Tours and air/transportation past passengers of GCT.

[pmcrusta]

For you that are going or have been on river cruises GCT or Viking. How does the tours work.

I understand they are included. Are they all day

for the most part. Or is there fair amount of time time for exploring on your own? Did you use the air that's included? Were you all over the place like some ocean cruise lines do. GCT

gives you a approximate times of certain areas of the US to the area your flying to. Did that

time line seem a fair estimate? I'm looking for information between Amsterdam and Budapest and or Vienna. Any information would be greatly appreciated. As it's a little harder to come by

for river cruises. Hoping for a late Spring cruise in 2005.

[gracecarmo]

We did the Great Rivers cruise with GCT. Our routing was from Dallas to Vienna, then home from Amsterdam to Dallas. We booked our own air from Kansas City to Dallas and back, as we wanted to visit relatives in Dallas.

 

We just got a "tentative" schedule for our air in June (GCT, Eastern Europe Rivers to the Black Sea) and we have to change planes in Frankfurt to go to Prague. Things may change between now and June. It all depends on what gateway you are using.

 

Grace

[pmcrusta]

Thanks for your input. Have you ever found other

places/message boards where people discuss river cruiseing? Getting information on how people like them. Or the good and the bad things

are tough to come by. The Great Rivers is the cruise are we are looking at. What was you opinion?

[Flick]

We are booked on the Great Rivers cruise this July. We fly from Tampa to Dulles then non-stop to Brussels (we are doing both the pre and post cruise). From Vienna we fly non-stop to Dulles then on to Tampa. (According to our air itinerary the flight from Vienna is 9-1/4 hrs.long and they serve only a "cold plate lunch for the entire flight.)Grand Circle rarely, if ever, offers non-stop service.

 

Rick,24 cruises and counting! Next cruise- #25-Riverboat cruise from Amsterdam to Vienna in July '04

 

[Flick]

It is my understanding from other posters that the boats stay in town overnight so you have plenty of opportunity to explore on your own in addition to whatever free time you may have during the day.

 

Rick,24 cruises and counting! Next cruise- #25-Riverboat cruise from Amsterdam to Vienna in July '04

[gracecarmo]

I would rate our GCT Great Rivers of Europe trip a 10. We have been on one other River trip on the KD line years ago and GCT was really a lot better. (over 30 ocean cruises too)

 

Yes, the ship stays in port over night. We usually went into the towns. Almost every town had a "happening", ie a wine fest, or some activity going on. Lots of happy people, singing, dancing etc. In Germany, the men's singing groups always had some sort of outside performance, and they are wonderful.

 

Now, for some not so good news: we recommended this trip to friends. They went last Sept. and they had a really bad experience for the whole trip. Overbooked flights, GCT reps. of no help (here in the US at the airport), and when they got to Amsterdam, they had to take the bus from Amsterdam to Meinz. This situation really was not the fault of GCT. The Rhine was not navigable. This happened throughout the cruise. Food was another complaint, but that is such a personal issue. I thought the food was really good, but the complaint came about because of the lack of choices. You really only have about 3 choices for entrees in the evening, and I always found something that I liked. It is not at all like an ocean cruise cuisine. Wine was served with the evening meal.

 

We are going on the GCT Aria in June, and I can hardly wait. Eastern Europe to the Black Sea.

 

Please do not let the negative aspects I mentioned deter you from having a good time, just be prepared that the rivers can be dry at certain times of the year, or really high so the boats can't go through locks. It states that in the brochures.

 

Grace

[Flick]

You buys a ticket-you takes your chances! I would HATE to be on shore watching the boat make its way down the river without me. So, better I should pay the fare so I can at least (hopefully) be ON the boat. On our trip to Paris last year we were on the GCT tour bus when Lo and behold, the Bizet swung around Notre Dame on the river Seine. The whole bus was so entranced with the beauty of the boat that several people wanted to book a river boat right there and then. If you remember the old Columbia Coffee commercials where the ship tilts to one side-well, that was the bus!!

 

Rick,24 cruises and counting! Next cruise- #25-Riverboat cruise from Amsterdam to Vienna in July '04

[pmcrusta]

You all are wonderful. And we are go with the flow type of people. I was looking for insight

and these help. Hopefully some others will add their 2 cents. Thanks to all!

[marco]

Two years ago we did a Vantage river cruise. Amsterdam to Budapest. It was outstanding. The dining was the finest I have EVER experienced on ANY cruise ship, albiet the selection was more limited. Just about everything was included. All tours, if it was a mornig tour, a stop for "coffee and" was included, in the afternoon, a cheese and wine stop was included. WInes with dinner were included. Many evenings before dinner, a mixed drink could be purhased but wine and soft drinks were complementary. Some stops, 3-4 hours, and the tour was pretty much the exctent of the stop. Other places, a nice tour, but sufficient time for individual exploring and some overnights were fun exploring the city at night. Particularly Bratislava. As for air, we are from NY, so it was NY/Amsterdam non-stop on Luftansa, home Budapest to Paris on Malav (the Hungarian airline) a 1 hr layover Paris-JFK Air France. Everything was fine. Last year, with river levels, MANY river cruises were altered substantially by just about all the river cruise operators, and there were a lot of unhappy campers.

[pmcrusta]

Thanks, Marco for your input I just requested a Vantage catalog. I am one of those people that researches a trip down to the last little item.

[Doubloon]

We did the GCT Rhone River Cruisetour last Sept. While we live in Kansas, we booked with GCT from Philadelphia. (Flew in to PHL on FF miles the night before the transatlantic flight to break up the trip and do some sightseeing in PHL.) GCT flight arrangements were great: Air France PHL non-stop to Paris going and Air France from Nice with a change in Paris coming back. Both excellent flights. We had booked the Loire Valley pre-trip extension. Our flight arrived in Paris very early in the morning and GCT had arranged a very nice room with breakfast at a Sofitel Airport hotel for us (no extra charge) where we had time to nap and shower before all the group's various flights had arrived. Then we left for the Loire Valley around noon.

[Kayelache]

My husband and I are booked on the Great Rivers (River Melody) in July. While we live in Arizona, we are driving to the East Coast (son just moved to Maine) We have arranged our own air, and will fly from Boston to Brussels, then take the train to Amsterdam. We're getting a Eurail pass, and will spend 10 days on our own after the cruise. Can someone tell me just where the ship docks in Amsterdam? Is it walking distance (with luggage) from Central Train Station? GCT said the dock is called Ruyijterkade.

[gracecarmo]

I don't recall the name of the dock where the Melody moored when we were on it two years ago, but it was right next to the train station.

On another river cruise, we were bussed to Roterdam instead of Amsterdam, due to some problem with the Rhine.

You will love the Melody, that trip for us was a 10.

 

Grace

[PJCruisers]

Marco said,

 

Everything was fine. Last year, with river levels, MANY river cruises were altered substantially by just about all the river cruise operators, and there were a lot of unhappy campers.

I am curious as to the time of year you went on your river trip? I heard if rivers are low they change you to a bus. I am guessing springtime is perfect time to river cruise considering river levels.

any info appreciated

[Flick]

We, along with Kayelache and her husband, Alfred are back from our riverboat cruise on the River Melody (GCT). We left on July 7th. for Brussels (Pre-cruise) and returned on July 28th from Vienna (post-cruise). We were only able to leave the boat the night we were in Cologne after dinner. All other nights, the boat sailed during or right after dinner. The time schedule is dependant on the boat's appointments at the various locks!

The only problem we had was a last minute change in itinerary by the airline. In an earlier post I listed our itinerary which was changed from non-stop flights to Brussels and from Vienna to the following: Tampa to Charlotte (On US air instead of United to Dulles)Charlotte to Munich to Brussels. Instead of arriving at 7:10am in Brussels it was 3:30pm. before we got to our hotel. Coming home instead of Vienna to Dulles to Tampa it was Vienna to London to Dulles to Tampa. From the time we got up in Vienna until we arrived home in Sarasota we had travelled for 24 hours! Quite frankly we are still exhausted from that flight home. (We were supposed to leave Vienna at 11:00am. and arrive in Tampa at 7:30pm.-Reality- left Vienna at 1:30pm. and arrived in Sarasota at 1:30am.) This was done by the airline and not by GCT because they still gave our program director our old schedule to confirm return flights. Oh yeah, they destroyed my 30" HARDSIDE luggage on the way over so I had to deal with a broken open case that no longer had any wheels in the various airports. Talk about being p***ed about the flight arrangements changed by the arrogant airlines!!

As far as not being able to go back into towns at night-it didn't matter. Remember, you stop at 18 villages and towns in 14 nights- while a wonderful trip, it is also an exhausting trip, period.

I forgot to mention that we had a balcony cabin on this trip. Most of the other rivercruisers do not have balconys-only the GCT boats have them. We saw the River Explorer (Vantage) and it had sliding glass doors on top but no balcony. The rivers were at normal levels and we could only use the Skydeck 3 times so we were very glad to have the balcony because the other cabins do not have windows that open and many passengers complained about their room being "stuffy'. Even at normal levels in the rivers the bridges are too low for the sky decks to be in use. We were parked next to the River Explorer and had a good opportunity to see it. Remember Vantage and GCT are owned by the Lewis brothers and I saw nothing to justify Vantage's higher base cost.

I have posted a complete review of this trip on this board under the title "River Melody-July 7 etc.