CruiseTour Preceeding Emerald Baltic Cruise

[flourpot]

We are just finishing up our landtour starting in Budapest and ending in Berlin and are about to board the Emerald Princess in Copenhagen to set out on the Baltic cruise on the Emerald Princess. Here are my thoughts on the land portion of our cruisetour through Europe.

 

We flew into the Budapest airport and met up with a princess rep to get our transfer to the hotel. Somehow our names were not on the approved list to get the transfer, but they let us go anyway. We met our guide at the hotel and proceeded to go to a meeting with the other tourers. There were 34 total tourers that were all moving on to the Emerald at the end of the tour (no outsiders). The meeting was about an hour (way too long for being exhausted and being on no sleep). We were informed that they would be taking all of our bags, with the exception of one carry on and one piece of hand luggage. Princess told us before we left for the trip that we would not be losing our bags, so we told her we would be keeping our bags. I think we were the only ones to do so. If you are a nonsmoker, be sure to tell your guide, otherwise you will be put in smoking rooms for the whole trip.

 

After the meeting, we were taken to a 3 hour long welcome dinner. Once again, too long for having been awake for 30 hours. Choices were catfish or goulash for dinner. The catfish was much better, IMHO.

 

Budapest was beautiful. The provided map was easy to read and the city is easy to navigate. Safety is not an issue there. Free wifi is available at all McDonald's and Starbucks. The Gelato is amazing and cheap....eat all you can. Most people understand english, even if they don't speak a lot of it. They were all very nice. The hotel was very nice. Great beds! The breakfast in the mornings at each hotel was amazing. So much food!

 

Vienna was our least favorite of the land tour cities. It was very hot and extremely humid, especially inside the 40 room castle and at the concert (we only lasted half way through the concert because of the heat). The included lunch was stuffed quail or olive stuffed fish (I had the quail..pretty good). We took an optional excursion to the Vienna Woods (highly recommended). Bring your camera. You will see Rapunzel's castle, go to a monastery dating back to the 11th century (my favorite), and go to a spa town to have lunch.

 

Prague was our favorite city. On the way to Prague, we stopped at Rosenberg Castle and watched a falconry show (all in German) and had lunch. Choices were turkey, vegetarian balls (like stuffing), and breaded fish. All three were good. We wandered around the town with our map (again, very easy to navigate) and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe the first night and Bohemia Bagels for lunch the next day (across the Charles bridge and to the left in an alley....sooooo good!). There's no need to take the optional Prague by night excursion. You can walk down to the astronomical clock in about 5 minutes from the hotel. Carry the least amount possible with you when walking around and keep a hand over your pockets, especially down by the clock. There are pickpockets everywhere, so be aware of where you carry things.

 

The beds in Berlin will prepare you for the cruise ship (rather hard). We stopped in Dresden on the way to Berlin and had lunch in a restaurant there. Worst meal of the the cruise in our opinion. It was sauerbrauten or suckling pig. Neither were good. At each included meal on the tour, 2 drinks were included (wine, beer, soft drinks...I recommend Almdudler, a type of ginger ale). We went on the optional excursion about the Cold War and the WWII era. It was the best excursion of the whole tour. The included tour on the morning of the last day in Berlin was also good. The rest of our day was cut short due to major rain, wind and thunderstorms, giving us time to write this review. Tonight is the farewell dinner and we leave for the ship tomorrow.

[phabric]

Thanks for your review.

 

Hope you enjoy your cruise.

[janina]

Thanks for your review, you'll love the rest of your cruise. Be on deck when leaving stockholm and oslo, just too beautiful.:)