hbr777

I went ahead and rebooked for an end of May sailing with Ama, Danube - Vilshofen to Budapest.

I had a group of 12 set to go in May 2019. I am the tour conductor and had earned one berth as a tour conductor. When COVID came along, most everyone chose to keep their money with Ama with a guarantee of 115% credit if rebooked by the end of 2022. Great - you were paid up like they were! I wasn't, and I lost all of my tour conductor credit, even though the same people in the 2019 group are rebooking for the 2022 cruise. I now need to find 8 more people to sail with us. It's like starting from scratch, but a good challenge!

At any rate, I am taking a leap of faith that May 2022 will see much of Europe (and the USA and Canada for that matter!) in a better situation than it is now.  

Thanks Notamermaid for your help. I didn't think of the webcams, that is an excellent idea!

I am trying to decide between end of April and May, up to mid month. It seems like by that time, I will have leaves!

Hi,

I’m planning a trip and I am wondering in what month will the leaves be out on the trees in spring in Vienna? April? May? We will be cruising the Danube, hopefully, in 2022!

Thank you for your replies.

At some point, we started equating comfortable with being slobby.

I can look dashing AND be comfy at the same time. It does take work to choose fabrics and clothing carefully for travel to make it all work, but it can, and does.

We don't need to look like we are doing yard work all of the time.

We were out to eat the other day at moderate place, and I looked around and thought, wow, the majority of the people look like they have been mowing the lawn. Sorry guys, you seem to be the worst offenders.

Hello!

I am wondering if anyone snapped photos of or scanned Daily Cruiser newsletters for Danube ports on Ama?

Thanks in advance!

On 1/8/2019 at 9:30 AM, notamermaid said:

philw1776,

 

smart birds indeed. I mentioned the situation in Ludwigshafen to an acquaintance, a hydrology engineer. It baffled him as much as it did me. Quite a few landing stages suffered from August onwards, but why Ludwigshafen started with problems even earlier in the year and did not take the known factors of drought (there are statistics one can consult) into account during planning - it appears that somebody slipped up there - is a little difficult to comprehend.

 

notamermaid

 

That's the port we had to hurry up onto the Ama ship so the ship could cross the river to the other side. They said the river was falling rapidly or something.

2 hours ago, Caligirl58 said:

We are scheduled to cruise Budapest to Passau on Uniworld at the end of June.  What is the best way to stay informed about weather/river levels over the next few weeks?  Websites to follow?  Thank you.

Follow this thread. This is the best info you will get.

3 hours ago, thunter1224 said:

 I am now looking into where to fly into ?  Maybe Munich ??? Also how did you get from the airports to the the dock in 

• Vilshofen ? not sure if we should use train, bus, taxi ? Plus we are thinking after the cruise we are in Budapest .. and not sure if we should travel back to Munich or if there is a closer airport to get us back to the USA ..

Fly home from Budapest. Going to Munich isn't practical.

Congratulations on winning the trip!

Chloe’s mom has given you great advice.

For non schedule drugs (is, not narcotics) my pharmacy gives me extra sticky labels for each drug. I slap a label on a pill envelope and go on my merry way. In many parts of the world prescription drugs are not dispensed in pill bottles but in blister packs so there is no real legal need to keep pills in pill bottles (again, I am not talking about narcotics here or other schedule drugs). This has served me well all over the world, but for certain Asian countries I would check and see what if any requirements they have. Japan especially comes to mind. Also, if you have normal quantities of the non schedule med, like 14 blood pressure pills, that’s way different from say...300 pills. They are not looking to cause problems for the average river cruising traveler.

The French balcony cabins on the Serena are at the back of the boat. But, we had zero vibration or noise, I believe mostly because we were traveling in the direction of the river.

I sailed on the Stella and the Kristina. I think a balcony cabin would be a waste on a Christmas cruise, honestly.

Hello!

Are the waterways used for the tulip time cruises susceptible to high water?

Thank you!

1 hour ago, Rebel54 said:

He's doing great business and winning a lot of awards for his business so I can understand why the price has gone up.

 

His price almost doubled. He was doing great then, as now.

Johnny's Tours was great - my husband did a night one a couple of years ago. The price went up so much this year that he didn't repeat it.

We were on AMA and it was at least a 20 minute brisk walk. You can take the bus in for the tour, and then don't take the tour 🙂

Thank you everyone for your comments!

Thank you everyone! Wow! Vienna I was so sure we would be docked IN town. Everything else I sort of guessed!

We were on the AmaStella (it was supposed to be the Kristina) Basel to Amsterdam, leaving 12/3/18.

It rained every single day. It rained so much the weekend before the cruise that we didn't have to deviate.  We were also able to get through the gorge.

We had a couple of weird deviations - we had to move from one side of the river to the other to dock - quickly - due to water levels. Which killed being able to go out and about.

We also did not get to be in Rudesheim on our own. We only had an afternoon there.

We did have to change ships, which involved packing up everything and having it out at our doors early in the morning. It also involved a 1.5 bus ride to get to the Kristina. They told us it was due to low water - technically that was not true since all the other ships were passing through. They needed to position the Stella and the Kristina, though, for future cruises.

The Rhine Valley is temperate. It doesn't get bone chilling cold on a regular basis (or so were told, they grow grapes so...) nor does it snow very much.

The good news is for all the weirdness, we got a large credit to use by 2021.

Krumlov not Krumlove 🙂

Hello!

I am wondering for those who have cruised, is late May/early June a good time on the Danube?

I am trying to take into account: snowmelt and possible high rivers; avoiding the heat of the summer; avoiding the worst of the summer crowds.

Is there a downside to late May/early June on the Danube?

Thanks!

...into town?

Or, I guess another way of asking is, "How far is town from where we would dock? Can we actually stroll into town?"

I would be on Amawaterways.

• Vilshofen
• Passau
• Linz (jumping off point for bus tours to Cesky Krumlove, or Salzburg)
• Weissenkirchen
• Vienna
• Bratislava
• Budapest

Thanks for your advice!

We are rocking and rolling tonight on the Rhine as we head toward Amsterdam. Wind gusts to 50mph. Rough water.

Near the gorge today

2 hours ago, Tedescokid1 said:

@hbr777 - If you can - could you share the excursion options - I'm on the same itin on Dec 22 and haven't gotten any info from AMA and my kids are curious about what the potential options are each stop. 

 

Glad you are making it thru the reg itin as much as possible.

No change to the excursion options really from the original.

AmaStella to AmaKristina ship swap today. Stella is in Ludwigshafen and the Kristina in Rudesheim. Sorry if these are misspelled. Water is still too low to pass. We had to change from one side of the river to the other while docked yesterday because of low water. Trying to make sense of that one. For those who have been here, we switched from the side of the river where the shopping center is, to the other.

Bags need to outside our doors at 7 am. We leave at 8:30 am for a two hour bus ride where the excursions start immediately. We get to the Kristina around 1:30 and immediately sail for the gorge. Arriving tonight in Koln.