crystal river cruise excursion question

[mrsm88]

On 12/31/2019 at 1:40 PM, TheKingD said:

Poochi24 - one more thing.  We were in an aft cabin on the Debussy (one of the smaller ones about 3 from the back) and we were on Deck 3 rather than the lower one.  We did not have any noise issues at all, and we have booked a similar cabin, also on Deck 3, on the Ravel.  We loved being near the doors at the back to step outside to sit on the back deck or have easy access to the top deck with all the lounge areas.

That is good to hear as I believe we booked the same cabin location on our cruise next fall on the Mahler.

[TheKingD]

On 12/31/2019 at 8:24 PM, poochi24 said:

thanks! i may have just missed you then because we will be on the ravel early april!

 

how was the transport from the airport to the port? is there a set time for pickups ? we may be arriving at 11:35am and the port is around 1.5 hours away.  not sure if we will make the 3pm excursion. i guess worst case is we just look around town ourselves! 

You must be on an Eastbound cruise, rather than the one we are on that is Westbound.  Our trip begins in Budapest and ends in Vilshofen, and we will arrive a couple of days prior to the trip, so we will already been in town to board the ship. 

 

On our 2019 cruise, we also arrived several days in advance, but we were in the Crystal Pre-Cruise hotel, so Crystal had an escort waiting for us at the airport to take us to the hotel.  Our connecting flight had been delayed, so we were several hours late arriving, but the escort was there for us, holding up her i-pad with our names displayed.  She was not a Crystal employee but rather she was a contracted person with a limousine company.  We were in a nice Mercedes passenger van that would have had room for 6 or 8 passengers, but it was just the two of us with the driver.  It might depend on how many other Crystal guests are on your same flight or with similar arrival times, but I'm almost certain that Crystal doesn't make guests loiter around the airport for long.  If there are a lot of Crystal people on your flight, there might be someone holding up a Crystal sign in the airport.  We book our cruises through my travel agent, and they confirmed before we left home that we should look for the escort once we cleared Customs and Immigration.  A Crystal representative also called me before we left home to let me know to look for someone with our names on a sign, and the representative let me know we would be the only ones in the vehicle.

 

You and my husband may be kindred spirits, because he always convinces himself that he is going to be stranded in a foreign airport, but I can assure you that Crystal does a superb job with their logistics.

 

I look forward to hearing all about your trip - it will be here before we know it!

[tfred]

Poochi 

 

are you flying in the same day as your cruise departure?

[poochi24]

3 hours ago, tfred said:

Poochi 

 

are you flying in the same day as your cruise departure?

yes we are flying in around noon so the excursions that day are at 3pm and 4pm. wasnt sure if it was going to be tight trying to fit that in. 

[poochi24]

4 hours ago, TheKingD said:

You must be on an Eastbound cruise, rather than the one we are on that is Westbound.  Our trip begins in Budapest and ends in Vilshofen, and we will arrive a couple of days prior to the trip, so we will already been in town to board the ship. 

 

On our 2019 cruise, we also arrived several days in advance, but we were in the Crystal Pre-Cruise hotel, so Crystal had an escort waiting for us at the airport to take us to the hotel.  Our connecting flight had been delayed, so we were several hours late arriving, but the escort was there for us, holding up her i-pad with our names displayed.  She was not a Crystal employee but rather she was a contracted person with a limousine company.  We were in a nice Mercedes passenger van that would have had room for 6 or 8 passengers, but it was just the two of us with the driver.  It might depend on how many other Crystal guests are on your same flight or with similar arrival times, but I'm almost certain that Crystal doesn't make guests loiter around the airport for long.  If there are a lot of Crystal people on your flight, there might be someone holding up a Crystal sign in the airport.  We book our cruises through my travel agent, and they confirmed before we left home that we should look for the escort once we cleared Customs and Immigration.  A Crystal representative also called me before we left home to let me know to look for someone with our names on a sign, and the representative let me know we would be the only ones in the vehicle.

 

You and my husband may be kindred spirits, because he always convinces himself that he is going to be stranded in a foreign airport, but I can assure you that Crystal does a superb job with their logistics.

 

I look forward to hearing all about your trip - it will be here before we know it!

that's good to hear!

I've done the transfer with celebrity cruises  before (i know not exactly apples to apples comparison) and i remember standing for a while before getting on the bus where we waited another 30min at least before departing.  i was just worried about sitting around again! but it sounds like crystal doesn't have that problem. 

will definitely let you know how the trip goes! 

 

[kent9xxx1]

One thing I want to point out is there are a lot more options for excursion on the Danube (Mozart) compare to the Rhine (Bach)

When I was on the Mozart, each day, in the morning, we have 3 choices, in the afternoon, 3 choices, or 2 choices for the full day.  On the Bach, each day, in the morning, 2 choices or 1 choice, afternoon, 2 choices or 1 choice.  Rare to see 1 full day option.  

 

I wonder if Crystal is cutting cost (but I did both in 2019) or there are less to do on the Rhine.  

[tfred]

1 hour ago, poochi24 said:

yes we are flying in around noon so the excursions that day are at 3pm and 4pm. wasnt sure if it was going to be tight trying to fit that in. 

Same day arrivals for a cruise always make me nervous and I am an very experienced flyer. 
 

too easy for something to go wrong.   Where are you flying from ? 

[Coral]

3 hours ago, kent9xxx1 said:

One thing I want to point out is there are a lot more options for excursion on the Danube (Mozart) compare to the Rhine (Bach)

When I was on the Mozart, each day, in the morning, we have 3 choices, in the afternoon, 3 choices, or 2 choices for the full day.  On the Bach, each day, in the morning, 2 choices or 1 choice, afternoon, 2 choices or 1 choice.  Rare to see 1 full day option.  

 

I wonder if Crystal is cutting cost (but I did both in 2019) or there are less to do on the Rhine.  

I was looking at a future Danube cruise and at least 2 excursions that was included on my Mozart cruise that were complimentary, there is now a charge for. I think one was Regensburg and the other was the Vienna Museum where you get in before it opens (Museum of Fine Arts and Art Chamber). I could be wrong but I think those were the 2.

 

I had looked at these excursions with out booking the cruise so I guess it may not be final (they were examples of excursions). 

Edited January 3, 2020 by Coral

[Coral]

3 hours ago, tfred said:

Same day arrivals for a cruise always make me nervous and I am an very experienced flyer. 
 

too easy for something to go wrong.   Where are you flying from ? 

Due to not living near a hub, or having any direct flights (and having a ton of flight issues in the past) and living somewhere with volatile weather - I often feel like I need to fly into Europe 2 days early (or 3). Requires more time but two summers ago, I missed half the flights I took.

Edited January 3, 2020 by Coral