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Check with Civitatours. Their bus is 30 Euro/pp. But it´s only running once per day in the morning. steamboats

Doesn´t work at each location over here. Sometimes in very touristy spots you need a code for the restrooms at McDonalds which is printed on your receipt (so you need to buy something to use the restrooms). steamboats

There´s been a media event in NYC... more here. steamboats

Good to read that they´s opened up again! I saw it yesterday evening in our TV news. steamboats

Since Thursday Capri has a problem with the water supply. The major has closed the island for tourists yesterday, June 22nd, 2024. Capri has no own water ressources and therefore is connected via a pipe to the mainland. Obviously this pipe has a malfunction as there´s no fresh water arriving at the island anymore. As they are not able to cater all locals plus thousands of tourists the major decided to close the island until further notice. steamboats

Considering you are speaking of a ship´s excursion: Lucca is closer but much larger than San Gimignano. San Gimignano might be a bit more impressive because of the many towers. And my absolute must is Gelateria di Piazza by Sergio Dondoli in San Gimignano. steamboats

The T3 bus stops at the WTC since a couple of years. There you can change to the HoHo bus. steamboats

@Tom and Ingrid you can walk from Moll Adossat to La Rambla. But it actually depends at which terminal your ship is docked. A to C is o.k. but at least half an hour. You have to walk up the bridge and over it and the to the Columbus column. Been there done that a few times (mainly because you can take pictures of the ships in port from the bridge). If your ship is farther out or when it's hot it's definitely no fun. The Blue T3 Bus (port shuttle) is more convenient and with 3.50 Euro single ride or 4.50 Euro back&fourth it's pretty cheap. The WTC is only for smaller ships but less than 10 min walking from La Rambla. And anyway this area won't be available anymore for smaller ships. The city doesn't want ships there anymore. steamboats

Although credit cards are widely accepted in Europe you may need some cash for smaller amounts or for using a bathroom on a tour. I would retrieve some Euro at an ATM in Amsterdam (airport). Don´t care for any Swiss Francs. Some even accept Euro as Basel is just on the other side of the border to Germany. steamboats

All larger cruise ships dock at Moll Adossat. There are terminals for 6 ships (A to F). Celebrity pretty likely docks at A or B. Anyway there is only one entrance and you have to pass by all terminals. Your X-Press Pass will name the terminal. Here you can download a map of the terminal area. steamboats

The island is called Schwindinsel. The part above the bridge is better known, the Praterinsel. No, there are no boats on the Isar river. It's not navigable. Upriver in the region of Bad Tölz the wooden rafts start downriver to the South of Munich. There's an area called Floßlände where the rafts stop and are dismantled. steamboats

Here's our Isar river. You can compare to last weeks photo. It's still on the higher side but gone down significantly. You can see the peak of the island again. steamboats

MSC has a Big Band with 16 musicians onboard the MSC Euribia for a year now. Those shows are packed. There are two singers and the band. So "largest orchestra on sea" is relative as MSC had it already. steamboats

@Kenster and @RDVIK2016 actually the proper German term is "Schiffsführer" (pilot) on a river boat and not "Kapitän" (captain). Nevertheless the master is commonly called captain and the other pilots are called officers just to stick with the nautical language. @Canal archive There are hardly any stretches where local pilots (like on ocean vessels) are required. As I said before, you need to be licencend for a certain part of a river and at least one pilot onboard needs that licence. So in case the regular pilots don't have that qualification the ship needs an additional local pilot. Anyway it's never the ship or the company needing a licence it's the persons steering the ship. steamboats

Pilot is the person steering the ship. Actually on rivers there is no "captain". Usually the head pilot is called master. Usually a river cruise ship has at least one master and two pilots. steamboats

Sorry, there is no licence to operate on the Danube river for a company or a single ship. The pilots need a licence for a certain river. But you can have a non licenced pilot (one who has the gernal licence to steer a ship but not for this certain river) as a trainee supervised by a licenced pilot. Not even Viking got anything "revoked" after that tragic accident in Budapest. It´s alway the pilot who is the one to blame. steamboats

The main problem is that this legislation is very unprecise. Even the paper which was supposed to precise it caused even more confusion. You can read more here (in German - my DH tried to follow the "traces" of this legislation). steamboats

Never heard of "problems" in Portugal. But sometimes it was charged in Italian ports. NCL was the first one which tried to charge it in France but soon quit (after sort of a passenger revolt). It´s an EU legislation from 2006 (RICHTLINIE 2006/112/EG DES RATES vom 28. November 2006 über das gemeinsame Mehrwertsteuersystem). The countries can make exemptions for ships. Spain has no such exemption and actually has some sort of deal with the cruise lines. The main problem is that this legislation is so complicated that even the experts don´t understand it. steamboats

Levels are dropping everywhere although we do have rain here in the South. But it´s not as much rain as we had during those days which caused the big floodings. From Deggendorf to Passau the levels are on 3 but dropping. Upriver from Passau it´s 2 and 1 (Regensburg) or even back to "green". So it´s definitely getting better fast. The wave is now going downriver and may cause higher levels there. steamboats

I can see ships moving upriver between Budapest and Vienna. I also see ships going upriver towards Linz and Melk. steamboats

No, the boats were totally stripped and got a new superstructure. Actually they only used the hull. Technically both boats are newbuilts. steamboats

@chengkp75 as @ericosmith said both the Countess and the Duchess are diesel boats and don't have a steam engine. Both boats are fairly new. And I do know that former chief engineer in person. So I definitely trust him when he says there never were any plumbing problems. steamboats

@goksucats in case you´re looking for some nice Bavarian restaurants nearby the Sofitel I can recommend Irmi or Münchner Stubn Irmi has a nice beergarden plus my favorite beer - Giesinger Bräu. It´s inside the Hotel Le Meridian but open to the public. They do have a separate entrance in the side street but you can also use the hotel entrance and walk through. steamboats

No need to be worried! Both cities are used to flooding and are well prepared. The Wurstkuchl is now flooded but on purpose. They kept the water out with pumps but decided to stop this and get it flooded. Currently at Regensburg the major problem is that the level is on a constant high and not peaking. That causes problems with the groundwater which wants to level with the river level. Streets are breaking up with groundwater coming up like a fountain. They are on that high level for quite a while. Passau has already dropped more than one meter. They have already started with the clean up. The Sofitel is a nice hotel. There are some "obstacles" to get to the train station right now due to a construction site. As for DB - seems like there is still a problem on the route to Switzerland which won´t affect you. And currently the route between Nuremberg and Würzbug is closed. Munch to Nuremberg is open again. I didn´t read anything about Munich - Stuttgart anymore which was closed as well. That would be the route to Paris too. steamboats

Here are two photos of Munich and the Isar river which is currently at 2.69 m and had crested at 3.66 m. The tree on the right side is usually the tip of the Island between the river and the canal on the right side. steamboats