NC Redhead

Leaving in less than two weeks for our cruise and trying to finalize details. Per the included tour of Prague...how extensive is the tour of the castle district? We were in Prague for several days a few years back on our own and saw a lot, but saw very little of the castle district due to the long lines in the summer heat for tickets. We are visiting the palace on our own the next day so no worries there. But I want to know will we see some of the interior of the castle district in the included tour or should we just blow off the tour and book our own tour of just the castle? Please keep in mind we don't need an in depth tour of the castle district...just wanting an overview. Thanks in advance!

My mother wants to tour Ireland. We ruled out all travel options except small ocean cruises. We are down to Windstar or Tauck. Both tour Ireland...Windstar also tours Scotland and Tauck also tours England...this is not a deciding factor. Windstar offers everything a la carte where Tauck is all-inclusive. Windstar comes in less by approximately $1000 per person, but it is only an estimation so again this is not a deciding factor. If you have sailed with both I would love to hear your reviews in comparison. If you have sail this tour with either I would love to hear your reviews. We are looking at going in the summer of 2019 so we have some time to decide on this.

Thank you for all the information! I did end up emailing Viking...I couldn't find an email address listed on their site, only a phone number. I will wait for my answers from them, but I am still on the fence on Passau or Salzburg. I loved that there was so little decision making on AMA on my recent cruise. There is a lot more decision making with Viking. All the Viking excursions sound so nice, but too many of them force you to decide between this place or that place and I want to do them all.

I would note that I think the size of the cabin is more important than the view on a river cruise. The cabins are smaller than what I experienced on ocean cruises. My mother and I had the French balcony on an AMA cruise in December and it was tight moving around the room. We just booked a cruise on Viking and we were going to go with the same category, but I realized on Viking it is about 30 sq ft smaller than the AMA ship we were on. We ended up changing to a verandah, not so much for the balcony, but more for the space. So what I am saying is to take the overall size of the room into consideration as well as the view. Of course for solo travelers which there are many in river cruising this may be a non-issue since you won't accidentally slam the bathroom door into you mother like I did!

I just revisited Cruise Critic after being away for awhile and now I have my first river cruise under my belt. I loved everything about it, but I will add the rooms are smaller than on the ocean ships. My mother and I shared a French balcony room on the second level and although it was small, we had plenty of room for our stuff and rarely bumped into each other. I loved AMA Waterways (Sonata) and will be sailing on Viking this summer so I can compare the two. I am happy to answer any AMA questions anyone has and if you are wondering, the Christmas Market cruise was the best! I think we visited a dozen markets and they were all wonderful!

We did this trip in December with AMA, but booked our own flights. I have new a travel agent because of this though as my agent at the time gave me no help booking our flights. I didn't plan enough layover time at JFK and due to flight traffic and deicing we missed our flight to Amsterdam as our flight from our home airport was delayed several times. Delta took care of us though and we arrived on Friday morning instead of Thursday. We took the shuttle from the airport to the hotel for $17 per person...the desk is past the shops and easy to book...I haven't had such good customer service in a while (https://www.schipholhotelshuttle.nl/) as the company really takes care of you. I booked our Anne Frank tickets two months in advance for the Friday so we were still able to make it; however we were very tired so we did very little that first day. Luckily the river cruise had a walking and boat tour planned for the day after we boarded so we didn't feel like we missed much in Amsterdam even though we lost a day. Enjoy your trip!

The Viking Customer Service Agent was vague about how long we would be docked in each location so I am turning to Cruise Critic for help. When the ship is docked in Passau, does it stay there all day until those on the Saltzburg tour return (almost 10 hour excursion) or does it move down the Danube and pick up those on this excursion at another location? And while I am asking, I welcome any advice on whether to stay in Passau for the excursion there or pay the extra money for the Saltzburg excursion. I really like the idea of seeing the Austrian alps, but mother is not keen on long motor coach rides (I believe this will be 2 hours each way).

I stumbled on this post looking for something else, but thought I would leave my two cents. I planned a group trip to Europe in 2016. In Prague we stayed at Hotel Julian...quiet area that is still close to everything including Café Savoy which I highly recommend plus they offer a wonderful dinner at the hotel on the roof with awesome evening views of the castle. As for transportation we used Mike's Chauffeur Services...hotel door to hotel door service with side trips in between and very reasonable. We used this service between Prague, Brno, Vienna, and Budapest. We met a group who took the train and paid what we paid for private door to door service with a built in travel guide...can't recommend Mike and his staff enough!