getting from Nuremberg to either Frankfurt or Munich

Hi

Am in the process of booking a Uniworld European Holiday cruise, Dec 1 sailing from Vienna to Nuremberg. on the River Countess. Was planning to fly American from LAX (points thing & prefer their air plane seat configuration (777) for going across the Atlantic), but they don't fly to Nuremberg and guess neither do any of their One World partners because it doesn't allow me to book it in their system. Going into Vienna is no problem, it's my return. I am looking at other airports in the area and frankly I need HELP!!!! Maybe one of you veteran CC river cruisers can help me figure out a smooth, fairly simple way. We don't mind taking the train, but with all the luggage and hopefully the goodies I buy at all the Christmas markets along the way we will have 2 big pieces of luggage + our carry-ons. I am concerned about getting all the pieces on the train and storing them during the train ride.

Does anyone out there know how far the river cruise dock is from the train station?

Also, if I book my flights through a online travel company, like Expedia, Orbitz, etc. do I still earn my airlines frequent flyer points?

Any help at all is very much appreciated.

missbsmom

missbsmom,

Actually Nürnberg (NUE) has pretty many connections to Frankfurt or Munich. But all are served by Lufthansa. As Nürnberg is more or less in the middle between Frankfurt and Munich the flight time would be app. 45-55 min.

Frankfurt is the largest airport in Germany, Munich the second largest. Munich has one daily flight to LAX but this is also by Lufthansa. Frankfurt has two daily flights to LAX also served by Lufthansa.

As AA is no StarAlliance partner (only US and UA) you won´t be able to use this connection with your points.

London (Stansted) is only served by the German airline Air Berlin out of Nürnberg. So this doesn´t help either. Vienna is also ony served by Air Berlin.

I found some connections to Madrid which are code sharing between Lufthansa and Iberia (Iberia is a One World partner). But actually Iberia wouldn´t be my first choice.

As going by train this will get you to Frankfurt or Munich only. Both are about a 1 hour train ride with the high speed train. As the landing in Nürnberg is located in the industrial harbor you will need a taxi to the train station or the airport anyway. The train station is closer to the ship landing. Trains are going every hour.

So all in all there´s not much difference between going by train or plane either to Munich or Frankfurt. If you want to spend some days post cruise then I´d suggest to take the train to Munich and stay there. If you want to fly back home more or less directly then take a train to Frankfurt as there is a train station right at the airport served by the high speed trains.

As for booking with Expedia/Orbiz sure you can get your airline points. If they don´t ask for your FF number then just present your card at check-in.

steamboats

Thanks Steamboats,

I am considering the train. If I go via Munich does the train I take go to the airport or do I have to transfer? It sounds like if I go via Frankfurt I wouldn't, is that correct.

I have looked at the train web site and am a little confused as to which fare I should buy?

Should a reserve a seat in advance or just wait and buy my ticket when I get to the station?

Missbsmom

On the Orbitz web site there is a place to enter all of your frequent flyer numbers.I use them frequently and my numbers are a part of my records on my Orbitz account.I've never had any problem getting credit but if you do you can always contact the airline after you get home,give them the flight info and you will get credit.

Missbsmom,

In Munich the train is ending at the central station. There you have to take a suburban train to the airport which is actually outside of the city. It´s an 45 min train ride in the suburban train.

Frankfurt has an underground ICE (high speed train) station directly at the airport at Terminal 1. So if you want to fly back home right after the cruise I´d suggest Frankfurt. The train station is called:

Frankfurt(M) Flughafen Fernbf

on the http://www.bahn.de website. For Nürnberg choose Nürnberg Hauptbahnhof.

It´s says 51 EUR per person (2nd class) plus 2 EUR for a seat reservation.

The train ticket is valid for every ICE train. For a seat reservation you have to choose a certain train. So in case this chosen train is late, cancelled or you miss it you are losing your reservation (but you can take any other train using your ticket). If you know for sure you can catch a certain train then make a reservation. As the trains are running frequently between Nürnberg and Frankfurt you usually should find a seat without reservation.

Forget about the "BahnCard" option and choose "continue without BahnCard".

If you opt not to make a reservation you can always buy the ticket at the train station. With a reservation I´d suggest to buy the ticket online.

steamboats

Steamboats,

thanks again for the additional info. Upon further research I think taking the train from Nuremberg to the Frankfurt airport terminal will be our best choose. Do you have any idea where the river cruises dock (Uniworld) in Nuremberg and how far it is to the train station ?

Missbsmom

We just got back from a Viking cruise and flew American from DFW to Frankfort and then took the train from the airport to Nuremberg. Not much of a problem...we also chose the ICE train, bought second class tickets and did make seat reservations. The only trick is that the train was scheduled to arrive at the airport train station at 12:34PM and depart at 12:37PM and it absolutely operated with Teutonic precision!

We had to hustle to get on the car. Now since we had seat reservations, we had to pay attention to which car our seats were on, and each car has a nixi display on the side that corresponds to the "cart" number printed on your reservation. The website is fairly easy to navigate. And you can buy the seat reservation (without buying a ticket) first , and then buy the ticket.

It worked for us perfectly until we got to Nuremberg...we were traveling with another couple and so had a lot of bags...had to negotiate with the line of cabs in order to get a van, and then the fun began. When we got to the port in Nuremberg, there were 5 Viking ships berthed; the berths were on both sides of the canal, and the berths were separated by the highway bridge. So there was a lot of driving around trying to find the correct ship.

To make matters worse, our driver spoke no English and we spoke no German. He finally turned the meter off while he tried to navigate to the correct Viking ship. He had a cell phone and we showed him the phone number of the ship, but he somehow didn't want to call. He finally stopped and asked a fellow cabbie and we got there. The fare was 20 euros, but in the interest of better international relations, we gave him a 5 euro tip.

Now of course, you will be going to the airport, but Viking will happily call you a cab and I am sure that they will ensure that the cab gets to the correct berth in order to pick you up.

Missbsmom,

The ships dock at the Canal (for google maps insert Nürnberg, Hafenstrasse - you will see a blue deck of a river cruise ship, ships are docking on both sides of the bridge). It´s about 15 min by car to the train station. You will need a cab anyway.

Be at the train station early, let´s say 30 min. So you have enough time to find the track. On the platform you will also find information boards showing all trains stopping at this platform and showing the numbers of the car. Your seat reservation will have the number of the car and the seat on it. So compare with the board. Platforms are signed with A, B, C sections. So check in which section your car is located. Then it´ll be easier to board the train and find your seat.

steamboats