China cruise on the Millennium

Our family of three is planning a cruise on the Millennium next March. We've only sailed S class ships in the Caribbean so this is a totally new experience for us. I think I understand the 144 hour china visa rule as we sail into the port of Tianjin and fly out of Shanghai the day we port. Biggest question is how much time to allow from port to PVG airport? Celebrity is telling me 2 pm is the earliest flight we should take. Problem being that there are few flights direct to the states after that (we prefer Delta). Secondly, any tour guide recommendations? I'm looking at Tianjinporttours and they seem legit. Not so important is the the ship but what are the comparisons with S class (Silly and Reflection)? This is our daughter's heritage trip as she was born in China and want to this to give her life long memories. Almost forgot about Seoul. Is there any chance of going to the JSA? Thanks in advance for the replies.

Our family of three is planning a cruise on the Millennium next March. We've only sailed S class ships in the Caribbean so this is a totally new experience for us. I think I understand the 144 hour china visa rule as we sail into the port of Tianjin and fly out of Shanghai the day we port. Biggest question is how much time to allow from port to PVG airport? Celebrity is telling me 2 pm is the earliest flight we should take. Problem being that there are few flights direct to the states after that (we prefer Delta). Secondly, any tour guide recommendations? I'm looking at Tianjinporttours and they seem legit. Not so important is the the ship but what are the comparisons with S class (Silly and Reflection)? This is our daughter's heritage trip as she was born in China and want to this to give her life long memories. Almost forgot about Seoul. Is there any chance of going to the JSA? Thanks in advance for the replies.

Just came back from the Korea and China cruise last week.

Visa:

Carefull! The visa exemption (144 h transit) only applies if you are not visiting another Chinese port!

I think you are confusing ports! Tianjin is the port of Beijing (not Shanghai) and Baoshan is the port of Shanghai. They are 11 hours by car apart!

If you are visiting Tianjin/Beijing before debarkation in Baoshan/Shanghai (as we did) you will need a visa (multiple entry or long term) !!!

Yes, both ports have a visa exemption rule. However, it does not apply arriving from or leaving to one from the other. There is a "three country rule". Some guest on board did not believe it before and had to learn the hard way ;-)

Baoshan port to PVG airport is a one hour drive. Taxi cost is around 250 CNY (40 USD).

I would NOT recommend an early flight in Shanghai on the day of debarkation. Both times we sailed into Shanghai we did not get into port before 2 pm (fog, wind, suspended pilot operations). And it seems to be a frequent thing...

Clearance and debarkation took another 2 hours. We had a flight around midnight - so no worries.

We can highly recommend China Highlights for tours in Beijing!

Seoul (Keelung port): Yes, there are tours to the DMZ.

Just shoot if you have any other questions.

Seoul (Keelung port).

OP seems to have infected everyone with the "Wrong ports Syndrome", Keelung is in Taiwan and is the port for the capital Taipei.:)

Just came back from the Korea and China cruise last week.

 

Visa:

Carefull! The visa exemption (144 h transit) only applies if you are not visiting another Chinese port!

I think you are confusing ports! Tianjin is the port of Beijing (not Shanghai) and Baoshan is the port of Shanghai. They are 11 hours by car apart!

If you are visiting Tianjin/Beijing before debarkation in Baoshan/Shanghai (as we did) you will need a visa (multiple entry or long term) !!!

Yes, both ports have a visa exemption rule. However, it does not apply arriving from or leaving to one from the other. There is a "three country rule". Some guest on board did not believe it before and had to learn the hard way ;-)

 

Baoshan port to PVG airport is a one hour drive. Taxi cost is around 250 CNY (40 USD).

 

I would NOT recommend an early flight in Shanghai on the day of debarkation. Both times we sailed into Shanghai we did not get into port before 2 pm (fog, wind, suspended pilot operations). And it seems to be a frequent thing...

Clearance and debarkation took another 2 hours. We had a flight around midnight - so no worries.

 

We can highly recommend China Highlights for tours in Beijing!

 

Seoul (Keelung port): Yes, there are tours to the DMZ.

 

Just shoot if you have any other questions.

Thanks so much for the info! I'll now factor in obtaining Chinese visas. Can you send me your link to your trip report specifically for China/Korea? I saw your report for Japan but don't recall your China/Korea report. If I overlooked it then I apologize. I'm sure that will answer any other questions I may have.

Thanks so much for the info! I'll now factor in obtaining Chinese visas. Can you send me your link to your trip report specifically for China/Korea? I saw your report for Japan but don't recall your China/Korea report. If I overlooked it then I apologize. I'm sure that will answer any other questions I may have.

:D I am not that fast :D

We just returned last Monday. Writing the review will take a few weeks (at the moment more like months)...

So if you have any questions in the meantime, just shoot.

:D I am not that fast :D

 

We just returned last Monday. Writing the review will take a few weeks (at the moment more like months)...

So if you have any questions in the meantime, just shoot.

So that you cleared up my visa issues, which is much appreciated, do you have any experience with S class ships? I enjoy the Solarium but understand the pool is much smaller on M class. It's minor I know. This ship will be more of a hotel than anything else (except for the 6 sea days). What was it like on the colder days at sea? Were other areas of the ship congested? I'm used to Caribbean weather so this will be much different. Any suggestions on post cruise hotels? I can't wait to see your photo review much like your Japan cruise!!

Yes, I do - we have sailed on both classes numerous times.

S-class is more modern and, of course, larger. However, due to the smaller number of passengers M-class never felt crowded to us.

M-class offers many many different areas to hide and relax - even in cooler weather. The Solarium on M class is still a very nice place and actually not much smaller than on S-class.

Please also keep in mind that Millennium will be the first ship undergoing the "Revolution" refurbishment. All staterooms will be renovated to Edge-style, the venues remodelled etc. She will be beautiful.

I am not sure when this will take place but it might be before you sail. I think I read about cancelled cruises because of this refurbishent in February 2019.

We stayed at the "Les Suites Orient" in Shanghai and it was great.

:D I am not that fast :D

 

We just returned last Monday. Writing the review will take a few weeks (at the moment more like months)...

So if you have any questions in the meantime, just shoot.

I'd also be VERY interested in reading the Japan info. May I ask that you start a new thread, please, so it will be easy to spot? (we are on the April 13 2019 japan/Korea cruise. No China.)

I'd also be VERY interested in reading the Japan info. May I ask that you start a new thread, please, so it will be easy to spot? (we are on the April 13 2019 japan/Korea cruise. No China.)

I posted the Japan review here quite some time ago...

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2603407

If you reply there, it will jump to the first page again :-)

You can also click on the link in my signature to go to the review directly.

My apologies for missing it! I've book marked it already for nighttime reading on my tablet .

Thanks for your time and effort devoted to writing it, as well as the link.

I hope you will like it!

We loved Japan so much we booked another cruise for April 2019 :D

I hope you will like it!

We loved Japan so much we booked another cruise for April 2019 :D

Which one?

Which one?

Oh, we booked with HAL (first time).

The itinerary Celebrity offers in 2019 has too many repeats for us so we looked for something different.

Plus the price was more enticing. So we will try something differen´t.

We are still happy with Celebrity though. ;-)

Actually, HAL was our preferred cruise line until celebrity started their all inclusive alcohol packages - which were initially reasonably priced. Now celebrity includes them and other incentives for booking only an OV. I've never been able to beat that deal FINANCIALLY.

If HAL could compete price wise (including an alcohol package) , we would probably book them way more often than X. Nothing wrong with X. We just enjoyed certain things on HAL a bit more.

We stayed at the "Les Suites Orient" in Shanghai and it was great.

Sorry to interject .....

That is the hotel we are leaning towards. Which room category did you choose? Any hints for the hotel or area?

We did Hong Kong to Shanghai last March. Great trip. We used thechinaguide.com for our trip to Beijing (overnight) and our get off the ship tour in Shanghai. They were excellent. They also offer a two night trip for Beijing if you are in Tianjang for three days. We spent 3 full days in Shanghai post cruise, one with the tour that took us out to the water towns and then two days on our own in Shanghai. One thing to keep in mind with travel in China, there are many many, many rules and that creates many many many delays. Always allow extra time getting to where you need to go. In Korea the trip from Inchoen to Seoul is long. We got stuck in traffic going back but thankfully our guide was able to navigate surface streets and we got back with an hour to spare. Others, including some crew missed the ship.

Here is a link to my photo book from this trip. http://www.blurb.com/books/7986681-hong-kong-to-shanghai-march-2017 Hopefully it works for you.

Visas, we used a visa service because getting a visa for China involves at least two trips to the consulate closest to your legal residence. In our case that meant NYC and it was cheaper and much easier to pay the $140 agency fee than it was to drive into NYC, pay tolls and parking twice.

Several years ago we used beijingtoursbycoco and were extremely happy with them....would definitely use again.

In Shanghai, we like the Shanghai City Center Marriott. It's walking distance to the Bund and very close to People's Square, where you can catch subways going all directions.

Have a great trip!

Sorry to interject .....

That is the hotel we are leaning towards. Which room category did you choose? Any hints for the hotel or area?

Great location right at the Bund!

We had rewarded ourselves by booking the Shanghai Suite.

Click on the link to our Japan review in my signature and go to the last two days. There are some photos in there.