About two weeks ago, we received an email from Viking Cruises about specials they were running on their new Itineraries to visit China. These trips were a combination of an Ocean Cruise and land-based travel. That was all it took to start us looking at that as a possible trip destination.
Before COVID, we often thought that China would be a good destination for a river cruise, more so than almost any other place. We just thought that China would be a difficult place to visit on our own, so going on a river cruise was more practical. We had looked into taking a river cruise to China a few times, but never seriously considered it. Even the river cruises in China were partially land trips and partially the cruise itself, mainly on the Yangtze River. It was particularly interesting because they visited the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River, which is the largest dam in the world.
We were not even taking any Viking cruises at that time, they just seemed expensive, and they are. However, now that we have been on several Viking Ocean Cruises, as well as an Expedition Cruise, we just can’t get excited about cruising on other cruise lines’ mega-ships.
This trip was intriguing, there was no river cruise. I do not think Viking even runs river cruises in China since COVID happened. However, this trip does include a 9-Day cruise along the coast of China on the Viking Yi Dun ocean ship, intermixed in between two separate land trip portions. The Yi Dun was originally the Viking Sun before it was renovated and moved to the Asian cruise market.
The trip is described as 20 days, Beijing to Beijing, so we would fly in and out of Beijing for the start and end trip from the USA. Four other flights within China are included, as well as all of the hotels for the land portion of the trip. We have added a day in this trip duration description for overnight flights to Beijing
We will post the Itinerary in a separate post, but we are excited that this trip includes a visit to Lhasa in Tibet.
The trip is planned for September 22 to October 13 as it exists today. We have not added any days at the beginning or end, but are considering possibly going at least one day early to have a little more time to adjust to the time difference, which is currently 12 hours ahead of US Eastern time. This trip occurs about a month after we return from our trip to Iceland, and that proximity to another long trip is a consideration before we totally commit to going to China.
The Special that was being run by Viking was for reduced cabin fares with free cabin upgrades, basically making all of the standard balcony Cabins on the ship the same price, no matter the actual cabin category. We had originally thought about upgrading to the smallest Penthouse Category, but that was $2,000 more in cost, and we thought we could use that money to better advantage somewhere else on the trip, especially since the cruise is only nine days long, and we are in ports all but two days of that duration.
Truth be told, we have a lot of questions that are still unanswered about this trip, we do not know anything about any of the included hotels we would be staying in for the land stops, nor do we know what is included for that portion of the trip, mainly about meals and excursions. There is no detailed information in the Viking website.
But, we are only out a total of $50 if we decide to cancel after we get more information, that was part of the special, we only had to make a $25.00 dollar deposit per person to reserve the trip. The next payment would be the final payment which is due on April 30, 2024. So we have some time to figure things out, and would only be out that $50.00 deposit if we cancel before the end of April, I guess the initial deposit is now just our “learning fee”.
Based on advice we read online from other Viking Travellers, especially when these low-cost deposits are available, we opted not to purchase any travel insurance through Viking. We have at least 14-days after the initial payment of the deposit to add that to the cost of the trip through Viking, but that total insurance cost would be due within that timeframe and is non-refundable. The cost of their insurance was about $2,200 for both of us. We will need to get travel insurance but are opting to go with independent insurance. With independent insurance, we only have to initially pay for coverage in the amount of the non-refundable portion of the trip, which would just be the initial $50.00 deposit. We still need to get a policy within a 14-day window after the deposit date to protect us with the pre-existing conditions exclusions provisions, especially with the health of our mom’s. However, we would only need to get full coverage within 14-days after we make the final payment. At that time, we would need to increase the policy coverage up to the total trip cost or reasonably close, depending on the actual cancellation schedule. We are just obligated to insure the non-refundable portion as we go.
There was some additional benefit to the Viking Insurance, Viking will cover “cancel for any reason” for 100% of the trip cost, independently from the actual trip insurance that is provided by a third party. The cancel for any reason benefit is a nice feature. However, it is for future travel vouchers, which typically need to be used within a year. We can also purchase “cancel for any reason” with our independent insurance, and it makes the total insurance comparable to Viking’s cost, but the independent policy only protects us for 75% of the trip cost. However, it is in cash, not future cruise credits. We are still deciding which way to go.
As far as excursion information goes, there were some high-level descriptions posted on the Viking site explaining the trip itinerary when we were investigating the trip. It appeared that most excursions were “included”, we did not see many optional paid excursions listed, if any. However, we also do not know how accurate that information is this early in the process, so that is another item to figure out before we have to make the final payment.
The last bit of information is about the flights. As one would expect, the flights are long, most are only two connections for us, with one flight being about 15 hours long, either connecting through Korea or Japan. Flights take close to 22 or 23 hours in total time, and that is a long time. There are generally choices for us to either leave early in the morning and arrive in Beijing in the evening of the next day or, we leave in the evening and arrive in Beijing in the morning of the second day after, losing a whole day in travel. It wasn’t very clear. We won’t know anything about the availability of our airfare through Viking until June according to the MyViking Website where our reservation information shows up. Unfortunately, that is well after the Final Payment at the end of April, so we will need to also look into that to better understand our flight options. The airfare is “included” as part of this special, and we already know that with Viking, that means it will be a hassle.
We will post the Itinerary next.
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