plumie

Oh no!  I hope you're feeling better and improve soon.  Hoping your DW and DDs remain healthy.  Looking forward to the rest of your trip report - but take time to rest and recover too.  We're so focused on COVID we forget how gnarly colds themselves can be.  My cold this season was actually worse than my bout with COVID, so take care of yourself  

6 hours ago, Travel R said:

Did you like Gate 1? Based on the 2022 sailings and the recommendations of a good friend, I am leaning towards Ama - but open to any river cruise line (that we can afford).

I did like Gate 1.  It was an impulsive booking because they were having a flash sale for 50% off and it was too good a deal to pass up.  River cruises are so expensive!  I was stressed since there wasn't much info on it even after booking (there are more reviews now, but there were barely any when I was preparing), but I figured at worst I would be in Europe and that's not bad.  I haven't been on Ama or Viking (but friends have and show me photos and videos and tell me about it), but Gate 1 didn't feel budget to me.  One of my friends just got off an Ama Danube sailing on the Viola and said the food was meh, but she liked the ship, the crew and the excursions.  🤷‍♀️

The big difference is (I think) the number of choices.  With Gate 1 everyone goes on the same excursion - they're lead by the same local guides as other lines, but they don't split people by activity level like Viking does.  So you may have some super slow people...but I figured out who the slow and fast walkers were after a few days and would see who picked what tags (that split us into groups) and choose accordingly.  Alcohol isn't included (except at dinner, but since none of us drink we didn't care), there are less choices of entrees in the dining room (there was a rotating menu each night along with standard fare that was always present) and they throw in some optional excursions (Schonbrunn was an optional excursion in Vienna and Salzburg was an optional excursion when docked in Linz) instead of it being all inclusive...but this all meant the price was kept lower, and your experience is more customizable.  

I would compare it to being a Westin as opposed to the Four Seasons.  We had tempered expectations and we had a great time.  I guess the highest praise we could give is that we'd have no hesitation in booking another Gate 1 river cruise if/when the right itinerary/schedule comes up when we go back to Europe.  

I wrote a review when I returned: https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=635965 (for more information)

I just found your post today (we booked our 3rd Alaska cruise over the weekend on Ovation for September) and I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed it.  As a super planner myself (the fact that I booked a cruise 3 months out is giving me heart palpitations even if it is my 3rd Alaskan cruise) I loved reading through your thought process and just how organized you are.  My internal OCD super planner (who makes the bookings, does the research, provides itineraries, does powerpoint presentations to the rest of the family/friend groups) is cheering for you and I hope that after the year you've had, you, your wife and your daughters will have a wonderful graduation as well as a smooth and successful trip.  I look forward to reading your trip report!

I don't think I saw an answer with regards to your question about entrees on river cruises - but yes, you can request more than one.  We did a river cruise on the Danube in September/October of 2018 through Gate 1and though the portions were European sized (uh...much smaller than our robust American appetites 😂), the chef came out and told us we could always order more.  If Gate 1 (which is much more budget friendly than Viking, Avalon, or Ama) allowed for multiple entrees, I'm sure any other cruise line would allow for multiples as well.  

I did.  I was on the Monarch Princess in October.  What would you like to know? (I wrote a review of it here on cc somewhere) 

Dollover, I think the tours are hit and miss based on what's open the day you arrive and which local guide you get.  We had some great ones, and some not so great ones. I spoke to a friend who does Viking and she says that it's the same for Viking, except there are more optional tours available.  But your mileage may vary.  Either way, it's not going to be a cheap trip, so you gotta go with what makes it worth it to you.  This was my first river cruise and I didn't know what to expect and the cost of the trip was important.  That being said, I would still cruise with Gate 1, but try to do more research ahead of time so I can plan my time more efficiently, such as skipping certain meals for free time or leaving earlier from the group tour to explore if the tour guide isn't interesting.  But, like all cruises, it's a like a buffet of ports, just enough to give you a taste and whet your appetite for more . 

Mlbcruiser, the only long stretch of cruising was the day we spent cruising through the Wachau Valley, the afternoon after we visited Melk.  That was awesome, and incredibly scenic.  Otherwise we were in port.  We'd arrive either in the middle of the night or early morning, get off to tour, return from the tour and the ship would immediately depart, if I remember correctly usually around 6pm or so.  I think the ship was usually cruising by dinnertime.  

I thought about doing independent tours, but as I'd never done a river tour before, I wasn't comfortable doing it since I didn't know what to expect (we only book independent tours for ocean cruises).  I think it can be done, but I'd keep the number to the ship handy in case the ship moves to a different berth during the day. 

mlbcruiser - I'm glad you found the review helpful 😊 - that's why I wrote it when I returned hoping to help people who are planning.

As for your questions:

1.  Unfortunately, there are no slow walker tours.  With the except of a few ports that had extra cost tours, there was only ONE tour per port that was available.  But - we did have some elderly folks on our tour (including one in a wheelchair) who went slower and while I didn't pay particular attention, the tour group that had the wheelchair user did tend to move slower to accommodate her.  Each morning you go and grab a colored tab (we usually had 4, and there were baskets holding each color) and the color that had the slower older people I guess de facto became the slower group.  I ended up in the same group as the wheelchair group a few times, and the local guides were very solicitous and considerate of how fast they could go - especially trying to negotiate some hilly cobblestone terrain with a wheelchair.

2. We did not book our flights through Gate 1 since we had a lot of frequent flier miles to cover the cost of our tickets.  We arrived 6 days before the cruise, rented a car, and drove all over Bavaria hitting small towns and villages before returning to Munich for two nights before embarkation.  I seriously considered just catching a train from Munich to Vilshofen where our ship was docked because it would have been super cheap, but with luggage and with my parents with me - I didn't want to risk not being able to easily find the ship and having to drag a suitcase and my parents up and down the river looking for the Monarch Princess.  Gate 1 offers an a la carte transport from the Munich airport to the ship - it was pricey - about $90 per person if I'm remembering it correctly, but it was worth every penny to NOT have to worry and stress over finding our ship.  We drove our rental car back to the Munich airport, dropped it off, and then rolled our luggage to the cafe inside the airport Gate 1 indicated in our paperwork and easily checked in.  We got there with about an hour to spare, so we just sat down and had lunch before our 1.5 hour ride to Vilshofen.  Once the bus arrived, they took our luggage and we boarded a spacious and comfortable coach for the ride there.  Upon arrival, Gate 1 handled the transport of our luggage to our rooms (we had luggage tags with our cabin numbers attached) and we literally just walked onto the ship to check in at the front desk by showing them our ID.  Our luggage arrived about 5 minutes after we reached our rooms - it was the EASIEST check in I've ever experienced for a cruise. 

Feel free to ask any questions that you have - I may not have the answers, but I'll try to answer what I do know.  

You can bring whatever you want onto the ship.  No security scan or search upon boarding or at any of the ports.  

We just finished one last week and other than missing the last port (Budapest) it was fine.  But river cruising is always unpredictable.  Our cruise director said he knew we were apprehensive about the low levels, but the year before the water levels on the Danube were too high and people still had to be bused because the cruise ships couldn't pass under the bridges. I know a lot of people's cruises got canceled or modified, but ours (Vilshofen to Budapest) got most of the way through and we still had a good time. 

Trig2018: yay!  congratulations.  Your'e going to have so much fun.

zebs: we had really good weather.  The first few days in Germany was REALLY cold.  BUT - keep in mind that I'm from Southern California and we bust out our down coats when it hits 60 degrees F and complain about how cold it is.  But it really was cold in Munich/Vilshofen, Passau and Regensberg.  Probably in the 50's, which for me is terrible because I'm used to t-shirt and sandals weather.  It warmed up to the mid 70's while in Austria and beyond, where we went to H&M and bought a bunch of t-shirts because everything we brought was too warm for the weather.  We actually didn't hit rain at all on the cruise, though we hit (light) rain on 2 days in Germany pre-cruise.  

If I were going to do Salzburg again - the tour ends at lunch, which for us, was at St. Peter Stiftskulinarium (?) Restaurant that's right next to St. Peter's Cemetery, which inspired the cemetery scene in Sound of Music (it was gorgeous and an interesting walk through - and they have catacombs, but we didn't do those).  I would have skipped lunch and taken a turn in the cemetery (since you're right there) and walked a few minutes to take the funicular up to the fortress (also pretty close to the restaurant).  Probably do an hour up there taking photos of the view and briefly look at some of the stuff in the museum, come down, do Mozart's birthplace museum for an hour, and then spend the last hour sitting in a little cafe having cake and coffee.   

My parents are also the "if you've paid for it you better eat it" types, but they were both underwhelmed by the lunch.  The ship also serves schnitzel, and it's better on the ship, so you're not missing out on anything.  

3 hours ago, bayjoens said:

We are taking that same Salzburg tour. Do I understand you correctly? Once you get there, you have only an hour tour and then are on your own for 2-3 hours? That's great to know so I can do my research ahead of time and know what we want to do.

We left at 8:30 on the dot, and based on the timestamp of my photos (I had to look because my  brain is still not fully in gear after 3 weeks off) we arrived in Salzburg at 11 am, and that's after a restroom stop that happened around 9:45 am.  I think that stop was around 15-20 minutes for everyone to be able to use the restroom (we left just after breakfast 😀) and to be able to stretch their legs, grab a snack (if they want to), and take in the view - because the view at the rest stop was AMAZING.    The tour went on for a little over an hour, because we were having lunch by 12:30 pm and my family had already started wandering the city on our own by 1:15 or so.  If you eat quickly, you can get a good solid 2 hours of touring time in - we didn't, we kind of dawdled.  The meal is just schnitzel and a super sweet meringue dessert that none of us could finish.  Unless you have a burning desire to try it, skipping out on dessert honestly isn't a big deal considering your'e in a city full of chocolates, cakes (so many cakes!) and coffee.  IF YOU WANT TO - and it's up to you, because the cost of the tour includes lunch - you could skip out once the guided portion of the tour ends, grab something quick to tide you over, and immediately go off and tour so you have a good 3 hours of free time instead.  As I recall, our meeting time was 3:15 and we as a group then walked across the bridge to the other side of Salzburg and got on the bus there.  So if you're willing to skip lunch (which if I were going to do it again, I would skip lunch, grab a snack - there are so many - and then just go off on my own with an extra hour to see and do everything - even if it's just sitting at a little 300 year old cafe drinking coffee and eating cake) - that frees up more time for you.

They made it VERY clear where the meeting point at 3:15 was.  They tell you repeatedly, the guide hammers it in.  BUT - if you have internet access, the easy thing to do is to go on google maps and drop a pin by the meeting point so you can make sure you don't get lost and feel free to wander the city without worrying.  I had a few people from our ship connect to my hotspot and do that when I told them during lunch that's how we're going to find our way back.  But the city is very small, it's hard to get lost. 

3 hours ago, bayjoens said:

I'm also happy to hear how well they handled the low water levels. Our trip includes a couple of nights in Budapest anyway, so if we need to leave the ship early, hopefully they'll put us in the hotel already assigned so we don't have to move.

For our cruise, because the decision/edict that we could not sail through to Budapest came down on Friday (I think.  They told us at port talk , though they hinted at the possibility the night before - and this was after telling us at the introduction cocktail hour that we should be okay to sail the whole way) they had to scramble to get hotel rooms for 135 passenger for the next Monday.  I know the group staying with Gate 1 in Budapest were booked in the Sofitel for their extended tour, but they did not have enough rooms to accommodate a group that size on such short notice, so that group stayed at the Hotel Hungaria, which I heard was dated so the group was not thrilled (we were assigned to the Hilton in Buda and it was awesome).  For the group on the extended tour, they had to put their luggage out by (I think) 6:30 or 7am the morning of departure and they were taken to a village outside of Budapest for a tour while their luggage was sorted and they were checked into the Sofitel that afternoon.  So - be prepared for the very real possibility that you'd have to live out of a suitcase for a night and not get to settle into your real Budapest hotel.  

2 hours ago, Budget Queen said:

I’m sailing next week in the opposite direction. So you were able to sail???  I got a notice the water levels were low and we might have to be bused.     

Budget Queen - we were able to sail from Vilshofen to Vienna.  We were supposed to go from Vienna to Bratislava and then to Budapest, but couldn't sail beyond Vienna.  What I heard was that passengers set to depart from Budapest were being put up in hotels in Budapest in lieu of staying on the ship that couldn't make it there and after their city tours, bused over to Vienna (or wherever they can port) where the ships are docked.  It was about a 3.5 hour bus ride from Vienna to Budapest for us.  

I'm going to post the daily programs (I forgot to take a photo of the embarkation one) for those who find them helpful.  Keep in mind, a river cruise is MUCH more fluid than an ocean cruise - so times and locations may/will change from one cruise to another, especially depending on the level of the Danube.  We had to move from berth to berth the last few days while docked in Vienna as the berth we were at had already been booked for another ship since we were already supposed to be gone - so that may affect the schedule as well.

My review on CC just got published for those who are interested.  It has some more specific details as well as menus and some pictures of the food.

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=635965&et_cid=3110946&et_rid=16752865&et_referrer=June 2008 Boards Mailing

Dogs4fun - if you do it independently, that will give you more time in Salzburg than we had.  I considered it, but I thought it would be too stressful for me (and especially my parents) while on vacation - so I did what I almost never do - I paid for a cruise excursion rather than doing it independently.

We didn't have 6 hours.  If I'm being generous, I think we had maybe 5 (or 4.5)?  Our walking tour of Salzburg was (I think) a little over an hour.  We only had about 2 hours of free time after lunch, and for me, that wasn't enough.  While we walked by and looked at Mozart's birthplace and were shown where to buy tickets for the funicular, the walking tours on Gate 1 (and I suspect on other river cruises as well) are just introductions to the places you'd want to see later on your own.  Places of interest would be pointed out to us - their histories often spoken of - but it was understood if we wanted to visit the museums/sights/churches, it would be during free time.  I think if you do Gate 1 and you ate fast (the lunch was...ok.  The schnitzel was dry.  It wasn't bad, but being a barbaric American, I kept wishing I had a vat of ranch to dip it in) you could fit in the funicular (if you just want to look around, not spend a lot 

I *do* think though, that you benefit from walking through the city with a guide who can put what you see into historical/artistic/cultural perspective.  A building can be very pretty and look old and awesome, but you don't truly appreciate it until you actually know what the flourishes on the building mean, why it looks a certain way, and how it was impacted by or did impact history.  Just my 2 cents.

Dogs4fun - you're going to have so much fun!  To answer your questions:

1.  The schedule indicated that we docked in Linz at 6 am.  Unfortunately, I am a sloth in the morning and my alarm did not go off until 7, so I don't know for a fact if it was 6 or a little before or after.  But I do know we were docked when I did wake up at 7.

2.  Early bird breakfast is/was from 6am to 7 am in the smaller rear lounge.  As I never got up that early, I always had breakfast in the main restaurant.  But from what I recall (from announcements, not experience) it was a continental style breakfast served there instead of a full breakfast. 

3.  All aboard was set for 6:45pm...that's when the ship actually left.  They were super, duper punctual (for the most part.  There was only one incident of delay and it was a bus/traffic issue) and the ship left on the dot of when they said they were going to leave as did tours. There was no dawdling and they did not play.  Our buses were scheduled to return around 6pm with port talk scheduled for 6:45, and the ship most definitely left on time, if not a few minutes earlier.  

Hello all.  I just returned from a Gate 1 cruise on the Monarch Princess a few days ago - so the details are still fresh.  I wrote a review (that hasn't posted yet - so I thought I'd do it here first/too) and I want to make myself available for questions because of the dearth of information out there when I was researching my own river cruise.  Every review or tidbit that I could find on it was gratefully digested and filed away - but I told myself that I would write a review and answer questions when I came back so super OCD planners like myself have an extra review/resource to help when planning.

About me (us): I'm in my 30's and went on the river cruise with my parents who are in their 60's.  The other passengers tended to be of retirement age, though still pretty active, and as it there were only 135 passengers on our cruise, it was much more social and intimate than an ocean cruise usually is.  As a caveat though - I'm pretty introverted and also socially awkward around people I don't know, so I didn't participate in the social activities the ship hosted every night in the lounge after dinner.  (I went to my cabin and binge watched shows and movies I downloaded onto my tablet instead).  My experience on the cruise will be different if you're someone who likes lots of activities and loves to meet new people.

THE SHIP

The ship is...well, not that much to look at on the outside.  The outside is a little underwhelming.  It's a repurposed Avalon ship, and you can tell when there's an Avalon ship nearby because the lines are similar.  But the paint job and the Gate 1 logo painted on the outside of the Monarch Princess are not inspiring.  She's not very showy on the outside, and compared to the other ships by Scenic and Viking and Avalon - she looks kind of like the drab sparrow.  However, the interior of the ship was WAY beyond my expectations.  On the inside, it has the feel of an upscale hotel.  Clean lines, neutral palette, classy finishes and furnishings dominate once you enter the ship.  Because Gate 1 was so much less expensive than the other river cruise lines, I was expecting something more along the lines of Holiday Inn.  But for Holiday Inn pricing, we got the W Hotel, so I was very pleasantly surprised.  Nothing seemed old or worn - everything was in good condition, and the ship was sparkling clean.  There are 2 lounges - the large main lounge at the front of the ship where we had our nightly port talks as well as activities and entertainment, and the quieter and smaller rear lounge where they serve an early breakfast (from 6-7 am before the main dining room opens - usually around 7am) and where there's usually cakes, ice water, coffees and teas.  There is one main dining room with plenty of tables for 4 and 6 - and a few tables that seat 8.  There's a (small) gym that I heard about and was spoken of - but I'm not the type of person who is going to go to the gym on vacation, so I can't say anything about it other than the cruise director saying there is one.  There was a "salon" on board - and one masseuse on board - and the one "sea day" - which was the afternoon we spent cruising the Wachau Valley - I know she was booked up (though I heard from other passengers the massage wasn't very good, so despite loving massages, I did not partake).  

THE ROOM

I loved my cabin.  We had a cabin on the 3rd floor (the highest floor) and each room has a juliette balcony.  While the space was small, it was laid out VERY well, with plenty of cabinets and storage.  There are 2 small (movable) night stands, ONE chair opposite the bed, lots of closet space, a small safe, a small fridge, and a very well laid out bathroom.  Each cabin also had 2 robes.  My favorite thing about the bathroom was the glass door to the shower.  The shower, while not roomy, was larger than the ones in ocean cruises - so while it's not large, there was plenty of space to shave my legs - though no ledge, so I did have to crouch down.  The bathroom was a lot nicer than ocean cruising bathrooms - aside from those in penthouses.  It was certainly nicer with better finishes (lots of wood) than the plastic and vinyl bathrooms we see on most ocean cruises.  Their toiletry game was ON POINT.  They used Rituals products - which I was perfectly happy to use despite being super duper picky about my shampoos, soaps and lotions.  They provide it all - even some cotton pads and q-tips.  There was a shoe polisher and a sewing kit along with every bathing item you could think of.  The towels, while not super plush, were of good quality - plentiful and clean.  Our room steward came in twice a day - during/after breakfast when we were all on excursions, and during dinner for turn downs.  They also provided us with 2 bottles of water a day, so we'd have water available for excursions the next day.  And turn down also included chocolates on the pillow.

While they had a small TV in the room, the channels were limited and uninspiring.  They did have an accessible HDMI, so we hooked up our Roku player to the TV.  While there is wifi on the ship, it's not super strong - it's good enough to check your email and social media, but certainly not enough for for streaming.  We had rented a portable wifi hotspot, so we had enough bandwidth on that for streaming on most nights - so we could watch Amazon videos,  Youtube, and Netflix from our own cabin.  

THE FOOD

The food was amazing.  I've never been on a river cruise before, only ocean cruises, and this was the best cruise food I've ever had.  I know Gate 1 has a lot less variety than Viking or Avalon, but I never felt like we didn't have enough choices and everything we ate was good.  Breakfast and lunch were usually served buffet style.  There were the pastries, breads, muffins, yogurts and cereals.  Then there was scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage every morning.  I think they also had hard boiled eggs everyday too.  There's a chef there at the counter who could make you omelets or eggs your way, and there was also smoked salmon, fruit, and oatmeal available too.  There was a self serve area with various fruit juices, and wait staff was available for coffee as well as the special of the day.  For breakfast, they had a different special each morning you could order from the staff.  For lunch, there may be some sandwiches and soup available for order, but there was always plenty to eat from the lunch buffet.  There were sandwich fixings, various meats, sauteed/roasted vegetables, and plenty of carbs.  Dinners were table service only, except for the first night in Vienna when a lot of people went to see the Mozart/Strauss performance (optional tour) - it was buffet that night to accommodate the different schedules of the passengers.  Otherwise dinner was at 7 pm, right after port talk which took place at 6:45 in the main lounge.  Dinner usually consisted of a soup (we had a choice between 2), an appetizer, entrees (meat, fish, or vegetarian.  They also had chicken breast with sauteed vegetables and caesar salad always available) and dessert (fruit and a cheese plate were always available.  Otherwise, you could choose from 2).

The servings were not very large, but they were European servings, not American.  However, the chef told us that we could always order more, and we took advantage of that a few times during the cruise and the staff never had any issues bringing out an extra soup or an extra entree or an extra dessert.  I know that wine is available with dinner, but I don't drink, so I always got diet cokes at dinner because all beverages were included then.

While the food was not as abundant as on an ocean cruise where there are pizza parlors and 24 hour cafes and room service and buffets, I never went hungry.  I know they had late night snacks available in the lounge from 10-11, but I never went, so I don't know how much food or what types of snacks were available.  The quality was excellent though - each night it felt like we were dining in a very nice restaurant and I would put the food on par with specialty restaurants on ocean cruises.

THE EXCURSIONS

Walking excursions were available in each port.  They always had local guides to take us, and we usually departed at 8:30 am.  Because there were 135 of us, they had to separate us into smaller groups.  The way they do that is by putting out baskets with different colored tabs.  You go and grab these little colored tabs for your group.  That determined which bus/walking tour group you were with that day.  The colored tabs distributed the buses and tour groups evenly, and they also indicated which channel you should tune to.  Speaking of which, we had "whisper" units in each room along with headphones.  That's what we used for all the tours so the guides didn't have to yell to be heard.  They also had charging units in our rooms which emitted enough light at night for me to stumble my way to the bathroom without falling and knocking myself out.  

We didn't have ID cards - so when we went on and off the ship, we went to reception for our "boarding cards", which were laminated cards with our cabin numbers on them.  They could tell who was here and who was off the ship based on the cards alone.  Low tech, but effective.  Getting on and off the ship was super easy.  Sometimes we were tied up to another ship and they'd walk through our ship or we'd walk through theirs, but we didn't have to swipe any cards, and we didn't have to through security to get back onto the ship.  When the ship was in port though, and the doors weren't open because a bus of us were returning, the doors were usually locked to the ship.  Our room cards had chips in them that we would swipe to open the doors, and that's how they kept non-guests off the ship. 

Overall, the excursions were good.  Not great, because they were basic walking tours.  They lasted around an hour, and they were a brief overview/intro to the city.  They didn't take us into any churches, but introduced the church and if we wanted to visit something, that was up to us during free time.  The problem was for the most part, I didn't feel like we got enough free time.  Sometimes it was under an hour, sometimes around 2.  At most, it was 3.  So while there were attractions I wanted to follow up on, I had to pick and choose because generally, I only had enough time for one when we were released from our tours.  We did 2 optional tours - Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna and Salzburg when we docked in Linz.  Those went into a little more detail, and I thought they were both worth the money.  I do wish though, we had more time in Salzburg, but it was a 1.5 hour drive to and from Linz, so we couldn't leave too late.  However, the drive was through some very scenic places, so it wasn't a boring drive at all, and the guide talked through a lot of the drive there telling us the history of the places we'd see in Salzburg.

SERVICE

Service was exceptional from the staff.  The cruise director (Karol) was great, the activity coordinator (Daniele) was engaging and fun, and our steward, the receptionist, and the waitstaff we had were all amazing.  We got really good service. Our luggage (we paid for the transport from Munich airport to Vilshofen) was taken off the bus and taken directly to our cabins, and when we had to leave the ship a day early (low levels in the Danube meant we couldn't sail into - or any ships out of - Budapest), Gate 1 got us all hotel rooms for the last night (we were assigned to the Hilton on the Buda side in the castle district - a PHENOMENAL hotel), arranged a really wonderful dinner at one of the hotels (we were split into 3 different hotels because it was determined halfway through the sailing that we couldn't complete it, so they scrambled for accommodations for all of us) with opera singers and a string quartet, and a night cruise on the Danube to see the city lit up.  By the time we checked into our hotel after the city tour, all of our luggage had arrived in our rooms as well.  So Gate 1 took VERY good care of us and we have no complaints about them at all.

We had a really good cruise with Gate 1 and would cruise with them again.  I thought it was a good value, and I though I was a little worried because I thought we were taking the budget cruise - we had walked through some other ships who had been tied up to us and I actually didn't think those ships looked nicer (on the inside) than ours.  I never felt like anything was missing or we were getting gyped.  I honestly felt like we got a steal and they left me with a very good impression.

I'll lurk here on the boards for a few days if anyone has any questions.  

I'm currently on the Monarch Princess which left Vilshofen on 10/2 and was sailing to Budapest. We were told yesterday (10/5) that the water levels have fallen too low to be able it make it into Budapest, and Vienna is as far as we can go. We are staying here for 3 nights, we're going to be bussed to Bratislava for a day trip then come back to the ship, and on 10/8, what was to be our last night on the ship, we're going to be bussed to Budapest and spend the night at a hotel there. Because of the short notice (we had been told sailing to Budapest shouldn't be a problem when we embarked) our ship is being booked into 3 separate hotels. I'm staying at the Hilton on the Buda side, which suits me as I have 2 nights post cruise booked on the Pest side. But being that we are only doing one night in a hotel, that's already better than I anticipated after monitoring this thread for the last 2 months.

reviving an old thread (sorry) - but I got off the Island Princess about a week ago and it was Captain Tuvo (FLL to LA through the Panama Canal - 12/6-12/21, though our departure was delayed a day). It was my 11th (?) cruise, and I have never ever paid attention to or even remembered a captain. I will remember him! And like others, I would totally take a cruise just to cruise with him. He was just such a nice man - entertaining on the big stage, but super friendly and charismatic when one on one. I did the Ultimate Ship Tour, and he kept us in the bridge for over 40 minutes chatting, and asked us to stay longer so we could be there when he did the daily announcements at noon and we could all say "bye bye!" together. He genuinely just had fun! He was always out and about and it was like seeing a celebrity :D People fawned over him, but he was just soooo nice! I don't know where he's going next, but he did say that his family will be with him on the Christmas cruise from LA to FLL through the Panama Canal on the Island Princess.

thank you for posting! We're doing a FLL to LA Canal crossing next week so I'm super excited to see your review. Great review with fantastic photos. Glad to see you had fun! :)

we saw the aurora last September (3rd and 4th) when we were up in Fairbanks, but it's completely hit and miss and depends on a whole lot of factors that I'm not smart enough to explain (if you want to see photos, I have a link to my trip report in my signature). I don't think it's impossible to see it from a cruise ship, but it's a lot harder - it's too bright, and generally unless it's a big show you're not far north enough to be able to see it clearly. But it CAN be done in September. Good luck!

go with Chilkoot! We went with them last year and had a blast. What sold me was the small tour group - because Chilkoot gets their own train car, so less people = more seats and room to move around. I went with NCL the first time we did White Pass. That was no bueno; large bus packed with people and the train car was crazy full - if you happened to be sitting on the good side for the view (left side if going up and right side going down) the NCL train car had people who got seats on the other side literally hanging over you to look out your window and to take pictures over your head. That was a little uncomfortable to have strangers literally hanging over me. Our Chilkoot car was only half filled, so everyone had a seat on the good side and we all just used the other side of the train to store our jackets and bags. And we got the caboose! So we got to take turns standing on the platform on the back and take some awesome photos.

We did Alaska mid-September of last year and saw plenty of whales during our whale watching excursion. Have fun! :)

We had a good experience with Anchorage Tours and Transfers, though we had opted for the transfer with the mini-tour that included the wildlife center. They have a direct option with no stops, but from what I recall it arrives at the same time as the one with the tour did, that one just left Anchorage later.

http://www.akcruiseshuttle.com/

With the tour it's $45, without it's $30.

Good luck and have fun planning :)

Janikh: thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it and found some useful information. I always felt like I got the most out of reading the trip reports of others to see what their experiences with each outfit or excursion was like. Have fun planning! Being a crazy person, I always think that's half the fun.

Miss Dot: I don't remember seeing any bears with fish??? :confused: But it may be my senility kicking in.

It took me a long time to wrap up, but I'm happy if it helps anyone in their trip planning because I get so much from the trip reports of others.