Grand Circle M/S River Adagio, 7/24/07

[joek]

Eastern Europe to the Black Sea

 

We're on this cruise, we leave on 7/19 for a pre-cruise stay in Prague and return 8/6 after a post-cruise extension in Transylvania.

[joek]

No posts yet. I guess Grand Circle travelers aren't CruiseCritics. Their loss.

[Carhut]

Sorry you haven't had any responses. I took this trip a couple of years ago and it's been talked about and have posted pictures further down on the theards. Is there something you want to know? Ask. Or are you just hoping to find some fellow cruisers?

Carole

[lobsterlover]

You should really enjoy this trip. Did it last Oct. and thoroughly enjoyed it. Found Prague to be beautiful and easy to get around. Also found the countryside of Transylvania to be very scenic. I find most people who do GCT don't write on the boards unless they have a gripe.Unfortunate. I've always found their trips to be excellent and the tour directors well prepared. Have a wonderful time. This Sept/Oct. doing China & the Yangtze River and looking forward to it with great anticipation.

 

LL

[joek]

Thanks, lobsterlover and Carhut.

 

Just checking to see if any CruiseCritics will be going. Your pictures are great, Carole. We've been on two GCT cruises and one Gate 1 and thoroughly enjoyed them.

[p598738]

Took GCT River Aria Budapest to Bucharest in July 2005. My wife thought it was our best trip ever. I thought it was great ! We took neither extension and are sorry we didn't go to Transylvania. You will have a wonderful time. I think we are pretty well traveled and qualified to comment. Post or email any questions.

[gerena]

You should really enjoy this trip. Did it last Oct. and thoroughly enjoyed it. Found Prague to be beautiful and easy to get around. Also found the countryside of Transylvania to be very scenic. I find most people who do GCT don't write on the boards unless they have a gripe.Unfortunate. I've always found their trips to be excellent and the tour directors well prepared. Have a wonderful time. This Sept/Oct. doing China & the Yangtze River and looking forward to it with great anticipation.

 

LL

We are considering going on the Vantage Black Sea tour--basically as the GCT in October. Is this a good time to go. Is the Fall color beautiful. We would take the October 6 cruise with the extensions in Transylvania and Budapest. We would like to see fall color.

 

Rena

[joek]

Rena,

I haven't seen many comments on the Danube fall colors in the River Cruise forums, but there has to be some color if there are hardwood trees. Even searching in Google doesn't bring up many links. The extension in Transylvania might provide some in the higher terrains.

 

This web site covers a tour:

 

http://www.visit-transylvania.us/special%20interest/senior-travel-transylvania-romania.html

 

We leave July 19th so we'll just hope for pleasant weather.

 

Esther and Joe

[Capt. & Teach]

No posts yet. I guess Grand Circle travelers aren't CruiseCritics. Their loss.

We are taking a Grand Circle trip on the 18th of July from Bucharest to Amsterdam on the M/s Bizet. We also have had no responce from Grand Cirlce travelers. As you say it is their loss. We have met several really nice people on this site and they have made our cruises just that more enjoyable.

Hope you have a wonderful trip.

Capt. and Teach

[joek]

Capt. & Teach,

 

We'll watch for the Bizet. Our schedule is as follows:

 

Leave Florida 7/19

Pre-cruise

Prague 7/20 - 7/22

Budapest 7/23 - 7/24

Board MS Adagio 7/25

Budapest 7/25 - 7/26

Vukovar 7/27

Belgrade 7/28

Iron Gates 7/29

Ruse 7/30

Constanta 7/31

Disembark MS Adagio 8/1

Post-cruise

Sinai 8/1 - 8/3

Bucharest 8/4 - 8/5

Depart 8/6

[joek]

Just posting to bring this up to the top, hoping that someone may be joining us.

[tycats]

Hi I saw your post when I was looking for reviews on this same trip. You must have already made this trip by now and I wondered how you enjoyed it. We are leaving October 18th 2007 to start the pre-trip to Romania and Transylvania and then joining the Danube cruise on the Adagio. All with GCT. We did their trip to Egypt last year on the Nile Stephanie. It was a fabulous cruise and the ship was fantastic. The cabins were huge with full size bathrooms and cabins like a small hotel room. This was just a regular cabin. I am sure that the Adagio will not be quite as splendid. Look forward to your comments on the trip

Thanks,Tycats

[joek]

tycats, I posted a review back in August. Here it is.

 

Grand Circle Eastern Europe to the Black Sea

 

We just returned from the July 19th to August 6th trip which included the pre-cruise Prague and post-cruise Transylvania extensions. The entire trip was fantastic, the hotels, the ship, the ships staff of 40, the food, and especially the 4 tour directors, Erika, Lorin, Kate and Miklos. Weather was clear….but HOT!!!

 

There were 73 on the pre-cruise part and we were divided into 2 groups and remained in those groups with the same 2 tour directors for the entire trip. When we boarded the ship, there were 80 more divided into 2 more groups, each with a tour director. On the post-cruise there were 32 from all of the groups with just one of our directors.

 

We were a little disappointed in Prague because we had read so much about the city being so beautiful. It was, but many buildings needed refurbishing and cleaning and while some streets had nice trees and flowers, some were drab. There is a lot to do and see there, the public transportation was easy and convenient, subway stop 1 block from hotel. The Hotel Don Giovanni was fine, rooms larger than the Europe norm, breakfast buffet was big. Hotel food prices for lunch and dinner are high as usual, but the directors told us where to get more reasonable meals. The local guides for the tours were excellent, extremely knowledgeable, with good English. There are many things to do on your own.

 

The pre cruise included 2 nights in Budapest and the bus trip from Prague took about 8 hours, with 2 pit stops, and lunch in Bratislava. The Best Western Budapest was also very nice, again with a large breakfast. Gotta warn you, if you’re used to high fiber cereals, bring your own, they have corn flakes, chocopops(?), maybe cheerios, always eggs and bacon, cheese, fruit. We had been to Budapest for a day on prior bus trips, but we got to see much more in depth.

 

We boarded the MS River Adagio in mid-afternoon and had free time until the welcome drink where we met the ship’s staff. All spoke English, some very well, Hotel Manager Ivan was witty and was always available to answer questions and offer advice about the ports. The ship is great, built in 2004, I think, 150 SF rooms seemed much roomier than expected, with adequate closet and drawer space. The area under the couch/beds was just an inch less than our bags height so we fit them into the closet below our clothes. Unfortunately no refrigerator, so I had to resort to getting wine and beer from the bar for our Attitude Adjustment hour before dinner. Red & white wine and beer is served at dinner.

 

The food was extraordinary, beautifully presented and served efficiently. Choice of fish, meat or vegetarian. We watch our salt intake but the food on board was not too salty. Dining Room Manager told us that salt free meals could be arranged if needed. They did have food particular to the countries we visited, such as goulash and soups, and we found them tasty. Absolutely no complaints.

 

The 7 day cruise was great, busy every day, early departures (8:30 or 9:00). The only sailing day was through the Iron Gates locks. I must warn you shoppers…..not much time is given for that on the tours. There isn’t much free time, but I saw that a few people dropped off some of the walking tours. There was a port talk every evening before dinner, giving the times and scope for the next day. There was entertainment from local performers on a few evenings after dinner, and a ship’s crew show which was quite good.

 

The post-cruise extension started in Bucharest, after a 2-3 hour train ride from Constanta, we transferred to a bus for a 2-3 hour ride to Sinaia. Hotel New Montana is quite new, large rooms. Sinaia is a small town with just a few shops. If you don’t take the optional tours there is little to do with the free time. The optional tour of Bran Castle is excellent, lots of stairs, lots of tour groups. The included Peles Castle tour was wonderful, it is one of the most beautiful homes that we’ve seen.

 

The bus transfer to Bucharest was 2-3 hours and we had a bus tour of the city. We were then taken to the Sofitel Bucharest for check-in at 1:00PM. This is about the only complaint we had. The hotel is located about 5 miles from city center, and although there were bus and trams passing by, the tour director advised against using them…something about reliability. The best way was by taxi (about $6-7). Bucharest is a nice city, lots of things to see and do. We feel that we could have been left in the city center for lunch and free time, and then taken to the hotel around 4:00PM.

[TIMAS]

We just did the Burgundy & Provence on July 30, 2007. It is an excellent cruise except the M/S Chardonay is listed in their information as going into service in 2000. That is true except the ship (tub) was built in 1956. We spent an entire week in France in August with no air-conditioning. The system is filled with mold and can be very dangerous.

The three previous occupants of our cabin registered the same complaint. GCT did nothing for us except to put two small fans in the cabin. We were on the top deck, but France has a lot of bugs and mesquitos on the river.

[tycats]

Thanks for the review Joek, its always good to hear from people who have already done the trip. Good information about the Bucharest Sofitel That's quite a way out of the city to conveniently do some sightseeing. Weird that your guide advised against taking public transportation. We will have to see how we can work around that problem. Glad to hear that the food on the Adagio was very good. We have found that GCT usually does a great job overall and most people seem very happy with their vacation. If you think of any other info we may find useful, please post.

 

Thanks again,

Tycats

[Gunman]

Joek:

Thanks for your review. My wife and I are taking the reverse cruise, Bucharest to Budapest, in April. I only traveled with GCT once before and that was well done. The hotels in both Budapest and Bucharest have recently changed to Ramadas, and in Buda is right on the river. We are staying in Budapest an additional four days, and will stay at the same hotel.