New to Europe and river cruising - Advice please

[franski]

CruisinWahoos -

 

What type of history interests you? WWII, art history, cultural?

 

For WWII, there is lots to take in on both the Danube (especially Nuremburg) and on the Seine (for the beaches in Normandy). Perhaps a cruise between Budapest and Nuremburg - with extra days over in Prague??

 

For art history - you have Giverny (Monet's home) and Auvers-sur-Oise (where Van Gogh killed himself) on the Seine. That cruise also starts/ends in Paris - so lots of art history there. Most cruises also stop in Rouen - so lots of history surrounding Joan of Arc.

 

Just some thoughts...

 

Fran

[CruisenWahoos]

Well thanks again for all the replies. I think after much review we are leaning toward the Viking Cities of Lights cruise (Paris - Prague) or possibly the AMA equivalent. If anyone has any experience with either that you would like to share that would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[KCcruisin07]

That looks like a great itinerary for a rivercruise. We looked at various possibilities and ended up choosing AMA for our cruise from Budapest to Prague. We were very happy with them.

[caviargal]

r possibly the AMA equivalent. If anyone has any experience with either that you would like to share that would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

As I posted earlier on this thread, our AMA cruise was our best yet and we are back with them in November.

[are wehavingfunyet]

Our favorites were the Western Danube [Avalon] and the Elbe [Deilman]. That may be because those trips had fabulous cruise directors. I am pretty indifferent to the CD on large ships, but on a river cruise, the CD's personality, attentiveness, and professionalism is critical. Our Viking itinerary was fantastic, the boat was really nice, the food was very good, and two weeks was not too long, but the CD was a real loser and that diminished the overall experience.

 

As a side note, I would not recommend the St. Petersburg/Moscow itinerary as there is not much to see in the ports between the cities. Our ship docked so far out of town, and the traffic is so bad in Moscow and St. Petersburg, it seemed like we spent more time on the bus commuting between the ports and the city centers than seeing the sights.

[franski]

I agree that the CD makes a huge difference... but you cannot control that, so just have to make the best of it while you are on board.

 

But, I respectfully disagree about the river cruise in Russia. We are just back - and loved it. I guess it depends on what you want in a cruise.

 

We loved the time between SP and Moscow - as it gave us time to see the countryside. I realize that isn't ideal for many - so if you don't like "sea days" - this isn't the cruise for you.

 

Traffic in Moscow is absolutely brutal - so we took the metro for our free day - and it was great. Didn't use the Metro in SP - but we were within walking distance if we wished to.

 

The Cities of Light itinerary looks great...

 

Enjoy!!

 

Fran

[franski]

If you wish to see what the AMA equivalent is, I suggest you pop over to Mike and Carol Priesman's website - http://www.thepreismans.com

 

They did this itinerary starting in Paris in 2011 - and the review is very detailed.

 

I truly enjoyed Mike's review of their cruise on the Danube (Budapest to Prague) and this was instrumental in my booking the same cruise.

 

You could use the review to compare the two cruises (AMA and Viking) head to head.

 

Have fun planning!!

 

Fran

[EmsMom]

We did our first and only river cruise with AMA Budapest to Bucharest. Although the ship was very nice and we enjoyed ourselves, it is not an itinerary we would do again because we did not enjoy the days with no ports (that part of the Danube wasn't very interesting) and we didn't find the ports particularly interesting (other than Budapest). That being said, I have seen other posts where people loved this itinerary. We have travelled throughout Europe and I think there are much better itineraries. (Personal opinion, of courrse). Budapest is very easily done on your own and it has a lot to offer. We also took our own post tour trip through Transylvania (Romania). We hired a driver/guide to take us as our time was limited (three nights) and we wanted to make the most of our time there We were glad we did as he knew where to go and parking was often a problem. That was one of our favorite parts of the trip. For those thinking of travelling on to Istanbul----It is a really interesting and beautiful city and shouldn't be missed. It far exceeded my expectations and we only wished we had more time there (we did not go there as part of our river cruise). They did have different groups for the excursions---we went with the active group and found that it still moved pretty slowly. There were supposed to be bikes but we never saw them. Several of the ports required a bus ride for the town/excursion so it wasn't exactly conducive to biking anyways. I totally agree about not going in the summer if possible as it can be very crowded and hot.

[CruisenWahoos]

Thanks again for the great replies. The suggestion to review the blog was great. I think we are now down to either the Viking Cities of Lights or the AMA Europes Rivers and Castles which is essentially the same cruise. So many of you have had such positive things to say about AMA we are leaning in that direction. Additionally, as we have been trying our best to do an apples to apples cost comparison, they appear to be a better value.

 

And again, this is a great forum for getting first hand experience reviews!

[shoshona2]

To Franski,

 

Which company did you book with? I'd like to read your itinerary on the company's website. We are leaving on August 16 for Bucharest. My DH's family was originally from Romania so we thought we would do this river cruise. I know it's going to be very hot when we are there.

 

Sheila

[franski]

We booked with Viking - our 1st cruise with them.

 

We are in a hotel in Bucharest x 1 night - then 7 night cruise - then 2 nights in a hotel in Budapest at the end. We are staying an extra day on our own there - just need to find a hotel.

 

This was on my bucket list - and everything just seemed to come together.

 

We talked about going in early to do more of Romania, and perhaps spend some time in Turkey - but have decided to save that for another trip.

 

Fran

[shoshona2]

Thanks, Fran. There hasn't been much on the boards re Bucharest so I'll report back here after we return.

 

Sheila

[webfoot]

Sheila, we did the Blue Danube to the Black Sea cruise with Avalon and spent time in Romania afterwards. We had toured Romania in 1974 and wanted to spend time touring around to see the differences. Wow .. the country has made major steps from their Communist days. I hope you have time to spend in Romania. We had a wonderful time!

[pacmom]

We did Bucharest-Amsterdam with Uniworld in 2004. It was a wonderfuk trip and very eye opening--seeing the conditions in which the people were still living and how proud they were about what their countries were becoming. The closer we got to Budapest, the more we saw of capitalism. It is a good trip, not much scenery. One day we thought the boat would list badly when one of the men shouted nude beach. It was a very good cruise. Pat

[webfoot]

Hi Pat, when we first were in Romania there were lines in front of the bread store, milk store, butcher, etc. This time we saw nice grocery stores, plenty of nice restaurants, and the use of wifi every place we went.

 

Out in the country there are still homes with outhouses, homes in disrepair, lots of poverty. We came upon one gypsy camp (picture the covered wagon with everyone sitting around a camp fire). We had been warned about the gypsy population. Yes, we did see begging and it was so sad.

 

We wish we would have had another week to tour. The people are proud of what their country has become. The scenery in Transylvania is great!

 

When we told friends that we were renting a car to travel though Romania they thought that we were crazy. Every place we went there were people happy to use their knowedge of English.

[momilani]

We did Prague to Budapest and loved it. We were on Grand Circle, on recommendatio of friends who swear by them, but are switching to Viking this year for a Seine cruise. They did a great job on our China cruise and we like their cabin layout better.

 

Will admit that my over-the-moon exuberance for the Prague/Budapest routing owes to my love of classical music - it's a dream! But Prague and Budapest are great bracket cities - both fabulous for walking and with great mass transit to boot.

 

We spring for a cabin amidships and avoid the upper and lower decks for ease of entry and exit.

 

Bon voyage, whatever you decide. We're totally addicted!!

[shoshona2]

Thanks for all your posts re Bucharest and Romania. We were able to upgrade to B.C. so we are going in two days early to do some sightseeing in Bucharest before the river boat portion starts. We are also going to do the full day excursion to Transylvania. We knew we should do the Bucharest to Budapest route instead of the other way. When we did Eastern Europe, we went to Poland before going on to Budapest, Prague and Vienna.

 

I will post when we return.

 

Sheila