river cruising Asia

[dw64]

Has anyone ever cruised the Yangtze River? Need info. dw64@aol.com Thanks

[kuldalai]

With the Yangtze you basically have two options to cruise :

- 7 days Shanghai to Chong Qing or Vice versa.

- 3 - 4 days Yichang to Chong Qing or v.v.

 

Both cruises take in the Three Gorges Dam (5 step locks) , the Three Gorges and the Lesser Side Gorges and Yanning sidestream .

 

The longer cruise also takes in the highlight of Yellow Mountain , and Nanking .

 

There are heaps of Companies operating, all of good quality and great boats and food.

 

It is only a few hours tarvel by good road from Chong Qing to Cheng Du home of the Pandas and well worth the side trip.

 

Definitely go, preferably from Shanghai on the longer 7 day trip .

[alexandra cruiser]

a few companies have land/river cruise s.Know Viking,etc.does.Use Search area on top of CC page too.Or try even googling topic for more links.;)

[greatam]

I posted this on another thread when someone asked about a Yangtze cruise. Enjoy!!!

 

 

I have taken two Yangtze River cruises. One with Victoria I booked myself direct with their NYC office and the first trip on the Princess Jeanie I booked through a Chinese TA.

 

If you want a very sanitized, Americanized trip, take Viking. Princess Jeanie was MUCH MORE CHINESE and much more fun even though the Victoria ships are very luxurious and may be more to the liking of Americans. I didn't think so but I am always looking for out of the box experiences.

 

Kite flying off the stern of the ship (we actually had kite making lessons), Tai Chi every morning (most of the crew participated), origami and calligraphy lessons and the trip was from Chongqing to Wuhan without that horrible crappy bus ride from Yichang. The three Princess ships are the only ones who go all the way to Wuhan downstream (unless you are going all the way to Shanghai) and they have a great tour of the dam and surrounding area. The entertainment was a hoot-VERY Chinese but that's what you go to China for.

 

The Captain spoke very limited English but was very personable and a lot of fun at the Captain's cocktail party. Lots of free champagne and mimosa's. Great bar at the front of the ship with huge windows and a lot of peace and quiet. It was rarely crowded. Food was buffet with both Chinese and Western foods. While not 5* dining, it was still good food and we certainly didn't starve and were always able to find something to our liking. Breakfast was a HUGE American spread with all the special Asian fruits, noodles and dumplings as well.

 

When we first boarded, I took one look at the cabin and was thinking, what did I get myself into? It was VERY small compared to American cruise ships. We were immediately offered an upgrade to a two room suite for an additional $650. We jumped and couldn't have made a better decision. Very large living room with a kitchenette (coffee maker, microwave and small refrigerator), very European bath with bidet, king size bed and HUGE windows. There are no balcony rooms on these ships and I think that was an advantage. You were forced out onto the deck and were much more apt to mingle with the crew and other passengers and be "involved" in the culture and get little "inside" tips from everyone. We met a guy from Australia who was on his 6th Regal trip. He had been on 4 other ships. He was somehow connected to an engineering firm that sold the turbines for the dam. He said the Regal ships were the best for most of the same reasons I posted. And this was our first trip, so I got to compare when we took Victoria. The ship was extremely clean.

 

The price totaled about $1500 (2005) for 5 days with all shore excursions included. The price is not much more today except it is now 4 days, 3 nights if you go downstream. 6 nights upstream from Wuhan.

 

If I was going to do it again, I would take another of the Regal cruise ships just for the much more Chinese experience. Don't know anything about this Chinese TA but this gives you info about the ship and excursions. Enjoy!!!

http://www.tourschina.com/yangtze-cr...rary-price.htm

[beadshopper]

Our family sailed Chongqing to Yichang on President Prime last yer - we had a great trip!!

 

We booked through our local travel agent.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[aqua]

Has anyone done a river cruise recently? Does anyone have any experience with President Prime Lines? We would like to do a 4 day/3 night downstream from Chongqing to Yichang

itinerary. Any suggestions and advice are greatly appreciated! Thank you.