Has anyone taken the Viking River Cruise on the Yangtse, the one that
cruises 9 nights Chongqing to Nanjing? It's part of their 16 day
"China's Cultural Delights" package.

I'm wondering if their excursion in Suzhou includes a visit to or boat
ride on the Grand Canal. If not, we are considering doing that
ourselves as a day trip from Shanghai.

I'm also curious about taking the cruise up river against the current,
whether the excursions are any shorter. The boat has to travel slower
upriver, but it takes the same number of days, so they have to make up
the time somehow.

Are there any ports where it is better to skip the shore excursion and
just wander around on our own?

Any other comments on this cruise would be appreciated.

Walt Bilofsky wrote:

If the cruise length upriver and downriver are the same, it may be that
the completed dam has changed the river current enough that the flow no
longer has an impact on cruise duration. On our cruise, we heard the
current was going to be reduced. Your post suggests this has already
happened even though the complete flooding still has three years to go.

We cruised upriver in 2002 and the trip lasted on more day compared to
the same trip downriver.

Karen Selwyn

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