Yangtze cruise - upstream or downstream??

[zelker]

Anyone who has cruised on the Yangtze - is there much of a difference sailing upstream or downstream? I read somewhere that if you sail upstream you actually sail during the night to gain more ground since it's slower but if you sail downstream, you dock at night and can get off the boat in some of the towns. (if it matters, we'll be on a Viking boat)

 

Have to pay deposit soon so any insight will be greatly appreciated!

 

Barb

[land lover]

Barb, went down stream in Aug/Sept. 9 night cruise. only at one port did we get off at night. You are usually sailing by 5pm.

[zelker]

Barb, went down stream in Aug/Sept. 9 night cruise. only at one port did we get off at night. You are usually sailing by 5pm.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

 

What deck were you on? Right now we're 3 cabins up from the sauna/massage rooms but are wondering if being on the same deck as the restaurant and front desk is a mistake (too much noise). Any thoughts?

 

Did you get bored being on the river for 9 days? I'm concerned that my husband (who is turning 50 next year) will get antsy.

[cmthomas]

Zelker, last year we took a Viking trip that had a 4 day, three night trip downstream from Chongqing to just below the dam. We enjoyed it immensely and found three nights to be quite adequate. Since we have not taken the 9 night cruise it would be unfair for me to attempt a comparison.

 

We were on the third deck above the entry level and forward of the elevators. It was very quiet and peaceful. The ship in general is pretty quiet.

 

If you are interested I have posted a blog about our journey at http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/cmthomas/. It includes some pictures of the ship and the cabin. The ship that we were on, the Century Sky, was superb and compared to the other ships that we saw seemed to be the newest on the river at that time.

 

All in all, our trip to China was a very positive experience and Viking provided an excellant program. No regrets!

 

Clarence:)

[land lover]

Thanks for the feedback!

 

What deck were you on? Right now we're 3 cabins up from the sauna/massage rooms but are wondering if being on the same deck as the restaurant and front desk is a mistake (too much noise). Any thoughts?

 

Did you get bored being on the river for 9 days? I'm concerned that my husband (who is turning 50 next year) will get antsy.

 

You are in a great location, the Lobby and spa are between you and the dining room.....We were about 5 cabins south from yours.

My Husband who is 50, never got antsy, there is no night life, but you are pretty tired after the daily excurisions...the tour is really non stop. It was a wonderful experience.

[land lover]

Oh and by the way expect to be some of the youngest on the cruise.:)

[land lover]

Zelker, last year we took a Viking trip that had a 4 day, three night trip downstream from Chongqing to just below the dam. We enjoyed it immensely and found three nights to be quite adequate. Since we have not taken the 9 night cruise it would be unfair for me to attempt a comparison.

 

We were on the third deck above the entry level and forward of the elevators. It was very quiet and peaceful. The ship in general is pretty quiet.

 

If you are interested I have posted a blog about our journey at http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/cmthomas/. It includes some pictures of the ship and the cabin. The ship that we were on, the Century Sky, was superb and compared to the other ships that we saw seemed to be the newest on the river at that time.

 

All in all, our trip to China was a very positive experience and Viking provided an excellant program. No regrets!

 

Clarence:)

 

Clarence are you the same guy who has quite a bit of river cruising knowledge? I know I have seen you on other threads... I am planning a trip to Russia any suggestions for river cruising companies? They all seem the same to me I really am leaning towards uniworld 16 day. Have you done Russia before?

[cmthomas]

Lori, we have not done a river cruise in Russia although I must say that it looks tempting! We have visited Russia on land tours twice. Going to Russia is more of an adventure than some of the other destinations. It has become far more expensive since we went quite some years ago. If you plan on going I would offer some advice that may make your trip more enjoyable. Try to learn the Cyrillic alphabet. It really isn't that difficult. That will allow you to sound out the words that you see that would make no sense at all otherwise. Once you sound them out you will find that many of them sound familiar enough in English that you can figure out what they mean. There are numerous sites on the Internet that provide this type of information.

 

As for experience in river cruising, it is not all that much. We have done the Vienna to Amsterdam itinerary on the Danube, Main and Rhine and the Antwerp to Basel on the Rhine and Mosel (our favorite) as well as the Rhone in France and the Yangtze in China. I would like to do the Irawaddy in Burma (The Road to Mandalay) but the wife has put her foot down on that one! I think that our next one might be on Dielmann from Berlin north to the Baltic Sea.

 

River cruising is a type of travel all its own and cannot be compared in any way to ocean travel. They are apples and oranges. A river cruise more closely resembles (IMHO) a land tour where your "bus" is a boat on the river and you don't have to unpack in a different hotel each night.

 

We have not cruised with Uniworld. Several years ago they got poor reviews but lately the reports have been glowing so I guess that they should be considered with all of the others in the decision process. So many choices --- so little time!

 

Clarence:)

[zelker]

Zelker, last year we took a Viking trip that had a 4 day, three night trip downstream from Chongqing to just below the dam. We enjoyed it immensely and found three nights to be quite adequate. Since we have not taken the 9 night cruise it would be unfair for me to attempt a comparison.

 

We were on the third deck above the entry level and forward of the elevators. It was very quiet and peaceful. The ship in general is pretty quiet.

 

If you are interested I have posted a blog about our journey at http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/cmthomas/. It includes some pictures of the ship and the cabin. The ship that we were on, the Century Sky, was superb and compared to the other ships that we saw seemed to be the newest on the river at that time.

 

All in all, our trip to China was a very positive experience and Viking provided an excellant program. No regrets!

 

Clarence:)

 

Hi, Clarence. I have already read your travel journal twice - once alone and once with my husband yesterday! It was really informative and convinced us that we wanted to do the trip! :>D

 

Barb

[zelker]

You are in a great location, the Lobby and spa are between you and the dining room.....We were about 5 cabins south from yours.

My Husband who is 50, never got antsy, there is no night life, but you are pretty tired after the daily excurisions...the tour is really non stop. It was a wonderful experience.

 

What number cabin were you guys in? We're holding 227. I know the lobby is in between the rooms and the dining room but wondered if people tend to congregate in the lobby and then the noise would travel down the hall, as it doesn't appear that there is a door to close off the hallway, is there.

 

Yes, we figured we'd be one of the youngun's but no worries. When we sailed in Europe in May in 2004, we were definitely on the young side but found we enjoyed talking to our more experienced traveling companions about all of their journeys.

 

Do they have any kind of board games or cards on board that people can play in the evenings after dinner?

[cmthomas]

The only time that I remember people congregating in the Reception area was in preparation to disembark for a shoreside trip --- and then EVERYONE was there! I did not hear anyone complain about their cabin location. The only reason that we selected deck 3 was to give us some elevation off of the river to view the scenery from our balcony.

 

Clarence:)