China

More China drama from Sinorama

For sure China trip in particular
Pours my heart atrioventricular
A poor Titanic blunder
Sinorama down under
Tours are no longer perpendicular

Alan Grace
19 November 2018

Daily prompt:
Nov 19 Particular

Travel industry body ejected Sinorama NZ weeks before collapse …

https://www.stuff.co.nz/…/travel-industry-body-ejected-sinorama-nz-weeks-before-col…

 Oct 6, 2018 – Andrew Olsen, chief executive of TAANZ, the Travel Agents Association of New Zealand, said TAANZ cancelled Sinorama NZ’s membership …

Sinorama, Wholesaler of China Travel, Closes Its Doors

https://www.travelmarketreport.com/…/Sinorama-Wholesaler-of-China-Travel-Closes-…

Aug 13, 2018 – As many as five thousand Canadian travelers planning to visit China had their plans abruptly canceled with the closure of Sinorama Holidays, …

Travel agency Sinorama NZ goes into liquidation, upsetting more than …

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid…

Oct 5, 2018 – The company, Sinorama NZ, operated as an agent for a Canadian travel … The official Sinorama Holiday NZ website was now inactive.

 Sinorama, best known for its Chinese tours, has gone bankrupt | CTV …

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/sinorama-best-known-for-its-chinese-tours-has-gone-bankru…

 Oct 19, 2018 – Sinorama, the company best known for popularizing tourism to China, has gone bankrupt.

 

Too much China drama from Sinorama

Secure in the lure of adventure
Thoughts premature did not long endure
Lack of coordination
And poor communication
For sure disorganised nightmare tour

Alan Grace
19 May 2018

Daily prompt: Premature

I had a social media detox during my China trip. Now it’s time to detox from my China trip! The great price for the trip would have been better value with better coordination among the guides and better organisation.

We had three buses of passengers on our tour. Sadly a lack of cooperation and poor coordination between the guides meant passengers were kept waiting when they should not have been. Guides organised the trip for their own convenience rather than in the best interests of the passengers. Even on the last day there was only one trip to the airport for each bus. Our bus departure time to the airport was 9.40am. We were scheduled to fly out at 3.50pm. This would have meant a very long wait had we not been able to get an earlier flight to Hong Kong once we got to the airport. On the trip from Auckland I was in seat 45A and my partner in seat 45K (window seats on opposite sides of the plane).

One guide (Helen) was frequently late with her busload of passengers. This meant that passengers were kept waiting (e.g. to go back to the hotel when not booked for optional tours). Most passengers not booked on an optional tour were kept waiting on the bus for over half an hour for Helen to come to the bus. An extra bus would not solve this problem.

Our own guide (James) frequently extended the time for the group to meet. There was no one there when we met at the meeting point at the arranged time at the end of the Great Wall visit. The time had been extended considerably without our knowledge.

The passengers on our bus were great and the kids on board behaved very well.

Apart from about two couples and kids all the passengers were mainly over 40. The amount of walking each day was too much for many passengers. Two passengers in their eighties with limited mobility were told before leaning NZ that an optional mountain walk after a cable car ride would be ok for them. They had to wait at the top of the cable car for three hours for everyone else to return from the mountain walk and lunch.

The pre-departure crowded information meeting in Auckland contained information that was incorrect and/or not relevant to our trip. It would have been better o have had two separate meetings: one for the pax on the Yangtze river cruise and another for those whose tours did not include this.

Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City should never have been optional tours (i.e. there should have been no extra cost to visit these).

Some of the information in the itinerary was incorrect for optional tours. Lunch and dinner were twice mixed up.

Far too much walking and no return to hotel before evening events.

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Juxtapose Marriot magic and reality

Yet staff entered our room
Fret our cell phone met doom
Cell phone magic
Stolen tragic
Let sad gloom make me fume

Alan Grace
29 May 2018

Daily prompt: Juxtapose

Jenny’s cell phone was stolen from out of her suitcase from our hotel in China.

See:
https://aaamazingphoenix.wordpress.com/2018/05/23/marriott-find-our-phone/
https://aaamazingphoenix.wordpress.com/2018/05/20/marriot-find-our-phone/

Finally a response from Marriot yesterday claiming that no staff stole our phone.

Marriott find our phone

We’ve got cell cost complication
Marriott’s lost reputation
In the hotel
Staff stole our cell
While we were on hell vacation

Alan Grace
20 May 2018

Daily prompt: Complication

Jenny’s cell phone was stolen from out of her suitcase.

Excerpt from email sent yesterday (no reply yet):

Jenny had her cell phone taken from room 1701 of the hotel on 16 May (from the data usage below).

Courtyard Marriott Shanghai Jiading
No 3101 Huyi Highway, Jiading District, Shanghai 201821 China

The cell phone had no power.

It would appear a staff member has taken the phone, charged it up and used up over $15 of data on 16 May and over $7 today.

We have now got a new SIM card which will hopefully prevent any further usage of this phone.

We are however still responsible for the stolen data over $22.
Hopefully if the same thing has happened in another room, the room locations can be used to identify the staff member responsible.

We also saw that a person had moved our stuff around the room.

Can you please follow up with what staff members have been in our room and please question them about Jenny’s stolen cell phone.

Please mail us back about your investigation.

Too much China drama from Sinorama

Secure in the lure of adventure
Thoughts premature did not long endure
Lack of coordination
And poor communication
For sure disorganised nightmare tour

Alan Grace
19 May 2018

Daily prompt: Premature

I had a social media detox during my China trip. Now it’s time to detox from my China trip! The great price for the trip would have been better value with better coordination among the guides and better organisation.

We had three buses of passengers on our tour. Sadly a lack of cooperation and poor coordination between the guides meant passengers were kept waiting when they should not have been. Guides organised the trip for their own convenience rather than in the best interests of the passengers. Even on the last day there was only one trip to the airport for each bus. Our bus departure time to the airport was 9.40am. We were scheduled to fly out at 3.50pm. This would have meant a very long wait had we not been able to get an earlier flight to Hong Kong once we got to the airport. On the trip from Auckland I was in seat 45A and my partner in seat 45K (window seats on opposite sides of the plane).

One guide (Helen) was frequently late with her busload of passengers. This meant that passengers were kept waiting (e.g. to go back to the hotel when not booked for optional tours). Most passengers not booked on an optional tour were kept waiting on the bus for over half an hour for Helen to come to the bus. An extra bus would not solve this problem.

Our own guide (James) frequently extended the time for the group to meet. There was no one there when we met at the meeting point at the arranged time at the end of the Great Wall visit. The time had been extended considerably without our knowledge.

The passengers on our bus were great and the kids on board behaved very well.

Apart from about two couples and kids all the passengers were mainly over 40. The amount of walking each day was too much for many passengers. Two passengers in their eighties with limited mobility were told before leaning NZ that an optional mountain walk after a cable car ride would be ok for them. They had to wait at the top of the cable car for three hours for everyone else to return from the mountain walk and lunch.

The pre-departure crowded information meeting in Auckland contained information that was incorrect and/or not relevant to our trip. It would have been better o have had two separate meetings: one for the pax on the Yangtze river cruise and another for those whose tours did not include this.

Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City should never have been optional tours (i.e. there should have been no extra cost to visit these).

Some of the information in the itinerary was incorrect for optional tours. Lunch and dinner were twice mixed up.

Far too much walking and no return to hotel before evening events.