Monarch Empress Christmas Market Cruise Review

[cruisergrandma]

I wanted to send in a review of our Monarch Empress cruise since there are so few reviews for Gate 1 cruises. This will be a long review so I will break it down into sections. I hope to include lots of photos - if I can figure out how to attach them!

 

To be very honest we booked this cruise because we received an email with last minute pricing and the low price was just too good to turn down. We had previously done a Rhine Getaway cruise with Viking and were extremely pleased. We were worried that with the price being so much less with Gate 1, that we would not be as pleased. Somehow, we thought we would not get the same quality we had received on Viking. Well, we were totally wrong!

 

This was a 7-day Christmas Markets cruise on the Danube. We booked a rate including their air and had no problems at all. We had one connection each way and had enough time to process through the airports but not too much as to be bored. When we arrived in Vienna their representative was there holding a sign that was easy to spot. We, along with 2 other couples, were taken to a very nice van and transported to the ship. Before the driver could get the luggage unloaded there were men from the ship there to take our luggage onto ship.  We checked in and were told that lunch was being served in the restaurant. It was around 1:00 and we had read that cabins would not be available until 2:00 but when we checked in, we were told our cabins would be ready within minutes and that our luggage would be delivered to our cabins. The ship is beautiful and was fully decorated for Christmas. The staff is extremely friendly, helpful and welcoming.

 

We headed to the restaurant and found the same warm welcome from the restaurant staff. Lunch was a buffet and was delicious. We had the pasta (spaghetti that day) and soup. Soup was delivered to the table for us. Both were delicious. We drank water but soft drinks could be ordered. Soft drinks are not included for free at lunch.

There was one shuttle that day into Vienna and the Christmas Market but we were tired and opted to just go to our cabin, get unpacked and settled in, then rest for a bit before dinner. We were in cabin 309. It had twin beds that had been pushed together to form a king (?). There were night stands on both sides of the bed. Closets and drawers were plentiful. There is a safe and a small refrigerator. Bottled water is provided. The bathroom is quite large and the shower is larger than we had on Viking. There is also a wall of shelving built in beside the bed. Wi-Fi is available all over the ship including inside the cabins and we had good reception. We made calls home via Wi-Fi.  Our cabin had a full wall of windows with a French balcony. There are no balconies on the ship but the French balcony was fine, especially for this time of year.

 

We both use c-paps and had been told by Gate 1 that distilled water would not be provided and we would have to get that on our own. I stopped at the desk and asked if she could write in German what I needed and where could I purchase the distilled water. She asked if it was for c-paps. I answered yes and was told they would provide it for us. That was a nice surprise. It was delivered to our cabin within the hour.

 

The ship has a fairly large lounge with bar at the front of the ship. We met there before dinner and were introduced to the crew and given information on the next day’s tour. Then we proceeded to the dining room where the wine and beer flowed freely. Soft drinks were also available at dinner for no charge. There is only one appetizer and one (sometimes two) soup and one hot appetizer. There is no choice. Everyone is served these items whether or not they want them. That seems like quite a waste of food to me but, it is the way they work.  You have a choice of 3 entrees and they were always wonderful. There is a dessert, an ice cream and cheese choices for dessert. The food was plentiful and delicious. There is also always Caesar salad, salmon, chicken and baked potato.

 

There was musical entertainment each night in the lounge after dinner.  There were also games.  We chose not to attend any of these as we were always tired of an evening and just enjoyed the quiet of our cabin.

 

 

 

 

[cruisergrandma]

The next morning, we were divided into 3 groups and loaded onto buses for transport into town Vienna. Vienna is a large city with lots of history, beautiful architecture, lots of statues – and lots of graffiti.  We did a bit of a tour on the bus and then offloaded for a walking tour. It was an interesting tour and ended outside of St. Stephens cathedral. The guide was good and answered a lot of questions. We were also given directions where to meet our bus for the return trip to the ship. There were several shuttles back to the ship or you could arrange your own transportation if you chose to stay in town late. Gate 1 offered an option afternoon excursion to Schonbrunn Palace. We chose to just stay in town.

 

We visited the small Christmas Market around St. Stephens and then headed to a larger Christmas Market around St. George Cathedral. The Christmas Markets are spaced a long way from each other and we had some difficulty with all of the walking. We were disappointed in the handcrafts market at St. George and afterwards visit a local restaurant for Wiener Schnitzel. It was delicious. It was a long walk to the other Christmas Markets and we were tired so we headed back to catch a shuttle to the ship.

 

My only complaint is that since this was a “Christmas Market Cruise” it would have been nice for them to provide shuttles that took you to the markets instead of dropping you off across town. We later found out that the one shuttle on the day we arrived was the only shuttle that dropped off directly at the market. We would definitely have taken that if we had known.

The next morning, we were given the option of going back into town. They only offered one shuttle and one return that day. We opted to go back into town where we visited St. Stephens, did a bit of shopping and bought cookies from Manner. After re-boarding we headed to lunch and the ship set sail for Linz.

[cruisergrandma]

At our port talk that evening we were told that there was a mechanical problem with the ship and it would be going into dry dock while we were in Linz. The only thing it would really effect is that those staying in Linz would not be able to return to the ship for lunch. The day we were in Linz there was the option of an excursion to Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic. Since we had never been to Linz, we chose not to take the optional excursion. Those of us who chose to stay in Linz were given a cash allowance for lunch in town.

 

We had a wonderful walking tour of town. Our guide Doris was excellent. Town is lovely and easy to navigate. After the walking tour, we visited a few antique stores as well as two of their Christmas Markets (the third market was food only). We also stopped in for a Linzer Torte before returning to ship.

 

At our port talk that evening we were told that there might be a problem with low water levels between Passau and Regensburg. They were still working out details.

[cruisergrandma]

Their solution was to not port in Passau but to port at a different location and transport us by bus into Passau for the day. While the ship was without guests (making it a lot lighter) the ship would move through the shallow waters and we would return to a different port at the end of the day. This was no problem for those of us staying in Passau but it did add travel time to those who had booked the optional excursion to Salzburg. They wound up with very little time in Salzburg.

We chose to go into Passau and it was our favorite port of the cruise. We had a very good walking tour with a brand-new guide. He did a great job and the tour finished at St. Stevens Cathedral. St. Stevens is a gorgeous cathedral and we enjoyed visiting and looking around.

 

The Passau Christmas Market was directly in front of St. Stevens. It was the best Christmas Market of the cruise. We really enjoyed visiting. We also visited several shops in town. Some of the shopkeepers were very rude and we did not stay long in those shops. But we also visited several good shops with very friendly shopkeepers and enjoyed those shops and purchased a few items.

 

Since our ship was not in town, we had the same problem as in Linz about not returning to the ship for lunch. As it turns out one of the sister ships – the Monarch Countess – was docked in town and we were able to go there for lunch or to just rest in the lounge. We chose to eat at the Christmas Market but did enjoy the lounge to rest while waiting for our bus to pick us up. The employees of the Countess were very welcoming.

 

The ship made it through the shallow waters just fine and we returned to business as usual at the end of our day.

Father Christmas arrives on December 6^th in Germany so we were asked to each place a shoe outside of our cabin when we went to bed that night. When we awoke the next morning, we found that Father Christmas had left us a bag of candy inside our shoes. What a nice treat!

 

Edited December 23, 2019 by cruisergrandma

[cruisergrandma]

Our next port was Regensburg. We docked right in town. Our walking tour guide was quite entertaining but he walked so fast we found it hard to keep up with him and missed out on parts of his tour. After the tour there was a cuckoo clock demonstration in one of the shops. We had seen this during our previous cruise so we did not attend the demonstration. We found town to be easy to navigate. Their Christmas Market was very nice as were the shops we visited. We returned to the ship for lunch and then returned again to town. We set sail at 3:00 pm.

[cruisergrandma]

There are LOTS of locks on the Danube – 24 during our cruise – and the river is very crowded this time of year. It was a long trip to Nuremberg – we arrived about 24 hours after leaving Regensburg. We docked outside of town and boarded busses for a 30-minute trip into town. We were late getting into Nuremburg and our time there was greatly shortened. Many on board had been to Nuremburg previously so the ship offered 2 busses for tours and one bus for the Christmas Market and shopping. We were told that the tour was an hour and 15 minutes so, since we had never been to Nuremburg we opted for the tour. After our 30-minute drive into town a guide boarded our bus and the first thing he said is that he would be with us for the next 2 hours. What? Not what we had been told. We visited Hitler’s rally grounds and saw the Hall of Justice where the war trials were held and then headed into town for a walking tour. It was Saturday and town was extremely crowded and traffic was terrible. The bus we were on actually side-swiped a car and never even slowed down!

 

Since we were anxious to visit the Christmas Market, we decided to skip the walking tour and head directly to the market. We were pointed in the direction and off we went. Well, in all directions all we were finding were food booths. We asked 3 different people how to get to the Christmas Market and all 3 told us it was just food. We walked around for over an hour (in rain) and finally gave up. We visited one shop and headed back for the bus. Others who actually found the market said it was so crowded they could hardly reach a booth and found it very difficult to look around.

[cruisergrandma]

Overall it was a great cruise. The ship is beautiful and the service was impeccable. We will definitely cruise with Gate 1 again.

[G.M.T.]

Really enjoying reading your travel tails. There was another review a day or so ago, same stretch of the Danube but they reported problems at every port. Just goes to show how some cruisers can take things in their stride.

 

The thing that disturbs me were the rude shop keepers in Passau (my home town) can you remember the names of the shop at at least the type of shop.

 

Happy Christmas

[cruisergrandma]

8 minutes ago, G.M.T. said:

Really enjoying reading your travel tails. There was another review a day or so ago, same stretch of the Danube but they reported problems at every port. Just goes to show how some cruisers can take things in their stride.

 

The thing that disturbs me were the rude shop keepers in Passau (my home town) can you remember the names of the shop at at least the type of shop.

 

Happy Christmas

 

I did not take notice of the shop names. One man actually stood just inside his door. When we walked in he asked if he could help us. We told him we would like to look around. He never moved and we could not look around so we just left. It was a souvenir shop near the fountain on the square behind St. Stevens. Another thing is that we had received a map of 25 different nativities in town. I was taking photos of all that I found. I got ready to take one photo and the shopkeeper knocked on the window and told me not to take a photo.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 23, 2019 by cruisergrandma
left out info

[Roz]

Nice review, and I'm looking forward to the next installment.  Thank you for taking the time to write it, because as you've already stated, there are so few Gate 1 reviews.  

 

Your review points out the need to be flexible, which I've found to be true on all my river cruises.  Things happens beyond the cruise line's control, and docking locations, port times, and the ports themselves can change.  

[cruisergrandma]

1 minute ago, Roz said:

Nice review, and I'm looking forward to the next installment.  Thank you for taking the time to write it, because as you've already stated, there are so few Gate 1 reviews.  

 

Your review points out the need to be flexible, which I've found to be true on all my river cruises.  Things happens beyond the cruise line's control, and docking locations, port times, and the ports themselves can change.  

We give Gate 1 a lot of credit for an admirable job of dealing with all of the issues!

 

[Coral]

Gate 1 seems to get pretty good reviews on this board. I appreciated reading  your posts.

[stmartins]

We were on this cruise with you!  It was wonderful!  Gate1 should have more reviews and I’m not sure why they don’t have their own board.  We’ve done 4 so far and would do another depending on the itinerary.  Shout out to the crew!  They made a real difference!

[zdcatc12]

I boarded in Nuremberg the day that  yours ended to go up the canal and Rhine to Amsterdam. I will post a review later. I hope the in-cabin pa was out your whole trip, because they got it fixed on ours and listening to Rudy do his "waaaawaaaawaaa" thing before every announcement really got irritating!!!

[stmartins]

We got off in Nuremberg not Regensburg ...took a train to Frankfurt...