kenc

thinking of taking a viking river cruise of china. any comments, experiences, feedback would be appreciated. kenc

PeterN_H

Try entering 'Yangtze' in the search box above to find many accounts and a variety of opinions, e.g.

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...ood-choice.cfm

kenc

thank's peter, i found info helpful kenc

Leslie_S

kenc - I did that Viking cruise in November 2010 and really enjoyed it. There's a lot of info on that cruise and on river cruising in general on cruisecritic's boards. You might want to check that site for opinions.

Most of the posters here are of the DIY variety and group tours like Viking's will not be on the top of their list - you probably will mostly be told what a big mistake that type of tour is.

kenc

thank's lesile, i will check out cruisecritic. ken

Lolo12

I traveled with Viking to China in September '08 and it couldn't have been better.

We began in Beijing (just after the Olympics had ended) - we were a group of only 19 people. There was a lot of flying involved so it was good to have a group leader steering us along. We flew to Xian, then to Tibet (awesome), and finally on to Chongqing where we boarded the ship for the cruise along the Yangtze. After we ended we flew to Shanghai.

We took an extension to Viet Nam, but they don't offer that anymore. Even though there were just the 2 of us, Viking honored the extension and we had our own private guide the whole time.

We had a wonderful group leader who made his country come alive for us. Even though there were many people on the ship, our group of 19 continued to tour together so we were never with a large number of people. Viking organized this very well.

I couldn't recommend this trip highly enough!!

Leslie_S

Lolo - I thought the same thing about Viking but I can hear the eyeballs rolling back into heads out in fodorland.

I just got a brochure from them for a new Vietnam, Cambodia itinerary. If I hadn't just planned a similar trip on our own I'd seriously consider it.

Lolo12

Leslie - it seems out travel thoughts concur a lot of the time.
I clicked on your profile and found that your picture is on a camel, as is mine! That picture was taken in Egypt and I hope to have another one taken in Morocco next month.

Leslie_S

Great picture of you! Riding a camel in Morocco was probably my favorite part of the trip. It was just long enough to get out into the dunes but not long enough to get saddle sores. Hope your ride is wonderful.

Shar

Just returned from 12 China journey with Viking. Hubby and I went 3 days early to get settled in a new time zone and visit some sights not offered by Viking. Glad we did because 3 days in Beijing would not have been enough to see what we wanted to see. We thoroughly enjoyed Viking River cruise in China. Great ship, excellent food on board, wonderful crew and really good guide. Although the chip was full (290) people, we were constantly with the same group of 29 people who all got along beautifully. We were always on the same bus and stayed at the same hotels. Really good hotels - we were in Cat A which gave us the higher end hotels (Ritz in Beijing and Shanghai and Kempinski in Xian) and the cabins on deck 5 which is the same as the observation deck. The Kempinski hotel however was in the middle of no-where but we needed a night of nothing to do and this provided the opportunity. Better like Chinese food because outside of the ship that is pretty much what you eat. I enjoy it but by the end I had had enough. Will look into the Vietnam, Cambodia excursion next.

Lolo12

Glad you had a good time on the Vikiing trip to China.
Our guide, Jerry was awesome and until only recently did he rank #1 of any of our guides - ever (only to be recently surpassed by our guide in Morocco).

An interesting thing that you mentioned about being ina Cat ! cabin. I was also - and thought that would entitle me to the higher end hotels. But, it turned out that everyone in our group also stayed at the same hotels, even though they had cabins in lower decks. I'm not sure how that was promoted by Viking, but it didn't seem to sit right. But - the trip was wonderful anyway - glad you enjoyed it.

I'm sure by now the dam has been completed and the water levels have risen. What an interesting sight!
We were disappointed that we missed the view across the river to see the Shanghai skyline due to haze. But I have postcards.

HappyTrvlr

We have taken two Viking cruises in Europe and are looking at their new SE Asian trip. We did the Yangtze trip in 2001 with another ship before the flooding. A comment by Shar concerns me about the food on board. Did they only serve western food?
For me that would be a huge disappointment, enough to chose another tour company. I loved all the Chinese meals on my three week trip in China, including on board ship for four days, especially the breakfasts. Does anyone know what they serve on their SE Asia itinerary?

Shar

Just returned from China on Viking and loved it. I wish, however, that there was more time in Shanghai. 1 1/2 days is nothing and the rain and wind (from Typhoon Megi) didn't help. October was perfect weather elsewhere until we hit Shanghai - mid 70's. Perfect! Not being a "tour" person, it was a stretch for us but I enjoyed all they had to offer. Next time in China I would do it on my own now that I feel comfortable. If possible go earlier than the tour starts so you can see some wonderful things that China has to offer outside of the tour. Glad we did that.