Is December a good time to cruise

[sccruzzer]

Hi, Is December a good time to take a river cruise in Austria/germany? How will the weather be? Looking at a Dec, 9th river cruise from Vienna, Austia to Regensbery, Danuve River. Thanks for any input. :rolleyes:

[steamboats]

Hi sccruzzer,

 

I´m trying to answer both of your questions on this thread.

 

First the MS VIKTORIA is owned by a German company called Premicon. They are a financial company and all boats are partially or fully chartered by other companies. The MS VIKTORIA is mainly chartered by a German cruise company called Phoenix Reisen. Anyway Phoenix does not offer any cruises in December on their website.

 

The MS VIKTORIA is classified as a 4 star ship, 180 passengers, crew of 40, built in 2004. Length 126.7 m = 415 ft, width 11.4 m = 37 ft, draft 1.50 m = 5 ft. The boat has 4 decks (including sun deck). Cabins do have 15-16 sqm = 161 - 172 sft. Flag is German, bord language is German (might be English if the cruise you´re interested in is a US charter). Panorama restaurant, lounge with bar / dance floor, library, café, gift shop, wellness area including fitness club / sauna / whirlpool. Cabins do have minibar, French windows on Orion / Saturn deck which can be opened and large picture windows on Neptun deck (can´t be opened), bathroom with shower / toilet / hair dryer, individual A/C, radio, satellite TV, safe deposit box, telephone, voltage is 220 V. Cabins are isolated against noise.

 

Cruising in December: This is obviously a Christmas market cruise and if you want to see these you have to cruise in December :) . Christmas markets open on Dec 1 and close on Dec 23 or 24 in 2006. Can be quite cold at this time of the year and you may encounter snow and / or rain. Gloves and scarf and a warm coat is a must.

 

What to expect from the towns along your route: for Vienna, Melk, Duernstein read my review about our cruise on the MS Mozart (linked in my signature). For Passau and Regensburg read this thread

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=391735

 

where I also put in links to Christmas markets in Regensburg.

 

steamboats

[sccruzzer]

Thank you so much for thge quick response...have another question...Hope you don't mind. The meals they serve....Is is like the meals they serve on a ocean cruise line...Will there be food (ie hambergers, hotdogs, pizza etc..) available pretty much during the day. Or do they just serve Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner? Just curious on how they do it. Also whay type foods do they serve at Dinner time..Are they European dishes? Thaks again for any input. :)

[hobse]

As many will tell you (in past posts), the food is not like on an ocean cruise. What will be available will depend on the company. It is basically breakfast, lunch, dinner. On our Uniworld Christmas Market cruise last December there were always plenty of cookies and fruit available in different places. Our agenda was very busy and we were rarely on the ship during the day, unless we returned for lunch. So basically no need for the pizza, etc. You will be on excursions, exploring/shopping most of the time. Breakfast and lunch are buffets with many choices. Dinner is usually a choice of 3 entrees (meat, fish, vegetarian), with soup/salad/app. and desert. We never had a bad meal and we really enjoyed the trip.

[steamboats]

Hi sccuzzer,

 

It´ll help if you tell us which company / tour operator is offering this cruise. German cruise companies do not offer any Christmas market cruises except Viking. Some do have a Christmas / New Years cruise.

 

As the MS Viktoria is a German boat operated by a German company I assume that food will be more European than American. As posted before it´s definitely not like on an ocean cruiser. You only have one restaurant. It´s usually a breakfast buffet. For lunch some companies do have a menue, some offer a buffet style lunch. Dinner is alway a several course dinner off the menue with 2 or 3 choices (depending on the company). You definitely won´t find any hamburgers, pizza or hot dogs throughout the day (unless you buy something onshore). Many companies offer snacks like cookies or fruit. Some do offer an afternoon tea with cakes and hors d´oeuvres. But anyway you won´t starve on a river cruise!!

 

For temps in December check weather.com. They also have average temps for European cities in their database.

 

steamboats