Advice on Japan & China cruise [Archive] - Cruise Critic Message Boards

barriedavis

January 31st, 2012, 04:35 PM

I did a similar itinerary in 2005 with Sapphire Princess. This is part of the blog I wrote at the time which I hope you will find useful.

Having been to Hong Kong in 1987, it had long been my intention to return to the Far East at some stage and see as much as possible of the area before it became a new economic force. As I like go away several times a year, I have been economical with my time and cash to ensure that I can do as much as possible within my means. It follows that cruising allows me to see lots of places without having to worry too much about trying to find something pleasant to eat during my travels. In 2005, I had a great offer to fly to Bangkok for two days and then join the Sapphire Princess to sail to Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Japan China and Korea ending with two days in Beijing and be away from work for nearly a month. No contest.

I normally do not do a lot of planning except to see what tours are offered so that I can ignore them all. I always to hesitate to book tours from the ship for several reasons such as (1) You never know what you are going to feel like on the day in question and (2) as I have previously taken 17 cruises all over the Caribbean and Europe, I have seen what tours have offered, how much they have cost and been happy that I have been able to do what I wanted, to my timetable at a fraction of the cost. Two examples have been Rome, when me and my wife spent a total of $60US on going to town on the train, seeing the Sistine Chapel, Coliseum and everything else of interest, having lunch and getting a taxi across town. We saw those from the ship, who had paid $120 each to follow a guide around the corridors listening to her talk about every Pope shown in every picture on every wall and waiting behind all the other groups. We just walked past them all only to catch up with them later on the ship when they were absolutely drained of both energy and cash. The other occasion was a trip to the Rum factory in Barbados for which they wanted $45 each. Three of us got a taxi for $6 and paid $6 each to get in. No crowds and we were still free to do our own thing for the rest of the day. I have lost count of the number of times I have got a bus or train or taxi to somewhere and bumped into a group from the ship who had paid ten times as much to see the same thing.

However, I digress. The planning for this trip involved looking at the Visa requirements which indicated that China would be very particular, the visa being needed before travel otherwise boarding would be denied, and Vietnam, where you get one on board.

Princess wrote to me about 8 weeks before departure telling me that I must apply for the Chinese Visa as a cost of £45 for the double entry permission which was required. US citizens would have to pay $60 and other nationalities $30! There are also single entry visas and multiple entry which cost different amounts. This visa thing was very tricky. One woman aboard had already got a double entry visa to land at Shanghai and Beijing but, having flown into Beijing earlier as part of a bigger tour, she could not get off at Shanghai and finish the cruise in Beijing so she could not go ashore in Shanghai. As we were there for 2 days this was not good for her. So you must make sure that you get the right visa. Be aware that your passport will be taken from you when you get on board and you are unlikely to see it again until you disembark at the end of your trip. This is because authorities in each country put officials on board to ensure that everything stays in order. This is important to know in view of currency but I will come onto that later. Getting the Chinese visa was something else. Apparently, the Embassy in London would not take postal applications and only opens in the mornings to applicants. Princess offers an agency service at a cost of about £25 each. I wasn’t happy with this but I had no alternative, sending them my passport about six weeks before the trip. Bear in mind you will need a couple of blank pages in your passport which must have at least 6 months left after the end of your trip. One advantage of using the service is that it gives you someone to ring when you are worried that it has not been received by a week before you are due to leave!! It appears that the applications are taken to the Embassy, left there and collected at least 3 days later and Princess/P&O do not take them as soon as they received them. They take them in departure date order. So I rang about 4 weeks after I sent the passports to them only to be told that they had not been taken yet. I got it back OK but I was a bit worried. The Vietnam visa would cost $10, which could be charged to the onboard account although you should take two passport sized pictures with you for use when applying.

So, arriving in Bangkok, I was taken by surprise by the heat 40 degrees C. Blimey, that’s the temperature my T shirts get washed at. And humid, too. Stayed at the Landmark Hotel in the centre which was good with several restaurants serving good food. I found Bangkok very dirty and its not my favourite place. Trips to the various Buddhas and Temples, maybe the Royal Palace, would undoubtedly be worthwhile. I did a few and wore shorts but took a pair of pants in my bag. No one seemed to insist that I had to but them on. Never, under any circumstances, get on a Tuc-Tuc, a motor tricycle. The drivers will always take you to a tourist souvenir shop, despite what you want to do as they get petrol coupons from the proprietors. You will find McDonalds, Tony Romas, Pizza hut and Starbucks there if you can’t face the local food, ie. Snake and unidentifiable things on sticks for sale at the roadside. DO NOT TOUCH THE WATER. A good guide is that if the hotel give or put a bottle of water in your hotel room, you should not even clean your toothbrush under the tap. I did. Got very ill, toilet wise, and ended up in hospital for a night on a drip for dehydration. One plus point – Shopping is cheap, (have a suit made) and the hospital is the best in Asia, better and cheaper than many good hotels. The Laem Chabang port, from Bangkok, is a 150 minute ride to the south on fairly crowded roads. We embarked (finally) but were asked to complete a declaration about illness within the last 48 hours which I had to complete honestly. I was interviewed by the Doctor and was allowed on board but had to spend the first 24 hours in the cabin. This would have been OK but the TV guide in the cabin was a week out of date and the food the doctor told me not to eat was basically all that was on the room service menu. My wife did a sterling job but the Lido no longer has trays so it all got a bit tricky.

The first day out, the Gas Turbine would not work properly so our speed was limited. This coupled with the fact that a crewman had gone overboard entailing a day and a half undertaking a search, led to our being in Singapore a day and a half late and Vietnam had been dropped form the schedule. We all got $250 refund (as an onboard credit) for the missed port but, when some US veterans complained that they would not be able to revisit the country, the main reason for their trip, they were told that the passage contract imposed this sum as a limit of their liability. So you get money back so long as you spend it on board. Seems wrong but a timely reminder that they hold all the cards when things go wrong. They caught a cold in various ways immediately after 9/11 which nearly bankrupted the company so they have taken these limitation steps instead. Arriving at 2pm in Singapore and being told that we would be there until midnight was not the same as arriving at 9 and leaving at 7, particularly if you are meeting people, as I was who had taken a wasted day off work to see me the previous day.

With such a large ship, we invariably parked well outside the centres and were placed in container ports a long way from the action. We were not told until the Princess News came out the previous evening what arrangements would be made for transfers and this point is particularly galling as I am sure that they do not tell you so you will buy more tours. The fact is that, when you land and can get off, they have 2700 people to land. Those doing tours will get off first, followed by the rest who will then have to line up for buses and taxis. The buses will not be free, however, despite the passengers not being responsible for the inability to dock anywhere central. We were charged $5 each way. If you want to come back later than the last shuttle bus, ensure that you know which dock and gate the boat is at. See if you can find a local security man in the dockside to write down, in local language, where you are. We are used to just asking the taxi to go to the “Pigout of the Sea” or whatever as drivers will know where. As our trip included the top four busiest and biggest ports in the world, its easy for a big ship to get lost. We nearly missed the ship (as did crew and other passengers) because of this point. Happily the doorman at Raffles knew everything and was very helpful. Raffles is not to be missed by the way. Singapore shopping area is probably the best you will encounter anywhere although it is very humid so take water. Incidentally, you can find yourself waiting on the quayide for some time with no cover in the hot sun so a hat is useful or, better, wait until the rush dies down. Singapore has the cheapest taxis around.

I promised I would talk about currency. Princess always say that you can get currency ashore but omit to tell you that the exchange desk will want to see your passport which you will not have. I always take an ATM card from home and get local cash, “walking around money” as soon as I can after we land. Then, I change it at the next port for their local money and so on. It may cost you a little bit more but its very convenient. It’s also good to have some US dollars as you can often negotiate better prices in shops or markets (I got 6 fake Rolexes for $20 in Shanghai – they all wanted dollars not local cash. You can also ask the purser’s desk to let you have some local money in exchange for dollars which they will do but beat the rush by doing it the day before. There was an ATM in the casino on board which I used once so I could get cash from the purser. It wasn’t that expensive either - $60 for £32.

Hong Kong, another container port, another day, another shuttle bus. another $5 each way. Got off the bus in Kowloon and went to the Star Ferry – cheapest trip in town. On HK island, got a bus from the Star Ferry to Stanley Market – about a dollar and a great trip. Good stuff there, mostly knock off trademarks but who cares. McDonalds along the beach a little – very cheap, good coffee. Bus trip back, afternoon tea at the Peninsula Hotel, if you can wait in line. Toilets on the first floor – they don’t seem to mind you using them. Take a look along Nathan Road for electronics, cameras and stuff and strike a good bargain. Before I left town, I changed my left over ATM cash, HK dollars, for Chinese Yuans. I’m glad I did. You can’t get this cash outside China which caused some problems for some travellers.

Shanghai, we docked about 90 minutes drive out of town. Princess, again, were not telling about how we were likely to get to town so I used some of our on board credit to book a tour – the Shangahi Sampler – at $59 each. What a waste of time. I was prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt but all my worst fears were proved. The problems? (1) Local guides – I know they mean well but after 90 minutes of listening to someone practising their English on you, telling you about their culture and repeating every sentence three times, I was ready for murder. I had plenty of potential victims as the Garden we were going to already had about 16 other tour groups already there. You could not get near enough to anyone to hear what it was all about and half the time was spent waiting form people to come back from the toilet. Our walk through Old Town had no commentary and half of that time was spent waiting for those, with no vision or forward planning, to line up at the ATM. On returning to the bus, we were taken to the shuttle bus stop to be told that we had to return to the ship on the shuttle bus along with all those who had paid just $8 for the privilege. Even the promise of currency exchange at that area was wrong as they only had enough money for the first 50 people. Some people were booked on tours in the evening and were worried about the possibilities of delay getting back. Those who protested later got a 30% refund. What a mess. We got a taxi to “Copy City” which is a market where you can buy any trademarked goods you want. All good bartering opportunities but be careful, what is in the bags below the shelf is not always what’s on display. Make sure you get from Princess, sometime before landing in Shanghai, a sheet showing the language characters for a number of useful sentences in Mandarin, like “Take me to the Market”. We got three taxis across town – not for the faint hearted – but cheap at $1 each trip. Make sure they have meters.

Nagasaki – unusually parked in town. There were tours available but Princess again did not tell us that there would be an office right next to the ship at which you could buy an all day ticket for the tram (streetcar) for $5. A short walk up the road gets you to the nearest stop and the plan is very easy to work out. It takes you to the Peace Garden, Museum (about $1 entry) and Epicentre. You get maps from the tourist people on the quayside which shows a few malls, some nearby. The stuff about the bomb is worth going to just to see what they tell everyone about why it happened. It’s very enlightening but I could see not mention of Pearl Harbour anywhere. Hmmmm.. Naturally, we were rubbing shoulders with those who had paid lots for a tour using the same tram!!

Korea, (Pusan) saw us take another tour – Beomeosa Temple and City - at $43 each. Another bus, another tour guide practising her English, this one was a little better. The temple was OK, sanitation was awful. Saw lots of monks chanting and it was a long walk, especially past the beggars (Lots of these in Thailand and China by the way – none in Singapore). Went to the city which comprised a walk through the fish market for 20 minutes. Seen one fish you’ve seen them all. Got delivered back to the ship despite several people wanting to go their own way and shop. The guide insisted that her job was to ensure that we all got back to the ship. So when we got back and had lunch, we got onto the shuttle bus ($5) to be delivered back to the same street as the morning. Not much of quality to buy, China was much better.

Final port was Beijing – a three hour drive from the port – happily my travel agent got us a private car for the trip. Stayed at the Peace Hotel where I changed my remaining Japanese and Korean money, whose tour desk charged us $90 for a chauffeur driven car to the Great Wall, 45 miles away. He parked at the gate, showed us the toilets and told us how much to pay for souvenirs and then waited forus for two hours. A great deal till the driver, Mr Ming, said we had paid too much and he would take us to the Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven and Forbidden City the next morning, wait for us there and bring us back all for $40. We took him up on this and gave him a good tip. He left us in Tianenman Square, which we asked him to do and he drew us a map showing how to walk back to the hotel. A proper gent who got a good tip. Shopping the evening, flew home the next day. Be prepared for extensive paperwork for the authorities before you leave, if this is where you are going from.

Not much else I can think of to say about this trip except that I have not been converted to buying tours. In fact, I will never buy another tour again. They simply are not worth it. The Forbidden City is a must as is the Great Wall – admissions are about $8 to $10. I spent a total of about $100 in China – what a deal.