LIVE Tauck: Amsterdam to Budapest 6/29/19-7/15/19

[HBCcruiser]

Beautiful day in Wurzburg. The Cardinal Prince’s palace is so opulent it’s crazy! We enjoyed a Strudel and wine then got to do wine tasting in the Cardinal wine cellar. It is huge! Dark so pics did not turn out well.

[HBCcruiser]

More pics from the palace:

The wine cellar was lit only by candles. The pics are dark but what an incredible place! It’s huge!!

 

The opulence was mind blowing. Such amazing artwork. We were not allowed to take photos inside the palace. The ones you see are from the chapel. 

 

 

[birder]

Thank you for sharing your journey with the rest of us.  We did this cruise in the other direction three years ago on the Joy. It was one of the highlights of our lives.  Tauck knows how to do it!  Enjoy the remainder of your trip.

[jagoffee]

18 hours ago, HBCcruiser said:

 

We did check out before we left. Tauck asked us to leave our luggage, including carryon luggage, in our rooms.  They gave us extra Tauck tags for carryon. We were told to meet back at the hotel at 3 pm to get on busses that took us to the ship. All bags were in our cabin when we arrived. Easy! 

Thank you for your feedback.  We scored tickets for the Anne Frank Museum for 10:15 AM on September 5, so we will be following your rough schedule.

 

Keep enjoying your adventure.

[Senga]

Enjoying your posts.  You must have a very tiny appetite.  The meals look very small to me!  We are going on Scenic Budapest to Amsterdam in September.

[HBCcruiser]

4 hours ago, Senga said:

Enjoying your posts.  You must have a very tiny appetite.  The meals look very small to me!  We are going on Scenic Budapest to Amsterdam in September.

LOL! I feel like I’m eating all the time! You won’t go hungry on this cruise! It’s all you can eat and the staff feel as though they did something wrong if you don’t eat everything. They go out of their way to make you happy. Truly amazing staff!

[HBCcruiser]

Day 7. Halfway. Time is flying by!

 

[HBCcruiser]

Dinner last night was delicious! I love the Caesar salad so I had that plus the spare rib. No dessert - too full!! I didn’t take a photo of the salad because I did so earlier and don’t want to bore you. 

[HBCcruiser]

We have been watching the news about the California earthquakes. (We live near LA)  My family felt them but no damage. Even my dad in Vegas felt it! Praying for the folks there. Hopefully the worst is over.

[HBCcruiser]

We spent the morning onboard sailing to Bamberg. We listened to Katriana, our tour director, give a great lecture on life in the Middle Ages. Had a yummy salad for lunch!

 

We leave soon for Bamberg.

[HBCcruiser]

[OnTheJourney]

Noticed you didn't mention the Mechanical Music Cabinet in Rüdesheim....that was one of the most interesting parts of the trip for me (at least relative to shore excursion activities). 

Edited July 6, 2019 by gretschwhtfalcon

[candigirl41]

Thanks for the review and pictures.  I will never be able to do this kind of cruise unless I win the lottery, so I am happy to go along and enjoy it from your perspective.  I read your Royal Princess review as well, because I am going on that cruise in November of 2020.  That was a lot of great information.

 

Candi

[HBCcruiser]

9 hours ago, candigirl41 said:

Thanks for the review and pictures.  I will never be able to do this kind of cruise unless I win the lottery, so I am happy to go along and enjoy it from your perspective.  I read your Royal Princess review as well, because I am going on that cruise in November of 2020.  That was a lot of great information.

 

Candi

 

Glad you enjoyed it and found it helpful. If not for my mom, I wouldn’t be able to cruise like I do. I am so blessed. 

[HBCcruiser]

15 hours ago, gretschwhtfalcon said:

Noticed you didn't mention the Mechanical Music Cabinet in Rüdesheim....that was one of the most interesting parts of the trip for me (at least relative to shore excursion activities). 

 

No we didn’t. Mom was getting tired so we went back to the ship. It sounded interesting! 

[HBCcruiser]

We had a nice day touring Bamburg. It’s a very cute medieval town but was very crowded.  

[HBCcruiser]

Some of the places remind you of the Harry Potter movies. 

[HBCcruiser]

Tauck treated us to beer tasting at a local pub. The smoked beer was not bad (I’m not a beer drinker). Mom and I drank wine instead, but did sample the beer. They also served us pretzels and sausages. The pretzels were hard as a rock! We could not eat them. It made for a humorous time though!

[HBCcruiser]

Dinner onboard followed by a chocolate Buffet! Yummy!!

[HBCcruiser]

Day 8

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

Great that they showed the Women's World Cup final.  Great game!

[OnTheJourney]

17 hours ago, HBCcruiser said:

 

No we didn’t. Mom was getting tired so we went back to the ship. It sounded interesting! 

 

I totally get it....found it was a pretty busy itinerary...almost like a land tour that takes place with a boat as the accommodations. As much as we really enjoyed it, I expected just a bit more 'down time' to simply relax and enjoy cruising on the river. There was relatively little of that sort of free time. Then, with the rainy, damp weather we often had (October), it sort of put a damper on things too. All in all, a great trip though - typical Tauck luxury, great food and activities, etc.  Would love to do another but just not sure I'm up to one of those special Vienna gala evenings again - did it twice now and really wouldn't need to do another one of those, and yet just about any of their itineraries (in that part of Europe anyway) include one. It got SOOO warm in that palace when we did the one with the river trip. Couldn't wait till the first guy at our table took off  his sport coat - then everybody did the same. 

 

Enjoy those big locks that are coming up...REALLY amazing!!  Special little surprise as part of all that but won't spoil it for you.... 🙂   Funniest thing though was coming up out of one of those to find people sitting and staring at you through the windows!  A bit weird actually.  The locals gather on the bridges and even the sides of the lock (not safe) and just sit there and watch these boats come up and through. 

Edited July 7, 2019 by gretschwhtfalcon

[OnTheJourney]

15 hours ago, HBCcruiser said:

Day 8

 

 

Have to chuckle about the hard pretzels!!! That sausage and beer thing was probably the single-most event that did not go all that well on our trip. Either something must have gotten confused as to the restaurant not expecting us when we arrived, or else they were understaffed. We sat and sat and waited for them to bring around the sausage and beer - some came but then not near enough for everyone. The Tauck tour directors wound up helping to get things moving along. It was obvious the restaurant staff was stressed about the whole thing. The guy sitting next to us (one of the guests onboard) got really grumpy and said it was probably the worst experience he ever had with Tauck (a bit of an exaggeration I'm sure!). He finally got up and left before getting anything to eat. 

[Host Jazzbeau]

5 hours ago, gretschwhtfalcon said:

The guy sitting next to us (one of the guests onboard) got really grumpy and said it was probably the worst experience he ever had with Tauck (a bit of an exaggeration I'm sure!).

 

Not necessarily – Tauck's reputation on CC is extremely good, so a screw-up like this could well have been unique in his experience.

[pully8]

Wonderful review and pictures.

Great weather too, enjoying travelling with your report.