1st timer river cruisers - Rhine or Danube???

[skitraveller]

We have decided to do a European river cruise in August 2010, we are totally confused now as to which river to cruise having read many reviews they seem to be of equal popularity. Our prime reason for this cruise is scenic & to introduce an older family member (based in Ireland) to cruising, our idea is to travel to Ireland for a few days, pick up my aunt & head over to the continent returning to Ireland post cruise. Due to the extra travel to Ireland we would like a 10 or 12 day sailing. We have been looking at Budapest to Vienna & Amsterdam to Basel as two options. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

[scapel]

We have decided to do a European river cruise in August 2010, we are totally confused now as to which river to cruise having read many reviews they seem to be of equal popularity. Our prime reason for this cruise is scenic & to introduce an older family member (based in Ireland) to cruising, our idea is to travel to Ireland for a few days, pick up my aunt & head over to the continent returning to Ireland post cruise. Due to the extra travel to Ireland we would like a 10 or 12 day sailing. We have been looking at Budapest to Vienna & Amsterdam to Basel as two options. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

 

We just did the Rhine Basel to Amsterdam on the Amadeus Symphony. Lots of walking in the citys. We have been on 37 ocean type cruises, but this was our first Rhine River Cruise. Probably would do the Danube next time, and probably pick an AMA Boat.

[skitraveller]

We just did the Rhine Basel to Amsterdam on the Amadeus Symphony. Lots of walking in the citys. We have been on 37 ocean type cruises, but this was our first Rhine River Cruise. Probably would do the Danube next time, and probably pick an AMA Boat.

 

Many thanks Joe, we are actually looking at the AMA Amalyra for August 2010 'The Enchanting Rhine' These boats do seem more lavish however the pricing is very good.

Thanks again for your response.

[earny]

We are leaving in 9 days for our first river cruise using uniworld. We are doing the 32 paris & grand european waterways. I will let you know wot I can when we get back.

March 08 on the dawn we also went did you go to see the land divers at pentecost ?

[gsanta]

Hi this is my first post but i have done both the Rhine and Danube and if I were you I would start with the Rhine it will be simplier and more enjoyable for the first river cruise

Have fun

[skitraveller]

Thanks Earny & gsanta. We have decided to do the Rhine actually. Just note sure who to go with though. Looking at a few including Viking. I like the Amsterdam to Basel one.

[skitraveller]

We are leaving in 9 days for our first river cruise using uniworld. We are doing the 32 paris & grand european waterways. I will let you know wot I can when we get back.

March 08 on the dawn we also went did you go to see the land divers at pentecost ?

 

Yes we did go to Pentecost, had a great day there with the villagers & watched the land diving. Keen to hear about your Uniworld sailing, have a great trip!

[PinkMEB]

Took Viking's Basel to Amsterdam 1 week cruise May 2008 and had a great time. Friendly staff, good food and nice tours. No complaints. Scenery was beautiful.

[frac]

Why not do both. Amsterdam or Antwerp to Vienna or Budapest or the reverse. The river cruises are generally 14 days and sail the Rhine, Main, and Danube. On GCT it is called the Great Rivers of Europe. All lines have similar itineraries.

[retiredslug]

If you're going to choose the Rhine River make sure your cruise also includes the Mosel River, a personal favorite. We've been on both the Mosel and Danube and each is spectacular.

 

Bill

[skitraveller]

Took Viking's Basel to Amsterdam 1 week cruise May 2008 and had a great time. Friendly staff, good food and nice tours. No complaints. Scenery was beautiful.

 

Thanks for your advice. The more we read about Viking the more we think it's for us.

[skitraveller]

Why not do both. Amsterdam or Antwerp to Vienna or Budapest or the reverse. The river cruises are generally 14 days and sail the Rhine, Main, and Danube. On GCT it is called the Great Rivers of Europe. All lines have similar itineraries.

 

Thanks Frac.....Viking has a 15 day Grand European Tour from Amsterdam to Budapest - sounds a lot like the one you mention.

[skitraveller]

If you're going to choose the Rhine River make sure your cruise also includes the Mosel River, a personal favorite. We've been on both the Mosel and Danube and each is spectacular.

 

Bill

 

I don't think the Viking one does.

[Bobblsc]

quote=skitraveller;20056727]We have decided to do a European river cruise in August 2010, we are totally confused now as to which river to cruise having read many reviews they seem to be of equal popularity. Our prime reason for this cruise is scenic & to introduce an older family member (based in Ireland) to cruising, our idea is to travel to Ireland for a few days, pick up my aunt & head over to the continent returning to Ireland post cruise. Due to the extra travel to Ireland we would like a 10 or 12 day sailing. We have been looking at Budapest to Vienna & Amsterdam to Basel as two options. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

 

Dear Aussies,

 

I am particularly intrigued that your occupation is "Blonde." (From your profile.) Our first river cruise was with Aussies as table mates. That was our best. We have since been on three others. Amsterdam to Basel, Bucharest to Budapest, and one in China. The one with our Aussie friends was Main River to Rhine River To Mosel River on the old KD line, now a part of Viking. That was by far the best. There were nice small towns on the Main, then the Rhine from it's confluence with the Main to it's confluence with the Mosel had the beautiful castles, etc. This is the part of the Rhine which is most beautiful. I know because we noted that on our later trip Amsterdam to Basel.

 

The Rhine only cruise, also KD, was OK, but the scenery along the southern portions is not great. The Danube we were on had interesting stops, but the only great scenery was during the " Iron Gates," Our Danube ship was Uniworld.

 

Obviously, my suggestion is for Main, Rhine, Mosel, if you can find one which fits your other requirements. Be sure you book a ship with good size cabins. Most have these now. Our first cruises were in very small cabins. Our Uniworld was in a cabin of about 155 square feet, equals about 15 square meters. This is almost the size of some ocean ship cabins.

 

Other posters may have more recent memories and be more accurate. They are welcome to correct me. Just be nice about it. :D

 

Hey, Dublin is great. The hop on, hop off bus is good, and a guided bus tour outside the city can be loads of fun.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Bob :cool:

[skitraveller]

G'day Bob,

 

Thanks for the info. We have decided to do the Grand European Tour with Viking (Legend) - August 8th 2010. Taking advantage of their 2 for 1 offer. In fact I am about to book it today.

 

Is there a better side of the ship to on in terms of cabin selection?

 

We know Dublin well, been there a few times, usually drive in & park near Temple Bar :D family is from & many still in Navan.

[Bobblsc]

G'day Bob,

 

Thanks for the info. We have decided to do the Grand European Tour with Viking (Legend) - August 8th 2010. Taking advantage of their 2 for 1 offer. In fact I am about to book it today.

 

Is there a better side of the ship to on in terms of cabin selection?

 

We know Dublin well, been there a few times, usually drive in & park near Temple Bar :D family is from & many still in Navan.

 

Well, maybe I didn't get to you fast enough. I tried to post late last night, but CC web site maintenance started. At least I have been told it is maintenance. After 2:00 am central time things slow to a near halt. I wish the IT nerds had the courtesy to let us know when the maintenance starts.

 

Your trip should be good. My memory is that most of the castles and small picturesque towns are on the east side of the Rhine. So going south the port side might be better. Going north the starboard side better. (You must know that facing forward, port is the left, and starboard the right. I used to be a sailboat sailor.) There is a poster named "Steamboats" from Germany who hopefully will chime in here and give you accurate information. I don't mean about port and starboard. These he cannot differ about. I mean about the sights along the rivers.

 

I don't know your start and finish cities, but if you start or stop at either Vienna or Budapest, try to spend a few nights. They are both great cities. In Budapest, however, watch the taxies. Many drivers will cheat you, given the opportunity.

 

Bob :cool:

[CAPinBoynton]

We have decided to do a European river cruise in August 2010, we are totally confused now as to which river to cruise having read many reviews they seem to be of equal popularity.

 

Deb, my husband and I just returned from our Danube cruise last month. We used AMA Waterways (Amadeus). We were on the Amalyra, and were very pleased with their service. Interestingly, I would guess that perhaps a third of the passengers were from Australia, but were not with a group and had not been acquainted previously.

 

I know that you said that you had read several reviews, but in case you are interested in one more, we have posted ours at www.thepreismans.com It has many, many pictures of the beauty you will visit along the Danube. Also on our website, is a review of our fabulous trip Down Under. We love your country. :) Enjoy,

[skitraveller]

G'day Carol,

 

Thank you soooo much! Although I have only read part of your reviews (I intend to read them all) I will say that not only do you write very well but they are the best I have ever read. Thank you so much for sharing what must have taken you a long time to compose. I for one am very grateful!

[p598738]

I would argue for the Danube. We enjoy going east from Budapest. Seeing the former satellites is very interesting. Hungary, Serbia. Croatia, Bulgaia and Romania !!!! West on the Danube is the Czeck Republic and Austria. Also interesting.

 

The Rhein is in Germany. I adore sailing to Amsterdam but have to pass time til I get there.

[CAPinBoynton]

G'day Carol,

 

Thank you soooo much! Although I have only read part of your reviews (I intend to read them all) I will say that not only do you write very well but they are the best I have ever read. Thank you so much for sharing what must have taken you a long time to compose. I for one am very grateful!

 

Thank you so much for such kind compliments, but I must give most of the writing credit to Mike. We travel through his eyes, I just polish. :)

[Bobblsc]

Deb, my husband and I just returned from our Danube cruise last month. We used AMA Waterways (Amadeus). We were on the Amalyra, and were very pleased with their service. Interestingly, I would guess that perhaps a third of the passengers were from Australia, but were not with a group and had not been acquainted previously.

 

I know that you said that you had read several reviews, but in case you are interested in one more, we have posted ours at www.thepreismans.com It has many, many pictures of the beauty you will visit along the Danube. Also on our website, is a review of our fabulous trip Down Under. We love your country. :) Enjoy,

 

Carol and Mike, I have so far only breezed through you review, and will have to get back to it for my full enjoyment.

 

Among other things, I noticed that your ship had several evenings of entertainment by local musicians. Our Uniworld of 2005 had none.

 

I will not write much at this time. ( Many will say "Thank you for that.") I want to post before the CC maintenance nerds get here. Your review nicely illustrates the value of a river cruise unattainable on an ocean cruise. There are many very beautiful and interesting places to visit in interior Europe.

 

I was not going to gave too much unwanted advise to the OP, but I cannot restrain myself. If you have time in Budapest, try to attend an opera or other performance in the State Opera House, pictured in the review. We enjoyed Don Carlos there in 2005. Check the web for the opera schedules. If you can go and if tickets are available, note this. We paid two dollars, yes $2.00, each. I was late in purchasing and these seats were the best remaining. But even though they were third row box, they were in the center, so we had good sight and sound. Tickets go fast there because of the inexpensive tickets. Be sure you book The State Opera House. There is another which is in a modern building some distance from there.

 

Carol, my DW will send you an e-mail. She wants to find out about your Humming Bird.

 

Bob :cool:

[Bobblsc]

Before Mike gets after me, it's advice, a noun, not advise, a verb. :rolleyes:

There, now I feel better. :D

 

Bob :cool:

[scapel]

Before Mike gets after me, it's advice, a noun, not advise, a verb. :rolleyes:

There, now I feel better. :D

 

Bob :cool:

Bob,

Mike & Carol always have good advice. I keep the link to their site just to check where they have been lately. I recently returned from a cruise on Amadeus Symphony. While doing some research trying to find out how the name came about and who actually owned the ship I received this very nice communication from AMA Waterways. I did not choose the Amadeus Symphony. It was chosen by a travel company that promotes school alumuni trips. The ship was very nice, but I would choose an AMA waterways ship next time. I like people that are passionate about what they do and Rudi seems to be.

He also spent some time in New Orleans so we both enjoy crawfish, the Saints and LSU.

Here is a copy of the communication.

Dear Mr Reynolds,

 

The Latin meaning of AMA = LOVE and DEUS = GOD.

 

AMADEUS was frequently used as a boy’s first name in Austria and Switzerland.

AMADEUS is a beautiful name and means LOVE OF GOD.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart made the name AMADEUS almost into a trademark.

 

In 1990, I opened a student travel company in Woodland Hills, California. Being Austrian and organizing tours to Europe it seemed appropriate to name my company Amadeus International Tours. Unfortunately, during the first Gulf War IN 1991, student travel was very limited and in 1992 I closed down the company and I started working for Uniworld. Uniworld was a small tour company which operated motorcoach tours through Yugoslavia and Easter Europe. Here, I designed and planned the first river cruise trips through the newly opened Rhine-Main-Danube Canal. In 1996, I contacted an Austrian company which operated old Romanian ships on the Danube (Dr Lueftner Reisen). I asked them if they would build a ship for Uniworld which Uniworld would lease for several years. They agreed to build a ship for us and I named that ship the MS AMADEUS. The ship started cruising for Uniworld in 1998. In 1999, the MS AMADEUS II was built (renamed later to MS AMADEUS RAPHSODY) and Uniworld started using this ship for the next several years. The ship owner, Dr. Lueftner, continued building more ships. The MS AMADESU CLASSIC was number three.

 

In 2000, I left Uniworld in Encino and I started up Viking River Cruises a few miles down the road in Woodland Hills. For two years, I was President of Viking River Cruises. In 2002, I left Viking River Crises and I started up AMADEUS WATERWAYS in Chatsworth, a few miles from Viking River Cruises. I always liked the name AMADEUS, and I thought again that it was appropriate to have a cruise line with ships in Central Europe with this name. I signed a charter agreement with Dr. Lueftner to build a new ship for our company and this ship was named the MS AMADEUS SYMPHONY. We chartered this ship for 4 years (2003/04/05/06) and then we started building our own ships. To have a very unique ship identity, I decided to name our own ships AMA plus a musical term – all in one word. The MS AMADAGIO was our first ship and the name is a combo of AMA and ADAGIO. Then came the AMALEGRO, the AMACELLO, the AMADANTE, the AMALYRA, the AMADOLCE and currently under construction is the AMABELLA. Dr. Lueftner also continued building more ships which he named AMDEUS ROYAL, AMADEUS PRINCESS, etc.

 

In 2003, I applied for the trademark AMADEUS in the USA. But it was blocked by the airline reservation system AMADEUS, which registered the name two years before I opened my company AMADEUS INTERNATIONAL TOURS. I finally gave up on the trademark AMADEUS and in 2007, I renamed our company AMAWATERWAYS (the Love of Waterways). Our ship names also all start with AMA. We have no longer trademark conflicts with the airline reservation system and we also distinguish our ships clearly from the ships of Dr. Lueftner.

 

I hope to have answered your question.

 

Warm Regards,

Rudi Schreiner

President

(800) 626-0126 (U.S. and Canada, toll free) | +1 (818) 428-6198 (direct dial) | (818) 772-7335 (fax)

rudi@amawaterways.com

[CAPinBoynton]

Joe,

 

Thanks for posting that. It was very informative, and a useful bit of info to store for future reference. Thanks.

 

Bobbisc,

 

Mike would not be the one to correct your grammar. I am the former teacher. :D

[MVPinBoynton]

Joe,

 

Mike would not be the one to correct your grammar. I am the former teacher. :D

 

Amen on that!! :D