Viking China

[no fuss travel]

Have you seen the latest news about the garbage that is being washed into the river and some of it is so tightly compacted that people can stand on it. They are hauling huge amounts out by the dam trying to keep the locks open. The garbage could damage the bottom of the ships as well as their propellers.

[caribill]

Hi Caribill.....Thanks for your reply..... .but I am confused.Do the bus you each evening back to the ship?. How long do they expect the river to be so high ??

Thanks.......and hope you have a wonderful day !!:)

 

Previous cruise was supposed to end in Wuhan, but could not because of the river level, so they disembarked passengers in the city they stop at to visit the elementary school. Then then bussed these passengers this morning to Wuhan to catch their flights to Shanghai.

 

We flew from Shanghai to Wuhan this afternoon and were then bussed to the cruise. We will stay at the dock overnight, visit the elementary school in the morning, and then at 11:30 the ship starts its cruise westward as normal. All we missed shipwise was sailing overnight from Wuhan (where the ship usually starts) to where the elementary school is. We were on the ship in time for dinner.

 

However, because of the ride to the ship, they did not have the tour of the museum in Wuhan as time did not permit it.

 

As mentioned, we will do the cruise as normal after visiting the school.

 

Hope this clears up any confusion.

[no fuss travel]

Oh what a shame. That museum in Wuhan is incredible. I preferred it to one in Shanghai.

[Peregrina651]

Previous cruise was supposed to end in Wuhan, but could not because of the river level, so they disembarked passengers in the city they stop at to visit the elementary school. Then then bussed these passengers this morning to Wuhan to catch their flights to Shanghai.

 

We flew from Shanghai to Wuhan this afternoon and were then bussed to the cruise. We will stay at the dock overnight, visit the elementary school in the morning, and then at 11:30 the ship starts its cruise westward as normal. All we missed shipwise was sailing overnight from Wuhan (where the ship usually starts) to where the elementary school is. We were on the ship in time for dinner.

 

However, because of the ride to the ship, they did not have the tour of the museum in Wuhan as time did not permit it.

 

As mentioned, we will do the cruise as normal after visiting the school.

 

Hope this clears up any confusion.

 

Right. That is how the Imperial Jewels/Roof of the World itineraries are handling the problem.

 

However, I believe that the August 14 cruise is a Cultural Delights cruise which is scheduled to cruise past Wuhan all the way down the river to Nanjing.

 

There has not been a Cultural Delights itinerary since the flooding and we have no idea how Viking is planning on handling the situation if the Viking Century Sun cannot navigate under the bridge above Wuhan.

 

Up until now the solution has been simple because the ship was forced to stop just a few hours upstream from the Wuhan airport. It is a different set of problems for the Cultural Delights itinerary which still has five days of cruising and stops below Wuhan.

[Turtles06]

Have you seen the latest news about the garbage that is being washed into the river and some of it is so tightly compacted that people can stand on it. They are hauling huge amounts out by the dam trying to keep the locks open. The garbage could damage the bottom of the ships as well as their propellers.

 

The picture here in the Wall St. Journal of the garbage and debris in the river is worth the proverbial 1,000 words. :(

 

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704271804575404601892298756.html?KEYWORDS=yangtze

[ships-a-hoy]

Does anyone have any idea how long they think it will be until the ships can fit under the bridge again ?

[provedor]

We are from Perth and will be on the 14th August trip. We will be accompanined by two other couples. Just a pity that a roll call was not set up for our trip. We have extended by a couple of days to visit Expo.

I am told the queues have got shorter - but maybe the heat keeps people away.

No matter whate we will enjoy ourselves - we visited Shanghai last year for a day - Great food at the steamed dumpling restaurant.

Visited Beijing and Great Wall for about 20 minutes as part of Cruise.

any more news on Bridges would be great.

 

Anyone purchased the Liquor package on the Sun?:mad:

[ships-a-hoy]

We are from Perth and will be on the 14th August trip. We will be accompanined by two other couples. Just a pity that a roll call was not set up for our trip. We have extended by a couple of days to visit Expo.

I am told the queues have got shorter - but maybe the heat keeps people away.

No matter whate we will enjoy ourselves - we visited Shanghai last year for a day - Great food at the steamed dumpling restaurant.

Visited Beijing and Great Wall for about 20 minutes as part of Cruise.

any more news on Bridges would be great.

 

Anyone purchased the Liquor package on the Sun?:mad:

 

Great news.........I rang Viking yesterday , and they said the water levels have dropped and our cruise should go ahead as planned !

[kobecat]

Great news.........I rang Viking yesterday , and they said the water levels have dropped and our cruise should go ahead as planned !

 

I hope you are right - maybe I am being cynical in thinking this is the politically correct corporate answer. Time will tell!!!

 

Hope we see you on the boat not the bus!!

 

Beryl

[Zubie]

Anyone out there going to the Roof of the World tour in early Sept? My wife and I are very much looking forward to the trip, especially going to Tibet. It will be our first trip to China. We have travelled many times to Europe and S. America but never to China.

[no fuss travel]

Anyone out there going to the Roof of the World tour in early Sept? My wife and I are very much looking forward to the trip, especially going to Tibet. It will be our first trip to China. We have travelled many times to Europe and S. America but never to China.

 

You could try starting a roll call but will probably not have much luck as we found when we went on the China cruise that very few people were even aware of this board.

[Romeosc]

Anyone out there going to the Roof of the World tour in early Sept? My wife and I are very much looking forward to the trip, especially going to Tibet. It will be our first trip to China. We have travelled many times to Europe and S. America but never to China.

 

 

you may try Facebook ....... Viking River Cruises has a page for followers

[saramana]

I just returned from Roof of the World and would be happy to answer any questions!

[Peregrina651]

you may try Facebook ....... Viking River Cruises has a page for followers

 

Agreed, there is a lot of activity there but the downside of posting on Facebook is that, unlike here on CC, you are not hiding behind a pseudonym and therefore are letting the whole world know that you will be away from home.

[caribill]

We have extended by a couple of days to visit Expo.

I am told the queues have got shorter - but maybe the heat keeps people away.

 

They need to average almost 400,000 visitors a day to meet their attendance goals. Last Saturday they had 440,000, but Sunday it dropped to 315,000 due to the heat.

 

If Asutralia has a building, you can skip the line by showing your Australian passport. (Same is true for citizens of other countries that have a building there, can get into your own building without the lines.)

 

Popular exhibits have 3-5 hour waiting lines. Less popular ones have only a two hour waiting line.

[Cathys Cruising]

Can't believe it'll be our turn next month. We'll be on the Sept 10th Imperial Jewels trip (if anyone else is out there!). We've gotten word our flight times on United have changed - earlier flight out of San Antonio and longer layovers in SF. Too bad my son recently moved from there - would have been an opportunity for a short visit.

We also were notified that the cost of the Visa's went up and to send more $$. We used the service recommended by Viking. The email ended up in my junk folder, so glad I did find it!

Thanks to earlier posters for your input, info and tips. I'm strangely calm about all this even though it's our first river boat cruise and visit to China plus I'm Type "A" to boot!

Cathy

[H2Otstr]

 

We also were notified that the cost of the Visa's went up and to send more $$. We used the service recommended by Viking.

Cathy

 

 

Cathy, can you tell me how much extra you had to send for the VISA? I will applying for mine in late December for my March trip.

 

Sharon

[Dale]

Cathy, can you tell me how much extra you had to send for the VISA? I will applying for mine in late December for my March trip.

 

Sharon

I'm not Cathy, but this may help.

Visa Fee Adjustment

[H2Otstr]

Dale, that site does not help because the application that I have does not break down the cost of the VISA fee and the service charge. It states that the cost for one person is $191 and for two the cost is $365.

 

I will call them before I send in the application so that they can process it without any problems.

[castledavies]

We will be on Imperial Jewels on October 30 2010. Has anyone arranged their own transfers from/to the airports (not thru Viking)? I'm wondering if catching a taxi from PVG to the Shanghai Grand Hyatt would be easy. We should be thru customs by 3:30 PM. I have a "hotel" card with the info written in Chinese to give to the driver. As any alternative has anyone hired a car and driver/guide in Shanghai?

[Cathys Cruising]

Cathy, can you tell me how much extra you had to send for the VISA? I will applying for mine in late December for my March trip.

 

Sharon

 

 

Sharon, it was an additional $10.00 per person. We had gotten our paperwork in Jan so it didn't reflect (obviously) the current charges. I had sent in $381.00 which included the insurance and just phoned in the $20.00 increase. I knew the price of passports had gone up but didn't even think about the visa costs going up as well.

Cathy

[luvinretirement]

We are going on the Imperial Jewels in October - fly out of Vancouver on October 19 at 3:00 am -- arriving at 9:35 am October 20. Hopefully we'll be able to rest once we get there.

 

Anyone else go on October 20th tour?

[H2Otstr]

Sharon' date=' it was an additional $10.00 per person. We had gotten our paperwork in Jan so it didn't reflect (obviously) the current charges. I had sent in $381.00 which included the insurance and just phoned in the $20.00 increase. I knew the price of passports had gone up but didn't even think about the visa costs going up as well.[/size']

 

 

 

Cathy

 

 

 

Thanks for that info; that price is not too bad. It would be nice if our TA would provide that additional info to us. All that is needed is a quick FYI email. Then again, maybe the TA doesn't know :eek:.

 

S

[castledavies]

We have some free time in Shanghai and are interested in riding the Maglev (only one in the world, about 267 mph). Maybe just getting on it in town, riding to the airport, and then catching the return trip. Does anyone have any experience or thoughts?

[Quince]

We're on the October 10 Imperial Jewels trip out of Shanghai. We'll be arriving two days early, and had originally planned to see the Expo. But after reading some reviews on TripAdvisor, it sounds like the things we would be able to see in a one day visit are not really worth seeing.

 

Instead we're thinking of taking a one day bus excursion to one of the water villages (Suzhou and Zhouzhuang). However, I didn't want to duplicate something we're going to do with Viking. But reading the Shanghai itinerary, it sounds like they just bus you around the city in the morning, then it's the silk carpet workshop and Shanghai Musuem in the afternoon. Anything else you want to see you're on your own. Is that right?