[jak60]

For those of you who have travelled to Vladivostok to meet your baby (via Los Angeles and Seoul), how did you avoid paying an arm and a leg (or did you!)?? Has anyone ventured to make it a one-trip experience? Any and all advice about the trip and stay in Vlad would be immensely appreciated!

[jaw's mom]

Hello!

My husband and I traveled to Vlad July 3-10, 2004 via L.A. and Seoul on our first trip. We paid two arms and two legs for our tickets. They were coach, and we had to pay a change fee if we needed to change our tickets. We paid $4,200 for 2 tickets. It was terrible!

We stayed in the Vlad Motor Inn, which was great. The food in the hotel was expensive. We tried to eat other places as much as possible. There were twp restaurants nearby that were better priced. However, sometimes the convenience of the hotel restaurant won out.

We are still waiting for court dates. I hope we get to travel soon to get our son. This is supposed to be a fast region, but vacations took place in August. The region has also not been waiving the 10 day waiting period lately.

Our agency told us that we could be in the region like 8 weeks if we decided to try to make it one trip. So...we didn't. I have only heard of 1 person that has done it.

Let me know if you have any more questions. Good luck. Let me know also if you find a cheaper way to fly!!!!

[jak60]

i don't know if this is for real, but i checked orbitz website and found a flight from lax-san francisco-seoul (roundtrip) for $811 on singapore airlines!! but you have to get separate tickets for seoul-vlad.

[jaw's mom]

Thanks for the flight information.

Have you heard anything about people receiving court dates since the MOE has been on vacation in August? We are still witing to get a court date.

[jak60]

don't know anything about court dates... we accepted our referral a couple of weeks ago and are waiting for travel dates for first trip. any idea how long a wait it is for a first trip?

[jaw's mom]

We received our referral in April, but Alex hadn't been put on the registry for some unknown reason. He came off the registry June 27th and we left for our first trip on July 3rd. Is your son/daughter off the registry yet?

I have heard that things are very slow right now due to vacations in region. I do have a friend that has a court date for August 31st. So hopefully people will start getting travel dates again.

I let you know if I hear anything. Praying for good news for the both of us!!!!

[angiesavage1]

I've heard that the babies come off the registry earlier in this region than other regions. Does anyone know if this is true? For those that have gone to Vladivostok, what's the youngest baby anyone has been able to adopt? We've just been assigned this region & I'm trying to find all the info I can on it.

Thanks

[jaw's mom]

Our son was on the registry for 2 months, which I believe is shorter than most regions. We went on our 1st trip the very week he came off the registry. Vlad is known to be a quick region, but with the summer slow down, we are still waiting to return on our second trip. We have been waiting 8 weeks thus far. They have been known to be very good about waiving the 10 day waiting period waiving, but they haven't been waiting it lately for many people. We have a tentative court date for September 23rd, but the judge still has to confirm the date.

Jaw's Mom

[dterngr8c]

My dossier went to Vlad the week of 16 Aug. I realize that it must be translated and certified (any idea of how long that takes?) and then I can receive a referral. I am waiting for an infant boy, and I am assuming the wait for the referral will be around 2 months. At this point, waiting 5 days is a struggle.

Good luck to all of you in this time of waiting. Hopefully trips and court dates will start coming very quickly now.

Catherine

p.s. i read that the reason for the 10-day wait being enforced in the region is that a review of the adoption process in the region is to occur in October of this year, and they want to show a trend of enforcing the wait period. Has anyone heard the truth or fiction of this statement? Also, if it is true, do we expect them to start waiving the wait again, after the review is completed?

[angiesavage1]

Hey Catherine,
Our agency told us it would take 30-45 days for our papers to be translated into Russian and then our referral would come after that. Sorry, I don't have any answers to the 10 day wait question.

[hope2bemom]

We are adopting from Sakhalin Island and have a Sept. 30th court date. We're using a courier service to go to Moscow for us, and we will be going to Vlad. on Oct. 2nd with our two children. I'm going to be figuring out flight info and fares this weekend. Any advice about hotels and flights to Vlad. would be greatly appreciated!!

Jennifer Heelen

[pwnort64]

I'll be leaving Vlad on 10/2 to return home.

I am flying Korean Air, (Vlad to Seoul to LA) and would be curious on any comments anyone had specific to Korean Air.

How are the seats, the service, the food? Any words of advice?

[sak9645]

... adopted my daughter from China. I was extremely satisfied with the service.

I live in the Washington, DC area and flew coach both ways, with my daughter on a lap ticket.

Going to China, I took a Continental flight to Newark, NJ and picked up the late night Korean Air flight to Hong Kong, which made stops in Anchorage and Seoul. I stayed in Hong Kong for a few days before going to the mainland, where my daughter was living in Fujian province.

The flight to Hong Kong was great. The plane was a new-looking aircraft, and impeccably clean. The staff were very helpful, even passing around water every hour or two throughout the night, to help people keep from becoming dehydrated in the dry cabin air. The restrooms had bottles of Evian water for misting the face, as well as the usual toiletries offered on international flights. The food included your choice of Korean or Western food, and was fairly decent. The flight was only about 2/3 full, so it was easy to spread out and relax.

During the stopover in Seoul, I got to witness a Buddhist ceremony dedicating an airport shop! It was really quite interesting, even though I was very tired by that point.

Coming home with my daughter, I flew Korean Air from Hong Kong to Los Angeles, with a stop in Seoul. Korean Air was, again, excellent. About half the restrooms in coach had pull-down changing tables, which was very helpful when my daughter needed a diaper change.

I had a bulkhead seat with a bassinet for my daughter. While I didn't purchase a seat for her, I had an empty seat next to me during the trip from Hong Kong to Seoul. And when a family joined my row in Seoul, the lovely Korean wife offered to watch my daughter when I needed to go to the restroom. Her daughter, about three years old, also played with Becca in the aisle at one point. Interestingly, one of the in-flight movies was "101 Dalmations", and even though my daughter couldn't speak English, and was sick and exhausted, and wasn't wearing earphones, she clapped happily whenever the spotted dogs appeared.

Unfortunately, I had to switch from Korean Air to United for the flight from Los Angeles to DC. What a change! It was a terrible experience, and the flight felt longer than the one from China!

All in all, I would recommend Korean Air highly, assuming that its service hasn't deteriorated since 1997. A lot of my friends tried to dissuade me from using Korean Air, because it had experienced a couple of air crashes in the previous several years, but I saw very professional behavior by all of the staff and would definitely use the airline again.

By the way, I chose Korean Air because the head of the adoption agency I used was Korean and had access to excellent discounts. His agency had brought home many babies from Korea over the previous two decades, and virtually all of them had flown Korean Air.

Sharon

[CarRanVA]

Catherine - We were told by our agency that it would take 3-6 weeks to have our dossier translated and registered - it took 8. This is partly due to the slowdown during the summer - we received our call that our dossier was registered on September 2nd.
We were also told that the 10 day wait period has not been waived as frequently as in the past in Vlad. and to be prepared to stay the 10 days when we do receive a referral.
Great tips from all about the travelling - Thanks!!

Carol
Waiting in Williamsburg