Scenic Eleven Days Gems of the Danube with Prague

I am trying to find out the timing that Scenic gets there passengers transferred to the ship in Nuremberg from Prague. As we are to do our touring on Tuesday in Nuremberg which is closed on Tuesday. Will try to get to the courthouse before it closes on Monday the day of our transfer. We have to be in the courthouse by 5 pm and exit by 6 pm. Anyone out there that is able to answer I would appreciate it.

I can only speak from experience with Uniworld, but chances are most cruise companies will have similar timetables.

Assuming there will be passengers at the end of their cruise in Nuremberg being bussed to Prague to continue their itinerary... the bus will unload those passengers and then reload with you and your travel mates and then drive back to Germany.

With Uniworld we departed Prague around 1 in the afternoon with one pit stop just before driving into Germany. Ther trip was between 3 and 4 hours, depending on the traffic and how long the pit stop is. We have done this route twice and the first time it was closer to 4 hours and the second time closer to 3 1/2 hours.

It is advisable to pack a snack and beverage to take with you from Prague, rather than standing in line with people from upwards of 6 busses at a Mickey D's or glorified gas station. Also make sure you have some tissues in your pocket for the loo.:)

RB

Does your itinerary say that lunch is included that day?

If not, you will have to find lunch on your own and it's most likely that the bus will leave Prague after lunch. The tour operator will not want to travel with a bunch of hungry people asking, "When's lunch?"

Boarding for our ship was after 3:00 p.m This could well be the case with you.

IMO, if it is really important to visit the courtroom,

1. Entrust your luggage to Scenic.

2. Leave Prague early on a public bus. Lots of information about this on

TripAdvisor. Relatively cheap fare.

3. From bus station, take a taxi to the courtroom.

4. When done, take a taxi to the cruise ship dock.

The part I don't understand is why Scenic does not have some general idea on how the transfers for that date might work. Maybe I will try again and see if I can get someone different. I might also have my travel agent work on it. I never thought that they might use a morning to transport people whom might be ending in Prague. NancyEvans what you mention could be an alternative. At least I will have a couple days in Prague prior for them to help with arrangements and perhaps as comments have seen that they are very willing to help. This is our first river cruise but have travel Europe so could easily get down to Nuremberg on our own. But If I knew we could make it by 3 PM with Scenic we still could do it.

Scenic does seem to make things a big difficult. We did our own transfer from Prague to Nuremberg. Initially I asked Scenic if we could buy a transfer from them and the answer was no. I them asked if they would transfer our suitcases for us and that was a no, which I understood as we were not traveling with them as we booked Prague on our own. What I did find odd was that when we stayed for the night in Nuremberg at a Scenic sponsored hotel, I asked if they would just take our suitcases to the ship so we could stay in Nuremberg until around the 4pm board time. We would have taken a cab to the ship but the answer was that they could not do that due to security reasons so we had to stay with our luggage. We were transferred from our hotel at noon, which just seemed too early for me as we could have spend a lot more time in Nuremberg. I have since read that people on other cruises were able to do this but the "official word" from Scenic was no.

The part I don't understand is why Scenic does not have some general idea on how the transfers for that date might work. Maybe I will try again and see if I can get someone different. I might also have my travel agent work on it. I never thought that they might use a morning to transport people whom might be ending in Prague. NancyEvans what you mention could be an alternative. At least I will have a couple days in Prague prior for them to help with arrangements and perhaps as comments have seen that they are very willing to help. This is our first river cruise but have travel Europe so could easily get down to Nuremberg on our own. But If I knew we could make it by 3 PM with Scenic we still could do it.

You will not have enough time to see the courthouse and displays if you hope to get there using the transfer bus from Prague to your ship and then cab it.

Also, the courthouse is still being used for day to day events, so you never know if you will be able to get into room (600?) until you get there. The displays are very well laid out, many things to see and read, so give yourself enough time.

This is giving me thought on how I might want to rethink what we do. I do know we are also taking a chance to visit the courtroom 600 but do know that there is plenty to see on the top floor. I can some what understand about the luggage and travel with it but was hoping the bus would get us to the ship in time to just drop the luggage and get to the courthouse by taxi. One would think they would work harder to make ones trips special and have a return client. Really do not understand if staying at a Scenic hotel they could not hold your luggage and transport you when you were ready. I will keep working on this and post when I have a definite plan so if anyone needs to know info.It is the small things that make the trip special.

If you do arrive by 3, plan on making your own taxi arrangements to the courthouse . Scenic staff will be busy signing in everyone from your bus and any other arrivals . They are unlikely to have time to call a taxi for you. Also it might take some time for the taxi to arrive since the cruise ship dock is outside of town. Have you looked at the city of Nuremberg website? There is a section on how to get to the city with information on arriving by cruise ship and on taxi service.

Not sure if this is consistent with every tour but our buses did not leave Prague much before 12:30 pm, arriving in Nuremburg between 4:30 and 5pm. The welcome with cold hand towels, drinks and a rose for the ladies were a nice touch. The dock is on the outskirts of the city. We had a half hour break along the road at a MacDonalds. Upon arrival we had only a few minutes before a dinner buffet and then it was upstairs for a welcome drink and briefing of what the next few days would hold. I would say if you have an afternoon tour in mind you would be best to get to the city and dock on your own.

What is included in the tours for the next day in Nuremberg?. Perhaps the courthouse is part of the tour? or and optional tour? It was an option with Uniworld, although you did not really have enough time to do the displays justice. (punny?)

We were in Nuremberg on our own a number of years ago and spent many hours reading the displays and watching the videos, so rushing to get there for an hour would really be wasted.

Public transit from the docking area would involve a couple of transfers, and a cab ride about 20 minutes with no traffic.

RB

With Scenic one has a choice of tours. The first couple of days are decided and submitted prior to the cruise and the balance are chosen within the first 24 hours onboard. So I imagine 515Kitty already knows what she is doing for the full day in Nuremberg. We did a walking tour of the old town ending with a taste of local specialties in a gasthaus. The other tour was one of World War II sites and documentation centre but I am not sure what was shown. These tours were in the morning and Scenic did use their buses to transport people back to the downtown for an optional afternoon at leisure. The last bus pick-up for return was at 4 pm. Also at 4:00 pm we had an on board Bavarian music & dance performance so sailaway was not until 4:45pm allowing performers to disembark. Each night at 6pm was a daily port talk and cruise overview. This evening was also the Captain's welcome gala at 6:45pm. Just an added note on meals, if you are interested. Scenic scores high marks on presentation but in my opinion this can take away from substance. So don't be hesitant to order all courses. They are small tasty morsels. Also, ask for a double amount when ordering if you desire as they will accommodate. Not sure all Scenic cruises are the same but we suffered, I believable from a lack of staff and had too many tables between them. They were all terrific but when the entire dining room is served one course at a time, it makes for a 2 hour diner. Wines are all complimentary but can be slow between pours. Servers bring around a suggestion for a particular wine to compliment the meal. Should you want something else they will have no problem finding that for you. Hope some of this information helps in planning.

FYI I have been working on details to get this done. With the help of Funexploring got a general time frame and just don't think we are going to depend on Scenic to get us to Nuremberg on time. Now I also called back and they did dance around time frame and basically said to wait till I get to Prague and make arrangements. I don't feel comfortable not having a plan in hand. So have now contacted my TA and have here working on it and she has come up with a couple of options. I think we will doing a private transfer earlier on Monday from Prague with a stop in Kalvary Vary of which I really wanted to go back to early lunch and get into Nuremberg early afternoon which will give me plenty of time to do the courthouse and get to the ship. Just have to work out luggage arrangements and I think it will work. Love the info from everyone and have my fingers crossed.

This will be our first cruise so I'm hunting for any and all information to help make it great.

I've read the First Timers Forums and have gleaned helpful information there.

We're thinking about trying to work out a jaunt to Berchtesgaden from Salzburg instead of staying in Salzburg for the "Sound of Music" tour. Can anyone advise about how much time is alloted for the Salzburg excursion?

we're doing Prague to Budapest on Emerald, a new subsidiary of Scenic. Our optional tour to Salzburg is 9 hours. Emerald uses the same tour guides as Scenic .

dabear... How was your cruise on Emerald?

dabear... How was your cruise on Emerald?

We enjoyed it. I wrote a review under Emerald Sun on CC. I believe it offered more than Viking, bigger cabin, had a swimming pool , tips included, tours fine, service could not have been better, all at a price less than Viking.