Rafting river boats together.

[*Miss G*]

14 minutes ago, island lady said:

Then again, our next river cruise is 3 weeks long.  Lots of time for mixing it up.  🙂 

 

Wow!  I was exhausted after 5 days!  I would definitely need some down time in there, somewhere.  Where does 3 weeks take you?

[sharkster77]

4 hours ago, Kristelle said:

totally subjective and personal preference -  I like guided tours and  I don't mind  bus trips - but of course one then wants decent amount of time at the destination - and I really don't want a whole day of 'peaceful sailing'

When we look at bus tours an important factor is 'how many one-night stays are there?'

 

If a tour has many of them, we look at other itineraries.  It's nice to be able to settle into a hotel room for 2 or more nights---one night stays seem like you just checked in and in no time at all you're getting your bags ready to be put out in the hall before breakfast!

[pontac]

12 hours ago, DougK said:

But I have little interest in what I call "drive-by" stops--where the ship stops at some point along the river to discharge passengers to buses that take them to the town, while the ship continues along the river to a later point where it stops again to pick up passengers from returning buses

 

But its nice and quiet on t boat for those remaining on board who skip to excursion. 😁

[rcaruso]

24 minutes ago, pontac said:

 

But its nice and quiet on t boat for those remaining on board who skip to excursion. 😁

We have had some of the best times just skipping the excursions and sailing to the next pick up point.  If we had gone again to Heidelburg we would have missed the sailing on the Main past Aschaffenburg past the Schloss and the Pompeijanum, what sights to behold.  We have since been to Aschaffenburg to see these sights. For us the river is the trip (although we have gone and seen most of the cities).  We do get off mostly when the cities are right there at the dock and wander.  Same when we did not get off at Miltenburg but did at Fruedenburg while waiting for guests to get back.  We wandered around, found the Rewe grocery and spied the crew buying more provisions.

[CastleCritic]

1 hour ago, *Miss G* said:

 

Wow!  I was exhausted after 5 days!  I would definitely need some down time in there, somewhere.  Where does 3 weeks take you?

Likely Amsterdam to Bucharest (Rhine Main, Danube)

 

you actually can do 44 nights on the same ship with AMAWaterways if you want, though its actually about 6 cruises duct taped together so you get to see places like Rudesheim several times. (Rhine, moselle, main Danube all the way to the Black Sea which is further than they usually go).

[dd57]

2 hours ago, rcaruso said:

We have had some of the best times just skipping the excursions and sailing to the next pick up point.  If we had gone again to Heidelburg we would have missed the sailing on the Main past Aschaffenburg past the Schloss and the Pompeijanum, what sights to behold.  We have since been to Aschaffenburg to see these sights. For us the river is the trip (although we have gone and seen most of the cities).  We do get off mostly when the cities are right there at the dock and wander.  Same when we did not get off at Miltenburg but did at Fruedenburg while waiting for guests to get back.  We wandered around, found the Rewe grocery and spied the crew buying more provisions.

We did this once.  After offloading the passengers, the ship moved for about an hour and stopped at a dock in the middle of nowhere.   Trucks with crates if provisions were waiting.  The dock level was halfway up from the main level, so about 4 feet above us.  The people on the dock had to squat down to hand a crate into the ship.  All of the crew including the cruise director formed a line with about 2 feet between each person, and the crates were handed from person to person , down the stairs to the bottom deck and into the storage area.  This went on for half an hour with all kinds of provisions - fresh produce, beer, etc.  It was well orchestrated so clearly not the first time it was done.

[CastleCritic]

1 minute ago, dd57 said:

We did this once.  After offloading the passengers, the ship moved for about an hour and stopped at a dock in the middle of nowhere.   Trucks with crates if provisions were waiting.  The dock level was halfway up from the main level, so about 4 feet above us.  The people on the dock had to squat down to hand a crate into the ship.  All of the crew including the cruise director formed a line with about 2 feet between each person, and the crates were handed from person to person , down the stairs to the bottom deck and into the storage area.  This went on for half an hour with all kinds of provisions - fresh produce, beer, etc.  It was well orchestrated so clearly not the first time it was done.

Nope they have this figured out.  They do this for a number of the cruise lines at the scheduled days in Strasbourg.  Ship pulls up and supplies the Rivera ship, then the AMA ship, then the viking ship....

[dd57]

1 minute ago, CastleCritic said:

Nope they have this figured out.  They do this for a number of the cruise lines at the scheduled days in Strasbourg.  Ship pulls up and supplies the Rivera ship, then the AMA ship, then the viking ship....

The other provisioning we saw was while the ship was in port and used hand trucks down the gangway ramps.  In those cases the crew would carry the crates up and down the stairs rather than using the handoff process.  The one I described above was in the middle of nowhere and we were the only ship there.  We did ask about it and got the impression that a delivery was missed earlier.

[CastleCritic]

10 minutes ago, dd57 said:

The other provisioning we saw was while the ship was in port and used hand trucks down the gangway ramps.  In those cases the crew would carry the crates up and down the stairs rather than using the handoff process.  The one I described above was in the middle of nowhere and we were the only ship there.  We did ask about it and got the impression that a delivery was missed earlier.

Im wracking my brain trying to remember any other logistics Ive seen

 

I want to say fuel barge in Vienna, I believe we saw some logistics on the seine but I cant remember where.

 

Definitely wasn't any visible done on my eastern Danube cruise but that kind of doesn't surprise me considering how few ships make that trip Im sure they filled up in Vienna or Budapest before the ship came to pick me up (in Budapest)

[Kristelle]

9 hours ago, sharkster77 said:

When we look at bus tours an important factor is 'how many one-night stays are there?'

 

If a tour has many of them, we look at other itineraries.  It's nice to be able to settle into a hotel room for 2 or more nights---one night stays seem like you just checked in and in no time at all you're getting your bags ready to be put out in the hall before breakfast!

yes agreed - bus tours you want to stay in some places 2 or 3 nights,

 

Same if we plan a self motoring holiday like we did of New Zealand

 

we have been on several land coach tours (UK, Ireland, Vietnam, China) and there weren't many one night stays on the itiniary

[Kristelle]

9 hours ago, pontac said:

 

But its nice and quiet on t boat for those remaining on board who skip to excursion. 😁

 

yes I guess it is and it is good that the program allows people to do that if the y want

 

its not for me though - my aim in holidaying is to go to places and do things not be 'nice and quiet'

[CPT Trips]

10 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

 

Wow!  I was exhausted after 5 days!  I would definitely need some down time in there, somewhere.  Where does 3 weeks take you?

Add one week and go one way, no backtracking from Amsterdam to the Black Sea. 
https://www.gct.com/trips/river-cruises/europe/grand-european-cruise/2021/itineraries

[pontac]

11 hours ago, Kristelle said:

its not for me though - my aim in holidaying is to go to places and do things not be 'nice and quiet'

 

Quite understandable, you're coming a long way.

 

These destinations are a lot closer to us, also we've sailed many of the routes before, and been on the excursions.

[island lady]

23 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

 

Wow!  I was exhausted after 5 days!  I would definitely need some down time in there, somewhere.  Where does 3 weeks take you?

 

We are on Viking Euro Sojourn.  Start in Bucharest and end in Amsterdam.  Indeed why I made sure it was not 21 days of forced march.  😉