Review: Tui Melodia “Elegant Danube” Cruise and tour Sept 16-30, 2013

Tui Melodia “Elegant Danube” Cruise and tour Sept 16-30, 2013

We just returned from our Danube cruise and tour . We would highly recommend this tour. We had a great itinerary, great tour guides and we really enjoyed the Tui Melodia, a new ship built in 2011.

Tui generally only advertises in Germany and caters to German tourists, but YMT Vacations (a US company) charters the ship for tours in April and September for Canadian and American travellers. All the crew on board the Melodia speak very good English (except the Captain – but he always had a big smile).

I am writing this review because it was very difficult to find anything about this ship or Itinerary on-line. Just wanted to share our great experience!

THE ITINERARY

• PRE-CRUISE: Fly to Munich, then land tour to Neuschwanstein Castle, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Nuremburg, Prague and then on to Passau.

All hotels and tour guides were great –breakfast and city tours were included.

One of everyone’s favourite places was Rothenburg (search Google images). This was a beautifully preserved medieval town and we stayed in an old brewery, Altes Brauhaus – just like something out of a Bavarian story book …and great Christmas stores.

• CRUISE: Round trip from Passau to Budapest and back to Passau. We really liked this itinerary as we got to see some of the scenery twice. The stops on this 7 day cruise were: Melk, Vienna, Esztergom, Budapest, Bratislava, and Linz (with optional Salzburg tour).

• POST- CRUISE: Back to Munich for Oktoberfest Lunch.

Tui Melodia Stats and info: http://www.kd-cy.com/Portals/0/Documents/Melodia/VesselPortrait_English.pdf

Pros:

• The ship was beautiful - New and modern. The crew spoke English and were incredibly helpful. Service was fantastic. There were only 176 passengers and we liked that we got to know the CD, program director, waiters and reception personnel quite well -Could never do this on an ocean cruise.

• Big staterooms and showers. Lots of storage (more than any ocean cruise ship we have been on) Loved the French balconies – they turned your whole room into a balcony. And many times it was too cool to be sitting on a balcony, so then we were glad we had a bigger room (no balcony take up space) and the floor to ceiling windows to look out.

• Very comfortable beds and bedding

• The food: Breakfast buffet was quite extensive with an omelet/egg station. Lunch was a soup, salad, cold cut buffet with a fresh pasta station AND then 2 entrée choices and a dessert that were ordered from a menu. Tea-time in the lounge with coffee/teas and cake buffet. Dinner was a set-time table service (7pm). Usually 2 appetizer choices, a soup and 3 dinner choices. All food was beautifully presented and very tasty -Very good to excellent. There was a late night snack buffet at 11pm.

• Second Helpings ;): One thing we really liked was that after dinner, the waiters brought around trays of food and served second helpings. If you were still hungry, there were seconds, or if you would like to try the other entrée, you could have a helping for a taste. Great idea and I am sure this cut down on waste in the kitchen (plate a moderate size helping and then offer people more if they want it).

• The itinerary, tours and guides. On the European-marketed cruise ships tours are all optional so this is what we got as well. This worked out OK as we could pick and choose which tours we wanted to go on. The cheaper overall trip price reflected this. We really liked all the tours and guides, and each tour did include the individual “whisperers” audio boxes. Tour prices were quite reasonable and competitive (unlike some of the ocean cruise tours). You could sign up ahead of time or on the ship. …or you could book your own private tours.

• On the land tour, all tours were included. There was a great balance of bus time vs. city and walking time.

• Local folk artists were brought on board in Esztergom and sailed to Budapest with us. These women embroidered shirts and painted eggs and sold their wares at a very inexpensive price (much better prices than the market in Budapest).

• The Cruise Director - Tania was a real pro –friendly, polished and always had a smile and helpful advice. She was always available to everyone and her PA commentaries while we were sailing were interesting and informative.

• Had great Flights with Lufthansa Airlines: meals, wine, and baggage, headsets were all included in the flight.

Cons: These issues were of minor consequence to us, but thought I would point them out

• There really was very little to complain about, but coffee seemed to be the only one we heard about. Coffee was not hot and was late arriving after meals. Many people went up to the stations and helped themselves if they wanted coffee with their meals (meals at dinner seemed to be planned to the minute and were not very flexible).

• Live Entertainment on the ship was pretty much non-existent. In Budapest a local band came on board (pop music not folk music) and they were very well received, but the other nights there was just our disc jockey Sven (who was lots of fun). But poor Sven was the yoga teacher, art teacher, and whatever else was needed. He was a great sport.

• Internet was inconsistent on the ship. We had a hard time connecting when we were in Slovakia or Hungary. Austria was OK. Good thing was that the price was only 15 euros for the week, so it was worth it to get some some service.

• Wine was not included with dinner, but was a very reasonable price. (2.20 Euros for a small glass and 4.50 euros for a large glass)

High Water on the Danube:

Also, I should mention that the first day of our cruise, we did not board in Passau. The water levels were too high for a bridge and and also there was a backlog of boats in Passau, so our bus took us about 30 km downstream to a convenient dock to board the ship. We were only 45 min. or so late to get on the ship and the ship would be able to stay on schedule. We had no other issues with bridges and high water, but we did notice that the water was into the shrubbery on the banks.

Thanks for this great (and succinct!) review. TUI is an unfamiliar name, but this itinerary looks very interesting.

Because I know it is very difficult to find info or reviews on the YMT Vacations charter cruise on the Danube, I am posting a photo journal of our cruise ship. Hope you enjoy the photos.

The TUI MELODIA

Our Captain - the circular area is the skylight over the contral staircase.

Sunrise in Melk

Main Lobby and Saircase - no fancy chandelier, but the skylight was very nice.

Reception

The dining room was at the back of the ship with a split level plan (an adjoining upper and a lower dining room)

The upper level dining room

The upper level buffet area (for breakfast and lunch soup/salad)

The lower dining room breakfast buffet. There were great wrap-around views from this dining room.

The Lounge - at the bow (great views here also when it is cool, rainy or windy on the top deck)

Lounge Bar Area

Very nice !!!

Wow! Thank you for taking the time to post your review and the great pictures! Look forward to more pictures of your trip...

Here is a menu sample and some of the food.

We started with this (not on the menu but was delicious) - Bacon Wrapped Apricot.

Chicken liver Pate

White Tomato Soup with Basil Foam

Black Currant Sorbet with mango

Duck

Dessert: Trilogy of Strawberries

Beetroot Carpaccio and Horseradish Mousse

Fillet of Cod

Dessert: Chocolate Raspberry Chili Cake with Eggnog Foam (the red strands are the "chilies" They tasted like paprika.

A dinner from one other evening - lamb two ways(delicious!)

Great job thanks ..

Wonderful review! Thanks so much.

What was the time for dinner?

The food looks very good, and cabins are as nice as those on AMA. Wouldn't like the lack of good internet though.

Wonderful review! Thanks so much.

 

What was the time for dinner?

Dinner was at 7pm every night except the night we arrived in Vienna. The Vienna night we ate at 6:30 and that was a bit rushed for the people leaving on an excursion.

Here are some cool pictures we took in our cabin.

Going through a lock. The wall is inches away from our window.

Some Nights we got towel animals and some nights we got fancy duvets.

The Ship Duvets

The Heart Duvets

MARY !!! you truly went beyond my expectation of a river cruise review. I cannot thank you enough for the details and fantastic photos. My travel group is entertaining this exact cruise/tour for October 2014. We received little info initially, so upon researching Cruise Critic, I was thrilled to find your review. Thank you - fellow cruiser ! Joanne M.

Very nice !!!

Great review re the Tui Melodia "Elegnet Danube" cruise/tour. I am considering this trip with a group through YMT Sept./Oct. 2014. Initially I knew nothing about YMT or the ship. However, your comments were terrific, very detailed, and inviting.

Unfortunately in researching other comments re this cruise/trip, several reviews were quite negative, but your opinion was so inticing that I am still in favor of this trip.

Many thanks for your comments and photos.

mto76

Unfortunately in researching other comments re this cruise/trip, several reviews were quite negative, but your opinion was so inticing that I am still in favor of this trip.

mto76

I have been on a few YMT trips and they have been great. I think about 6-7 years ago, the company used cheap hotels since it was a budget travel company and people were unhappy about the hotels. But from what I have seen, this has changed. All accommodation on this trip and my other trips was great.

On the ship, though, I would go with the bed cabins and not the sofa bed cabin (the sofa is made into a bed at night and during the day, you have extra room). These tend to be smaller and you have to send your luggage out to be stored as it can't fit under the beds. Also, not great if you want to nap during the day (if you could find time).

I do know that there are always complainers on any trips, and I think that often they do tend to be the ones writing the reviews as they have an axe to grind. BUT, I heard no complaints on this trip. The land protion was excellent. Look for RECENT YMT reviews. I think those are much more favorable. - or check out their facebook page.

We do travel a lot and I would not hesitate to go on the Rhine Cruise with YMT, next.

Mary

I finally finished my photo book on our YMT Danube Cruise Tour.

Check it out here if you are interested:

http://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/interests/danube-river-cruise-and-tour-2013-9666717?vk=759PD8gn7A

Mary,

Thanks so much for the excellent trip report and photos. We just saw an ad for this itinerary for October 2014, so I went hunting for more information and found this post.

We have only cruised on Celebrity so far. Regarding this river cruise (and others) -- are there snacks out during the day in-between the stated meal times? Any other information we should know when comparing Celebrity offerings to river cruising?

Thanks in advance!

Ginny

Wow...I am new to Cruise Critic and my first attempt was your review of YMT Vacations. Thanks you....it was great and informative.....planning on the Danube River Cruise next year.

We just signed up for the October 8, 2014 YMT vacations Danube Cruise and would like to contact those on past cruises for advice and this cruise for suggestions.

I couldn't find any roll calls for this or any of their other river cruises though Ginny Jo says in the previous message that they saw the ad for the October Danube cruise that Mary went on and showed the excellent photos of her travels last year.

Let us know if any are interested to discuss.

Bob

We too have signed up for the 10/8 trip. Let us know what you find out.

We are particularly interested on the return to Passau on 10/20 and when we actually disembark in the morning and when we arrive in Munich.

Also, it's a little confusing on the actual ship that we are sailing on.

Is it the Melodia or the sister ships Riva/Rosa.

The YMT promo said Melodia but when you go to their website the deck plans only show the Riva/Rosa?

The Melodia's 2 Upper decks have French balconies that open. But the Riva/Rosa's Upper deck window does not open. the Melodia is only 2 years old, the other 2 ships are 11 years old.

kjv,

I wondered the same when I saw the deck plans for Riva/Rosa did they changed ships. It appears the Riva/Rosa is the ship they will be offering in 2015. See the news article stating TUI did not renew the contract for 2015 with Premicon.

http://www.fvw.com/tui-germany-tui-to-drop-own-river-cruises/393/128489/11245

We received our papers in the mail yesterday showing our stateroom category but not our stateroom number. The final invoice does not include the name of the ship. The brochure we were provided says TUI Melodia.

The link below is the brochure promoting the Danube River Cruise by YMT and you will be able to view the deck plans.

https://interactivepdf.uniflip.com/2/50211/310409/pub/html/10.html

We are wondering if they have a formal night and how we should pack.

Valerie and Bob (mauiwindsurfer)

Thanks so much that was very helpful. Although I guess somewhat disappointing as the Upper deck upgrade has 30 sq ft less than the Lower and only a sofa bed.

Maybe that's the reason they didn't renew. Hope it's comfortable.

Maybe someone else will see this and let us know about that.

Not sure about a formal night. Took a River cruise last year out France but there was no formal night.

I see your e-mail refers to Maui. We have a place in Wailea.