id4elizabeth

We stayed at the Sofitel too and I loved the location. The #2 tram was right out front and ran up and down the embankment, taking us to both the Town Market in one direction, and Parliament in the other. The #16 bus was just at the foot of the Chain Bridge and took us across the bridge and up to Castle Hill. The Metro yellow line was only a block and a half away and from there we could connect to anything in the city. I wasn't that impressed with the hotel though so was looking for alternatives for next time and the Hilton is certainly appealing, but was concerned about getting up and down the Hill.

I did notice the Four Seasons and Intercontinental were as well located as the Sofitel, but I don't have a zillion points with either of those chains. I have enough points to stay at the Hilton for weeks!

Question about the Hilton on Castle Hill - How was getting around town? We saw the hotel - actually went inside and would consider staying there as we are Diamond members. However, we figured getting around town (the Pest side) would be kind of tricky. Did you use taxis or did Hilton provide some kind of shuttle? Any kind of public transportation? Thanks.

Onboard now - no L'Occitane :( only Freya products. Sounds like the major European routes have converted to Freya with only a few itineraries still retaining L'Occitane until stocks run out. Boo-hoo!

Id4elizabeth here - we officially started our Viking river cruise tonight (at the Sofitel Hotel) in Budapest. Will be in Transylvania in a little over a week. I too looked carefully at the extension and realized they really don't spend that much time in Transylvania. I have a private guide lined up who is offering 4 full days in Transylvania at the same hotel as Viking is using in Brasov all for less money. And by private, I mean a car, a driver, a guide, and the two of us - not a busload. I will let you know how it works out.

We were there just several days ago and as previous poster, we were dropped off at the upper gardens as well, so everything was downhill. There is that one kind of steep horse ramp, but it's only about 20 to 30 feet long and there are walls along both sides but no handrail. But it was not slick and here the stone actually make it easier to keep from falling.

The rest of the way was just your typical European town cobblestones.

I thought Cesky Krumlov was fascinating, even though we too did not go inside the Castle here. We had combined Cesky Krumlov with a tour of Hluboka Castle, so that did not give us enough time to go in this castle as well which I regret.

For lunch I can highly recommend the restaurant at Hotel Ruze - ask for a Terrace table.

Dancermom - so sorry to hear that! We had a very active roll call and did lots of private tours, sometimes in addition to the Viking tours and sometimes instead of. These were some of the best tours of our whole cruise. One of the things that so frustrating about river cruising is the lack of participation on the roll calls because of the size of the ships. Maybe because we were on the maiden cruise, we were lucky and had great roll calls. So, spread the word - get more people using CruiseCritic!

On our cruise last year I heard lots of complaints about both the included and optional general Rome tours. I also know a lot of folks who use the included tour as simply transportation to and from Rome and did their own thing in between. Rome might be one of those destinations it might be better to hire a private guide with a bunch of CC companions.

(We didn't go into Rome.)

If you stay with your new choice of Pont du Gard, and if you are physically able, make sure you hike to the top. Hiking trails are on the far side of the bridge. Not many people do this, and getting up to the top provide awesome views and just an incredible experience that you don't get from below. The trail is not super difficult - I was 65 at the time, overweight and not in great shape and I made it.

If that's too strenuous, walk down under the bridge. That's another fantastic experience.

As if you can't figure it out, my vote is definitely the aqueduct!

Depends on what you mean by boarding time. Based on our experience over 50 days, they didn't seem to care when you got on the Ship. The thing that is correlated to cabin category is when your cabin will be ready? If you're OK hanging out on the ship and stuffing your luggage somewhere you're pretty free to roam around and have fun. I don't know this for sure, but I think if you just want to drop off your luggage and go exploring the port, I cannot see that they'd give you any grief about it. The only issue you might have is that if you're coming in off a long flight and want to get some sleep and your cabin isn't ready because you got a lower cabin category, then you're kind of stuck. I can recommend some very nice comfy lowering lounge chairs around the pool...

Ah! Maybe there hope I'll get L'Occitane after all. We board next Tuesday - I'll let you know what I find.

Oh screen-gem; so sorry to hear about this. There are worse places to be stuck than Bordeaux, but without prior planning to one/several of the wineries, it's hard to take full advantage. We did find a great museum of Medieval Arts there that was surprisingly good.

If you're going to Tilbury are they offering any excursions there? I wonder if Canteberry to too far. We went there out of Greenwich last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. I sure hope that offer you something!

Best of luck to you and hope you remain well!

Hi to you Vineyard View! Yes - we leave tomorrow for Prague, will spend a week there on our own and then meet up with the Viking ship in Budapest for a cruise to Bucharest. Then 5 days in Transylvania with a private guide. Turned out to be cheaper, a day longer, and in the same hotel as Viking's extension. All packed and ready to go. What are you up to this year?

By Jove, I think I FINALLY got it! Thanks for your patience and your directions Dave!

Local farmland planted with rape seed.

So I'm gathering you no longer just copy and paste your image. Hope this one works.

Thanks Dave!

The Kitchen Table's original concept was that on particular port days, a small group (with extra fee that I heard was $225 or $250 pp) would accompany the Chef to the local market in the port and then come back to the ship and prepare a gourmet feast under the chef's direction, which the group would then enjoy together that night. Apparently you had to be "invited" to participate, although I can't tell you what the criteria was. We were never invited and we were in a Junior Penthouse Suite for the whole 50-days, so I don't think it was related to cabin category.

I think this program ran once or twice on the 50-day maiden cruise, but it seemed to kind of fizzle. I asked about it at the Explorer's Desk and was simply told it had been discontinued. I don't know if this is what Vineyard View was mentioning in her post that she attended or whether she attended a different kind of private function.

My guess is now that it's just a private dining room that's available for special occasions.

More or less anytime. As I recall dinner went from 6:30 to 8:30 or 9:00 as a rule. Sometimes later if a tour was expected back later.

I would suggest Manfredi's for dinner for your anniversary. If you want a very private table, let them know - many, but not all, of the tables are close together. If you have a few friends that you want to celebrate with, there's a private dining room at Manfredi's that seats 10 to 12. If you want this room, I would reserve it first thing when you get onboard. There's not as option to reserve it ahead of time. It has a gorgeous table that's made of a solid piece of wood,and the room is lovely and completely private.

Enjoy!

I have been using smugmug as my image hosting source, and all I can get it to do by following the instructions under how to post pictures is to get a link to post -- not the actual in-line picture. if anyone has any advice how to actually post the picture, I'd be grateful.

So here's mine for this week, but it's only a link to the picture. Pink dogwood in my yard. Travel is next week.

https://travelswithelizabeth.smugmug.com/PhotoClass/16-Golden-Hour/i-rDdBfpR/0/X3/Elizabeth-16-Golden%20Hour-00342-X3.jpg

[https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-8WftW4p/0/M/i-8WftW4p-M.jpg]

testing

Shanghai



Shanghai

What strikes next Thursday?

When I arranged our tour, I told them "no shopping stops" and they were totally agreeable. I also asked for the Ephesus Museum - it's not part of their normal tour. As far as Ephesus itself, we started at the top upper gate, walked down through the entire site, did the Terrace Houses in the middle, saw the Library and had enough time to scamper up the steps and thoroughly explore it and then down through the rest of the site, the Theater, and the van picked us up at the bottom. From there we were driven to the Museum and had about 45 minutes there. We did not stop for lunch as our time in port was 1:00 pm to 6:30 as I recall. We were back at the dock by 5:00.