Rhine Cruise - luggage requirements/side trips

[marieelizabeth]

Never having been on a river cruise, we are wondering how strict cruise lines are about their luggage requirements. Avalon's (part of Globus) brochure indicates your carry-on bag is limited to being something like 12" x 10." Since it isn't a coach tour, do they hold you to this requirement? Also, any side trips/tours (both optional and included) that we either should avoid or not miss?:rolleyes:

[webfoot]

We took an Avalon cruise in April/May. My husband and I each had 1 large suitcase and one 'carry-on' ... his had wheels and mine was a carry bag ... both of them were bigger than the Globus/Avalon recommendations. We were never in a bus with our luggage. There was plenty of room in our cabin to store all of our luggage and all of our clothing with room left over (which is unusual for me .. I usually fill every space).

 

There are some river cruises that entail bus trips, but ours didn't ... so we ignored the baggage size recommendations.

 

As for tours, I checked to see what optionals were listed for the Romantic Rhine and none of them were offered in our cruise. We went from Amsterdam to Budapest.

 

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

[Aussieflyer]

We went from Amsterdam to Basel last Sept/Oct on Avalon Tapestry. We had a 65cm suitcase each and an international carry on with wheels. There was no checking of size when we dropped our luggage at the hotel in Amsterdam. The cabin had plenty of room for us to store the cases under the bed. We did not take the Avalon supplied bag with us at all - we felt it was particularly unattractive. We did see some people with them though.

If you post with ports as I am not sure if you have the same itinerary, I can give you our view of the tours - we did all the included ones and a couple of the optionals.

[Buckland]

Our greatest restrictions were with British Airways, not the cruise line. The cabins are small, but there was enough storage space for all our suitcases once we got them unpacked.

 

Buck

[Aussieflyer]

Marieelizabeth

I am not sure if you are visiting these places on your cruise but I will give you a little info on the tours we did:

Walking tour groups were all about 25 each, you just lined up with a guide.

Included walking tours:

Cologne - - quite interesting although most of the city was bombed and rebuilt in the modern style. Some free time - we went to the Chocolate museum - not great.

Koblenz - more interesting than Cologne - as the buildings were rebuilt in the original form, very little free time here - would have liked more to look around, have coffee etc but the tour was interesting and did not want to leave it to do our own thing.

Heidleberg - bus to city centre - castle first - our tour guide went on and on, so we left her and met again at the gate. About an hour free time in the city - we enjoyed the city.

Strasbourg - bus in to city - boat ride around the canals - some did not like this though we did - we saw the European Parliament buildings etc. Tour of Cathedral - we then left the group and had coffee etc (many did as well)

Rudesheim - evening tour to a musical museum and then wine tasting - OK but not great we thought.

Black Forest- a long bus ride to the location - very interesting on the way up but the guide insisted on repeating all the information on the way back for the benefit of the 3 people who were new on our bus! Of all tours, this is the one we liked the least - it was to see the clock shop (and buy) and then the open air museum.

Optional excursions:

We paid for several but actually only went on one -

Wine tasting - Alsace I think - we didn’t go - we were quite tired and from memory it was very cold but those who did said it was good.

Colmar - this was lovely - we went to the Musée Unterlinden, then on our own - the place is well sign posted and has lovely walks - very pretty town with half timbered buildings and flowers everywhere.

I cannot remember the other excursions, sorry.

[marieelizabeth]

Great information, especially about the tours. You are the second person to say they didn't care for the Black Forest bus tour. If you don't go on it, is there anything to keep you occupied at the place the boat docks? I'm curious, Aussieflyer, what time of year did you go on your Rhine cruise? Thanks!

[Aussieflyer]

Hi Marieelizabeth

We took our cruise at the end of last September - from memory we left Amsterdam on 23 Sept and finished in Basel on 30 Sept. The weather turned cold when we were on the cruise - we had thermals and coats on when venturing out, and it rained as we went down the Rhine Gorge. This may not have been usual weather though.

I cannot remember whether there was anything to do at the ship dock - but I will go back through photos etc and see if they jog my mind. We really liked Colmar, especially on our own as there were signposted walks etc, even though it is very touristy. There was a wonderful chocolate shop just near the square and the Unterlinden museum was very good. They used the same guides we had for the Black Forest as it was the afternoon of the same day - we made sure we chose a different bus and then went off to do our own thing as many others did as well.

I would have liked more free time on the excursions and maybe the option to have lunch and then be picked up but given that a lot of the passengers were more senior they perhaps needed the structure we had. One thing was that we did get quite tired as the excursions left before 8.30 on most days - no leisurely breakfast here!

Jenny

[marieelizabeth]

Aussieflyer - Great advice. You have been a wonderful help. Our small group will be getting together several times before our cruise (any excuse!), and I'll be sure to share your suggestions.:) :)

[retiredslug]

Hi Marieelizabeth

We took our cruise at the end of last September - from memory we left Amsterdam on 23 Sept and finished in Basel on 30 Sept. The weather turned cold when we were on the cruise - we had thermals and coats on when venturing out, and it rained as we went down the Rhine Gorge. This may not have been usual weather though.

I cannot remember whether there was anything to do at the ship dock - but I will go back through photos etc and see if they jog my mind. We really liked Colmar, especially on our own as there were signposted walks etc, even though it is very touristy. There was a wonderful chocolate shop just near the square and the Unterlinden museum was very good. They used the same guides we had for the Black Forest as it was the afternoon of the same day - we made sure we chose a different bus and then went off to do our own thing as many others did as well.

I would have liked more free time on the excursions and maybe the option to have lunch and then be picked up but given that a lot of the passengers were more senior they perhaps needed the structure we had. One thing was that we did get quite tired as the excursions left before 8.30 on most days - no leisurely breakfast here!

Jenny

 

Hi Jenny,

 

We'll be on the Rhine trip in August and since we've previously been to the Black Forest we are looking for options. We assume you were docked in Breisach for the Black Forest excursion. Do you remember whether you can simply walk into town from the dock? And, how far away is Colmar? Thanks for any additional info.

 

Bill

[Aussieflyer]

Hi retiredslug

Yes we did dock in Breisach for the Black Forest. As we went on the tour, we did not really look around the town, but the booklet that comes with the tour paperwork mentions a few sights like the cathedral etc. I had a look at Google maps for Breisach and if you go to the satellite view and zoom in you can see what appears to be a cruise ship docked. The location fits with my experience as we went through the lock after we boarded again. On the map it seems fairly close to the town centre. Colmar is about 16km (10 miles) from Breisach. Maybe if you did not want to look at Breisach you could arrange a taxi or see if there is a bus to Colmar for lunch and then pick up the tour bus back (we met in front of the Unterlinden museum).

We wandered into Kehl the day before as we did not go on the optional excursion (forget where) and there was enough to poke around at for a couple of hours.

Jenny