Celebrity Cruise Excursions - Beijing

[Martyboy1]

Hi There,

 

My wife and I travelling on a Celebrity Cruise (Millennium) in April 2015, starting in Hong Kong and includes (Tianjin) Beijing among other ports.

 

I have been looking at the Celebrity cruise tours whilst in Beijing, i.e. Great Wall of China, overnight hotel in Beijing and then on the second day touring Beijing, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven and the Birds Nest (Olympic Stadium).

All to include travel from Tianjin to Beijin and return.

 

As I think that the Celebrity Cruises excursions are quite expensive, I am looking at doing an external excursion of the above sites.

 

Has anyone any thoughts or may be able to advise on which tour company can help me on the about tours or indeed want to join forces on the above excursions: so that we can make the above more reasonably priced.

 

Thanks & regards

 

Martyboy1:

[didicruiser]

I returned last month from a 2 week land tour in China. I just wanted to say that your expections of sites to see there will be impossible esp allowing time to return to the ship. Traffic in Beijing is horrible; subway is better for some of the sites. Probably best to prioritize want you want to see.

[WAVTAM]

Hi There,

 

My wife and I travelling on a Celebrity Cruise (Millennium) in April 2015, starting in Hong Kong and includes (Tianjin) Beijing among other ports.

 

I have been looking at the Celebrity cruise tours whilst in Beijing, i.e. Great Wall of China, overnight hotel in Beijing and then on the second day touring Beijing, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven and the Birds Nest (Olympic Stadium).

All to include travel from Tianjin to Beijin and return.

 

As I think that the Celebrity Cruises excursions are quite expensive, I am looking at doing an external excursion of the above sites.

 

Has anyone any thoughts or may be able to advise on which tour company can help me on the about tours or indeed want to join forces on the above excursions: so that we can make the above more reasonably priced.

 

Thanks & regards

 

Martyboy1:

 

Assuming the Tianjin stop is for 2 or 3 days ..Correct. We have traveled China extensively and on our last April 2012 run with 23days, I organized and private tour, with all transportation, English guides, 3 days of tours, three meals a day and two nights of lighting. I even had throw in free water bottles and headsets.

Took 125 people on 3 buses and the total was 300 US/pp. Much cheaper then Celebrity. They even organized a meeting room on ship , so we could disembark early , get thru immigration and get on our way. Instead of me giving names, suggest you just review the April 2012 Hong Kong to Shanghai April run on the Milly and you see all the private yours that were arranged. I also did tours in Taipei , Shanghai and Tokyo.

[Martyboy1]

Hi Wavtam,

 

Thank you for your response.

Yes you are right, we will be docked in Tianjin for 2 nights, 3 days.

We are only looking for 2 days tours with an overnight stay in Beijing of which I would organise the hotel overnight stay.

 

As I am new to posting on Cruise Critic, and am just trying to learn my way around the forums and reviews, could you please either let me know the names and contact details of the excursion companies that you used, or could you copy the April 2012 review that you mentioned in your response, as I am not sure I know where to look for you review.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[cpj]

There are many good tour companies in China who provide transportation to the port. They are a lot cheaper then Celebrity. Do your homework.

[harz99]

Martyboy1, having been to China before on a month long land tour, I trawled all the main tour operators for a tailor made trip not taking in the standard sites. The ONLY one willing to work with my wishes was Chinahighlights.com so they are probably a good place to start for you! One thing worth bearing in mind is that immigration in Tianjin is very very slow on the first day, and the ships tours are all first off, so don't plan too much day one, maybe just to Beijing and uour hotel.

 

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Edited November 1, 2014 by harz99

[TMLAalum]

Your roll call for your sailing will probably have others on your cruise who are organizing private tours to Beijing.

 

We booked with Catherine Lu this past April and had a jam-packed time with her and our 21 roll call mates staying 2 nights in Beijing at the Park Plaza.

 

Hopefully you will be able to join in a private tour. Ours was wonderful. BTW we gathered early and were off the ship and through the lengthy Chinese immigration process before 10 am.

[Martyboy1]

Hi TMLAalum,

 

You mentioned "Find your roll call", as I am new to Cruise Critic and posting to forums etc, I am trying to learn about these differnt terms.

 

Could you please tell what you mean by roll call, what you do when you find it, and how do I find roll call for my particular sailing.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Regards

 

Martyboy1

[gek]

We just returned form a Millie cruise with a stop in Tianjin. We agonised over the options and eventually chose the 2-day Beijing Celebrity excursion. I think the 3-day option would have been a bit of a waste as the shorter tour covered all the important sites and only missed pointless things like rickshaw rides, foot massages and dumpling dinners.

 

When we arrived in Tianjin and witnessed the immigration delays we were quite happy we had chosen the ship's tour. It gave us more than enough time in the afternoon at the Temple of Heaven and Forbidden city as well as a delicious lunch.

 

As far as price, we had considered a 3-day private tour which was the same cost as the Celebrity 2-day option. Either way would have been good but the latter gave us the option of going into Tianjin city on the 3rd day. We eventually decided against it because the climb up 1500 steps at the Great Wall had worn us out. We had a nice quiet day on a mostly deserted ship instead.

[smtcan]

In April this year we did a twenty day land tour of China. We selected this after agonizing over a cruise, but decided that since most of the things we wanted to see were inland the cost of adding these onto a cruise would be too high.

 

We had three days in Beijing, and they were packed, without adding the transfer from the port. We spent one day in Tienamin square, the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven. This involved a lot of walking - one of our group had a pedometer and told us we had walked nine kilometres mostly on cobble stones. The second day we went to the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs and the third day we had an interesting visit to the Hutongs with a rickshaw ride, the Summer Palace and the Olympic Park.

 

I would recommend looking at some of the Chinese tour companies in order to maximize your time in the city. Two of the companies we looked at were Travel China Guide and China Spree. They were very prompt in replying to emails and making suggestions for itineraries. We eventually booked with a Canadian based company because when air fare was included their price could not be matched.

 

Beijing is a very interesting city, and worthy of as much time as you can spend there. A small group tour will give you more flexibility and you will probably see more.

[harz99]

Hi TMLAalum,

 

You mentioned "Find your roll call", as I am new to Cruise Critic and posting to forums etc, I am trying to learn about these differnt terms.

 

Could you please tell what you mean by roll call, what you do when you find it, and how do I find roll call for my particular sailing.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Regards

 

Martyboy1

 

Go to the box at the top of this page, click on "cruise critic message board forums", when that opens the 4th box down has the roll call section, click on "Celebrity Connexions", then the ship you want and then scroll through the list to find your sailing. You could try doing a search, but as people use different formats for thread titles (despite there being CC guidance on the format to use) that doesn't always work.

 

BTW, it is often helpful to those offering advice if you include at least the country you live in under the "location" section of your personal info.

[TMLAalum]

I was just going to find your sailing and post the exact link and saw that you posted on your roll call!

 

You will find it an invaluable source of information and a great way to develop friendships.

 

BTW, our avatar photo was taken in a rickshaw in Beijing's hutong district. As a previously posted, our Beijing itinerary was jam-packed and the rickshaw ride included was one of the highlights for us

Edited November 2, 2014 by TMLAalum

[Martyboy1]

Assuming the Tianjin stop is for 2 or 3 days ..Correct. We have traveled China extensively and on our last April 2012 run with 23days, I organized and private tour, with all transportation, English guides, 3 days of tours, three meals a day and two nights of lighting. I even had throw in free water bottles and headsets.

Took 125 people on 3 buses and the total was 300 US/pp. Much cheaper then Celebrity. They even organized a meeting room on ship , so we could disembark early , get thru immigration and get on our way. Instead of me giving names, suggest you just review the April 2012 Hong Kong to Shanghai April run on the Milly and you see all the private yours that were arranged. I also did tours in Taipei , Shanghai and Tokyo.

 

Hi Wavtam,

 

Thank you for your response.

Yes you are right, we will be docked in Tianjin for 2 nights, 3 days.

We are only looking for 2 days tours with an overnight stay in Beijing of which I would organise the hotel overnight stay.

 

As I am new to posting on Cruise Critic, and am just trying to learn my way around the forums and reviews, could you please either let me know the names and contact details of the excursion companies that you used, or could you copy the April 2012 review that you mentioned in your response, as I am not sure I know where to look for you review.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[WAVTAM]

Marty, Do what was mention and just go to the Milly April 2012 cruise Hong Kong to Shanghai.

Catherine Lu is a good operated, but she is limited in group size. I actually booked with a Chicago company as they could handle the 125 that went. There where about 20 different size private tours for the 3 days.

See all the major sites, but don't forget to have operator save some time for "knock-off shopping". Greatest bargains in the world!!!

[harz99]

Marty, Do what was mention and just go to the Milly April 2012 cruise Hong Kong to Shanghai.

 

Not sure that is very helpful to a newbie. If you put that text into the search function it will just lead back to your post!!!

[Martyboy1]

Not sure that is very helpful to a newbie. If you put that text into the search function it will just lead back to your post!!!

 

Harz, thanks for your post. you are right, being a newbie, as you put it, I have struggled to find that post, but I am still looking.

[harz99]

Harz, thanks for your post. you are right, being a newbie, as you put it, I have struggled to find that post, but I am still looking.

 

I can't see that he has started any threads by that title so I "think" he may be referring to this roll call which has 173 pages and is for 2013, not 2012!

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1431296

 

Good luck.

 

PS You will probably be best starting on the last page and working back, but probably still lots of "chat" to wade through before any info of use to you.

Edited November 2, 2014 by harz99

[coldweathergirl]

We were on the Millennium this spring and also stopped in Tianjin. We hired Vivie Pan. She was absolutely fabulous and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend her. She arranged our three days with her to see the maximum number of sights. She escorted us on the Great Wall and at all of the other sites and gave us a phenomenal amount of detailed information and history. Several other people that we bumped into told us that their guides wouldn't accompany them at the sites.

 

We've traveled extensively and she was probably one of the best guides we've ever had. We stayed two nights at the Hilton Wangfujing which we organized on our own.

 

 

 

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[ghstudio]

We've done two land trips to China. The first arranged through a canadian China specialist TA recommended by friends....wonderful guides, wonderful hotels, not so wonderful price. We asked the guides if they worked for that company and found that they all worked for China International Travel Service Guilin. The second trip, we booked directly with CITS-Guilin and had similar wonderful guides (excellent english, perhaps better than ours), wonderful hotels and now that we were dealing directly, wonderful prices. I would recommend that you at least check out what they can offer you on a private tour...chinahighlights.com. We would definitely use them again.

[WAVTAM]

I can't see that he has started any threads by that title so I "think" he may be referring to this roll call which has 173 pages and is for 2013, not 2012!

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1431296

 

Good luck.

 

PS You will probably be best starting on the last page and working back, but probably still lots of "chat" to wade through before any info of use to you.

 

Thanks for verifying is was 2013 and NOT 2012. After 90 cruises . I start to lose tract.

[harz99]

We've done two land trips to China. The first arranged through a canadian China specialist TA recommended by friends....wonderful guides, wonderful hotels, not so wonderful price. We asked the guides if they worked for that company and found that they all worked for China International Travel Service Guilin. The second trip, we booked directly with CITS-Guilin and had similar wonderful guides (excellent english, perhaps better than ours), wonderful hotels and now that we were dealing directly, wonderful prices. I would recommend that you at least check out what they can offer you on a private tour...chinahighlights.com. We would definitely use them again.

 

Good to see you also recommending them!:D

[joandian]

How did you all cope with the smog or was that not an issue? I was in Beijing a week ago and had several hours layover between flights and the smog was horrible. I was wondering how those with allergies coped. We hope to cruise China sometime soon but I'm now having second thoughts due to allergy issues.

[ghstudio]

On our first visit to Beijing, we had a room that overlooked the forbidden city, so we were told. We couldn't see across the street. Day 2 we could see a bit further on the other side of the street. Day 3 clear view of the forbidden city just a block or so away. The only way to miss smog in Beijing is luck....

[TMLAalum]

How did you all cope with the smog or was that not an issue? I was in Beijing a week ago and had several hours layover between flights and the smog was horrible. I was wondering how those with allergies coped. We hope to cruise China sometime soon but I'm now having second thoughts due to allergy issues.

 

DH went online and ordered special masks with charcoal filters for us prior to our cruise that included 3 days/2 nights in Beijing followed by a 9-day land/Yangtze cruise tour of China. He wore his a couple of times, but not in Beijing. I never wore mine. I did have a nagging cough for about a month after our return from China but whether it can be attributed to their smog IDK...DH didn't have the cough as much as I did so maybe the mask was a help!

 

The worst city for smog was Xian! There was a pervasive odor that reminded me of Secaucus NJ back in the day. And the smog was fairly prevalent as we cruised the Yangtze. Our guides would say it wasn't smog but either fog or dust:rolleyes:.

[uktog]

Don't ask about smog :( It is a nightmare

 

One thing to bear in mind, linked to smog if it hits a certain level significant traffic restrictions are put into place (certainly our regular chauffeurs cannot drive us as they do not fall into a privileged category) - I am not sure how you would stand if you were using a private tour to get back to Tianjin. If you were on a ships trip I would expect you are more likely to be waited for etc.

 

Personally as one who has to "enjoy" Beijing and the surrounding area for several weeks a year, I would use ships tours from Tianjin. There are too many imponderables - traffic, local authority issues with rules likely to be changed on a whim, smog etc etc. I know it has worked for many but it would not take a lot for a problem to hit you

 

Re the smog, this is the site we monitor daily when working in Beijing

 

http://aqicn.org/city/beijing/

Edited November 3, 2014 by uktog