Grand Circle Travel (Eastern Europe to the Black Sea 10-26 October 2006

[cv sailor]

Review In Brief

• Overall Impression: Excellent
  
• Program Directors: Superb (Young {late 20s to early 30s} who carried out their duties with aplomb and good humor
  
• Food & Beverage:
  • Ship Food: Very good to excellent (good variety served by competent wait staff who were both service oriented and funny)
    
  • Ashore Meals (GCT provided): Excellent to low average
    
  • Wine with Meals: Low average wine served in copious quantities
    
  • Bar Service: Good to low average, head bartender, at times, seemed to have interests other than customer service; mixed drinks pretty pedestrian

  [*]Accommodations

  • Ship: Excellent staterooms: Spacious and well appointed (we opted for the least costly stateroom and were well pleased)
    
  • Ship public areas: Well-designed, luxury spaces
    
  • Hotels: (Expect hard beds in all of the Balkans and Easter Europe)
    • Bucharest: Above average, quite near to parks and museums)
      
    • Sanaia: Average with swimming pool; barking dogs made sleeping difficult
      
    • Budapest: Excellent hotel located 20/30 minutes from city center serviced by shuttle bus

  [*]Itinerary / Cruise Mission Accomplishment (Bucharest to Budapest with the Transylvania extension)

  • Low water caused us to miss Constanta and use a bus for the final leg into Budapest
    
  • GCT kept us informed and adapted well by converting extra cost excursions into no cost options
    
  • River scenery: Not very grand (e.g., few towns and scenic glories / this not a castles on the Rhine adventure)

  [*]Passenger Demographics:

  • Average age near 70 (Oldest 94 witty and spry)
    
  • Mostly well traveled
    
  • Most lucid and mobile (some required prodding to conform to timeliness standards)

  [*]High Points:

  • Bucharest: Village Museum (outdoor venue featuring homes and outbuildings from various areas of Romania)
    
  • Transylvania: Very interesting and scenic
    
  • Home hosted lunches (Croatia [Osijek included] and Hungary [Holloko optional])
    
  • Candid discussions of Eastern Europe life and attitudes provide by the three program directors
    
  • Sventendre (St. Andrew in English): Near Budapest picturesque village with excellent shopping
    
  • Holloko: World heritage site about an hour’s travel from Budapest

  [*]Low Points

  • Fellow passengers who asked far too many useless questions (i.e., dominated the dialogue and distracted the tour guides), late arrivers, public-complainers who took issue with factors clearly stated in literature provided by GCT. (Very small population mostly guilty of the faults cited above)
    
  • Hungary (Well intentioned but overly verbose tour guides)
    
  • Budapest diamond shop stop en route Sventendre (a time waste for many)
    
  • Too little time in Sventendre and Holloko

· Caution:

• • Those considering this river cruise should take into account GCT’s comment concerning physical demands. Cobblestone streets, uneven pavements, and moderate hill climbing may affect those with impaired mobility

[katybird]

Thanks for the review. I like the way it was written. Very easy to read and specific giving many details in a concise manner.

[lobsterlover]

I just did this trip Oct. 1-21 in reverse with both pre and post trips. Your very good review appears to equal my feelings. Before I went I was concerned because of all the hits GCT has taken on this board. I think they provided an excellent adventure. My disappointment was the hotel choice in Sinaia where the local dogs did indeed bark all night long. Our home hosted visits were excellent experiences and our visit at a school in Croatia was heart warming. Our local tour guide in Transylvania, although well meaning, was verbose to the extreme. We had no problem going all the way to the Black Sea, which was on Oct. 16. Guess we got lucky.....that's the way it is with riverboat trips.

L.L.

[gerena]

Could you give me information as to Fall color on the October tour?

 

Thanks,

Rena

[lobsterlover]

I live in the area of upstate NY near four outstanding mountain ranges. The color here is spectacular in October......I didn't see the calendar picture color you are hoping for on this trip........but did see some color. Transylvania region was very pretty and interesting. In the other areas the architecture was more interesting than the foliage. There were plenty of flowers still blooming. Extension to Prague was great as it is a beautiful city, and also the same for Budapest. Loved the extra side tour to Holloko with the home hosted visit.

Hope this helps.

L.L.

[gerena]

Dear LL

 

Yes, upstate NY is awesome in the Fall as is Massachusetts, VErmont, New Hampshire, etc. Indiana is too, for that matter in the southern part. Just thought I would check in to it though. When we were in China in the fall of 2002, it was very nice around the Great Wall.

 

I booked the cruise this morning, although we are going with Vantage--there were some things I liked about it better. Yes we are doing the Budapest and the Translyvania extensions. Depart Indianapolis on Oct. 3. Did some reading on it last night and getting excited.

 

Oh yes, I had read your very extensive and detailed report on the river cruise. Thank you so much. We have never been on one before, but all the reports on this website are very encouraging, so I'm sure we will enjoy it. We have driven through Budapest, but now we will "see" Budapest.

 

Rena