10 hour stop for Shanghai Princess cruise passenger requires $180.00 visa
 

We are booked on Sapphire Princess and visit Shanghai on 4/25/2014 for 10 hours and Princess has advised all passengers they must obtain a Chinese visa whether or not the passenger steps off the ship. Most travel blogs indicate transit passengers do not require a visa. Visa costs about $180.00 per person which I would rather spend on shore excursions and/or shopping in China's 2nd largest city.
Princess advises that their Port Agent in Shanghai informed Princess that all cruise passengers require the Visa.
China Consulate in New York advises the "Citizens of the following countries to transit Shanghai up to 48 hours without applying for visas: Korea, U.S......."
I have emailed the Port Agent in Shanghai but no reply yet.
We have valid US passports and the ship makes no other stops in mainline China.
This would be our 1st visit to China and might want to revisit but not if it costs us $180.00 per person for another visa.
Princess advised also that if we did not obtain the Visa we would not be able to start our cruise in Los Angeles.

See: http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/visas/t1055030.htm

You are not eligible for a transit visa because you are not flying in from country A and out to country B.

Is Princess saying you need a visa even if you DON'T get off the ship in Shanghai? And you need the visa to get on the ship in LA?

Why didn't they tell you this before you booked the cruise? If it's true, looks like the Shanghai part makes no difference, you have to pay the $180 or cancel your trip if I'm understanding correctly.

Unfortunately we must obtain the Chinese Visa or we will not be able to start the cruise. It also makes no difference if we do not get off the trip. This is spelled out on their website now but do not recall if that portion of their website was accessible prior to our making the final payment,
Passports are always necessary for most cruises but the visas can be an expensive frufru. We will not board another cruise ship BEFORE we check on cost of any and all visas.
It makes sense to me if the ship would give the passenger the option of staying on the ship. However the ship might be severely punished if they permitted passengers to leave ship and never returned.
Simply would be an easy thing to furnish sightseeing stamps for our passports and let us enjoy the excursions and shopping without spending big bucks.

I would suspect that all international cruise passengers who stop at New Orleans, or Miami, etc also get treated to the same conditions. And china is well known for reciprocity. That's why the china visa is so expensive; because that is the same cost chinese citizens pay for USA visa.

The US is actually worse than China. You need to apply for a transit visa just to change planes.

Shanghai is an incredible city. It is too bad you only have one stop in China, but Shanghai has an awful lot to offer. What kind of shore excursions are they offering there? If you start another thread, it is possible there are enough people here who can help you design an excursion you can do on your own or with another couple that will save you almost as much as the cost of your visas.

The shore excursions look pretty basic. However, there is a very active roll call on cruisecritic.com for that sailing. You should be able to find something interesting there. This is a repositioning cruise, so you should be getting a good deal on the fare.

That's one of those lovely local taxes that goes into someone's pocket. Funny how it happens where it happens, in places with poor official tax systems and lots of avenues for corruption.

A visa, obtained in advance from an embassy, is not a "local tax". Sheesh. Do you think a visa to visit the US is a "local tax"?

Since you have to pay for a visa, I would get off walk the Bund, and do some quick shopping on the main shopping street at least. It is a beautiful and interesting city.

or take the hop on hop off bus---it gives a good overview to the city

The Shanghai Museum was one of my favorites...it is decently "labeled" in multiple languages and you don't need a guide to take you around, as you can get an English language map when you enter and pay admission. The bronzes are amazing, as are the ceramics and furniture, if you like that kind of thing (we limited our visit to focus on those.). Plus a taxi ride through Shanghai traffic shouldn't be missed.

I hope you will be able to see the city lit up at night. It is unforgettable.

With limited time I second rhkkmk's suggestion of the hop on hop off bus, you get a glance of the major sights/sites on the first round, and make a note of the ones you wish to get off and visit using the bus.

http://eng.bigbustours.com/shanghai/home.html

To be clear, visa exemptions only apply for transits at airports.
I know it is expensive to just walk around but China is actually more generous on its visa exemption than the US. And it is easier for you to get a China visa than for a Chinese to get a US visa.

"Unfortunately we must obtain the Chinese Visa or we will not be able to start the cruise. It also makes no difference if we do not get off the trip. This is spelled out on their website now but do not recall if that portion of their website was accessible prior to our making the final payment,..."

Sorry you didn't realize you needed a visa, but it is stand procedure for many countries. Countries that require a visa, often if not always, require the ship produce a passport with the visa for everyone on the ship whether that person gets off or not. In the past China has even required a face to face on the ship with all passengers with their passport in hand whether they were getting off or not. The face to face meeting are just a pain!

If you had read through you cruise personalizer on the Princess website as soon as you had a booking number, you get this as soon as you make a reservation and several days before the deposit is due or the final payment, if you are in the 90 day full payment pre-cruise window. You would have seen a visa was necessary. It doesn't tell the cost because that varies based on your country.

We have several Princess bookings that extend into 2015. For every one the personalizer lists all the visas needed, if any. Plus whether the ship will get a blanket visa as in Vietnam or you have to do it yourself as with China, India and Brazil to name a few. As said before the visa price is on a par with what the US charges their citizens.

We have done a similar cruise to yours on the Sapphire Princess a few years ago and have been back to Shanghai twice since on the Ocean Princess.

You will enjoy the city. The ship will give you a map and a paper with the ship's dock and tourist places written in both Chinese and English to use with the taxis.

Walking or taxis are both easy to do...many fun and interesting places to visit! You will not be disappointed.(Ocean Princess docks near The Bund and Sapphire Princess docks at the container port).

There will be a shuttle for you to one of the big fixed price tourist shops. From there it is easy to move around on foot or with a taxi.

Check the tours Princess is offering and pick what interest you from them. Then DIY by taxi and on foot...all you need is a good city map. Drivers don't really speak English, but with a city map/sheet from the ship you can easily move around.

Have a good cruise.