ural guy

Australia 8- Thanks for posting, really enjoyed the pictures. I know very little about this side of globe, so your write up was interesting to me.

To follow your point, if you did swap in the "I really like the" without telling the passengers, 80% probably wouldn't know if you took down the signs. To me, there are just so many lesser visited castles, gardens, villages...through in a small wine garden along the river, and that's a great day. I was happy to see Oschenfurt added as a Rhine stop on a new cruise. I think it's just a pick up spot with an hour or so walking tour, but it helps spread out the love, and I enjoyed walking through it on our own. Six times to Ireland, still haven't been to Blarney castle. My kids can tell you about walking through sheep pastures to get to old castle ruins though. And that if you do the 'Bah Ram Uwe' call from the movie Babe, all the sheep will run over to you. True story.

We were on the Moselle early November, and the vineyards leaves were yellow, the sun on the slopes painted a beautiful picture. We stopped in Cochem for Reichsburg Castle, twice in Bernkastel-Keus, once in Trier, and a 'free day' in Schweich, where most took an optional tour to Luxemburg and I biked back to Trier. Bernkastel, we had a walking tour there during one day, and stayed tied up overnight so we could enjoy Carnival celebrations. The next day we took a tour of a vineyard where we had lunch. Family owned place, different wine with each course, great time. Ad Koblenz for a sixth tour. Optional spa day in Traben-Trarbach (20+ minutes drive from Bernkastel), or visit Eltz Castle (35 minute drive from Koblenz). And while we're plotting, on a 105m ship so we can go further upstream, AND the smaller ship has a second dining venue that you can complete dinner in under 45 minutes. We were hitting 2 hours in Viking's Aqauvit Lounge, that's too long for me. The day of our Trier tour it was raining and cold. This pic is from the day I biked back. I staged this for a work buddy who use to be stationed nearby, said it was his favorite city in Germany.

Here's hoping that the Spirit of the Moselle does a full week sailing on the Moselle, RT from Koblenz. There are so many pretty little villages, castles, Trier, and vineyards for day tours. Out of our 5 cruises, the few days we spent on the Moselle are our favorite. And the more varied docking spots and tours are always good news. We've sailed mostly late in the season, I can't imagine Summer in some of these places, the crowds, yikes. So many boats, so many people.

Our one experience with Viking Air is that we could upgrade directly with United heading over, but not with American/British Air on our return.

For people who are booking their own flights, keep checking back with google flights, or whoever you use, even if you've set up alerts for price changes. I do still book with the airline, not 3rd party. Latest experience, we have a RT cruise out of Budapest leaving in late September. I was comparing Syracuse (2 connections) to NYC and Montreal departures. It's my wife's retirement trip, so was looking Economy Plus and Business. Prices were all over the place, abrupt $2-3K USD changes per ticket from morning to evening. Tried different IP log in spots, cleared cookies, no help. Finally grabbed an Air France Business flight over, KLM Business back, $2200 p/p, one connection, out of Montreal. Trade off is a late arrival and 4 hour Paris layover, but lounge access will be nice. Those tickets are usually in $5-6k range, and jumped back to that the next day. Still expensive, but spouse's eyes lite up at mention of lay flat seats. Showed her Youtube Air France reviews for Valentines.

Look into Premium Economy, a nice spot between layflat in Business and regular economy. In premium, seats are wider, the food is a bit better, and alcoholic drinks are usually included. Regular economy may have a 3-4-3 seat layout, and Premium and 2-4-2 layout. A recent flight, Montreal to Barcelona, went something like $800 for economy, $2100 for premium, and $5k for business.

NM-Sheila- Lots of good info above. Two things I didn't see mentioned, clothes and booze. I see you're from New Mexico, on your cruise you can experience some damp cold you're not use to. There are threads out there about wearing layers and the importance of good socks/footwear. Pack for the worst and hope for the best. Booze- you can bring back wine or a favorite beer back on board, there is a small fridge in the room. I typically buy a bottle of Bailey's to go with coffee, it's about 50% less than in states. There are two machines adjacent the lounge where you can get a coffee or cappuccino. The dining room has drip coffee during serving hours. We were on this cruise over Christmas, you'll have a great time. *Magnets: buy a fridge magnet at every stop, put them in order north to south (or south to north) as you acquire them. Roughly 40-50 E by the end of trip. Big return over time.

Sigh, this is what I miss about Vantage's demise most of all. They had e-bikes and regular bikes to use, no additional charge. The times I went off riding on my own were some of my favorite days. I miss my motorcycles while away from home, an e-bike is a nice fix and really extends your exploring range.

Interested to hear the responses on tours. I would like the chance to kayak, bike, walking tour of street art...something different than 'ABC' (another bloody church/cathedral/castle). Which if you've been to Europe a few times, you've probably seen quite a few of.

JP- Riviera is a UK line that recently opened a North American office. We booked an October 14N cruise with them, Budapest-Danube Delta-Budapest. Fingers crossed, it looks like a nice ship and route. Marian- Being able to unpack once, and yet wake up in a different place everyday is the best part of river cruising. Whoever you decide to sail with, have a great trip.

Hah, this was my 19 and 22 year old daughter, they still need to burn off energy. We were on an AMS-BUD cruise with them, several times there were playgrounds with zipline features. We had a fun playing on one of them, the girls told some of the crew members about it (we were docked late that night). The next morning at breakfast a server came over to say thanks, they had so much FUN!

I love being uptop at night or early morning, watching the world glide by. I'm not walking laps, just enjoying a hot drink (pics are from a winter cruise).

If you wind up in WInterhaven (we were there due to high water), you can walk (a little over an hour to Dom), Uber, or about a 10 minute walk from the industrial gate is a tram stop. Tram 18 will drop you right next to Dom. Tram was really easy to figure out. Good luck and enjoy your cruise.

I just learned the term when it was posted here about 10 days ago.

My first river tour was with two oldest twenty ish daughters, last was with youngest daughter and her twenty ish boyfriend. They loved it...but they enjoy reading books and board games, so don't need lots going on. The oldest has tons of energy and missed her runs, as leaving AMS to Budapest seemed like we had some long sailing days early in trip. Try and give them time to wander around alone, if they're like mine you'll get some amazing spaghetti ice cream pictures. Enjoy.

In this case, these dolphins protect docking spots. "Dolphins typically consist of a number of piles driven into the seabed or riverbed, and connected above the water level to provide a platform or fixing point. The piles can be untreated or pressure-treated timber piles, or steel or reinforced concrete piles. Smaller dolphins can have the piles drawn together with wire rope, but larger dolphins are typically fixed using a reinforced concrete capping or a structural steel frame." Not a dolphin, but you can see a Narwhal in the St Lawrence river. I took my dog out for a walk yesterday at Tibbet's Point, where Lake Ontario ends and the St Lawrence begins. The south facing slopes at the old lighthouse had green grass, in January. It should be under snow...

Ya know, there is a quote feature in real life...and I've quoted you enough to my girls, that I'll mention something about water levels, or a note about Germany, and I've been asked, 'was that from Notamermaid'? Interesting when you can tell them about a ship hitting a dolphin at a dock you were moored to the day prior, or other local tidbits. You make and our other local participants make us all smarter!

We just booked a DV6 for a 6 June 2025 sailing, Vancouver to Seward. What's odd, is that the listed price for our cabin is $5299; for the 3 June 2024 sailing, same DV6 cabin, it's $7299! We just finished a Viking river cruise last week (nice being on ship over Christmas), so was able to take advantage of the $100 voucher and the double returning passenger discount that is currently running. Our first Ocean cruise of any type is with Viking in January of 2025, Rome to Athens, so pretty excited to finally board a big ship in 12 months.

I just noticed this thread also, and the above suggestion about a 'machinery' tour would interest me. My daughter/her bf, spouse, we all spent 3 hours in the Technik museum in Speyer last week and were overwhelmed. You almost need a return visit to properly take in all that they have. The 747 that is up on supports, at an angle, that you walk through, and can go out on the wing...crazy spectacular, along with the Soviet copy of the Space Shuttle. Happy to see Buffalo NY representing with a hook and ladder fire truck on display. The Louman museum, with its 260+ cars on display in The Hague would pair well. A visit to any old mining operation, train museum, industrial factory (great weaving factory tour in Scotland, big focus on water power aspect) would be more interesting to me than another cathedral or castle ruin. I would think there are enough repeat cruisers that some of the secondary cities and towns/attractions would have enough interest to fill a couple of boats. How hard would it be to partner up with a kayak or rafting company (you're on a river), with a stop at a beer garden? Having also just stopped in Heidelberg on a grey winter day, the foot traffic on the pedestrian way was busy, I would not want to be there in June-September. We will be looking at some of the smaller ship routes in the future.

Just throwing this out there, a bus runs from Keukenhof directly to Central Train Station, dropping you off on the water side, so a 15 ish minute walk to the cruise port docking spot. This may help if a shuttle doesn't line up with what you want to do. If you're really into plants, stop in Leiden and visit the botanical gardens, established in 1590's! Leiden is an easy spot to do a precruise on your own. Less than 20 minutes from Schipol by train, same distance to Keukenhof by direct bus so you can get your leisurely visit in. There are combo bus/garden entrance tickets.

We disembarked the Alruna Monday. Crew said they were getting that day to do a deep clean and setup, then Tues/Wed off, and a new group of cruisers boarding Thursday. We asked our server if they were volunteers to work over the Holidays. Instead the ship had crew on it from several other boats, and they had all started their contract (10 month?), later in the season then typical. They seemed like a very happy crew, and willing to do whatever they could for you. Our cabin guy seemed disappointed as I told him not to bother with service about 40% of the time, just swap out the water bottles. He came from a huge ocean ship, and was so cheerful and happy to be on the river now.

Notamermaid- Sure you weren't a hydrology major in another lifetime? Great data and reporting. Thanks.

Remembered I sent this to spouse/daughter, our Winterhaven route to freedom, lucky we were only 4 ships deep. I don't think Viking ever put out cones to show the route out of port if you wanted to walk. Spouse provided guidance to some lost souls, I alerted the front desk that there was an elderly couple coming along and there was no way they were going to make it up that gang plank that was at about a 30° angle. They may have wanted to have posted a sailor there, or at least the ship's phone number and a note to call for assistance. The dock area was empty at that time, there was no way that couple was getting up without help. Viking had guides at Heathrow airport to make sure we got from one jetway to another. That was unexpected and very nice. They could have done better in Winter Haven.

We had been comparatively lucky with temperatures in the high 40's, lights were still up, we found a few Winter markets running so got our gluhwein fix in. It looked pretty for winter. At one point, I was walking behind some people during a tour, and heard the comment, 'I guess all the lights come down in a bit...wow, this could be really grey in February'. Having lived in Germany for 4 winters, I couldn't agree more. For people who have cruised in the past, and have seen the castles and town squares in their glory, I would say to go and have fun, especially if you find a good deal. For any first timer, I would say to wait until spring. Having cold rain or snow all day, it being a Sunday with shops closed, and you're in port until 2300? That would get old, and the cobblestones would be so slick.