Yangtze River Cruise Comments

Yangtze river cruise

We were very pleased with our cruise on East King. Our guide met us at the airport and took us to the ship via a museum in Yinchaung and he was very helpful particularly as one of our party was sick. The staff and crew on board the East King were excellent very friendly and helpful and their English was excellent.? The shore trips were all very well organised with local guides and the guide that collected us in Chongquing was also very helpful and knowledgeable.

The ship was very clean and the food was excellent.

Our only criticism comes with the music for the evenings - after the crews show which was excellent everybody was ready for dancing and partying but there was no suitable music - the same tape was put on each evening and there were 2 songs to dance to - after that Karioke came on for the rest of the evening and the songs were very limited - which meant we had to find our own entertainment or go to bed which was a shame as we did have a party atmosphere along with our fellow passengers and were really keen to dance the night away!!!

It was altogether a wonderful trip and I am glad the water subsided a bit before we embarked.

Best Regards

Lesley Miller, UK
Oct 12, 2004

Yangtze River cruise

Re the query, our cruise on the ***** ( 5 star ) East Queen included an excursion into the Lesser Gorge on the Madu river. This commenced with us transferring onto a motor cruiser ( capacity 160 ) for about an hour through wonderful scenery. We then transferred into 10 seater canoe-like boats which were paddled up stream by boatmen including being pulled by them over rapids. As we turned for the return downstream trip it was great fun as the first 10 minutes or so was spent riding the gentle rapids.

Although the water has risen this year after the first flooding it is still worthwhile doing the trip - you just go further up the gorge to reach the rapids. We think it should not be missed.

There seemed to be a lot of difference between the 5 star and the 3 star boats so our recommendation would be to try and ensure you get both the lesser gorge and the 5 star treatment. I doubt that anyone could find many faults with the East Queen/East King.

I hope that this helps your prospective traveller.

Best regards

Michael Stevens
Sep 6, 2003