Optional tours for Uniworld's Enchanting Danube trip?

[MsBatt]

I am wondering if anyone knows if Uniworld offers optional tours on this itinerary? By this I mean on the days that we are already docked, and perhaps have one thing on the schedule. I do not mean the pre and post tours in Prague and Budapest. I thought I had read somewhere that there might be optional excursions (other than the symphony in Vienna), but I can't seem to find anything. Thanks. We are going on our first river cruise in June 2011.

[nbist]

The optional tours will differ based on which direction you are going. On our recent Passau to Budapest cruise on the River Beatrice the optionals were a helicopter ride over the Wachau Valley, evening concert in Vienna at the Hofburg Palace, tour of Schonbrunn Palace, and tour with shopping time in Szentendre, Hungary.

 

We went on the tour of Schonbrunn and to Szentendre and enjoyed both very much. The helicopter tours I thought were quite pricey. We did not go to the concert though about 2/3 of the passengers did. Some loved it saying it was the highlight of the trip for them, while others said it was crowded, chairs uncomfortable, and hot in the venue. We were pretty tired by that point of the cruise and were glad for a quiet evening and a chance to get rested for Budapest.

 

Perhaps someone can chime in with the optionals for Budapest to Passau.

 

This was a great cruise. Have fun!

[MsBatt]

We are going Passau to Budapest as well, so this is really great information. I am going to assume that the Sezendre tour was in the afternoon after the Budapest city tour? We will be spending a few days in Budapest after the cruise ends, and I was thinking about doing that privately but perhaps this is a better idea. I know that my husband will be interested in the concert evening in Vienna. That one is mentioned on the Uniworld web pages as an optional activity but I did not see anything else. When do they tell you about the optional activities? I will most likely pass on anything having to do with helicopters.

[nbist]

On our cruise the Szentendre tour was in the morning and the city tour in the afternoon, but that may not always be the case. It was a national holiday that day and they rearranged tours to accommodate that some streets in the city were going to be blocked for speeches and rallies in the morning. There was information about the optionals in the cruise information they send with your document folder and also information in your room on arrival. The cruise director will also review options as you go along. They give you plenty of information and time to sign up at the front desk.

 

We stayed in Budapest a few days after the cruise on our own at the Hilton in the Castle District (the same hotel that Uniworld used for their extension). We loved the location and the area. I would highly recommend the tour of the hospital in the rock and we also did a Puszta tour through Viator that was wonderful, though while we had only 6 people for the entire tour and at the horse show they said that in the summer there are often about 300.

[gnome12]

On the Uniworld site, if you go to Before You Go, and look down the right side you will see Cruise Companions. There is one for each tour, and it describes the itinerary in each direction fully, with included tours and optional tours detailed.

 

Don't bother printing this out, as you will get a printed one with your documents, but it should answer all these questions.

[annenic]

We are going Passau to Budapest as well, so this is really great information. I am going to assume that the Sezendre tour was in the afternoon after the Budapest city tour? We will be spending a few days in Budapest after the cruise ends, and I was thinking about doing that privately but perhaps this is a better idea. I know that my husband will be interested in the concert evening in Vienna. That one is mentioned on the Uniworld web pages as an optional activity but I did not see anything else. When do they tell you about the optional activities? I will most likely pass on anything having to do with helicopters.

 

We are just back from our River Countess cruise starting at Bucharest, Romania and finishing at Basel, Switzerland. There were a few optional tours from Budapest to Passau but not all went ahead for various reasons...

 

On board there was always a "Port Talk" a day or so prior to arrival in port and this was the venue the optional tours were offered with plenty of time for people to make decisions. There were also tours offered which had not appeared in the Cruise Companion and Shore Excursion booklet which we received with our tickets.

 

Budapest

- Socialist Statue Park and Liberty Square - didn't happen - not enough interest.

- Hungarian Puszta - this finally went ahead but at first it seemed like it would be cancelled as only about 11 people wanted to do it - the folks who did this tour absolutely loved it.

 

Vienna

- Classical music performance of Mozart and Strauss in a Vienna Concert hall - this was wonderful although very hot in the concert hall and packed in like sardines....but definitely worth it.

- Vienna Woods - didn't happen - not sure why but probably due to lack of interest.

- Schonbrunn Palace - excellent tour although weather was unco-operative and wet so was not so nice to explore gardens. Palace was sensational.

 

Passau

- Cycling along the Inn River - sadly this was cancelled at the last minute due to overnight rain.

 

Hope this helps.

[Kellie Poodle]

When we did Uniworld's Budapest to Amsterdam in 08 there was an optional tour of the Bavarian Village when we got to Passau.

 

It was a lovely place where they had collected farm houses and farm buildings from all over Bavaria. There were interesting museums there and they gave us a wonderful "snack" of sausages and beer and cheese, If I recall correctly.

 

The bus ride there was wonderful. It took us up and down the hills and through the woods. Just after leaving the dock where the boat was, we stopped at the top of a hill where we took the absolute best picture of the River Princess sitting in the river at the dock.