Thanks, Taiwaned, for your input. Glad to hear so many say there's no need to worry about Ctrip reservations. And, we're not traveling soon, so no typhoons to worry about (yet)!
I'm curious about all the references to Ctrip texting flight info once a mobile number is registered. I think I remember being asked for a mobile phone number, but left it blank because we think we're not bringing our iPhones. Because we have non-jailbroken iPhones (so can't switch out Sim cards), we were thinking of just getting one of those international travel phones that you can rent for the duration of your trip. If we do that, I guess I should go into our Ctrip account and enter the "rental phone number" into it so that Ctrip can contact us?
Again, many thanks.
Ceiba