Trip Planning

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 … Read Full Post

Here is a map for this trip that we downloaded from the Viking website, as well as a preliminary Itinerary.  We do not yet have any flight information or names of the hotels we are staying in at the various … Read Full Post

Yesterday, while looking through the documentation for the trip requirements on the MyViking website, we found out that we needed a travel visa to enter China.  This was not totally unexpected, but what was unexpected was the effort and cost … Read Full Post

We are slowly making progress on our Visa Application.  So far, we have filled in all of the information and had it reviewed by the visa service we are using to process the Visa in Washington at the China Embassy.  … Read Full Post

The Application process for these China visas was not that easy or straightforward, but yesterday, we finally received our Passports back with our new China Visas glued to one of the Visa pages inside the passport.  I will say that … Read Full Post

There has absolutely been no communication from Viking until this week on this trip.  It is disappointing that we can’t find out any details on where we are staying when we arrive in Beijing, and what included excursions we will … Read Full Post

We are now fully booked and 100% paid for this trip to China.   We made the full payment on the due date of April 30, 2024.  It was not that risky of a decision, we were only out a total … Read Full Post

Today, we received our revised documentation from Viking showing all of the hotels we will be staying at for the land portion of this trip.  In addition, the preliminary itinerary we initially posted had different arrival dates in Bejing.  Since … Read Full Post

In a previous Planning Update, I had explained how we had revised our original flights to China so that we would not be taking the assigned Viking flights through Doha, Qatar in the Middle East that were over 32 hours … Read Full Post

Here is a listing along with the Viking provided description of the Shore Excursions we have selected for the cruise portion of our trip.  The window for reserving the shore excursions opened up today for our cabin classification. We have … Read Full Post

I was looking at the MyVikingJourney website today and just happened to look at the listing of shore excursions and found out that Viking has added the excursions for the land travel days of this trip.  I had already posted … Read Full Post

One day we hope that Viking just gets better with their air service, especially since you have to pay the extra fees to pick your own flights and/or go early or stay later than the normal trip days. I called … Read Full Post

We just returned from our Iceland trip a little less than two weeks ago, and are now trying to change gears and get ready for this China Trip.  We have never taken two major trips this close together, so it … Read Full Post

We have three days to go before we leave on our longest flight ever to go to Beijing, China. We have been busy with some last-minute preparations, one of them being the setup of VPN access before we arrive in … Read Full Post