Yangtzee River cruise on Regal Cruises review

[sprinkles]

Hello all, I just really wanted to post a review somewhere on this board, as for me, this is my main source of information for travelling and I had a hard time finding information about our tour company before leaving. There is a very long thread here mostly about Viking Cruises (my friend just came back from them and had a wonderfull time), but I thought I would write this for those people looking to spend a little less money. I won't list the travel agency we went through, as I think that's against the rules (unless I'm asked), but it was a lower cost well-known agency and with 6 family members going that was a huge savings. Also, I will tell you what some of the differences were from what my friend descibed with Viking Cruises and with our lower cost tour.

Oh, about us, I'm 40 and DH is 49 (SIS and BIL 50, parents 58 and 72).

 

Our trip was a 19 day trip from San Francisco including:

 

Beijing, Wuhan, 4 nights Yangtzee River on Princess Sheena - Regal Cruises, Chengdu, Lhasa, Xian & Shanghai. We had 12 people in our group (including my six family members) who all got along wonderfully, we had an awesome national guide with us the whole trip and could not have imagined trying to do it all on our own, he was with us every step of the way. Our trip was an exhausting jaunt of flights, hotels, meals and sights, but I'm happy that we did it.

 

The biggest differences that are glaringly apparent after talking with my friend who did the Viking Cruise tour:

 

HOTELS: they stayed in "American Brand" Westin and such type hotels and had "American style" beds. We stayed in gorgeous 4 & 5 star Chinese hotels. The rooms were just amazing, with the exception that EVERY bed was as hard as sleeping on concrete (that is what they prefer). We spent so very little time in our hotels, literally just a place to shower and sleep, it would have been nice to have a soft bed to sleep in.

 

FOOD: Our hotels and the ship always had something western that would work for us for breakfast - lunch and dinner was always Chinese or Tibetan (when in Tibet). We never starved and the food ranged from very good to OK, to Oh no, I just can't do it again. My friend said their food was wonderfull - mainly western on the Viking ship. We went to the same shows and had the same good dumpling dinner as she did on Viking.

 

SHIP: We saw a Viking ship while on the Yangtze and it looked gorgeous, private balconies for everyone, it just looked newer and nicer, she said her room was very lovely and spacious. Our ship the Princess Sheena - hum, well, OK, it is definately older. The rooms were tiny (about on par with the tiniest cabin we once had on a 20 year old RCCL ship). We had a nice sized window to look out of and refridgerator, enough room to store stuff. The beds had a mattress pad (I'm thinking inmates in jail have thicker ones then we did). The food was OK, again we didn't starve. They had an egg station for breakfast that really helped, and there was usually something to be found at lunch/dinner that would work. The included excursions off the ship sounded to be the same as on Viking. Four nights was too long and we were definately ready to get off the ship by the third day.

 

FLIGHTS: We flew Air China everywhere. The trips to/from San Francisco were really uneventfull, there was also more leg room in coach then on any domestic US airline. Food was OK, they only showed one US movie (the same both ways), but hey it was only a $500 add-on for air from San Francisco - really nothing to complain about.

 

Cities/Sights:

 

Beijing - overwhelming, major heat,humidity (we left Sept 14 and started in Beijing), saw all the same sights as Viking.

 

Wuhan: Yellow crane tower was ok, saw a pretty park.

 

Yangtze Cruise: I wish I could have seen this before the water had been risen. For us, seeing all the concrete relocation villages up on the hills got depressing. Couldn't hardly see the dam with all the pollution. Did get to see some beauty along the shoreline. The special trip on the pea boats was very pretty. Going through the locks was interesting, I don't have a great desire to cruise Panama Canal anymore.

 

CHENGDU: PANDAS PANDAS PANDAS - highlight of my trip. Very nice place they live in there, got to see them up close and personal. Paid the extra money to pet one and have picture taken - I will never foget the experience.

 

LHASA: LOVED Lhasa, what a beautifull, peacefull, tranquill place. The people were amazing and I've never seen a sky so blue or clouds so white. The food was better then anything we had down off the plateau - we even went to a very nice steak house and had an awesome meal. Everyone in the group got sick at some point or another, we took the Diamox and did ok (DH climbed to the top of the Portola Palace - I couldn't do it, although my 72 yr old Dad did). Worth all the hassles, we will never forget Lhasa.

 

Xian: Terra Cotta Warriors - they're cool, something to see (I was still sick from coming down from Tibet and kinda felt like I had already seen them from watching specials on TV). It was one of the highlights for my Dad and he seemed impressed.

 

Shanghai: Awesome, fun city. Did the same things as Viking tours. We could have done more on our own, but shopping during their national holliday was also something I will never forget.

 

OK, so final thoughts on lower cost tour. Before going, I had heard our tour company described as "a champagne tour on a beer budget" - I would have to agree. For the price difference, it really was a great trip. We saw and did the same things for about two thousand dollars cheaper per person. We really did have an amazing time - yes I'll admit that I was jealous of the Viking ship when I saw it on the river, but that was only four days out of our 19 day trip. I would have liked to have softer beds, but the funny thing is that my back didn't hurt the whole trip (and I've got a bad back). The food was an experience and we never starved, so who cares, this is the first trip I've taken where I haven't gained weight, lol. DH and I had never taken a guided tour before, so it's hard to comment on the local guides, some we liked, some we didn't, but they got us everywhere we needed to go. Like I said above, our national guide was awesome.

 

Well, I hope this may be of help to somebody. If cost isn't a factor, hey stick with Viking, it sounds like you can't go wrong with them. On the other hand, if cost is a factor, just ask and I'll say who our tour company was. I also work with another lady who did the same tour company as us this past spring and she also had a great time. Happy trails everyone.

 

Tammy

[franu]

That was a great review. I am interested in doing a trip like yours. Please tell me what company you went with.

 

Please tell me if you think that your trip is possible for someone with limited mobility. Thank you.

Fran

[sprinkles]

Hi Fran,

 

Well, first it was China Focus Travel (oh and by the way, their people in their home office of San Francisco were totally awesome).

 

Mobility: Unless, you're totally confined to a wheelchair - I would say, yes you can do it - but let me describe those issues a little better. Like I said, my Dad is 72, but he gets around like crazy. My Mom got tired more easily (myself too for that matter) and when we were exhausted like in the forbidden city, we would sit down and relax and let the group keep trekking around, especially during those times that the guide would give you to go look around for yourself. We had two ladies in our group that used canes to help with leg issues and they walked to the top of the Potala Palace in Tibet. The place they took us to the Great Wall, did not take alot of walking to actually get on the wall and we had about 2 hours to do what we wanted there. Some people in the group hiked fairly high on the wall - most of us did not and just did a little shopping, relaxed, and enjoyed the scenery, etc.

 

There is alot of getting on/getting off buses. There is alot of walking, but we would take pedi-cabs/golf carts (sometimes at the groups decision and personal cheap cost) whenever we could make a walk shorter. As a matter of fact, at the Terra Cotta Warriors, there were people who would push you around in a wheelchair for about $30 US dollars for 3 or 4 hours (I know this, as I was still so sick from Tibet, my Mom hired one to take me around). We also had two elderly ladies who "survived" the trip as well. But not to minimize, there was ALOT of walking - usually in relatively short spurts and there were stairs everywhere. We also needed to transport our own carry-ons quite often when changing cities/hotels (a small rolling carry-on worked well or my Sister carried just a small bag).

 

When we were dealing with airports, they always had carts to push your luggage in while going through check-in's and getting to the busses. There were always porters in the hotels to handle the big luggage - but we did need to push our carts with our luggage at the airports. Oh and on the Yangtze cruise, the ship did NOT have an elevator - so there were 4 small flights of stairs that often needed to be navigated.

 

I hope this helps, only you know your abilities/limitations. We had a diverse group (including a 12 yr old boy who at times was as tired as we were) in that nature and everyone "survived" - although it seems we are all still exhausted after being home for a week. Also, our trip was a little more intensive/longer then some trips. Do you want to go to Tibet? - Tibet adds in it's own issues with the altitude and such (anyone that is going to Tibet - biggest advice - WATER WATER WATER, drink constantly and stay hydrated - it helps). If you take Tibet off the table, definately look for an itinerary that maybe doesn't have so many different cities and maybe longer stays in the cities you do go to. We literally had days where we would be up at 5:30am, in a bus by 7:30am, maybe see a sight, fly 2 hours to a new city, have lunch, see a sight, dinner, then to our new hotel at 10pm - only to do the same thing the next day - did I say the trip was exhausting. I'm not trying to dissuade you at all, if it's someplace you want to see, go for it, just trying to help you make an informed decision. Safe travels everyone.

 

Tammy

[sprinkles]

Oh my gosh, I just realized something after I posted the above. Maybe, I made our trip sound a little less then it was, we went to more things then I initially listed, those were just the highlights (Dazu caves - cool, can't think of all the little things right now).

 

And before anyone thinks that I work for the travel company (which I assure you I do not). Yes, we did have scheduled shopping stops at jade, silk, pearl kinda factories. I really didn't think about mentioning it, but here's the scoop on those. We didn't mind those at all, they were usually just long enough for those who wanted to shop. If you didn't feel like shopping, they were nice stops just to use the bathroom or wander next door to buy soda/candy and such. They were interesting and I would guess that most of us bought our nicest souveniers from them - they absolutely did haggle, and I think most of us felt more confident in our purchases from those places. The one purchase that I didn't make, that I regret now, was something from the silk embroidery place. I didn't realize how much they would haggle there, but a lady in our group bought an amazing, framed picture for $100 that they probably wanted more like $300 to start with. But I did buy pearl earrings that I love and a few other things. Anyway, sorry that I didn't mention those, but they were really a non-issue and not considered a problem at all - I never heard anyone complain about those stops.

 

Tammy

[franu]

Sprinkles,

I can't thank you enough for all of the information. You definitely have given me the kind of information that I need in order to make my decisions. Now I must wait to see what the money situation will be.

Thanks again,

Fran

[sable1]

Thanks Tammy for your great post.

We are considering China Focus for their 30 day Journey of a Lifetime trip. We have been to China a couple of times before, but want to see the T.C. Wariors again and Guilin/Li river and Yangtse.

On the Regal ship, what was the dress code? We want to pack light and would it be appropriate to wear our regular daytime touring clothes or do people dress up in the evenings?

Any suggestions for the hard beds in China? Now that I'm older I appreciate some padding. Wonder if I should bring a beach air mattress to put under the sheet.

Should we bring snacks/granola bars to supplement the meals in case we just can't find something we like? I remember before when we asked what a dish was, our guide said "pork" every time.

How much time did you have in Chengdu at the Panda reserve? I love animals and really want to see them.

Were the hotels conveniently located for an evening stroll or on the outskirts on town?

How many were on your tour?

What was the name of the National guide?

Any other feedback appreciated. Thanks,

Joanne

[sprinkles]

Hi Joanne,

 

You can definately wear your daytime clothes on the ship. Most of us made an effort to "freshen up" but you definately don't need to worry about dressing up.

 

Hard beds - you can always try to ask for extra duvet covers and sleep on those - but to be honest I folded three of them together at the end (sleeping basically on the thickness of 6 duvet covers) and it didn't really help much. So sure, if you can manage some blow-up kinda thing - give it a try. Oh and on the ship, when we got on they offered us the chance to up-grade to a suite (that had real beds) for $700 US (we declined). About 3 or 4 hours later they then offered us a "special deal" for the suite for $300 US. So, if you are at all interested in the suites (and they let you look at them), wait to un-pack (we declined the 2nd offer as well as we had completely un-packed by then).

 

Snacks - DH and I brought 15 power bars and we ate every one of them. It was nice to know that we had "something" on us. We also stocked up on pringles and snickers bars when we found them in stores.

 

Chengdu Panda reserve- If I remember correctly, we spent about 3 hours there, plenty of time. One of my favorites - I even got to go into a pen and pet a 3 yr old male and have pictures taken for 400 yuan. If the 1 yr olds wouldn't have been sick that day I could have paid 1000 yuan to hold one and have pictures. We even got to spend about 20 minutes looking at the 5 babies in the nursery.

 

Hotels - humm most of the time we were too exhausted to go out at night or it was too late- but we always seemed to be close to something. Especially the Joy City hotel in Beijing was literally connected to a big mall and we took a subway to go the the Wanfuging (sp) street market. In Shanghai I think we were pretty close to the Bund, but considering that we were in Shanghai during National Holiday - we didn't even make an attempt to go back out there that night - they were having fireworks and we had already seen the masses of people during the day.

 

We had 12 people total on our tour. We ran into the 30 day "trip of a lifetime" group and I want to say that they looked like a group of 25 to 30.

 

Our National Guide was Anthony Yan and he was outstanding.

 

Misc: Humm - just to reiterate on Lhasa. If you can - take the Diamox with you and drink lots of WATER WATER WATER. One of the ladies I met from the trip of a lifetime group (before we went to Lhasa) had already been and she said she had gotten very sick up there and stressed the water. Also on Lhasa, when they say take it easy that first day - they really mean it. Also, don't be afraid to get some oxygen. My Mom got really sick and couldn't even get out of bed the first morning - totally loopy. I finally convinced her to let me get her some oxygen. After that first day of staying in bed with the oxygen pillow, she finally got up and went to dinner.

 

If you go, have a great time - my parents had really wanted to do the 29 day trip, but we just couldn't swing the time off work.

 

Tammy