Victoria Cruises Yangtze River

Has anyone ever done this cruise? It will be me and my daughter. Any information or help anyone could give us would be fine and appreciated!! It's a 4 day cruise. Thank you!!

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Don't know if it's the same thing, but we were on the Victoria Anna this past October. I think it's one of several ships in the Victoria Cruise Lines. The ship I would say was "tired". I'd compare it to a 3 star floating hotel. Food was edible but not great. Shore excursions were good and the scenery in the Yangtze was great. We were in a "junior suite" and the room size was about the same as a typical standard Hampton Hotel room here in the US. I would think the regular rooms would be quite small. Any other specific questions?

Thank you so much for answering and the help! I did have a few more questions? I was also wondering was there any motion sailing down the river? What is the entertainment on board? I read about educational classes?? Is it like lectures or crafts??? Do you have television in your rooms?? Thank you so much for your help!!

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No motion as you're sailing. The river is really pretty narrow, so there's no real waves to speak of. I get pretty sea sick on ocean cruises and wear a patch, but didn't on this trip and didn't have any motion sickness. The only time I felt anything was when we bumped into the dock as we were docking.

There were some educational classes on board. But I have to admit that I didn't partake of any of them. I spent what free time we had in the spa. I can highly recommend the foot massage (60 minutes of heaven), but would NOT recommend the full body massage. My husband did go to one lecture on the Yangtze dam and enjoyed it. In the evening there were "shows". One was of traditional Chinese costumes which was beautiful, and another was a "talent show". OK, but not great.

There was a TV in the room, but we didn't turn it on.

We went on several great excursions. One was the temple at Fengdu on one day, and the next day was going on small "pea pod boats" up Shennong Stream. Of course, you will also spend a lot of time up on the sun deck marveling at the gorgeous Yangtze scenery.

Thank you so much for your help!! You have gave me a lot of great things to go on! Safe travels!

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Has anyone ever done this cruise? It will be me and my daughter. Any information or help anyone could give us would be fine and appreciated!! It's a 4 day cruise. Thank you!!

My husband and I did this cruise in 2010. We enjoyed it very much. We chose to stay on the boat and cruise all the way to Shanghai instead of disembarking after the Three Gorges.

We were seated with six Chinese for dinner. They spoke very good English and had a great sense of humor (the tables seat 8). The activities director was European with a heavy accent and our dinner companions had to translate her "English" for us...

There was entertainment each evening. I didn't attend it all the time. We enjoyed sitting on the top deck with a bottle of wine.

Hardly any motion at all - that should not be an issue. Do be aware of the air polution problem. The air in Chongqing is really bad. Because we stayed on the boat all the way to Shanghai, we were able to visit Huangshan or “Yellow Mountain”- that was a highlight. We also had a day in Nanking which we enjoyed.

We did have TV in our rooms and CNN (in English) was on every evening. Internet access was available, but it was expensive, slow and unreliable, so we used it sparingly.

The night we went through the locks (about 4 or 5 of them) it was very noisy and we did not sleep well. But we slept great the rest of the time.

Overall, we enjoyed the trip very much and would recommend it.

Any other questions I can answer?

Hi Zone8grandma! We want to take this cruise but the earliest they have is October 24th. Wondering if that is too late and what weather will be like. Sounds like you were on your own. How did they handle ports? Did you sign up for tours?

We did 5 days on the river with land tours to Beijing, Xian and Shanghai before the dam was finished. Really want to see it with the water raised. We live near Seattle. My e-mail is rkmartin7@comcast.net and would love to hear from you. Not sure I can find the thread but will check back here too..

Thank you!!

Kathy

Kathy

I am sending you an email

After changing our minds a couple of times :o we are now booked to leave on an 11-day trip with Gate 1 to China which includes a 4-day upstream river cruise with Victoria Cruises. We leave in ~4 months.

I do have a question or two if anyone wants to answer...

Is ice is readily available on the cruise ship and if so, is it filtered?

What about in the restaurants or hotels?

Did anyone fly on Air China LAX to Beijing and back for the main long-haul flight?? We took the basic air and I can't help but think it's going to be a looooong flight. Does China Air have seatback entertainment monitors?

I'm going to post these same questions on the "Gate 1" thread and attempt to get more Gate1-focused answers too.

Is ice is readily available on the cruise ship and if so, is it filtered?

What about in the restaurants or hotels?

 

Did anyone fly on Air China LAX to Beijing and back for the main long-haul flight?? We took the basic air and I can't help but think it's going to be a looooong flight. Does China Air have seatback entertainment monitors?

 

I'm going to post these same questions on the "Gate 1" thread and attempt to get more Gate1-focused answers too.

As I recall, ice was available in the boat's dining room and we used it with no ill effects.

Ice was also available in the hotels and restaurants, but we did not take chances.

We flew Air China from San Francisco to Beijing and back - business class, excellent! We flew economy in China (8 times!), the warm food was so bad that many Chinese did not eat it. Airport shops had limited amounts of snacks, usually very expensive and exotic in large gift wrapped boxes. Buy snacks in town.

We never used ice cubes in China. We went in May and the weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cold. No need for iced drinks. It's a good idea to go with the flow and not expect American ways of doing things. Bottled water is widely available as is local beer. Hot tea is served at every meal. If you ask for water, they will bring hot water, ask for mineral water instead.

In our small group of 8 Americans, 5 of them European immigrants to the US, 2 American born Chinese, the one US born Caucasian was a constant complainer because of food and drink. How annoying!

Our trip was simply amazing including the Yangtze River cruise. China is a fascinating country. We will return.

Here are some scanned daily bulletins from the Victoria Anna that might help give you an idea of day-to-day schedule on the ship:

http://www.1mpages.com/CruiseDailyBulletins.html#VictoriaAnna

Here are some scanned daily bulletins from the Victoria Anna that might help give you an idea of day-to-day schedule on the ship:

 

http://www.1mpages.com/CruiseDailyBulletins.html#VictoriaAnna

Awesome! Thank you