20250905 Friday, September 5, 2025: Ulaanbaatar to Hong Kong. Hello Viking Yi Dun

20250905 Friday, September 5, 2025: Ulaanbaatar to Hong Kong. Hello Viking Yi Dun

We were jolted out of bed at 2:30am by our alarm clocks so we could get dressed and bags put out in time for our 3:00am departure from the Shangri-La hotel. It’s a shame we couldn’t stay longer. The National Amusement park out our window looked like it was busy last night. 

While the gers of the Gobi Nomad Lodge were nice enough, they were really more like glamping than a first class tourist hotel. We imagine accommodations for many African safaris must have a similar feel and limitations. 

There was a lot of chaos at the check in counter for the Mongolian Airlines flight. There was a huge crowd with several verbal large and tall groups of foreign college athletes. One was Filipino and Ben found out that Mongolia had been hosting an international Basketball competition.

 
There was a separate check in line for business class but even though we booked business class for the cruise flights, domestic flight segments are usually restricted to economy fare so we got in behind the huge crowd. A couple of our group did manage to get business class seats, so as they were checking in, Alma worked her magic with the gate agent and got her to allow our entire group to check in with her. We got checked in just as the last of the athletes were getting checked in.

The plane was extremely packed. We were surprised that the counter agents didn’t offer to allow us to check in our roller carry on bags to make room in the overhead bins. There appeared to only be 2 unoccupied seats in economy and they were piled high with carry-on bags.

There was a meal service shortly after reaching cruise altitude. This featured a boneless chicken thigh prepared in a teriyaki like sauce, with rice, carrots, green beans and beets.

There was no inflight entertainment for the 4 hour flight, but since we had gotten up so early, it was natural to spend most of those 4 hours dozing. 

There was a line for the 2 toilets at the back of the plane nearly the entire duration of the flight.

Viking staff were present to assist us from the baggage claim through both Hong Kong and Chinese Immigrations and customs. Ben again got delayed a bit because the agent couldn’t believe he didn’t have a Chinese name or Chinese phone number. She ultimately relented as she saw the lines building up and Ben explained we were all part of a cruise ship tour with over 600 passengers arriving today.

This is the first time we have crossed from Hong Kong into Shenzhen, China, where the ship is docked. There is a lot of ongoing development and construction evident in this bustling modern port city of 18 Million people.  There are striking modern steel and glass skyscrapers, tall apartment complexes, ship loading cranes, hills and construction cranes all over.

The cruise ship terminal in Shenzhen is enormous and could potentially handle several ship, but the Yi-Dun appeared to be the only cruise ship. There were boarding stations for other much smaller ships like those used for dinner cruising. 

Our Viking handlers lead us through the security and registration hall. There were no significant hang ups because we had previously done the online check-in.  However, it was probably a half mile walk through long corridors, ramps and switch backs to finally arrive at the ship’s gangway, which was on deck 2.

We were greeted by staff in costume and then given a brief life jacket donning demonstration before we could wander off on our own.  

Stateroom 3077 is on the starboard side aft quarter of the ship.  It is just one deck up from the gym/spa and theater and 4 decks below the World Cafe buffet.  It is a standard Viking Ocean cruise ship stateroom with ample drawer and closet space to unpack all our clothes. 

We had signed up for a Treasures of Fujian overland excursion which departs the ship first thing tomorrow morning, so that means we had to unpack our suitcases, and then repack essentials for a 2 night hotel stay in our small roller carry on bags.  We have been living out of our suitcases for quite some time.  Janet did do a load of wash so that our favorite excursion wear was fresh and ready to go.

The buffet was just about to shut down shortly after we had made our way up to it for lunch.  We did manage to get our gelato fix before that closed up.

  
One of the women on the Spirit of Mongolia excursion had mentioned she had signed up for a Viking Amazon cruise.  We had been told that itinerary was cancelled after the Pandemic, but we stopped by the future cruises desk, and surprisingly, the future cruise agent was sitting in his office unoccupied.  Often times you have to make a reservation to see him days in advance.  He explained that there was indeed a new itinerary departing Puerto Rico December 18, 2026 and returning to Puerto Rico January 1, 2027.  We really like to get our family together for a Christmas Cruise, but this one is too long in duration for our kids, who all have regular jobs to work.  We would love to do the longer round trip personally, but we have to prioritize being able to do it as a family.  

Another possibility might be the Mekong Delta cruise, which also can be done over Christmas. We had been contemplating an Easter Island only land based tour for next Christmas because Janet’s sister would be interested in going there.  So we’ll have to do some number crunching and idea tossing.  As for other possible cruises, the entire inventory for Viking’s new India itinerary has been sold out through the end of 2028. He said that sold out in less than a week.

We were able to get reservations for the Chef’s Table for dinner tonight.  The theme was Xiang, which is inspired by Cantonese cuisine.  The appetizer was a really good pot sticker.  There was a steamed sea bass, which was just that.  It needed a bit more flavor added like some ginger and scallions.  The main was wagyu beef cubes with water chestnuts and peppers, served with fried rice.  The beef tasted like it had been sous-vide cooked and then tossed in some sauce, rather than grilled, which would have added more flavor.  But with a different glass of wine with each course, we weren’t complaining, and were quite stuffed.  Dessert was a mango pudding shaped and spray painted to look exactly like a real mango.  It was actually a mango mousse with some mango jelly in the center.  

After dinner, Janet hit the showers and bed, while Ben walked off the ship to explore Shenzhen a little.  There is a huge mall that is right next to the cruise ship terminal, and it contains just about anything you might expect in a large metropolis high end mall, but there is a floor dedicated to sensual experiences (massages, aroma therapy, etc) and even an animal experience floor with a huge lounge filled with cats and dedicated pet grooming saloons. 

There was a movie playing in the ship’s theater- Battle of Red Cliffs, set in China during the 3 kingdoms era.  The cinematography is breathtaking, and the production values were very high.  It was in Mandarin with English subtitles.  Ben sat in on it for a half hour before having to turn in because we have to disembark the ship with our suitcases before 7am.