Viking China (Part 2)

[caribill]

Leaving Beijing today for Xian, yesterday i walked left at the Great Wall it was muvh less busy than the right. The people of China are wonderful many just stare at us but a smile will get a big smile in return. We have one lady in our group with a bit of a mobility issue, she can walk short distances on her own but long distances can be challenging, she was saying how she let Viking know in advance and they had arranged a wheel chair and pusher both our Bejing tours. At the great wall the pusjer helped to actually walk up a portion, she was estatic, cost was $20.

 

Thanks for the report.

 

Glad the woman with the mobility issue was able to get onto the Great Wall.

[Rodie H]

A smile in the universal language!

[Peregrina651]

Don't feel too bad. Probably less than 3% of those cruising ever post to Cruise Critic and the percentage may be even less for river cruising.

 

That's the reason this thread is so popular as it covers many Viking River cruise experiences in China.

 

Look on the bright side. You have already broken the 3% participation rate. In fact, you have doubled it. Figuring a bus load of around 30 pax going to Tibet, just starting a roll call gives you an automatic 6%.

 

Here's my suggestion to Lola and to other Roof/Tibet pax, start an all 2014 or all 2015 roll call for Roof of the World (one for each year). You'll see roll calls like this in the river roll call forum for other itineraries.

[Going Coastal]

We have never had as much participation for river cruises as early as ocean cruises. And I think this thread is providing a lot of the information we are all looking for. The live reports are wonderful!

 

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[Happy Tourista]

We have never had as much participation for river cruises as early as ocean cruises. And I think this thread is providing a lot of the information we are all looking for. The live reports are wonderful!

 

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We got back from the Viking Roof of the the World trip last month. In many of my conversations with fellow passengers (say, for example, of why we opted out of the group Peking duck dinner and went to Made in China instead), I would say, "Well, from what I read on Cruise Critic...." I found that I kept citing information learned through this fabulous forum. No one on the cruise that I spoke with knew about CC. I found that so unusual, as all one has to do is google "Viking Roof of the World reviews" to discover CC. I'm the type of person who likes to read reviews of trips/hotels/cruises/restaurants I'm interested in and I'm always surprised that others don't seize information at their fingertips.

 

 

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[dkbustr]

We got back from the Viking Roof of the the World trip last month. In many of my conversations with fellow passengers (say, for example, of why we opted out of the group Peking duck dinner and went to Made in China instead), I would say, "Well, from what I read on Cruise Critic...." I found that I kept citing information learned through this fabulous forum. No one on the cruise that I spoke with knew about CC. I found that so unusual, as all one has to do is google "Viking Roof of the World reviews" to discover CC. I'm the type of person who likes to read reviews of trips/hotels/cruises/restaurants I'm interested in and I'm always surprised that others don't seize information at their fingertips.

 

I think everyone agrees that this is such a valuable tool, almost indispensable in fact! The amazing part about the whole thing, is that the people who fail to just do a little research on their upcoming trip, are the same people who moan and groan about things that happened throughout their trip, when they could have been informed individuals and prepared, just like us:D

 

MIke

[Kohola]

We will be staying at the Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai and would like to see the night light show while in Shanghai. Is it best to see it from the Riverside Promenade on the Pudong side of the river or along Huangpu Park on the Huangpu side of the river?

 

The signature photos of the Shanghai skyline are shot from the Bund side since the largest cluster of skyscrapers are concentrated in one area of the PuDong district. When trying to shoot the same image from the PuDong side the buildings are too close and too tall to capture an overall skyline, but you can get nice shots of individual buildings and the Pearl Tower lit. The skyscrapers looking west are scattered across Shanghai so it doesn't form a distinct skyline for a nice nighttime photo.

 

It's a nice stroll along the Bund at night to the Park. Your guide may or may not explain the architecture of the World Financial Center known as "The Sword" having an aperture in the structure at the top; engineers may say it is more efficient in the mitigation of the various forces acting upon the building...but the true reason is so dragons are free to fly through it.;) Also the two bridges spanning the river on either side of the Oriental Pearl represent twin dragons playing with the pearls of the Tower. The World Financial Center has observation platform open to the public around the 100 story including a glass floor which would be an ideal place to take pictures of the entire area at night.

 

This is the view from our hotel room at the RitzCarlton with the communist headquarters building right next door. Unfortunately the red star is not lit.

Examples of western architecture along the Bund looking toward Huangpu Park.

Typical skyline of PuDong at night.

View from the PuDong side towards the Bund. The Westin Hotel is to the far left. The skyline is not very captivating.

Shot from the PuDong side showing the skyline...just not the same effect as shooting across the river. The hole(aperture) in the SWFC is visible here.

[Rodie H]

Dkbustr

 

Ditto to your remarks. Better to have an idea of what to do, see, and expect than go in cold. We are on the same flight as your group. Took care of that today.

Gilda

[sisterpower]

My sister and I have just returned from our Terra Cotta Warror tour, which was amazing. A tip if you want china t-shirts by at the shop at the Great Wall Viking gets special pricing. I bought a set of five warriors from a guy selling out of his backpack at the museum for $20 at the gov't store they were $70 (although better quality) which was not important to me. The Hilton Xian buffet is amazing, same goes for the Ritz in Bejing but the surrounding area in Bejing had a nice park to walk around which is not the case in Xian. The buffet at the government store was good with home made noodles prepared in front of you. Internet has been no trouble.

[irocks]

Thank you for sharing your photos. Very helpful.

[WCROSBY9]

HOW WAS THE DINNER?

WAS IT HELD AT HUA @ Wangfujing?

WOULD IT PAY TO GO TO MADE IN CHINA OR DA DONG INSTEAD?

Edited July 14, 2014 by WCROSBY9

[Bruin Steve]

HOW WAS THE DINNER?

WAS IT HELD AT HUA @ Wangfujing?

WOULD IT PAY TO GO TO MADE IN CHINA OR DA DONG INSTEAD?

 

My answer to this was back at post #3059:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=43161716&postcount=3059

 

I thought it was pretty good...

But I can't compare it to those other places since we didn't go to those...

Our logic in doing it this way was:

We considered Black Sesame Kitchen, but they were closed, though operating sporadically out of the Orchid Hotel...

We were sort of tired those first couple of free nights in Beijing as we were recovering from 13 hours of flight and 15 hours of time zone changes...we did not feel like finding taxis across town and back and dealing with a three hour dinner...thought it was better to eat in one of the restaurants conveniently close to our hotel. Also, the Viking dinner had a little of a family feel to it as we were dining with a few other couples with whom we were about to go through a 17 night experience. The meal is a lot more than just the food....

[sisterpower]

A week and a bit in on the "Imperial Jewels" tour - we went through the locks a bit early it was amazing. A tip to anyone going on the tour in the summer months as soon as you get on the ship ask for a dehumidifier we have been sharing ours with another couple and it really helps with the comfort in our room. Wifi is not available on the ship at all the ship's computers work best in the early morning (6 am). Tia Chi is held each morning and is a great way to wake your body for the day. Before doing this trip I had read many reviews stating there was too much chinese food once on the ship we have only had one lazy susan night with chinese food but if that was not to your taste you could order a western style meal for dinner. So far the food has been pretty good I definately have put on some weight :p

[Carol From California]

A week and a bit in on the "Imperial Jewels" tour - we went through the locks a bit early it was amazing. A tip to anyone going on the tour in the summer months as soon as you get on the ship ask for a dehumidifier we have been sharing ours with another couple and it really helps with the comfort in our room. Wifi is not available on the ship at all the ship's computers work best in the early morning (6 am). Tia Chi is held each morning and is a great way to wake your body for the day. Before doing this trip I had read many reviews stating there was too much chinese food once on the ship we have only had one lazy susan night with chinese food but if that was not to your taste you could order a western style meal for dinner. So far the food has been pretty good I definately have put on some weight :p

 

Yes, there was only one Chinese meal on the ship but the majority of the other meals when not on the ship were Chinese meals served with a lazy susan and got pretty monotonous.

[caribill]

Yes, there was only one Chinese meal on the ship but the majority of the other meals when not on the ship were Chinese meals served with a lazy susan and got pretty monotonous.

 

If I was on a tour of Mexico, I would expect to be fed a lot of Mexican food (and not Tex-Mex).

 

If I was on a tour in India I would expect to be fed a lot of Indian food.

 

To me it is not a surprise to be fed a lot of Chinese food when on a tour in China, even if they do have a large number of KFC outlets.

[pacheco18]

Does viking handle special meal requests?

Vegetarian eg?

 

 

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[caribill]

Does viking handle special meal requests?

Vegetarian eg?

 

 

Yes.

 

On board there was no problem getting nice vegetarian meals, also meals with no added salt. We just met with the head of the dining room once we boarded.

 

For the land portion we let our guide know at the start of the trip about the vegetarian need. At each restaurant while on tours the guide would work with the restaurant staff (who spoke limited English) to make sure the vegetarian need was met. Sometimes a special vegetable plate was made. Sometimes it was a matter of avoiding the non-vegetarian foods on the lazy Susan.

[Carol From California]

If I was on a tour of Mexico, I would expect to be fed a lot of Mexican food (and not Tex-Mex).

 

If I was on a tour in India I would expect to be fed a lot of Indian food.

 

To me it is not a surprise to be fed a lot of Chinese food when on a tour in China, even if they do have a large number of KFC outlets.

 

Yes of course. I am not saying that I expected not to be served Chinese food in China. I love Chinese food. I was just saying it got somewhat monotonous every day to basically eat the same type of meal. They took us by bus loads to restaurants, hotels or banquet halls with pretty much the same meal each time.

[irocks]

Is the acrobat show we see in Shanghai the ERA Acrobat Show?

[Kohola]

Is the acrobat show we see in Shanghai the ERA Acrobat Show?

No, if you're interested in finding out more about them just google acrobat show at the Ritz Carlton Shanghai to find various reviews.

[WCROSBY9]

a week and a bit in on the "imperial jewels" tour - we went through the locks a bit early it was amazing. A tip to anyone going on the tour in the summer months as soon as you get on the ship ask for a dehumidifier we have been sharing ours with another couple and it really helps with the comfort in our room. Wifi is not available on the ship at all the ship's computers work best in the early morning (6 am). Tia chi is held each morning and is a great way to wake your body for the day. Before doing this trip i had read many reviews stating there was too much chinese food once on the ship we have only had one lazy susan night with chinese food but if that was not to your taste you could order a western style meal for dinner. So far the food has been pretty good i definately have put on some weight :p

could you give us a sample of some of the dinners while on the ship??

 

Thx

[caribill]

could you give us a sample of some of the dinners while on the ship??

 

 

 

Hope these pictures help

 

 

 

 

Edited July 17, 2014 by caribill

[Going Coastal]

Thank you for posting. And how nice they do demo plates.

 

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[sisterpower]

could you give us a sample of some of the dinners while on the ship??

 

Thx

 

The ship has different meals each night but also a standard menue of steak, sol, and chicken; other meals where an appetizer (you can have one or more) salad, soup of the day, a pasta dish, vegetarian dish, beef or chicken. One evening i ordered thr cajin chicken and the shrimp stir fry as i could not decide. Lunch is buffet plus a selection of menu items which change daily. Hope that answers your question.

[Rodie H]

Thank you for posting menus. Nice selection seem like.