reeves35

We are on Travelmarvel Vega and departed Wurzburg this evening.  Cruise director confirmed tonight that, due to Danube water levels, we will have a ship-swap on Friday once we arrive in Nuremberg.  We will do a tour of Nuremberg and then be bussed to Passau where we will join identical sister Travelmarvel Polaris for the second half of our 14 day itinerary to Budapest.  Obviously pax doing the reverse itinerary to Amsterdam will leave Polaris in Passau and be transferred to Vega in Nuremberg.

The cruise director and 2 onboard entertainers will transfer with us.  It'll be sad to leave the remaining excellent crew of Vega.

I'm currently on Travelmarvel Vega on the Main heading towards Budapest.  Cruise Director advised tonight that there is a very high chance of a ship swap before Nuremberg on Friday.  Travelmarvel Polaris is currently coming upstream from Budapest and is likely to be stranded on Thursday.  We should receive confirmation of the ship swap tomorrow though warm dry weather means lower water levels are inevitable.

All crew will remain with the ship except the cruise director who will transfer with us.

Travelmarvel's new ships have a draft of 160cms.  Apparently Viking have a draft on their longships of 200cms and are already affected.  Critical figure for us is 260cms though director told us chance of ship swap is over 90% with no significant rain likely in the catchment before Saturday

Hi  I'm currently on Travelmarvel Vega at Rudesheim and went through the Rhine Gorge this morning.  Water levels are fine.  We have seen no issues anywhere.

It is a beautiful part of the world and the weather at the moment is amazingly good, about 30 every day.

42 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Do you see all the sailings of the AMA ships?  There are evidently APT-centric sailings that show up as gaps in AMA's US website.

Not sure but potentially they do.  I have seen photos of AMA ships with APT decals on them; maybe these are exclusive fully all-inclusive APT sailings targeting APT's core AU, NZ and UK demographics. 

7 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

All the other things you mention are optional and many people won't pay for them at all, but tips is the biggie.  It adds quite a lot to the fare, and hurts AMA in cost comparisons.  I love AMA, but I think they should roll tips into the fare.

In Australia, AMA is sold as APT ( APT has a significant shareholding in AMA).  APT is sold as all-inclusive in Australia and this includes gratuities.  We do not have a tipping culture so having gratuities added in later on is a major turn-off. 

Like Scenic has Emerald as a second level slightly below the premium brand, APT operates Travelmarvel as more a value oriented offering with inclusions more similar to what you'd see on Viking.  The one difference is that, as Travelmarvel is targetted at Australians, New Zealanders and Brits, all fares are always inclusive of gratuities.

18 minutes ago, Kristelle said:

 

Hi there - you are doing same trip as us, Amsterdam to Budapest, we are going about a week after you, starting in Amsterdam on 6th Sept, with Scenic

 

which company are you travelling with?

Same cruise itinerary as us too but we are departing Amsterdam on 18/8 with Travelmarvel.

1 hour ago, ural guy said:

Only thing I haven't seen mentioned is that 'lounging on the sun deck'...on certain cruises, the sun deck can be off limits due to low bridges quite a bit.  That came as a surprise to me on our first cruise, which was AMS-BUD.  

 

 

We are cruising on Travelmarvel whose new ships have a lower sundeck towards the bow which apparently always remains open though the larger sundeck aft closes like other ships.

7 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Pfelling gauge at 289cm. Running slightly below the forecast which is firmly pointing towards 300cm for tomorrow afternoon. The margin of error sees the level below that figure but there is a chance that it could get a little above 300cm. The 27th should see even higher figures.

 

That is looking good.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

As I understand it, the Danube is free-flowing near Budapest so is this because there have been numerous thunderstorms in the Danube's catchments over the past few days?  

I've been watching the European rain radars in the past few weeks and have noticed more thunderstorms in the mountains which I assume is related to the heat being experienced throughout Europe right now.  Admittedly selfishly, I hope this continues for the next few weeks with our long-delayed Amsterdam to Budapest cruise now only 3 weeks away.

I believe it varies depending on the day.  Sometimes you will cruise during lunch and visit another town in the afternoon whilst, on other days, you may have an afternoon at leisure like you suggest.  Given how intensive these river cruises are, I think I'm looking forward to maybe a quiet afternoon on the sundeck every now and then.

2 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Reading that quickly, I thought you wrote that the captain "said squat" and I thought 'how unhelpful'...  🤣

That'd be diddly squat

Spoke with a cruise ship captain about water depths a few years ago and he said squat is also a factor to consider in shallower waters.  As the ship increases speed, it squats down into the water further.  For a cruise ship, the squat is significant, up to a metre, but for a river ship I'd think squat at speed could be up to 15-20cms so in areas with low water levels, the captain may choose to sail at a much lower speed to reduce the effect of squat.

With the huge growth in river cruising in recent years which seems to continue post-Pandemic, do we see a time when one or more of the major Big 3 US cruise-lines (Carnival Corp, RCCI, NCL) will try to enter this market either via starting up or taking over one of the existing major participants?

Currently many of the river cruise companies remain in private hands including Scenic (Australia), APT (Australia), Avalon (Switzerland), Viking (Norway), Ama Waterways (US) though trying to work out exactly who owns what is quite complicated given many ships seem to be developed by the cruiselines then sold and leased back from private equity investors.  At some point, one of these private owners will probably seek to cash-out and you would think the Big-3 cruise lines would be attracted to this market if the opportunity arose.  

The Big-3 have developed sophisticated loyalty schemes that enable them to know their customers' travel habits and market to different demographics, many of whom are now trying river cruises.  It would be strange if one of them didn't try their hand in this burgeoning market at some time soon.

1 hour ago, cruiser3775 said:

I also have a Norfolk Islander family connection.  I didn't know a lot about my great uncles, who married women from Norfolk, so I went to their research and genealogy centre when I visited. They were very helpful, and I was able to locate some family graves in that amazingly atmospheric cemetery in Kingston.

A fun fact we learnt about the cemetery when we visited there on Explorer last week is that anyone can be buried there for free even if you have have no connection with Norfolk Island at all.  Not sure why you'd do it and, by time you paid for the coffin and the body transport from mainland, it may not be such a good deal anyway.

The veranda cabins are definitely noticeably bigger than the french balcony cabins.  As has been stated, Viking has an asymmetric layout on the main deck with starboard cabins (veranda) having significantly more available space compared with the portside (french balcony cabins).  Looking at the pictures of these cabins, you can definitely see the extra space available on the veranda cabins between the bed and the window as well as the exterior deck. 

Apparently this layout is patented by Viking though I'm not sure the other cruise lines are particularly envious of it anyway.

I found this time series online from the TUM in Munich which gives an interesting perspective of Rhine river levels at Wesel which I think is near Dusseldorf.  It looks like 2023 is tracking in a very similar way to 2022 but nowhere near as bad as 2018. 

With the Rhine very dependent on rainfall with no major weirs along the way to moderate flows, it would be foolish to make a forecast of where we will be in August but, selfishly given I have a cruise commencing mid-August, I have my fingers crossed.

We did Dragon Lady twice on Explorer last week and it was mixed.  The first night was really good; the second night was very average with satays coming out to us cold and some items being removed from menu (calamari) because the waiters were getting consistently bad comments on it.

The other thing we found was both Deck 6 restaurants (Dragon Lady and Angelo's) were incredibly cold.  We mentioned it to the waiter in DL who just laughed and said it was always cold which was a strange response. 

23 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Same route, same distance covered (more or less, a variation in the Dutch Rhine stretch is possible), most ports the same most likely and excursions similar. I think Scenic has a couple of exclusives on this route that no other company offers. But you would need to check the details. With such an itinerary it is difficult to vary the "important" ports unless you very much change sailing schedules. A ship can only cover so much distance in a day - mostly night. To make the journey in 14 days you need to get in daytime sailing really, Viking sails a stretch while passengers are on excursions on the Main, I think twice. There are enough interesting ports to turn this into a 16 night itinerary which I hope a company will one day offer. Which may reduce the occurrence of rafting a little.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

Yes, the most classic European river cruise is the 14 night journey from Amsterdam to Budapest or v.v.  Thie itineraries are basically the same though, as you point out, there can be some difference in The Netherlands with some cruise lines choosing to have a bus journey between Amsterdam and Utrecht to avoid what is a pretty industrial part of the river.

The itinerary is the same hence the need for rafting as there are only so many places a ship can stop and during peak season there are a lot of ships on the rivers. Even the names the cruise lines choose for this classic cruise are remarkably similar:

- Viking, Grand European

- Scenic, Jewels of Europe

- Travelmarvel, European Gems

- Emerald, Splendours of Europe

- APT (AMA), Magnificent Europe

- Uniworld, European Jewels

- Avalon, Magnificent Rivers of Europe

- TUI, European Icons

There has been a decent amount of rain in UK over past 24 hours with play at Wimbledon suspended.  This system appears to be heading towards continental Europe with potential to fall across Rhine catchments in Germany.  Hopefully it will give a welcome top up.

10 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Pfelling gauge is at 268cm, running below the forecast. We may have stayed over 270cm...

 

So, again waiting for rain. The Rhine is doing better, but the Elbe is also too low.

 

notamermaid

 

There has been a decent amount of rain in  UK over past 24 hours with play at Wimbledon suspended.  This system appears to be heading towards continental Europe with potential to fall across Rhine catchments in Germany.  Hopefully it will give a welcome top up.

On 7/1/2023 at 4:23 PM, fishtaco said:

Best time to book or are later sittings walk in?

We have always preferred a large share table for dinner even on carnival USA and RCC but given the main dinning room on Explorer looks more like a cafe I suppose there is no point? 

On a 12 nighter I don't want to commit to any venue in advance or when first boarding.

Does P&O Close the Buffet for dinner like they used to? Its that long since I have done a P&O cruise that even though on my last 2 it had become ATdinning the staff preferred and allowed it if you booked same time same table like we had for Trad dinning.

 

Thanks

There are only a few large tables in both the Waterfront and in Angelos.  I don't think there are any in Dragon Lady though I assume a few tables could be joined together.  

It is obvious that customer surveys have shown that people prefer to sit within their group rather than with strangers so the days of the big circular tables of 8 - 10 people have probably gone for good.  On our recent cruise, we were only sat with other couples once though the tables are fairly close together in lots of the restaurants including Dragon Lady and Luke's so you might as well be sitting with someone else.

Always check with the cruise line if they are offering any bundled deals.  Sometimes, they have great pricing like this week I am flying to Cairns to join Dora and then flying home from Auckland.  Best flights I could find online were about $1300 but P&O did it for $800 each and then gave us a $400 flight credit on top!.

Likewise, we are doing river cruise with APT Travelmarvel in August.  They gave free (or included) economy flights as part of the cruise and we upgraded to business class on Singapore Airlines for only $3500.  At the time, the equivalent Singapore Airlines Business Class ticket was selling for over $10,000.

In both cases, we were able to pick our dates and for Europe we could choose our arrival and departure points but ,as we are now arriving in London and not Amsterdam, there are no transfers there but we still get transfers in Budapest.

10 hours ago, Daisi said:

Just had a post in my message board... they are on an Avalon ship, boat can't go between Regensburg & Nuremburg. Trying to get more info.

 

Not sure.  Travelmarvel Vega is currently underway between Regensburg and Nuremberg so some ships are obviously getting through. 

Cook Islands are actually quite a long way from Auckland, further than Sydney to Port Vila.  It would be 3 sea days each way so hard to see it being a popular option.  

From Auckland, P&O still tend to concentrate on New Caledonia and Vanuatu but Fiji is also possible on a 10 day itinerary.

28 minutes ago, ceeceeDee said:

That's great to hear, thanks Marion. A lot of times I distrust reviews since most people who post have an axe to grind and are far from subjective. What category of room did you have and what did you think of it?

I agree, I wish Carnival would have slightly longer cruises. Even if it is the South Pacific, visit a couple of extra ports to stretch it out to 10 days for a Brisbane round trip. We find 7 days is never long enough. I'm open to correction, but from my research it would appear only P&O offers a 10 days South Pacific cruise. No big deal, we always enjoy P&O, but it would be nice to have the option of trying another cruise line.

Carnival and P&O do run a number of 10 day cruises into the South Pacific.  They tend not to go much above that as longer cruises tend to be harder to sell and the per diem they get from passengers drop off.  That is why short cruises are so popular right now; the daily fare tends to work out higher and the onboard spend per passenger per day is much greater.

Unfortunately, the tyranny of distance means a 10 day cruise from Sydney will not go past Vanuatu and, even then, probably have 5 sea days.  A cruise that includes Fiji would typically be at least 12 days and Samoa etc even more.  

With Australia's population heavily weighted in the south, it is difficult to see a regular year-round cruise port ever being established anywhere north of Brisbane.

1 hour ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

I've always thought P&O should sell the Cairns cruises as a fly/cruise packages. Perhaps P&O could block book some seats and save some of the inevitable price gouging the airlines get up to whenever a cruise ship hits town.

 

Same could apply to Darwin.

P&O do offer flight packages and sometimes they are quite reasonable but that doesn't mean cheap.  It is not like Europe where TUI etc can sell flight packages from UK to Spain for very little.  Europe has many flights to ports in Spain, France, Italy etc and a significant number of charter airlines. 

Cairns and Darwin will only ever have a limited number of flights and charters don't work because for them to be economical for airlines and cruise-lines you basically need a ship turning around every day or so.