Sinorama Gold 8 Yangtze River cruise & Imperial China Tour

[Sa1ty]

I'd like to start by thanking you for taking the time and sharing Lamchops. Luckily for me I came across your review early in my search and because you are so thorough I don't feel the need to go anywhere else:) My one question is - in my research I learned that if you are going to give a gift it should be impersonal and wrapped in red is best as this means good luck. I purchased some small (as in three chocolates) boxes of chocolates in red boxes. My question is - is it OK to give a small box of chocolates - lets say with a tip (as an addition not part of the tip) or would this be inappropriate. Would I be better to leave them at home and give them to my grandchildren? (I know what their answers would be:)

 

Julie - you mentioned you are leaving on May 30, same date as me. Which airport are you leaving from.

Sa1ty

[lamchops]

I did not see anyone from the group give a gift. Everyone gave the local and national guide cash as a tip. Sounds like you have some Lindt chocolates in mind. While the gesture is nice, I would just leave them at home.

[Sa1ty]

Thanks for answering my question Lamchops. My grandkids will definitely appreciate it and great deducing skills - you are correct, they are Lindt chocolates:)

Sa1ty

[Jujuju2]

We just got home today from: Charm of China + Yangtze River (Three Gorges) Cruise 12 Days (A) 2016

 

I am jet-lagged, tired, and have a million things to do, but maybe I can answer a few questions.

 

A couple things off the top of my head:

 

The food on the ship was very, very good. The food at the restaurants, lunch and dinner, was not so good, not bad, but just got very repetitive. Breakfasts at the hotels were all good.

 

All hotels were very good.

 

If you booked one of the two lowest categories of cabin for the cruise, realize that you are going to be getting two separate cabins. This seemed to be a surprise to everybody body but me, and I was expecting it. The inside cabins are all this way, as were the lowest category of balcony. That said, it didn't seem to be really a hardship for anybody who had two cabins. The inside people got two cabins next to each other, although without adjoining interior doors. The balcony people ended up NOT next to each other. Some of the people with two cabins ended up sleeping in one cabin and using the other for clothes and suitcases. Two people actually did fit in one cabin, but it would have been a tight fit, perhaps suitable for newlyweds who packed light.

 

Everything seemed to go very well on our tour. I was expecting the pace to be a bit brisk, and it was. We had wake-up calls around 6 or 6:30 most days just so we could get everything done.

 

Somewhere previous in this thread there was a comment about things being farmed out to other tour operators who don't care about the quality of the product offered. That was NOT the case on this tour. Sinorama controlled everything, and did a very good job of customer satisfaction. You are not going to get burned by Sinorama on the overall quality of this tour.

 

If you have questions, put them here, and I will get to them as I can. I have subscribed to this thread, meaning I get notified when new posts are made.

 

Juju

[Canadian Cruisers1]

Thank you so much for your journal. It is so helpful. We leave for the same trip in 10 days.

From Toronto airport, we have non-stop flights so we are lucky. Sinorama gave the group leaving two days later (same itinerary), but they have 3 connecting flights each way. They were upset at the orientation meeting.

[PennyPenguin]

Thank you all for the great information. We are arriving in Beijing on April 13 from Los Angeles. I cannot wait for this adventure to begin.

[Jujuju2]

Thank you all for the great information. We are arriving in Beijing on April 13 from Los Angeles. I cannot wait for this adventure to begin.

 

I think perhaps in retrospect and having recovered from the trip these past three weeks and having corresponded with some others on the trip, the best advice I might give is to get some breathing masks, like surgical masks. They are not expensive at all, like maybe $3 for ten. Our Dollartree now has them in the aspirin and bandaid section. And then WEAR them. Maybe even bring some extra for people who will be on your bus. We had them with us but did not wear them, I guess because we thought we would be considered silly. I wore one a couple days, and nobody batted an eye. By about day 9, you will notice a LOT of people are trying to suppress coughs, or pretending they are not coughing. I just thought, as with many group tours, somebody arrived with a cold and passed it on to everybody else in the group. Since arriving home with a real bad "coughing cold," I have come to believe that I did not have a virus at all, and it was my lungs (and everybody else's) trying to expel the bad air.

 

But anyway, take some masks, and if you can SEE the air, WEAR them. Offer any extras to your travelmates. There will be a lot of Chinese people wearing them. If nothing else you might prevent a cold from spreading, and you will probably feel better when you get home and are not coughing.

Edited April 3, 2016 by Jujuju2

[LadyStone50]

My husband and I are going on this same itinerary in May of 2016. Lamb chop, you answered so many questions for me - I am getting very excited.

 

My question: where did you find it easiest to convert your money to RNB? Did your tour guide provide help with this or did you do it on your own?

[Jujuju2]

My husband and I are going on this same itinerary in May of 2016. Lamb chop, you answered so many questions for me - I am getting very excited.

 

My question: where did you find it easiest to convert your money to RNB? Did your tour guide provide help with this or did you do it on your own?

I will answer for our trip. Easiest and most fun was the automatic money machines in the hotel lobbies, but the machines did not do a good job of disclosing that there are fees. So, easiest without fees was at hotel front desk. It was also easy to change money at the front desk of the cruise ship, and the exchange rate was not too bad. We have a credit card that does not charge international exchange fees, so we used that to the maximum extent possible. Still, it is good to have some walking around cash.

[lamchops]

My husband and I are going on this same itinerary in May of 2016. Lamb chop, you answered so many questions for me - I am getting very excited.

 

My question: where did you find it easiest to convert your money to RNB? Did your tour guide provide help with this or did you do it on your own?

 

I got mine at my local foreign exchange office. It was 5rmb to a Cdn$ and 6rmb for a US$. All the "shopping" stops took credit cards and we spent very little. With our CCs I think my DW and I spent $1000rmb/$200cdn in cash each. With little free time we just spent on soda/beer, trinkets and tips.

Edited April 20, 2016 by lamchops

[DFLOORLADY]

Hello everyone

Great information lambchop thanks so much.

Anyone else going on the Sinorams Focus on China Tour departing on September 7th?

[jill1349]

DFloorLady, we will be on the September 7 Focus of China trip. Look forward to meeting you. We are Jill and Harley from Phoenix.

 

Jill

[DFLOORLADY]

Jill,

We look forward to meeting you also, what airport do you fly out of?

[jill1349]

DFloorlady, we want to get there a couple of days early so we are not using the air from Sinorama. So we will leave from Phoenix. How about you?

 

Jill

[DFLOORLADY]

Jill,

We are going with the Sinorama included air so we are leaving from LAX on September 7th arriving in Beijing on the 8th. We do not get our air information till July I sure hope it does not have multiple stops.

We have only been on a 4 day tour before so this will be a new experience, it sounds like we will be on the go early!

Like others have posted this trip was not high on our bucket list but with the price and itinerary we could not pass it up.

Looking forward to it!

[Jujuju2]

Jill,

We are going with the Sinorama included air so we are leaving from LAX on September 7th arriving in Beijing on the 8th. We do not get our air information till July I sure hope it does not have multiple stops.

We have only been on a 4 day tour before so this will be a new experience, it sounds like we will be on the go early!

Like others have posted this trip was not high on our bucket list but with the price and itinerary we could not pass it up.

Looking forward to it!

We and most others on our trip used the Sinorama provided air. We all had connecting flights, even though there were nonstop flights leaving from our cities. For example, the Los Angeles people flew to San Francisco and changed planes, while the San Francisco people flew to either Los Angeles or Vancouver or Seattle and changed planes. We flew from Seattle to San Francisco and changed planes. We had a scheduled three hour layover in San Francisco, so we had plenty of time to catch our next plane. EXCEPT there was a weather delay at SFO, with only one runway open, so we were kept in Seattle for three hours before take-off. We managed to run through SFO and make our flight (they were apparently holding the plane for us), but our luggage did not, so we had to fill out lost luggage (with limited English speakers) report at Beijing before we departed baggage claim. Thank goodness I had brought in my purse the Sinorama document with the name of our hotel in Chinese.

 

We were the only ones in the much larger group whose luggage did not arrive, and it came on the next day's flight and was delivered to the hotel while we were out sightseeing. So, do remember to put the Chinese translation paper from Sinorama in your hand luggage and do bring a change of underwear and your toiletries and medications in your hand luggage. It turned out to be not really much of a big deal at all, since we were so busy.

 

You will have the same thing on the way home. Vancouver folks changing planes in SFO, San Francisco folks changing planes in Vancouver. I have no idea why it must be done that way, but it is apparently a big price difference. Same thing happens when I try to use airline frequent flyer points for the minimum amount. I have to change planes somewhere.

 

You probably also should bring along OTC meds for a head cold, a chest cold, and intestinal upsets. There is always something going around within a large group gathering, and pretty soon it gets passed around.

 

Prepare for the what-ifs, but then don't worry about them. You will have a wonderful trip anyway.

[DFLOORLADY]

Jujuju2,

Losing luggage can be a nightmare glad you weren't that long without it. I figured we would have at least one stop just hope there is not more than that.

Did you use an agency to get your Visa? If so what was the name?

Also did the hotels and ship have 110 volt outlets so all you would need is the adaptor?

Been reading about how flat irons burn out using a converter.

Thanks,

Debbie

[Jujuju2]

Jujuju2,

Losing luggage can be a nightmare glad you weren't that long without it. I figured we would have at least one stop just hope there is not more than that.

Did you use an agency to get your Visa? If so what was the name?

Also did the hotels and ship have 110 volt outlets so all you would need is the adaptor?

Been reading about how flat irons burn out using a converter.

Thanks,

Debbie

I don't think anybody had more than one stop. Worst case scenario was about six people from Florida had to first fly to Boston and missed their connection. The airline put them up overnight and flew them in business class next day. And they got to see a bit of Boston.

 

Our servicing Chinese embassy is in San Francisco. I happen to have a friend who lives in SF who was willing to take our passports in person to the embassy and pick them up in person. I was not going to even bother asking him until I found out the surcharges some of the agencies were charging. Hope you find a reasonable one. Friend saved us a ton of money.

 

Yes, ships and hotels had 110 outlets. Most every electronic thing we own nowadays is dual voltage, so I have stopped worrying about voltage, just bring the plug adapters. All modern cameras, phones, computers, etc. are dual voltage nowadays. You might check the specs of your flatiron. If it has a model number on it, which it probably does, you can just make a Goolge inquiry to see if that model is dual voltage. If so, you are good to go. If not, and you are going to be traveling internationally in the future, it might pay to just get a dual voltage. I did a quick Google, and it seems dual voltage flatirons are common and come in all price ranges.

 

I will be leaving next week for another month-long trip, so if you have more questions after next week, I will answer in June.

[DFLOORLADY]

Jujuju2,

Thanks for all the information and have a wonderful trip!!

[PennyPenguin]

Jujuju2,

Losing luggage can be a nightmare glad you weren't that long without it. I figured we would have at least one stop just hope there is not more than that.

Did you use an agency to get your Visa? If so what was the name?

Also did the hotels and ship have 110 volt outlets so all you would need is the adaptor?

Been reading about how flat irons burn out using a converter.

Thanks,

Debbie

 

We went to the Los Angeles Consulate for our Visas. My husband read through reviews online, so we knew exactly what to do. On the initial trip we waited about an hour and 45 minutes to get to the window. Since all of our paperwork was in order, we were at the window for less than 2 minutes. We were there less than 5 minutes on the day we picked up our Visas. If you are close enough to drive, I recommend just doing it yourself.

 

I do not remember if the hotels had 110 volt outlets. I know the ship did. We bought a set of three adaptors on Amazon for less than $10.

 

Our experience was very similar to LamChops except our guide was not as wonderful. We had Emily and she was fine, but t sounds like Lam Chops had a guide that gave them better tips on things.

[DFLOORLADY]

Penny

Thank you for the great information, how many days was it before the Visa was ready for pickup?

Thanks

[jill1349]

Did any of you use a service for the Visa? We are in Phx and LA is our servicing office so we need to use one of the services.

 

Jill

[Jujuju2]

Did any of you use a service for the Visa? We are in Phx and LA is our servicing office so we need to use one of the services.

 

Jill

 

Oh! Just remembered an important thing about the visas (and I am leaving the country for about a month in a couple days, so I may not be able to reply to subsequent questons), and I may have mentioned this before. You can now get a TEN YEAR China visa for the same price as the 90 day visa, but the forms available do not include a place to select that option, and as of two months ago, the forms had not been updated. So you need to figure out how to fill out the application to get the ten year visa if there is any possibility you might return.

 

You will find the answer by Googling, as I did, 10 year China visa application. Oh wait! I do now recall it is in the section where you select which length of visa you want, and there are various boxes to check, none of which is 10 years, so you check other and put in TEN YEARS in the explanation line for that section.

[nansi]

We didn't fill anything special or extra out last year. ALL Visa's are now 10 years! They just come that way :D

[Jujuju2]

We didn't fill anything special or extra out last year. ALL Visa's are now 10 years! They just come that way :D

Not true. We got our visas in January 2016. We were with a group of a couple hundred people on our Sinorama trip, practically all of whom had to get visas for this trip. None of the people we talked to had ten year visas. They didn't know there was such a thing. The visa applications online are 2013 version and do not have a check box for ten years. You have to check the Other box and then put 10 years on the line below.