving to a Jr. Suite or an AA cabin--those are listed at 270 and 301 square feet.

 

But then, I took a look at the Century Cruises website. Century Cruises actually owns the Emerald and leases it to Viking. According to Century, the A-F cabins measure 25 square meters...25 square meters actually translates to 269 square feet. So, what is it?

 

And, then, of course, does this measurement include or exclude the balcony?

My guess is that they are including the balcony within the square footage. Otherwise, a 250 or 269 square foot cabin on a ship would be extremely spacious. If, like the Celebrity and Princess ships, they had a standard balcony size of around 55 square feet, that would bring the true cabin size down to about 195 square feet--roughly similar to the size cabins on those ocena lines--which makes sense since the layout diagram lays out much like the balcony cabins on Celebrity or Royal Caribbean.

 

But, comparing this ship to other Viking ships used in Europe and elsewhere, the cabin size is quite large.

 

Steve - Noticed you are a real estate attorney and live in Calabasas. I am a real estate broker and live in Encino.

[C&K2Cruise]

Originally were assigned:

 

Westin Bund (Shanghai)

Westin Chaoyang (Beijing)

Sheraton (Xian)

 

Now we have:

 

Ritz Carlton Portman (Shanghai)

Regent (Beijing)

Hilton (Xian)

 

We just received our travel docs package (Fed Ex'd to us today). Hotels remained the same as originally quoted and are same as the original list above. We too have a reservation at BSK. Looking forward to a wonderful adventure ... Imperial Jewels April 18 Beijing to Shanghai. Spending a couple of days in Hong Kong en route and then on to Beijing on the 17th. At the end, we have a friend living in Shanghai so will be spending an additional week with him before heading home.

[Going Coastal]

Could you please say again when your sailing is, or how far in advance you received this packet?

Thank you so much.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[caribill]

For those worried about the air quality in China, the below picture shows the problem is not limited to that part of the world.

 

[C&K2Cruise]

Could you please say again when your sailing is, or how far in advance you received this packet?

Thank you so much.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

 

Our tour is the Imperial Jewels Beijing to Shanghai starting on April 18 ... so just about a month ahead.

[Peregrina651]

Could you please say again when your sailing is, or how far in advance you received this packet?

Thank you so much.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

I wish we had some music that we could play each time someone announces that docs have arrived--some docs dance music.

 

 

While C2K received documents over a month in advance and just so folks don't freak out when they don't receive docs so far in advance, Viking's stated policy is approximately three weeks in advance. Your mileage may differ.

 

It is time to freak out when you are in the third week prior to departure and you have received your doc or notice that they are on the way.

 

Some TAs have the doc sent to them to be checked over before forwarding to the client. They will be sent to your TA approximately three weeks in advance (in other words, on the same schedule as if they were being shipped directly to you). If you are working with a TA is possible to have docs sent directly to you; just ask your TA to take care of having it done that way.

 

From the VRC website (FAQs):

 

When will we receive our final documents?

 

Travel documents or itinerary details will be issued approximately 3 weeks prior to departure. If you need to receive your documents sooner, we can accommodate you for a $25 early processing fee. If you will be away from home or need your documents sent to a different location for any reason, please be sure that we know where to send them.

[Carol From California]

I wish we had some music that we could play each time someone announces that docs have arrived--some docs dance music.

 

 

While C2K received documents over a month in advance and just so folks don't freak out when they don't receive docs so far in advance, Viking's stated policy is approximately three weeks in advance. Your mileage may differ.

 

It is time to freak out when you are in the third week prior to departure and you have received your doc or notice that they are on the way.

 

Some TAs have the doc sent to them to be checked over before forwarding to the client. They will be sent to your TA approximately three weeks in advance (in other words, on the same schedule as if they were being shipped directly to you). If you are working with a TA is possible to have docs sent directly to you; just ask your TA to take care of having it done that way.

 

From the VRC website (FAQs):

 

When will we receive our final documents?

 

Travel documents or itinerary details will be issued approximately 3 weeks prior to departure. If you need to receive your documents sooner, we can accommodate you for a $25 early processing fee. If you will be away from home or need your documents sent to a different location for any reason, please be sure that we know where to send them.

 

We have not received our travel documents yet and our date is April 16 (Shanghai to Beijing). Our travel agent said we should get them about 3 weeks out so that is about a week away.

[Bruin Steve]

Now I hope they are timely with their airline reservations...

IIRC, the Viking Website says 75 days out...and we are, right now, at 90...

So, I am hoping we get them by about two weeks from now...

Following the recent discussion, I thought I MIGHT just go straight to requesting a deviation, but being so close to the time, I figure I might as well wait and see what they come up with first. If we don't like it, we can always ask for a deviation then, right?

But I am thinking, since the prices seem to be in the same ballpark for one stops and nonstops, they have no real incentive to not put us on a nonstop. And, if they absolutely have to fly us via San Francisco or Vancouver, I could live with that...In fact, for us, we could almost take San Francisco, skip the LAX-SFO portion of the flight, head up there a couple of days early and spend some time with our daughters--who live in San Francisco and Sacramento!

 

Only thing that would disturb me is to get routed hours out of our way, say, LAX to Beijing via Hong Kong or Manila...

[caribill]

But I am thinking, since the prices seem to be in the same ballpark for one stops and nonstops, they have no real incentive to not put us on a nonstop.

 

Airline prices to you may be about the same, but Viking may have pricing agreements with airlines which may make nonstops a different price than multi-stops.

 

At the time Viking made our flight arangements, the airline they chose from the USA had just arranged landing rights in China and flight schedules were not yet published. When the details finally arrived, it had us on the return leaving the hotel about 4 AM to get to the Beijing airport. When I asked about switching to a flight that did not require waking at 3 AM (after a full day in Beijing), I was told alternative flights could be arranged for about $3000 per person more.

Edited March 15, 2014 by caribill

[Going Coastal]

Thanks everyone. We had received them earlier than we expected for the Viking river cruise in Europe but I thought they might use a different count for China.

Hope all of you leaving soon have a wonderful trip and convenient flights!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[Nvadav]

Now I hope they are timely with their airline reservations...

IIRC, the Viking Website says 75 days out...and we are, right now, at 90...

So, I am hoping we get them by about two weeks from now...

Following the recent discussion, I thought I MIGHT just go straight to requesting a deviation, but being so close to the time, I figure I might as well wait and see what they come up with first. If we don't like it, we can always ask for a deviation then, right?

But I am thinking, since the prices seem to be in the same ballpark for one stops and nonstops, they have no real incentive to not put us on a nonstop. And, if they absolutely have to fly us via San Francisco or Vancouver, I could live with that...In fact, for us, we could almost take San Francisco, skip the LAX-SFO portion of the flight, head up there a couple of days early and spend some time with our daughters--who live in San Francisco and Sacramento!

 

Only thing that would disturb me is to get routed hours out of our way, say, LAX to Beijing via Hong Kong or Manila...

 

 

We are doing the Beijing to Shanghai with the Hong Kong extension starting April 28. We purchased our air through Viking since for Business Class it was a huge savings, we also did our own research and told our TA which flights would be ideal for us. She somehow passed that info along to her Viking rep and we were given our flight info and our hotel info last November, direct flight from Dulles Airport (20 mins from our home) to Beijing. Returning from Hong Kong was another story, there were no direct flights back to Dulles, so we have one stop in Chicago. We were even pretty specific about our seat assignments and got our preferred. Since we have a forced overnight, we were told that it was possible that our hotel for the forced overnight could be different from the hotel for the remainder of our stay in Beijing, we did ask that if possible we would of course prefer to stay in the same hotel and not have to move, that request was also granted. Our hotels are: Kerry hotel in Beijing, Crown Plaza in Xian, Westin, Bund Center in Shanghai, Shangri-La Hotel in Guilin, and the Kowloon Shangri-La in Hong Kong. In January one of the flights had an equipment change, and I got a call from our TA telling me what kind of plane we were getting and asking me what seats we wanted. Our TA and Viking have been extremely accommodating, and available to answer our many endless questions. We have not received our travel docs as yet, but I expect they will arrive in a timely manner as has everything else. Starting to get very very excited about this trip. T minus 6 weeks and counting:D

Edited March 16, 2014 by Nvadav

[Mark_T]

Our hotels are: Kerry hotel in Beijing, Crown Plaza in Xian, Westin, Bund Center in Shanghai

 

Same hotels we have been told for later in the year, so any comments after your trip would be welcome.

[SharonN]

We have not received our travel documents yet and our date is April 16 (Shanghai to Beijing). Our travel agent said we should get them about 3 weeks out so that is about a week away.

 

We're also on the Apr 16th trip and got a confirmation email from Fedex a couple of days ago that our documents will be delivered this Tue. Can't believe we're down to 4 weeks till our trip.

[milling73]

I'm sure this has been addressed somewhere in this thread, but can anyone suggest or recommend how much cash to take for the Jewels of China trip? And what currency / denomination?

 

We will be on the June 7 cruise Beijing to Shanghai, and have the Shanghai extension as well as 2 days prior in Beijing. Trying to get a handle on prices / currency accepted.

 

Thanks for any assist.

[caribill]

I'm sure this has been addressed somewhere in this thread, but can anyone suggest or recommend how much cash to take for the Jewels of China trip? And what currency / denomination?

 

We will be on the June 7 cruise Beijing to Shanghai, and have the Shanghai extension as well as 2 days prior in Beijing. Trying to get a handle on prices / currency accepted.

 

Thanks for any assist.

 

In general, Chinese currency is required everywhere except:

o some street venders will only accept US $, some only Yuan

o many tourist shops will accept either, but the conversion rate may not be great

o your Viking group leader will accept Chinese currency or US$

o the tips on the ship can be either Chinese currency of US$

 

How much money to bring depends on personnel factors:

o Do you like to purchase a number of souvenirs?

o Will you be using credit cards in the shops that accept them?

o Will you be doing some touring on your own and thus need more local currency for transportation, admission fees, meals, etc.?

 

In our case (with our habits), on the Jewels trip with no extensions, our cash outlays were about $300 in US $ and about US$150 equivalent in Chinese Yuan. Credit card charges were additional.

 

On the ship you can settle your account in cash or by credit card. We used a credit card.

 

We obtained our Chinese currency at an ATM at the airport when we landed using our credit union ATM card. There are also ATMs in the Viking hotels you will be staying at and you can usually exchange US$ for Yuan at the hotel front desk. Exchange rates are fixed by the government, so you would get the same rate at any ATM or the hotel desk.

 

Before leaving the tour and China, we used up our remaining Chinese currency as part of the tip to our Viking guide for the tour.

 

Remember that you cannot get large US currency bills exchanged for smaller denominations while in China, so bring the US currency in the $1, $5, $10, and $20 amounts you think you will need.

Edited March 18, 2014 by caribill

[milling73]

Great reply thanks.

 

Next question, can anyone recommend name / contact of private guide service for Beijing? Approximate price?

 

We have a full day on our own to sightsee before the tour starts, thought it would be great to see additional sights, but getting around on our own in that city, seems a little intimidating.

 

Thank you!!

[caribill]

Great reply thanks.

 

Next question, can anyone recommend name / contact of private guide service for Beijing? Approximate price?

 

We have a full day on our own to sightsee before the tour starts, thought it would be great to see additional sights, but getting around on our own in that city, seems a little intimidating.

 

Thank you!!

 

Use the search feature to look on this forum and also on part 1 for Beijing guide suggestions

[Peregrina651]

In general, Chinese currency is required everywhere except:

o some street venders will only accept US $, some only Yuan

o many tourist shops will accept either, but the conversion rate may not be great

o your Viking group leader will accept Chinese currency or US$

o the tips on the ship can be either Chinese currency of US$

 

How much money to bring depends on personnel factors:

o Do you like to purchase a number of souvenirs?

o Will you be using credit cards in the shops that accept them?

o Will you be doing some touring on your own and thus need more local currency for transportation, admission fees, meals, etc.?

 

In our case (with our habits), on the Jewels trip with no extensions, our cash outlays were about $300 in US $ and about US$150 equivalent in Chinese Yuan. Credit card charges were additional.

 

On the ship you can settle your account in cash or by credit card. We used a credit card.

 

We obtained our Chinese currency at an ATM at the airport when we landed using our credit union ATM card. There are also ATMs in the Viking hotels you will be staying at and you can usually exchange US$ for Yuan at the hotel front desk. Exchange rates are fixed by the government, so you would get the same rate at any ATM or the hotel desk.

 

Before leaving the tour and China, we used up our remaining Chinese currency as part of the tip to our Viking guide for the tour.

 

Remember that you cannot get large US currency bills exchanged for smaller denominations while in China, so bring the US currency in the $1, $5, $10, and $20 amounts you think you will need.

 

A couple of additions to caribill's list:

 

• There are no banking services of any kind on the ship. You cannot exchange money on the ship and you cannot break large bills of any currency on the ship. There is no ATM on the ship.

 

• Don't forget that the optional programs (Peking Duck Dinner, Beijing Opera and Tang Dynasty Show) are all charged to your ship board account. If you are paying this bill in cash and plan on attending any of the optionals, you will want to know to include it in your best guess cash needs estimate.

 

• Your ship board account is reckoned in yuan; depending on your credit card, you may incur a foreign transaction fee.

 

Will someone who cruised more recently than I did please comment if tips can be put on your ship board account. I don't want to confuse anyone.

[caribill]

• Your ship board account is reckoned in yuan; depending on your credit card, you may incur a foreign transaction fee.

 

Will someone who cruised more recently than I did please comment if tips can be put on your ship board account. I don't want to confuse anyone.

 

If you get a no annual fee Capital One visa or master card, there is no foreign transaction fee.

 

(Using credit cards on land may have a 3% credit card fee added just for using a credit card. This is a merchant's fee, not a fee from your bank.)

 

(Also on land, some merchants may want to convert the Yuan charge to US $ using a poor exchange rate. Before signing a slip, verify they are not doing this. If they are, ask for the charge to be in Yuan. If they claim not to understand, ask your Viking guide to translate for them.)

 

When we were on the ship a couple of years ago, the tip could be put on a credit card, but it was a seperate charge than the ship board account charge.

 

We used cash for the onboard ship tipping. There is a container you can put the envelope with the tip. That tip money is divided up among the entire crew, from laundry workers to head chef. What we did was tip the total suggested amount, but gave some directly to our main waitstaff in the dining room and our cabin attendant and put the rest in the general container.

[Turtles06]

Great reply thanks.

 

Next question, can anyone recommend name / contact of private guide service for Beijing? Approximate price?

 

We have a full day on our own to sightsee before the tour starts, thought it would be great to see additional sights, but getting around on our own in that city, seems a little intimidating.

 

Thank you!!

 

Yes indeed. Back in 2011, we used Sunflower Lee for two days of guided touring in Beijing (and to go out to the Great Wall at Mutianyu). She was wonderful; it was like seeing the city with an old friend. She really went above and beyond for us. It's actually not that hard to get around Beijing, but you can cover a lot more ground with someone who knows where she's going. (I can't recall what we paid, but it was pretty inexpensive by American standards.)

 

http://www.sunflowertourschina.com/index.htm

 

In case it's helpful to you in planning, here's a link to the summary that I posted of what we did in Beijing before the Viking tour started; we tried not to duplicate what we'd be seeing with Viking. Beijing is wonderful; we had a great time, and I'm sure you will too.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=29264391&postcount=4680

 

Edited to add: Sunflower's prices are on her web site. Duh! :-)

Edited March 19, 2014 by Turtles06

[Bruin Steve]

Okay...

Just to reinforce this, according to the Viking website:

 

CHINA

 

In China, we recommend that you tip in U.S. dollars. Guidelines:

• Onboard staff – $15 per passenger, per day

• Tour Escort – $10 per passenger, per day

• Local city guides – $2 per passenger, per day

• Coach drivers – $1 per passenger, per day

 

So, basically, at a minimum, for our 12 night China Jewels trip plus 4 night Hong Kong extension for two people, we should be prepared to tip in US dollars:

 

At the end of the 5 night river ship portion, $150 to the crew.

 

At the end of the 12 night program in Shanghai, $240 to the tour escort.

 

At the end of the four night Hong Kong extension, I assume there is another tour escort, so another $80.

 

Each of the touring days, assuming there is a city guide and a coach driver, $4 to the guide and $2 to the driver...so a total of $6 per day...which, if I read the schedule correctly is about 12 days with tours, so, a total of another $72...maybe a little less if not all tours have drivers.

 

Obviously, for exceptional service, or just to "round up" (say it feels more natural to give a guide a $5 Bill rather than four singles)...

 

But, as a minimum, this sounds like, if we don't put the ship tips on a card, to be prepared with at least $542 in tip money, correct?

 

Plus, I guess, there will be other places we should be prepared with money for tips? Hotel bell men, for example? What is customary in China?

 

So, I guess I am carrying approximately $600 in Tip money...in small bills..lots of $1s, $5s, $10s and $20s...

 

I'll bring some extra US cash, of course.

...AND my Capital One card...

...and my ATM card to purchase maybe $200 worth of Yuan when I get there...for walking around and small item shopping.

 

Anything I'm missing?

[Turtles06]

Okay...

Just to reinforce this, according to the Viking website:

 

CHINA

 

In China, we recommend that you tip in U.S. dollars. Guidelines:

• Onboard staff – $15 per passenger, per day

• Tour Escort – $10 per passenger, per day

• Local city guides – $2 per passenger, per day

• Coach drivers – $1 per passenger, per day

 

 

Interesting...when we were actually IN China, our Viking tour escort specifically recommended tipping the local guides and bus drivers in RMB. Unlike the tour escort, who is getting big tips and is regularly in and out of hotels and can more easily change money, the local guides and bus drivers aren't making a ton of cash and can't as easily change currency (particularly along the river). I would use Viking's recommendations for them above as amounts, but tip in local currency.

 

Besides the "global" tip to the staff on board the Emerald, like others we also gave separate tips to our cabin attendants and to the servers in the dining room who had been so great to us.

 

In terms of changing money, we brought some RMB with us, but then exchanged U.S. dollars in our hotels where, as noted above, the exchange rate is fixed by the government and is the same as if you were in a bank. (We had one hotel that was running a little short on cash and so we had to return to the desk later that day.)

[caribill]

• Local city guides – $2 per passenger, per day

• Coach drivers – $1 per passenger, per day

 

Agree with the above post. Tip the local folk in Yuan

 

 

Plus, I guess, there will be other places we should be prepared with money for tips? Hotel bell men, for example? What is customary in China?

 

 

Hotels, restaurants, cabs do not expect tipping.