Retired_teacher

My husband and I are seriously considering booking a cruise on the Yangtze River on Viking's Century Star. This is the first year that Viking has included China among its extensive river cruise options, so I know that no one will be able to share that experience with us. We would be interested in hearing from anyone who has either sailed with Viking River Cruises in Europe or has taken a cruise on the Yangtze River recently with another company for any advise you can offer...

Jed

A number of posters, including me, have suggested that you think twice about the 7 day cruise. We took the 4 night, and that was very good, but enough. I'm not sure how much there is to see from Wuhan to Shanghai.

Jed

You might want to post this question on the China board also.

Patty

We sailed with Viking last November on their Christmas market cruise from Vienna to Nuremburg. Despite some low water problems on the Danube, we had a great time and thought that everything was handled well. Would sail with Viking again.

jelzie

Hello,

I am a travel agent, specializing in cruises, and Viking River Cruises is wonderful and has an excellent reputation. The travel industry was very pleased when they added these cruises in China because of their fine reputation on Europe river cruises. They will take good care of you and it will be an excellent way to see China.

Please feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions!

Best Regards,
Julia

Retired_teacher

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and the vote of confidence for Viking River Cruises. We booked the trip this week and are looking forward to spending sixteen days in China this fall.

Chinagal

Retired_teacher--when does your trip depart? I'm on the Footsteps of Marco Polo tour that starts in Beijing on 11/2/04.

I fly LAX-HKG-PEK on 10/29/04 to join up with the tour in Beijing. If your trip is earlier, I'd really be interested in your impressions, and if we're on the same tour, I'll look forward to meeting you on tour.

Retired_teacher

Returned from China a week ago Wednesday on a direct flight from PEK to ORD. We also chose Viking's Footsteps offering, but elected to start in Shanghai. Unfortunately flooding on the upper Yangtze prevented us from sailing through the three gorges dam and surrounding area, but Viking went above and beyond our expectations by scheduling alternative "field trips" while docked in port of Yichang on the Century Star during the remaining cruise portion of our trip. We left the boat a day early, but got an extra day in Xian before flying on to Beijing and completing the last part of our scheduled itinerary.

I believe that you will really enjoy the trip. The ship is nicely refurbished, though not new as I had been lead to believe. The hotel accommodations, especially in Beijing and Shanghai, were outstanding and the food was excellent if you believe that experiencing the local cuisine is part of the travel experience. The Beijing to Xian part of the trip was heavily scheduled and I do not envy you those first few days as you come off jet lag. You will experience a more relaxed schedule once you're onboard ship, however.

You might want to read Simon Winchester's book, The River at the Center of the World: A Journey Up the Yangtze, and Back in Chinese Time. Winchester is a great storyteller and his book will give you a sense of the area's history before sailing.

Donna8022

We also were on the ill fated Viking River trip that was docked in Yi Chang for all but one day of our cruise. We started in Beijing and ended in Bangkok. The land portions of the trip were excellent but the cruise portion was a joke. The tour guides were hung out to dry by Viking as were we. The boat was docked to a barge & our rooms looked into men playing cards in their underwear and smoking so heavy that we could not open our doors or enjoy our deck.(of course a view of a barge was not exactly what we had paid for) Our group was asked to leave the boat a day early, (they actually told us that they needed to go as fast as they could to get the next set of passengers on board) we were taken to a local hotel that only part of the air conditioning worked in addition to complaints of bugs in the rooms etc. and the food was prepared for the chinese only--certainly not for western tastes. The next day, we were put on a bus and spent the entire day getting to Kumming. Most of the people on our tour were sick by time they reached Bangkok. Our entire cruise was eliminated. RE: the trips scheduled for the many days we sat in Yi Chang--well, one of them was to a fish museum. One of the buildings smelled so bad that people could not go in it. Another day, was to a dam built in the 1970's. It was a joke.The guides did the best they could but Viking should have had an alternate plan in place.One bus we were put on was so dirty that there was something growing from the window track that we covered with kleenex. Daily we were told that we may leave but it was interesting to see that supplies for the next cruise were delivered to the dock shortly after we arrived at YiChang and we watched as they unloaded them after dark. At this time, not one person from Viking has responded to any of the many complaints except with a computer generated letter stating that they are busy and will respond within 30 days. The majority of the passengers are seeking a refund and are in contact with each other. Trip reports will be published on all travel sites shortly showing how unhappy the majority of the passengers were with how Viking handled this situation. We will post an update if and when Viking responds to our requests.

lhjacks

I was on the early-Sept Viking cruise up the Yangtze that got stopped at Yi Chang due to the dam locks being closed. Overall, I was pleased with the land portion of the 16-day tour, but the cruise was a disaster. We didn't really have a cruise; we had a maximum speed dash up the river in an unsuccessful attempt to beat the closing of the locks. We then spent the next four days tied to an ugly, smelly floating dock. Viking substituted a few bus trips from Yi Chang but they fell far short of the scenary that the cruise ads had promised. After four days at Yi Chang we were bussed back to our point of embarkation and flown on to our next stop. I tried to soften the disappointment by telling myself that the flood was an act of God, but I think Viking could have responded with better alternatives. I have been most disappointed, however, with Viking's non-response to my correspondence to them since my return. They apparently don't recognize email as a valid form of communication, as they have not responded to any of my submittals. My advice: go to China during the dry season and be prepared for change. Viking appears to have no suitable contingency plans and their so-called customer service office is much too busy to respond to your concerns.

Retired_teacher

While I usually tend to avoid entering into online discussion topics that will only result in creating conflict, I cannot in good conscience fail to respond to Donna's posting of 9/24. I believe that her comments regarding the cruise portion of our respective trips that met on the Century Star in Wuhan and disembarked six days later in Yichang do disservice not only to Viking River Cruises, but also to the poster who inquired about my experience on Viking's tour, In the Footsteps of Marco Polo.

For point of information, heavy rains upriver flooded the Yangtze above Chongqing in early September and created dangerous navigational issues for all boat traffic sailing through the Three Gorges area. Flood waters had to be diverted into the Three Gorges Dam's spillway which prevented ships traveling in either direction from entering the locks and effectively stopping all boats from proceeding up or down river. Unfortunately timing was everything and our boat did not reach the Three Gorges Dam before its locks were closed due to the flooding.

Ending the cruise portion of our trip in Yichang proved to be a disappointment to both my husband and I for we had read Winchester's book as I mentioned in my above post on 9/23. We were looking forward to seeing not only the scenic wonders of the Three Gorges area, but also to exploring some of the towns along the river that Winchester had introduced us to. Despite this disappointment, we believe that Viking attempted to provide everyone on the ship with numerous alternative experiences including a visit to the Gezhouba Dam Power Station (The first structure to dam the Yangtze and constructed in the 1980's), an excursion to Shennong Stream (A tributary of the Yangtze which offered a feel of the Three Gorges area that we would miss due to the flooding.), and a shore excursion to the Three Gorges Project Dam Site following a visit to the ship by a project engineer.

While the cabins on our side of the ship did not face the dockside in Yichang, we would have gladly traded with Donna and her husband had we known that was such an issue for her as we would have enjoyed watching the activities outside our balcony window. Although I might not have used the small balcony on that side of the ship while docked in Yichang often for security reasons, no one experienced any physical discomforts from their room's location as all of the cabins were air-conditioned and heavy draperies provided privacy. Everyone aboard had access to the harbor views from deck levels 5 & 6, a short walk up a flight of stairs from Donna's cabin on deck 4. While docked in Yichang, my husband and I took all of the alternative "field trips" offered and used our remaining free time to explore the industrial harbor area of Yichang, a town not accustomed to US tourists. We watched the flood waters rise daily from the beautiful river front park a mere four block walk from our dock, window shopped along the harbor front business district, and enjoyed interacting with townspeople we encountered along the way. Although some of the transportation vehicles used for our alternative field trips failed to meet with everyone's expectations, we appreciated the opportunity to explore this area along the Yangtze at a time when many other more established tour companies in China were also scrambling to provide transportation for their own alternative programs.

I would like to believe that most if not all of the people in our tour group shared our philosophy that when life hands you a lemon, you make lemonade. Unfortunately the negativism that we heard among participants of the Ancient Kingdom of Siam tour group while we were aboard ship apparently continued to build after we parted in Yichang. It seemed to us that their sentiments were motivated more by their hope of obtaining a refund from Viking rather than in acknowledging the efforts that this company made on our behalf and the additional expenses that this company incurred due to flooding that was beyond their control. We believe that the Viking staff did an excellent job in providing alternatives to our original itinerary that was "subject to change due to local circumstances such as....... safety considerations, river and weather conditions, local river authorities and border entry/exit formalities" as stated in the information packets we all received after booking the trip. As for my husband and I, we are not interested in joining the negative posts campaign that apparently is being organized. To my fellow fodorites, I would suggest clicking on the names of the other posters on this topic to view their past histories on this website. To Donna, I would say only that I regret that we probably will never meet again to relive our experiences in China over a glass of lemonade....

bigalvb

Here is our letter to Viking river Cruises related to the Aug 30 non cruise on the Yangtze.

Viking River Cruises Management.


I'm writing to let you know of the disappointment we experienced on your August 30 Yangtze River cruise. The cruise portion was a trip to nowhere. We arrived very late on the boat at Wuhan, and shortly after departing; the captain learned that the Three Gorges Dam locks might close shortly, due to the flooding up river. He raced past our first stop, thus missing the school at Jingzhow and we wound up docking just below the dam at Yichang because the locks were already closed. There we sat for four nights with all the wonderful incumbent smells and noises, while the Captain tried to discern when the locks would eventually open. His 30 plus years, of Yangtze River experience, did not give him a clue that this one hundred, or was it a one thousand, year flood was not going to allow us to pass for several days.



It is not that we didn?t do anything for those four days. Oh, there was the exciting trip to the world-renowned Sturgeon museum. It?s hard to top that. We did do a gorge tour one day but I know we missed other more spectacular gorges than the one we saw. The finally insult is that when the locks finally opened we were kicked off the boat so that it could race up the river to pick up the new incoming group at Chongqing. We went to a hotel in town to await a 5-hour bus trip backwards to Wuhan the next day.



I realize you are new to China but I think you have some responsibility to handle this kind of situations better than you did. When this happened on a Tauck tour of the Rhine River, they put us up in a 5 star palace in Baden Baden, and we never missed a scheduled stop. I think since we missed the highlight of this trip, a refund of one half the value of the trip would be just compensation for the loss we endured. We feel we missed a chance of a lifetime to see the Yangtze River and the three Gorges. I realize that, per contract, this is considered an ?act of God? but it is how these kinds of situations are handled, that makes you a good Cruise company or a great one. This could have been handled a lot better.



The one thing about the cruise that was great was our guide, Rainbow. She always did her best with what she was given. She is a great asset to Viking River Cruises and will always be remembered by us. Larry, the cruise director, was also outstanding and I felt empathy for him in trying to deal with this situation. He needed more help with the solutions.

I'd think very seriouly about taking a trip with Viking because its how they handle the problems that sometimes determines if the trip will be a success. They were lacking.

mjrents

I was in the same cruise as Mr. Retired teacher. As I understand correctly one of two things are present about them
a) They do not understand travel at all. They were not in China to enjoy Yangtze gorges. As the wrote above "my husband and I took all of the alternative "field trips" offered and used our remaining free time to explore the industrial harbor area of Yichang, a town not accustomed to US tourists. We watched the flood waters rise daily from the beautiful river front park a mere four block walk from our dock, window shopped along the harbor front business district, and enjoyed interacting with townspeople we encountered along the way. "
I envy them. I do not like dirty air, streets, and have not paid more than 9 grand to enjoy all you enjoyed in the 5 days long stop at the port.
Or
b) they are representing Viking cruises or already paid by Viking.
"Unfortunately the negativism that we heard among participants of the Ancient Kingdom of Siam tour group while we were aboard ship apparently continued to build after we parted in Yichang. It seemed to us that their sentiments were motivated more by their hope of obtaining a refund from Viking rather than in acknowledging the efforts that this company made on our behalf and the additional expenses that this company incurred due to flooding that was beyond their control. We believe that the Viking staff did an excellent job in providing alternatives to our original itinerary that was "subject to change due to local circumstances such as.......?. And Above all you are also a good attorneys for Viking,sir
Viking sitting tight and not answering to our calls. Or possible they already answered by your hand?