Viking Romantic Danube-- first river cruise-Help

Hello all,

I am starting to do more research before I leave on September 5th. I have been reading many threads and am hoping people will help with some of my questions.

1. I assumed we should do the tours included in our package but see many people don't do those tours. Are these tours really the best way to see the ports? If not, what do people recommend? Are HOHO buses better? I hate to spend the time on a bus just having things pointed at as we drive by.

2. I have read it is best to use ATM machines to get money in each port. Should we start the trip with a little money for each country? Do most countries accept euros, even if that is not their specific currency?

3. We are extending our trip in Prague at the end of the cruise. Is it true that the transfer is a 5 hour bus ride? Are there any other options? Are there any stops along the way, like to eat or use bathrooms? (I have motion issues and am concerned about the bus ride.)

I apologize for such broad questions. I know that every traveler is different, but I would really appreciate any advice/suggestions that people can offer. All specifics, including recommendations on the ship or in ports, would be wonderful.

Thanks so much!

Welcome to CC.

It would help if you state which cruise company, ship and embarcation / disembarcation ports, ports to be visted, so posters can you more acturate information.

1. In most towns along the Danube you will not find HOHO buses, other than in the largest of cities.

2. With regards to currencies, ATM's are plentiful (you will need a c ard with a 4 digit PIN number, also inform your card provider that you will be drawing cash abroard). Euros are your best bet, currencies in Germany, Austria and Slovakia and widely accepted in Budapest and Prague (just get Euros).

3. If it is a 5 hours bus transfer, don't visit the beer garden on your last evening.:eek:;) Seriuosly, you will have stops to for something to eat and bathromm visits.

Have a< great cruise.

Depends on whether you are going to Prague on your own or as an extension with the cruise company.

We are going to Prague pre cruise by ourselves. We are travelling on the train from Prague to Budapest, doing some pre cruise days there by ourselves before catching up with the river cruise.

We decided to go by train as we can walk around on the train, have a meal and a bathroom on board.

To answer these 2 questions...

1. I assumed we should do the tours included in our package but see many people don't do those tours. Are these tours really the best way to see the ports? If not, what do people recommend? Are HOHO buses better? I hate to spend the time on a bus just having things pointed at as we drive by.

We go on most of the included tours (but try to find out a little bit about them here at CC if possible or online at tour website---even wikipedia) Most included tours are NOT just "drive-by" but have a specific destination to tour. We have found that long bus rides can be grueling so we try to find out the length of the ride ahead of time. Often "included meals" tend to be mass produced and we've had better luck just staying in a port and going to a cafe and ordering. Whatever information you can gather ahead of time will help your decision. Factor in the weather as well.

2. I have read it is best to use ATM machines to get money in each port. Should we start the trip with a little money for each country? Do most countries accept euros, even if that is not their specific currency?

We always bring at least some of a country's currency with us when we travel. Although there are ATM's at airports and ports we have often arrived at night or on a week-end or holiday. Our bank does not charge us for converting dollars to euros and back so taking the extra money has not been a problem. Also we bring a credit card with NO foreign currency fees and use that as much as possible. Many credit cards are now changing over to chip/signature and chip/pin cards. We did not have any trouble with our regular card but did use the chip/pin at a kiosk last month

Hello all,

 

I am starting to do more research before I leave on September 5th. I have been reading many threads and am hoping people will help with some of my questions.

 

1. I assumed we should do the tours included in our package but see many people don't do those tours. Are these tours really the best way to see the ports? If not, what do people recommend? Are HOHO buses better? I hate to spend the time on a bus just having things pointed at as we drive by.

 

2. I have read it is best to use ATM machines to get money in each port. Should we start the trip with a little money for each country? Do most countries accept euros, even if that is not their specific currency?

 

3. We are extending our trip in Prague at the end of the cruise. Is it true that the transfer is a 5 hour bus ride? Are there any other options? Are there any stops along the way, like to eat or use bathrooms? (I have motion issues and am concerned about the bus ride.)

 

I apologize for such broad questions. I know that every traveler is different, but I would really appreciate any advice/suggestions that people can offer. All specifics, including recommendations on the ship or in ports, would be wonderful.

 

Thanks so much!

We just returned from that cruise last week. Here are some answers:

1. The included tours are the best way to see the ports. Frequently, you walk off the ship and start a walking tour. The bus portion of the sightseeing is not long. Usually just on the way to a walking tour of the city. On embarkation you are given a list of optional tours available during the cruise. Some of those optional tours are not listed in the Viking brochures you get before the trip. Generally, you will have enough free time at each port after the tours.

I highly recommend the optional tour in Regensburg to the Abbey and Danube Narrows. People who go on that optional tour also get the regular Regensburg tour in the afternoon.

The concert tour in Vienna is given in a hall at a private palace. You will be joined by passengers from the other Viking ship(s) in town. (They travel in tandem). It will be hot and crowded, but the music is very good. If you stay on board, you will have the ship almost to yourselves.

Since we have been to Vienna before and seen the Schonbrunn palace, we opted to stay in Vienna and took the Opera house tour and the Hofberg Palace tours on our own. (No need to book ahead of time, just go to the ticket office.)

2. There are plenty of ATMs in the airports. It just takes a moment to use them. It doesn't matter if it is night or weekend. Don't bother with the local currency in Hungary. Euros are readily accepted. Just get a small amount for the Czech Republic. You can use euros and credit cards widely. All other countries use the euro. Just get enough at the first euro port to last you for the trip. And on the way home, keep some euros for your next trip! We always keep 100 to 200 euros at home.

3. The actual driving time from Nurenberg to Prague is just three hours. I don't know why the Viking bus would have to take 5 hours. They must stop a lot. We did the trip in reverse and hired a limo service to drive us to Nurenberg with a stop in Pilsen along the way to visit the Pilsner Urquell brewery (really good tour) and all of that took six hours. We did independent travel for five days in Prague before the cruise and in Budapest after the cruise.

By the way, we were in Prague for 5 days before the cruise in a top hotel, did four days of private tours and had our own transfer to Nurenberg for the exact same price that Viking charges for their three day extension. It seems you are taking the extensions with Viking. They offer optional tours at each city for an additional price. They will tell you about the optional tours when you get there. You would be better off getting your own private guides at each city.

And do follow all the advice about chip and pin credit cards, no transaction fees, etc. Just about every place, including taxis, accept them.

Thank you all for the information. I appreciate all of the specifics and will look into them in more detail.

Marazul, if we booked the Prague extension through Viking, does that include their optional tours? It sounds like a private tour guide may be the way to go. Do you have any recommendations for the tour guide or must-see spots in Prague?

Marazul, I was trying to see if I could private message you, but not sure how to do it. Since you just returned from the same cruise, I was wondering if you could share more details and recommendations from your trip. Were you also on the Delling?

Thanks all again

Thank you all for the information. I appreciate all of the specifics and will look into them in more detail.

 

Marazul, if we booked the Prague extension through Viking, does that include their optional tours? It sounds like a private tour guide may be the way to go. Do you have any recommendations for the tour guide or must-see spots in Prague?

 

Marazul, I was trying to see if I could private message you, but not sure how to do it. Since you just returned from the same cruise, I was wondering if you could share more details and recommendations from your trip. Were you also on the Delling?

 

Thanks all again

Hi Bermuda -

the Viking Prague extension includes one "city tour" only. People who took it said other optional tours were available. (And optional is always extra $.) They do offer one advertised optional tour to the Lobkowicz palace. We happened to be there when the Viking tour came in. They took the group through the Palace and then went to a salon for a private wine and cheese type gathering. We had taken a private tour of the Castle area starting with the Strahov monastery, Loreto chapel and Prague castle that ended right by the Lobkowicz palace. After saying goodbye to our guide we walked into the palace and bought tickets with audio guide for about $13 each. A lot less than the Viking tour.

There are three recommended tour companies in Prague: caputregni.cz, personalpragueguide.com and praguewalker.com. All offer similar tours for similar prices. Look at their websites and pick one. From our experience and what we heard from others they are all excellent.

The Viking hotel in Prague is far from the center, but they were running free shuttles every half hour to the center of Prague. Don't know how late they ran.

I recommend the castle area tour and the old town tour including Jewish sites. We took two tours outside of Prague. One to Cesky Krumlov and the other to Karlstejn castle just outside Prague. Both were wonderful. Don't know if you have the time for them. Karlstejn is only half day, the guiding is done by palace guides. (If you do go, ask the tour company to book you in Tour #2 that takes you to one of the most beautiful chapels in Europe.)

We were not on the Delling. Viking has several boats doing the same itinerary and they are all identical. For our cruise, the Kara and the Estla were cruising at the same time and in the same direction. They probably have at least eight more boats doing the same with overlapping departure dates. You can expect the service and the menus to be identical in all of them. The staff may change from one week to the next since they are all on seasonal contracts. Our cruise director was finishing her contract with our cruise and someone else was boarding in Budapest.

You don't say whether you are also taking the Budapest extension. If you are not, your hotel can probably arrange for a driver or taxi to pick you up at the airport. (Our hotel did that in Prague.) In either city the charge was 30 euros paid directly to the driver.

I have no idea how private messaging works on CC. Just ask whatever you want to know and I will answer the best I can.

Bermuda,

If you are staying at the Corinthia in Prague, it is a very nice hotel, and, yes, Viking does have a shuttle service into Old Town on the hour. They also have a private car service which is offered to Viking guests at a discounted price if you want to go to other locations.

Becki

Bermuda,

If you are staying at the Corinthia in Prague, it is a very nice hotel, and, yes, Viking does have a shuttle service into Old Town on the hour. They also have a private car service which is offered to Viking guests at a discounted price if you want to go to other locations.

Last week they were running the shuttle every half hour. They had a lot of complaints about being so far out.

We just returned from the Budapest to Nuremberg cruise with AmaWaterways. We did a 3-day extension on each end, in Budapest and Prague, on our own. We stayed at the K&K Hotel in each city. They were quite reasonable and located in the center of the old town in each city. Fabulous breakfast included. They also arranged taxis for us to catch the boat and to go to the airport. We used Ama's transfer from Nuremberg to Prague...one of the highlights of the trip as it stopped at the beautiful spa town of Karlovy Vary for lunch and free time. Perhaps your bus will do the same.

We did the included tours with Viking and for the most part they were good overviews of each port. The tours are included in the price you paid and generally do not last more than a couple hours. You can plan some things to do on your own when you have free time.

Conversely we generally do not do ship tours on ocean cruises, we didn't pay for them in our cruise fare and feel we can find better options with a private guide or DIY.

We did the HOHO bus in Budapest...a good deal...a two day ticket which included a one-time HOHO boat ride which could be taken in the day or the evening. We chose not to do the HOHO in Prague because it is very expensive and the route is not convenient to the big tourist attractions. Besides, historic Prague is very walkable. All the small towns on the Danube are walkable from the river.

Since the river does not go through Vienna, we were docked outside of town and bussed to the center. The Viking boats were right next to us and did the same.

Nuremberg's dock is in an industrial area and again we were bussed to the old town.

The Viking walking tours appeared to be done the same as ours...small groups with a tour guide assigned to a particular colored sign...blue group, red group, etc. Not sure if they had the headphone sound system that we used.