curmudgeon98

A few more comments to wrap up my review of our CroisiEurope cruise of Elbe river on Elbe Princess II. We very much enjoyed it, but it wouldn't necessarily suit everyone. The fixed menus for lunch and dinner would be an issue for some folks. English was definitely a secondary language for the cruise, but it didn't cause any issues, and many of the French and Belgian guests spoke English quite well. The wine served at meals was pretty generic French table wine. The included excursions ranged in quality from so-so to quite good, but we would probably have enjoyed the cruise just as much visiting towns on our own without excursions (except that at times the boat was moving during the excursion so we couldn't have just done the town on our own). Our Wittenburg visit was definitely enhanced by a good guide. Dresden is becoming quite attractive to the tourist; I could have happily spent several days there with the Zwinger museum complex and the restored old palace and market square. The crew were fantastic, always friendly and eager to help.

We are indeed on Elbe Princess 2. Some discussion with the crew says that water levels are a definite concern for the cruise going upstream next week. The ship draws 90cm of water, but in sections of the river with rocky bottom, safety requirements are to have an additional 1 meter of water depth. This mostly affects the section of the river from just past the last lock in Czech Republic down to Dresden. I don't think there were any locks or river level controls from the border until Magdeburg. We didn't stop in Decin, but instead had an excursion in Litomerice (which didn't really have a lot for tourists either).

So we are about half way through our cruise on Elbe Princess II from Prague to Berlin. We met the other CroisiEurope boat heading upriver today. We are taking a quiet afternoon, so I will give some notes on the cruise now, and plan to follow up with more after we finish. This is our first river cruise, so I don't have a lot of perspective for comparisons to others. The boat is relatively small for river cruisers, 75 passengers and 25 crew. Cabins are on two decks, so the lower deck (which we are on) still has pretty good views (the river level outside is probably about knee-deep when in our cabin, and the bottom of the cabin window about waist-high on me). All cabins are 140 sf; fairly tight, but manageable. The bathroom/shower is tight but functional (better than R-class ocean cruise ships like Azamara). It is a modern diesel-electric paddle wheel boat (to better handle shallow water conditions). The passenger demographic is mostly from France/Belgium, but also parties from Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and Germany. Announcements are made in French, followed by an abbreviated English version. There are eight of us English-speakers in two parties on board, so they have us seated at one large table for meals. We've enjoyed the company, but I suppose that could be awkward in some situations. Meals are a buffet breakfast and fixed menu 3-course lunch and dinner. They will adapt things on request (one person at our table doesn't like fish, so they get an alternative for fish courses. Food has been quite good. I'm quite happy to have taken the CroisiEurope trip that goes along the actual river from Prague (Vlatava at that point), as we found that section of the river and the upper Elbe to be very scenic. The Viking cruises use a bus from Prague and meet their boat somewhere on the Elbe (we saw the two Viking boats yesterday in Dresden, they are similar size to ours, but don't use the paddle wheel propulsion). The cruises sold in the US include excursions (also in some packages sold in Europe). The excursions have been pretty well designed, with good guides, but being Easter week there have been some some limitations and closures. We've skipped some excursions that were less interesting or duplicated what we've done on our own. The English speakers got a guide of our own which has been nice in making the group a comfortable size (if we were in a group of 30, I would have skipped more of the tours). Weather has been very nice, with the exception of a lot of dust in the air (from dust storms in the Sahara!). Several days were 70f, while others were low 60's.

There is a lot of sheep country in NZ that I felt was interesting for a day, but not much more. The vineyards have more potential, but we are surrounded by wine country at home. The towns and cities were pleasant enough, but not compelling. Our favorites on the South Island: Abel Tasman NP, Milford Sound, Fox and Franz Josef glaciers, lake and glowworm cave at Te Anau, the mountain passes. Would have liked to have gone to Bluff and Oban, and maybe Queen Charlotte trek, but not enough time. Our favorites on the North Island: Kerikeri/Bay of Islands and some of the forest reserves in the area, Mahurangi Inlet. We didn't make it to Taupo or Rotorua. But there are always more places one could go on a trip, and we all have different priorities and time limitations. We've though about organizing a family group trip to NZ, and doing it via a cruise would make life vastly simpler so that may be our return visit model.

Thanks very much for the detailed report and review. DW and I had been looking at doing a AU/NZ cruise this year. As we looked at various itineraries, though, they all seemed rather limited when compared to the land-based trip we had made 10 years ago (time on Rarotonga, plus 2.5 weeks via rental cars in NZ). I don't think the ports bring out the highlights of NZ. If I were to overlay maps of your trip and ours, I think the only touch points would have been Milford Sound, Queenstown, and Auckland airport. That said, there is still a lot of convenience factor to a cruise there, and we might still end up on one some day (less travel time for us from the west coast). Great Ocean Road is still on my list to see, but hopefully not at peak tourist season.

I suspect the larger ships are actually "greener" on a per passenger basis than smaller ships (especially R-class, but even newer small ships). There's just more efficiency in propulsion, crew, and hotel systems. I agree that the sheer size, especially draft, could have a greater negative impact in certain cases, but many of the popular ports are already dealing with multiple ships in port at once, so the port impact is often more a matter of total passengers rather than ship size. If you talk to folks on many of the small islands, you tend to hear stories of regret as to how the island has been paved over with resort hotels, even aside from the cruise ship impact. But there's also appreciation for jobs, medical care, and transport links that wouldn't be possible without tourists. I avoid the big ships myself, but I try not to look down on those who choose them. In my own prejudices, small ships and land-based tourists are more at fault for pushing tourism into places like Antarctica and Mt Everest where it doesn't belong. We can always find somebody to pick on.

I have to say I'm a bit of mixed mind on this one. A few years ago on our first Azamara cruise, we had the evening in Valencia. A good setting, at the Hemisphere, and a decent show with acrobatics, music, and dancing. But the logistics of getting 600 or 700 people from the ship to the show, and back afterwards, left me not that excited (not that it was badly handled, but standing around in parking lots waiting to load that many people on buses just takes time). I'm sure in some cases the setting can make it worthwhile, but it's hard to get settings that are interesting, have workable transportation, and are reliable for weather. Our most recent Azamara cruises had the onboard destination celebration (Greek fiddler and band), and while the pool deck was less impressive than an ancient amphitheater, it was still quite enjoyable and much more convenient.

Too often I think the luxury lines try to use "luxury" ingredients, and elaborate place settings, but lately haven't been so good on attention to detail in preparation and delivery timing. Our Regent cruise last year was bad about making a big show of service, but delivering lukewarm food with awkward pacing between courses. Seabourn was a bit better on that, but again didn't wow us. Our experience with Azamara has been better delivery, though somewhat less luxe ingredients. The included wines on our last Azamara cruise, on the other hand, were pretty poor. Overall, I don't expect a cruise line to deliver the meal quality that a decent owner-run restaurant does, I just hope that it's "close enough" to be reasonable. Silversea has some itineraries that I find attractive, at a price we can live with. I'm waiting to see if they relax the dress code enough to fit my personal tolerance level (I don't mind bringing a sports coat, but I begrudge managing the luggage for the suit-and-tie/tux routine).

My understanding is that there are two cruise docks in Sydney, One at Circular Quay, and one at White Bay. Either might be used by Azamara depending on the circumstances (and assigned by the harbormaster). It wouldn't surprise me however, if the more central docking space were given to larger ships on NYE.

You probably want to look at the Rhine and Danube threads for more specific input on this. It might be worth looking back over several years at discussions in the fall.

Just booked an Elbe cruise from Prague to Berlin, going at the end of March. We are doing CroisiEurope. I called the US agent to clarify a couple of points before booking, and I really appreciated that they took care to make sure we understood that while French and English were the languages, this wouldn't be a US-centric cruise, as most passengers are from France or Belgium (She actually looked up the passenger list and said that there four other US passengers, so we'll double that count). She also made the point they have a fixed menu at lunch and dinner. We are pretty flexible, so I think we'll get on fine with this. Hopefully the river levels will cooperate...

I was thinking we had used them as well, port to apartment in Rome, and apartment to airport, but then I remembered we used civitavecchiaport.org for our trips. No problems, convenient service.

A few thoughts to add to the good info above... Paros is not typically a cruise stop (I think yours would be the only one the whole month). It seems to be more of a laid-back beach vacation island. A day at a beach, whether walking distance or using a taxi seems like the choice there. Rhodes has a good-sized old walled city that starts right at the end of the dock. Unless you have specific additional sights you want to see, you can probably occupy your day nicely with what is in walking distance. Gythion is a kind of cute, laid-back, small town. There is a variety of shops and cafes, but not a lot of local sightseeing to do. We were happy taking a lazy day in town, but lots of people were doing bus tours up to Sparta.

Sorry, I don't remember the specific company. I found it by wandering down the docks after returning from the Quicksilver tour. It could have been Calypso, though not the same boats they are using now. Both Wavelength and Calypso look like decent options. There is some argument for doing a "snorkel-only" trip if that's your focus. On the other hand, I ended up doing a couple of "intro dives" with scuba on my trip even though I hadn't originally planned on that, so being on a mixed trip had it's advantages (they do the land class on the trip out, then an instructor stays close when you dive).

We did a Western Med and Canary Islands cruise in January one year, along with some time in southern Spain and Barcelona. We hit stormy weather in the Atlantic, and got shut out of Casablanca and Madeira because the winds were too high. A good trip overall, but not lay out by the pool weather. We would sit outside at sidewalk cafes in the Canary Islands, but not in mainland Spain on that trip.