Review - m/s Der Kliner Prinz 06/05/08 Danube River Cruise

Yo-

Since there is not a cruise line nor ship area for this ship in the member review area - I'll post it here for now-

I - like many others - were unable to find any information/reviews for this great little ship - so here goes.

Yo-

 

Since there is not a cruise line nor ship area for this ship in the member review area - I'll post it here for now-

 

I - like many others - were unable to find any information/reviews for this great little ship - so here goes.

But where did it go? Did I miss something, cause I can't see any review and I would really like to read it!

Yo-

Sorry to be doing this review in chunks - but this site blows big time- (I have written this review twice and the site has timed me out twice - erasing all my work)

I like many others were unable to find any information/reviews for this great little riverboat - so here goes-

First off - this is a GREAT value for the money spent vs. the "Name Brands" out there.

The ship is very clean, comfortable and well managed and run with a competent and friendly crew of 25 - mostly Romanians - that take exceptional care of the 90 passengers (we had 79 on our cruise).

The food is European and very good - NOT gourmet - but very good and filling and service with a smile. Breakfast is buffet style. Lunch is buffet style for salads and the main course is served. Dinner is a fully served meal - usually with two choices of entry.

The cabins are clean and large (172 sq ft) for a European riverboat - all cabins are the same size and I suggest getting the lowest category you can get at the time of booking. The cabin is individually air conditioned - there is a TV that is hooked to satellite - and has mostly German stations with the occasional CNN feed in English (which is strange - since 99% of the passengers were English speaking). The soundproofing in the cabins is very good - only complaint heard was of a fellow passenger that took very early morning walks 'heavy footed' on the open deck above the so-called 'premium' cabins - (we all nicknamed him 'Bouncy Boy' - for a number of reasons - all bad)

The bar was very clean and modestly priced with beer being 2 euro wine by the glass at 3 euro and mixed drinks 4-5 euro. Bottles of local red or white wine were 10-12 euro. You could buy wine on shore for 3-10 euro and consume it in your cabin.

Your cruise fare includes most shore excursions with occasional afternoon or evening excursions optional. The optional concert in Vienna is not to be missed. the tour guides/cruise directors were Dusan Kuljic (Senior) and Nikola Grujin (Assistant) both very competent - warm - friendly and accomodating to the individual passengers needs.

Happy Cruisin'

Mike

(Next installment later)

Yo-

Here is another attempt to continue this review-

(site keeps bouncing me off)

The dress aboard is definitely casual - morning - non and night.

Suggest dressing in layers - as the mornings and nights can tend to be chilly on the water.

The passengers were an interesting lot - with the mean age being about 65-70 and mostly American - for this voyage - apparently they have groups of different nationalities that participate from all over the world - but mainly American - Danish - German and French.

All in all - we felt - as did numerous others - that we received more than our moneys worth - which makes it even a sweeter tasting vacation-eh!!

Happy Cruisin'

Mike

Yo-

Back with more stuff-

Kinda surprised at the lack of posts - even though there have been 230 views of the thread - oh well-

The shore excursions were wonderfully conducted with very competent guides - new and clean buses with exceptionally competent drivers - at every stop we made-

As mentioned earlier - there were several optional excursions in the afternoons and one evening at the concert-

Another highlight was a lunch on a country farm with the family hosting a bus full of us at an excellent buffet lunch with wine and some kinda local white lightenin' - in any event - it was a joyful tour and not to be missed-

More later - if I have some encouragement to continue to post-eh!!

Happy Cruisin'

Mike

Mike - I was thrilled to finally find a review of this trip since I have been contemplating taking it for a couple of years. I will probably sign up for a June 2009 trip since SmarTours just posted the 2009 schedule. The only question I have is about laundry. I know that there are no on-board facilities and since you do not end up in a hotel until the end of the trip, how did you and others on board handle it? :confused: (My husband always wants to take 2-3 times as much as I think he needs and doing laundry half way through a trip is routine for us)

Thanks, Teresa

Mike, I am brand new to River Cruises, taking my first one in two weeks on Viking. I love the sights off the river cruise and feel I would like to go on the cruise you went on. Usually when you have so much port time, the ship is secondary to the experience, so thrilled you are writing a review of the ship. Thank you!

Yo-

 

Here is another attempt to continue this review-

 

(site keeps bouncing me off)

 

 

Big Mike,

 

I do not know how many people have shared the problem of getting bounced off the site when writing a review, but when I wrote mine, I first did it in Word, then cut and pasted it onto this site. I had no problems at all that way.

 

Hope this helps someone.

Stan (Car-Stan)