China cruise Beijing to Singapore

[travellers from Oz]

Has anyone been on the Sapphire Princess from Beijing to Singapore. 17 day cruise. Particularly interested in accommodation stayed at in Beijing prior to departure and land excursions. Also were the daily expenses high or low. e,g, food, taxis, sightseeing. Arriving in the early hours of morning by air and wondering if taxis or shuttles run at 3am. Is tour of Great Wall a day excursion. Also the onshore excursions that the cruise arrange worth doing or could you organise your tours. Would that be difficult or risky. If anyone has useful advice for any of the above, we would appreciate your imput.:)

[skf]

We overnighted in Beijing at the Hilton Doubletree. We did not want to spend a fortune at the hotel's buffet so we asked the doorman to recommend a Chinese place. He wrote out the name in Mandarin & said to look for their sign on the street behind the hotel. We see a big, bright yellow & red sign & go into a cafeteria-style place. All the menus were in Chinese so we got a young couple to show us what they were having...rice, pork, & a small dish of mystery veggies (delicious, whatever it was). We and our English shipmates had this, a large Coke, & three beers for $9.60 USD.

We wanted to go to Tianamen Square but the preparations for China's 60th birthday party (this was October of 2009) took over the whole place, so the doorman got a taxi who gave us a ride around there & back. It was still a lot of fun.

We did book the Princess tour to the Great Wall. This was a bus ride into Beijing then north on the Badaling Expressway. You owe it to yourselves to go that way just to watch people's driving. We saw two fist fights at fender-benders...the traffic police just drive along & see nothing.

We had a few hours at the wall. I was climbing the stairs (not really stairs, all the stone levels are of differing heights) and holding the guard rail but the teenagers were flying up and down as if they had wings. I am glad I went, because I could not do it now.

I hope this has helped.

Steve

[HJH]

We were on the Diamond last October from Beijing (Tiangin) to Singapore and we took the Princess five day pre-tour in Beijing and Xian.

 

An important question, what dates are you considering booking? Under no circumstances do you want to do anything on land in the first week in October, regardless of whether it is with Princess or independently booked as this a period of a national holiday and attractions and roadways are clogged with zillions of local people enjoying their own country.

 

Princess used the Marriott City Wall in Beijing and a Sheraton in Xian, both excellent hotels and all meals were included. The itinerary was great but totally destroyed by the crowds everywhere, both at the sites and on the roads.

[caribill]

Has anyone been on the Sapphire Princess from Beijing to Singapore. 17 day cruise. Particularly interested in accommodation stayed at in Beijing prior to departure and land excursions. Also were the daily expenses high or low. e,g, food, taxis, sightseeing. Arriving in the early hours of morning by air and wondering if taxis or shuttles run at 3am. Taxis will be available at that time. Be sure to have the address of where you are going written in Chinese. Is tour of Great Wall a day excursion. Also the onshore excursions that the cruise arrange worth doing or could you organise your tours. Would that be difficult or risky. If anyone has useful advice for any of the above, we would appreciate your imput.:)

 

You may want to consider a Princess hotel package for your stay before the cruise in Beijing. It may cost more than what you could obtain on your own, but it would include transportation from the airport to the hotel, probably breakfast at the hotel, and transportation from hotel to the ship.

 

You would have to contact Princess to see if they offer a pre-cruise tour to the Great Wall you could take. If not, get to Beijing an extra day early and check the Port of Calls section of Cruise Critic for recommendations of tours to the Great Wall.

[skf]

Have you looked on the Princess website under "Destinations"? Go to DESTINATIONS, then ASIA. You will see CRUISE PORTS & EXCURSIONS. Select ASIA, then BEIJING.

You will get a list of the excursions offered. You cannot actually book anything here, but it is a handy shopping list for later booking. As our pal Caribill said this includes airport transfers & transport to/from the ship.

Steve

[travellers from Oz]

Thanks for your replies. I'll go onto Princess' website. Was daily living expenses high or cheap. Only other Asian city we've been to is Singapore to compare. :)

[pppatpc2]

We did the Beijing to Bangkok cruise on the Diamond 4/13 and it was quite the experience. We did everything in Beijing on our own, stayed at the JW Marriott which was a little off the beaten path but in a good way. Crowds can be intimidating but public transportation is easy to use and cheap if you don't go at rush hour. Taxis are very cheap. There is also an app called Beijing taxi (only app I ever paid for), you put in your destination in English it translates to Chinese and you show it to the driver, very few speak English. Food can be very expensive or very cheap, shoot for the middle.

 

We either did the Asian ports on our own or took Princess tours. Went on the Princess trips in Nha Trang, Busan, and Vung Tao. Went on our own in Nagasaki, Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok.

 

Word of advice-check the smog levels, if they are too high, you will not be able to see the great wall after the long ride and oppressive traffic. Hope you do though, it was worth it.

[newparks]

We did the Beijing to Bangkok cruise on the Diamond 4/13 and it was quite the experience. We did everything in Beijing on our own, stayed at the JW Marriott which was a little off the beaten path but in a good way. Crowds can be intimidating but public transportation is easy to use and cheap if you don't go at rush hour. Taxis are very cheap. There is also an app called Beijing taxi (only app I ever paid for), you put in your destination in English it translates to Chinese and you show it to the driver, very few speak English. Food can be very expensive or very cheap, shoot for the middle.

 

We either did the Asian ports on our own or took Princess tours. Went on the Princess trips in Nha Trang, Busan, and Vung Tao. Went on our own in Nagasaki, Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok.

 

Word of advice-check the smog levels, if they are too high, you will not be able to see the great wall after the long ride and oppressive traffic. Hope you do though, it was worth it.

 

A group of us did the 8 day land tour pre cruise which included a 3 day river cruise on the Yangtze. It was an amazing land tour. Most meals were included but not all. I would highly recommend doing a Princess land tour.

[Arwen]

A group of us did the 8 day land tour pre cruise which included a 3 day river cruise on the Yangtze. It was an amazing land tour. Most meals were included but not all. I would highly recommend doing a Princess land tour.

 

I totally agree. We were on the Diamond Princess a year and a half ago (Oct) and did the same Princess Pre-Cruise Package. It was exhausting! But soooo worth it.

 

Most folks know this....if you can book at least three days at the Princess designated hotel before the official tour, do it. We did not do this and after a 9 1/2 direct flight from Seattle to Beijing, we were wiped out. The chosen hotel was the Peninsula Hotel and it was absolutely gorgeous! Found out that the cost per night was really reasonable since there is fierce competition between the 5 star hotels in Beijing.

 

Our guide said that lots of the hotels were built for the Olympics held in Beijing, except that not nearly as many tourists/Olympic watchers showed up there.

 

The same 5 star hotel here in my city of Seattle would have been double the cost of the Peninsula.

 

Another piece of advice. Try and get your Yuans from your local bank. We did this a couple of weeks ahead of time knowing that the currency had to be ordered for us. Soooo glad we did this.

We took the equivalent of $300 USD...but if I were to do it again, I would take more.

 

Very good to have this for tips, taxi, etc.

 

Oh, and we got ripped off by our taxi driver. The Beijing airport has a system whereby the taxis line up and there is someone there to keep them in line and see to it that travelers are ushered to the authorized taxis.

 

There will be many individuals running around the airport offering you a taxi ride and they were quite pesty. They, of course, are not authorized.

 

We did line up outside, where we were supposed to, but there was a the guy who came up to us who had craftily double parked his van alongside the taxis. He was NOT authorized. We now know you wait for the 'official' to usher you into the right taxi.

 

We learned our lesson. We did not realize the worth of our Yuans. I was suspicious but too exhausted to question the cost of the ride. (We had arrived at 11:30 p.m.)

 

Next morning, we realized we were majorly ripped off. (yes, we were stupid!). We paid about 4x more than what we should have!!!!

[melody hounddog]

We did Beijing to Bangkok in 2008 and hands down it was the best cruise we were ever on. We also did the precruise tour of Xian and the Great Wall. Worth every penny.

 

We did all Princess tours and really enjoyed them. Our favorite tour was the one that went to Suzhou and saw the Humble Administrator's Garden. Beautiful!

[Roses2]

We did the cruise last year from Singapore to Beijing. We stayed at the Sheraton Great Wall Hotel.

 

Booking a private guide with a dedicated car and driver for the three days we stayed in Beijing was key to making the stay absolutely superb. We saw a Princess Tour group of about 20 folks at the Forbidden City. We were very glad that we were not seeing the sights with a group.

 

The car picked us up at the ship when we arrived and dropped us off at the airport at the end of our three days. Maggie our guide could not have been more helpful, enlightening, or fun to be with whether seeing the sights or shopping.

 

We mapped out what we wanted to see and where we wanted to go. Maggie helped to modify the itinerary.

 

If you really want to see and appreciate the wonderful sights of Beijing, a private tour is absolutely the way to go. We have a review on Trip Advisor.

 

P&J

[foxjaxon]

Has anyone been on the Sapphire Princess from Beijing to Singapore. 17 day cruise. Particularly interested in accommodation stayed at in Beijing prior to departure and land excursions. Also were the daily expenses high or low. e,g, food, taxis, sightseeing. Arriving in the early hours of morning by air and wondering if taxis or shuttles run at 3am. Is tour of Great Wall a day excursion. Also the onshore excursions that the cruise arrange worth doing or could you organise your tours. Would that be difficult or risky. If anyone has useful advice for any of the above, we would appreciate your imput.:)

 

Book a Princess Pre cruise package They pick you up from the airport to hotel

and from hotel to cruise ship the port is two hours from Beijing ,we have being

to Beijing twice once we had private transfer to ship the main road to the port was closed due to fog it took seven hours to get to the port, next time went with princess transfers nigel niglunn@dodo.com.au

[skf]

Try and get your Yuans from your local bank. We did this a couple of weeks ahead of time knowing that the currency had to be ordered for us.

When we were in China the Diamond Princess was not permitted to exchange USD for Yuans. Instead, there were authorized vendors in the atrium for foreign exchange.

[caribill]

Another piece of advice. Try and get your Yuans from your local bank. We did this a couple of weeks ahead of time knowing that the currency had to be ordered for us. Soooo glad we did this.

We took the equivalent of $300 USD...but if I were to do it again, I would take more.

 

 

No need to get Yuans in advance of traveling to China (and it may be difficult to do so).

 

Plenty of ATMs at the airport when you arrive you can use your ATM card at.

 

Also can exchange $$$ for Yuans at your hotel front desk.

 

Exchange rate is controlled by the government and will be the same at ATMs, hotels and banks.