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River Melody-July '04-Amsterdam to Vienna


Flick

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Here is my review of a 21 day cruise tour taken the month of July.

 

We have just returned from a 14 day cruise from Amsterdam to Vienna with a pre-cruise trip to Belgium and a post-cruise trip in Vienna. I am going to follow my notes which are items that I have not seen in this thread before. I have a list of about 14 items but will not list them in order so grab a cup of coffee and relive what was one of the finest trips we have taken after 25 cruises, both on water and on land.

First, about the boat itself. It has been been completely renovated this year and is gorgeous! The new carpet and color scheme is now blue,yellow, and green with lots of wood accents (dark wood in public areas, light wood in the cabins). The ambiance is CASUAL! There is no need for the gentlemen to bring a sport coat or suit and tie. Also ladies, leave the beads and sequins at home-absolutely no one was that dressed. At the captain's welcome dinner there were maybe 6 or 7 men in coats and at the farewell dinner, no one wore jackets. (Our weather incidentally was very pleasant the whole trip so it wasn't very hot at all.) A clean shirt (good luck on that one by the end of the trip!) and slacks were more than sufficient. Yes, a few even wore shorts in the dining room for all meals including dinner. The table cloths are sufficently long enough to hide skinney, hairy legs of both men and women.

All of the cabins are the same size with the exception of the bathroom (which supposedly is smaller) in the balcony rooms.(The bathroom incidentally has a lighed magnifying mirror for shaving and putting on makeup while the regular mirror is set into a corner and is useless. The hair dryer in the cabin worked very well and you will not need to bring your own.) We had a balcony and considered it very good money spent. Other passengers complained that because you can't open the windows their rooms were "stuffy". Another important factor, as I mentioned our weather was normal therefore the rivers were also normal. Nevertheless, the bridges are so low that we only were able to use the sky deck 3 times in 14 days-thus we were grateful for the balcony. This is partly a design fault of this boat. There is no forward open deck unlike most other ships on the river so when they had to lower the pilot house everyone had to stay off the sky deck. It was lowered most of the time preventing access to the open deck. The forward lounge is beatiful but sits right behind the forward equipment of the ship so looking straight forward left a lot to be desired.

The boat is self-navigating therefore no tugs are needed anywhere. Incidentally, your itinerary is dependant upon the appointment times established for going thru the locks so you do not get a full day in some of the towns as the boat has 87 locks to go thru on this trip. These locks, incidentally, are bigger and deeper than the Panama Canal but our boat barely fit width wise in them. The Canal for instance was designed for the small "Rhine freighter" not the luxurious river cruiser.

Fair warning-this is a physically strenuous trip. You can be in excellent health and it probally won't matter-you will be exhausted at the end of the trip. (We are of the opinion that adding Vienna at the end of trip, while beautiful, nevertheless was "over the top" for our knees and backs after 14 days of cobblestone streets and plazas in Germany and Austria.

Now for the most subjective part, Food. It was very good. We are on the South Beach Diet and although we tried to be careful we did succumb to the breads and the desserts. The good news is I didn't gain any weight nor did my wife but the bad news is we both look like we are seriously pregnant so we are now back on phase one to get rid of the bellys. I was of the opinion that breakfast and lunch was buffet style. Breakfast always was, however every other day they also prepared to order omelets and other egg dishes and everyday they had a breakfast special (1 pancake for instance-tells you something about the size of the portions!) Only two or three lunches were buffet, the rest were sit-down with soup (all of them good, many of them very salty) plus main course and the ever popular dessert. Both the lunch menu and the dinner menu consisted of two entrees-a fish dish and a meat dish although sometimes they offered a pasta dish as a third option. You ordered your lunch and dinner selections at breakfast so be prepared to think about steak when you sit down to your breakfast eggs. Incidentally the bacon was literally burned every single day and so crisp (as well as black) that it was generally considered bacon crumbles by the passengers. The service at mealtime was very personable as well as friendly since there was only 30 crew people and they had to double up on jobs, for instance, our bar tender was sometimes our waiter. One more "food" point- the "unlimited wine at dinner is usually 2 glasses since they do not leave carafes or bottles on the table but rather the waiters pour the wine and they are pretty busy being waiters getting your food courses out to you. Dinner takes about 1-1/2 hours and since you sit with different people all the time very relaxed and friendly. There are NO tables for two in the dining room which is at the back of the ship with a three-sided view of the scenery.

The staff was very personable both on the ship and when you ran into them on shore and made a point by the second day to always address you by name-that includes the Captain! He made no secret that his girlfriend was the Hotel Manager, even kissing her in public in the pilot house and dancing with her on those nights we had dancing. He and she also did a cute act during the crew show.

Well, I seem to have jumped to entertainment. I must confess that the idea of "regional entertainment" was less than, shall we say, exciting to me before the trip. I am here to tell you that every single show was fabulous and should not be missed! The entertainers come on the boat at various towns and get off at that town or the next town. Ask anyone who has been on this trip and you will here "Ya Ya" at the top of their voices followed by hysterical laughter.

Without notice each passenger was given one Euro at Nurnberg and told they had to buy the bread for dinner that night. Well we ended up with lots of bread left over but a great time hunting down bakeries and trying to communicate with the locals for our purchases. The program directors advised the passengers that one of the options, Schloss Seehof, was not worth it and no one went based on the feelings of previous passengers. So much for "pushing the bill up"!

I can't recommend this trip too highly but I would suggest that you read a biography of the Habsburg family before you go-this trip re-traces their 600 years of power and a biography will greatly enhance your appreciation of this journey thru time. Oh, also watch out for those *&%@# cobblestones-they hurt by the end of the first week!

If you have any other specific questions don't hesitate to ask!!!

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Thanks, Flick, for the thorough review. It sounds as though you had a fantastic, albeit exhausting, time. I've printed a copy for my wife to read at her leisure. Don't be surprised if I contact you with a couple of other questions. Again, welcome home, and thanks for taking the time to share your experience with us.

 

Dave

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We just got back last night late from the same cruise. I'll try to get a report together in the next day or two (we're still so jetlagged not even sure what time of day it is) but do want to say I agree with Flick in every respect. It was a simply GREAT cruise, couldn't recommend it too highly!

We didn't do the pre or post cruises, but did do ten days on our own after the cruise. We spent an extra day in Vienna, then took trains to Munich and Brussels (Eurrail passes), and the chunnel train Eurostar to London for three days.

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Welcome home Karen! I can't imagine having the energy to do an additional 10 days after that trip-much less after your "pre-cruise" in this country before going to the boat. (In fact, if you want the truth, I have a sudden urge to just go back to bed!!!!). At any rate, welcome home. I am kinda surprised that there have been no questions regarding this trip.....

I absolutely have a new hero in my life and her name is KAREN!

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Hi Flick,

 

Your review was very helpful. It's hard to find reviews on the GCT River Boat tours, so was very happy to see yours here. My friends and I are signed up for this tour in Nov. and so looking forward to it. Curious to know if you signed up for the other optional tours...day 5 in Koblenz the Marksburg Castle, and day 10 .... tour of Rothenburg. How much were these tours? Also, in Vienna did you go to the Imperial Court Orchestra performance? Did men wear sport coats to this? Also need to know if an adapter is needed to use my curling iron. It appears the food portions are small (1 pancake), so that can be a good thing for my waist. Our boat is Concerto, but has the same layout. Thanks for your help.

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Hope I remember your questions. Yes we did both of the optional tours, Marksburg Castle and Rothenburg. Do not miss them! Marksburg is the only castle that still can be toured and is furnished as it was. It is the headquarters for The German Castle Association and the tour is very educational plus it gives you a great "feel" for castle-living. Did you know that beds were short in those days because the people slept sitting up? They believed that lying down completely was something akin to dying. I won't reveal any other surprises from Marksburg. Rothenburg escaped the bombing of WWII so it truly is a preserved Medieval town! Absolutely beautiful and a real treat in "re-built Germany". I'm sorry, I don't remember the exact price we paid for those two options but I believe it was $45.00 per person for Marksburg and $50-55.00 per person for Rothenburg. Very, very worth it!

No we did not see the Imperial Chamber Group-we went to another palace where they did half Mozart and half Strauss. Also they had two dancers (Ballet) and two singers. The program was approximately an hour and just great. One of the men in our group of 50 wore a suit - all the rest of us wore shirts and slacks. I had taken along a sport coat for the concert but the only time I wore it on the entire trip was our dinner at the Captain's Table and even then it was completely unnecessary!

I hope I remembered everything.....

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Well I see I did forget something. Yes you will need an adaptor for your curling iron. I took my cordless razor and charged it up and that was a good thing -I couldn't get the cord to plug in the bathroom. Actually Mr. Experience here took a power bar with 6 outlets to plug in camera chargers, curling iron, etc. Upon arrival he put in the adaptor plug and promptly blew up the power bar-oops, fogot the converter goes into the adaptor plug first!!!! We live and learn-then we live some more and try to remember what it was we learned!

Storage is somewhat at a premium in the cabin but the bathrooms are very small and I found the over the door thingee to be in the way. The shelves in the closet are very deep, however, and combined with the two drawers next to each of the beds we were able to completely empty our suitcases before storing them under the couches. Warning, if your suitcase is extra thick (deep) it may not go all the way under the bed.....

Ummm, one last thing-sorry, no lobster at dinner.

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Hi Flick,

 

Thanks for the quick response to my questions. So glad I thought to ask about the adaptor. Your story reminds me of my experience in a hotel in Madrid a few years ago. I plugged the curling iron & adaptor in and the lights all went out in our room. I took the curling iron and adaptor to the front desk and sheepishly reported what had happened. I asked them to show me how to do it properly, and then they put out the lights in the lobby. Good thing it was morning. This totally ruined my curling iron, and the 1st stop out on our tour the tour guide spent most of our stop going into shops with me to find a replacement and translating my needs. (We call it building memories.)

 

Now....finding out there is no lobster night....should I cancel the trip?

 

L.L.

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I really enjoyed your review since I'm taking the same cruise in May 05 with the pre- and post- tours. I notice in the catalogs that several of the included excursions for the 04 cruises are now optional (for a fee) in the 05 trips. Are there any you took that you feel were not too great? I don't want to spend $$ for unnecessary or mediocre excursions. Also, what should I take along to make my digital camera battery charger work? How were the hotels in Brussels and Vienna? Were the locations central? Thanks for your input.

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Welcome home, Flick! I posted a message to you under another heading thinking that you had not left yet but here you are, home and wishing that you were still there!

 

Hope you enjoyed Cabin 409. That is the same cabin that we sailed in on the same cruise two years ago. Did you enjoy the aroma of fresh pastries baking and coffee brewing when you awoke in the morning just two cabins fore of the galley? We enjoyed Cabin 409 so much that we are sailing in that same cabin on the River Harmony in September on the Waterways of the Olde World tour. Hope you had Capt. Vandenboom on your trip. He is a young fellow but very outgoing with the passengers.

 

His wife, Miriam, was the GTC Tour Guide on our trip but has since retired I understand. She was a super guide. Guess she has gone home to raise a family. In re-reading your report I guess we should hope that Capt. Vandenboom was NOT your captain if he was so chummy with the Hotel Manager or is Miriam back to work?

 

We are going on the Rhine and Mosel Rivers from Antwerp to Basel, Switzerland on September 23rd. I am confident that this trip will be as nice as the last one and it won't be the last trip that we take with Grand Circle. Looking at the lower Danube to the Black Sea for next year. I will post a trip report upon our return in late October.

 

The only complaint that we had with Grand Circle was with the air arrangments so this year we took the credit and did our own air so we will be able to arrive a day early and stay over after the cruise. We also have non-stop flights which is just about impossible with Grand Circle's air.

 

Hope you are now recuperated from all of that good living on the river.

 

Clarence

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Welcome home, Flick! I posted a message to you under another heading thinking that you had not left yet but here you are, home and wishing that you were still there!

 

Hope you enjoyed Cabin 409. That is the same cabin that we sailed in on the same cruise two years ago. Did you enjoy the aroma of fresh pastries baking and coffee brewing when you awoke in the morning just two cabins fore of the galley? We enjoyed Cabin 409 so much that we are sailing in that same cabin on the River Harmony in September on the Waterways of the Olde World tour. Hope you had Capt. Vandenboom on your trip. He is a young fellow but very outgoing with the passengers.

 

His wife, Miriam, was the GTC Tour Guide on our trip but has since retired I understand. She was a super guide. Guess she has gone home to raise a family. In re-reading your report I guess we should hope that Capt. Vandenboom was NOT your captain if he was so chummy with the Hotel Manager or is Miriam back to work?

 

We are going on the Rhine and Mosel Rivers from Antwerp to Basel, Switzerland on September 23rd. I am confident that this trip will be as nice as the last one and it won't be the last trip that we take with Grand Circle. Looking at the lower Danube to the Black Sea for next year. I will post a trip report upon our return in late October.

 

The only complaint that we had with Grand Circle was with the air arrangments so this year we took the credit and did our own air so we will be able to arrive a day early and stay over after the cruise. We also have non-stop flights which is just about impossible with Grand Circle's air.

 

Hope you are now recuperated from all of that good living on the river.

 

Clarence

 

Yes our Captain was Anton VanDenboom! I would assume that Mrs. is past tense since the hotel manager's name is Laureen. However, Otto's older brother is also a GCT captain and that may explain the discrepancy. We were just reminicing this evening on the lanai with a bottle of Auslese.

jowahe: The trip in 2005 is radically different than this year's. We only had two options-Marksburg Castle and Rothenburg. We did both and loved them! Next years options included many things we had included this year. I suspect the may be due to the strength of the Euro vs. the dollar. Incidentally, we usually buy our Christmas gifts for the family and friends while on these overseas trips (we get them home in our luggage buy leaving or disposing of our clothing, but that's another story.). We found most of the "stuff" in Germany to not only be expensive but real cheezy and it became a challenge to find items NOT made in Taiwan (including cuckoo clocks!). The hotel in Brussels was in a great place, within easy walking distance of restaurants and the Grand Platz. We have travelled with Grand Circle all over the world since 1992 and we felt the hotel in Vienna was WAAAAY below GCT standards. We went with GCT air and they gave us a marvelous itinerary. The airline completely changed it by shifting us to another "partner airline" and what were supposed to be non-stops to Brussels and back from Vienna became a horrible 3 plane transfer process both ways! I only fault GCT for not double checking the tickets they sent us since even they were unaware of the changed flights. In fact when our program director re-confirmed our flights home, GCT provided him with their itinerary, not the actual airlines ticketed.

To charge your camera you will need the standard European Plug plus a converter to plug the charger into. The outlets are recessed therefore you need the plug to "extend" the outlet out to plug in the converter. If you plug any appliance straight into the plug they will go BOOM!

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Hmmm. Anton was our Captain too. Looks like Miriam is history or the Captain is having a good time on the river! He is quite a likeable guy.

 

Been watching the water levels along our route and they appear to be decreasing. I correspond with someone who lives right on the Rhine at Bingen and she tells me that river traffic is moving along just fine and there is no signs of low water levels so who does one believe? Doesn't matter though, as que sera sera! Just 5 weeks until we are on the river! :D Clarence

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Yes, our hotel in Vienna was the Sofitel Belvidere (which is the correct name for the hotel). I had a devil of a time finding info about it before we left because I didn't know about the Belvidere part.

Clarence, there was no problem with the water levels and the traffic was tremendous especially on the Rhine, it was the bridges that are too low!

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Read your post about electric outlets on the river boat. My electric razor works either on 110 or 220. When I plug it in it will recharge in either mode. In Italy last summer I just plugged it in ( with an adapter, but no converter) and it worked fine. Will it do the same on the river boat. Willard

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Willard, my razor is cordless. I tried towards the end of the trip to plug it in to give it a boost but found I could not in the outlet provided for shavers in the bathroom. Although I brought my 110/240 hair dryer with I didn't need it as the one provided by the boat did just fine.

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Don't know why Flick couldn't get his razor plugged in. I use a Norelco which is 110-220 and had no trouble plugging it in and was in the very same cabin that he occupied. Maybe the prongs were bent or a prior passenger broke something off in it but it should work with no problem. I am counting on it on the River Harmony, also in cabin 409, in just 4 weeks! Clarence:)

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We didn't stay at the Sofitel while in Brussels (we were in Brussels for three days, but on our own) but did walk past that hotel. It's not far from most of the places you'd want to visit. I think just about everything in "old" Brussels is walkable. We missed the musical instrument museum, as it is closed on Tuesdays. Most Belgian museums are closed on Monday, but the musical museum is open. We did go to the Ancient Art museum which is fabulous!

Everyone goes to see Maniken Pis, the statue of the little boy answering nature's call. Did you know there is also a little GIRL statue? She's located on a dead end alley just behind Chez Leon restaurant near Grand Place. By the way, we ate at Chez Leon's twice, for the fantastic bucket of mussels and fries once, and the second time for the seafood soup. After you see Maniken Pis, do go to the museum (in Grand Place) where they keep the hundreds of "outfits" that people and countries have sent for him. there are national costumes from many nations, an Elvis Presley suit etc etc etc.

Brussels is a wonderful city, worthy of a visit, either as a pre or post cruise trip, or on your own. During the many years we kept a travel trailer in Europe, we arranged our insurance through an agency in Brussels. We always stayed a couple of days, and the "Mussels in Brussels" was an annual tradition with us.

For anyone planning to visit Brussels independently, we stayed at hotel Vendome, about three blocks north of Grand Place, and two blocks from Gare du Nord. At $52 per night for the two of us, including an excellent breakfast, I would recommend the hotel highly.

Karen

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