Danube Delta cruise - from Passau back to Passau

[braemar12]

I was asked to make a new post on this topic. Hope of interest.

 

As I very much enjoyed my river cruise in April cruising the Danube between Passau and Budapest, I have taken the plunge and have booked the full Danube cruise on the Amadeus Brilliant which will go from Passau all the way to the Danube Delta and back to Passau. Does anyone have any feedback on must see attractions in Belgrade, Vidin, St Gheorge, Rouse, Svishtov, Novi Sad and Vukovar? Also is it worth going to see Bucharest and Constanta which is offered as an option from one of the Romanian ports?

[CastleCritic]

I did Budapest to Bucharest (Giurgiu) in May with AMA.  Constanta is further than most cruises go so I have nothing on that section.

 

you say "and back" how long is this cruise?

 

 

 

Another poster did the entire river a few weeks before, on the same ship, with  mostly the same opinions on things.

 

I spent a day and change in Bucharest as part of the land extension. Its neat to see but we really didn't do all that much, the big full day in Bucharest excursion target (parliament) got canceled.  I wont say "dont go" but I didnt find it all that exciting to be honest. Not compared to say Vienna or Budapest

Edited August 5, 2023 by CastleCritic

[RobInMN]

I'm the other review that @CastleCritic linked to.

I can add one addition item from your list from a different cruise a long time ago.

Back in 2005, the river cruise we went on did go further than Giurgiu. I don't know where we actually docked at (probably not the delta), but we did an all day excursion to Constanta. Some things we did on the way that I thought were cool was a archeological/history museum, an excavation of a Roman market with an impressive mosaic floor, and once to Constanta, we stopped at the old The Casino of Constanța. Didn't go in, but it's a neat building.

Up to this point, the vast majority of our stops was a lesson in why communism failed. Some places barely qualifying for what we might consider a "second world" country, with Vukovar being the "worst". To be honest, back in 2005, some of these stops were depressing. Once we got to Constanta, we were back to first world. Modern, vibrant. It's a large shipping port, and apparently a resort destination. Where we stopped for lunch was technically Mamaia. It's a long (5 mile?) narrow strip of land separating the Black Sea from a lake. There was a water park, lots of condos and hotels (we had lunch at one hotel), and beaches all along the sea. Shopping etc. Sort of reminded me a bit of South Beach or Padre or something. We took a short gondola ride down part of it.

 

To circle back to Vukovar. We were very happy to see the progress that they've made. They've still got a ways to go, but they defiantly seem to be on the right track.

[ural guy]

We were on a 2016 cruise that was supposed to go to Constanta, but low water prevented it.  The good part was that when we left the ship to drive to Bucharest, we had to take a back route that really highlighted what bad shape the countryside was in.  All the young people had left, only older people on pensions remained in the small villages.

 

Vukovar was still recovering, and to me that made it more interesting.  This was history that was only 20+ years old.  Visited a family who had been removed from their home so that Bosnians could live there.  They returned 7 years later, and were happy that their photos had been preserved by the residents.

 

So I agree with RobinMN, it's definitely not a Castles on the Rhine cruise but to us, it was still interesting, maybe more so as we had been stationed in Germany back in the 80's, when we thought this region was part of the evil empire.

 

We were able to head up to Brasov for 5 days on our own, and Transylvania was really interesting...but not for you if you're ending in Passau.  Have a great time, Passau is also a great spot to spend some extra time if you can.

Edited August 5, 2023 by ural guy

[braemar12]

Castlecritic - 15 nights.

[ljandgb]

23 hours ago, RobInMN said:

 

@CastleCritic

 

Up to this point, the vast majority of our stops was a lesson in why communism failed. Some places barely qualifying for what we might consider a "second world" country, with Vukovar being the "worst". To be honest, back in 2005, some of these stops were depressing. Once we got to Constanta, we were back to first world. Modern, vibrant.

We did an Avalon full Danube cruise down to Romania, and this gets at the gist of the stops south of Budapest.  It was interesting, and I'm glad we did it, but it is fundamentally a different type of trip than the "top" half of the Danube.  Many of those former Soviet bloc countries have not fully found their footing yet.  I liked Belgrade, especially our excursions to smaller, local points (distillery, art coop, farmers market.)  We had a great dinner in a small restaurant set up to look like Grandma's house in Novi Sad.  In general, though, the Serbians still seem a little crabby and "not our fault" regarding the Bosnia/Serbian conflict.

 

Bulgaria seemed the least recovered.  Our guide remarked that there were few places to take tourists because the infrastructure like sidewalks, toilets, etc, just wasn't there.  We went to Belogradchik fortress (I think that was it), a fortress built on a hill around large rock spires.

 

We did an extension to Brasov which I really enjoyed.  Romania was my favorite, by far, part of that second leg, due to their ability to overcome their former Communist economy and the vibrant culture they have now.  Bucharest was a nice city, but I'm not sure it would be worth extra time on its own.

 

 

Edited August 6, 2023 by ljandgb

[CastleCritic]

33 minutes ago, ljandgb said:

We did an Avalon full Danube cruise down to Romania, and this gets at the gist of the stops south of Budapest.  It was interesting, and I'm glad we did it, but it is fundamentally a different type of trip than the "top" half of the Danube.  Many of those former Soviet bloc countries have not fully found their footing yet.  I liked Belgrade, especially our excursions to smaller, local points (distillery, art coop, farmers market.)  We had a great dinner in a small restaurant set up to look like Grandma's house in Novi Sad.  In general, though, the Serbians still seem a little crabby and "not our fault" regarding the Bosnia/Serbian conflict.

 

The Serbians really dont feel like they did much wrong.  When we did the bus tour of Belgrade the guide made sure to point out the still completely destroyed Military hq and point out who did it.  And on the bike tour the guide made sure to point out a monument to the people killed by Nato and that "the UN didn't like that very much".

 

Our cruise manager was a bit of a mixed bag on the whole thing, she's Serbian but part Croatia, but said like a majority of modern Serbia she considers herself Yugoslavian.  She at least had a little first hand experience with the event she was near a bridge right as NATO remodeled it. (Novi Sad).  She's the second Serbian cruise director Ive had on AMA, neither of them seemed to really think highly of politicians though.

Edited August 6, 2023 by CastleCritic

[UDChE89]

I did a round trip from Passau to the Iron Gates on Viva last year and loved it.  I did live blog it here but I think I tailed off at the end.  Excursions aren’t included on Viva so I was on my own for Novi Sad and Belgrade which was fine as I was the only non-German speaker on the boat.  I did one excursion which included Lepenski Vir and Golubac Fort but had I realized that we were being picked up at the fort, I would have stayed on the boat and done the fort on my own.