Typical Arrival and departure times at each port?

We are on the Avalon Panorama Magnificent Europe tour from Amsterdam to Budapest Fall of 2016. It is not clear to me how much time we have at each port and roughly when we can disembark and later when we have to embark again.

Can anyone tell me? Or better yet a picture of a past schedule.

Currently aboard the Avalon Illumination (sister ship to the Panarama) sailing Amsterdam to Budapest. Just arrived in Bamberg, Every day is different so far. Today we leave the ship for town at 8:30 and return to the ship at 1;30. Other days we sail until 1:00, often the ship sails on to get thru a nearby lock and we catch up. Find my thread I am posting about the ship and my trip!

We are on the Avalon Panorama Magnificent Europe tour from Amsterdam to Budapest Fall of 2016. It is not clear to me how much time we have at each port and roughly when we can disembark and later when we have to embark again.

 

Can anyone tell me? Or better yet a picture of a past schedule.

It is not like ocean cruising where port times are published as there are many things that affect times in port. It is pretty easy to read between the lines and get a general idea of arrival and departure estimates but you will not really be sure until you are onboard.

We have done ten river cruises and half have had docking times affected by water levels, traffic, lock times (including broken locks, unexpected obstacles) and more. One must be flexible on the river.

We just returned from our 1st river cruise with AMA, Paris to Prague. I agree with Caviargal, it is not like Ocean Cruising. I have to say we were unaware ahead of time that the ship did not just dock in a port, and you were not able to just walk off and tour. It was not a bad thing, just different.

Each day's time schedule is very different based on a lot of factors. Almost every day we were bused to the location of the tour (sometimes only 10 to 15 minutes on the bus - sometimes more), we toured with our guide - usually had a little free time, then were bused back to the ship -- and almost always the ship was at a different location than when you left it. So your only choices were to go on planned tours or stay on ship and sail to wherever the ship stopped to pick up the passengers on the tours. The excursions were wonderful and it was very nice not to have to plan things on our own, and most days you had the choice of two different excursions. The local guides for the tours were very good.

I want to point out that I am saying all of the above in a very positive manner, however, as someone who has done many ocean cruises, it was just not as I originally thought. I had thought we would start up with the guides to get a feel for the towns, then we would leave the group to spend time on our own and get back on the ship at our leisure. That really was not possible, except maybe in one instance. At the end of each tour, most guides did give you a little bit of free time before boarding the buses.

I felt river cruising was very regimented, and I would have liked a little more time to do things on our own. However, we did feel like this was a great way to see Europe. We felt very well taken care by AMA, and had very little to worry about getting from point A to B. We are not world travelers and would not be someone to take a train throughout Europe on our own. So this was a good choice of travel for us.

The scenery is beautiful, food was amazing, and crew was wonderful. It is a different experience and I am glad to have done it at least once.

Whether or not you will be bused to town or be able to walk off the boat right into town absolutely varies by town! Read reviews of itineraries you're considering to see what people say about each port....

Whether or not you will be bused to town or be able to walk off the boat right into town absolutely varies by town! Read reviews of itineraries you're considering to see what people say about each port....

Definately agree Hoyaheel. Good recommendation. . however, even someone else's past experience about being able to walk off the boat can change in an instant. At one of the towns we were supposed to be docked at for the entire morning, but because of low waters and slow cruising speed, the ship needed to keep sailing instead of staying in one location to make up for lost time. Therefore in that town also, we were bused to tour, then bused back to ship at at a location further down the river. The crew were changing schedules and itineraries every day based on the time it would take the ship to navigate the river. Our poor cruise director worked day and night to make all of this happen so smoothly.

I posted in another thread, the best thing you can do is be spontaneous and go with the flow. What we saw and did was amazing. AMA did a great job in making us feel as if we had hardly been affected by the changes at all.

And it's not just water levels that make things change - our dock was changed due (I think) to a slow barge in a lock, so.....Yep, we "went with the flow" :p

Port authorities also made us move and the capt had no say in the matter.

While it is absolutely necessary to remain flexible on river cruises as things can be changed because of river and other conditions, I will say that on the 12 river cruises I have done (including 27 nights thus far in 2015) a significant majority of my ports stops have allowed me to walk off the boat within a few blocks of the center of town. IME a typical day involves being able to walk off the ship at breakfast time and probably not have to be back on board until 5 or 6 pm. Typically there is an included maybe one hour slow walking tour of the town leaving shortly after breakfast, which is generally useful to get the lay of the land, but is by no means required, and the remainder of the day is up to you - lunch on the boat or in town on your own, prehaps an optional afternoon tour, etc. I have on occassion rented a car for the day and headed out on my own to see something of special interest to me (such as towns where some of my ancestors came from). I have certainly encountered busing to sites and short amounts of free time (especially for optional tours), but I have experienced that far less than half the time.

Thom

While it is absolutely necessary to remain flexible on river cruises as things can be changed because of river and other conditions, I will say that on the 12 river cruises I have done (including 27 nights thus far in 2015) a significant majority of my ports stops have allowed me to walk off the boat within a few blocks of the center of town. IME a typical day involves being able to walk off the ship at breakfast time and probably not have to be back on board until 5 or 6 pm. Typically there is an included maybe one hour slow walking tour of the town leaving shortly after breakfast, which is generally useful to get the lay of the land, but is by no means required, and the remainder of the day is up to you - lunch on the boat or in town on your own, prehaps an optional afternoon tour, etc. I have on occassion rented a car for the day and headed out on my own to see something of special interest to me (such as towns where some of my ancestors came from). I have certainly encountered busing to sites and short amounts of free time (especially for optional tours), but I have experienced that far less than half the time.

 

Thom

Thom,

What you describe above is what I had expected for at least one or two of the days, and it did not happen once. We were only on a 7 night cruise, so maybe that made a difference. Our three nights in Paris and two nights in Prague were of course what ever we chose to do. Not sure what rivers you have sailed on, but we would have loved to have had even one day such as that. That is what we are used to on the ocean cruises. We still had a wonderful trip, and I repeat what we saw was amazing, just not exactly as I thought it would be.

One other note I will add here about river cruising. . as the ship only had 146 passengers, everyone became very close to each other. When we left Prague on the final day, everyone was hugging and sad to say goodbye. We all said we had many many new friends. I have never felt like that on the large ocean cruises. It was pretty special.

travelqueen555 -- what TravelerThom described was typical of both our Rhine and Rhone cruises. Both often involved bus rides for one of the day's excursions, but the ship was docked right in a town and you could roam around on your own after the excursion or after dinner.

travelqueen555 -- what TravelerThom described was typical of both our Rhine and Rhone cruises. Both often involved bus rides for one of the day's excursions, but the ship was docked right in a town and you could roam around on your own after the excursion or after dinner.

Thanks good to know for future. I will have to check out those itineraries.

We just did a Grand European cruise on Vantage. Until we got into the more industrialized area in Germany, all the ports we stopped at were basically right at the main street into whatever town we were docked in.

Once into Germany, the docks were more on the edge of town, requiring a bus ride into the city center. But the ship ran shuttles for those of use who remained in town at the end of whatever tour was planned that day.

We just did a Grand European cruise on Vantage. Until we got into the more industrialized area in Germany, all the ports we stopped at were basically right at the main street into whatever town we were docked in.

 

Once into Germany, the docks were more on the edge of town, requiring a bus ride into the city center. But the ship ran shuttles for those of use who remained in town at the end of whatever tour was planned that day.

As has been previously said, the ships dock where the dock master tells them to. For instance the first time on Vantage Castles on the Rhine we docked in Cologne within walking distance of the Dom....this time (2 weeks ago) we docked up near the chocolate museum (don't bother, it's mostly a store where you pay admission) but there were two trams that connected the chocolate express to the Dom and from there the Zoo express to the zoo and the gondola across the Rhine to the spa and pools.

Well there has not really been ANY walking off ship and into town that I can think of on our current trip. Because a portion of the trip is in the canal. Interesting on the river I have only seen an AMA/APT boat, Scenic & Viking. Not a sign of Uniworld.

... Not sure what rivers you have sailed on...

...Once into Germany, the docks were more on the edge of town, requiring a bus ride into the city center...

Thom

In Europe I have river boated on the Seine, Soane, Rhone, Dordogne, Garonne, Gironde, Scheldt, Meuse, Waal, Rhine, Mosel, Main, Elbe, Danube, Dneipr, Neva, Volga, Moscow plus various associated canals (I may have missed some). I have also done canal barges in Europe, and river boats outside of Europe (eg Nile, Yangtze, Amazon, etc).I think that Nuremburg, Bamburg and Trier almost always require shuttles and Baden-Baden, Rothenburg, Heidelburg etc will involve longer bus rides. I have docked in the center of Koblentz, Cologne, Frankfurt, Mainz, Wurzburg and numerous smaller towns. With increased numbers of river boats center city docking is becoming more problematic and 2015 has been an especially bad year for river water levels in Europe, both resulting in more bussing than usual, so I don't question the experiences other have had. I am merely reporting my experiences over the last 20 years.

 

Thom

Thanks Thom for that info. I find it very interesting. I do wonder if things are changing these days or did it just happen to be the cruise I chose. As you mentioned above. . . yes. . . Nuremburg, Bamburg and Trier were on on our stops they were bus rides, but Koblentz, Mainz, and Wurzburg were on our itinerary also. These were all drop and sail stops, where the ship dropped us off for our tours and continued sailing, and buses took us to meet up with the ship. So no docking all day for the ship where you could walk on and off. The ship did dock in Knitizgen late one afternoon and early evening before dinner. We chose not to take the included walking tour and did walk around that town on our own, but that was just for a few hours.

I do think the low water played a part in this, but I also got the feeling that this was the norm for this particular cruise. I don't think the ship was ever scheduled to stay in one place all day, even before the low water.

By the way, I did not read into your posts that you were questioning anyone. I also was just posting my recent experience. I appreciate hearing that what I thought would take place, does happen on other itineraries. I probably needed to do more research. Thanks again for the information on your previous cruises.

I can't repeat enough. . . I am not unhappy, we had a wonderful trip, AMA's crew were amazing, the food delicious and the tours were great. I am so happy to have experienced river cruising, and to cross it off my list. I am quite sure in time, I will be researching on these boards to choose another one.