"LIVE" - Ovation of the Seas (April 9-26, 2018), Bill & Marie's slow boat to China

[PCWalton1]

Great pictures, thanks for posting. We just kind of drove by as we were out of energy to do much more walking. It was a long 3 weeks. :D ;p

[gliles]

I really wanted to try the scorpion but with us flying home in the morning I didn't want to take chances. Next time.

 

We are starting our cruise there so I'll eat one and report back :)

[Coralc]

We are starting our cruise there so I'll eat one and report back :)

 

Taking one for the team! :D:D We look forward to hearing about your scorpion eating experience! :D

 

What a wonderful live review and photos Bill & Marie! The ports look fascinating. But I don't know if I could live on noodles/shrimp/chicken for 3 weeks. I am not a cooked vegetable fan.

 

Thanks for putting all of this together for us to enjoy! :D

[suzyluvs2cruise]

Didn't try them but they're readily available on Snack Street on Beijing.

 

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[vavasmom]

I read most of this over the weekend and just finished tonight. Thank you fur taking the time to share your vacation with us. Your pictures were amazing

 

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[Coralc]

Didn't try them but they're readily available on Snack Street on Beijing.

 

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Thanks for the photo Sue! Eeewww. :D

[PCWalton1]

Didn't try them but they're readily available on Snack Street on Beijing. [ATTACH]420520[/ATTACH]

 

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I like how they were still wiggling.

 

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[suzyluvs2cruise]

Thanks for the photo Sue! Eeewww. :D

 

You're welcome....

 

I like how they were still wiggling.

 

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Ewwww, not me. Bill, would you have tried one if you weren't going home the next day?

[bobmacliberty]

There isn't much in Asia I would eat, but I definitely would take a scorpion (not live, of course) over pigs brains.

 

Wasn't bad. Sort of gelatinous without a lot of flavor. My hosts told me that it's a delicacy, but I think that's what every local says to get a visitor to eat something.

[PCWalton1]

Ewwww, not me. Bill, would you have tried one if you weren't going home the next day?

 

Sure, they deep fry them first. But I would not have tried the silk worms. You know those would squish in your mouth. Yuck.

[dani negreanu]

Great pictures, thanks for posting. We just kind of drove by as we were out of energy to do much more walking. It was a long 3 weeks. :D ;p

 

We were also meant to drove by, but then the driver hinted that he didn't had the opportunity to view the stadium from inside, so DH offered him to buy the tickets for all of us, in exchange for a short stop. He readily agreed, and he was so happy with the "deal" that he offered to take us to the Pool House too, but, as Marie and you, we also were too tired.

 

The Olympic Torch Tower.

 

[travelgoddess1]

Didn't try them but they're readily available on Snack Street on Beijing. [ATTACH]420520[/ATTACH]

 

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No no no no no --that's just wrong!:p

[bluetiger59]

No no no no no --that's just wrong!:p

 

Karen

 

I think you might be a little to hasty here. That deep fried scorpion might be delicious with a little Tabasco Sauce on it. You might want to eat another one. I think I would have to try it.

 

Paul

[MindyJohn]

I feared I'd lose my breakfast when I caught a glimpse of that bowl of brains which is why I didn't quote/copy it. A thousand yucks:eek:

[travelgoddess1]

Karen

 

I think you might be a little to hasty here. That deep fried scorpion might be delicious with a little Tabasco Sauce on it. You might want to eat another one. I think I would have to try it.

 

Paul

 

Paul, I will gladly give my portion to you. :D :D

 

I feared I'd lose my breakfast when I caught a glimpse of that bowl of brains which is why I didn't quote/copy it. A thousand yucks:eek:

 

I'm afraid I have to agree. There are certain items that just should not be consumed. JMO, but I'm all about comfort food, not exotic "delicacies!" Escargots is just about my outer limit, lol!

 

To each his/her own.

[PCWalton1]

Someone asked earlier if I would review the ship so here goes an abbreviated version. I would say I liked it more than the Oasis class as it was not so spread out.

 

A few locations seemed out of place. The Concierge Lounge is a long way from anything being all the way aft on Deck 12. But the size of it and the amazing view made up for all the walking. And we did as we spent the at sea mornings there with coffee and Kindles.

The Focus photo center was on deck 5 will all the restaurants and bars rather than deck 4 with all the shops. I know, nitpicking but I am a slow learner so twice I went looking for it on deck 4. ;p

 

Loved all the coffee bars in Windjammer, La Parisserie, Cafe 270. Saved me a trip to the CL if I wanted a latte.

 

The ship is designed real well for tendering which is important since there are over 4000 passengers. They can tender from two locations and their tender boats are huge so they can get a lot of people off the ship quickly. Also when you come back by tender boat the area of the ship is also huge for processing passengers back on board. They can easily queue all the passengers from one tender boat inside the ship so no bottleneck get back aboard. Both ports that we tendered we were on the ship in about 30 minutes.

 

Loved that the casino was smoke free (sorry smokers). It was nice after making our nightly donations to the casino gods not coming away with watering eyes and smelling like an ashtray.

 

Loved the mandatory hand washing stations at Windjammer. On other ships I never cared for the squirts of hand sanitizer, especially since it does nothing to prevent Noro. Of course it's not fail safe, observed a family of 5 walk straight through the washing station. I being the master of subtlety called out it was nice to see parents raising a family of pigs but they never broke stride.

 

I can say the ship is in great condition but it should be since it is only 2 years old. Found a couple elevator buttons that did not work but other than that excellent shape.

 

We really like the Coastal Kitchen. I know it had some strange rules that others didn't like (but didn't effect us) such as no guests. For us the staff was great, friendly, funny and not too slow. Also ice that we could get the Diamond voucher drinks there so we didn't have to haul one with us. They had a bigger selection of wine too. Food was tasty and hot. Enjoyed that they made some off the menu dishes for us.

 

That is all I can think of right now, maybe others that were there have some observations.

[A&L_Ont]

I feared I'd lose my breakfast when I caught a glimpse of that bowl of brains which is why I didn't quote/copy it. A thousand yucks:eek:

 

Thanks for not quoting the pics. And I thought raisins were bad. :eek:

[gliles]

Someone asked earlier if I would review the ship so here goes an abbreviated version. I would say I liked it more than the Oasis class as it was not so spread out.

 

A few locations seemed out of place. The Concierge Lounge is a long way from anything being all the way aft on Deck 12. But the size of it and the amazing view made up for all the walking. And we did as we spent the at sea mornings there with coffee and Kindles.

The Focus photo center was on deck 5 will all the restaurants and bars rather than deck 4 with all the shops. I know, nitpicking but I am a slow learner so twice I went looking for it on deck 4. ;p

 

Loved all the coffee bars in Windjammer, La Parisserie, Cafe 270. Saved me a trip to the CL if I wanted a latte.

 

The ship is designed real well for tendering which is important since there are over 4000 passengers. They can tender from two locations and their tender boats are huge so they can get a lot of people off the ship quickly. Also when you come back by tender boat the area of the ship is also huge for processing passengers back on board. They can easily queue all the passengers from one tender boat inside the ship so no bottleneck get back aboard. Both ports that we tendered we were on the ship in about 30 minutes.

 

Loved that the casino was smoke free (sorry smokers). It was nice after making our nightly donations to the casino gods not coming away with watering eyes and smelling like an ashtray.

 

Loved the mandatory hand washing stations at Windjammer. On other ships I never cared for the squirts of hand sanitizer, especially since it does nothing to prevent Noro. Of course it's not fail safe, observed a family of 5 walk straight through the washing station. I being the master of subtlety called out it was nice to see parents raising a family of pigs but they never broke stride.

 

I can say the ship is in great condition but it should be since it is only 2 years old. Found a couple elevator buttons that did not work but other than that excellent shape.

 

We really like the Coastal Kitchen. I know it had some strange rules that others didn't like (but didn't effect us) such as no guests. For us the staff was great, friendly, funny and not too slow. Also ice that we could get the Diamond voucher drinks there so we didn't have to haul one with us. They had a bigger selection of wine too. Food was tasty and hot. Enjoyed that they made some off the menu dishes for us.

 

That is all I can think of right now, maybe others that were there have some observations.

 

 

Thanks so much. I think it was me. We are going in October in a GS from Beijing to Singapore so you can imagine I have been following this post daily and am almost as sad that your trip is over as you might be!

[bluetiger59]

Bill

 

Thanks again for this great review and your comments on the ship. I've made a few notes for future reference. Hope you don't mind a couple more questions.

 

You said that you didn't need a travel visa for Beijing and that you could stay there up to 144 hours without one. Is this 144 hour pass (or whatever it's called) something that you need to apply for?

 

Were you satisfied with your Beijing tour guide Maggie? If you were, could you tell me what company she's with? There are dozens of tour guides listed on the internet but if you recommend her company I want to make a note of it.

 

You do an amazing job on these reviews Bill. Thanks again.

 

Paul

[PCWalton1]

Bill

 

Thanks again for this great review and your comments on the ship. I've made a few notes for future reference. Hope you don't mind a couple more questions.

 

You said that you didn't need a travel visa for Beijing and that you could stay there up to 144 hours without one. Is this 144 hour pass (or whatever it's called) something that you need to apply for?

 

Were you satisfied with your Beijing tour guide Maggie? If you were, could you tell me what company she's with? There are dozens of tour guides listed on the internet but if you recommend her company I want to make a note of it.

 

You do an amazing job on these reviews Bill. Thanks again.

 

Paul

 

No you do not have to apply for the 144 hour transit visa exemption ahead of time. The ship works to assist us making sure we had all the required forms. Funny side note the ship gave us several forms to fill out and have with us when we went to immigration but once we actually got there all they wanted was passport, and copies of our confirmed flights out of the country and hotel reservations.

 

But you do need to make sure you meet the qualifications. Obviously you can't stay longer than 144 hours but you also have to stay in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Also you have to show them where you will be staying and confirmed flights out. Lastly your stop before and after China cannot be the same. In other words you cannot fly in from the US and then fly back to the US. We qualified as our previous port stop before China was Korea and after China we were flying to the US.

 

The tour company we used is actually based out of Las Vegas, www orientaltoursandtravel dot com. I would recommend them but when setting up be more specific than I did. For our two lunch stops we ended up in tourist restaurants (one even had just forks no chopsticks). That was my fault as I did not specify we did not want to eat in places like that. They were good at making changes. Two weeks before the trip we changed locations for where we wanted to visit the Great Wall. We moved to Matianyu rather than Badaling as it was more isolated and less touristy. The day before we were actually going to the wall we realized we were worn out so we had them change back to Badaling as it has a gondola going up to the wall making for much easier access.

 

I would recommend Maggie, she is personable, articulate, knowledgeable, and speaks clear English. Marie really liked her and considered her to be her long lost sister.

[PCWalton1]

Thanks so much. I think it was me. We are going in October in a GS from Beijing to Singapore so you can imagine I have been following this post daily and am almost as sad that your trip is over as you might be!

 

Lucky you, if I am looking at the right itinerary you get to make 3 stops in Vietnam and even a stop in Taipei, :D

[Harrylinden]

Oh My that food is just gross( brains and insects ect. )

.See this is why I have no desire to go to any Asian country.They eat some nasty foods.My stomach wouldn,t take it!:eek::o

[bobmacliberty]

Sorry Bill that my picture may have hijacked your great review. I really enjoy other cultures and cuisines, and it looks like this was an excellent itinerary to do so (other than a forced shopping trip :D). I hope that your trip was as fantastic as it appeared to be.

[gliles]

Lucky you, if I am looking at the right itinerary you get to make 3 stops in Vietnam and even a stop in Taipei, :D

 

Yes, we were to make 2 stops in the Philippines but that changed which is a little disappointing but we know it happens. You think we lucked out?

 

We are leaving in a few days for an Empress to Cuba, very excited about that.

[PCWalton1]

I grabbed a few more pictures off of Marie's phone. On the subject of pictures, I want to apologize for so many blurry pictures. It was an experiment that did not pan out. I shelved my Nikon with the big zoom lens for a Nikon Cool Pix to reduce the weight I would be carrying around. The Cool Pix was capable of decent pictures, it just did not have the response time that my main camera has. So I missed shots or they came out blurred.

 

When we travel the Panama Canal on Vision in November I will be back with the old camera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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