Belgium on Anthem

[DevonianCruiser]

Hi all

 

On the Anthem in less than 3 weeks and stop off at Zeebruge with Bruges as one of the most preferred options. Have done this before so thought we'd try Ghent (Gent). Has anyone done this and is it possible to get there from the port with relative ease? I've looked over at the ports of call forum and there's questions from a year or so unanswered so I guess it's quite a quiet port.

 

Any ideas appreciated :-)

[Eglesbrech]

I did a little bit of research on this and then decided to take the ship excursion instead as we are on the 3 day cruise so I don't want to lose any time hanging around. There is an hourly train from Blankenberge to Ghent, the journey is around 53 minutes.

 

Most ships offer a shuttle into Blankenberge from the port so I presume that RCI will do the same. On smaller ships we have gone to Blankenberge and taken the train from there into Bruges which is also an hourly service. The issue on a big ship is how long it takes to get onto shuttle and then tying that in with the train times.

 

The cost of a taxi in Belgium is ridiculous, we checked the price the last time and the journey to Bruges was 45 euros each way and that was a couple of years ago (the train fare was just a few euros!). I only mention this as if you go to Ghent then struggled to get a train back on time the taxi would be pricy. That said the trains we have used in Belgium have aways been very, very efficient.

 

Have you visited Blankenberg? It is a nice little seaside town with one long street of shops and bars and at the end a very long promenade with typical seaside attractions. If you want something quieter than Bruges and Ghent then it makes a pleasant trip to try some Belgium beer, buy some chocolate and just enjoy the seaside.

 

There are trams outside the port as well but I have no idea where they go, might be worth investigating this as well as there may be a link to Ghent.

 

Have fun whatever you do.:)

[kernow]

Sorry I can't help with Ghent but the tram mentioned above runs right along the coast, we caught it to Oostende and spent a few hours there. The trams run regularly and cost just a few Euros.

 

 

Julie

[RubyGold]

Have you thought about doing a ship excursion to Ypres? My partner and I went there for a day for the Armistice procession a few years back. Amazing museums and Waffle stands. Beautiful little town.

[DevonianCruiser]

Thanks for all your comments. Some good ideas to look into :)

[Byron_1978]

Another good option is to take the tram to Knokke. There is a very nice shopping street and it generally is a very nice town.

 

I would not recommend staying in Blankenberge as I personally don't care for the town. I read a perfect anology with the cruise world somewhere on the Celebrity forums: When Blankenberge is like Carnival, Knokke is like Celebrity or better.

Blankenberge is more of a party town. Knokke is a more classy but still vibrant town.

 

Are you docked on May 4th?

I will be doing the opposite at that date as I have a planned visit to Anthem (courtesy of our TA :D:cool: )

[DevonianCruiser]

We're on the 30th April sailing I think so May 1st there. we're going to have a look at some excursions with RCI again as we would like to see Ghent I think as we've heard some good things, though we'll look at all the tours. We normally do it by ourselves in the caribbean as it's so easy but as we are only two days we may go for ease instead of research :D We have two weeks in Florida in July and all our time is spent on looking at that at the moment :p

 

Thanks again all.

[lattelady]

We are on a river cruise next week with a stop in Belgium. You might check the river cruising section as I've seen some discussion there regarding Bruges and Ghent.

[Alohaaloha]

My daughter lived in Brussels, and both Bruges and Ghent were two of her very favourite places. Well worth a visit if you can, stunning Flemish architecture and Bruges is particularly lovely.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Byron_1978]

We're on the 30th April sailing I think so May 1st there. we're going to have a look at some excursions with RCI again as we would like to see Ghent I think as we've heard some good things, though we'll look at all the tours. We normally do it by ourselves in the caribbean as it's so easy but as we are only two days we may go for ease instead of research :D We have two weeks in Florida in July and all our time is spent on looking at that at the moment :p

 

Thanks again all.

Ghent is a very nice city. I don't know it that well (besides the road from the highway to the office of a client where I worked for half a year), but I hear the historic centre is on the tentative list of Unesco World Heritage.

 

If you want to visit Ghent, I would recommend to see if you can use a RCI excursion. I know someone said the trains in Belgium are efficient, but as a native Belgian who has used it way too many times I can say it really isn't at all effective. Delays are frequent and often have a cascading effect. Also a strike can happen every day (I won't go in on the political reasons for this). I would not recommend doing this on your own :)