Baybear

I'm interested in seeing the Carl & Marie Lawaetz Family Museum and also the Estate Whim Museum in St. Croix. They look to only be about 1-1/2 miles from where the ship docks. Both of them in Frederiksted, basically.

I Don't want a "big tour" to see them and other things... just those two museums. I figure a $2 bus or $10 taxi is a lot better than a $50 tour to see them. The Museums' admission price is $8pp for us Seniors.

Does anyone know what the best way to get to them from the main dock at Frederiksted is? Taxi? (and if so, can you get one back from there easily?). Bus? (if so... which one and do you have to make more than one transfer?).

TIA

We returned to regular dining times after our last experience in Select. Service was substandard, also could not get a glass of wine from the Somm.

We always go to the Wine Bar (Cellar Masters) where they have those "dispensers" of 1oz, 2oz, or 3oz pours and buy our glasses of wine there right before dinner, then just carry them into the dining room. You can look at the descriptions of the wines, select what you want and just charge it and "run." We've done this on the Eclipse and the Silhouette, but I believe they added one of these onto the Summit in the reburb didn't they?

No wait with that system!

I've just read a lot of posts on the Clay Villa Plantation House & Gardens tour which seems to cost a very reasonable $15/person and I saw someone ask how much a taxi is from the ship docking area to the Plantation, but I never read a response to this?

1) Is it possible to catch a taxi at the ship dock and take it to the Plantation, and if so, what is the cost?

2) And if you take the taxi "one way" can you get one back to the ship later?

3) Or is the only way to get there to reserve with the Plantation Villa themselves and they pick you up and take you back? But if that's the case how much do you pay for their "picking you up and returning you" in addition to the $15pp for the tour itself?

4) Or is there some other algorithm I haven't thought of that holds sway here?

We only want to do the Plantation tour... no other "sightseeing" in addition...

DD

We will be doing a transfer on our own from Passau to Prague when we leave our Uniworld cruise. Would love to stop in CK on the way. Can you tell me what private car service you used? Are you a Tar Heel transferred to Texas? We've been Tar Heels forever!

We just used (last week):

Prague Airport Transfers Ltd.

www.prague-airport-transfers.co.uk

Prague Tel. (+420) 222 554 211

They were excellent and very reasonable since we were traveling six of us to divide the costs by three couples. We took them from Passau to Prague and stopped at Cesky Krumov and Budweiss along the way.

Just got back from a Uniworld Trip where we did Cesky Krumlov on the way from Passau to Prague via a van. Thought you might want some more info. on it.

It is a very quaint, old-World village down on a river where visitors ride floats, canoes and kyacks down a "mini rapids" underneath some bridges right in town, and then can pull up on a beach in town to shop or eat. Then can ride further down the river to a spot where the Company picks up the "float" and brings you back up to town again.

The town itself is FULL of restaurants, cafes and little shops (puppet shops, cheese, chocolate, pastries, clothes, etc.) that women just love! All this along very narrow, winding streets looking very midieval. On a steep climb up from town along a winding stone staircase you will come upon a castle up on the hill complete with real live (3 of them) bears that have been kept at the castle for hundreds of years. Then you can walk across a narrow, very high bridge like the top of a Roman aqueduct, across a high gorge and into castle gardens and various castle buildings. All this is VERY high above the town with spectacular views down into the village and to the river teaming with frolicing visitors. There is so much to do here that you probably would need a couple of days to see it all.

We ate at an excellent fish restaurant right near the main entrance from the parking lot, and it was right on the riverbank.

I"ve never been to Salzburg so cannot compare, but we didn't want to take the 2.5 hour bus ride from Linz on the Uniworld tour, and took the bus for one our to Gmunden and Steyr instead. We went to Cesky Krumlov, as I said, after the boat docked at Passau and we were taking 4 days in Prague on our own after the 7-day boat trip.

I gave up and never check for mine.

 

I think part of the problem is numbers. The ocean cruises might get a 2 to 5 percent response, but with 2000 to 6000 on most ships that is 40 to 300 people. Most river cruises are about 100 to 150 passengers. That would equate to 2 to 8 people on the roll call.

Paul is exactly right! With only ~100 people on a ship at a time, you're likely to get one at the most that responds, and frequently "none."

Also at this stage of cruising, I think river cruisers tend to be older and more "old school" than the thousands of passengers on the more popular ocean cruise ships with the steel drum bands, pub crawls, etc. When you have ships like Carnival 'the fun ships,' that attract a younger crowd... they tend to be more internet savy and more likely to "chat" than the 60-80 year old crowd that dominate river cruising at this time.

And another thing... on the big ships Cruise Critic roll call people typically have a meet-and-greet on the their cruise where they meet personally... and these typically have about 10-30 people there. On a river cruise, you're going to meet EVERYONE on the ship personally, since there's so few people, so there's no need to have a meet-and-greet since you'l likely meet and talk to everyone on the ship anyway.

As River Cruising becomes more popular, which it sounds like it is getting to be, I would expect more people to resond to roll calls. But for now there just aren't enough per ship to amount to much response.

I was going to put in a request for a roll call for the Uniworld trip I'm going on next week, but due to the lack of response on the "All River Cruisers Roll Call" boards, decided it wouldn't be worthwhile.

So bottom line: I don't think there would be many more responders if All River Cruise Roll Calls were re-organinzed, but it might make it easier to find your particular roll call if someone put in a request for it.

Hi -

 

Russia is still cash only. But, then again, the boat is Russian-owned.

 

Fran

Ah... That explains it! Thanks very much. Now I don't have to withdraw a ton of Tip Money while on the cruise!

Tips must be done in cash. When we were on the River Queen in Sept. 10 we used our leftover euros and U.S. cash combined.

Here's what Uniworld has in their "Enchanting Danube" PDF file (underline is mine). Maybe only the Russia trips require cash???:

Gratuities Onboard: It is our goal to ensure that the service you receive is as wonderful as the sites you visit. Gratuities are customary expressions of appreciation for a job well done. The amount of the gratuity you choose to give is entirely subject to your satisfaction with your travel experience. To assist you in determining the amount of your gratuities, we recommend the following as a guideline:

• Ship staff and crew: €10 per guest, per day, to be shared among all staff and crew

• Cruise Manager: €3 per guest, per day

• Local host or hostess for included or optional extensions: €3 per guest, per day

• Local guides: from €1 per guest for a half-day tour to €1 to €2 per guest for a full-day tour

• Drivers: €1 per guest, per day

The above is solely a guideline. The amount you give should depend upon your personal experience and level of satisfaction. Gratuities can be billed to onboard accounts and paid with a credit card or cash (cash is accepted in Euro or USD only), so please ensure that you have enough cash on hand for this expense if paying by cash. Please note that personal checks cannot be accepted.

Reading about your trip is getting us all excited about our Uniworld cruise on the Danube coming up on one month.

Since you were on Uniworld, I have a money-related question...

Do they allow you to charge the tips for the Ship's personnel due at the end of the cruise on a credit card? Or do you have to pay cash? I would this is uniform throughout Uniworld's ships wherever they travel.

TIA

Make sure you have a 4-digit password for your ATM card. (or has that changed by now?) When we traveled to Europe several years ago, our 6-digit code did not work.

Just to let you know that the Prater Amusement Park is just one subway stop from your stop. Don't forget to memorize Third Man music as they will make you hum it when the bus tour goes by it! The other issue I wanted to mention is that every day there is an English-speaking tour of the Opera House either 1 or 2 PM regardless of whether there is a performance or not. Do not miss this. It's worth it to get tickets a few hours ahead of time to make sure you get in. There are great Viennese cafes nearby where you can hang out after you get your tickets. The other advantage of getting the tickets ahead of time is to make sure exactly what time your tour is and to find out which entrance to go as there was some confusion about this when we went.

Great Stuff! Thanks!

If there is any one intrested in culture in your group...there is a wonderful tour of the Opera House and some of the best museums in all of Europe. The Musikverein is a very beautiful building but if you can't catch a concert there you would be missing it's main highlight...the acustics.

The cafe's are not half bad either.:)

Yes, thank you... all six in our group attend classical concerts in Baltimore MD, and DW & I attend frequently in Philadelphia as well. DW and I live in Lancaster PA, just 1 hour from Philly and 1.25 hours from Baltimore. Lancaster PA also has a respectable symphony orchestra. We'd love to do the Opera House tour... but I'm suspecting that since we'll be there August 2nd, there will not be any "real" concerts (other than the tourist ones) during that time of year. But we'll certainly check before traveling.

Thanks very much; that's exactly the information I was looking for! We'll be a group of six, fit 66-year-olds and the walk to the Metro and then the trip in sounds good for getting into town!

Does anyone know where the River Boats dock in Vienna? Are they near or in the city itself, or is it a long drive to get into the city? And if they dock "in" the City, is it within walking distances to any features of interest?

We're taking a Uniworld Danube cruise next Summer and one of their stops is Vienna.

TIA

Great videos and travelogue, one of the best I've ever seen here on these boards. And I thought Americans were the leaders in use of technology!

I didn't read every post however, as I just got here today... BUT did anyone else notice that strange magnetic field in the library in the Day 2 elevator video? It caused everyone in the library to walk backwards! It must have been a horrible experience for those who happened to be there at the time you were filming!

Go back and see for yourselves.

n.b.: I suppose the videographer wanted to film "up" instead of "down," but that's just another good editing choice from this very talented family. I'm surprised no one noticed this...

Hello,

We are taking the Amsterdam to Budapest cruise on Viking Freya next September. We are considering the post cruise stay in Prague. Has anyone ever done this? We are wondering if it is value for the price ($699 pp for 3 nights) and any tips or comments anyone has with this or very similar pre/post cruise extensions. Thanks in advance. Patric:)

I don't know about you other folks, but $1400 (for two people) for three nights in a Hotel sound ludicrous to me. You should be easily able to travel by train, van, or even rent a car to get from Passau to Prague for less than the $900 difference that three nights in a good tourist hotel right in downtown Prague should cost (about $160/night). It's only 135 miles or about a 3-1/2hour ride. With the Viking cost you're paying $466/night for this! Am I missing something here?

I found a Hotel right near the Prague downtown square on the internet that many TripAdvisor reviews praised, and I think it cost about $160/night or less. We're going to Prague next Summer before a river cruise. I haven't booked or traveled yet, but have been looking into this. Feel free to respond to this and offer me some more advice since I am looking for this same kind of "deal" for next July 2012. But probably not from one of the cruise lines.

For those of you who have been to Bermuda at St. Georges, how does this walk compare to walking to Tobacco Bay from the ship in BDA... (an uphill, followed by a downhill and about a 15 min walk)?