Re: Just returned Beijing - HK

[gaimassey53@hotmail.com]

A little more information and photos to help explain what a great trip we had.
We spent a wonderful 5 days in Beijing shopping, and re-visiting places which we found interesting from our last visit only 18 months ago. We set off to board the Nautica at Tianjin which is a 2 - 3 hour drive from Beijing depending on the traffic. We organized a minibus from the Grand Hyatt to take us as we were travelling with another couple Lyn and John.
Our first impressions on arrival at Tianjin was how organized the embarkation was and then the welcome food and drinks.
Ports we visited were, Incheon- Korea, Shanghai - China, Hiroshima, Kobe and Ishigaki - Japan, Keelung - Tiawain and then onto Hong Kong.
Great times had in Hiroshima, Kobe, Keelung and Taipei and Hong Kong.
Cruise director Shany Ray and her team are very talented.
Destinations organized maps and information for each port which was great.
Food over all excellent. Really enjoyed the Tapas and Toscana's the best, and of course the freshly cooked omelette for breakfast.
Things that needed improvement, :(
1.Currency exchange prior to disembarkation. The only port that this was offerred was in Keelung in Tiawain, which was really fantastic. It was very difficult to get money from ATMs in both Korea and Japan. It is a long story.
2.My husband and I went on two organized tours and
found them lacking. We heard from other travellers that they also thought the tours were over priced.
3.The last 24 hours I was disappointed with the feeling I had. I felt we weren't receiving the same sort of treatment. The great service and friendly staff seemed to be preoccupied with the fact that they had to get the staterooms and the rest of the ship ready for the next lot of passengers and we were leaving, it is hard to explain.
4. In Hong Kong we waited in a very long que for 3 hours to get a taxi from the dock to take us to our hotel which didn't impress us at all.
Hong Kong, wow! my first visit and I must say I loved Disneyland.
So this is a small review of our trip.

[shoshona2]

Hi,

I was also on the same cruise and agree about the terrible disenbarking procedures in Hong Kong. We were lucky since we had a noon flight and proceeded off the ship when they were taxis to the airport. My friends said it was a mess after that. Since this is Oceania's first time in Asia, they will have to work on these details. They got the people off first who had really early planes home and then the people like us who had to get to the airport for the noon planes. The airport was 45 minutes away from the ship.

Since this was Oceania's first presence in Asia, we arranged to have some money for each country in case we couldn't find a bank or ATM. We did our own tours and know that taxis might not accept our money and we didn't want to be left at the dock. So, my advise to you and others is to do the same before you leave home.

We also had a good time on this cruise/tour. We arrived early and flew to Xian to view the terracotta warriors. The Peninsula Hotel made our reservations for the Xian tour and to take us to the port.

We had been in Beijing and Shanghai 18 years ago and was amazed by the changes. Since we had to have a "face to face" with the Japanese officials in Hiroshima, we were forced to leave Shanghai early (1:00 p.m.) and then unfortunately had to sit in the Yangtze River until morning since the fog had engulfed the area. We were told we were within 2 miles of entering the open seas. This, of course, shortened our time in Japan.

Sheila

[digby]

I am surprised that you had to wait 3 hours for a taxi. I did notice quite a line when we left the baggage area around 9:45, but also saw lots of taxis waiting at that time. We had prearranged to be picked up by the Intercontinental Hotel which made our transfer very easy. The $30.+ it cost us for the car seems cheap to be able to avoid such a wait. The hotel was actually within walking distance of the dock except we had lots of luggage.

[mike35]

Carol and I thoroughly enjoyed this cruise. The ports were terrific - each with its own personality, history, culture, etc. We arranged all of our tours several weeks prior to departing for Beijing, and all of them worked out just fine, including the day trip to Xi'an, the all-day tours in Beijing, Shanghai, Kyoto, and Taipei. Rather than skip the two days in Kyoto, where we had arranged to stay overnight in the new Grand Hyatt Hotel and take guided tours both days, we opted to take the bullet train from Hiroshima to Kyoto, thereby skipping Hiroshima.

We had no problems of any kind with illnesses, although we took significantly less precautions than have been discussed on another thread. The Nautica staff was incredible - friendly, efficient, and totally service-oriented.


We disembarked at around 9:00 a.m. in Hong Kong, waited less than an hour in a very long line, and finally grabbed a cab to the Intercontinental, which we used as our base of operations until departing for the airport at 8:15 p.m. The hotel arranged for a private car and driver, who gave us a wonderful whirlwind tour of Hong Kong, including a relaxing ride in a sampan, shopping in Sterling Market, etc. DW even found time to have a complete eye exam at 11:00 a.m., and she had her new designer-frame photogray graduated bifocals delivered to the Intercontinental by 7 p.m.

Finally, what a pleasure to fly out of the Hong Kong airport! LAX and many other U.S. airports should get their management folks to this incredibly efficient, clean, and customer-friendly airport to learn how an airport should be run!

Mike

[meow!]

I don't know which cities you were referring to when you mentioned it took you three hours to get a taxi. We visited Tokyo and Hong Kong for a couple of weeks on a land trip (by air) three months ago, and found taxis to be everywhere in those two cities. In Tokyo, the taxi drop charge was 600 yens ($5) and roughly $1 per minute thereafter in normal traffic. In Hong Kong the taxi drop charge was HK$15 ($2), and perhaps 50 US cents every minute thereafter in regular traffic. If the Intercontinental you referred to was the former Regent in Hong Kong, you could (if you are athletically inclined, which we are not) literally walk from the Ocean Terminal Building to that hotel faster than lining up for a taxi (if it takes you a long time to get one)! Hope this helps.

P.S. it is advisable to have someone write out (or cut out an advertisement or something) in Japanese or Chinese the name and address of the place you want to go to. Quite often (and especially in Japan), local taxi drivers don't speak any English!

[shoshona2]

Dear Meow,

The port which digby was talking about was Hong Kong. If anyone had arranged for a private car or limo, there was NOT a problem. The problem started with the authorities in Hong Kong delaying our clearance. Then by the time Oceania had the people off the ship with either THEIR post-cruise package or early plane departures, it backed up all the people going to hotels. There were NOT enough taxis at the port to accommodate over 500 people with TONS of luggage. It was the end of the cruise and I doubt if anyone could have shlepped their luggage to a hotel even if it was "walking" distance.

Sheila

[azlerner]

What were the average high temperatures during your cruise and the clothing required ?

[digby]

It was about 30 degrees when we arrived in Beijing, but warmed up quickly to the 50s. By the time we reached the end of the cruise the temperature was near 80.

[med4bike]

We just returned from our Crystal Symphony cruise from Buenos Aires to South Beach so we did not get a chance to view your posts regarding your Asian cruise in a timely fashion.

We will be taking this very same cruise in March, 2007 and have a few questions.

Mike could you contact me at med4bike@yahoo.com I have a few questions about the tours you arranged in each port and would like to do the same.

Where did you all leave from to visit Xian and the warriors? Was it Beijing or another port? We will be in Beijing for 5 days before the Nautica sails so we would also like to have the name of a guide in Beijing to show us around.

Having never sailed with Oceania before, maybe a few questions can be answered. I have heard that all drinks are extra and not included. Does that pertain to the bottled water, juice or soft drinks in the cabins and on all decks? Does this policy change if one has a PH suite? We hear that the cuisine is outstanding in the main dining room and the specialty restaurants.
Did they have enrichment lecturers who talked about the upcoming ports?
How were the Oceania tours?

My wife would like to know about the key places to shop in Shanghai. Any tips?

From some of the comments made concerning the disembarcation, it appears that a hotel car pickup is the thing to do to avoid a messy "taxi" situation in Hong Kong. BTW, any hotel rec in HK? We will probably stay at the Pen but am always open to other suggestions.

Thanks,

Maurice

[shoshona2]

Dear med4bike,

We stayed at the Peninsula in Beijing and had them arrange a day's trip to Xian. It was an hour and one half plane ride each way, but so worth seeing. It was awesome. We had been in Beijing before so we didn't tour with any guide. The Peninsula also arranged our transport to the ship with a private tour group. Four of us shared a van with all the luggage. If you use a guide for your touring in Beijing, you can get a price from them for transport to the ship. It was almost a two hour ride. We also had the Peninsula pick us up at the airport with one of their cars.

Sheila

[med4bike]

Hi Sheila,

Thanks for the info. We too are staying at the Peninsula in Beijing for 5 nights and we will take your advice and let them handle a day's tour to Xian. Also we will probably let them make arrangements to take us to the ship, as well.

Did you have a private guide in Beijing or did the Peninsula arrange for all of your tours?

What did you do about tours in all of the other ports. It seems from some of the other posts that Oceania's tours are a "weak" point and many cruisers make their own port arrangements. We have plenty of time so I guess we will get on the internet and these boards and contact tour guides in each of the main ports.

If anyone has any tour guides they would like to rec, please feel free to do so. Thanks

Trying to get all of our ducks in a row. Trying to arrange the flights with mileage is now the biggest headache. We were cruising near Rio when we had to have made our AA reservations (330 days in advance) and failed to do so. When we arrived back home there was very little left as far as award travel to Beijing in first class or business class. Just yesterday, we finally lucked out and made reservations for award travel with AA and JAL thru San Francisco to Tokyo to Beijing in first. Wow! To tell you the truth, if we could not get the AA award travel in first or business, we would've looked to another cruise line at a different time to tour China and Japan.

[Rickey 88]

Having just returned from the 3/16 cruise, here are some additional thoughts - -

We stayed at the Shangri-La and used their concierge service to arrange for tours. For about 1200 RMB a day, we got a private car, a driver and an English speaking tour guide to anywhere we wanted. They came from the China Travel Service and were excellent. Several people who came in early like us also used the hotel to arrange flights and sightseeing to Xian.

We also would recommend that you prearrange for pick-up at the airport and for a private car to the shi at Tianjin. This is more than a two hour drive and we heard of some drivers (taxis) who got lost!

There were some very good on board speakers, but we did not go to many of them. Oceania also arranged tours, for each port, but these are obtained from vRIOUS shore tour operators, so the quality varies. Some people have complained - thinking that Oceania has complete control over these tours but this is simply not so.

Do arrange a private car transport when you arrive in Hong Kong. You can do this either through the hotel you will be staying at or the ship can pre-order for you. Those who did this had no problem at all - but exiting the dock is a single traffic lane and it will back up!!

Finally, we traveled from LA on JAL and you will not be disappointed. Their service is excellent and seats were especially comfortable....

Enjoy your cruise.....
Dick :)

[NYDee]

We stayed at the Pennisula in Beijing and took the trip to Xian with Sheila. It was definately worth it. After the plane ride to Xian it is a long way to the warriors. Our guide spoke excellent english. We also had the hotel set up a tour to the Great Wall. They have 3 tours, private car, van for 8 and bus. We signed up for the bus tour, but no one else signed up. So we had a private tour with guide and driver for the price of the bus tour! And the guide spoke excellent english. We also had the hotel pick us up at the airport and we shared the van to the ship with Sheila.

[peggyann]

Thanks to all the posters who added info on their experiences on this cruise. We have a spot reserved for next Mar 16, same itinerary.
Mikebrill, could you please clarify what you were doing with the two day stop in Kyoto (Kobe), and why you were on a bullet train at all? I suppose you must have had a pretty good idea of the logistics... We have little knowledge of this whole part of the world, but we would like to see Kyoto, but not give up our nights on board.
Also, could someone please tell me the secret for getting on the yahoo board and are folks still using that board for linking with other Oceania cruisers? I've lost the link and wonder if the others going on this cruise have a place to exchange ideas.
Sounds like the Peninsular Hotel in Beijing and the Intercontinental in HK are favored. Any other suggestions?

Thanks for any further info, and anyone else out there interestd sharing guide info I'd love to hear from you, either here or email me at: jdemayo@optonline.net

[mike35]

Mikebrill, could you please clarify what you were doing with the two day stop in Kyoto (Kobe), and why you were on a bullet train at all? I suppose you must have had a pretty good idea of the logistics... We have little knowledge of this whole part of the world, but we would like to see Kyoto, but not give up our nights on board.
We had previously booked the new Grand Hyatt in Kyoto for the first scheduled night, as we wanted to spend as much time in Kyoto as possible, without having to take the train back and forth to Kobe. We had also booked private guides for both days. As luck would have it, we were forced to anchor for around 16 hours due to heavy fog, after departing Singapore. Because of this delay, our itinerary was changed to only one day in Kyoto (after a day in the preceding port - Hiroshima). So we "jumped ship" upon docking in Hiroshima and took the bullet train to Kyoto, thereby keeping our original schedule. Hope this clears things up. We actually wish we could have spent even more time in Kyoto - it's a wonderful, fascinating city!

Also, could someone please tell me the secret for getting on the yahoo board and are folks still using that board for linking with other Oceania cruisers? I've lost the link and wonder if the others going on this cruise have a place to exchange ideas.
Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OceanaCruiser/messages - you'll need an account with Yahoo, of course.

Sounds like the Peninsular Hotel in Beijing and the Intercontinental in HK are favored. Any other suggestions?
The Intercontinental is great, according to friends who stayed there (we used it as out base of operations, but didn't stay there). We just booked the JW Marriott in Hong Kong for our Southeast Asia cruise next February, based on reviews and pricing. We're staying in the Peninsula in Bangkok.

Mike

[talyanka]

Hello Mike,

We consider Beijing to Hong Kong cruise for the next year. Could you please share more detailed impressions about ports and give some recommendations for the future cruisers what to see there and what is the best way to arrange tours in that part of the world. All information will be appreciated. We already use one of your recommendations and booked tour with Alla in St. Petersburg for this summer. Hopefully you can recommend other guides or tours; I am especially interested in Japan. Which hotel did you stay in Beijing? If you have any kind of your travel report that you won’t mind to share could you please e-mail it at tatyanal@rogrs.com.

Tatyana.