M&M@409

I booked the Hotel Sofia, because of the quality of the rooms and dining, and also because it’s not in the hub of the tourist area. For my first day in an area, I’m looking for a quick nap in a quiet neighborhood, after a morning flight arrival, and then a walk around a safe area, a great dinner and a slightly early bedtime to adjust to the jet lag.As of April 1, Sofia was rebranded as a Grand Hyatt.  They are still honoring my suite choice and room rate. It also includes club lounge access. Reviews have been excellent. A lot of the traditional luxury hotels have been sold out for months because of the overlap with the World’s Cup.

We are booked on the Barcelona to Barcelona October 14-28, 2024. Because I am one of those people for whom vacation planning is half the fun, I was browsing through various websites to see what our hotel options are for flying in a day or two before boarding the ship, just window shopping, but not intending to book quite yet..

 

I was amazed to see that many of the hotels are already fully booked or certain categories are sold out, particularly those on the high end, especially at the big hotel franchises like Hilton, Hyatt and Bonvoy.  The closer you get to the harbor, the more scarce and expensive the rooms become. This is because The America’s Cup is being held in Barcelona in September-October, 2024.  For example, rooms at the waterfront W are between $4,000 and 8,000:per night at that time, about 10X the regular rate. 

 

I did manage to get a mini suite at a hotel located between the airport and the main attraction area.  Had I not been curious about our options, we might have ended up in Barcelona with no hotel or an undesirable hotel. So if you’re cruising in that area at that time, don’t wait until last minute to find a hotel.

Regarding the lobster thermador, we were on Odyssey last week.  I asked the server in the TK Grill why was there no lobster.  She said that the only lobster available for the past several weeks was not up to TK’s standards and he would not allow it to be served.  Apparently he holds tight reigns on the food that bears the TK name.  For instance, if the potato bun is not availablee at the patio, they can’t serve the Napa burger or the Yountville Wurst. Here’s a tip. If you order a regular burger or Hot Dog at the patio, ask for it to be served on a potato bun.  The regular buns are not very good.

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Former Crystal cruisers in search of new home.  Does Seabourn put out a weekly itinerary like what Crystal did, showing not only what you personally have booked for dinner, spa and excursions, but also which nights will be “formal” in MDR and theme for dinner in colonnade, which nights will have special events etc., so you can plan your schedule more than one day in advance.?  

Uniworld offers a “cancel for any reason “ insurance. If you cancel due to medical or other reasons that would be covered under a regular policy, you get a full refund. If the company cancels the cruise you get a full refund. If you cancel due to water level or other reasons not normally covered, you get a credit to use on any cruise during the next two years. If uniworld books your airfare, you get a credit for that. If you book your own airfare you don’t.

Currently on uniworld Beatrice. This segment started in Budapest and ends with a hotel stay in Bucharest. We were supposed to stop in Rousse Bulgaria for a full day and an overnight tomorrow ( Tuesday), then disembark from Giurgiu, Romania on Wednesday morning. The ship can’t get past Nikopol on the Bulgarian side of the Danube an Turnu Măgurele on the Romanian side. The nautical distance between there and Giurgiu is 70 miles. This means that the tours that were supposed to leave from Rousse will be departing from Nikopol, with a 2 to 2 1/2 hour bus ride each way. And the bus on Wednesday will have to drive a longer distance to get to Bucharest. Considering the severe drought and water levels, this is a pretty good outcome. We still have all the same tour options and can stay on the ship the whole time.

According to MarineTraffic there are no boats in Budapest. They are stopping an hour or so outside of the city. Which ship will you be on?

We are on Uniworld S.S Beatrice. We arrived In Budapest Tuesday afternoon (October 2). There were several other ships docked there as well. No water level issues. We left Budapest about an hour ago headed to Croatia. We were told that we will make it to Croatia and Serbia, but we may encounter water level issues in the stretch from Serbia to Bulgaria and from Bulgaria to Romania.

Durnstein is charming. You won’t regret visiting there.

thank you, Malekin. I truly don’t care where we go. I’m having such a great time on board, I could live here. The captain told us today that a barge ran aground in the main - Danube canal, shutting down river traffic.

Continuation of previous post:

Because of the acceleration of schedule in order to be able to make it to Budapest, we had to skip the stop in Straubing, Germany. Instead, tomorrow we will stop in Durnstein, Austria on Saturday afternoon after the Melk/ Spitz tours. That gives us an extra half day in Vienna.

My iPad froze and I couldn't continue my post. The story is to be continued, like a soap opera

The Danube continues to torture the ship’s captain and crew. They had to alter the schedule for Uniworld S.S. Beatrice again in a sort of race to get to Budapest before it it becomes impassable. This ship continues on to Bucharest, so getting there is critical. So, instead of staying overnight in Regensburg, we left immediately after the last tour group boarded and headed to Passau, skipping the stop in Straubing. The ship did not dock in its usual spot close to the town. I’m guessing that’s because we weren’t supposed to be there until today. Unfortunately our docking location in Vilshofen was close to the sewage plant. Phew! No open windows last night. Once all the tour groups have boarded, we will embark and go straight to Melk, skipping the overnight in Grein. Tomorrow (Saturday) we skip Spitz, so no exclusive cocktail reception at Arstetten castle, which is not included in the cruise price, but would have been an optional actextra charge. Because of the s

We’re on Uniworld S.s. Beatrice. We had 2 nights pre-cruise in Prague. The ship was supposed to start in Nuremberg but the water level was too low, so we embarked from Regensburg. We had the option to go by bus directly to Regensburg or to go to Nuremberg and do the scheduled tour and then go by bus to Regensburg. Then the plan was to stay in Regensburg overnight, but the water level is going back down, so we left at 7:00 p.m. heading to Straubing to dock overnight. Passengers will go by bus back to Regensburg for the scheduled tours. Then the ship has to leave immediately after passengers disembark before the water level gets too low and continue on to Passau. Passengers will be bused after the Regensburg tours end at 5:30 to Passau. Not ideal, but no one can control Mother Nature. under the circumstances, Uniworld is handling it extremely well. The prediction is smooth sailing after that. Fingers crossed.