The Century Paragon tied up alongside another cruise ship around 07:00 in Chongqing. We were told the night before, leave your bags outside your cabin at 07:00 and they will be taken down to Level 1 and we had to leave the vessel not long after that. Well no one picked up the bags and we found out we could have stayed on the vessel until 09:00. We got off at 07:30 speaking with a couple from Hong Kong and I asked what they thought of the food on the cruise, not very good poor quality meats. We had to walk through one cruise boat to the pontoons and a 100m walk to the shore followed by alot of steps and then a steep path up to the main street. There were alot of guys willing to carry our bags which we declined, one guy hassled Penny trying to snatch her bag off her, I was ahead of her at the time and I heard her yell out no leave me alone. I swung around with my bag on my back and yelled at the guy, touch her again I will knock your fucking head off, he got the message and so did his mates. We made it to the top and there were not many taxis around I showed our address to a guy and he said 60 yuan around £8 told him to bugger off as I was told it was a 15 minute walk to the apartment. I found out what direction it was and a 2 km walk we were there. Had to wait an hour for the room to be cleaned as we were a little early.
A 1 bedroom apartment kitchen with micro wave and stove but there are no plates cooking pans or pots no cutlery. Mentioned this to the guy and he tried to give some of his kitchen stuff which was not the best, I declined it, told him we will eat out. The couch has not much stuffing in it basically sitting on hard boards and the bed is not much better, the body will be aching in the morning I am sure of that.
Went out and found a place which did won ton soup, we had one each something we could relate too did the job filling us up. Afterwards found a couple of places which have various meats, squid and veges on a stick which they cook for you, we have had it before and will have it tomorrow night.
The Cruise on the Yangtze was okay for what you pay and they call it luxury you would have expected better quality food. The WIFI was practically non existent. The ship was the newest in their fleet and the staff were polite and helpful, the ship was kept clean compared to the others we saw. The entertainment was pretty basic to our standards. Our last day of cruising we had 8 hours of daylight cruising which was great to see the scenery prior to that all the sailing was done at night time so we missed alot unfortunately. It is not wheel chair friendly or for the elderly who need assistance. Plus got alot of misinformation which was annoying.
Maurice's Travel 