worldtraveller99

Thank you very much LittleFish1976, I look forward to seeing your report. Oh no! It is in a few years time we will be able to go (after husband retires, as is too long away before then). So no Japan and no Australia? Maybe they will reconsider nearer the time?

Thank you both. More to think about!

I am considering a Japan cruise. Looking at the Cunard offering there appears to be fewer ports than others and too many sea days. Is their ship just slower to get to the next place to visit? Have you tried one of these cruises and what was it like please?

We always travel on the top deck of river ships. When it docks, sometimes the lower decks are below the level of the dockside, so you are looking into a wall!

I get motion sickness very easily. I always bring along my Dramamine on river and ocean ships. During the day you will be out walking around anyway, and it doesn't hurt to take a Dramamine (or similar) at night - helps you sleep too. Interestingly I took my pills on a Brittany Ferries overnight trip in the Channel, and while I did not feel nauseous, the movement was still disconcerting, so hard to sleep. Definitely not the case on the river, which is very calm.

Thank you so much for your information Roz. I think we have a transfer to the ship from Central Station included on the initial day, so we will confirm that with our TA next year. (the hotel is just across the street). If the ship is not by the station, we can still walk back to that from the Rijksmuseum and get our own taxi to the ship on Day 2, so we do make the Canal Boat cruise in the late afternoon. I shall also give our review afterwards & see re the families (crossing all fingers not too many).

Thank you jpalbny. I shall start to watch along in October and December!

Thank you so much for this, and for your day by day review Roz. We had enjoyed our Tauck Christmas Markets Rhine cruise last year so much that we have now booked for your Amsterdam to Brussels Tauck Christmas Markets cruise for next year, at the beginning of December. May I ask - you said there were more family groups. I am not used to this with Tauck, our previous cruise was all couples or solos, who expected to share tables and make friends. Do you think at the beginning of December families will still be in school (hopefully). We aim to stay an extra day before the start in Amsterdam, at the Park Plaza Victoria opposite the station, arriving on the Eurostar from London. Do we need a transfer, or can we walk to the ship when it is time to board? Where exactly did it dock for you? Re the lady who had to make her own way back to the ship from the Rijksmuseum - if we have all that day free, then we are aiming to do that anyway, to spend another day walking through Amsterdam. What time did the group leave the museum, can you remember, and what time do we need to be back at the ship, ready for the evening Festive Canal Cruise to see the lighted artworks along the canals? Thank you if you know the answers to any of these!

Really interested to see you have booked the Christmas Markets cruise in the Baltic this December jpalbny, because we are planning to do this - not this year - it looks wonderful. We have now taken / booked for next year 4 Christmas Market European river cruises on different rivers, they are such fun. Will you be doing a day by day review please? My only concern is the sea days - I am not into gyms or pools, so I will be glad to hear what you do on the sea days? Also on your Ocean Voyage in October? Thank you very much.

Thank you so much for this - so helpful! I am trying to work out how we could sneak an extra week's cruise in soon!

jpalbny - I looked on the BA website. If you say "flexible flights" it's £9,000 one way Business Class. But if you agree to pay in advance & not bother them (claim on insurance) if things go wrong, it does go back to £3,500 - £4,000 return which is livable.

I agree Terry. In 2017 we stayed at the Moraine Lake Lodge in Alberta, Canada which was lovely. We paid around $400 a night for a double room. I saw in a magazine they are now charging £825 a night - and that's GBP! Surely most people won't pay that? Also I read (in another travel magazine) that there will be so many new cruise ships in the next 3 years that the industry is looking to attract 4 million "new to cruise" people. Surely if they stop putting prices up exponentially then some "old cruisers" like us are more likely to cruise more often?

There is still something to say for the UK NHS. Everyone here over 65 (plus vulnerable people) are still getting the COVID vaccine (updated I hope) every autumn for free. Mine is next week!x

I am sure that at some stage they will ban flying to go on holiday too. Or of course the fossil fuels will run out, so no transport is possible of any kind. But no, I think to try and specifically ban cruising is cruel - when ships are hopefully moving to less polluting fuels.

Hopefully there will be new cruises concentrating on one country - is it true that a cruise has to dock in at least 2 countries? I would like to just see New Zealand and not waste 2 sea days travelling to Australia too.

That seems very thorough! Just to say re masks on the ship, it said the same for our Alaska cruise last summer re in the theatre masks are mandatory. But then they give you a glass of champagne as you go into the theatre, and you can't mask and drink. So no masks were in sight!

PS Because many people think COVID has been and gone, or are following no-jab Novak D.

When will the COVID card stop being valid? Our NHS pass has a QR code which expires at the end of April. I probably will see if I can print a new one out this summer, with a later date on it, but I am not sure if we in the UK (under 70) will ever be offered another COVID jab?

We have only had one ocean cruise so far (and 3 brilliant river cruises - far friendlier and more fun, especially with Tauck). It was on the Silver Muse to Alaska last summer. Our butler was mostly totally absent. He didn't escort us to our cabin - we were directed to find it ourselves. He didn't offer to unpack, just popped in after we had done this. I asked him to swap out some of the drinks in the minibar which we didn't want for drinks we did. A day later only half of those drinks had turned up. I paged him - 0. I paged him again - he finally brought us the rest of the drinks I had requested. He did then keep those replaced when finished. The only time we physically saw him again was by chance on a staircase. I asked him to check something for me while we went to use the laundry - he said "Oh you have to ask reception for that". So a dead loss. Maybe he knows the English aren't going to tip over and above the included gratuities, so he saves himself for his American clients?

Hope you have a great time les37b! Please will you write a review / thread because I am also very interested in how cruising in Japan is now? Maybe for the future!

What a lovely idea! Though too much Dramamine to consume for me!

It was all lovely, thank you for the topic notamermaid. I wish you a Happy New Year, and great cruising in 2023.

Have a lovely time Roz!

No it was all a bit random as to which of the 3 coaches you sat on to reach the towns as to which guide you walked with. But all the guides were fluent in English and very interesting. I think Tauck say in their brochure that you do need to be able to navigate cobbled streets to do a German river cruise with them. We had a couple of slower walkers, but the guide checked they had caught us up at each street corner before moving on.

Have done Jazzbeau - can you see it?