Viking Helgi Review

Luxury on the Yangze

Review for Asia Cruise on Viking Helgi
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Quiltsalad
6-10 Cruises • Age 80s

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Sail Date: Dec 2011

We booked a private tour of China through an Internet Agency. Spent a year setting the tour up emailing on a regular basis back and forth with the agent in Guilin, China. Got it exactly they way we wanted it starting with several days in Singapore, then moving on to the Yellow Mountains and Tunxi for a few more days, a 4 day cruise on the Yangtze River and finally a flight out to Lijiang and a several day tour of the wonders of that area. Just before we left the boat that we were to take on the Yangtze canceled it's last December run leaving us with "high and dry". The travel agent in Guilin suggested that maybe we could do something else with those 4 days and do the River Cruise on another trip. I told her no river cruise.....no trip (as I had not made the final payment) so she scrambled around and got us on another ship, changed the dates and the orders of the places we were visiting but assured us we would have our cruise.

The night we got on the boat it was late, we were tired and 90% of the other guests were Chinese nationals and we weren't sure what was going on but finally we were led down a long hall way by the Cabin Steward and we kept walking and walking (I whispered to my husband that we were probably going to be in steerage.) When the last door in the hall was opened and we were shown into our cabin we couldn't believe our eyes. It was the Presidential Suite which took up the whole right front of the boat. You can imagine our amazement with fresh flowers, and a living room bigger than most Suites......not to mention the king size bedroom, gold plated bath tub and deck that covered the front bow of the ship. We just looked at each other and said "lets, not unpack because there has to be a mistake." So we sat down on one of the couches and waited for them to come throw us out. After a 1/2 hour (about 11pm)....we put out the "Do Not Disturb" sign and went to bed, the suite was ours and had if the temperature in it had ever got above 60 degrees it would have been PERFECT, as it was it was still Sweet! Pictures at the following link.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/quiltsalad/3198182382/in/set-72157603894651320

Cabin Review

Who ever expects an upgrade to the Presidential Suite.....certainly not us but it happened and let me say I'm sure it will be the most luxurious cabin that we will ever have. It was the front half of the ship, huge living room with picture windows that wrapped around the whole room and a bedroom with king size bed and balcony, plus a bathroom with gold fixtures and a jacuzzi tub....totally the Ritz! http://www.flickr.com/photos/quiltsalad/3197340781/in/set-72157603894651320/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/quiltsalad/3198182382/in/set-72157603894651320

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