Back From Our 1st GCT Christmas Markets Cruise

[cruisingmimi]

Hi everyone,

 

My husband and I have returned from our first Christmas Markets Cruise on the Danube - Nuremberg to Vienna. It was an absolutely fantastic cruise. We were unsure what to expect for our first river cruise because we are frequent ocean cruisers but this exceeded our expectations.

 

We booked the cruise 2 weeks prior to departure so didn't have much time to prepare. Grand Circle Travel was very efficient in every way. Any time I called with questions about the cruise, they were answered promptly and efficiently. We had our air and itinerary within a week of the booking. We also got fantastic air connections from Boston - Lufthansa to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Nuremberg where we were met by one of the program directors who took us by bus to the River Aria. Our return flights were Vienna to Munich and then onto Boston. We had very minimal wait times between connections.

 

Our cabin on River Aria was #311, mid ship location. We loved the ease of navigating about the ship, with only 4 decks to "climb" the stairs (about 4 steps per deck). The ship did have an elevator but I didn't see anyone using it. They had an exercise room but we never got the chance to check it out.

 

The ship's personnel were very friendly and couldn't do enough to make our stay a pleasant one. Our cabins were not ready when we arrived on the ship as we had early flights into Nuremberg. We were escorted into the ship's lounge area and given sandwiches, cookies, pastries, beverages until our cabins were ready. We only had to wait about an hour then were able to enter our cabins. The cabins were surprisingly spacious for a river ship, approx. 160 sf. The beds were pullman style and there was a seating area when the beds were put upright. There were shelves on both sides of the cabin along the top where the beds pulled down as well as plenty of drawer space so we had more than enough space to store our clothes. The luggage fit under the beds. The bathroom was a comfortable size also, larger than some we have had on the ocean cruises we've been on. All the same amenities found on other ships were in the bathroom - shampoos, lotions, etc. The ship was "green" so if you did not want clean towels daily, you hung them back on the racks.

 

The beds had very firm mattresses on them and nice duvet covers. I don't mind a firm mattress but others may find them too firm. As far as I could tell, all the cabins on the River Aria were the same size. The 4th deck had balcony cabins and the lower deck on the 2nd level had the smaller windows but all the cabins had the identical amenities in them.

 

The ship had a very festive Christmas look - Christmas trees in the lounge and in the lobby area, Christmas stockings decorated each cabin door.

 

They had an early bird breakfast in the lounge from 6-7 am and regular dining room service 7-9 am. Breakfast was buffet style, had an omelet station, and all sorts of nice breads, pastries, etc. Once you got to your table, waitstaff got your coffee and cleared the tables.

 

Lunch was usually at 12:00 noon or 1:00 pm depending upon the activities of the day. The luncheon menu had 2 choices off the menu or you could serve yourself buffet style. Waitstaff would bring coffee, tea, etc.

 

Dinner was usually at 7 pm and offered a meat, fish or vegetarian entree. Chicken and salmon were always available on the menu as well. Red and White wines served with dinner (no charge). Desserts to die for!

 

I will have to say that the food on the River Aria was the best my husband and I have ever had, a 5* equivalent to say the least.

 

They offered daily cocktail specials that were very reasonably priced.

 

The tours were guided by either one of the ship's program directors or someone from the town we were visiting that day. All were well presented and enjoyed by all. We had sufficient time after the tours to browse the Christmas Markets on our own.

 

The Christmas Markets varied from port to port. Most had a variety of Christmas ornaments and other hand-crafted items for sale. Some things were reasonably priced while others were expensive, given the fact that the price paid was in euros. I purchased a few hand-crafted wooden tree ornaments at the Nurmberg Market.

 

The optional tours were very well presented also. We chose to do all 3 optional tours: 1) Visiting the Documentation Center in Nurnberg where we were escorted by one of the program directors and toured w/ headsets at the Documentation Center. To say that it was a very moving experience would be an understatement; 2) We opted to go to Salzburg, Austria and spent the day touring there. We visited the markets there as well. It was very crowded in Salzburg as it was a Catholic holy day and everyone had the day off from work; 3) the 3rd tour we took was an evening musical concert at one of the palaces in Vienna. It was wonderful and we loved the opportunity to hear it. The orchestra played Johann Strauss waltzes, they had 2 opera singers and 2 ballet dancers - a most enjoyable evening.

 

All in all, our first Christmas Market river cruise was a "smashing" success and we would highly recommend Grand Circle Tours. We will cruise with them again. It was such a magical experience to be in a part of the world where the emphasis is still on the spirit of Christmas and not the commercialism we all experience here in the USA.

 

The weather was so so and misty most days, not much sun. We created our own sunny days.

 

I would like to ask if anyone can tell me how many locks the ship navigates from Nurnberg to Vienna. At times, that was the most annoying part of the cruise, we were forever slowing down to transit the locks.

 

I can't wait til our next river cruise. It was a very enriching experience. My 2 favorite port stops were Regensburg and Melk. The tour of the Melk Abbey was positively outstanding and so beautiful to see all the splendor inside the Abbey.

 

Of course, I couldn't forget to mention all those Gluhwein stops we made at the various Christmas Markets! I have lots of souvenir mugs as mementos.

 

Mary

 

 

 

[RET P3 FE]

Our first "river cruise" was this year also.The itinerary was identical to yours except we were on the Adagio from Dec 10-17.

 

We also thought the food and service were excellent

and were quite inpressed with GCT

 

My most favorite market was one that I haven't heard anyone mention.It was in Regensburg at the Schloss Thurn and Taxi palace/mansion.Everything I saw there was one of a kind or handmade and not outrageously priced.

 

23 locks from Nurnburg to Vienna with 2 of them over 85"

Allan

[hillslife]

Thank you both for your reviews of your river cruise. We are going on GCT from Amsterdam - Vienna in March and haven't read alot about them lately on CC.

 

Glad to hear they got 'excellent' marks from you:p We were debating the Melk Abbey - but sounds like a 'must see' so we will add that to the list.

 

Thanks for sharing....

[RET P3 FE]

Melk Abbey definitely worth visiting

A correction to my first post. Two of the locks were over 85 Feet not inches

[cruisingmimi]

Thanks Allan for the lock info! It seemed like every time we turned a bend in the rivers we were going through locks! LOL Where was the one that was 85'?

 

I forgot to mention Regensberg and that was also one of our favorite places to visit. So medieval and historic there. Yes, the markets were very nice there w/ lots of handmade items. Gluehwine was excellent there also! LOL We attended a boys' choral concert in the evening at the church near the Markets - it was wonderful.

 

Hillslife, you would regret not visiting Melk Abbey, it's well worth seeing. So much history and beauty there. The library was especially impressive w/ the frescoes on the ceilings, reminded me of Sistine Chapel. I purchased a nice souvenir book there for about E6.00. Here is a nice website for you to see pictures of the Abbey and it's beauty. It was one of our favorite stops.

 

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/austria/melk-abbey.htm

 

If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

 

Mary

[RET P3 FE]

The tall locks were about 2-3 hours out of Nurnberg heading down river.In spite of the cold a large number of passengers went topside just to watch the process.In one particular lock there was only 6 inches of clearance on either side of the riverboat.

We had snow in Nurnberg and Salzburg,made it a "postcard" event,I would love to return to Salzburg again.

Did you buy any Salzburg "eggs" ?? We spent our 401K in that store :>)

[cruisingmimi]

Hardly anyone went topside on our ship, it was rainy most of the week and top deck was slippery. The day we docked Regensberg there was another ship docked also so we had to cross over their deck to get onto shore to meet our guide. It was very slippery and people were walking very cautiously.

 

No, we didn't buy any Salzburg eggs. I never saw so many eggs in my life, couldn't make a decision! I figured at that point it was one more thing we had to carry on the airline. I did buy 2 nutcrackers in Nuremberg for our grandsons so that was enough of a worry w/ the price we paid for them. LOL Our grandsons loved them and well worth the trouble buying and carrying them home.

 

No snow except what we saw on the mountains approaching Salzburg. We definitely would like to visit Salzburg again. The day went so quickly. My husband and I did walk around the area of the Christmas Markets so got a nice view of the area.

 

We felt very safe walking about the different ports on our own. No one bothered us but we were observant of our surroundings.

 

I do remember that navigating some of the locks was a scary experience. At one point I looked out our cabin window and we were so close to those locks I thought the ship was going to scrape its' sides against the locks. If we were able to open our cabin window, we would have been able to touch the sides of the locks. LOL.

 

Cheers,

 

Mary