China Trip Report 2014

[tsgirl]

Wow! So happy to be able to follow along with you. Gavin has gotten so big since France! Once your trip is all done, I'd love to hear your overall review of the food. I know we discussed the ABD food choices when we were on the same trip.

 

[Theta]

Thanks so much for the daily reports. They are great. We are thoroughly enjoying the pictures. We too are between China and southeast Asia tour. I will be glued to your comparison when the time comes.

 

[Cousin Orville]

Wow! So happy to be able to follow along with you. Gavin has gotten so big since France! Once your trip is all done, I'd love to hear your overall review of the food. I know we discussed the ABD food choices when we were on the same trip.

Yep... I still think ABD needs to place more emphasis on higher quality restaurants, but overall I think the SE Asia and China adventures are better than France was 2 yrs ago. I'll keep reviewing them.

 

[carpenta]

Wow! So happy to be able to follow along with you. Gavin has gotten so big since France! Once your trip is all done, I'd love to hear your overall review of the food. I know we discussed the ABD food choices when we were on the same trip.

We travel both with ABD as well as another similar company and ABD could not compete with the food choices offered by the competition.......For the high price you pay I do wish ABD would "up" their food quality offerings. I love your review(s) Cousin Orville but I was disappointed that ABD did not speak of the up charge for the Panda holding before the tour. 300+ bucks is a lot for us and I would feel a lot of pressure if our daughter wanted to sit. A thought would be to discuss the offering the night before and break up the group accordingly. But keep up the great work and thanks again.

 

[Cousin Orville]

We travel both with ABD as well as another similar company and ABD could not compete with the food choices offered by the competition.......For the high price you pay I do wish ABD would "up" their food quality offerings. I love your review(s) Cousin Orville but I was disappointed that ABD did not speak of the up charge for the Panda holding before the tour. 300+ bucks is a lot for us and I would feel a lot of pressure if our daughter wanted to sit. A thought would be to discuss the offering the night before and break up the group accordingly. But keep up the great work and thanks again.

They can't. Disney is a member of the zoological association that does not allow this holding of pandas activity. So they're not allowed to advertise it. You won't see it in any marketing. But you're going to the panda research center and they know people want to take part, so (to paraphrase what someone else said in another china trip report) they take off their Disney hat and tell only the adults of this option secretly. This was on the first full day, and they let us know the price then. Obviously nothing they can do about how much the center charges. You pay the Panda center directly. And even if you opt not to do it, you still see lots if not more pandas. Half did it. Half didn't. I didn't see anyone disappointed either way. At least one family let their younger children do it on their own. The major activity of course is just seeing the pandas. Holding one is a relatively short (yet cool) extra activity.

Food quality wise... It's a bit hit or miss. I haven't written about xi'an yet... And I'll rip them one for that, but otherwise I'd rank our dinners good to excellent. For me the issue is more of the sit down dinners should be very good to excellent rather than just good. In France 2 yrs ago, I'd rank it mediocre to good. Memory is slipping, but I don't remember anything excellent. Anyway, that's a soapbox I'm sure I'll get on again, before this trip report is done. Suffice it to say for now, I've happy with our meals in china, but there is room for them to improve.

What ABD's were you on that you thought the meals were not as good as they should have been?

 

[Cousin Orville]

Wow! So happy to be able to follow along with you. Gavin has gotten so big since France! Once your trip is all done, I'd love to hear your overall review of the food. I know we discussed the ABD food choices when we were on the same trip.

Absolutely. I'll let you know. Good to hear from you.

 

[Cousin Orville]

Day 6 Chengdu to Guilin via Xi'an

Today is unlike any other day on any other Adventure by Disney as far as I know. We are flying out of Chengdu, stopping in Xi'an to see the Terra Cotta Warriors and then flying to Guilin in the same day. So this will be a long day. We woke up early to grab breakfast and then headed to the airport. We said good bye to our step on guide and flew to Xi'an. The flight was an 1 hour and 10 minutes. We arrived in Xi'an around 9:15am and met our next, brief step on guide, Yale ("don't call me Harvard"). We headed to lunch at a nice hotel. And this is where it went down hill briefly.

It was a 4 course lunch with a choice of fish, chicken, or lasagna. So problem #1 is why are we having a 4 course lunch especially on a day like today? I'm into nice meals, but there's a time and place for them. When we're flying from Chengdu to Xi'an to see the Terra Cotta Warriors and then on the Guilin, this is not the day for a leisurely paced meal. Problem #2 is it took even longer than expected. It was obvious the restaurant was unprepared for us. We preordered our entrée earlier. The salad, soup, and desert was all the same. Yet it took 2 hours for the meal averaging 30 minutes between each course. There was one waitress (rarely I saw one other guy) and our two wonderful guides and the step on guides were working hard serving us our plates which should not be their responsibility. The restaurant clearly forgot we were coming. Problem #3 is the food was just ok. For a restaurant presenting itself as a slightly higher end restaurant with a multi course lunch, the food just didn't hold up. Honestly, I understand it takes time for ABD to find a new restaurant that meets Disney standards of cleanliness and can accommodate up to 40 ppl, but there has to be something better in all of Xi'an. ABD needs to take their budget for this meal, split it, and apply some to a quicker, less fancy, better tasting restaurant that appreciates the business and the rest to increase quality at one of the in Beijing restaurants. In Beijing, they should do the first meal in the Royal restaurant (that was very good), and the second night go to a higher quality restaurant - maybe Capital M. Anyway back to Xi'an. Thank God for Christian and Steven. If it weren't for these two saints, we'd probably still be there waiting for our crummy food.

I was worried we wouldn't have much time with the Terra Cotta Warriors. But we had plenty of time. They took us into Pit 1 and it was incredible. This was the archaeological discovery ( in the 1970's) of the century. Easily another ridiculous highlight of the trip and well worth the energy to go to Xi'an just for the day. The guides took us around to the side where we could get great family pictures. They were awesome in politely moving other visitors away so we could get a good shot. Steven really spent some quality time in answering Gavin's endless supply of questions. He basically walked Gavin around and explained everything. Christian has done the same .... Amazing guides. Each of the soldiers is unique and there are 6000 of them. Only a couple thousand have been reconstructed so far. You can see where the archeologist are working on the others... And you can see were more are buried yet to be unearthed. We went to Pit 2, also very large, but it doesn't have a lot of reconstructed soldiers yet, and Pit 3 - the smaller command center has officers and horses. They also have areas where you can get up close to see the warriors behind glass. It was amazing. We did get plenty of time there to walk around on our own. Afterwards we met up at the shop... (I bought a couple of nice soldiers and a coffee table book signed by one of the farmers who discovered them in the 70s) and the guides bought ice cream for us.

We then headed back to the airport and on to Guilin. Dinner was a boxed sandwich we could take on the plane. And that's totally fine as far as I'm concerned. Today's lunch, no. A boxed lunch due to traveling and inaccessible clean restaurants is totally understandable. I got tuna. It was good. The flight was 1hr 45min. We got in after dark and headed to our hotel, the Shangri La. Very nice hotel. I sent off some laundry which came back nice and neat the next day. We had a lovely room. The evening was too dark to see outside, but that would all change tomorrow morning.

Lunch aside, it was a great day and I'm thankful ABD took us on this amazing race style day to stop off in Xi'an and see the Warriors.

 

[Cousin Orville]

 

[DisFan10]

Wow, great pics Cousin Orville! Those terra cotta warriors are amazing. I've heard that the gift shop sells full-size terra cotta warriors. Did you happen to notice what the price is for something like that?

I totally agree with you about the restaurant experience in Xian. AbD needs to review their meal arrangements on this particular day and adjust accordingly. I wonder if previous departures experienced the same problem with slow service and mediocre food at this restaurant. If they did, I'm surprised AbD hasn't made any changes.

 

[pxlbarrel]

Wonderful trip report. It's bringing back fantastic memories from our ABD trip 2 years ago. The order of stuff in Beijing seems to have been changed but still the same good stuff....same yoyo master too!!!

Funny you mention the food in X'ian. I have to say that the meals were very hit and miss. LOL What we got in X'ian, 2 years ago, were sandwiches from Starbucks. And later on, our lunches in Guilin were tuna sandwiches and then one meal was a very dry chicken sandwich. My issue was the fast food nature of some of the meals that wasn't even on par with ... umm... fast food restaurants. Maybe enough people complained and that's why you got a sit down hot meal. Ooops...sorry!!!!

We love Stephen!!!!!! He shadowed our group. Say hello for me (the sister of the guy who had to go to every Hooters in China ... he'll know ...) Our group nicknamed him Jackie Chan. He helped me walk down a section of Great Wall that I was a little scared about ... about falling off the edge to my death (I have a thing with heights).

Man, I need to go on another ABD. Some day ... some day.... good times.

 

[Cousin Orville]

Wow, great pics Cousin Orville! Those terra cotta warriors are amazing. I've heard that the gift shop sells full-size terra cotta warriors. Did you happen to notice what the price is for something like that?

I totally agree with you about the restaurant experience in Xian. AbD needs to review their meal arrangements on this particular day and adjust accordingly. I wonder if previous departures experienced the same problem with slow service and mediocre food at this restaurant. If they did, I'm surprised AbD hasn't made any changes.

They do have the huge full sized warriors. They will ship them, but no idea how much. Thousands I'm sure. Apparently the quality of the warriors you buy at the official shop is much higher than the ones you see being sold in the markets.

 

[Cousin Orville]

Wonderful trip report. It's bringing back fantastic memories from our ABD trip 2 years ago. The order of stuff in Beijing seems to have been changed but still the same good stuff....same yoyo master too!!!

Funny you mention the food in X'ian. I have to say that the meals were very hit and miss. LOL What we got in X'ian, 2 years ago, were sandwiches from Starbucks. And later on, our lunches in Guilin were tuna sandwiches and then one meal was a very dry chicken sandwich. My issue was the fast food nature of some of the meals that wasn't even on par with ... umm... fast food restaurants. Maybe enough people complained and that's why you got a sit down hot meal. Ooops...sorry!!!!

We love Stephen!!!!!! He shadowed our group. Say hello for me (the sister of the guy who had to go to every Hooters in China ... he'll know ...) Our group nicknamed him Jackie Chan. He helped me walk down a section of Great Wall that I was a little scared about ... about falling off the edge to my death (I have a thing with heights).

Man, I need to go on another ABD. Some day ... some day.... good times.

I remember reading your trip report. It was actually very influential in my decision to do the China ABD. I was planning on mentioning it in an upcoming post.

That's interesting about the xi'an change. I guess they need a middle ground... For example the restaurants we went to when we first arrived in Hanoi and later Luang Prabang were not as fancy but I think the food was better, and it was more efficient. And I'm guessing it was cheaper. I think ABD is trying... They just need to keep working at it. As an aside their hotel changes have been very impressive recently.. At least china, the recently added the ritz in Chengdu which was amazing and next year they're changing to the Peninsula in Hong Kong which is arguably the best hotel I'm the city. I'm jealous. I just think they need to work on some of the meals. I could be in the minority but I'd rather pay more for better food. We do have a couple of outstanding meals coming up though.

 

[sayhello]

Fabulous, Kevin! I must admit, the Terra Cotta soldiers would be my main reason for going to China! The whole idea just fascinates me! Great pictures. (The itinerary did not originally include the Terra Cotta soldiers, and I really didn't consider the trip until they added it!)

I think ABD does better when they stick to local mom-and-pop restaurants. In Greece, almost all of our lunches and dinners were at local tavernas, and although the dishes became a bit repetitive, nobody I know of complained because there was always a large selection, and it was all delicious! Definitely the best food I've had on an ABD. I do think it's the biggest area for improvement that they have.

Sayhello

 

[pxlbarrel]

I remember reading your trip report. It was actually very influential in my decision to do the China ABD. I was planning on mentioning it in an upcoming post.

That's interesting about the xi'an change. I guess they need a middle ground... For example the restaurants we went to when we first arrived in Hanoi and later Luang Prabang were not as fancy but I think the food was better, and it was more efficient. And I'm guessing it was cheaper. I think ABD is trying... They just need to keep working at it. As an aside their hotel changes have been very impressive recently.. At least china, the recently added the ritz in Chengdu which was amazing and next year they're changing to the Peninsula in Hong Kong which is arguably the best hotel I'm the city. I'm jealous. I just think they need to work on some of the meals. I could be in the minority but I'd rather pay more for better food. We do have a couple of outstanding meals coming up though.

I think the best meal is yet to come ... Shanghai .. dumplings...mmmmmm... I enjoyed that one VERY MUCH. LOL

I saw that the Peninsula is now the hotel in Hong Kong for upcoming trips. I mentioned this to my dad and his eyes grew big. (He's from HK so the Peninsula is a big thing to him...) But we had such a great hotel room at the Shangri-la with the view of the harbour and I reminded him of that AND the fact that the Peninsula is soooo old, you never know with old hotels. LOL Well, I tried to make him feel better. hahahahaha

The thing about the food is they are trying very hard to find places in China that won't make us sick. They send the guides there in advance to scout out the restaurant kitchens and I think they're very much paranoid about the hygiene. I'm grateful for that but at the same time, in China, I'd rather have the local food than a tuna sandwich. (I still joke with our guide about the tuna sandwiches...)

BTW, my highlight was the pandas. No way, no how was anything going to stop me from holding one.

 

[pxlbarrel]

BTW, could you post another photo of Stephen? My mom would love to see how he's doing these days. LOL

 

[DisFan10]

Cousin Orville, I was wondering... did you get to actually hold the panda cub in your lap? Or were you only allowed to sit next to the panda?

Also, who is that gentleman taking a nap in your last pic? Was he your motorcoach driver? LOL

 

[Cousin Orville]

Cousin Orville, I was wondering... did you get to actually hold the panda cub in your lap? Or were you only allowed to sit next to the panda?

Also, who is that gentleman taking a nap in your last pic? Was he your motorcoach driver? LOL

No we just sat beside him. Right before I sat down, a handler picked up the previous panda and carried him away. A few minutes later a new panda came out. For both pandas, everyone I saw was sitting next to them. I didn't see anyone hold them in their laps. Don't know if that's new policy or if ours were too heavy. Still a great experience.

He was someone taking a nap outside the terra cotta museum shop. Maybe someone's driver. Whoever he was, it looked like he was having a nice nap.

Also someone asked about the weather on this trip. Other than the hot first couple of days in Beijing, the weather has been pretty good.

 

[loop]

Thank you for sharing your trip report here. China is on my list of countries I'd like to visit, and your posts (thanks for posting such great pictures!) are making it harder for me to wait. It looks like you and your son are having a blast.

 

[Cousin Orville]

Day 7 Guilin

As you all know, once you've decided to take an ABD tour, it's often a tough choice to pick which one. We probably had 3 or 4 top itineraries in the running and certainly China was one of them. But if there was one thing that tipped the scale for us, it some pictures from pxlbarrel's trip report a couple of years ago. Particularly her pictures from Guilin and the Gumdrop Mountains. That was something I had never heard of before and unlike anything I had ever seen.

The night before it was raining a bit and it was very humid, although the temperature was fine. I think everyone was a little concerned we'd see the mountains. Our local guide assured us it was not necessarily a bad thing. Guilin after the rain is the best time to see the Li River. As long as it the rain does stop. Our local guide said she say a little prayer for us. So that morning we opened our curtain to find.... Lots and lots of condensation outside the window and a strong fog or mist. Through all that you could make out the closer mountains and they did look pretty. Hopefully the mist will rise a bit.

We headed down to breakfast. Another great buffet. They had a rice noodle station (popular in this area) and many western options. Today I stuck with eggs and bacon. We then met in the lobby to board the bus to the Li River.

We lucked out because the river water level was high from recent rain so we had to begin our trip a spot farther away from the typical starting point. This means that we'd see more of the river. The current was faster so I'm guessing it wasn't any more time on the boat. We boarded a boat all to ourselves. Down the river we would pass other boats that were very full. We had lots of freedom to move around from one side of the boat to the other. The drizzle had pretty much stopped. The mist had thinned out just enough and the Gum Drop mountains were amazing. They did not disappoint one bit. It's like an impressionistic Chinese landscape painting come to life. One of the most beautiful places I've ever been. The cruise seemed close to 3 hours. We brought on our boxed lunches. The crew typically cooks food for the passengers, but the water they use is questionable, so Disney plays it safe. The food was fine. I had tuna again. Towards the end of the trip, they also served snake wine. I tried it in Vietnam. It was nasty there; it was nasty here. But I tried it.

After disembarking we walked through the crazy riverside bazaar to our next meeting point - a relatively quieter market. The guides gave us each 20rmd (about $3) and were tasked to bargain for a white elephant gift. So we hunted up and down the the market stalls for that perfect gift. I found a calligrapher who agreed to write Adventures by Disney in Chinese on a fan. It was actually really well done. I was quite proud of my find. I ended up buying a second one for myself. Gavin found a Chinese knot.. One of those tassel things that you might find hanging from a rear view mirror or tacked to a wall. He still had 5 left over so he bought some small toy to add to it. A few of the kids did something similar. Christian later would open and pull out each bag's content. "But wait.... there's more..." Too funny. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel and rested a bit before dinner.

Dinner was an outdoor BBQ by the pool. It was ok. Nothing great. They had a few skewers of pork and some other things that may have been more local, but mostly it was pork chops, and chicken as I remember. Pretty devoid of anything really great or local. A good example of a BBQ done right was last years Luang Prabang poolside BBQ. They had lots old local options and the food was very good if not great. This one was meh... I don't think anyone would otherwise pay for it if they were eating on their own. The atmosphere was nice, and it was at the end of an adventurous day so it was great to sit back and relax with everyone. Just wish the food would have been awesome instead of just ok.

After dinner we had our white elephant gift exchange. So much fun. I think it's a great idea on these longer ABD's with marketplaces where you can buy cheap throwaway gifts. I opened up a bag and got some of those Chinese marble balls you spin around in your hand for a stress relief, but someone stole them. I picked out another bag and got a local made little stuffed horse. Looked more South American than Chinese but it was neat. I tied it to my carry on luggage. Gavin stole what was supposed to be a gag gift... A little squishy light up Minion from Despicable Me. He loved it and thankfully no one stole it.

Later that night was Jr Adventurer night. We watched Mulan. I stayed and watched along with a couple of other adults as well.

It was a perfect day with the mountains in the mist and very light drizzle. I wish all future adventurers the same luck we had, but I'm sure it's beautiful and different in bright sunny skies and even in the pouring rain.

 

[Cousin Orville]

On the back of the 20 yuan note are the mountains in the background from the Li River

Our beautiful greeter at the Shangri La dressed in a traditional minority consume