Questions about Scenic cruises ending in Budapest

[Live4cruises]

We are on Scenic Jewel in 2013, ending in Budapest. We arrive in Budapest on Sunday, and the cruise ends on Monday morning. We are considering foregoing the included excursions and instead booking a Segway tour for either Sunday (preferred) or Monday, if possible. Those tours begin at 10:00 a.m.from near the Opera.

 

My questions:

1. Does the ship arrive and are we able to get off early enough on Sunday morning to make our way to the Opera before 10:00 a.m.?

2. Is there a general area where all the river boats dock?

3. Assuming we're not close enough to walk, are taxis generally available - especially on Sunday, or are we near the metro?

4. I'm thinking that doing this tour on Monday will be much more difficult because of the logistics of departing the ship - and luggage of course.

 

Any other thoughts about planning independent excursions are appreciated!

[newfirsttimer]

Scenic ships dock on the Buda side of the river directly opposite the Parliament buildings. The ship sails into Budapest between 7 & 8 in the morning (Sunday morning). The includes tours start at 9 am and return at 12:45. We did the city tour and military hospital and it was very good, the castle district was fabulous. After lunch there is a disembarkation briefing at 4. Since the ship is in port overnight, you can disembark anytime on Monday morning. Book your taxi the night before with reception, it is about 10 euro to get into town.....not walkable expecially with luggage and there are no taxi stands at the ship. Scenic will however transfer all passengers directly to the Marriott Hotel and I think that bus leaves around 9:15 on the Monday morning, there will be a courtesy room where you can store your luggage and you can go out and enjoy Budapest on your own until around 3.

We just got off the Scenic Emerald this past Monday in Budapest so if you have any other questions regarding the cruise, please ask.

[wiselindag]

I was just researching Scenic and came upon this post. Although I haven't sailed on Scenic, I have twice done the Nuremburg-Budapest cruise on AMA and wanted to warn you about times on the river. The first year, we arrived in Budapest early in the morning (as the schedule indicated), but the second year, the river was low and because of this, the Captain and Cruise Manager explained to us the evening before that we would need to alter the schedule. We had to sail much more slowly because of the river depth and did not arrive into Budapest until just before lunch. As a result, the morning city tours were moved to the afternoon. They always warn that times are tentative (true in ocean cruising too, of course) due to weather conditions and on the river, traffic at the locks. When the river is high there can be problems with bridges and when the river is low, there are obviously other concerns. The bottom line is that most likely you will be there in the morning, but you may not.

 

I hope you have a wonderful cruise and enjoy river cruising as much as I do!

[BarbaraM]

I just booked the Scenic Jewel for next July, the reverse itinerary. Since we will be in Europe for a month, do you recall prices for laundry on scenic? Any tips re: tours, Pre and post lodging, etc. would be helpful! our first river cruise, and we typically are DIY type of travelers. What size groups do they have for the tours? Thanks in advance!

[LHT28]

I just booked the Scenic Jewel for next July, the reverse itinerary. Since we will be in Europe for a month, do you recall prices for laundry on scenic? Any tips re: tours, Pre and post lodging, etc. would be helpful! our first river cruise, and we typically are DIY type of travelers. What size groups do they have for the tours? Thanks in advance!

 

The laundry is expensive if you plan to do a whole lot

http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2194228690101934561NNtsUt

They do have a bag deal in Vienna

 

We did our own pre & post hotels ...if you go to the Scenic hotel the day of the cruise they will transfer you to the ship

In Budapest we stayed at the Marriott Millenium Apt a short walk to the Marriott hotel Scenic used

The Apt hotel had free laundry facilities & very convenient for walking around Pest

 

In Amsterdam we bid on Priceline & got the Barbizon Palace very good central location & a short walk to the Doubletree which Scenic uses

The groups sizes vary by the number of participants ..i did the easy walker group & did not count heads but I think we were less than 25 in most ports maybe even 15 at some