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Gate ! Monarch Princess


bayjoens
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We've booked a Danube River cruise in October 2018 with a bunch of friends, and this is the first river cruise for all of us. I can't find much information on the boat yet. Has anyone already been on this ship? (Are river cruisers "ships"?) One specific question we have about the fitness center. Or can anyone give me information on the fitness center on any of the Gate 1 Monarch ships? We know they can't be big centers like on the big ships, but are wondering what kind of equipment is on these and how big the centers are. Thanks!

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We've booked a Danube River cruise in October 2018 with a bunch of friends, and this is the first river cruise for all of us. I can't find much information on the boat yet. Has anyone already been on this ship? (Are river cruisers "ships"?) One specific question we have about the fitness center. Or can anyone give me information on the fitness center on any of the Gate 1 Monarch ships? We know they can't be big centers like on the big ships, but are wondering what kind of equipment is on these and how big the centers are. Thanks!

 

Was on the Monarch Empress in June

 

The fitness center in that ship was basically has a treadmill, exercise bike and some dumbells. The room appeared to be the same size or smaller than an bottom floor cabin.

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  • 6 months later...

Great llvuZ. If you can, would you keep track of when they let people off the ship and when you had to be back? We want to do some private tours but don't know when we will be let off in the mornings. And do they, like on ocean cruises, let the passengers on the Gate 1 tours off first?

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Great llvuZ. If you can, would you keep track of when they let people off the ship and when you had to be back? We want to do some private tours but don't know when we will be let off in the mornings. And do they, like on ocean cruises, let the passengers on the Gate 1 tours off first?

Just remember that the times can change. If there are locks to go through they may have to queue up, and might arrive at the new port later than on another date of the same cruise. More importantly, you might leave earlier than another date of the same cruise. The ship's excursions will adjust for this, but you might have issues with a private tour.

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I’ll keep track for you because it will at least give you a feel for timings. We don’t plan to do any of the included tours but with only 120 passengers I don’t think that it will be a problem getting off the boat.

 

I really wish I knew how they handle dinner because we like to eat late. But we can roll with anything for a week. And at least two nights we will be docked late enough to have dinner in the ports.

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I’ll keep track for you because it will at least give you a feel for timings. We don’t plan to do any of the included tours but with only 120 passengers I don’t think that it will be a problem getting off the boat.

 

I really wish I knew how they handle dinner because we like to eat late. But we can roll with anything for a week. And at least two nights we will be docked late enough to have dinner in the ports.

 

Gate1 has a fixed dinner time. They have a meeting where they go over the schedule for the next day followed by dinner. Don't recall the exact time, but it was not late. Either 6:30 or 7 if I recall correctly with some scheduling variation.

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Ugh. I actually called Gate 1 to ask if dinner was a set time and they said no. They did indicate that most people go in right after the talk but the dinning room was open for a time frame to eat. We can live with what ever happens but honestly hate set dinner times.

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I’ll keep track for you because it will at least give you a feel for timings. We don’t plan to do any of the included tours but with only 120 passengers I don’t think that it will be a problem getting off the boat.

 

I really wish I knew how they handle dinner because we like to eat late. But we can roll with anything for a week. And at least two nights we will be docked late enough to have dinner in the ports.

 

Of course it's your vacation and you can do it anyway you want, but you are going against the grain of river cruising with these plans. Almost everyone on a river cruise takes the included excursions -- consequently the entire schedule of based around that. Dinner is scheduled based on the return of the afternoon excursions. Just before dinner is the talk by the Cruise Director about the next day's excursions, then everyone moves to the dining room for dinner. If you go off on your own excursions, you may find that the ship has moved -- make sure you ask about this before you go! And if you decide to come to dinner when you are ready, be prepared to have to join a table that is already on their mains and deep into discussing the day's [included] excursions or their plans for the next day's [included] excursions.

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Ugh. I actually called Gate 1 to ask if dinner was a set time and they said no. They did indicate that most people go in right after the talk but the dinning room was open for a time frame to eat. We can live with what ever happens but honestly hate set dinner times.

 

 

They might say that, but practice on ship was pretty much set time. On the last cruise I was on everyone was in the dining room within 10 minutes of that time. There was one night that was a buffet. Breakfast and lunch was flexible, but not dinner. The dinner format was that everyone got the same 2 appetizers (you could choose to skip one or both, but no other choice. For the entree the choice was 1 meat, 1 fish or 1 veg with there also 3 always available options Cesear Salad, Chicken, (not sure what the 3rd always available option was it may have been salmon).

 

The ship was almost always underway when dinner was served.

 

The norm was the ship would dock, the excursions would depart, after lunch optional excursions on some days. There were times where the excursions would leave from one place, then meet the ship elsewhere on return. Most of the included excursions were walking tours directly from the ship. Docking locations subject to change based upon the port direction. Times subject to change based upon river conditions, other traffic, etc.

Edited by RDC1
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I appreciate the feedback. I am not trying to argue any of your points but we are going to go against the grain. We won’t join a table in progress so I’ll skip dinner or come at the start if it happens to be more “set” then they let me know. We will be in port late two of the five nights (Budapest and Vienna) so we can do dinner off those two nights if we want. And they do have an alternative restaurant (if might have a fee) so that’s an options too. Are you saying there are no tables for two on the Princess?

 

Gate 1 doesn’t include that many standard tours but I am sorry that there is pressure to do everything together. At the price we booked at, we see the ship as a traveling hotel that has food if we want it. We specifically didn’t pick a company that appeared regimented. We love Europe, love the water and hate tours. I plan to check in before leaving the boat to see timings at the current dock and where the ship is docking, is it staying in one place, etc. Will the other passengers give us a hard time for being independent?

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I appreciate the feedback. I am not trying to argue any of your points but we are going to go against the grain. We won’t join a table in progress so I’ll skip dinner or come at the start if it happens to be more “set” then they let me know. We will be in port late two of the five nights (Budapest and Vienna) so we can do dinner off those two nights if we want. And they do have an alternative restaurant (if might have a fee) so that’s an options too. Are you saying there are no tables for two on the Princess?

 

Gate 1 doesn’t include that many standard tours but I am sorry that there is pressure to do everything together. At the price we booked at, we see the ship as a traveling hotel that has food if we want it. We specifically didn’t pick a company that appeared regimented. We love Europe, love the water and hate tours. I plan to check in before leaving the boat to see timings at the current dock and where the ship is docking, is it staying in one place, etc. Will the other passengers give us a hard time for being independent?

 

The Empress (their newest ship) certainly did not have tables for two. Are you certain that they have a "alternative restaurant"? There hasn't been one on any gate1 cruise I have been on and the layout for the Princess is similar, but older than the Empress.

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The Empress (their newest ship) certainly did not have tables for two. Are you certain that they have a "alternative restaurant"? There hasn't been one on any gate1 cruise I have been on and the layout for the Princess is similar, but older than the Empress.

That I thought I was sure of but who knows now. Seems like there is a lot conflicting information between their ships and their staff. I’ll find out soon.

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We were on the Monarch Baroness in October. Yes there was an alternative restaurant but I never saw nor heard of anyone dining there. It was at the back of the ship beside the gym. I did see a couple of folk in there playing cards and it seemed to be used more as an alternative to the busy lounge area. The food was so good in the dining room there is no way I would spend extra $$ to dine there. No tables for 2 or 4, the majority were tables of 6. We were a group of 8 and there was only one table for 10 that worked for us. If we didnt get the 10 we had to split up and sit with others. We did like sitting together for dinner to catch up on what we had each done through the day.

Tours aren't compulsory but I consider them great value. We never do ships tours on the big ships but on the river cruises it's so totally different. Most towns we just walked into town with the guide so you can easily just do your own thing.

Vienna and Nurumberg we went in the bus but had many options of how to spend our day and also many options of when we would return to the boat. Both times we chose to stay on in town grab a snack for lunch and meet the bus at the last pick up which was around 4 - 5 pm. There was opportunity for people to go back straight after the tour for lunch and then come back in about 2 pm which was better than I had experienced on my previous river cruise with APT. If we wanted to stay in or go back in we had to find our own way back to the boat - not difficult anyway.

I don't know if you have been on a river cruise previously, please be aware it it totally different to an ocean cruise. On a ship with thousands of passengers you can do your own thing and no one would even notice you existed.

River cruising is very much more of a family atmosphere, with only a small number of passengers, we had 104 and 54 were Aussies. No one is going to force you to do anything nor give you dirty looks for not joining in but personally I think you will miss so much if you choose not to.

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We were on the Monarch Baroness in October. Yes there was an alternative restaurant but I never saw nor heard of anyone dining there. It was at the back of the ship beside the gym. I did see a couple of folk in there playing cards and it seemed to be used more as an alternative to the busy lounge area. The food was so good in the dining room there is no way I would spend extra $$ to dine there. No tables for 2 or 4, the majority were tables of 6. We were a group of 8 and there was only one table for 10 that worked for us. If we didnt get the 10 we had to split up and sit with others. We did like sitting together for dinner to catch up on what we had each done through the day.

Tours aren't compulsory but I consider them great value. We never do ships tours on the big ships but on the river cruises it's so totally different. Most towns we just walked into town with the guide so you can easily just do your own thing.

Vienna and Nurumberg we went in the bus but had many options of how to spend our day and also many options of when we would return to the boat. Both times we chose to stay on in town grab a snack for lunch and meet the bus at the last pick up which was around 4 - 5 pm. There was opportunity for people to go back straight after the tour for lunch and then come back in about 2 pm which was better than I had experienced on my previous river cruise with APT. If we wanted to stay in or go back in we had to find our own way back to the boat - not difficult anyway.

I don't know if you have been on a river cruise previously, please be aware it it totally different to an ocean cruise. On a ship with thousands of passengers you can do your own thing and no one would even notice you existed.

River cruising is very much more of a family atmosphere, with only a small number of passengers, we had 104 and 54 were Aussies. No one is going to force you to do anything nor give you dirty looks for not joining in but personally I think you will miss so much if you choose not to.

 

On the Empress the back lounge was where the coffee machines were, along with a TV screen and some tables. As you indicated more of a quiet space for coffee, reading, playing cards, etc. Never even had it offered as an alternative dining space.

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That makes a lot of sense rather than having the room empty and never used.

Mind you I would miss the coffee machine if it wasn't in the big lounge. Bit of a hike from the small area at the back to the main lounge area, now if they had 2 it would be ideal.

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River cruising is very much more of a family atmosphere, with only a small number of passengers, we had 104 and 54 were Aussies. No one is going to force you to do anything nor give you dirty looks for not joining in but personally I think you will miss so much if you choose not to.

 

We actually don't love mainstream cruising anymore because it's more crowded, the food quality and choices continue to be lowered and the staff numbers have been cut. We do like MSC Yacht Club, which I would see closer to the size of a river boat. Around 150 or so people that we see continually in the lounge, dining room, pool, etc. I actually think we will love the size and intimate nature of the river cruise.

 

As for tours, we might do the Melk tour, depending on what time it's at but our favorite way to travel is just to wander, meet locals, eat a meal, and we mostly avoid all the typical sites. So for us, even if the tours are amazing, they don't fit our style. I don't think that makes us unsuited for a river cruise, though, just willing to forgo some of the stuff we "paid" for as part of the fare.

 

Tara Jane - do you remember where you docked in Vienna? I know there are two locations and I am hoping it's the farther out one because it's close to the wine district we want to go to. Also, do you remember your dining times?

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Just posting this, hoping it is useful: http://www.donaustationen.at/en/moorings/

 

the one you would like the ship to dock at, ideally, is either of the two in Nußdorf (or Nussdorf for English keyboard users). There you will be close to the wine area. Although it was a bit of a ride by tram into town I enjoyed being docked in Nussdorf.

 

notamermaid

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