sbjornda

Are there any river lines that do not include tours?

 

I believe CroisiEurope's tours are completely "a la carte" so you could choose none of them and go your own way. It looks like a typical price is 27€ per person per tour if you choose theirs.

 

Sterling

For Scenic, at least, the answer appears to be Yes. I can't speak for any others.

It looks like the Scenic Jewel didn't make it all the way upstream to Basel. It was supposed to be in Basel on the 13th but was still in Strasbourg/Kehl (according to anyoverip.de/scenic). The farthest upstream it made it was to Breisach, and it appears to be back on schedule now.

 

I can't imagine there's low water on the stretch between Breisach and Basel. Does anyone know any other reason why they wouldn't have made it all the way? Broken lock perhaps? Just curious.

 

Thanks,

Sterling

hoping for lots of rain between now and then :-)

Be careful what you wish for. High water is just as bad for cruising as low water. :D

Does anyone know if Cruisemapper is accurate?

Have any Scenic trips been cancelled?

A good place to keep track of Scenic's European ships is http://www.anyoverip.de/scenic/

 

I haven't heard of any being cancelled.

Are we suppose to sign up for these daily outings with “Free Choice” ahead of time. I tried to go on the Trip Personizlier but it is down at the moment.

A few are done with the Trip Personalizer, but most are requested a few days ahead of time via a paper form they'll give you on board. Often there'll be a week's worth of choices on the form so on a 2 week trip you'll do it twice. They need to leave some of these choices fairly late because things can change and they want to minimize the amount of re-work.

 

I've attached some photos of a Freechoice form someone else posted on Facebook a while ago to give an example of what it looks like. The Cruise Director gives a verbal description and allows for questions and answers when handing out the form - they want to make sure everyone is well informed about their choices.

 

 

Ok, I give up: With CC rules and regulation; where are you supposed to post on this River Cruise companies new ocean Ship?

 

Check this company's web site. They're not one of the companies that is just a river cruise company. They started with coach tours, for example, and that's still one of the primary categories on their home page.

We'll be doing it in 2019, but from what I've read so far, on Day 2, Bruges is worth it for old-world charm. On Day 10 we plan to go to Luxembourg just to say we've been there. :) We'll probably do the castle at Heidelberg on Day 12. On Day 14 we'll likely do the Black Forest hike unless it's pouring rain, because we like walks in the forest. The rest are undecided yet.

 

If the two of you are interested in different things sometimes don't hesitate to go different ways for the day. E.g. Day 6 the archeological park vs. the coal mine. It will give you something to talk about later.

 

Sterling

We really enjoyed Scenic, and if you can snag one of the Royal suites you get extra perks and are treated especially well. Quite the luxury; perfect for a 40th anniversary. The Royal suites sell out fast, though, so see if your travel agent can get you on a pre-release list.

 

Anyone know if water depths are an issue in April?

 

Sometimes the water is too high due to spring runoff and more rain than later in the summer. If the boats don't have room to fit under a bridge, you're stuck.

 

Sterling

Drinks, yeah, I agree most people probably won't drink that much. Gratuities though... it depends on how comfortable you are doing that math in your head at the moment. For some people that comes second nature. But, if you have the budget and you don't want to waste brain power figuring out how much to tip to whom, it might be worth paying a bit of premium for the all-inclusive and just have that peace of mind that someone else is taking care of the tips. It reduces anxiety for some.

 

We went with Scenic, and we literally did not have to take our wallets out except for some local souvenirs, chocolate in Cologne, and the famous Rüdesheimer Kaffee. You literally could do the cruise without taking out your wallet if you wanted. That contributed to making the cruise a "breeze". So it comes down to price vs. convenience, and that's a decision everyone has to make for themselves. And once we're more experienced with European river cruises we might at some point decide to economise a bit and do more cruises for cheaper cost. But not quite yet; we like being pampered for now. :D

We've been on only one river cruise so far, with Scenic, had a great time despite having to do a ship swap for low water. They treated us really well (we had extra perks because we were in a Royal Balcony suite), so we've booked with them again in a Royal suite for our 2nd river cruise next year. Every passenger has access to butler service, and the Royal class of suites have unlimited laundry service which is an extra special perk if one of you is usually the person that ends up being responsible for laundry when on vacation. :D Those suites tend to sell out more than a year in advance nowadays, it seems.

Has the Amber been spotted? I can't see if it's stuck around Passau and, at this point, who (what sailing) would still be on it?

According to cruisemapper.com it's currently in Vienna. According to anyoverip.de it left Passau a few days ago. I expect you'll catch it in Budapest no problem.

 

Sterling

In 2016 we found lots of mosquitoes at Weltenburg Abbey near Kelheim.

Interesting, we had none at Weltenburg Abbey in Sept. 2015. Then again, that was another very dry year; we had to do a ship swap between Nuremberg and Passau.

 

Sterling

We poked our nose in one when disembarking from our last cruise and decided it was bigger than we really needed. Really quite a luxury. So on our next cruise we're going to do a Royal Balcony Suite again as a compromise for price, space, and services. The extra love-seat is handy if one of us is having a restless sleep, though too small to properly stretch out on (it's bigger in the Royal Panorama suites though). All the Royal suites, and the Junior Balcony suites, have a Room Service option for meals, which we like to use on occasion. Royal suites get unlimited free laundry service handled by your butler, which is a very nice perk.

 

Those features are more important to us for longer trips, though (14 or more days). For shorter trips we'd be willing to try one of the smaller, cheaper suites.

 

I have read a few complaints about noise in the Royal Panorama suites, and occasional reports of fuel or exhaust odour, but let's face it, you're on a working ship, that's going to happen once in a while. Most people seem to love those suites.

 

Sterling

Kind of strange for one company to operate ships with the same name for different companies.

When you think about it, all they're doing is the sailing and the physical maintenance for the tour companies. They don't own the ships, they don't design the cruises. My guess is the tour companies chose the names, and independently chose KD to do the driving.

 

Sterling

Hi Doug,

 

You might find a bit more information at https://www.scenic.com.au/river-cruises/freechoice but it won't answer all your questions.

 

You'll choose some activities in advance through the Trip Personalizer, https://tp.scenicglobal.com/. Most of them, though, you'll choose a few days in advance by means of a paper form distributed on board. More detail will be provided at that time, and an opportunity for questions with your Cruise Director.

 

The groups tended to be 10 to 25 people. Sometimes you could wander separately as long as you let the Cruise Director know in advance so they don't over-pay for admissions to certain venues (if relevant).

 

Most of the tours are somewhat regimented but have some "free time" at the end, usually 30 min. to an hour, sometimes more. If you've been bussed in they'll usually give you a time and place to gather back together to catch the bus back to the ship. If you are within walking distance of the ship you have more flexibility, depending on the sailing time (which they will let you know very clearly).

 

Zaanse Schans is a ways away from Amsterdam, so unless you arrange private transportation you're best bet is to go on the tour. Being inside a working windmill was a new experience for me, and worth it. There wasn't a lot of free time on that one, but there was a little (e.g. browse the souvenir shops of course :)).

 

In Cologne we took the FreeChoice tour and got a good look at the cathedral, inside and out, and learned some other cool stuff (the guide being a local), and we still had a good amount of free time to wander at the end, so I felt that one was well balanced between "planned" and "open". It was an easy walk to & from the ship, though, so it would also be a good candidate for self-guided.

 

 

If your interests sometimes differ between the two of you, don't hesitate to go different ways for the day once in a while, and compare notes when you get back to the ship. The FreeChoice selection form is set up to allow for that.

 

The thing with river cruising, though, is you can never nail something down 100%. You might be delayed by high or low water, a lock might be broken, there might be a damaged barge blocking the way, all of which could affect the timing of a tour. It's good to plan, but the river has its own plans too. With river cruising you have to "go with the flow". And if there's no flow, there's no go! Things work out fine most of the time, but there's no 100% guarantee that the schedule will work out perfectly each time.

 

Best wishes,

Sterling

1) There's no official dress code, so no one is going to actually turn you away from dinner for wearing jeans. Jeans are unusual at dinner, but if they're "smart" looking I doubt anyone will complain. The request for dinner is "smart casual" wear. There was one fellow on our cruise who dressed in worn jeans, probably trying to get a rise out of his wife or to show the rest of us we were snobs. I suspect he was "dragged along" on the cruise and was showing some passive-aggressive behaviour. :) He didn't starve.

 

2) Laundry service depends on the deck & cabin. On the top deck Royal suites the butler handled unlimited laundry for us. I think the laundry "concierge" for the rest of the suites simply is a pick-up and drop-off service, with a laundry cost-per-item added to your bill to be settled at the end of the trip. Some suites get a small number of "free" laundry items. You need to fill out a form that goes in laundry bag, and that should have the price for each item so you know how much you're racking up. There is no dry cleaning.

 

3) I respectfully suggest your wife reconsider this. By settling for clothing that is mostly wash-and-wear you'll decrease your anxiety on the cruise. You can do some sink laundry, and if an item needs pressing some classes of suites include "up to two items pressed daily" or some such. One or two fancier sets for the one or two fancier events is appropriate, but I recommend for the most part to keep the clothing low-maintenance.

I'm not really a city tour person, so my favorite was the 5 mile hike in Rudesheim.

Can you say more about that? Was it guided or on your own? Did you walk up to the monument or take the cable car and start at the top? We'll be in Rudesheim for the second time next year and I don't feel the need to see the town again. I was thinking a hike in the woods would be a nice break from the crowds, so seeing your post made me happy to start thinking about the logistics.

 

Thanks,

Sterling

Sept. 2015 with Scenic from Amsterdam to Budapest, low levels on the Danube meant we had to swap ships. The ships were almost identical so it was easy. We packed our backs the morning of Nuremburg on the Scenic Jewel, did our excursion in the morning, were bussed to Passau in the afternoon where we embarked on the Scenic Crystal, same room. Easy peasy. I've heard of a lot worse situations, but that's pretty rare.

 

In the end, it's life on the river, and the river sometimes has a mind of its own. Life on the river means living at the river's chosen pace. You literally have to "go with the flow". And when there's no flow, there's no go. :)

We were there Sept. 13-14 and had no problems.

The Scenic Crystal just made it from Regensburg to Vilshofen (http://www.anyoverip.de/scenic/index.php?ship=Crystal) so I'm not sure where the problem lies. The water level for Straubing (http://www.deutsche-donau.com/News/Water-level-information) is not as bad as a couple of weeks ago.

Not sure about the status of this cruise. I haven't gotten any word from Scenic and we leave in less than 24 hrs for Prague. Hope it pours for a day or 2. Thanks for all your alls' help in helping plan our trip. I'll report back when we get back.

 

This thread http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2233858 had an update today.

According to Vesselfinder Scenic Opal did not make it to Regensberg last night. Can you give us an update on the situation? Did Scenic get you to Regensberg for the scheduled tours?

 

According to marinetraffic.com Scenic Opal just docked in Regensburg.

It looks like the Scenic Jewel has successfully made it from Passau through Regensburg to Nuremberg, and the Scenic Crystal made it from Bamberg to Nuremberg and is now continuing towards Regensburg, so maybe the crisis is averted for now. I was keeping an eye on their positions to see whether they would perform a ship swap, but it looks like none was needed.

 

What I'm learning from all this is the importance of being able to be flexible about last minute changes and quite literally to "go with the flow". We're scheduled to take our first river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest boarding Aug. 31st, with Scenic. At first the news of low river levels had me frustrated and disappointed, but now I see that this is part of river life and there really are no guarantees, so just relax and enjoy what you can.