MS Royal Crown

[quilter06]

Our Grand Circle river cruise has changed ships and now we are on the MS Royal Crown. Does anyone know any thing about this ship?

[shoshona2]

I Googled it and saw photos of the ship on their website.

 

Sheila

[quilter06]

Yes, I googled it also and liked what I saw. However, I always feel more comfortable when I get a review from either a past passenger or someone who has first hand experience on the ship. I have a list of questions and plan to call Grand Circle today for more information.

[sand crane]

We to are on the M/S Royal Crown. I have tried to get general information from GCT and have not heard from them. Seems they could get in touch with those of us who have been assigned this boat -- even our cabin number? If you get answers please post, as will I.

[quilter06]

I have some information that I gathered from a phone conversation with GC this morning. I have a cabin number. The whole crew including chefs will be from GC. Headsets will be supplied for all tours. All ports and shore excursions remain the same. The Concerto was damaged by a barge and is unable to operate. I had several other questions that the GC rep has to find out. He promised to email the answers later today and I'll forward them to you. Off the top of my head it seems like our experience on Royal Crown will be a good one.

[sand crane]

Thank you for this information and I am anxious to hear the answers to whatever else you might have asked. I was wondering if we will have use of the massage area and the hair salon that is offered on this boat?

[quilter06]

Spoke with GC and got most of my questions answered. I think GC is doing the best they can with this unexpected ship change and perhaps still can't be exact with answers. Here's what I found out-the Concerto had 140 passengers while the Royal Crown has 90. Other booked passengers chose another sail date or another cruise. The Concerto has 4 decks and the RC has 3. Shore departure is from the middle deck. Concerto was built in 2000 and the RC in 1998 in the Netherlands. There is no elevator on the RC. Asked if coke or pepsi products would be served. They don't know yet. (My husband absolutely loves coke so this is important to him!)

[quilter06]

On the Royal Crown site they offer bicycles, room service and butler service. These may still be offered on our cruise but probably for a fee. The same is true for the spa and hair salon. We will have head sets for excursions. Wine is served with dinner (2 glasses). Asked about WiFi and they said "probably not". We will have the same itinerary and shore excursions. I get the impression that eveything is subject to change if necessary so we need to keep that in mind. However that is true for all tours and cruises. About 2 weeks before the cruise we should get an email from the program director and some of our questions may be answered then. Have I helped you?

[sand crane]

Yes, and I appreciate the information. We will wait for our e-mail.

[quilter06]

Do you mind if I ask your sail date? We are doing the pretrip to Prague on July 29 and then boarding the ship in Vienna.

[sand crane]

Our trip is Amsterdam to Vienna and we depart on the 17th of July. If I can go by your "handle" you are also a quilter!

[Kiki48]

Hi Quilter06 -

We will be on the same trip with you -- we are doing our pre-trip in Vienna, however. How will we find each other?

[quilter06]

Happy to read your post. Yes, let's arrange a rendezvous however until we get a detailed itinerary with times, etc. it might be hard right now. According to GCT that info should come 14 days prior to departure.

At this time I can give you a little intro of us though. We are Ken and Joanne from Maysville, Ky. This is our third GCT tour. Last year we did Egypt (with pre and post trips) and China (with pre and post). Both were outstanding!

Our new ship has only 90 passengers so I think it will be easy to meet everyone, which is so nice.

[steamboats]

The MS Royal Crown used to be the MS River Cloud and is usually operated by Select River Cruises in Germany. It´s a classic 5 star vessel. It´s a real classy ship.

 

steamboats

[divein41]

We just returned from a cruise on the Royal Crown from Amsterdam to Vienna. I want to tell you all that it was really wonderful. What a beautiful ship. We were also told it would be a GCT crew, however it was not. The crew was fabulous and the food was THE BEST. We loved every minute of the trip. There was one representative from GCT and of course our tour directors were also. They all went overboard trying to please us and we loved them all. You are really going to love this beautiful ship.

Happy Cruiser

[aandc]

We will be on the Great Rivers of Europe tour that begins in Vienna on August 1st. Does anyone know if the MS Royal Crown has a 110V outlet in the cabin for recharging shavers?

[sand crane]

Glad to get the good review on the Royal Crown. We will be on that ship July 17th. Did they have a library? hair salon? were the steps hard to use - we had booked on GCT because they have elevators? Any outside excursion really outstanding?

 

Thanks in advance for any and all answeres.

[quilter06]

I keep hearing such good things about the Royal Crown that I am happy to experience that ship. Somehow we have been assigned a Royal Suite with king bed and sitting room. We will miss having a balcony though. I really was worried about the pullman type beds on the Concerto. Royal Crown does not have an elevator like the Concerto but it also has one less deck so we should be OK. Can't wait to board this elegant ship! It's going to be a wonderful cruise. BTW we're doing the Prague pretrip on July 29. Anyone else?

[divein41]

I will try to answer questions. There was an outlet in the bathroom for shavers. There was also Wi-Fi, but it was spotty in areas. There were two computers in the library but we took a small laptop which was helpful, and it was a small but nice library.

 

There was a hair solon on the ship but no one to do your hair. The services you see on the internet site for the Royal Crown did not apply for Grand Circle. They basically had the same services you normally have on a GCT ship.

 

The steps weren't bad in my opinion, but our cabin was on the same floor as the library, restaurant and lounge. The steps going up to the sun deck were fairly steep but you had a little landing which broke them up and also nice hand rails.

 

We liked the Melk Abbey, Musical Vienna, Bavaria: Baroque and Beer and of course Rothenburg. I'm not sure about the others but I would think they would all be nice. The sites and towns were all great. Anyway I can help. As I said, it is a wonderful ship and you will love all of the crew.

[aandc]

We just returned from a cruise on the Royal Crown from Amsterdam to Vienna. I want to tell you all that it was really wonderful. What a beautiful ship. We were also told it would be a GCT crew, however it was not. The crew was fabulous and the food was THE BEST. We loved every minute of the trip. There was one representative from GCT and of course our tour directors were also. They all went overboard trying to please us and we loved them all. You are really going to love this beautiful ship.

Happy Cruiser

 

I was wondering which of the optional tours you took and what you thought of them.

 

aandc