Leaving tomorrow for our Avalon Danube cruise

[ljandgb]

She transited thru Frankfurt and did passport control there. She did customs in Budapest, where all they wanted was her covid test. Once in the city, no restrictions at all. 

[ljandgb]

This is shaping up to be a different sort of cruise from our first week.  

 

Some is due to the countries we are transiting.  As we leave the Schengen Zone, passport control becomes an issue, which means there is a lot more waiting around for a local official to go thru paperwork, passports, etc.  We were in Mohacs, Hungary, yesterday for a morning excursion then sat there until 5:45pm, to go 0.5miles down the river to a border crossing, where we sat for 5 more hours for them to do paperwork.  Today we are in Ilok, Croatia, for a couple hours this morning, before leaving for Serbia, where we may, or may not, need to all do Covid tests before being allowed off the ship.  So, overall, the pace of excursions is significantly slower, and we are in towns that are not really set up for tourists.  I could not even find a postcard in Mohacs.  We wanted to walk along the river, but it is much less developed than the upper Danube and ran out of trail/sidewalk pretty soon after leaving the town. So, if anyone is looking at a cruise for this part of the Danube, keep this in mind.

 

The second is that our table service has gone down in quality.  Dinners are all the sudden taking 2 hours, and the orders are not always correct.  Breakfast requires flagging someone down to refill our coffee every time.  I'm not sure if the doubling of passengers is the issue, or if we have new/less staff (it seems like the servers are mostly the same from last week.)

[ljandgb]

Also, we are in a royal suite for this trip, but spent 36 hours in a regular room due to some plumbing issues in our room.  If anyone has any questions about either, I'm happy to answer.

[Travelw]

Sorry to hear about all the issues, hope things get better.

 

 

[ljandgb]

Issues like these while on the Danube are still better than no problems while being home. 😀  Our shower is leaking under the floor and the carpet in front of the bathroom is getting wet. They pulled up the tile and did something in Budapest which didn’t work. The new fix is that we shower in an empty room 3 doors down. I’m sure some of the other passengers are wondering why I’m all the sudden going up and down the corridor in my bathrobe. 

[ljandgb]

We had to do rapid antigen covid tests yesterday before we were allowed off the ship in Serbia.  A team came onboard and set up in the lounge. We all lined up and they made it thru the passengers quickly. It took about an hour to get the results back, which I’m assuming were all negative as I haven’t heard otherwise. Serbia also requires you to carry your passport with you. The front desk hands it out and collects it back. Our vaccination cards and some sort of form are tucked inside. We were told not to disturb it. 
 

[ljandgb]

And we're home, after 23 hours of travel yesterday.  It was a great trip, and I think too long to try to do a detailed trip report.   Someone asked what our favorite part was, and at this point, I'm not sure I can even list all the places we went.  What really stands out, above everything, are the people. We met some really amazing people, on both legs of the trip.  Folks I suspect we'll continue to keep in touch with long after our cruise is done.

 

Other random bits of info:

 

The Royal Suite was worth the price.  The extra space, about 50% more than a standard room, made living in it for 2 weeks much easier.  Half that extra space went to the bathroom - with a separate toilet room with it's only little sink, and a larger shower/sink area with two sinks, small shelves on each side for toiletries, and a larger shower with a small bench.  The other extra space was mostly open area around the desk/sitting area, so that my husband and I weren't dancing around each other to maneuver around the room.  There's also more storage area for clothes, etc.

 

The food was good, but better the first half when we had a more experienced chef.  My salmon on the flight home was better than any fish I had on the ship.  The vegetarian options on the ship were sometimes very carb heavy, and the desserts, for this chocolate lover, were very lacking.  The "healthy choice" dessert was frequently some sort of mushy fruit in a sweet syrup.

 

The Deggendorf to Budapest leg is much different than the Budapest to Bucharest leg.  The first/top has many more stops, more small and cute towns to wander around in that have been economically developed or cater to tourists (sometimes too much), and on our cruise, had 2 nights when performers came on board at night, and one afternoon wine tasting.  The second/bottom half had 3 days of all afternoon into evening sailings, the towns were smaller and less developed, and there were no instances of performers/etc, coming on for a period of time.  I'm sure this is all due to the fact that as you get down to the former Eastern Bloc countries there is simply less there in way of economic diversity and even entertainment options, especially this early into resumption of travel.  I'm just pointing out the differences.

 

Budapest at night really is amazing.  Definitely don't miss sailing then.

 

Romania was a revelation.  I really, really liked it.  We did a 2 day extension to Transylvania, which was interesting and worth it also, but I wish we'd had time to do a couple full days in Bucharest as well.  Romania seems to be doing very well economically, and many people spoke English which just makes navigating it on your own easier.  

 

Ultimately, a majority of the passengers from the first half were covid tested to be able to fly home from Budapest.  We were all tested to get into Serbia on the second half, and the majority of us were tested again to be able to fly home from Bucharest.  To my knowledge, everyone was negative.  I will admit there was no social distancing on the ship or tour buses - by day 2 we were finding table mates and hanging out in the lounge together.  Of the passengers, there was alway some people who did not go on the tours but explored town on their own, so effectively expanding our "pod."  The only real masking occurred when going up to the buffet.  Everyone, including crew, was vaxxed.  Not all the countries we traveled to had very good vax rates, and several countries did not require masking in any meaningful way.

 

It was a great trip, and we'll have many, many good memories to keep from it.

 

If anyone has any specific questions, I'm happy to answer.

[Sleep7]

Hi ljandgb!

Welcome back! I'm so happy to read your happy "random bits of info" and review.

Seems like cruising is certainly requires a lot more preparation than in the old days but the reward is still worth it.

We are leaving this weekend for a Danube cruise from Vilshofen to Budapest on AMA and I'm equal parts excited and nervous as it's our first trip to Europe since the pandemic.

Thanks again for posting your thoughts on your adventure.

[Travelw]

Being on the first part of the Danube cruise with you, we completely agree, the people were the best part. The passengers and crew were all so excited to travel again. Seeing the amazing destinations with very few tourists, was a highlight. For anyone who is unsure about traveling during the pandemic, if you are fully vaccinated, in our opinion, it’s not an issue.

 

Hopefully ljandgb, sometime in our future timelines, we will get together again.

[ljandgb]

1 hour ago, Travelw said:

Hopefully ljandgb, sometime in our future timelines, we will get together again.

Absolutely!  We'd love to.  Time to start planning our next trip...