ljandgb

This is very specific, but we just did a Danube cruise.  We were in a royal suite on Avalon Artistry which was only available on the port side of the ship.  We went down stream, Germany to Romania, so had afternoon sun.  That was a real issue whenever the ship was docked for the afternoon.  The room got sooo hot.

Not at all anything I would have thought about pre-cruise, but given a choice, I'd go for an eastern sided room, since I think morning sun would not be so intense.  Because the royal suite was only port side, the only way to avoid hot afternoon sun would be to go upstream.  

My vaccine card is in my wallet next to my insurance card.  I don't think it hurts to take it with you.

I got my vax thru a local hospital.  No QR code for me. 😞

Perhaps from a state that cares to keep track of that sort of thing? 🤨

I know NY has a similar system.  That makes sense.

11 hours ago, Coral said:

One option to consider. We have a hospital that is doing PCR tests on demand. It is one of the walk in on demand tests that they offer. You may want to check your hospitals.

Our local clinic used to do this for travel, but since the surge, will not any more.  Too many people needing them for healthcare reasons.  They'll still do them, but it takes 3-5 days to get the results.  NOT helpful!

18 hours ago, Roz said:

 

I saw that.  It costs $200 and you pre-register.  My question is would UA allow me to board in Nashville without the test, and then get it at Newark before I board the plane for Amsterdam?

 

 

I live in a Metro area and state with a low vaccination rate and high number of Covid cases so tests are hard to come by and are being rationed.  

 

My vax card has a QR code on it, so I'm not sure about uploading it but I'll check on that.

 

Thanks to everyone for your advice and guidance.

I'm fairly certain you'll need your results to check into your first flight, unless you are flying on two tickets.  Where we live, we alway need to take connecting flights and we are always asked for our passports, test results, and vaccination cards at our initiating airport.  

A QR code on your vax card?  Is this separate from the CDC white card or a sticker or ??  Is this a Tennessee thing?

You're not alone.  The stress that covid testing, and arranging flights, has caused made me almost bail on our recent trip.

I can't answer specifically for Amsterdam, but hopefully someone here can answer.  Another really good source is the TripAdvisor forums.  LOTS of people are traveling, and can tell you what does and does not work.  I even had to have someone on the Czech Republic forum translate a passenger locator form because I just couldn't make the computer take the information as I had it.

Some countries do want testing within 72 hours of arrival.  That can be hard, but doable with effort.  There are places that will get a PCR test back within 24 hours.

On 9/25/2021 at 11:25 AM, malcliz said:

Our BA flight home has been cancelled so we are considering staying in Budapest after the cruise for another day or two. 

 We finished our Danube cruise last week.  We had our BA flight from Bucharest to Heathrow canceled or rescheduled (to 2 weeks later!) so many times we finally switched to Lufthansa.  Twice they were canceled without notice.

We just got home from a 21 day Avalon cruise with extensions, Prague to Bucharest.  They did testing at various times depending on how long you were staying post cruise and how much of that time was with Avalon (in a cruise extension.)  For those flying out within 2-3 days of disembarkation, they tested on the ship the night before disembarkation.  They have some crew members trained, the results are sent to a German lab who certifies them, and the results were emailed back in a couple hours.  For those leaving after the extension, they had a service come to the hotel the last night, do the test and the results were printed out at the hotel front desk, available for pickup about 3 hours later.

Both were rapid antigen tests, so you will know your result within 5 minutes, which was nice for peace of mind.

Day one:  Blue Lagoon, +/- Golden Circle depending on how you do with jet lag.

Day two:  South Coast to Vik and back.  Find a local pool there or back in Reykjavik to see how the locals relax and compare to the BL.

Day three: squeeze a half day Golden Circle tour if you haven't made it yet, whale watching, a hike to the hot springs, food tour of Reykjavik (you'll probably have to check out in the morning.)

You can do this with a rental car, or there are plenty of companies that will take you.  You'll have plenty of daylight, so can do long days if you're up to it.

I love the Reykjavik Residence Hotel.  

3 hours ago, Canal archive said:

I am surprised that they still have the cruise at night with Budapest lit up I thought it had been cancelled. 

We did this last week.  The CD said that due to the low traffic on the river, we were able to.  It really was beautiful.

Very nice review of your trip.  You hit the nail on the head about the differences between ocean and river cruising, but for us, they weigh out in favor of river cruising. Everyone is different, right? 🙂

1 hour ago, Travelw said:

Hopefully ljandgb, sometime in our future timelines, we will get together again.

Absolutely!  We'd love to.  Time to start planning our next trip...

Search the forum for how each line deals with low water situations.  It seems like some are better than others as far as alternatives, compensation, etc.  We met fellow passengers this week who had to transfer boats on the Danube past a low spot while on a prior cruise (it sounded like one going upstream and one going down just swapped passengers), but had met people from another line at that time who had been in that port for 3 days while the ship "hoped for rain."

There are very good pinned posts at the top of the forum regarding comparing different agencies.  Definitely give those a look if you haven't already.

We just got back from a Prague to Bucharest 21 day trip with Avalon, who I'd definitely recommend.   We were actually going to book with AMA,  but our TA recommended Avalon as an alternative.  She felt the rooms were a bit more spacious.

Things to think about -

How much time do you want to spend on the boat in the evenings?  Port stops that leave late night or are overnight will give you the chance to go out into town for dinner (for a change from the ship) or drinks afterwards, or just to stretch your legs.  Some lines save money by leaving before dinner but that means you've got nowhere to go but your room or the lounge at night.  That can get old for some folks.

Are there any ports/excursions that are must sees for you?  Not every Danube cruise stops/offers the same ports or excursions.

Upstream vs downstream can make a difference in sailing time, or even which side of the ship you might want to be on.  We went downstream, and were on the port side of the ship.  This meant that afternoon sun really heated up our room, especially if we were in port for the day.  That wouldn't be anything I'd've thought of before, but you bet I'll consider it for another cruise.

Frequently, cruise sponsored add-on days feature excursions and transfers to/from the ship, with a cruise director on site.

And we're home, after 23 hours of travel yesterday.  It was a great trip, and I think too long to try to do a detailed trip report.   Someone asked what our favorite part was, and at this point, I'm not sure I can even list all the places we went.  What really stands out, above everything, are the people. We met some really amazing people, on both legs of the trip.  Folks I suspect we'll continue to keep in touch with long after our cruise is done.

Other random bits of info:

The Royal Suite was worth the price.  The extra space, about 50% more than a standard room, made living in it for 2 weeks much easier.  Half that extra space went to the bathroom - with a separate toilet room with it's only little sink, and a larger shower/sink area with two sinks, small shelves on each side for toiletries, and a larger shower with a small bench.  The other extra space was mostly open area around the desk/sitting area, so that my husband and I weren't dancing around each other to maneuver around the room.  There's also more storage area for clothes, etc.

The food was good, but better the first half when we had a more experienced chef.  My salmon on the flight home was better than any fish I had on the ship.  The vegetarian options on the ship were sometimes very carb heavy, and the desserts, for this chocolate lover, were very lacking.  The "healthy choice" dessert was frequently some sort of mushy fruit in a sweet syrup.

The Deggendorf to Budapest leg is much different than the Budapest to Bucharest leg.  The first/top has many more stops, more small and cute towns to wander around in that have been economically developed or cater to tourists (sometimes too much), and on our cruise, had 2 nights when performers came on board at night, and one afternoon wine tasting.  The second/bottom half had 3 days of all afternoon into evening sailings, the towns were smaller and less developed, and there were no instances of performers/etc, coming on for a period of time.  I'm sure this is all due to the fact that as you get down to the former Eastern Bloc countries there is simply less there in way of economic diversity and even entertainment options, especially this early into resumption of travel.  I'm just pointing out the differences.

Budapest at night really is amazing.  Definitely don't miss sailing then.

Romania was a revelation.  I really, really liked it.  We did a 2 day extension to Transylvania, which was interesting and worth it also, but I wish we'd had time to do a couple full days in Bucharest as well.  Romania seems to be doing very well economically, and many people spoke English which just makes navigating it on your own easier.  

Ultimately, a majority of the passengers from the first half were covid tested to be able to fly home from Budapest.  We were all tested to get into Serbia on the second half, and the majority of us were tested again to be able to fly home from Bucharest.  To my knowledge, everyone was negative.  I will admit there was no social distancing on the ship or tour buses - by day 2 we were finding table mates and hanging out in the lounge together.  Of the passengers, there was alway some people who did not go on the tours but explored town on their own, so effectively expanding our "pod."  The only real masking occurred when going up to the buffet.  Everyone, including crew, was vaxxed.  Not all the countries we traveled to had very good vax rates, and several countries did not require masking in any meaningful way.

It was a great trip, and we'll have many, many good memories to keep from it.

If anyone has any specific questions, I'm happy to answer.

We had to do rapid antigen covid tests yesterday before we were allowed off the ship in Serbia.  A team came onboard and set up in the lounge. We all lined up and they made it thru the passengers quickly. It took about an hour to get the results back, which I’m assuming were all negative as I haven’t heard otherwise. Serbia also requires you to carry your passport with you. The front desk hands it out and collects it back. Our vaccination cards and some sort of form are tucked inside. We were told not to disturb it. 
 

Issues like these while on the Danube are still better than no problems while being home. 😀  Our shower is leaking under the floor and the carpet in front of the bathroom is getting wet. They pulled up the tile and did something in Budapest which didn’t work. The new fix is that we shower in an empty room 3 doors down. I’m sure some of the other passengers are wondering why I’m all the sudden going up and down the corridor in my bathrobe. 

Also, we are in a royal suite for this trip, but spent 36 hours in a regular room due to some plumbing issues in our room.  If anyone has any questions about either, I'm happy to answer.

This is shaping up to be a different sort of cruise from our first week.  

Some is due to the countries we are transiting.  As we leave the Schengen Zone, passport control becomes an issue, which means there is a lot more waiting around for a local official to go thru paperwork, passports, etc.  We were in Mohacs, Hungary, yesterday for a morning excursion then sat there until 5:45pm, to go 0.5miles down the river to a border crossing, where we sat for 5 more hours for them to do paperwork.  Today we are in Ilok, Croatia, for a couple hours this morning, before leaving for Serbia, where we may, or may not, need to all do Covid tests before being allowed off the ship.  So, overall, the pace of excursions is significantly slower, and we are in towns that are not really set up for tourists.  I could not even find a postcard in Mohacs.  We wanted to walk along the river, but it is much less developed than the upper Danube and ran out of trail/sidewalk pretty soon after leaving the town. So, if anyone is looking at a cruise for this part of the Danube, keep this in mind.

The second is that our table service has gone down in quality.  Dinners are all the sudden taking 2 hours, and the orders are not always correct.  Breakfast requires flagging someone down to refill our coffee every time.  I'm not sure if the doubling of passengers is the issue, or if we have new/less staff (it seems like the servers are mostly the same from last week.)

Agree with booking thru the cruise line. We travelled to Morocco in March and are on a Danube cruise now. Every leg of every flight for these trips were canceled/changed, sometimes only days prior, sometimes without notice. 
 

Air reservation instability is one of the biggest headaches for international travel right now. What looks like a great flight now may not exist later. 

She transited thru Frankfurt and did passport control there. She did customs in Budapest, where all they wanted was her covid test. Once in the city, no restrictions at all. 

What exactly are you looking for? I can ask our friend, who joined us here in Budapest. 

Quick update - the first half of our trip is over.  This cruise is a combination of two cruises, Deggendorf to Budapest and Budapest to Bucharest.  We arrived in Budapest last night and had to say goodbye to all but 2 of the passengers from the first segment.  Such a small number of passengers led to really getting to know almost everyone.  It was a really nice way to travel.  This morning was like some weird adult summer camp on that last day when you're all sitting around waiting to get picked up while saying extended goodbyes to all your friends. LOL

We have 53, I think, for this second segment and we get underway tonight for a sunset cruise out of Budapest.  It will be weird not having the original 27 folks on board.

One difference was that our first 27 spent several days wearing masks in the hallways and entering the dining room, though that tapered off to only when going up to the buffet by day 3-4.  The group that came in today, I didn't see a single mask.  That might be because most have been in Budapest since at least yesterday and basically no one wears masks here.

One big point in our favor - everyone that was covid tested came back negative.  Nice!  I was worried about what would happen to us if someone from the first segment came back positive.  There were a handful that did not get tested as they will not be leaving Europe in the next 72 hours but instead will continue traveling.

Our cruise director stated tonight that our ship has certified staff who will administer the test the day of disembarkation and it will be run on the ship. The results are then sent to a German lab company to be certified and the official results emailed back to the ship and to you in two hours. 

We're on an Avalon cruise now.  It will depend on how long you stay after the cruise.  Our cruise director mentioned the testing the other day, stating that those who were going to be spending time in Europe after the cruise may not be getting it with the ship depending on how long they're staying.  I think if it will qualify for the 72 hour rule you should be fine.  

There were 17 of us in Prague.  Of the official tour days, one was a free/arrival day, with a 6:00pm meet and greet that evening.  Since that was not announced prior to our arrival, we already had a beer tour scheduled.  We met up with everyone else the next morning, including @Travelw and his crew.  Super nice people!  We did a short drive/walk tour thru the castle, Jewish quarter, and old town in the morning.  Five of us did an optional tour to Terezin in the afternoon - a Jewish ghetto/camp nearby based in an old fortress.  

We left Prague for the ship yesterday, with a stop for a short tour in Regensburg on the way.

We had a long safety and welcome meeting last night, and a good dinner.  Lots of choices, including nice vegetarian choices (can't comment on how vegan they are, sorry.)  Masking is supposed to be whenever you are up and walking around.  In reality, that got dropped pretty quickly.  The crew is masked, though there were some noses sticking out.  Breakfast is buffet, serve yourself just wear your mask.

Like I said, there are 27 passengers, and about 30 crew.  I can't imagine they are making money on this sailing, but I think just trying to prove travel is possible.