reeves35

Melbourne for an overnight (dock 0800 depart 1700 next day) - Plenty of things to do and just about everything is open on a weekend. Ship will dock at Station Pier in Port Melbourne which is 15 minute tram ride into CBD. Dunedin (0900-1900) We did an independent 3 port tour (Dunedin, Wellington and Napier) that we bought on line. It was great in covering the sites in all 3 cities with pickups at or near the port.. Christchurch (0800-1800) Haven't cruised there but I understand the port is about 12kms from Christchurch. Christchurch is a pretty city but there is plenty to also see in the Canterbury region Picton (0900-1900) Really pretty place if the weather is good. Cruise ships dock about 3kms from town with bus transfers between port. This is near the Marlborough wine region if you like Sauvignon Blancs. Wellington (0700-1700) See above. Large cruise ships dock in container port with bus transfers Gisborne (1000-1800) Haven't been Rotorua (Tauranga)(0900-1800) Tauranga and Mount Maunganui are pretty seaside towns in their own right. Rotorua is about 60kms inland and is a centre for Maori culture as well as the smelly thermal ponds etc. Whangarei (0800-1900) Haven't been Napier (1000-1800) See above. Our tour did both Napier and the wider Hawkes bay region which was good as the scenery is great and there are only so many art-deco houses you can look at before getting a bit bored. Bluff (0800-1700) Haven't been A 2nd Overnight in Melbourne (1000-0400) As above. Given they are overnight stays, you may want to look at a trip to Phillip Island to see the famous penguins, wildlife and stunning coastline. In summer, these wouldn't get back to the city / port until after midnight as it is about 130km to the island. Geelong (0800-1800) Anchor From Geelong, the obvious day tours would be along the stunning Great Ocean Road to towns such as Lorne and Torquay as well as the subtropical rainforests of the Otway Ranges

Coral Princess is a little bit larger than Sun Class 91,000 tonnes compared with the Sun Clas at 77,000 tonnes. It is also about 30 metres longer but has very similar capacity of just under 2000 passengers. Ships this size (also including ships such as Carnival's Spirit class and RCL's Radiance Class) do seem ideally suited to Australian waters for a few reasons. 2,000 passengers is about the size the cruiselines can consistently fill year round. Much bigger than that and there can be very light loads in the off-season which means the ships have to sent to Asia or Alaska over our winter so they can be profitably deployed. Given many ports in the Pacific rely on tendering, anything much bigger can be quite painful for passengers to get off and on the ship. Significantly larger ships such as RCL's Oasis class were not designed for tendering at all. Ships this size can still have a range of features that make them desirable such as specialty restaurants, waterslides etc. Smaller ships, of which there aren't many left anyway except for the premium lines, are limited in this regard.

It is a slightly bonkers system. When I booked my June cruise, all mini-suites and suites were shown as fully booked so I was slightly bemused to be offered to bid for an upgrade to a non-existent room. I guess they could use them for late cancellations but it does seem a bit clumsy. The airlines upgrade system is more sophisticated in that it targets specific passengers and only really offers seats that are likely to become available though the airline system has meant it is now even harder to get an upgrade using points.

Yes there does seem to be a disparity between Travelmarvel and Scenic. Maybe Travelmarvel is cheaper as everyone pays for all laundry with no free laundry inclusions whereas a significant portion of Scenic passengers have a free component. It would be interesting to see if APT have the same pricelist as Travelmarvel.

Attached is the laundry price list from Travelmarvel APT on their European river cruises. Overall, I don't think they are unreasonable.

What country/language does Tauck target for its key sales? I notice their website offers AUD pricing but I never see any advertising or travel agent promotions for them here. Their pricing looks high so I assume they are targetted at the ultra-premium end of the market against brands such as Uniworld rather than more mainstream brands like Scenic, APT and Viking.

It was announced at P&O's recent celebrations that the channel at Townsville is being dredged so cruise ships can enter the port. It would add another potential port on North Qld itineraries though a cruise around Willis Island would still be required to allow the duty free shops to open up.

I haven't been on Grand Princess but would expect that it is the next ship to leave the Princess fleet. It is the oldest ship in the fleet by far and the only remaining member of the original Grand class in the fleet with her sisters Golden and Star now both with P&O Aust.

The simple fact is the cruiselines can make a lot more money from their ships doing a northern hemisphere season in Alaska or Northern Asia than they can by keeping them in Australian waters. As has been said, Australia is a very big place with only a limited number of port options. In winter months, the realistic departure points for those wanting to quickly escape the cold are Brisbane, Cairns or Darwin but the latter two mean a very expensive airfare usually has to be added to the fare cost. Smaller ships can and do offer itineraries over winter from northern ports but the daily cruise fare is typically 3 or 4 times what is expected on the main cruiselines. Melbourne has a short season because it is really only suited to southern Australia or NZ itineraries. Pacific Island itineraries struggle from Melbourne because, for the same amount of time to be available in the islands, the overall cruise has to be 4 days longer than the equivalent cruise from Sydney and, in cooler months, those extra days are probably going to be spent stuck indoors. Many complain about itineraries from Sydney and Brisbane but the options are limited. For a 7-10 day cruise, the options are New Caledonia/Vanuatu or North Queensland and the latter requires a day cruise out to Willis Island so the lines can offer profitable duty free shopping onboard. There are longer cruise options such as PNG, Fiji or Samoa but these are typically much harder to fill and usually end up with too many sea-days for many passengers.

I made a booking last week on Explorer and had the same note appear on my booking confirmation which, at the time, was only a 72 hour hold. I rang P&O and said that if I couldn't get a Queen bed I would not go ahead with the booking. The agent on the phone changed my booking over the phone so that I got the configuration I wanted. Obviously, this can be a problem with discounted guaranteed cabin bookings as the guaranteed bookings get whatever is left after the specific cabin bookings are completed so it is something to keep an eye out for.

Glad you're getting back on your feet. My mum lost my dad when she was only 43 and found sole travel a great experience and way to meet new people.

What a disappointing outcome. Like you, I have saved for a one-in-a-lifetime experience for our Travelmarvel cruise in August and would be shattered if it ended up like yours has. I don't blame you for hopping off; you didn't pay the amount you have to do a bus tour. Hopefully, Scenic compensates you handsomely even though it won't overcome your disappointment but maybe you can try again sometime in the future though I assume you'll be looking at someone other than Scenic.

That is incredibly disappointing; Regensberg is not even halfway to Amsterdam so your holiday can hardly be called a river cruise at all. I do not understand how Scenic cannot organise an alternative ship to meet you up further up-river to resume your cruise onboard as you would have thought they have a similar issue with ships heading towards Budapest. I would be demanding a substantial portion of your cruise cost to be refunded.

Apparently there are quite a few baths in Budapest. The only advice I have heard is don't put your head under water. Two people I know went to the baths and both got very bad ear infections which meant they were unable to fly for a week.

It is USD10300 per person including 14 day cruise and Business Class flights. We've been saving for a few years for this trip. It was originally supposed to be in 2021 but delayed due to COVID. I am spending a week in UK before joining cruise in Amsterdam so am flying into London and home from Budapest via Frankfurt. There are no non-stop flights from eastern Australia (Sydney, Melbourne) to Europe. My flight goes via Singapore so it is an 8 hour flight from Melbourne to Singapore and then 13 hours from Singapore to London. Currently, the only nonstop to Europe from Australia is from Perth (west coast of Australia) to London on Qantas which a 17.5 hour flight. Qantas is buying some long range Airbus A350s and hopes to start nonstop flights from Melbourne and Sydney to London (and New York) in about 2025. These flights will be about 20.5 hours nonstop. This is dubbed Project Sunrise as on eastbound flights you would see the sun rise twice on the same flight.

It's interesting to see how Viking behaves in US. It is quite different here in Australia which may be because Viking is far from the largest seller of river cruises in this part of world where Scenic (including Emerald) and APT (including Travelmarvel) dominate. Here, you would expect free airfares to Europe to be included in most river cruises over 10 days and usually there is also an option to upgrade to Premium Economy or Business Class particularly as, from Australia, the flight time to Europe is over 24 hours. I am booked on a Travelmarvel 14 night European Gems (same as Grand European) in August where the base fare in a balcony cabin including economy flights on Singapore Airlines, Qatar or Emirates was about USD6900. Travelmarvel offered the option to upgrade to Premium Economy for about USD1150 or Business Class for USD3400. I have taken the Business Class option on Singapore Airlines for an all up holiday cost of around USD10300 which is great value when you consider that just a Business Class fare to Europe from Australia in August is around USD7500.

In relation to the Continental Divide that separates the Rhine basin from the Danube basin, is this divide also considered the effective border between western Europe and central Europe?

Yes I am looking forward to the climb that take us up over the continental divide. Apparently we will go through over 60 locks so they'll probably start out very exciting and end up very mundane.

During your cruise, how many ports had late evening departures from ports? I am interested in hopping back of the ship after a quick dinner in the bar and exploring towns in the evening but unsure how often this is possible.

River cruises undoubtedly are targetted at Baby Boomers with average ages being between 55 and 70 despite the brochures often showing guests much younger than you would regularly encounter. As has been said, many river cruiselines actively discourage children though a few are running special family cruises during school holidays but families need to be aware that the ships do not contain dedicated children areas and many of the destinations may not be particularly exciting for children. If you are trying to find a slightly younger crowd, you should probably look at the 4 star lines rather than 5 star. Some cruiselines have two brands within their stable such as APT (5*) having Travelmarvel (4*) and Scenic (5*) having Emerald (4*).

I'm not familiar with the Rhine and Danube, though having a selfish interest as I'm on a Travelmarvel cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest in August. Can you tell me what ability there is to dam excess water in the Rhine or Danube systems during periods of plenty which can be released later during summer when levels tend to drop?

Hi Do you know if Travelmarvel offers a prepaid drinks package covering drinks outside of lunch and dinner?

Hi, my wife was wondering what the dress standards were like? She is trying to decide whether she bring a nice dress with her or not.

Hi Going on Travelmarvel next year on European Gems Cruise. Looking forward to to it. How good was the food? DId you eat in all the different venues? What were the bar prices like outside of meal times?