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I matured quite a bit since my first river cruise and almost fit into the age frame now 🤣. steamboats

Thanks, Nancy! Part 2 is online now (all about what you have to pay extra - actually not much). steamboats

I was 28 yo on my first river cruise (which was in the US). Our DD was on her first river cruise at the age of 18 months. I was 37 on my first Danube river cruise (and our DD 5). So there´s no "too young" for a river cruise. If you like that laid back feeling and slow cruising and being surrounded by people who are not your age group but can share wonderful stories then you´re definitely not too young for river cruising. steamboats

The first part of my review is online and there are many more to follow. But it will take some time to sort all those more than 3 K photos. The first part is covering the ship itself with a deck by deck review. Sorry, but the text is in German, anyway Google translate (or anything similar) should work pretty well. And there are tons of photos as well. Enjoy! steamboats

Gee, that´s bad to hear! I know about the Hadag ferry 75. But it was a Saturday. So we had to take the S-Bahn and bus. steamboats

Sort of local - meaning I´m German but not from Hamburg - we actually took the suburban train S3 to Veddel, then the bus 256 to Argentinienbrücke and then walked for 10 min. But we did that basically because we wanted to take photos of the ship on the way to the terminal in Steinwerder. Plus it´s a bit tricky to find the bus stop. I haven´t seen any taxis at all. There used to be a shuttle service with small buses to the suburban train station for 2.50 Euro. But you had to book that service in advance. Not sure whether they are still operating that service. They have buildt a ferry landing right next to the cruise terminal but that is only used for special occasions. They never came up with a regular ferry line to that landing out of Landungsbrücken. steamboats

Madeira is a Portuguese island. The flag is Portugal, the port may be Funchal / Madeira. steamboats

We only did a 2 hour boat trip out of the Vieux Port de Marseille to the Calanques National Park but never hiked. The trip was a little bumpy and there was a group of school kids onboard... Let´s say they had plenty of plastic bags available... We didn´t have a problem. steamboats

It´s one area with one access. So they can´t charge for different areas. Especially the steam room, salt room, infrared sauna, ice room, charcoal sauna, experimental showers are all along one aisle with glass doors only (except for the showers which have no doors at all). Fitness center is free anyway except for classes. steamboats

Both Triples and Single cabins are pretty rare on river cruise ships. steamboats

We had this menu on the Beyond pre inaugural last April (menu and photos of our dinner). steamboats

It´s roughly 1:30 h from Passau to Munich Airport (which is North of the city of Munich in the direction towards Passau). As most US flights depart between 11 am and 1 pm Uniworld is definitely prepared to provide a transportation in time. steamboats

Bike and boat cruises are becoming more and more popular here in Germany. There are a couple of river cruise operators offering them. And more and more regular river cruise ships do carry bikes onboard either for guided tours or for individual use. For the later you only have to ask at the reception the day before you want to use them. Usually they are free of charge. steamboats

Although the Central Park is open and designed to handle water it´s not designed to handle chlorined salt water - at least the plants are not. So it may have cause a little damage to some plants. But as for the ship you won´t see any damage anymore. steamboats

I´m pretty sure they do have a team. And yes, they were interested in the other four vessels from the beginning. It was a matter of pricing... Seems like they now got the price they wanted to pay. It´s just that it might not be easy to sell the two additional boats on such a short notice especially on the North American market. Here in Germany with the pandemic the people are booking river cruises on a shorter notice. But we don´t need any flights. steamboats

The AmaKristina was moved from the Rhine river to France. steamboats

I think the main problem will be to sell the ship right now... the first cruises start in April on two ships, then in May the third is to follow. Even with a handful of loyal Crystal customers (who won´t fly over for 3 nighters) and a large customer base from their hotel business it might be a bit challenging to fill the three ships with such a short notice and being a newcomer on the market. steamboats

It's definitely confirmed by Riverside. steamboats

The purchase is confirmed now. The Riverside Debussy is supposed to start Mid April on the Rhine river, the Riverside Ravel early May on the Rhône river. The Riverside Bach and Mahler will follow in 2024. steamboats

The World Voyage has already started in Hamburg yesterday 😉 and for those passengers it will also end in Hamburg. steamboats

BTW, it´s definitely not the first "waterfall". On the Norwegian Prima they forgot to lower the water in The Haven infinity pool when we departed Cobh on the inagural cruise. There´s a sharp bend when leaving the port and the pool water went over The Haven sundeck and down to the Oceanwalk on deck 8. The people looking down were standing in ankle high water. I only catched the end of the waterfall. steamboats

I´m pretty sure the gardeners were not happy about this. I remember on the first cruises of the Harmony the slides were leaking and we talked to Laszlo (who did all the Centrals Parks on the Oasis Class ships) and he definitely wasn´t happy about the water from the pool area which was causing his plants to die. steamboats

Kettles are only provided on UK departures with mainly UK guests. No, you are not allowed to bring your own kettle as this is regarded as a fire hazard. steamboats

Currently no US based cruise line is allowed to go to Cuba and after the recent law suit they won´t go unless the laws will be changed. You might find some European cruise lines which pass by Cuba but not on a regular basis but more on a world cruise or something similar. But only smaller ships will go there. Star Clippers did Cuba in the past, Hapag-Lloyd did Cuba as well as the German based MS Hamburg (by Plantours). Celestyal did Cuba but stopped it years ago when Cuba thought they could make more money out of the bigger US cruise ships. steamboats

This is not the first time a ship with passengers is in dry dock in Cadiz. AIDA did this before - also during a regular trip. It was the AIDAbella in 2017. You can see some photos here. They have to get the azipods fixed as the QV is doing a world cruise starting Jan 9th in Hamburg and Jan 11th in Southampton. steamboats