My partner and I had a twin room on the Emperor Cruiser travelling from Chongqing to Yichang two month ago. We were very impressed by the boat, and especially our room. It is more spacious than we were expecting and very comfortable. The bathroom was very nice. The balcony was great also and provided great views. The staff on the boat were fantastic. There was a guide on the boat who explained everything about the yangtze river and about the gorges as we passed through them. We were a little disappointed by the shore excurions. We ended up going to the Ghost City, which was a 3 hour tour around a buddist mountain and was all very tacky. The other shore excursion was to Shendong Stream. I specifically book the Emperor Cruiser because it said it went to the 'Lesser Three Gorges', but instead we went to Shendong Stream. This shore excursion was also a little tacky and seemed a bit exploitative of the native people. The rest of the cruise was fantastic though and the food and company were great. One other negative thing was that at the end of the cruise they asked for tips (for all staff). They did this by leaving a letter in the room and an envelope to put tip money into. I found this a little rude because nothing was mentioned about tips up until this point and I was told that tipping was not customary in China. When we arrived in Yichang, we had arranged a transfer and I would suggest doing this also. You will be charged a high amount if you try and catch a taxi from where
you leave the cruiser because there is no other way of getting into town. Even though there were a few negatives from the cruise, it was a fantastic experience and I would recommend it to anyone. The staff at CITS were fantastic also.!