ABD China 2018 meets thread

I booked through Miki directly, but remember her saying she books most of her tours now through 3rd party sources like tripadvisor. We did our tour of Tongli and Jinze along with a tea ceremony on a Wed. It was a very long tour. Maybe she's moved it to only weekends only now. I'd just email her and let her know what you're looking for. She's a great guide and it was certainly a highlight.

A word of caution about Miki. I booked directly through her for our private tour. However Miki wasn't available for our day (I can't recall if we knew this in advance). Anyways we had another guide and the tour wasn't something I'd necessarily recommend. When we arrived with our private guide at the water town, she claimed that her wallet must've been stolen on the subway on her way to meet us. She had no way to pay for the options that were included on our tour (which I thought were paid in advance) so I had to pay for them. She was on her phone almost the entire morning trying to cancel cards and calling places to see if her wallet had been turned in. When it was time for lunch she asked if we minded having a late lunch in Shanghai so she could go and look for her wallet. She had the driver leave us at a restaurant and left us there for almost 2 hours (I was wondering if she was going to return). She came back very stressed because she still hadn't located her wallet. When we got back to our hotel (at that point I just wanted to end the tour because she was so distracted), she told me that I hadn't prepaid enough for the tour (I was 99% certain I had prepaid for the entire tour in advance and I had to pay OOP for items that were included) and I owed her an additional amount of money (she was on the phone with Miki but was speaking Mandarin so I couldn't understand what was being said). I was quite shocked by this and paid it because I don't like confrontations. But I was wondering if she just needed the cash for transit to get home. I am sure Miki herself would be totally fine. I never left a review for her on TA because I did feel badly for our guide, but don't feel that so much of her stress should've been so easily felt by us. It really tarnished our day. It's like we were there on our own since the guide wasn't really guiding us. Just my $0.02.
 
A word of caution about Miki. I booked directly through her for our private tour. However Miki wasn't available for our day (I can't recall if we knew this in advance). Anyways we had another guide and the tour wasn't something I'd necessarily recommend. When we arrived with our private guide at the water town, she claimed that her wallet must've been stolen on the subway on her way to meet us. She had no way to pay for the options that were included on our tour (which I thought were paid in advance) so I had to pay for them. She was on her phone almost the entire morning trying to cancel cards and calling places to see if her wallet had been turned in. When it was time for lunch she asked if we minded having a late lunch in Shanghai so she could go and look for her wallet. She had the driver leave us at a restaurant and left us there for almost 2 hours (I was wondering if she was going to return). She came back very stressed because she still hadn't located her wallet. When we got back to our hotel (at that point I just wanted to end the tour because she was so distracted), she told me that I hadn't prepaid enough for the tour (I was 99% certain I had prepaid for the entire tour in advance and I had to pay OOP for items that were included) and I owed her an additional amount of money (she was on the phone with Miki but was speaking Mandarin so I couldn't understand what was being said). I was quite shocked by this and paid it because I don't like confrontations. But I was wondering if she just needed the cash for transit to get home. I am sure Miki herself would be totally fine. I never left a review for her on TA because I did feel badly for our guide, but don't feel that so much of her stress should've been so easily felt by us. It really tarnished our day. It's like we were there on our own since the guide wasn't really guiding us. Just my $0.02.
I’m sorry that happened to you, it sounds awful. I wasn’t necessarily expecting to get Miki herself since I know she has other guides. When I booked I paid half via PayPal and will be paying the balance in cash at the end of the tour.
 
A word of caution about Miki. I booked directly through her for our private tour. However Miki wasn't available for our day (I can't recall if we knew this in advance). Anyways we had another guide and the tour wasn't something I'd necessarily recommend. When we arrived with our private guide at the water town, she claimed that her wallet must've been stolen on the subway on her way to meet us. She had no way to pay for the options that were included on our tour (which I thought were paid in advance) so I had to pay for them. She was on her phone almost the entire morning trying to cancel cards and calling places to see if her wallet had been turned in. When it was time for lunch she asked if we minded having a late lunch in Shanghai so she could go and look for her wallet. She had the driver leave us at a restaurant and left us there for almost 2 hours (I was wondering if she was going to return). She came back very stressed because she still hadn't located her wallet. When we got back to our hotel (at that point I just wanted to end the tour because she was so distracted), she told me that I hadn't prepaid enough for the tour (I was 99% certain I had prepaid for the entire tour in advance and I had to pay OOP for items that were included) and I owed her an additional amount of money (she was on the phone with Miki but was speaking Mandarin so I couldn't understand what was being said). I was quite shocked by this and paid it because I don't like confrontations. But I was wondering if she just needed the cash for transit to get home. I am sure Miki herself would be totally fine. I never left a review for her on TA because I did feel badly for our guide, but don't feel that so much of her stress should've been so easily felt by us. It really tarnished our day. It's like we were there on our own since the guide wasn't really guiding us. Just my $0.02.
:eek::eek::eek: You should have told Miki. I think you guys definitely should have been refunded *at least* the OOP stuff you'd already paid for. I'm sure Miki doesn't want something like this to happen under her name! That was *VERY* unprofessional of your Guide. Honestly, she should have contacted Miki and cancelled if she wasn't going to be able to give you a proper tour.

Sayhello
 
I'm traveling with my sister. We're staying two nights at the Disneyland Hotel, then a pre-night at the Peninsula, and two post-nights in Shanghai. We're planning to go back to SDL on post-day 1 and have a watertown tour with Miki booked for post-day 2.

We might run into each other at Disneyland, seeing how small it is in Hong Kong.
Almost ready to go, only head-ache is the 20kg luggage limit.
 


A word of caution about Miki. I booked directly through her for our private tour. However Miki wasn't available for our day (I can't recall if we knew this in advance). Anyways we had another guide and the tour wasn't something I'd necessarily recommend. When we arrived with our private guide at the water town, she claimed that her wallet must've been stolen on the subway on her way to meet us. She had no way to pay for the options that were included on our tour (which I thought were paid in advance) so I had to pay for them. She was on her phone almost the entire morning trying to cancel cards and calling places to see if her wallet had been turned in. When it was time for lunch she asked if we minded having a late lunch in Shanghai so she could go and look for her wallet. She had the driver leave us at a restaurant and left us there for almost 2 hours (I was wondering if she was going to return). She came back very stressed because she still hadn't located her wallet. When we got back to our hotel (at that point I just wanted to end the tour because she was so distracted), she told me that I hadn't prepaid enough for the tour (I was 99% certain I had prepaid for the entire tour in advance and I had to pay OOP for items that were included) and I owed her an additional amount of money (she was on the phone with Miki but was speaking Mandarin so I couldn't understand what was being said). I was quite shocked by this and paid it because I don't like confrontations. But I was wondering if she just needed the cash for transit to get home. I am sure Miki herself would be totally fine. I never left a review for her on TA because I did feel badly for our guide, but don't feel that so much of her stress should've been so easily felt by us. It really tarnished our day. It's like we were there on our own since the guide wasn't really guiding us. Just my $0.02.


What a disaster! We didn’t pay anything out of pocket during the tour. Entrance to Tongli was covered by Miki and even the beers we had at a Karaoke bar were covered by Miki I think. We did pay a deposit (a little less than half) ahead of time and the rest at the end of the tour. I also didn’t know Miki had any other guides working for her. I would definitely have expected either Miki to show up or her to email you letting you know she was booked and another guide would be with you.

I think you have every right to communicate your experiences to Miki. She strikes me as someone who would want to know and want to make it right. On the other hand it’s generally not in my personality to discuss it and dwell on it after the fact. There’s no way you can get that valuable time back. I’ve had a couple of independent private guides in China and while my experiences have been very good, I’m not too surprised. I’m not sure some of these solo guides are prepared with contingency plans when things go wrong. I once had a private guide in Budapest that couldn’t make it last minute and another “guide” took over. Literally took us around the suburbs of Budapest. Possibly the most boring private tour ever.
 
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You're going to have an incredible time either way! I'd suggest just reading the summary page then and not the individual daily posts....
OMG, Kidoctr, I've only read the summary so far and you have me SO EXCITED for this adventure!! DH and I are booked for July 2019, our 2nd ABD!
 


:eek::eek::eek: You should have told Miki. I think you guys definitely should have been refunded *at least* the OOP stuff you'd already paid for. I'm sure Miki doesn't want something like this to happen under her name! That was *VERY* unprofessional of your Guide. Honestly, she should have contacted Miki and cancelled if she wasn't going to be able to give you a proper tour.

Sayhello

I honestly felt badly for the poor girl. We got to the water town (unfortunately the gondolas weren't operating due to weather -- which was completely understandable), got to walk around, went through the market, saw a beautiful private garden and we did have a private driver for the day. The guide also took us to pick up our custom clothing at the fabric market and did some translating for us there. It wasn't totally awful. Just more awkward because we could feel her stress and hear it in her voice while she was on the phone.

I have used many, many private tour guides. I go off word of mouth and online reviews, both of which were awesome for Miki. I'd use her again, and likely will if we go back to Shanghai in the spring of 2020, I'd just make sure we got Miki. We booked (and paid for) a private photographer for Kyoto (Inari shrine and old town) based off online reviews and he has been awesome to deal with so far! He recommended his friend for a private day tour before the ABD starts and we'll probably use him.
 
Thank you for your trip reports and insight! We will be on the Aug 2019 trip and I know it will be very hot and humid. We’re planning to arrive the day before (11am) and I’d appreciate your advice on what to do on that free day, other than go to Disney Hong Kong.
 
Thank you for your trip reports and insight! We will be on the Aug 2019 trip and I know it will be very hot and humid. We’re planning to arrive the day before (11am) and I’d appreciate your advice on what to do on that free day, other than go to Disney Hong Kong.

We've done a food tour and night tour through Hello Hong Kong which we really enjoyed. We've also just enjoyed walking and shopping around HK on our own. You can also go down to Lantau Island and visit the Tian Tan Buddha and Po Lin Monastery.
 
Love all the info on this ABD China 2018 - but has anyone started an ABD China 2019? We're planning to go on the Adult ABD May 2019 tour and would love to hear from other people going next year too!

Melissa :yay:
 
Love all the info on this ABD China 2018 - but has anyone started an ABD China 2019? We're planning to go on the Adult ABD May 2019 tour and would love to hear from other people going next year too!

Melissa :yay:

We are on that trip as well! I started a group on the book of face but no one else has joined :tilt:
 
You're going to have an incredible time either way! I'd suggest just reading the summary page then and not the individual daily posts....

I got back from my China Adventure a few weeks ago and I've finished reading your blog. I'm glad I didn't read it in advance -- some of the surprises were the same, and some were different. We had 30 people on our trip and it was a really fun and compatible Adventure Family. Unlike my last two adventures where most everyone was a married couple in the same age range, this group had a wide mix. About half were not married couples -- female friends, father/son, mother/daughter, sisters, parents with their young adult children, four solo women. And the age range was wider -- people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s. I found it a lot easier to remember everyone's name this time, even after just a few days.

Our guides were Christian and Fred (a Beijing native) and they were fabulous. Our local guides were Bruce in Hong Kong, Fred in Beijing, Alice in Chengdu, Jessica(?) in Xi'An, Jenny in Guilin, and Joyce in Shanghai.

The biggest difference with our trip was the schedule. In May we were told that our itinerary was changing from the original Beijing-Chengdu-Xi'An-Guilin to Beijing-Xi'An-Guilin-Chengdu which is what you did and what the 2019 itineraries show. Then less than 6 weeks before our departure, we were told that the itinerary was changing back to Beijing-Chengdu-Xi'An-Guilin (though with the same rearrangements in Beijing), with a "fast train" from Chengdu to Xi'An. A lot of adventurers, including me, were excited about the train ride. The night before the train was the only time we had to have our bags out the night before. The train left around 7:30 and arrived around 11:30. We had been given a bag of breakfast from the Ritz Carlton for the train and then were given pre-ordered boxed lunches from Starbucks on the bus to the Terracotta Warriors. We had chosen sandwiches and all had the same fruit cups and chocolate muffins. I thought the food was fine and with an hour bus ride ahead of us it was a good use of time. I'm a little disappointed in missing out on the tea demonstration. I asked Christian if Disney would use the train again but he didn't know. As I had assumed, both schedule changes were due to flights being cancelled.

Because of the schedule change our time in Chengdu was different. We were given a box lunch from the Beijing Peninsula for the plane and then Disney paid for our OYO dinner at the same buffet restaurant where we would have breakfast the next morning. We had some OYO time in the afternoon and Alice gave us ideas of where we could go. We walked to a few of the places she suggested including what might have been the same park you went to. One of the things we saw was a marriage market. I wasn't sure until I showed Fred the picture I took and he translated some of the signs. Also, because we didn't have to leave Guilin so early, we had our Tai Chi lesson that morning at the Shangri-La.


Other things:

We weren't able to go onto Tiananmen Square. Fred didn't know why exactly, only that in China, sometimes things are closed. We walked along the sidewalk on the other side of the street, took the underpass, and then spent some time on the sidewalk under the Mao portrait near the entrance to the Forbidden City.

I didn't make any dinner reservations for OYO time since I didn't know when we'd be getting back from our daily adventures and I thought there would be a good chance that I wouldn't be hungry after our big lunches and bus snacks. I was right about that. My OYO dinners were mostly cocktails and bar snacks/appetizers at the hotel bars with a view. Even though it was chilly at night, both the Beijing and Shanghai rooftop bars were open. I also tried scorpions on a stick on the snack street near the Beijing Peninsula. Had I not been told by one of our guides that the texture was like a stale potato chip, I might have been too intimidated to try them.

I thought all the group meals that featured local foods were really good. And I liked that the dishes came out to the lazy susan rather than as a buffet which are so frequent on other ABDs. There was very little I didn't eat and what I didn't eat were things I don't like anywhere. I thought the western style meals were fine and were a lot better than most of the meals on my last ABD (Arizona-Utah).

I never once used my mainland China-specific plug adapters. I only brought plugs with 2-prongs (no laptop) and used them as is, with a UK adapter, or use a USB port instead. The hotel plugs were essentially universal adapters but sometimes using a US plug didn't work so I used a UK adapter.

Shanghai was hosting a China Import Expo from Nov 5-10 and the Russian delegation including Putin were going to be staying at the Peninsula. When we arrived on 10/30 there was already a bulletproof "tent" covering the porte-cochere and airport-like security in the vestibule. They didn't start using that until 11/1 which was the last day of our Adventure (though we stayed two post-days).

Hi @notaprincess!
 
We've done a food tour and night tour through Hello Hong Kong which we really enjoyed. We've also just enjoyed walking and shopping around HK on our own. You can also go down to Lantau Island and visit the Tian Tan Buddha and Po Lin Monastery.

We did a food tour of Central and Sheung Wan with Hong Kong Foodie Tours. I looked into the Hello Hong Kong tour but the timing didn't work with our schedule. I can't compare the two but I would definitely recommend Hong Kong Foodie Tours. We also went to the Hong Kong Museum of History to see the free Hong Kong Story exhibit. It was quite interesting and an easy walk from the Peninsula.
 
I honestly felt badly for the poor girl. We got to the water town (unfortunately the gondolas weren't operating due to weather -- which was completely understandable), got to walk around, went through the market, saw a beautiful private garden and we did have a private driver for the day. The guide also took us to pick up our custom clothing at the fabric market and did some translating for us there. It wasn't totally awful. Just more awkward because we could feel her stress and hear it in her voice while she was on the phone.

I have used many, many private tour guides. I go off word of mouth and online reviews, both of which were awesome for Miki. I'd use her again, and likely will if we go back to Shanghai in the spring of 2020, I'd just make sure we got Miki. We booked (and paid for) a private photographer for Kyoto (Inari shrine and old town) based off online reviews and he has been awesome to deal with so far! He recommended his friend for a private day tour before the ABD starts and we'll probably use him.

Our tour with Miki's company went off without a hitch. Our guide was Mary for the full day Tongli tour. Another adventurer tried to book Miki's Unique Tour for Friday (when we did the Tongli tour) and was also told it was only weekends. He was staying a third post-day so was able to book it for Saturday. I enjoyed the tour and would recommend it but I missed my ABD Family.
 
I just now found time to glance at the disboards...busy, busy at work. Barely downloaded the photos.
And yes, I’ll have to say it was an amazing adventure of a lifetime.
Every aspect was just so excellent: the group, the hotels, the food (to my surprise) the guides, Emirates First Class and obviously the locations.

@DollyM , right back at ya!
Hope our paths are crossing again
 
Love all the info on this ABD China 2018 - but has anyone started an ABD China 2019? We're planning to go on the Adult ABD May 2019 tour and would love to hear from other people going next year too!

Melissa :yay:


We are doing a July 2019 trip. I'm taking my eldest daughter as college graduation trip. I know it will be hot and humid but I'm sure it will also be an amazing experience.
 

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