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Gate 1 Danube river cruise optional tours


bayjoens
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We've only been on big ocean cruises or very small (10 cabin) specialty cruises, so this will be our first river cruise. We're also a group of 18 people who doesn't do everything together, so sometimes there will be 6 of us on a tour and sometimes 18.

 

On the big cruises, we usually book our own private tours because we don't like the big "cattle call" tours of 60 to 100+ people. My question is about the optional tours on our upcoming Gate 1 river cruise. Does anyone know how many people are generally in each group? Do you travel on big buses? Can you hear the guides? Basically, should we do our own private tours or will it be fine to go with Gate 1?

 

Thanks!

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We've only been on big ocean cruises or very small (10 cabin) specialty cruises, so this will be our first river cruise. We're also a group of 18 people who doesn't do everything together, so sometimes there will be 6 of us on a tour and sometimes 18.

 

On the big cruises, we usually book our own private tours because we don't like the big "cattle call" tours of 60 to 100+ people. My question is about the optional tours on our upcoming Gate 1 river cruise. Does anyone know how many people are generally in each group? Do you travel on big buses? Can you hear the guides? Basically, should we do our own private tours or will it be fine to go with Gate 1?

 

Thanks!

 

Most tours are generally broken into manageable groups 15 - 20 maybe and if the sights are a distance away from the ship, you will be transported in very nice buses. Your tour guide will talk to you as you are traveling to the sight and when you arrive, you will use Vox hearing devices into which the guide will talk. You will have no trouble hearing any description and you can even wander a pretty long distance from the guide if you want to check out something you would like to take a photo of, etc. and still hear him/her speaking. You always have the option of doing your own thing in the ports if you choose, but we have never been disappointed in the excursions that were included on the many river cruises we have taken.

Cole

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Did you have any people on your river cruise that used a walker during the tours? If so did it create a problem - trying to decide if my friend would be able to take a Danube cruise with a pre-cruise extension in Prague and post cruise extension Budapest. She wouldn't use the walker on the boat - possibly a cane.

 

Thanks

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Did you have any people on your river cruise that used a walker during the tours? If so did it create a problem - trying to decide if my friend would be able to take a Danube cruise with a pre-cruise extension in Prague and post cruise extension Budapest. She wouldn't use the walker on the boat - possibly a cane.

 

Thanks

 

 

I don’t recall seeing anyone using walkers. Depends on the cites you visit...many of the cities have cobblestones, stairs and lots of hills. On uniworld they had a “slower” paced group that would have a different tour suited to the abilities of the people. But I didn’t see that with Gate 1

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We took Gate 1 Monarch Queen at the end of August. There were 4 optional tours. We did the two in Vienna (Palace and Concert tours). Good choices on both. We skipped the other two optional tours. For the optional tour in Austria, it was rainy and our friends that went on the tour felt it wasn't worth the money due to the weather.

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:)We are on monarch baroness at the moment. No one using a walker and I think it would be very difficult due to cobblestones.

in two towns they have had groups of regular walkers plus one group named the photo group but it's actually a polite way of saying slow walkers. We are a group of 8 of varied physical abilities. The buses are lovely modern and they don't squash in. Example today we had 22 passengers on our bus in to wurzburg for the tour of the residenz palace. At the end of the you some went back to the ship while others including myself went with a guide in to the centre and then found our own way back which wasn't far.

we are thoroughly enjoying the cruise. 2 of our group did APT same itinerary 10 years ago and gate 1 is definitely equal to APT.

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Just back off our first river cruise AMA/APT (review next week) my experience was that exact arrival and departure times are not posted until the evening before - though this may be due to the number of locks on the Danube /Main / Rhine. Doing your own thing is very possible but actually pre booking someone to take you round may be problematic. On occasions the locks were in our favour and we arrived 45 minutes early - and also left 45 minutes early at our destination. As all tours were included it was not an issue for us.

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Did you have any people on your river cruise that used a walker during the tours? If so did it create a problem - trying to decide if my friend would be able to take a Danube cruise with a pre-cruise extension in Prague and post cruise extension Budapest. She wouldn't use the walker on the boat - possibly a cane.

 

Thanks

 

We've just returned from a Gate 1 cruise where several people including myself used canes and managed OK. A couple of our tours had photo tours recommended for slower walkers. In Bamberg there was one tour that didn't go up the hill to the church. Also in Nijmegen, we were lucky enough to have chosen the tour where the guide took a route up the hill to the town that included an elevator however that wasn't advertised. It would be good if it was in future so people with lesser mobility would know to take it.So I would say it's quite possible to enjoy the cruise with a cane but not really if you're reliant on a walker.

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  • 3 months later...

We're thinking of booking our own private tours for Budapest, so that we can have a smaller group and make it more customized. Does anyone know when we will be left off the ship on the morning that Gate 1 does their own City Tour and what time the Captain's Dinner is on that same evening? Thanks!

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