ScottVan

Our family attended this experience in August. We all thought it was fantastic (we ranged in age from 20s to 80s). Business casual is fine. I did wear a tie, since I brought one, but many did not. Enjoy it! --Scott

We actually docked at at least 2 different places in Budapest, as I recall. The first one was in Buda, pretty far downstream, long walk to city center. Then after an evening cruise on the Danube, we docked again, somewhat close to the center of town (still in Buda). My impression is that the docking locations can change, and they do their best to get you close. You might have better docking locations this time of year than we did in "high season". There were well over a dozen cruise ships docked there, some rafted 4 deep.

We loved Schonbrunn, thought it was a very worthwhile visit. The building and grounds are vast, would take at least a full day to see everything. I'm guessing Rick Steves' narration would be a good guide to it -- didn't do that ourselves, but have used his audio guides elsewhere with great enjoyment. I do recall a few guests saying they really enjoyed the Belvedere, for what that's worth.

The dining room opening time varied slightly from day to day on our cruise, between 6 and 7 most nights, once as early as 5:30. We did not have to go at exactly that time, any later time was also OK, just keep in mind when the meal ends and try not to show up just as the staff are cleaning everything up. On our cruise, we always simply found an open table. Sometimes we joined other groups or they joined us, but we were never required to share a table, nor was there any notion of forcing people into the same table or group each night. I think you'll have a great time, and you'll find a much smaller percentage of the passengers are of the "loud or drunk or just plain obnoxious" variety. Enjoy the voyage!

Good question. I really don't think it matters (others are free to chime in with different answers). When sailing up (or down) the river, there didn't seem to be a prevalence of "sights" on one side or the other. When docking, sometimes we docked on the port side and sometimes on the starboard, and I think it's hard to predict in advance which side you'll dock on at specific cities. Even if you know, it's also hard to know which side you'd prefer -- would you like to see the town or the river? And in either case, you might a ship rafting next to you on either (or both) sides. Hope this helps. --Scott V.

Don't be nervous! It's a bit more of a day-to-day experience, less advance planning, compared to an ocean cruise (if you're done one of those), but the crew will take care of you. We loved Vienna. Note that the old city center is not right on the branch of the Danube where the cruise ships dock, it's about a 15 minute drive (or a longer walk). Our ship provided a free shuttle that looped around every half hour from dock to old town Vienna. Also, they have Uber in Vienna (but not in Budapest). Taxis in both places. To answer your question: My wife and I did a tour of Schonbrunn Palace in the morning (need to drive there from dock or city center) then were on our own in the afternoon. We wandered the streets of the old city a bit (that was fun) and went inside the cathedral (St. Stephens) and climbed one of the towers for the view - well worth it. (Have to pay to climb the towers; entry into a small part of the cathedral is free, but to wander around at will also has a charge.) Our daughter went off on her own and also visited the Hofburg palace (in the old part of the city) and took an Uber to Schonbrunn. All of those places are beautiful, and just wandering the streets is fun too. One thing we wanted to do but couldn't is visit the Spanish Riding School (they take a lot of time off in August). You can see a performance, or see training, or just take a tour -- their web site has all the details. Some folks on our cruise said the Belvedere museum was excellent, and so was the Kunsthistoriches Museum. If you like museums. I wish I'd eaten more wienerschnitzel. Have fun, and let me know if you have more questions. --Scott V.

That sounds fabulous. Jade and Amber are identical ships, I think we rafted with them in Vienna for a night. I'll follow this topic, so just post if you think of any questions. I wish we could have stayed on another week and gone on to Amsterdam. Next time, I guess.

Good question. Any suggestions? Western Danube? Rhine from Amsterdam to Danube all the way to Black Sea? Somewhere in France? Open to ideas 🙂

Just returned from a wonderful week-long cruise on Scenic Amber from Budapest upstream to Nuremberg. (The ship spent time in Budapest, Vienna, Durnstein, Melk, and Regensburg, with brief stops at other places -- see below for more details.) Will try to share below what I think might be helpful (without repeating what can easily be found elsewhere online); feel free to ask anything and I'll do my best to respond. This cruise was August 10-17, 2023, and my wife and I shared a "deluxe balcony" cabin. This was our first river cruise, but we've done ocean cruises with Carnival (twice), Princess, and Regent. Overall level of service, amenities, included stuff, etc. was very similar to Regent, but on Scenic all cabins have butler service. We were traveling with 4 others, and we all thought the food was just incredible and the cruise overall was a fantastic experience. The crew and staff were a delight. This may have been helped by the fact that the ship was less than half full -- we're not sure why that was, but we were told subsequent sailings were more full. The main language on board is English, and the passengers were from a variety of places (largest contingent was from USA, but good numbers from Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Canada, and a handful each from Spain and Belgium). The crew was mainly European and Asian, and were ready/willing/able to do whatever they could to make the voyage a good experience. As a first river cruise, some things we noticed (apologies to experienced river cruisers, who will be saying "duh", but it may help other newbies): seasickness simply isn't an issue. Sometimes when docking you'll "raft" with other boats (docking side-by-side out into the river, so passengers from one boat will cross over or through another to get ashore). We did this a few times and it was interesting, but not a negative in any way. The ship went through several locks during the journey, which was fun to watch. And sometimes the bridge clearances were low enough that the ships would lower some masts and sometimes lower the bridge (and in our case sometimes close off parts of the upper deck, but not all of it). Another distinction with ocean cruising: most ocean cruises seem to follow the "sail at night, dock in the day" model nearly every day. On this cruise (and maybe on many river cruises, I don't know) that wasn't the only way it worked. And the exact times in port weren't really published in advance (though they were available if I called). Some days we would stay in a city half a day then being sailing mid-afternoon to the next destination. This can be fun because on a river cruise sometimes it's the river itself, and what you see from it, that's of interest. (And part of Scenic's app is a river guide that will alert you when you're near something interesting and play a 1-2 minute audio describing it.) Examples: on one day we docked early in Durnstein, Austria then left late morning -- some passengers stayed on the ship as it sailed to Melk, but some went on excursions that left from Durnstein then met the ship in Melk mid-afternoon, where other excursions were available. We then left Melk in the evening. In bigger cities (Budapest, Vienna) we stayed overnight. There were also a few stops that were called "technical stops" where the ship only stopped briefly, for example to let off passengers doing specific excursions who would then meet the ship at the next port. Example: we stopped briefly at Brandstatt just to let off passengers for excursions to Salzburg, Cesky Krumlov, and other places. Then those passengers met the ship at Vilshofen, where they got on board and the ship continued on. We opted to arrive in Budapest a day before the cruise began (stayed at the Marriott, arranged by Scenic), as do many folks who cruise (river or ocean). In this case, this was less necessary, as the ship spent the first night of the cruise in Budapest, so missing the ship is less of a risk. But we're still glad we got the extra day in Budapest. Each day there was a brief "port talk" about the next day's activities, with just enough info. to help us decide what to do, including details about how much walking, bus riding, etc. was involved. This was helpful. All excursions were included in the cruise fare. Unlike ocean cruises we've taken, only two of the excursions were able to be chosen in advance of the cruise -- our choices for Budapest and Vienna. For the other stops, we made our choices after the cruise began. I'm assuming that with these relatively small river ships, it's easier for them to adjust tour sizes at the last minute. For guided tours, there was an app that would allow your phone to be a receiver for the guide's voice, and that worked well for us -- we appreciated not having to bring along another device on the tours. Most nights there was some form of entertainment: Hungarian folk dancers, Austrian folk dancers, ballet dancers who performed as well as tried to teach some of us the Viennese Waltz, a "name that tune" contest one night, and trivia on the last night. In Vienna there was a concert just for us at Palais Lichtenstein (beautiful baroque venue), with a professional chamber orchestra, singers, and dancers. Many passengers found this to be very special. All of this was included -- the only thing we spent money on while onboard was my wife's massage (every passenger had 50 euros shipboard credit, and she used up both of ours on the massage). There were set times for the 3 main meals each day, but there were always other ways to eat (room service or some really good snacks available all afternoon in the bar area). Breakfast included a buffet but also had a menu you could order from. Lunch was similar, though more emphasis on the menu than the buffet. Dinner was menu-ordering only. Wines were often local (as were many of the food options). Each passenger had at least one option to have a more "special" dinner at the Italian Portobello restaurant (which was really just a glassed-off area of the main lounge/bar, but the meal was outstanding). The ship has just over 20 e-bikes, which you can ask for anytime you like and the crew will have them on shore for you in a few minutes (locks and helmets provided, though we saw few other adults with helmets in Germany and Austria). We also went on a guided e-bike ride (using the ship's bikes) from Durnstein to Melk (both in Austria), which was a great way to see the Wachau Valley. I initially had concerns about the Danube water levels, but there was some rain before our cruise and things were fine, until the last full day -- we stayed at Regensburg instead of leaving mid-afternoon for Nuremberg, where we were set to disembark the next morning. For our group of travelers, this actually ended up being an improvement, as we loved Regensburg and we weren't going to have any time to do anything in Nuremberg except go to the airport. The extra hour on the airport transfer was worth spending the rest of the day in Regensburg. We got an email just after the cruise saying that Scenic will refund each passenger $75 per person. I don't know whether the low water levels were on the Danube itself or in the Main-Danube canal. Bottom line: I highly recommend a Danube cruise and a cruise on Scenic. Please feel free to post any questions you may have -- I left out a lot to keep the post from being too long (which it probably already is, whoops).

Just got off the phone with Regent regarding an upcoming Mediterranean cruise on Explorer ... they were quite explicit in saying "no" to the NAAT test for my sailing, with the caveat that things could change ... they seemed to understand the distinction between PCR and NAAT, and that some sailings allow NAAT and some don't. Perhaps it's an EU thing ... This is of course very frustrating because the NAAT test is more reliable than the antigen test, which is accepted. And, as someone noted, it's getting very difficult to find a rapid antigen testing site. PCR test results are too slow -- I'd rather know before I board the plane whether I'll be allowed on the ship. Of course, at actual embarkation, the port folks may accept a NAAT test. Or they may not (and require a test at the pier).

Hoping someone can answer based on recent experience; I'm trying to decide how many KN95 masks to bring. Regent's latest advice for the 7/13 Explorer sailing from Rome says they "require guests to carry FFP2/KN95 masks to visit Italian ports" and later says "A FFP2/KN95 mask must be worn to enter Italy". Carrying and wearing are different things, and I know masks are not required most places in Italy right now if you arrive by train or plane or car or on foot... is it really true that you have to don your mask when disembarking at an Italian port and keep it on until you return to the ship, simply because you arrived via cruise ship? (I know some places can require it, and I'll have one with me anyway, but I'm curious how much I'll be wearing it; I also know I have to wear it on board while docked in Italy.) Will someone really be following me around to enforce this, indoors and out? Related question: Will I be required to wear one on transfers from Rome airport to hotel and hotel to ship, on shore excursions, or in the executive full day private car? Thanks in advance for any experiences you can share. I have searched the forum for answers to this, but was unable to find any.