Pre-Cruise extensions

[Jesterscourt]

We have been on many river cruises and we have always made our own arrangements if we arrived early or stayed later on a trip. However, on our upcoming Danube Holiday trip we are tempted to splurge and take the pre-cruise 3 day package in Budapest. Advantages that come to mind are having the transfers provided and enabling a couple traveling alone to meet other travelers ahead of the cruise, and getting a tour of the magnificent opera house. I would like to hear from folks who have done this to get an idea if this option is worth the extra expense. It would certainly eliminate any logistical stress from arriving early.

[paul929207]

Like you, with the Ocean cruises, we arrive early on our own. Sometimes we arrange a day tour thru our hotel.

 

With river cruises and land tours, we almost always take the touir company extension. We have been very happy with the ones we have taken.

[Paulinda]

Jestercourt - if you can afford the extra expense and will be happy with the arrangements/itineraries they plan - sign up and go with the 3 day pre package. I totally agree with you in that it's less stressful than making all the arrangements on your own. Vacations are meant to be stress free and fun.

 

On the other hand if you worry about the expense and are adventurous, try planning on your own. That can be fun too.

[Talisker92]

I agree with Paulinda-if you are comfortable making your own arrangements , you can save one third to half the cost of the extension. We spent a few days in Amsterdam on our own and save quite a bit.

[pflorio994]

Last year I did the Prague pre cruise extension with Viking. It was well worth the expense. Viking had a desk in the hotel and were very helpful. This year I have booked a pre cruise extension in Budapest. I hope Viking again will have a rep in the hotel. Happy cruiser.

[at_nyc]

We did Prague on our own. It's quite a bit cheaper.

 

Budapest is pretty easy to get around. And the airport is pretty close so transfer won't cost much. Therefore, I really don't see much added benefit the cruise line can offer except in lightening your wallet.

 

But if you want to splurge. Nothing wrong with that either.

[sayaguru]

Budapest is very easy to do on your own. We did Prague on our own too. I find the extensions overpriced.

[KCcruisin07]

It's pretty easy to get around Budapest. You can take a taxi from the airport to your hotel. We chose places to see and eat, and we did a walking tour covering many of the sites. We had fun walking along the Danube and shopping in Vaci Utca and at the Central Market. The tram is nearby, so you can take that across the river or to other parts of Budapest. The hotel ordered a taxi for us to get to the riverboat. It was pretty stressfree!

[dcruisers]

It's pretty easy to get around Budapest. You can take a taxi from the airport to your hotel. We chose places to see and eat, and we did a walking tour covering many of the sites. We had fun walking along the Danube and shopping in Vaci Utca and at the Central Market. The tram is nearby, so you can take that across the river or to other parts of Budapest. The hotel ordered a taxi for us to get to the riverboat. It was pretty stressfree!

 

So relieved to read this! We are booked on a Grand European cruise thru Viking and our travel agent, when she checked the prices for pre Budapest and post cruise in Amsterdam, thought it was so expensive that she suggested/encouraged that we do it on our own..with her help. But Viking still gets you because if we don't do THEIR post/pre-extensions, they add $200 pp extra for the air fare..only they call it something else. What a rip off! We have always made our own arrangements post/pre without having to fork over more money to the cruise line.

Anyway, I am so pleased to read that getting to the riverboat will be stress free. We plan on 2 days post in Amsterdam. Any problems getting from the riverboat to hotel? or Hotel to that airport??

Again, thanks for such good info.

[at_nyc]

But Viking still gets you because if we don't do THEIR post/pre-extensions, they add $200 pp extra for the air fare..only they call it something else.

That's if you go with their air arrangements. If you get your own air, there's no extra charge. A lot of people found similarly priced flights so there's no reason to use theirs and pay the diversion fee.

 

In our case, air was inclusive at the same price as the cruise for the higher priced cabins. So the diversion fee was the only thing we paid. It still worked out cheaper even with the extra fee, though the saving wasn't quite as spetacula of course. Still, we like our own arrangement better than what Viking arranged.

[dcruisers]

Our TA said she would be checking air fare each week and we had time to book our own up until the final payment. I would prefer doing that as now there is no reason to use Viking's air since we will not be using their transfers or pre/post extensions.

Really looking forward to our first river cruise. I know I will be asking lots of questions in before our cruise.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Budapest is very easy to do on your own. We did Prague on our own too. I find the extensions overpriced.

I agree with you, thay are very high ..

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I had decided also that the extensions would be best done on our own. We have no problem getting in, out and around cities, and love just making our own discoveries.

 

I do have a niggling worry that we then might be "outsiders" after the pre-cruise group has been together for a few days. I am not particularly a "joiner", but I do enjoy meeting people on cruises. Thoughts?

[KCcruisin07]

Wendy, I didn't really notice any difference. We did attempt a roll call, and the two couples on the roll call didn't book the pre-extension either. Probably some people on our cruise flew in the day before or even the day of.

Also after the cruise we had an option to book the bus from Nuremberg to Prague, and there was an entire busload of people who were doing Prague on their/our own.

DCruisers, I got a wealth of information from TripAdvisor on the Budapest Forum. That is how I chose what taxi to take to the hotel. (You can do a Search: taxi from hotel to airport. Be sure year is current.)

I used someone recommended by John Fargo on TripAdvisor. That person could not meet us, but arranged for someone else who spoke English to be at the airport waiting. You pay a little extra for this service, but it was nice to have someone tell us about Budapest as we were driving to town. It is also more comfortable to be able to talk back and forth in English when I am in a foreign country and do not speak the language.

For taxis things change from year to year, and you do have to be careful to take recommended companies only to avoid being ripped off.

If you don't make the arrangement ahead of time, your riverboat Cruise Director can recommend a taxi, and they can probably arrange for you to be picked up and taken to your hotel. We stayed close to the Danube, and I think we paid around $10 to get to the riverboat a couple of years ago.

Also to get to the airport the hotel can call a taxi for you if you have not made plans.

We loved Budapest!

We went to Amsterdam for our first trip to Europe, and we loved it too. That will be an awesome trip. What month are you going?

[H2Otstr]

I had decided also that the extensions would be best done on our own. We have no problem getting in, out and around cities, and love just making our own discoveries.

 

I do have a niggling worry that we then might be "outsiders" after the pre-cruise group has been together for a few days. I am not particularly a "joiner", but I do enjoy meeting people on cruises. Thoughts?

 

 

We are on a precruise trip right now in Hamburg Germany (arrived last night). There are only 11 of us; there are a lot more on the post trip. We usually take the pretrip just for the convenience of seeing the city thru the eyes of the guide, getting a lay of the land. There is plenty of free time, too. It certainly does cost a lot more to do the pre and post trips, but we chose to take them for cities where we have never been before. It certainly is a personal preference and we all have the frredom to do what we want :).

[ingo_e]

Hey Jestercourt, are you coming to Nuremberg again? ;)

[Tedferg]

This is a great thread! We are looking at Prague plus Danube, ending in Budapest and I thought Prague three night pre trip was expensive $1,380 for two of us. However I wonder about getting from Prague to Embarkation point on our own.

 

Separate question, any preference starting in Prague or in Budapest ?

[KCcruisin07]

We did Prague on our own too. We stayed at the Hilton that wasn't in Old Town. There were drivers at both hotels. (At the end of the bus trip we were dropped at the Old Town Hilton and like the rest got a driver to our hotel.)

 

We had planned to take a Prague shuttle to the airport, but our flights were changed due to the BA strike. We couldn't plan ahead, so we used a driver at the hotel. If you don't get suggestions here check TripAdvisor for current information.

 

I liked going from Budapest to Prague starting with the river cruise and ending with the bus trip from Nuremberg to Prague.

 

If you do Prague on your own, consider taking a city tour first to get your bearings. For us it was the end of a 20 day trip, and while we saw the major sights, we could have done better with some orientation to the city.

 

I found it easier to get around Budapest both walking and on trams, and I would still spend more time there (like 4 days to 3 or even 2 with a city tour). But those who love the beautiful architecture of Prague will disagree! :)

[delraydoll]

We've lived/travelled extensively in Europe and usually arrange our own pre/post extensions in the start/end cities. I usually use www.booking.com to compare hotel prices as many properties offer free cancellation + breakfast. If the start/end city is a major city, this is no problem. You can take a metered taxi from the airport to the hotel or vice versa -- just be sure to have euro/local currency which you can get at airport ATM.

 

Viking for 2013 is charging $499 pp for a 2-night stay in Berlin or Prague -- that's $998, 2 breakfasts, a morning sightseeing tour included. In Berlin, the hotel right now "might" be the Hilton. Since we're arranging our own transportation (arriving by train from Amsterdam), transfers wouldn't be included anyhow! I reserved the hotel thru Hilton's website (I'm an Honors member) and am paying $326 for the 2 nights, which doesn't include breakfast. With the $672 I'm saving, I can get a continental breakfast and do a tour of the city myself! Don't want to eat too much for breakfast as we plan to go to Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDaVe), a huge department with a food court like none you've seen -- oysters, champagne and everything in between!

 

One simply has to shop around and weight the benefits. I'd rather the savings be in my pocket than theirs!

[Paulinda]

Delraydoll - Excellent post! I heartily agree with you on doing your own research and enjoying the savings. If you are not adventurous or if you want to spend the money you can simply do the cruise ship pre/post cruise signup and let them do the planning. Your example illustrates the cost of doing that.

 

Thanks again for the website info and your example of the savings one could expect. That's not chump change. :)

[Tedferg]

Thanks Delray. I guess doing Prague on your own after the cruise is easier, I was concerned about co-ordinating the trip from Prague to the boat. Going Budapest to Prague removes this constraint.

[at_nyc]

Thanks Delray. I guess doing Prague on your own after the cruise is easier, I was concerned about co-ordinating the trip from Prague to the boat. Going Budapest to Prague removes this constraint.

Do a search for Prage on this sub-forum, you'll find all the information you need about getting from Prague to Nurember. So I won't repeat it here.

[Royalgirl]

I had decided also that the extensions would be best done on our own. We have no problem getting in, out and around cities, and love just making our own discoveries.

 

I do have a niggling worry that we then might be "outsiders" after the pre-cruise group has been together for a few days. I am not particularly a "joiner", but I do enjoy meeting people on cruises. Thoughts?

 

We just returned from our first river cruise. We were with three other couples and one couple chose to make their own hotel arrangements etc and not stay with us in Prague.

 

Normally, we are independent travellers and make all our own arrangements but this time we went with the flow and I am happy we did so. Avalon had a desk in our hotel and it was great to meet the Cruise Director ahead of time and find out all the arrangements and tours that were being offered. The other couple who did not stay with us came over to our hotel every day to find out what was happening. They were able to do the Prague city tour with us only because the Cruise Director found space for them. Also, the day of embarkation they had to get a taxi to our hotel early in the morning even though we were not leaving the hotel for Nuremberg until 1pm. Not sure what they did with their luggage as ours had been taken care of and we were out touring Prague.

 

It is probably a lot less expensive to do the pre-cruise extension on your own but we were happy we chose to do it with Avalon.

[newfirsttimer]

Last year we did Prague to Paris with AMA. We took the 2 day Prague pre cruise but also did 2 more nights at the same hotel on our own and were able to take advantage of all that AMA offered and got to meet folks ahead of time. In Paris we just did the post offered by AMA. You really need at least 4 nights in Prague to do the town justice.

[caviargal]

 

Viking for 2013 is charging $499 pp for a 2-night stay in Berlin or Prague -- that's $998, 2 breakfasts, a morning sightseeing tour included. In Berlin, the hotel right now "might" be the Hilton. Since we're arranging our own transportation (arriving by train from Amsterdam), transfers wouldn't be included anyhow! I reserved the hotel thru Hilton's website (I'm an Honors member) and am paying $326 for the 2 nights, which doesn't include breakfast. With the $672 I'm saving, I can get a continental breakfast and do a tour of the city myself! Don't want to eat too much for breakfast as we plan to go to Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDaVe), a huge department with a food court like none you've seen -- oysters, champagne and everything in between!

 

One simply has to shop around and weight the benefits. I'd rather the savings be in my pocket than theirs!

 

I agree! And Berlin to me is one of the best bargains in Europe for a world class city. We are going this year for the week between Christmas and New Years and are looking forward to KaDaVe, a regular stop for us in Berlin. Fishkutter's there is just one of the fabulous eateries available. We booked Melia Berlin, one of our favorites, for an excellent prepay rate in their Level category, which includes extensive amenities and which we have enjoyed very much in the past. We also purchase a Berlin Welcome Card for unlimited transport and entry to many of the excellent museums.

 

As for Prague, we are headed there on our own after our November river cruise. It is very easy transport by bus (19 E each if you book well in advance) and our four star hotel in the old town is booked for 128USD per night, including breakfast. We discovered this hotel by accident last year when staying at the Hilton and it is delightful!

 

We also have a private guide booked whom we have used before.

 

With the money we save, we will easily cover meals and our private guide and that is how we prefer to spend our money.