Visit Shanghai city March 24, 2019

The Bundt with the towers behind us

Today is our first day in Shanghai. The tour company arranged for us to take a full day city tour.

First we had a wonderful buffet breakfast at the Radisson dining room. Lots of choices including American coffee, eggs, bacon waffles etc.

We arranged for a private tour so we could set the pace at each visit. First  was a drive on Nanjing Road, the main commercial street in Shanghai. Lots of tall buildings with the names of large companies on them. From here the driver took us to the Bund, the waterfront promenade with the Huangpu River on one side and historical buildings on the other.

Bundt promenade

Shanghai Tower

 This is the Shanghai tower https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shanghai/oriental_pearl.htm

The Bundt  is one of the must see things in Shanghai. The driver let us off and the guide led us to different spots on the Bund pointing out historical buildings and some history of the city.
Lots of people out- tourists and locals.
One place we saw was the Fairmont Peace Hotel. I had read it has a famous jazz band and afternoon teas.

Peace hotel interior

We looked across the river and saw the Shanghai Tower - second highest tower in the world.  https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shanghai/tower.htm.

Shanghai  tower on right and Pearl tower on left

We spent about an hour walking the Bundt and taking photos.

Next stop was the Jade Buddha Temple. It was a short drive from the Bundt.

One of Shanghai’s few active Buddhist monasteries, this temple was built between 1918 and 1928. The highlight is a transcendent Buddha crafted from pure jade, one of five shipped back to China by the monk Hui Gen at the turn of the 20th century. 

The Temple complex includes  the Hall of Heavenly Kings, holding the statues of the Four Heavenly Kings who look upon the four cardinal points. Directly opposite is the twin-eaved Grand Hall, the temple's most significant building, where worshippers pray to the past, present and future Buddhas. Also within the Grand Hall are splendidly carved luóhàn (arhats), lashed to the walls with wires, and a copper-coloured statue of Guanyin at the rear. Passing through the Grand Hall is the gated tranquil courtyard, where stairs lead up to the Jade Buddha Hall. The absolute centrepiece of the temple is the 1.9m-high pale-green jade Buddha, seated upstairs and carved from one piece. Photographs are not permitted. Further into the complex is the Reclining Buddha Hall, which contains a small reclining white jade Buddha from Burma that's displayed in a glass cabinet. The Mahavira Hall was renovated and reopened in 2019; it was raised by a metre and now stands at 18.2m tall and weighs in at 1000 tonnes.



After an hour of visiting the temple Rebecca our guide said she was going to take us for lunch. She took us to a restaurant near our hotel-not close enough for us to walk to- and she started ordering a few dishes and I ordered Kung Pao Chicken. That chicken dish was the best I have ever eaten anywhere. If we could have walked here from the hotel we would have eaten every meal here.

After the delicious filling lunch it was time to visit the 400 year old Yun garden. My impression was that is would be located on the city outskirts.
Wrong. It was in the center city and surrounded by a large complex of tourist shops-the Yuyuan bazaar. 
https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shanghai/yuyuan-bazaar.htm

We walked through the shopping complex to reach the garden entrance.

https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shanghai/yuyuan_garden.htm

Once we entered we experienced quiet from the city noise. The visitors were quiet and we were able to visit all the buildings in the garden. It was really beautiful.

After visiting the pavilions and halls we went to the bazaar and did shop shopping and sightseeing.

Since we were done with the tour early we asked Rebecca if we can go visit the new Starbucks Reserve. She said it was by a upscale shopping center.
Away we went and the driver left us off close by.

There was a line to enter and we had to wait around 5 mins to get in. The place was huge. 
The main floor had pastries and merchandize for sale. Second floor sold tea and accessories.
We bought some pastries and coffees and had a coffee break. Afterwards we bought two small souvenirs- a magnet and coffee cup.

We went back to the hotel to rest.
Around 6pm we walked down to the promenade across the street to find a place to eat and to walk in the pedestrian mall. We found typical American restaurants ie McDonalds and KFC.

Our hotel is in the center with the round top

Small train to take to get to the Bundt

Checking one mall for restaurants we found the Blue Frog and went there for dinner. I had read online that it was a good restaurant serving Western food.

We had cocktails and ordered dinner. The drinks and dinners were great. The service was wonderful and the waitresses spoke some English and were eager to speak to us.

Afterwards back to the hotel. Tomorrow we go to Shanghai Disney Land.

March 22, 2019 We leave San Francisco for Shanghai on United

We booked the flights to China and the return from Japan on United Air business class because of the length of the flight and it left in the evening planning to sleep during the flight.

Our flight left as scheduled at 2:05 pm. We arrived at the airport 3 hours early to allow time to check our bags and get to the gate.

Check in and security went smoothly and since we had time we went to the United Polaris lounge to wait for boarding time.
The lounge was beautiful and spacious. The hostesses were very nice and helpful. We were able to order some food from the menu which the hostess brought to our table.
We had access to wifi so we were able to send messages to our family, check email etc.

45 minutes before boarding time, we were told that we should get to the gate for check in. That procedure was quick and easy. The flight attendant showed us our seats and we buckled up ready for departure.

An hour after take off the beverage service started and then the dinner was served.
After dessert the crew lowered the lights and we started watching movies. We planned to watch one or two movie and then sleep. The flight was 13 hours 20 mins.  We did go to sleep 8 hours into the flight ( around 10 SF time) and were awakened 2 hours before landing. We were served breakfast and got our belongings together ready for deplaning.

Upon arrival at 6:35 Shanghai time we had to get our fingerprints checked inside the terminal.

Since we were over 70 the security guard said we did not have to do that and to go to immigration. We got in long lines and waited to go to a terminal where we put our fingers on the screen for the visa check and once cleared we gave a form to the immigration agent who checked our passport and then let us through to go to baggage claim.  Once we got our bags we went to arrivals and looked for our driver.
Once we found him and a guide we were led to their van, loaded the bags and were driven in 45 mins. to our hotel.
Goway tours recommended the Radisson Blu Hotel Shanghai New World which was centrally located near downtown. (We had stayed at Radissons in London and Australia and were very pleased with them).

Since we were jet lagged we decided to eat dinner at the hotel in the Epicure on 45 (revolving dining room). We had great views of the different parts of the city as the restaurant rotated.
https://radissonhotels.iceportal.com/image/Radisson-Blu-Hotel-Shanghai-New-World/NotSet/16256-113952-m17817606.pdf

Wonderful meal and service.

Our adventure to China and Japan with stops in Korea- cruise and independent travel in March 2018- Itinerary and planning

When we were aboard the Celebrity ship in Jan 2018 we checked the future cruise desk for a cruise vacation to a place we never had been before.
The salesperson found a cruise in Mar 2019 that had two cruises from China to Japan and return.

Upon reviewing the itinerary we were excited to find that the cruise from China to Japan was one we had to take.  Reason being we could visit the Shanghai Disneyland and the Tokyo Disneyland  as well as spend 3 days in Beijing. Everything we wanted to see and do on the cruise.

We contacted our travel agent to find a tour operator for China and Japan to arrange hotel stays, tours and transfers to and from the airport and ship.

We ended up with Goway Tours and the itinerary seemed very good. However this changed once we were on the trip. We had to make adjustments during our trip and I will list those when I get to the appropriate day and post.

The cruise itinerary was really good- Sailing from Shanghai to Seoul, Beijing with a three day overnight, Jeju Island, Korea, overnight in Kobe, Japan; Mt. Fuji; and an overnight in Yokohama and then disembarking in Tokyo.

Once we had booked the cruise I immediately booked the three night excursion to Beijing ( details in future posts for those days).

Preparation for the trip was not too difficult but time consuming.

We started the prep 4 months before the cruise. We only needed Typhoid shots as we had all the others. see list here  https://www.tripsavvy.com/required-recommended-vaccinations-for-china-travel-1495144.

We had booked out tours with Goway so that was taken care of.
We had a travel agent help me book the hotels in Shanghai and Tokyo Disneyland's so we were set there.
Three months before the cruise we applied for out Chinese visas. We used a visa service in San Francisco ( I dropped off and picked up the passports in interests of time and not getting lost in the mail). It was a bit expensive for the visa and the visa service but the visas are good for 10 years.

I started reading about travel to both countries on the internet to see what else to bring with us on the trip. Main thing was to have at least 1 $100 in Chinese and Japanese currency for the car service, bellmen etc.

There were lots of Youtube videos about travelling to China that I saw and as well as the sights in Beijing.

Since most internet apps are blocked in China the advice was to get a VPN app and find an international phone plan to use with the app. More on this when we get to Shanghai.

One thing that we were concerned with was the flight to China and the return from Tokyo. Since we are now older and want more comfort we decided to take business class both ways.
Main thing was to find direct flights and we ended up booking United round trip.   Turns out the return was on ANA air because it was a codeshare with United.

The advantage with business class other than the comfortable seats and great service was being able to check two bags each free and access to the business class lounges at the airports.

February 2020 Caribbean Cruise

Sail away from Fort Lauderdale

On Feb 22, 2020 we took a cruise to the Southern Caribbean on the Celebrity Silhouette. Our 12 day cruise took us to St. Croix, Virgin Islands, St. Johns, Antigua, Castries, St. Lucia, St. George's, Barbados, Kingstown, St. Vincent and Basseterre, St. Kitts.
We had two sea days sailing to our first port and two sea days on the return to Fort Lauderdale.

We booked our flights to and from Ft. Lauderdale on Jet Blue and were pleased with the service and amenities on board.

The flights left and arrived at both cities on time.
Due to past experience with long waiting times for the hotel shuttle we took a taxi to the Fairfield Inn hotel in Dania Beach.
This trip we had 5 people from our area with us who also are taking the cruise.

In past visits to Dania beach area we would go to the Big Fat Greek Restaurant in Dania Beach for dinner. Everyone met in the lobby and we took two taxis to the restaurant. Since it was about 8:15 PM it was not too crowded and we were seated at a large round table.  All of our party was amazed at the different traditional Greek food on the menu and the reasonable prices.
Everybody ordered different appetizers and entrees and were happily surprised at the delicious taste of the food as well as the size of the portions. We all had a wonderful dinner. I had the Galaktoboureko for dessert and Greek coffee. The others were too full for dessert.

We took taxis back to the hotel to go to bed early and be ready for tomorrow.

The complimentary hotel breakfast was very good and the dining room good sized compared to the Sheraton Four Points where we stayed last year.

Only problem was the bus transfer to the cruise port was miserable. The driver tried to take a short cut which made the trip longer and then he stopped at four ships before we got to the Silhouette- a trip that should have taken only 20 mins.

There was a new boarding process that was faster than the past and faster access to our cabins- now the keys were on the mail holder at the cabin. This meant we could drop our carryons in the cabin and go to lunch.

We had two days to relax before the first port. The weather was a bit cool and windy so not many cruisers were around the pool.

On Feb. 26 we arrived at St. Croix, a small port with few excursions except for  a beach one and some snorkeling and sailing.

This cruise the group we had dinner with decided to go to a beach in every port and we decided to do it.
The group said to go to Rainbow beach and we took a minivan taxi. When we arrived all the chairs and umbrellas were taken so we decided to go back to town leaving the rest of the group there.
There was not much to the port. This was our first visit here and I probably would not want to come back.

Later we we met for dinner  we were told the storms last year washed away a lot of the sand and the beach and sea bottom was very rocky- not so good beach day.

Thursday we arrived in St. Johns and planned to go to Jolly Beach. The beach was nice and sandy with chairs and umbrellas. There were a lot of us from our group and we all had a great day enjoying the swimming and basking in the sun.

Jolly Beach  Antigua


Feb. 28 we arrived in Castries, St. Lucia.  Today we decided not to go to the beach and just go to the pier and visit the shops .
Afterwards we went back on the ship had lunch and went to the hot tub and basked in the sun to dry off.  Weather was just right- sunny and not too hot.

Feb 29, we docked in St.George's, Grenada. our group wanted to go to the beach. Grande Anse was our destination and we had to take a water taxi to go there. The ride on the boat was about 20 mins. Lots of chairs and umbrellas. We picked spots and went swimming. This was the best beach on our trip. The water was warm, shallow waist high water without a lot of waves.

Water taxi

 Grand Anse Beach

After two hours some of us wanted to go back to the ship so we got on the water taxi and left the beach. Small port so we decided to head on board ship for lunch.


Mar. 1 port was Bridgetown, Barbados and another beach day.
When we arrived at the cruise terminal the weather was cloudy and then it started pouring rain. We decided to wait 20 mins to see if the rain would stop. It did and we hired a van to take us to Harbor lights resort. After a short ride we arrived at the Harbor Lights resort.

We got our chairs and umbrella and headed for the water.

The beach was really nice- fine sand, warm gentle water and had chairs and umbrellas. We stayed about 3 hours and took a van back to the port.
The Bridgetown  terminal is quite large and full of interesting shops and we spend time looking around before going on board ship.

March 3 we arrived at our last port- Basseterre, St. Kitts for our last beach day.  Unfortunately the van driver talked us into going to Cock;eshell beach even though the ship's staff told us to go to Carambola Beach. The beach was about a 10 min ride. On the way the driver stopped at a view point where we could see both the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea.
When we arrived at Cockleshell Beach I was shocked. No bathroom, poor beach, worn out beach chairs and old umbrellas.

Posts on the web said this was  a great beach but maybe the storms last year ruined it.

We decided to pass and go back to the ship since the van was still there and going to take some folks to Carambola Beach for parasailing.  We stopped at Carambola beach to let them off and got to see that is was a much better beach resort and resolved that if we ever get back to St. Kitts to come here for a beach day.

The port was nice and had lots of shops and handicrafts and restaurants.

We had lunch and then enjoyed the hot tub and pool and the sun.

We boarded ship for the last time as we now sail for Fort Lauderdale.

March 4 we were invited to a second sailaway on the heliport. This one was from St. Kitts and the weather was just perfect. We had fun drinking mimosas and taking photos of the shore and our friends.

Some of my Face Book friends are in this photo

We relaxed on our two sea days, going to the hot tub and pool, listening to lectures and attending a Captain's elegant tea.
On our last day 6 of us had lunch at a specialty restaurant-the Porch. It was on Deck 15 and we had a beautiful view of the ship's deck and the sea. Great way to spend our last sea day.

Seafood tower at the Porch with our beach group and dinner table mates



Here are some photos--

from our balcony

St. Vincent a very small town

at a sailaway

Captain Peppas

Friday Mar 6 we arrived at Fort Lauderdale as scheduled.  Our group of seven had a 7pm flight to San Francisco so we all signed up for a hop off hop on tour of Miami. We got off the ship boarded the Miami bound bus and 30 mins were were at the Hop off Hop on terminal outside the Bayside Mall. We rode the one loop for 90 mins and then we got off. My wife and I headed to the Hard Rock for lunch and the others walked around the mall and had lunch.
We regrouped at 2:30 to claim our bags and load them on the bus to the Fort Lauderdale airport.

We got there around 3-3:15 and headed for the desk to check our bags and then went through security and to the gate. Unfortunately we were in a part of the terminal with few restaurants. The adjoining terminal where we arrive had a lot more and more variety.

Word of warning- Service at the Burger  King was terrible and very slow. Allow 15 mins minimum to get your food.

I chose to eat at the Kafe Kalike and the ribs were very good. Warning- service is slow.

Boarded plane and we were on our way home. Due to the late flight we arrived at SFO at 10:30PM.
We had a great time. We just beat all the lockdowns and stay in place orders due to Corvid 19. 

Feb 2019 Caribbean cruise

We took a 9 day Caribbean cruise this Feb. going to Grand Cayman, Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao with 5 sea days. We had an aqua class cabin on the Celebrity Silhouette.

Since Virgin America was absorbed by Alaska I searched for another airline that flew non stop to Fort Lauderdale and that offered the extra legroom in the main cablin like Virgin and discovered Jet Blue.

I purchased the tickets and paid extra for the even more space option. Price did not include a  checked bag so I paid $30 per bag for ea. of us.

When we boarded the plane we noticed the newness of the aircraft, comfortable seats and nice screens for the movies.  Plus free wifi during the flight.

After take off the steward came around with coffee and drinks and then a big tray of snacks. Movies were free as well as non alcoholic drinks and snacks during the flight- one just goes to the pantry and gets what one wants.

Both flights to and from Fort Lauderdale were smooth.

We stayed at the Sheraton Four Points hotel since we arrived a day before the cruise.
Hotel room was ok, small menu for lunch and dinner (only one entree the special) and no room service.
Breakfast was ok but service not so good.

Paid $6 pp for the bus transfer to the hotel- we were overcharged $2 pp and when in the van asked if we wanted to give it as a tip or a refund. Of course everyone was embarrassed to ask for the $2 so it went to the driver as a tip. Personally I think it was a scam.

Grand Cayman was the first stop and our group decided to go to the beach.
We decided to walk to the 7 mile beach but got tired after the first mile and got the public bus and rode to the Westin Hotel. We walked along the beautiful sandy beach and then went to the outdoor restaurant for lunch.
After our delicious lunch we took the public bus back to town. Some of the shops were closed since it was Sunday and after some window shopping we got on the tender and went back to the ship.

We had a sea day after Grand Cayman and then arrived at Aruba, one of our favorite islands.

Weather was beautiful when we arrived in Aruba- perfect for a morning at the beach. Our group met and we took a taxi to Palm Beach near the Hilton.
We rented sunbeds under a tent and went swimming and sunbathing.

Afterwards we took a taxi back to the downtown. We walked around and went into the Renaissance Mall for a coffee at Starbucks and then went back to the ship.

We arrived in Curacao the next day at a new pier which was not walking distance to the town. There was a golf cart shuttle that took us to the entry of the walkway to downtown.
Our friends went to Mambo Beach for swimming. We will try it next time in Curacao.
 We strolled around the downtown and then stopped at the Iguana Cafe by the water. Here we watched the floating bridge open and close for the ships going in and out of the harbor.
I do not recommend the Iguana as the service is poor and beverages not so good.

Afterwards we headed back to the ship.

Last port was Bonaire- quiet island and perfect for snorkeling and scuba diving.
We all gathered together to go to the beach. The taxi driver recommended Sorobon Beach - 5 mins away. Actually it was more like 10-12 mins and the resort was more suited to windsurfing. One of the group found a good swimming hole about 200 feet from the sunbeds and we enjoyed our time there.
Back to the ship for lunch.

We had two sea days before getting back to Fort Lauderdale. Weather and sea very good.

Arrived on time in Ft. Lauderdale. Since our plane does not leave until 7pm we took the hop on hop off excursion in Miami that transferred us to Fll at 3pm. Plenty of time to catch the plane.
The Hop on Hop off worked great.They stored our luggage and we took the one hour 45 Min tour of Miami and South Beach. The HOHO terminal was across from the Bayside Mall.
We headed there after the tour and went to the Hard Rock for lunch. Sat outside and viewed the yachts and sea.

The bus took us to the airport as scheduled, plane left on time and we got home on time.
Great cruise. Can't wait until next year. Cruise will be 12 days and starts Feb 23, 2020- no superbowl on board..