“LIVE FROM” 2019 Oceania Insignia World Cruise, Jan. 11-July 11

[CintiPam]

On 4/3/2019 at 10:45 PM, CintiPam said:

Mitsubishi indeed is worth a trip (visited in 2016.) I am NOT a shopper but an amazing experience.

Just noticed that autocorrect changed “Mitsukoshi” to “Mitsubishi” in my post yesterday.  My sincere apology to this fabulous department store.

[Senior Citizen]

Did the ship make its scheduled stop in Seoul on April 5?

 

 

[Not landlubbers]

Think the wifi must be down! No news!

[buggins0402]

The itinerary I have on file has them going from Sasebo Japan on the 4th to Tainjin China on the 7th. China is perhaps the issue.

[2552phxcrzr]

Pat just published their Tianjin experience ... here’s the link for those looking for a 2019 RTW fix ... https://patandnormtravel.com/2019/04/07/tianjin-beijing-china/

[Go-Bucks!]

On 4/6/2019 at 3:33 PM, Senior Citizen said:

Did the ship make its scheduled stop in Seoul on April 5?

 

 

 

That stop was cancelled long ago...Oceania said that China wouldn't let us stop here in China if we first went to South Korea. But today our Chinese guide says this is probably not true because his agency recently had clients from Celebrity and Princess ships that first went to South Korea then to China. 

 

Whatever the story is, they added Kagoshima and Sasebo Japan in place of Seoul. Many of us were quite disappointed but what can you do. 

Edited April 7, 2019 by Go-Bucks!

[Go-Bucks!]

In Beijing on a private overland tour with 4 others.  Saw the Temple of Heaven, Lama Buddhist temple, visited a local Chinese family and their home, took a rickshaw ride and had lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. Had Japanese ramen for dinner at a nearby mall.

[Not landlubbers]

Good to hear from you!! A busy day !!!

[jaxw17]

5 hours ago, h2so4 said:

Pat just published their Tianjin experience ... here’s the link for those looking for a 2019 RTW fix ... https://patandnormtravel.com/2019/04/07/tianjin-beijing-china/

Really enjoyed that have been missing my fix from the world tour 

 

[Paulchili]

There is an interesting thread going on currently on Viking Ocean about table settings in their World Café.

Despite having sailed on O many, many times I cannot remember how this is handled in the Terrace Café, When a customer leaves, the table is wiped down but is there a new placemat placed or the old one wiped down? I believe it is the former. If a new placemat is placed, I wonder where it comes from (i.e. how was it cleaned before being placed).

Appreciate info from people currently on the ship.

[2552phxcrzr]

2 hours ago, Paulchili said:

There is an interesting thread going on currently on Viking Ocean about table settings in their World Café.

Despite having sailed on O many, many times I cannot remember how this is handled in the Terrace Café, When a customer leaves, the table is wiped down but is there a new placemat placed or the old one wiped down? I believe it is the former. If a new placemat is placed, I wonder where it comes from (i.e. how was it cleaned before being placed).

Appreciate info from people currently on the ship.

 

From my experience, they replace the placemats after they wipe down the table.  They have a whole stack of the placemats at the service stations both inside and outside at the Terrace Cafe.

[Paulchili]

4 minutes ago, h2so4 said:

 

From my experience, they replace the placemats after they wipe down the table.  They have a whole stack of the placemats at the service stations both inside and outside at the Terrace Cafe.

Thank you - that is what I thought.

Just out of curiosity - would you know how they clean them after usage (under normal, not Noro conditions)?

Edited April 7, 2019 by Paulchili

[2552phxcrzr]

8 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

Thank you - that is what I thought.

Just out of curiosity - would you know how they clean them after usage (under normal, not Noro conditions)?

 

No, but I'm thinking whatever solution is used to wipe down the tables is probably used for the placemats as well.  Just a guess on my part.

[RJB]

23 hours ago, Go-Bucks! said:

 

That stop was cancelled long ago...Oceania said that China wouldn't let us stop here in China if we first went to South Korea. But today our Chinese guide says this is probably not true because his agency recently had clients from Celebrity and Princess ships that first went to South Korea then to China. 

 

Whatever the story is, they added Kagoshima and Sasebo Japan in place of Seoul. Many of us were quite disappointed but what can you do. 

Have been to Kagoshima and it was quiet nice.  Think you will enjoy it.  

[Go-Bucks!]

Second day in Beijing on private tour of China with Catherine Lu tours.  We're staying in the Renaissance Wangfujing hotel, near the Forbidden City.  Pictures are: fire escape mask in our room, Asian breakfast buffet in hotel, another "Grandma" car, the Great Wall of China, O-H-I-O, hotpot lunch, Summer Palace, Bird Nest stadium, Peking duck dinner with roasting ducks and a cooked duck head, and the hotel robot who delivered something to our room.

 

The Grandma car is a cute story. China doesn't allow people over 70 yrs old to drive a regular vehicle or get a driver's license! So the senior citizens buy these little 3-seater mini cars (basically a scooter that's enclosed) to drive around...but the legality is iffy cuz neither the car nor the driver have licenses. The car only costs about $3,000.

 

The Great Wall was amazing!!  Took a chairlift up and down from the wall, but climbed the equivalent of 40 stories of stairs on the wall! The views were breathtaking. Walked a total of 6 miles today.

 

Our meals were great...buffet breakfast had dim sum, chow mein, fried rice, dumplings, Chinese pancakes, liver, salad bar and Western breakfast foods...huge. Then we had beef, lamb and shrimp hotpot for lunch and a duck dinner with beef and chicken too. 

 

Our guide is very informative and has interesting stories about China and its history and culture. 

Edited April 8, 2019 by Go-Bucks!

[Go-Bucks!]

16 hours ago, RJB said:

Have been to Kagoshima and it was quiet nice.  Think you will enjoy it.  

 

We did enjoy it...went there last week. 

[Not landlubbers]

On April 3, 2019 at 1:10 PM, bob brown said:

Had a great time in Kagoshima.  Instead of taking one of those “Panoramic”, O-excursion’s, Jim and I did our own thing...

Purchased an all-day unlimited ride city transit pass, good on all the tram’s, and city owned transit buses (not good on some privately owned bus routes).

It even included an 80 minute sightseeing bus, which stopped at all the popular tourist attractions.  It had a recorded tour, in Japanese and English, describing each attraction.  You could hop off and on where ever you wished.  We saw some shipmates using it.  You did have to walk about 20 minutes from the pier to reach the nearest stop, or take anothy bus or taxi there...

 

One of our stops was the Kagoshima-Chou, main railway station.  We took a ride on the Shikansen “bullet train” just to the next station for lunch, and back, just for the experience.😎

 

We stopped at a music store where Jim showed his skills on the practice drum set

(what a multi-talented guy)...

 

Jim also had time to visit some local police...

 

We did a little shopping, and then rode some old tram cars back to the pier.

The all day pass only cost 800 yen...

 

”Mission accomplished”🙂

Haven't heard from you in a while! Hope everything is ok!

[bob brown]

Have been “busy”, enjoying sea and port days...🙂

[Senior Citizen]

Thanks, Go-Bucks, for the lovely pictures of your tour in Beijing!  Looks like you guys had relatively good weather.  When we were there last year, the air quality was so bad that we wore N-99 masks throughout our stay.  And, it was snowing in Tianjin when we went to board the Insignia!

 

Thanks for continuing to share your journey.

 

Thanks to you too, Bob.  Missed your “pilot’s onboard” in Tianjin.  Guess you have to get some sleep sometime!

[bob brown]

Above was Sasebo, Japan, and below The Great Wall of Hangyaguan, China...

[bob brown]

6 minutes ago, Senior Citizen said:

 

 

Thanks to you too, Bob.  Missed your “pilot’s onboard” in Tianjin.  Guess you have to get some sleep sometime!

 

[Not landlubbers]

Yay! All is well!!Sail on!!

[RJB]

Still wonderful pictures.  Keep up the good work and we will follow you for the entire trip. 

[Go-Bucks!]

We visited the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. I ate Chinese breakfast today.  BTW, we have free wifi at the hotel but Facebook, Google, Yahoo and many others are blocked in this country but, ironically, they obviously don't care about Cruise Critic!  😉

[Mura]

It's 11 years since we did the Viking riverboat experience in China.  They put us up in 5* hotels which had immense buffet breakfasts, both western and Chinese.  We always headed for the Chinese!  They were truly wonderful.

 

So were the hotels ...

 

I was surprised to see (you? someone else?) post that there was an easier way to get up to the Great Wall.  We had to walk the whole way back then!

 

We had in our group an older woman who had taken a bad fall boarding our bus at the beginning of the trip which made walking hard for her.  So when I saw her climbing up to the Great Wall, I had to at least equal her efforts!

 

That was a great day ...

 

Mura