Yangtze River Cruise and China Tour with Gate 1 - Full Review with Photos

[CupKayke]

After our first morning on the boat, considered cruise day #2 because embarkation was last night, we had a choice of morning and afternoon activities. Today's "newspaper" from Victoria Cruises is the only one that did not make it home with me but I do have a semi-bad picture of it that I took when it was posted on deck 5:

 

This morning your choice of activity was:

- Dr. Hu lecture on Chinese Medicine at 9am in Deck 5 lounge or

- Victoria Cruises optional excursion to "Tribe of the Gorges" - this was 280 RMB, you signed-up at the front desk, and I heard this tour involved a lot of steps, they took a member of our group and a member of the Chinese group, dressed them in traditional Tujia tribe costumes, and performed a marriage ceremony plus they saw some nice scenery.

 

We signed-up for the "one excursion per day" package ahead of time with Gate 1 Travel and I didn't really want to do any more than that so I think my husband and I may have been the only couple from Gate 1 that opted out of the optional excursion this morning ~ which surprised me when I realized this.

 

I loved my morning, however. I sat in the Deck 5 Lounge/Bar area (lots of seating with big windows all around) and used the Internet while also listening in the background to the Dr. Hu Chinese medicine lecture. It was a calm, relaxing, good morning for us. Now that I remember correctly, there were a couple of other people from our Gate 1 group that I believe showed-up in the lounge that morning for tea or coffee so we might not have been the only ones but several people did opt for the Victoria Cruises morning option excursion. Several were also a tad bit disappointed (too many steps, etc) and they came back, ate lunch, and went back out on another excursion. I think it was too much for some. After that, no one from our group signed-up for anymore additional Victoria Cruises excursions. LOL

 

The Dr. Hu presentation was okay. He was using some sort of lotion to do a massage on someone up front and it smelled wonderful - like Bath & Body works brown sugar vanilla.

 

Internet, by the way, is only available on Deck 5 in the lounge. It is wireless. It works slow but well - but only when the ship is docked somewhere. I had no problem sending a brief message and picture to my parents each day and they received it, each day.

 

Today ended-up being a beautiful day! The sun came out and warmed-up and it was upper-50s today - warm and beautiful. I took a one hour nap after the Dr. Hu lecture and my Internet time, we had a small lunch, and this afternoon we had an excursion - part of our 3-excursion package with Gate 1 Travel. We went to see the famous Three Gorges Dam.

 

 

 

This is the second largest dam in the world (now) as Brazil built a larger one. My husband loved this excursion and I thought it was so-so. I liked the small village where we debarked and our guide for the day was a local village resident, Teddy, who was HILARIOUS and I really, really liked him and his stories. We also toured some gardens next to the dam site which I enjoyed as I love gardening and plants, in general. We met downstairs in the lobby (deck 2) at 1:15pm and we were back on the boat by 4:00pm. The excursions were never too long or too short - just perfect, IMHO!

 

 

Teddy, our hilarious dam guide for the day:

We were all asked to tip him $1 to $2 for the day - USD - and envelope was sent around the bus and everyone put money in and it was handed to him at the end of the tour. This is how they handled the daily river/tour guides. Also, for the daily bus drivers we were asked to give them $1 USD. And yes, USD were taken pretty much everywhere we went but the local grocery stores and side stores in Beijing and Shanghai. The villages, however, would take US dollars and Yuan. You always got a better deal if you had your Yuan/RMB, IMHO. We carried small bills of both constantly. Since I'm writing about it, the boat will exchange US dollars for Yuan in seconds, no fees, no questions asked, quick-quick-quick - just go at the cashier on the 2nd level/lobby area. They gave us 6.8 Yuan for each $1 USD. You could hand them a $20 US bill and they would give you 136 Yuan/RMB, for example. No problem. This was the best exchange rate we got anywhere and our tour guide recommended we use them. The hotel in Shanghai did the same thing but their rate was 6.2.

 

[CupKayke]

Cruise Day 2, Three Gorges Dam, Continued…

After every tour there is always a market or village to walk through - every day. Our guide always asked us to check out the items for sale after the day's tour and we almost always had time to do so. Today's little village was a good one with lots of interesting items for sale.

They were selling everything from fish to oranges to Smirnoff to purses, maps of China and fans. Everything is negotiable. Everything. If they ask 40 for a doll and you say 10 and they say no 30 and you say 10 and they say 20 is all and then you walk off, they will take 10. I am not a good bargain person but I only had 10 left when I saw the doll so that's how I know that. Others thought the prices were so reasonable they didn't bargain. Others were fantastic at bargaining and got very nice Mahjong sets for 50 Yuan - in cases and everything - big sets. So, there are deals to be had everywhere if you are interested in getting some things to consume or to take home. We saw lots of beautiful Chinese dolls, scarfs, tea sets or tea pots (big and little - I bought a medium-sized set), hats (Communist hats, not baseball-type hats), Mahjong sets, kids toys, etc almost everywhere. One day you would see plastic Smurfs for sale and the next day you would see tupperware-type items. If you saw something you liked, you should buy it because you might not see it again.

Most of the market area was covered:

There were some great picture opportunities today RIGHT AT THE DOCK, as well:

The tour was over before 4pm and was nice and easy, by the way. You took outdoor escalators up to the dam site and the walk down was slow and easy, terraced.

There was a movie listed for your room TV at 4:15pm but we were never able to get our TV to work the entire cruise and neither were our neighbors. This was a not important to us so we never asked - we might have been doing something wrong.

There was a Captain's Reception at 6:15pm on Deck 5. If you read the newspaper you will see it says "Casual or Smart Casual" and that meant nothing to any of us and even our guide laughed about it. He said they post that because that is what Americans requested but everyone, this entire trip, wore leggings or walking pants and jeans. Not one time did I see any Gate 1 woman in dress pants or any man in khakis. This tour did not call for it and I was very glad about that as we did not pack any dressy-type clothes. Actually, come to think of it, this tour was MUCH more laid-back than I had anticipated and I wish I would have packed 3 or 4 pairs of leggings/yoga pants and one pair of jeans instead of vice versa as that is what most people wore every day, including our tour guide. I thought this was a very relaxed, comfortable, appropriate dress for lots of walking & touring. I liked it. Lesson learned.

So, back to the Captain's Reception. My husband was reading and I was fixing my hair and we decided it probably wasn't any big deal so we showed-up for dinner at 7pm and it seemed as though most of the boat was drunk. Apparently, the champagne/wine/beer were all flowing freely (literally) during the Captain's Reception.

Dinner tonight was "fabulous" as it was our first western-style meal since we started the trip - chicken cordon bleu. The chicken had no ham and the cheese was mozarella, not swiss but we all loved it anyway and I had another Diet Coke. They had free wine and beer for our dining room all through dinner, too. The drinking did continue, I assure you.

And since I'm talking about alcohol... you can take all the alcohol onboard you wish. There is no such thing as a luggage check for alcohol. Some people hand carried-on bottles of wine. Every stop you have the opportunity to buy Chinese firewater or Smirnoff or Jack Daniels and wine - EVERY little village is selling some sort of alcohol and cigarettes. There is no problem taking anything onboard at any time.

Tonight we started going through the locks around 6:30pm. We were so close to the wall my husband reached-out from the balcony and touched the wall! Later in the night, as we were all trying to sleep, going through the locks got very noisy with lots of screeching and grinding and it was well after midnight until we were finished. Everyone was kept up very late because of all the noise. Apparently there was a problem with the boat in front of us and we were stuck in the last lock for a long time. Most of the boat was drunk so this didn't really bother too many people...

My husband, touching the locks from our balcony:

[CupKayke]

Cruise Day 3 - Shennongxi/White Emperor City

 

 

Today started early for many of us! I was awake, showered, dressed and in the main lounge on with a cup of hot tea, waiting for Tai Chi by 5:45am

The rest of our group quickly showed-up and my quiet morning of tea became hilarious as everyone began tattling on each other about the previous night's drunken escapades. Laughter ensued and by the time Tai Chi practice started at 6:30am there was almost 20 of us having hot tea and laughing about the night. This group of travelers was a good, fun group - wish I had time to write about them all and their quirkiness.

 

Tai Chi uses almost every muscle in your body, makes you look like an idiot but you feel like a swan. It is free and it is offered on Cruise Mornings 3 and Cruise Mornings 4 - no signing-up, just show-up!

 

Breakfast was at 7am. Note: the times for breakfast, lunch & dinner changed every day based on the boat's schedule that day. It always worked-out somehow. Breakfast was always plentiful and good.

 

This morning's excursion was one we had prepaid through Gate 1 Travel.

We boarded a small ferry boat which carried us through a picturesque tributary of the Yangzte river. It was beautiful.

 

 

We stopped and visited an area the government has built which shows some history of the river. We saw a real hanging coffin - the old Chinese used to put the bodies of the dead in wooden coffins and hang them from the cliffs because they believe the higher you are "buried" the closer you are to heaven. The ferry ride was also interesting because you could see the completely abandoned homes and buildings along the river.

 

Another thing we saw today is men are still fishing this river. We actually noticed they were selling small fish and crawdad caught from the river – fresh and smelly – at the place we stopped today. They were even selling silver fish – which sounded like "sewer fish" when our guide was talking to us as the Chinese cannot seem to pronounce "R" or "L" – and so he announces this is a sewer fish – and then bites the head off – and everyone grossed-out.

 

 

The ride up was fun and our group got some good and funny pics. The ride back was cold. It is cold today on the river, unfortunately. Many of us were forced to sit upstairs where there was no shelter because the downstairs had been taken by the other two groups. I think, in nicer weather, everyone would want to be upstairs the entire time. Either way, this was a great little ferry ride- about one hour up, one hour back and a short visit to the government-built center in-between.

[CupKayke]

After our ferry ride excursion we returned to have lunch....Diet Coke with ice...FRENCH FRIES – real french fries that were hot and a little crispy and good (no salt though)... and... CHEESEBURGERS!! Lunch was quick and awesome! They had sesame buns, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions, and some sort of white cheese – probably a white cheese product but it was good. The meat had almost no fat and was very peppery and it tasted good but we were later told it was goat. But seriously... Diet Coke on ice, cheeseburger, french fries – we were in heaven!

 

This afternoon we missed out on a good opportunity so here is your clue not to do as we did.... We relocated to another dock upstream for the optional shore excursion "White Emperor City" but I don't know of anyone in our group that took that excursion. This shore excursion did not start until 3:30pm and we were intially told we could not get off the boat without an excursion, then we were told you can get off but only for 20 minutes, then about five of our group got off. We decided not too because we only had 20 minutes and only learned about this in the bar, last minute. The group that got off saw the captain in town and he told them to take a full hour shopping. This afternoon stop was THE place to shop, apparently. Our friends that got off said all of the crew and the captain and everyone was shopping in this tiny village where the prices were dirt cheap - they paid 2 Yuan for scarves! They said you didn't even need to bargain with the people, just buy what they were selling and they would throw in something free. One guy bought six beers and they threw in two more. The locals were so excited to see the tourists and apparently they were very friendly and the prices were excellent. We were highly disappointed that it wasn't even mentioned to us at any time previous to 3:30pm that we could get off the boat this afternoon without an excursion and we only learned because we were sitting in the bar with the rest of our group talking.

 

At the same time, our Gate 1 Tour Guide had arranged a Mahjong Tournament for everyone in the game room next to the bar so everyone was going in and out of the bar ordering drinks in-between playing Mahjong and this is how we learned we were even able to get off if we wanted. If you get a chance and you want to buy souvenirs for at least 10 times less than what you will pay anywhere else, this is the place.

 

This afternoon I noticed something interesting from our balcony. As soon as our boat docked a couple of little boats came up to the balconies - one selling fruits - oranges mainly and another selling fish - to the Chinese individuals on the decks. It was funny to listen to them haggling forever over the price. They would go back and forth and she would inspect the fish and give another price and he would give another price and it went on forever until finally, the fish was bought. This happened at several balconies.

 

So, a few things I thought I would share about the boat:

* * The boat has terrible customer service. You want a pot of hot tea or some ice in your ice bucket? Call housekeeping and/or the front desk 10 times and they both tell you the other one will do it and after a few hours, no one ever brings you a pot of hot tea or a bucket of ice. You have to go beg for it elsewhere. Odd because we saw the Chinese rooms had 2 and 3 buckets of hot water out by their doors all the time but we could never get one and my husband was always filling the ice bucket at the bar. No biggie but the night of embarkation they brag about always having hot tea available for you but apparently, it's only on deck five.

** The staff know exactly who you are and they can look at you and tell you your room number. Maybe this is because we asked about our smelly bathroom twice (very nicely, I might add) but it wasn't just us - they knew everyone by room number.

** Toilets on the boat are western-style and good. The toilet on the ferry is NOT something you want to use - it is dirty, smelly, and a squatter.

 

 

Tonight we had dinner and then there was a cabaret show, talent show, game show mixed. It was hilarious!! They played a variation on the game musical chairs, they had the dragon dances, they had a magician, etc. It really was a lot of fun. Free beer and wine flowed at dinner which made several in our group think it was even funnier and, of course, the bar stayed open late. This has become the booze cruise...

[CupKayke]

Thought I'd throw a piece of info in this review about the boat, excursions, and walking. Prior to leaving I had read you "walk across wooden planks in the mud" to get on and off the boat. Well, that's sorta true but it's not too bad. I wanted to show what getting on and off the boat is like since it is absolutely nothing like a regular cruise ship. Our big river boat usually parks next to a rusty old boat or a pier tied-up to the shore and we have to walk through a maze of rust, wooden/broken planks, the old boat, and other questionable areas to get on and off the ship. We always walk over wooden boards to get on and off the actual cruise ship but then the areas we walk on to get to shore are always rusty and full of holes. Hundreds of us walk across these areas and I can just see one of them snapping and a few cruisers going in that green water. Eh. Everyone was fine, btw and we all made it on and off perfectly well. There was always a long line of staff at every turn waiting to assist you at debarkation and embarkation. I will say, the day you are in Fengdu, walking on and off the ship is a very, very long maze of rusty platforms in the water leading to the other side of the shore. We walked this in the rain. It was fine but it wasn't like you would see on a regular cruise ship. Of course, this was our first river cruise so maybe all river cruises are like this? Since there was previously some discussion about this, here are some pictures of the mazes you walk to get on and off for excursions... and by the way...they are easy walks ~ some with a few steps, some a bit slippery on our rainy days ~ but we never had any problems ~ slow and steady.

 

Getting off at Three Gorges Dam: (beautiful)

 

Getting off or on the ferry boat (this is the way most areas were setup):

 

Here is a picture, taken as I was halfway through the maze in Fengdu, showing how much further we had to walk to get to the ship. We literally walked from one side of the shore to other on rusty, water-platform rails. Noone fell, noone got hurt, etc. It was raining and the platforms were wet and had water puddles but we made it fine. I had just never seen anything like this before so I stopped and took a picture:

 

 

Debarkation in Chongquing - my husband calls the Victoria Cruises crew with their umbrellas "The Morton Salt girls" LOL:

 

Our group of 28 consisted of people of all sizes, shapes, ages, and fitness levels. For the most part, everyone could walk well. I am overweight and was most certainly one of the top five out-of-shape people in our group but I never had a problem walking anywhere (I do walk at home). We had a lady in our group with two hip replacements who has quite a few problems walking and she made it everywhere with NO complaints. I had read you will walk three and five miles per day and that is what our tour guide wrote on our daily notes (every day he wrote us a note and posted in the hotel lobby and every day it would say the average miles we would be walking that day) but it never felt like we were walking 3 or 5 miles even though I'm sure we walked much more than that since we went out on our own after the day's activities. It was an easy tour in my opinion but very long days with lots happening from early to late.

[CupKayke]

Cruise Day 4 - Fengdu

 

Today was our last full day on the ship and today was FUN! Fengdu is pronounced like fondue, btw. To me, this area is the most beautiful of the river. The plants are more lush, we are sailing closer to the riverbank, the mist is heavy over the tops of the mountains. There is no way a picture or words can describe how amazing the view is from our room – constantly. There was also a slight rain today but it adds to the misty mystery.

 

This morning was a relaxing but informative morning. After breakfast my husband took the free Navigational Bridge Tour which he thought was a bit informative. Our Gate 1 Tour Guide had reserved a room for all of us to meet at 10am and have a discussion about the differences between Chinese culture and American culture. This was a great roundtable meeting that he decided to do on his own and another reason why I think Jason Liu is an amazing tour guide. For me, the best part of this trip was the information and the learning about Chinese culture. Our talk was about 90 minutes and incredibly interesting.

 

This afternoon was one of those days where a couple of people in our group had paid for the Gate 1 tours and took the Chinese tour group instead. It worked-out well for everyone. Gate 1 offered an excursion to see the Ghost City (from the road - we stopped and took pics), to visit the new relocation village (this was soooo fun), and to a home-hosted event for a farmer who had been relocated. This was my favorite excursion of all three offered by Gate 1 and it was crammed-full of fun. About five other super-in-shape people in our group had chosen to do the Victoria Cruises Fengdu Shore Excursion to visit the "City of Spirits" or Ghost City. This was approximately 600 steps to the top. There was previously an excursion offered to ShiBaoZhai (The Red Pagoda) by Victoria Cruises but only a few signed-up so it was cancelled - two in our group wanted to do it but they require a minimum number sign-up before they have the excursion.

 

For those of us on the Gate 1 Travel Fengdu Shore excursion, we left after lunch at 12:30 in the slow rain. After walking the long maze across shore to get off the ship, we drove through the older relocation area and visited a farmer and his new home and heard his story. We were able to tour his home and grounds and take pictures.

 

 

Next we visited the city/village of Fengdu. This was an interesting trip because the locals never see white/western people. They kept staring and had odd looks on their faces. Our tour guide took us through the meat market downstairs to the vegetable market. We had previously been divided into groups on the bus and had to buy something, in Chinese, with 5 Yuan. My group had to buy "wat gen po ya" – which is apparently two pounds of string beans – but they could not understand our accent and sold us lotus root instead. This game was hilarious! Our guide was laughing at everyone as each group had a different pronunciation to buy – some groups bought peppers, others cauliflower, others garlic but in the end, no group bought the correct item! HA The Chinese vegetable market was huge and practically empty so the vendors all enjoyed our visit and our game, too ~ they were laughing with us!

 

A small part of the vegetable market:

 

 

We walked back through the meat market and then down the main shopping street and it was again soooo interesting. They were selling chicken feet on sticks today. We did not try them. We were looking at items to buy and the people were standing-around staring at us. They must have thought we were filthy rich because we tried to buy some room spray (like Febreeze) because the fishy smells here are making us practically vomit and they wanted 280 Yuan for a can of room spray – that’s about 47 US dollars! They only came down to 200 Yuan so we declined. I did buy a scarf a few doors down, however. Seems to be my souvenir of choice this trip.

 

 

 

We had about an hour to shop and take pictures in this amazing area. I loved seeing it all but the prices were inflated for us as I got home with a heavy, winter scarf for 30 Yuan thinking I had made a deal and there was a sticker on it for 20 Yuan. Later, I would find beautiful scarves in Chongquing and Shanghai (surprisingly) for 10 Yuan each.

 

On our way back to the ship we stopped to take pictures of Ghost City.

[CupKayke]

Cruise Day 4 - Fengdu - Continued

 

We returned to the boat after a long walk along slick and thin, rusty walkways. Nobody fell in the Yangtze but you know I was waiting for the inevitable again. Ha

 

We had a Gate 1 group talk scheduled onboard at 5:15pm and our tour guide explained everything we are doing tomorrow and there were not one, not two, but THREE big surprises for us! None of these surprises were on the Gate 1 itinerary and they were all arranged by our guide, Jason Liu. We are going to have a great day tomorrow! We are spending the morning in Chongquing, flying to Shanghai, and spending the evening out on the town in Shanghai! Whoot Whoot

 

At around 6:45pm tonight, while slowly cruising our way to Chongquing, we started passing some INCREDIBLE scenery - It lokoed like we might be just outside of New York City! Everyone was flabbergasted and cameras were going crazy. I did not get a good picture of some of the scenery but others did. I’ve never seen anything like it before from a cruise ship, that is for sure!!

 

 

Dinner was long and celebratory tonight. We all ate in the lower dining room 2. We sat down to champagne and ended with spongey-type cake. It was the cruise line saying Thank You and Goodbye. Frankly, I was falling asleep. The food was on spinny tables tonight and it was all authentic Chinese. You know I hated it. I barely ate and that’s okay – there is always a western breakfast before we leave tomorrow! Ha The offerings tonight were fishy-smelling bread with chestnut seeds, red-skinned peanuts, cold Chinese bbq pork, cold black mushrooms, sweet & sour fish, sesame beef (goat) with bones and potatoes, green beans (I liked them), Chinese fried rice (which always includes cut-up pieces of ham by the way – groddo), roasted duck, and more junk. I was ready to get to Shanghai and have some noodles. Beijing is known for rice, Shanghai for noodles. Though, I will say, last night I had noodles for dinner – that was my main entrée – noodles – they were awesome. I even ate them with chop sticks!

 

 

Drinks downstairs are always served from 2 liters... Coke or hot tea is your option it seems...

 

Our waitresses were dressed in costumes tonight. After dinner you had the option to be dressed yourself to take pictures. We opted-out because I wanted to get packed but in hindsite, I wish we would have taken the time to do this but dinner was soooo long. It was after 9pm before we got back to our room from dinner.

 

One last note: every time (almost) we come back to our room on the cruise they have opened our safe and not locked it behind them. They have never taken anything, they just go through it for some unknown reason. Tonight, they opened both of our perfectly packed suitcases I had almost ready to go tomorrow morning – they didn’t even bother hiding it – they left them open on our beds. What are they looking for? Do they think we might steal a cup from the cruise line or a bottle of water?? Puhleease. You seriously can only come to China if you just accept that you have no privacy. It’s so useless however. They should spend their time fixing the smells in the hallways and bathrooms and not worrying about what is in our suitcases.

 

 

And since I'm talking about smells and the cruise is almost over, I must mention this: IF your room has anything wrong with it - REQUEST TO MOVE! I blame this on the cruise line and myself... our bathroom on the boat was disgusting and we should not have been given Room 306. The first night we walked-in the bathroom it smelled so strongly of bleach we couldn't be in there without having the door open. I also smelled a faint sewer odor and told my husband I thought they might be covering-up something. That was the understatement of the year. The smell was so bad by the second day we had to keep the fan running 24/7 and leave the bathroom door completely shut or our entire room would smell like a horrible sewer. I was grossed-out to shower in there and most of the time we went to deck 5 and used the non-smelly, public bathrooms. I thought I might vomit every time I was in there. It had a big sewage drain thing in the floor and smelled terrible all the time. I spray hairspray every time before I had to go in there but it didn't help. Our bathroom was basically unusable for most of our cruise. We complained to housekeeping and we went to the front desk and complained and they did nothing but spray our room. The room next to ours, Room 308, was occupied by two others from Gate 1 Travel and they had the same problem. Sadly, we did not request to move rooms because I'm not the type to "cause problems" and this was a huge mistake on my part. I later learned several people moved rooms not once but twice because their a/c wouldn't turn off or their heat wouldn't turn or for whatever reason. Apparently, it was no big deal to move rooms when the ship wasn't close to being full. Had I taken our Gate 1 tour guide to our room and opened the bathroom door he would have had us a new room in ten minutes so I don't have a lot of room to complain here. I know this now but I hated the idea of moving all our stuff and being complainers. Looking back, it was simply dumb that we did not demand to be moved but I was very irritated that they would even bother giving us this room when clearly they knew there was a HUGE issue which they tried to cover-up with bleach the first night. Also, our balcony was next to our good friends balcony and my husband and his new buddy would sit and talk out there for hours. As for the bathroom smell, I wrote about this on my comment card to Victoria Cruises the last day. I explained this room should not be given to ANYONE until that problem is fixed.

 

The shower - it looked and smelled terrible but it worked fine (the rest of the bathroom was more modern than the shower):

 

One last note about today... the daily "newspaper" said to settle your accounts tonight between 7:45pm and 10:15pm. Our Gate 1 guide knew many people would be drinking in the bar tonight so he requested we settle after we had drinks or early in the morning around 8:15am. "Settling" your account meant going to the front desk, them telling you what your room number was (because they know you now) and telling you the charges - you can pay in USD, Yuan/RMB, or with a credit card. Most people spent money on an additional excursion the first day, maybe in the small gift shop, maybe to buy the DVD of the cruise, drinks at the bar which ranged every day but a 9oz long island iced tea was 45 RMB and that was the most expensive drink I saw, and many people signed-up for massages. If you wanted any type of massage you need to sign-up early the first full day on the cruise or you will NOT get a massage. Spots were gone quickly. It was $60 for an hour full massage, I believe. I found it odd that one of the groups onboard wanted their hair washed and fixed instead of massages but to each his own ~ many people in our group got massages and loved them.

[CupKayke]

Since we are leaving the boat tomorrow morning, I want to take some time and post a few pictures I took around the boat. I wasn't thinking about a Cruise Critic review on the trip or I would have taken pictures of the beautiful lounge/deck 5/bar area and etc. Here are some pictures, however... I will break this up into two posts as CC only allows me 4 pictures per post.

 

The Victoria Cruises Sophia balconies ~ this is where my husband spent most of his time as he is a smoker.

 

 

My husband and his neighbor buddy on the balcony:

 

 

[CupKayke]

Pictures around the boat, continued...

 

Our bathroom in our cabin... smelly but modern:

 

Our ship docked/hooked onto an old boat to stop (you walk through this old boat to get off at the first stop):

 

The "top" deck or deck 6 was a viewing deck. We went up there while we were stopped at a port and we were the only two people there.

 

 

 

Tomorrow is our day in Chongquing, then our flight to Shanghai, and our first night in Shanghai. Chongquing was my second favorite day of the entire tour.

 

Is anyone reading this or am I boring you all to sleep??

[Live4cruises]

Reading every word! Thanks for spending the time and effort to share!

[TXGalAJ]

Reading every word and shared the link! Thanks for writing such an in-depth review.

 

Couple of questions that I hope you can answer:

1. Did you use the laundry service and how did your clothes feel after? Were they scented, stiff, wrinkly, etc?

2. Were they strict on the amount of luggage you can bring? Were you able to bring an extra checked bag if you paid extra?

3. If someone on the tour got tired could they sit on the bus? My mom will be traveling with me and I wondered if she could rest on the bus if she got tired at the Great Wall for example.

4. Were there blow dryers in the hotels and on the ship? (I know, such a girly question!)

[Floridiana]

Thank you very much for the interesting review! It's amazing how totally different your experience was from ours on a different ship.

[CupKayke]

Reading every word! Thanks for spending the time and effort to share!

You are welcome

 

Thank you very much for the interesting review! It's amazing how totally different your experience was from ours on a different ship.

You are welcome. Yes, our experience was very different from my in-laws too. They, however, paid at least 3 times more for their trip and we saw the same things and we LOVED our trip with Gate 1 Travel and we will probably use them again in the future. To each his own, of course.

[TXGalAJ]

Thank you very much for the interesting review! It's amazing how totally different your experience was from ours on a different ship.

 

Do you mind sharing what ship you were on?

 

Thanks!

[CupKayke]

Reading every word and shared the link! Thanks for writing such an in-depth review.

 

Couple of questions that I hope you can answer:

1. Did you use the laundry service and how did your clothes feel after? Were they scented, stiff, wrinkly, etc?

2. Were they strict on the amount of luggage you can bring? Were you able to bring an extra checked bag if you paid extra?

3. If someone on the tour got tired could they sit on the bus? My mom will be traveling with me and I wondered if she could rest on the bus if she got tired at the Great Wall for example.

4. Were there blow dryers in the hotels and on the ship? (I know, such a girly question!)

 

1 - Yes. We got 4 free items laundered per day for upgrading our cabin. A pair of socks was only considered 1 item, btw. I put out a bag each morning (9am deadline) and received the laundry back clean, in clear little bags, by 6pm every day. The laundry was not scented, wrinkly, and wasn't even stiff but the shirts were folded nicely and nothing shrunk. I smelled the socks and they simply smelled clean. I was impressed.

 

2 - They were not strict on the luggage at all. We did not handle our luggage, ever. We were told all the luggage was weighed together so it "evened out" but the weight max per person was announced to be around 44 pounds ~ I think ~ maybe 47 pounds per person. My husband and I both had 24 inch suitcases that weighed less than 30 pounds each. I saw two other couples with smaller checked bags than ours. I saw another couple with 29 inch suitcases each. I saw another lady had 3 checked suitcases - one just for shoes. Many people had not one but two carry-ons. The Chinese do not care how many carry-ons you have - they all have 2 or 3 or more each - if you can carry it, you can bring it on! At LA they allowed us two bags checked bags per person for the long flights, btw - no charge. Gate 1 checks your bags for the short flights so I suppose you can have 2 bags with them also as many people did. I noticed every time we got our luggage tags, both my husband's and my bag was checked under my name, like my husband didn't have bags.

 

3 - Most of the time, yes, you could sit on the bus. At The Great Wall the bus was available pretty much the entire time since we were there for so long people returned at various times. At the Ming Tombs the bus was available the entire time. If you didn't want to make The Sacred Garden 45-minute walk, they said you could sit on the bus and wait. There was only one time I remember them announcing that you could not stay with the bus. My only complaint about this was the driver did not turn on the bus to heat the bus until everyone was on and he left the doors open so it was very cold on the bus. We had to wait a long time at The Great Wall for someone who was lost and we were freezing. I suppose, in the summer, with no air, this would make the bus very warm. Our bus driver stayed in our bus all day ~ a couple of times we caught him sleeping when we returned to the bus. :o

 

4 - Both hotels had blow dryers that worked well - the blow dryers were in the desk drawers, however. Odd, I thought. The ship had a big sign in the bathroom saying you could get a blow dryer at the front desk but you could NOT plug-in your own dryer in their outlet!! I never could get a dryer on the ship and neither could several others. I have to blow dry my hair before I fix it so one day I just didn't curl it and the other days I let it dry and fixed it after noon or I took my shower before I went to sleep at night so my hair was dry by morning.

 

Thanks for reading and sharing my link. I want you to know that we loved Gate 1 Travel, we loved our guide, we loved our trip to China, and we were thoroughly happy with each aspect of our trip. The little things were just "little" things but I mention them so you have an even better trip than us! :D

[CupKayke]

I am going to write about the rest of our trip and post those photos later. I'm actually TIRED tonight at the NORMAL time - it's taken almost a week but FINALLY!! :) Returning from Asia is nothing like returning from Italy...

[CupKayke]

We arrived in Chongquing around 3am and the view was stormy and smoggy mixed...

 

Today was Debarkation Day in Chongquing ~ One of my favorite days of this tour! It will take me a few entries to share some of the memories from this day. I was wide awake by 4:00am today and wanted to send an email. I went to the 5th floor lounge and it was locked. When the servers came-up to setup for breakfast I asked them when it would be opened and they said it would not be opened today - at all. I sat on the stairs and used the Internet for a few minutes and finally went back to my cabin. I did not like this aspect of the river cruise as during normal cruises, there is always a place you can get away to while your spouse is sleeping and you don't have to be in one area on one deck for Internet but alas...

 

I am going to move-on to the rest of the land tour now and update it rather quickly (hopefully). I will return with some final thoughts, information and opinions about the cruise and the tour overall at the end.

 

Our flight from Chongquing to Pudong (Shanghai) wasn't until 1pm so our Gate 1 Tour Guide talked to our driver in Chongquing and he took us to a local popular shopping mart. It was SO MUCH FUN!! It looked like a small village in Germany but with red hanging lanterns. The locals do not see westerners very often so they were very engaging and friendlly to us. They asked to take our picture, they took our pictures, and sold us all sorts of dirt cheap goods - because the prices were already listed for the local people. I got 5 makeup bags for 10 Yuan which is about $1.64 US dollars and a beautiful tea service set - one like another traveler had previously purchased for 165 Yuan - I paid 50 Yuan after much bargaining. The bargaining was good today. It was fun-fun-fun. We toured the village with the tour guide and we all stopped to taste their version of beef jerky, we ate some local candy, we had some hot spices, and we ate this street food that looked like small red candy apples but it was a sour fruit that had been carmalized with red sugar on the outside -- sooooo good!

 

Sweet & Sour candies - I saw some of our group eating these in Beijing, too...

 

We watched them make noodles by hand...

 

We were then all given about an hour to shop. I did well.

Edited December 21, 2014 by CupKayke

[CupKayke]

After our shopping trip in Chongquing we drove to the airport, went through security, and had about an hour to eat something. There was a Subway in the Chongquing airport upstairs on the main level. I ordered a hot ham and cheese (they heat all sandwiches without asking). It was superliciously fantastical. My husband ordered some sort of steak and cheese with extra cheese. We ordered one as a "meal deal" with one cookie and a soda to split. They were out of chips at Subway. They offered soda but ONLY Coke and they took the glass to the back and brought back out to you, filled with their mystery Coke. We both had a little bit of this odd-tasting soda. I've never seen a country live on Coke before - no Diet Coke, very little Sprite, no Dr Pepper or anything like that - ALWAYS COKE. The total for us was 56 Yuan ~ under 7 US dollars. Worth every little penny.

 

After eating we went downstairs and just like our last intra-China flight - with no announcement whatsoever, they started boarding about 15 minutes early. We see the Chinese flying through first because they have soooo many carry-ons with them - they want the overhead space. Our guide says: "It can't be our flight" but then he goes and talks to them and says "Everyone onboard!" Two girls in our group were still upstairs eating and our guide had to go look for them. Our guide boarded every flight last and told us he can never leave a tour group member in a city alone. Our tour guide is very good at his job but corralling 28 people must be a tough job. As a note... all of the intra-China flights boarded early, with no announcement ahead of time, people just started getting on the plane about 15 minutes before the time to board on our tickets.

 

Again, a full meal was served on this flight. I ate nothing. Even if I had an appetite, I don't think I could have stomached anything offered. All the food was barely was recognizable if at all. To me, this is part of the experience of it all and I regret not having my camera for this combination however, I am glad we had ate in the airport.

 

Speaking of food in the airport... I think I should mention that they will allow you through security with any food ~ oranges, peanut butter crackers, m&ms, etc. Most people were carrying snacks in their carry-ons. I didn't find this out until today. One lady had bought a big bag of oranges from one of the boat vendors off her balcony and she shared with everyone ~ they were sweet and good. You cannot get through security with bottled water but again, you can take one of your empty bottles through and then fill your bottle in the airport ~ there are plenty of water stations all over the China airports. The water stations offer cold, warm, and hot water for free and it is drinkable, of course. The Chinese carry small thermos' for their hot tea they like to drink and fill them with hot water in the airports ~ even the businessmen.

 

We soon arrived at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport. We had a long walk to get our bags. Along the way, there were interesting silver people:

Gate 1 is not pushy by the way - you don't have to stay together as a group going through the airport. People stopped to take pictures or smoke or go to the bathroom - we all ended-up meeting in the baggage area around the same time and that is all that counted. Most people on this trip were well traveled far beyond my husband and I so getting through an airport was no biggie.

 

For the smokers.. there is a smoking room in every China airport. However, they took ALL of my husband's lighters at every airport every time. You cannot have a lighter or matches. The smoking lounges have a little area where you put your cigarette in and push a button and it lights the cigarette for you.

 

For someone who does not smoke and actually has a sensitivity to it... for the Chinese being such BIG smokers, you would never know it. I was never around smoke. On the cruise ship, we had to keep our balcony door shut so the smoke would not flow into our room and or would be fined. In the hotels, we requested and were given smoking rooms and all the hotels had windows that opened so we opened our windows so the smoke didn't fill the room. I know the Chinese smoke a lot but I never really saw it.

 

Back to the airport... we all loaded our bags into a small van for the Gate 1 carrier to take them to the hotel for us and we dropped-off our carry-on bags on the tour bus and then... our second surprise of the day... we took the MagLev high-speed train into Shanghai! This was something our Gate 1 Tour Guide asked us if we would be interested in doing and EVERYONE voted yes! It was 50 Yuan per person.

 

Our train max speed was 301 kilometers per hour or about 180 miles per hour. It was neat because it actually seemed to twist on its side when getting into the city. It's more like an easy amusedement park ride.

 

 

[CupKayke]

We were taken to our gorgeous hotel in Shanghai and given a Premium Room on the 13th floor - just one level below the Executive Suites. We had a nice view of the Pudong River out our large windows. The hotel is beautiful, has a restaurant on the fourth & fifth floors, a Russian vodka bar on the 3rd floor, a glass see-through elevator at the end of the hallway for views, and overall a very nice hotel.

 

Night view from our room:

 

After check-in most of us met at 7pm with our Gate 1 Tour Guide (voluntary only) and his final surprise today was to give us a 45 minute walk around the streets of our hotel. Our hotel is about a ten minute walk to all the restaurants, attractions, and bright lights where the Bund area starts. It is about a full 30 minutes (if you are slow) to the actual Bund area where the Pearl Tower, Bottle Opener, etc is located. Tonight, we were given a tour of the side streets and directions to easily get around Shanghai on our own for the next two days/nights. This was something extra our Gate 1 Tour Guide did for us that again was not on the itinerary and was very helpful to everyone over the next two days as we all felt comfortable walking around everywhere because he gave us tall, large landmarks to orient ourselves to the area to remember. The next day my husband and I would leave our hotel and walk for nearly five hours exploring the side streets and then through the "western" mall area and down to the financial district and The Bund sightseeing area and back to our hotel. Easy breezy.

 

A restaurant on a side street... you choose your meal, they kill and prepare immediately... this restaurant was popular in the day and night.

 

Need an extra suitcase to take home tea sets?

 

Scooterville

[CupKayke]

The next morning breakfast was at 7am, there was a scheduled group tour at 8am to the YuYuan gardens and to a silk factory and then you were scheduled to be on your own all afternoon. Many of us were stricken with travelers diarrhea. I was up off and on all night. I skipped breakfast but my husband told our tour guide we would not be going on the short trip to the gardens this morning.

 

By 9:30am, I was fine so my husband and I left our hotel room before noon and did not return until after 6pm. We walked EVERYWHERE.

 

To back-up, however, they took another group picture today and again, we missed it and again, so did several other people. Shanghai is very westernized and many people chose to do their own thing in Shanghai since a taxi to 3 miles away was about 15 Yuan there and 20 Yuan back.

Also, today, they added-in a visit to the famous Shanghai bizarre!! Apparently, this is where they had all the items westerners like us look for on vacation - things we did not see anywhere else in China - baseball hats that said Shanghai, Christmas ornaments that looked like The Summer Palace, etc. We were given a card and instructions to go to the bizarre on our own the next morning but we took a walk along some more side streets instead as we were already packed and I was finally shopped-out.

 

Also, apparently many people spent lots of money today on silk rugs and carpets. I know our friends spent $800 on one piece. Others spent thousands. I saw the pictures but this is not something that would go well in my home so I don't think I missed too much there but it would have been neat to see how the silk is made but being close to a bathroom was more important to me this morning. Again, I do not fret over what was missed but choose to enjoy what we did see and I consider myself lucky that this is the only time during the trip when this occurred.

 

Today we explored the side shops and the main areas all the way to The Bund. I bought some tea at a tea store (there were several in the area).

 

We made it to The Bund financial district around dusk...

 

Financial District (banks galore)

 

The Bund area at night:

 

[CupKayke]

This is my review so I can write my opinion. I did not like Shanghai. AT ALL. Shanghai is not the real China. Shanghai was full of the French, Germans, Americans, etc - all westerners with round eyes and light colored hair who spoke other languages (not Chinese), shopped at the mall in China made for westerners with ridiculous western prices (more expensive there than here even), ate at the Burger King, McDonalds, & Starbucks at the mall, and lived in ex-pat housing that looked like small homes with green lawns. This is not what I came to China to see - the "fake" China. Clearly nothing like we saw in the rest of China. The real Chinese people, on the sides streets away from The Bund and mall areas.... they hated us. This is the only time that they gave us dirty looks, treated us badly, and were resentful of us. There was NO bargaining on prices or they would raise the price from the marked price when you picked it up (happened twice). The "Chinese" people you see on The Bund?? They are Chinese tourists from other countries (mainly America as they all spoke English). This area is full of hotels and busloads of tourists, American Chinese tourists taking pictures of Shanghai and telling people back home this is what China looks like when it is not. The ONLY time we ever ran into rude service was Shanghai and it was probably because they were sick of the rude westerners everywhere spending more money on a phone in one day than they make in a month. I could write forever about this but I would prefer to never return to Shanghai again because The Bund area in Shanghai is what the government has created for westerners and then they tell the world "this is China" but it is NOT the real China - most Chinese people are starving and living without heat or cooling year-round. There were several in our group who had long discussions about this situation.

 

The ex-pat homes as seen through our hotel's glass elevator:

 

Lemon oreos, found in a grocery store today:

 

Everywhere else they eat dog and cat is on the menu - as our guide said "If it has four legs, we eat it" - we saw pitiful, starving, boney dogs in almost every city and in Shanghai, we see this... in a grocery store...

 

That's all I'll say about Shanghai. I've made my sentiments clear. I'd rather see Xian than Shanghai. I'd rather see any city in China than Shanghai. I realize I don't necessarily take well to the food or smells but that is what I was there for ~ to experience their life and be a traveler, not a tourist.

 

The next day we explored some more side streets with some new friends we made in our group and then checked-out of our hotel by 1pm. We were taken to the airport, got fantastic seats for the long-long flight home, and then flew Shanghai to Beijing... had a long delay on the first flight... ran through immigration and security... and made it on our flight from Beijing to LAX with NINE minutes to spare! It took us a total of 70 hours to get home because we spent the night in LA (slept <3 hours) and then flew LAX to Denver to STL and then drove four hours to our home. The longest, most exhaustive traveling we've ever done. It is a full week later and our times are still not correct yet.

 

I will make one last entry later with some more information on our Gate 1 Travel Group, the cruise, etc. This was the most interesting trip I've ever taken in my life.

[jlf1]

Excellent review. I have never been to China but this summer did my first (but not last) tour with Gate 1 in Central Europe.

 

Our impression of Gate 1 was -

• great price
  
• wonderful hotels
  
• interesting tours
  
• unusual and intriguing optional tours
  

 

No unpleasant surprises, everything was as described.

 

Judy

[Floridiana]

This was the most interesting trip I've ever taken in my life.

 

Again thank you for your candid impressions!

 

For us, it was also the most interesting trip we have ever taken. As to your experience in Shanghai, ours was different. China is a diverse country and Shanghai is as much Chinese as New York is American.

[CupKayke]

Excellent review. I have never been to China but this summer did my first (but not last) tour with Gate 1 in Central Europe.

 

 

Our impression of Gate 1 was -

• great price
  
• wonderful hotels
  
• interesting tours
  
• unusual and intriguing optional tours
  

No unpleasant surprises, everything was as described.

 

Judy

 

Thank you and I agree with your sentiments completely.

[CupKayke]

Here are pictures of our hotel room in Beijing:

 

 

 

 

Here are pictures of our hotel room in Shanghai:

 

 

 

FINAL TIPS:

· Both hotels in Beijing and Shanghai have a water boiler/tea pot. You can use the tap water and boil it to make your own tea, hot chocolate, noodles, etc. Many of us did this several times throughout our tour. Don’t forget to pack your own tea or hot chocolate because one tiny packet of Lipton tea in the Shanghai hotel will cost you 28 Yuan. We joked that had we thought of it ahead of time, we would have thrown a couple of packs of ramen noodles in our suitcases to eat on the nights when it was too late or we were too tired to go out and eat. The cups in the hotel in Beijing were HUGE – like bowls, so this would have worked great. It’s all part of the experience…

· Air China’s plane to and from the United States has three rows of “2-3-2” – Rows 33, 59 & 60. I had researched this prior to our trip. This is perfect for couples, gives you extra leg room, and I would highly recommend you and your partner attempt to get one of these rows if at all possible. We had the far right side of the plane, Row 60 traveling to Beijing and the far left side of the plane, Row 60, traveling home to Los Angeles. These were the longest international flights we have ever been on and the BEST international flights we have ever experienced. I recommend the last two rows on the plane. There are three bathrooms back there and people seem to not know about them or not use them often plus there is plenty of room to stretch and walk around or just stand up for a while if need be. It was a quiet area of the plane.

· Water is supplied by Gate 1 daily and there is always plenty of it – your tour guide will offer it consistently and even if you don’t think you need it, take it and put it in your daypack so you have plenty to brush your teeth in the room, etc. The water in your room on the ship is unlimited and free for the Gate 1 tour group – everyone else pays 8 Yuan per bottle .

· You will want to get enough Yuan prior to flying to China to last you until you get on the cruise ship – and then you can hand them $100 US bills or $20 US bills or $10s, it matters none, and they will quickly exchange your money. I handed them some bills to exchange one day and one of the 5s was ripped so they could not take it so make sure your bills are in good shape also. The things I remember people buying in Beijing that looked the most “fun” were the Communist hats and they had some handmade Christmas ornaments at The Summer Palace. I think most of the shopping began in the villages along the river however, there is a large grocery store minutes away from your hotel in Beijing (and from your hotel in Shanghai). Just say “supermarcado” and they will point you there, somehow. LOL

· The people in China are not dressy people. Sweats are worn by men and women everywhere most of the time. Our tour guide wore sweats all three days of touring in Beijing and this put me at ease and I felt more comfortable wearing my Yoga pants – and then I looked around and most of our group wore leggings the entire time. There were three ladies I never saw in anything but leggings. The Chinese are casual people everywhere, all the time. You could buy a pair of sweats for 18 Yuan, btw (but you need to be small). You could buy a complete sleep outfit at the “grocery” store – all sorts of cute pajamas – for 20 Yuan. Casual is best if you want to fit-in in China.

· A bottle of Absolute will cost you 150 Yuan everywhere. A bottle of the “decent” firewater will cost you 40 Yuan. Beer is cheep – a couple of Yuan per can – but only 3% alcohol. Cigarettes vary greatly from a few cents per pack to 120 Yuan per pack. How expensive your cigarette is in China is sort of a “class” thing - men exchange cigarettes on the street like we exchange business cards here. Lighters are less than 1 Yuan each and you can get one from the Captain on the ship for free or at least he gave one to my husband the first night. Real nice guy.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

If I gave anyone the impression during this review that I was unhappy with our trip in any way or with Gate 1, that was not my intention. This trip was…A~M~A~Z~I~N~G! I wanted to use my review to point-out the few things that bothered me or that I would change if I could or if I had known ahead of time, it would have made things easier so I could help others in the future. For me, the things that stand-out the most would be: requesting a different a room on the cruise ship the very first day we realized we had a sewer/smell problem, packing 3 or 4 pair of walking pants/yoga pants/leggings and only one pair of jeans and less tops, packing some ramen noodles (true!), and probably just making ourselves attend every tour, regardless of how we may have felt. Having said that about the tours, I do want to say that two ladies on our trip were sick the last day – one had been sick for a couple of days with what seemed to be the flu and she was absolutely miserable and the other one had developed a fever the last day but she seemed to be chugging along okay. Maybe skipping out when we thought we needed too was for the best, maybe not. Also, I would go ahead and explore on our own from the first night without hesitancy but hindsight is 20/20.

And my last words about our Gate 1 Travel experience… it was exactly what I wanted it to be… and more. The only surprises were good surprises like extra tours, the MagLev train, Chongquing village, etc. The Gate 1 price for this type of tour is unbeatable. The other tour groups with their flags were beside us at times, doing the same things, for a much higher price. My in-laws did this exact same tour with another company for over double the price per person PLUS they had to pay for their flights separately. The Gate 1 hotels were nice, accommodating, clean, and large. Both hotels for this trip were far nicer than the Hilton LAX we stayed in pre and post trip and both rooms were giant compared to our Hilton LAX room. Our bathroom in Shanghai had two showers – one on each side of the sink. Gate 1 Travel delivered an excellent trip… everything ran smoothly… there were lots of extras and add-ons for no fee… and we were well taken care of from the minute we landed in Beijing until the minute we landed back in Los Angeles. We will absolutely look at Gate 1 Travel in the future for other tours. While on this tour we met at least four others who have traveled with Gate 1 – some multiple times. One of the single men traveling with us noted that he was in Israel and stayed in the hotel owned by the same man who owns Gate 1 Travel – who also happens to be from Israel. Everyone who had used Gate 1 Travel previously spoke highly of them, said they were predictable, the hotels were good, the trips were smooth, and all went well each time they had traveled with them. Our group consisted of 28 people…age range was 21 through 74…. 7 pilots from Sarasota, Florida (with wives/sisters, etc)… at least three people traveling completely alone (one lady, two men)…. two semi-recent Brown graduates (one now works for Google)…. a retired teacher and her son, an incredibly nice Hungarian lady and her mid-40s daughter, a well-traveled American Pilipino family that had been on vacation to various places since August 31st, a couple that could list the countries they had not visited much quicker than the countries they had visited, etc. Intelligent, kind, funny, warm-hearted, and down-to-Earth people made this group wonderful and our Tour Guide, Jason Liu, was the glue that held it all together. He was fantastic! It is my opinion that if you are looking to travel comfortably, if you are smart with your money and comfortable meeting and becoming friends with strangers… Gate 1 Travel is for you. Also, I know I mentioned a lot of drinking but I never drink more than 2 glasses of wine. That’s just me. Others did not drink at all. Some quietly prayed before their meals. This tour was setup where you could do your own thing every day or join the group every day or weave in and out as it was best for you. I would recommend this tour to anyone. I hope you all enjoyed my review. Our trip is over now but the memories are forever…