Viking China (Part 2)

[franski]

Not sure if that's why he didn't get a ten year visa. My passport also expires n 2017 and I got the visa for the full 10 years. We did use GenVisa.

 

The Visa service was very clear that the Visa could be up to 10 years - based on the length of the passport.

 

Our Visas are glued into our passports (the same as with our visas for Russia....) - are yours? If so, what will you do when you renew your passport??

 

Fran

Edited August 5, 2015 by franski

[caribill]

Our Visas are glued into our passports (the same as with our visas for Russia....) - are yours? If so, what will you do when you renew your passport??

 

 

My experience has been that you present your new passport along with the valid visa that is in the expired passport.

 

(When you renew your USA passport, the old one is returned to you.)

[Mark_T]

As long as the visa isn't damaged when they invalidate the old passport you should be good to keep using it alongside the new passport.

 

China does have some rules about not issuing a 10 year visa when the passport is due to expire within a year but that doesn't seem to apply here...

[Peregrina651]

We are leaving on 8 days! Still packing...

Do we need to bring an electric convertor to charge our electronics? Will you guys share with us, what do you wish you new before you left? Any last minute advise is appreciated . We are also preparing to leave the kids ready for back to school so I know I am probably no thinking of something.

Thanks!

 

You don't need a converter because the charging devices are already designed to work with both 110 and 220 currents--but read the fine print on your charging devices to double check. However, you will need plug adapters to be able to plug the device into the sockets. Two or three European-style snake-eye adapters should be all you need--so you can charge multiple devices at a time. I have seen them in Target and Bed, Bath and Beyond--and online at Amazon.

 

You also might scan back in this thread to see if anyone has posted pictures of the adapters or the sockets--a pictures is worth a thousand words.

[OurBabymoon]

You don't need a converter because the charging devices are already designed to work with both 110 and 220 currents--but read the fine print on your charging devices to double check. However, you will need plug adapters to be able to plug the device into the sockets. Two or three European-style snake-eye adapters should be all you need--so you can charge multiple devices at a time. I have seen them in Target and Bed, Bath and Beyond--and online at Amazon.

 

You also might scan back in this thread to see if anyone has posted pictures of the adapters or the sockets--a pictures is worth a thousand words.

Thanks Peregrina. I do have an adapter plug, but I will still need an extra one, so I will check the suggested stores.[emoji6]

[Peregrina651]

[Peregrina651]

Thanks Peregrina. I do have an adapter plug, but I will still need an extra one, so I will check the suggested stores.[emoji6]

 

 

Google "plug adapter" for other store suggestions. Walmart and a few other places turned up when I googled looking for a picture to post.

 

 

And while we are talking about electronics/cameras, a few other reminders based on things I've run into on cruises. I'll spare you the anecdotes.:

 

• Practice with any new device before you leave home--especially that new camera you just bought for this trip.

 

• If you are using your phone/tablet for photos, figure out how long your battery is going to last and if you will have enough storage space for all the pictures you want to take. Will you have enough battery to get through the day or will it die after three hours because you are taking so many pictures?

 

• Check out your camera before you leave to make sure that it is in working order. Buying a new camera on this trip will not be easy; you are kept pretty busy while on land and won't really have time to shop. (Personally, I have no problem bringing multiple cameras for just that reason).

 

• Make sure you have all the cords, USB adapters and charging devices that you will need to charge your cameras, phones and computers. The cords are never interchangeable and you won't be able to borrow one. If you have multiple cables to bring, label them.

 

• Memory cards: download all of the pictures currently on your memory card and then FORMAT the card (FORMAT is usually found in the settings menu). While you are at it, bring at least one spare memory cards just in case something goes wrong with the one in the camera. Get the biggest memory card you can afford.

 

• Instruction manuals for your devices are available as PDFs on the manufacturer's website. Download them to your smartphone/tablet/laptop/notebook/e-reader. PDFs don't weigh as much as the manuals themselves; it is one less thing to lose; you are already bringing the smartphone/tablet/laptop/notebook/e-reader, so why not load it up. If you have a choice of manuals, go for the complete manual and not just the quick-start guide.

Edited August 5, 2015 by Peregrina651

[Live4cruises]

We have an adapter (it's not a converter) that has built in retractible prongs for every option out there. It has a place you can plug in your converter or device's electrical plug, and it has two USB ports. We used the USB ports almost exclusively to charge our tiny herd of phones and pads. The gizmo was about $20 on Amazon.

[franski]

My experience has been that you present your new passport along with the valid visa that is in the expired passport.

 

(When you renew your USA passport, the old one is returned to you.)

 

Our old one is only returned if you ask for it - and it is "punched" - so good for interest/keepsake purposes only. I wanted my old one because of the Russian Visa (everything printed in Russian - quite a novelty....)

 

As long as the visa isn't damaged when they invalidate the old passport you should be good to keep using it alongside the new passport.

 

China does have some rules about not issuing a 10 year visa when the passport is due to expire within a year but that doesn't seem to apply here...

 

DH's passport expires in January 2017 - but, that is a "sham" date - as you (usually) have to have 6 months left on your passport *after* the date you return. So, a 5 year passport only good for 4 1/2 years!! His visa expires 6 months before his passport expires. So, if we return to China again, he will need a new Visa.

 

We can only stay in China for 60 days - :D - but doubt I would ever need that much time in one visit.

 

Fran

Edited August 6, 2015 by franski

[caribill]

Our old one is only returned if you ask for it - and it is "punched" - so good for interest/keepsake purposes only. I wanted my old one because of the Russian Visa (everything printed in Russian - quite a novelty....)

 

 

 

Ours comes back with a hole punched also. That makes the passport invalid, but not any visa which countries allow when presented with a current passport.

[gnparend]

We have an adapter (it's not a converter) that has built in retractible prongs for every option out there. It has a place you can plug in your converter or device's electrical plug, and it has two USB ports. We used the USB ports almost exclusively to charge our tiny herd of phones and pads. The gizmo was about $20 on Amazon.

 

Be mindful electronics like camera chargers etc. should have an Input rating on the back showing INPUT 100-110 V and 220 - 240 V. These chargers will convert the input power supply will be converted to the output for the battery being charge. NOT ALL electrical devices can handle 220 volt. They typically wont smoke or melt but the internal electrical will be damaged and not useable. You will need an outlet adapter as noted above. USA uses 110 current most other countries do not.

[Mark_T]

Certainly check to be sure, but you will find that 110-240V 50/60Hz has been standard for a long time now on portable electronics (cameras, phones, tablets etc.) so it is rare to find one that isn't safe.

 

But do pay more attention to anything else you may bring with you like hairdryers, and other appliances that have a permanently attached power cord as this is where you are more likely to find a problem.

[CowgirlCook]

One nice thing - the ship and all hotels had hair dryers - very nice not to worry about that.

[gunner2412]

Is anybody going on the Viking River Tour starting in Shanghai on 22 September 2015. If you are what are your views on the hold baggage allowance and the suggested $15 per person per day gratuity for the crew and $10 for the tour guide on each tour

Edited August 9, 2015 by gunner2412

[OurBabymoon]

We booked a private tour with tour-beijing.com. I arranged it before we left home and booked a day tour, just the two of us with a car, a driver and a tour guide (our guide was Oliver and I highly recommend him!). They picked us up at our hotel (with all our luggage), took us first to the Summer Palace, then to the Pearl market near the Summer Palace, then drove us out to Mutianyu for lunch and the afternoon oN the wall. On the way back, Oliver took us to a tea ceremony, which was delightful. They then dropped us off at the Kerry hotel to join our Viking group. It was an excellent day! It is a long drive out to Mutianyu and I am not sure I would recommend trying to get there on your own, especially if you do not speak Chinese. Having the private guide took all of the worry and stress out of it and we had a marvellous day, well worth the added expense.

Hi, do you recall the tour number or approximately how much per couple?

The Westin concierge recommended a tour company, but looking at their website, the price for that day tour to Mutianyu and Summer Palace is different to what I have seen in other posts.

Thanks

[roothy123]

Enjoy your cruise....we did the Shanghai to Beijing cruise maybe 4-5 years ago. It was pretty amazing. My pictures are here if you want to take a look at what you might see: http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/china_oct_2011&page=all

 

Don't remember how much we tipped, but the Viking guide was excellent. She worked her butt off. The Yangtze (spelling?) was not the most beautiful river in the world (Rhine is much nicer) but the places we went along the river were fabulous. Hotels were top notch, too. One thing I didn't capture in my photos is the huge metropolis we passed one late evening on the river in thick fog - huge skyscrapers all clustered together. There are places along the river where we saw nobody for miles and then this place looms large out of the blue. Really startling and amazing, and we passed SO close. That's one thing I love about river cruising - the scenery is much better than on ocean cruises!

 

Try not to overpack. If you fly to different places on domestic airlines as we did, you'll be happy you didn't. The Chinese airlines are strict about enforcing the size and weight limits, and I think the carryons allowed were smaller than U.S. dimensions/weight.

 

I'm jealous - China was truly amazing. You'll see and do so much, and experience new things.

Edited August 10, 2015 by roothy123

[travellingqueen]

We sent the visas to Viking's recommended processor, Generations Visa, on July 10 and received them back today, August 4. Really excited about our trip on Viking Emerald - Shanghai to Beijing starting on October 10. We are leaving a week early to allow for transit and to do some private tours with China Odyssey before and after the Viking "voyage." Figure we may not return, so we want to see as much as possible before hand. Any ideas and thoughts are welcome.

 

Think we may be on the same cruise. We fly to Shanghai on the 11th October but don't join the Emerald till the 15th. Is this the same one?

[Host Jazzbeau]

Posts 4064 and 4066 have been moved into this thread from Viking Oceans. Please respond to help the new poster! Thanks.

[Peregrina651]

Posts 4064 and 4066 have been moved into this thread from Viking Oceans. Please respond to help the new poster! Thanks.

 

Thanks, JB!!

[caribill]

Is anybody going on the Viking River Tour starting in Shanghai on 22 September 2015. If you are what are your views on the hold baggage allowance and the suggested $15 per person per day gratuity for the crew and $10 for the tour guide on each tour

 

Not on that tour, but have gone in the past. Here are my views:

 

Luggage weight.:Try to stick with the checked luggage weight. They do weigh the luggage and if the total for the group is not out of line, there is no problem.

 

The weighing is not done in your presence. All of the luggage for your group is taken when you get off the bus at the airport and you next see it again at baggage pickup.

 

Tipping: When we went we stayed with the suggested amounts.

 

For the ship, the gratuity is shared by almost everyone in the crew. The only crew you really get a lot of attention from is in the dining room and your cabin attendant. In our case, we had the same wait staff in the dining room at almost every meal and gave them what we felt was an appropriate amount from the total. We did not give any directly to our cabin attendant who did an adequate job, but nothing special. We then dropped the rest in the collection box to be shared by the crew. This way the people who did the most for us received the most from us.

 

The onboard tipping can be done in three ways:

o Put on a charge card (in this case, you can't share part of it with specific people).

o US $

o Chinese Yuan

 

For our tour guide:

Everyone you speak to will say their tour guide is the best. That speaks to the high level of attention and performance each guide gives. In all probability, your tour guide (who stays with your particular group the entire tour) will be better than any group guide you have had when touring anywhere else.

 

The tour guides do deserve the suggested amounts. This is given to him/her on the last evening of the tour and can be in US$ or Chinese Yuan or a combination of both. We did a combination of currencies, using this as an opportunity to use up remaining Yuan that we had.

[Peregrina651]

Think we may be on the same cruise. We fly to Shanghai on the 11th October but don't join the Emerald till the 15th. Is this the same one?

 

That's right. You will both be on the October 12 cruise/tour.

 

This is confusing because most people think in terms of when they leave home as the start date (don't worry, it has taken me years to get used to this idea). But, the brochure date for your cruise/tour is October 12, which is basically "arrival day" for most of the passengers and is considered Day 1 of the package.

[gnparend]

Is anybody going on the Viking River Tour starting in Shanghai on 22 September 2015. If you are what are your views on the hold baggage allowance and the suggested $15 per person per day gratuity for the crew and $10 for the tour guide on each tour

 

Ocean Cruise lines are now at $12.95 per day for tipping and we typically would tip $10 to a tour guide on any tour land or sea if they are informative and friendly. All total the Tips and tour guide tip is a small part of the total cost for this trip. Also on Viking the tours are part of the package unlike some other Ocean or Land tours where there is an optional or excursion cost.

[PatriciaF]

We are touring Shanghai/Beijing in April. We are planning to stop in Hong Kong for 3 nights (2 full days) before Shanghai.

 

Any guidance/recommendations would be appreciated.

 

Also--our flight from HKG to Shanghai (PVG) arrives at 1130 AM--we will have to wait for hours at the airport for the transfer to our hotel?

 

Thank you so much.

 

PatriciaF

[gnparend]

We are going in May to Shanghai to Beijing and elected the Viking Air Plus option. They contacted us to submit our flight preference. So we went online and selected the best air travel plans we preferred with United. They said that United was one of their contract carriers and next day issued the booking Confirmation. The confirmation does indicate not ticketed but we were able to select our seating preference. The reservation also includes another couple traveling with us.

 

I know I have seen on prior post someone who was not pleased with Viking but it seemed they didn't look into there flight until just prior to leaving. We like to firm up our international travel in advance and we were very pleased not only did Viking allow us to research and suggest our preference but because it was one of there contract carriers booked the flight. I assume the reason it say not ticketed is they probably don't pay the contract this far in advance.

 

Experience has taught us to make sure you have confirmed seating and flights on International flights at least 60 days prior. So far very please with Viking arrangements now just waiting ti hear about the hotels and then 90 days out apply for our Visa. We have other trips ahead of this one but it's nice to get all the bookings out of the way. Now it's just fun time doing research and exploring what to see and do. We also elected to take advantage of the 2 day pre-extension in Shanghai.

[PatriciaF]

We are going in May to Shanghai to Beijing and elected the Viking Air Plus option

.

 

Wow--we are booked for April and I contacted our travel agency last week as I hadn't heard from Viking or from the agency. We were told it would take about 72 hours--so I will call back on Tuesday.

 

I am looking at Cathay Pacific--anyone know if that is one of the contract carriers?