Viking Gems of China and Japan Day 13 – We're done - Yi Dun - finally on the ship
The day started early. Even with only five hours of sleep (for me - more for Arlona), we felt like new people. Low altitude rocks.
As we thought about the last few days, we would have liked one less day in Tibet and another day to explore Chengdu. This city of over 20 million looked intriguing with lots of places to see. Oh well.
We were up at 5:45 so we could catch an early breakfast before our 7:00 departure for the Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport. Viking checked in our bags and had secured boarding passes, so the process at the airport was smooth.
China heavily relies on facial recognition, especially at airports. We've had our faces scanned a whole bunch of times these past two weeks. Today, we saw some of the results.
After getting through security, there was a large digital board. I walked up and this happened.
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| Well, typical for China - need a duck to take on the plane? |
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| How about a seasoned duck? |
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| Goose, sausage - we've got it all |
Today's flight was our most comfortable, mainly due to Sichuan Airways' massive Airbus A350.
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| Hey, look - more pandas |
After we arrived in Beijing, we got on our bus for the long bus ride to Tianjin Cruise Port. But we didn't go anywhere. We sat in the parking lot and ate a boxed lunch. It had to do with waiting for the truck with our luggage to depart so our luggage would get to the port before we did.
The ride took from a little after 1:00 until after 4:30, and we didn't get on the ship until after 5:00.
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| This was the point we said farewell to our guide, Oliver, who escorted us through the land portion of this journey |
The port process was a little frustrating. We had to wait on the bus for about 15 minutes until the other buses and their guests had cleared the area. We were then given Viking stickers that we had to wear and also place on our luggage. Arlona's was hidden. Nobody ever checked them. Then, we identified our luggage and went through the multi-step boarding process. First, our Chinese visas were checked. Then, we showed our passports and they made three copies of the information page. Next, we got our room keys and excursion tickets. Then, we went through Immigration, even though we're already in China, where they took one copy. Then, we went through passport control, where they took a second copy and also took our passports. We will get them back when we leave Chinese waters. The third copy of our passports is ours to carry when we go ashore. Finally, we were able to make the long walk to the gangway and board the ship. We give the boarding process a 4/10. It is in the top three worst boarding processes we've gone through.
The official name of the ship is Zhao Shang Yi Dun, but for brevity, I will just call it the Yi Dun.
The Yi Dun used to be the Viking Sun and was Viking's first ocean ship. In order to operate in China, Viking sold the ship to China and then made an agreement to operate it. Visually, it is identical to all the other Viking ocean-going vessels. We wondered if we would run into any crew we had sailed with before. The answer is no, because the crew is all Chinese. Well, mostly. More on that in a minute.
After dumping our carry-on bags in the room, we headed to the Explorers Bar for our ceremonial first drink (photo at the top). As we left the room, we found my suitcase outside the room, but not Arlona's. Oh well, we went to the bar. We enjoyed meeting other guests and chatting - one of the attractions of the Explorers Bar. We went to the World Cafe (buffet) for dinner and had a nice meal, chatting with a couple we had cruised with when they did the Vancouver to Tokyo leg of our Alaska, Australia, Asia, Arabia trip.
We mentioned to them that we wondered about the crew and if we'd see anyone we had sailed with before, but no...and BOOM. Arlona looked across the room and spotted Arann, the Entertainment Manager from the inaugural sailing of Viking Polaris. The Yi Dun has a Chinese Cruise Director. Arann is here to help her learn to handle entertainment the Viking way.
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| Always fun to run into amazing crew members that we sailed with before |
After dinner, we returned to the room and discovered that Arlona's bag still had not been delivered. I called Guest Services and asked about it, and they said there was a security issue and we needed to come down. I asked if they were going to let us know, and they got confused. That is an issue. English is not the first (or second or third) language for much of the crew. That isn't a criticism because their English is vastly superior to my nonexistent Mandarin, and we are operating in China, but certainly worth noting.
Anyway, we went to the Explorers Desk and were escorted to Security. They explained that the X-ray review seemed to indicate scissors were in her bag. She explained that they were hair scissors that she uses to trim her bangs. We're on a month-long trip, and there will be some trimming happening. That satisfied them. We took the bag and returned to the room. The issue is that these scissors have accompanied us on multiple cruises, including Viking cruises, and have never been a problem. Ultimately, we got everything and were able to unpack and settle in.
Because we got to the ship so late, the port talk for tomorrow's port Dalian, China, was already done. Lucky for us, Viking records them all and makes them available to stream on the TV. We had that streaming as I wrote this and unpacked.
Speaking of writing this, the internet on the ship...absolutely sucks. China doesn't have a good relationship with Elon Musk and Starlink, the best internet at sea. Therefore, the Yi Dun uses much older, slower, and generally crappier internet service, Core Interconnection. Loading photos is painful. So, writing this blog over the next two weeks on the ship will be a challenge, especially on photo-heavy days.
So, we're on the ship and will be for the next two weeks. No more packing/unpacking every day or two. No more flights. Then, after that, more flights, more packing unpacking, but that's two weeks away, and they have drinks here, so we're good.
Tomorrow, we'll be in Dalian, China, and we'll take a short tour and ride a vintage train.
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