Gate 1 Monarch Baroness Amsterdam to Budapest 22 October review.

A brief review of our river cruise on Gate 1 Monarch Baroness. Introduction - we were a group of 8 ages 62 - 78 and 2 of the group had cruised the same itinerary 10 years ago on APT. We booked this cruise at what we considered a "too good to pass up" price totally unaware of Gate 1 but prepared to take the risk. 4 of the group had been travelling 7 weeks prior another 2 travelling 2 weeks prior and the last 2 came only a few days earlier.

Arrival - We traveled by private shuttle from Brussels booked through city-airport-taxi arriiving at the dock at 10.30. We were warmly welcomed on board and provided with access to the coffee/tea machine and snacks. 4 of us went off to the Anne Frank haus which we had booked several months earlier. The others stayed on board and enjoyed the lounge.

Taxi to the Anne Frank haus was 15 euro each way.

About 2 pm we were given access to our rooms. 3 rooms were on the lower deck with the high rectangular windows, it was about 10 steps down to our rooms but we were all very happy with our choice saving $1000 pp over the french balcony room that the other couple had. If mobility is an issue I wouldn't advise the lower deck. When we booked one couple booked a couple of weeks after the rest of the group, at the time no lower level rooms were available hence them having the french balcony room, which enabled us to check out their room. The size and facilities in both types of rooms were identical. I actually prefer the lower level rooms as it was very quiet with only about 10 rooms and only 5 were occupied and 3 were our own group. The corridor lead to the crew quarters but we had no issue with noise from crew.

Passengers - Total of 104 of which 54 were Aussies, 2 kiwis, about 30 Canadian, the rest from USA. I don't recall any other countries being represented. Average age would have been 60s. Perhaps a few in their late 50s and 70s but I wouldn't have thought anyone into their 80s unlike the APT where at 52 I was by far the youngest. APT would have been average age of 70s and 80s.

Food - Excellent both in food and service. The matre de was very much a hands on leader and his relationship with his team appeared to be excellent. The crew all gave me the impression that they were very happy, and relaxed, always keen to stop and chat. This in great contrast to the ocean cruising we have done where the crew seem to be so much overworked and tired and constantly being watched. I was sitting one day in the library area and could see right into the dining room where the matre de had his sleeves rolled up and gloves on cleaning the silver wear.

Breakfast was buffet, great selection a different special item each morning. Several types of cereal and juices along with hot dishes, croissants toast fruit omlettes even champagne for breakfast.

Lunch was buffet with a special each day of different type of hot sandwich and salad/chips. Soups each day for lunch.A desert.

Afternoon tea and small snacks/slices.

Dinner 7 pm each night soup, appetizer, entree (main to the aussies) desert, fruit, cheese and biscuits.

5 course meals every night is way too much for me so often I just had the entree and desert but if you are a big eater you will never go hungry. About 4 choices of entree each night, plus every night chicken breast, veges, baked potato plus greek salad was available every night. Wine, beer, soft drink free at dinner and the wine and beer was very freely poured. They were much slower filling up the soft drink glasses than the wine.

Tea and coffee was offered with each meal however I prefer the self serve machine in the lounge which is available 24/7.

Cruise Director and Entertainment Director - Both young, the CD was Hungarian and the ED French. Both very different personalities but complemented each other and seemed to enjoy their roles. 3 nights we had entertainers come on board which is less than with APT. We actually preferred the Gate 1 as they had organized activities each night and they were all fun activities encouraging passengers to interact. Quiz games, name that tune, musical bingo, 70s night, crew concert,,, etc

The only night that didn't seem to be all that popular was Karaoke.

Each afternoon and evening was also music by the in house musician.

Excursions - every day we had included excursions which involved either a walk into the town or a bus depending on location of the dock. Most were walkable. Tour guides varied some exceptional others OK but none I would give a negative review. Walks varied between 1 - 2 hours with free time following. In Nuremberg and Vienna we chose to stay on in the town for lunch and took the bus later in the afternoon back to the boat. Others went back with the crowd, had lunch and returned to the town in the afternoon. Buses used were very comfortable, all looked very new with excellent drivers.

All stops were very enjoyable the 2 of us who had been on APT didn't feel like we were repeating the whole river cruise.

We saw many things on gate 1 that we had not seen with APT. Perhaps it was location of dock that dictated what we were to see each day.

Optional excursions - 5 of which I didn't take any. Our group all enjoyed the optionals that they chose. Price wise they were very reasonable in comparison to ocean cruising. Marksburg castle, Rothenberg, Vienna Classical concert, Schonbrunn palace, Salzburg were the optionals. None of our group went to Salzburg as we had spent 8 days in the weeks prior in Salzburg and the 2 who hadn't been with the rest of us decided it was too long a bus journey. Those who we spoke to enjoyed their day but all commented it was a very long day.

Two afternoons while cruising the most spectacular areas of the rivers the CD gave us an amazing commentary from the sundeck. His knowledge of the history and facts and figures was just amazing. No notes just an incredible memory.

It was cold up on the deck but a fun way to spend the afternoon seeing those beautiful castles. Blankets were provided in our rooms to take up on the deck to keep warm.

We knew we would not be spending any time other than sleeping in our rooms as we would only get to see one side of the river wheras up on the sundeck and even in the lounge we could see both sides of the river.

Disembarkation - this is where they failed us. We were told to have our luggage outside our rooms at 8.30 am and we had a private shuttle booked to collect us at 9.30 to take us to the apartment we had booked for 2 nights. I questioned the CD how it was to work as we knew we would need to be ready at 9 am in preparation for pick up as they often come early. I was assured the luggage would be waiting in the foyer and the crew would take the luggage out to our shuttle. At 9.10 I was getting anxious as our luggage was still sitting outside our rooms. Our shuttle arrived at 9.25, some of our luggage was in the foyer with everyone elses luggage all stacked in a corner meaning we had to move all the luggage around ours to get to it. The other luggage was still outside our rooms. We grabbed the luggage from outside the rooms and in the foyer and no crew to be seen to help take it to the shuttle. We did manage but with 2 on walking sticks it wasn't an easy task as the location of the dock was a good 5 mins walk from where the buses/shuttles/taxis were able to park in Budapest. This is the only negative aspect of the 14 day cruise. Many were booked on a post cruise coach tour with the CD and it seemed that everyone not going on that were just left to fend for themselves. Acceptable if we hadn't been assured that luggage and crew would be well organized in order to ensure we were helped off the boat.

Summary - I would not hesitate to travel with Gate 1 again. I have over the past few days done a tally of the cost of our 10 week trip which included return flights to Europe, a 10 day MSC cruise, 2 internal european flights, 14 nights Gate 1 Amsterdam to Budapest cruise, 7 weeks accommodation when not cruising and all spending money. Total of $9100 pp AUD. When the likes of Viking, Scenic, APT etc are asking for almost that price for the river cruise alone I am so very pleased with what we saw for what we paid. We had plenty of opportunity to see the other boats as we were cruising by and I felt the Monarch Baroness was equal to them. Weather wise yes it was cold but not distressingly cold. We did have one day only with a bit of rain but not enough to cause any discomfort. We were prepared with layers, including thermal underwear which I started to wear when we reached Vienna. A good warm coat, hat, scarf and gloves was all that was needed. i gave up wearing gloves as it made it diffcult taking photos on my phone so just kept my hands in the pockets of my coat. We started travelling in the European summer and finsihed when it was heading into the winter months. I would happily travel in October/November again rather than in the heat of summer.

Thanks for sharing your review.

Keith

Thanks for your review. I often wonder about Gate 1 so I'm glad to see it reviewed so positively. I did the same cruise on Viking last year and would love to do it again, maybe in the opposite direction. If the opportunity presents to river cruise again, I'll be checking out Gate 1.

Thank you for posting this review, Tara Jane.

I am totally amazed by your cost of $9,100 AU for such a long trip. You must know something we don't. I have subscribed to the weekly bargain email for Gate1 and there are some bargains to be had.

Its all a lot of hard work Blue. I was actually surprised that we did it so well. I thrive on searching for the best deals in all things. Also sharing apartments brings the cost down considerably. We tried to get 2 bedroom apartments in as many places as we could. Using hotels.com and booking.com for hotels also gave us some good deals. Great you are subscribed to gate 1. My usual budget for travel is $1000 AUD pp per week but expected this one to be over that due to the river cruise but surprisingly we were within it despite the price of the cruise being more than ocean cruising for 14 days.

Received an email a couple of days ago with Amsterdam to Budapest for $3999 for end of October 2018. It is for the lower cabins with window only but a good price compared for the competition.