Vantage Elbe (merged)

[labguides]

This was our first river cruise. Prior to leaving , we had many questions and found that Vantage customer service was less than helpful . We wanted to know how many hours we would be in each port and how much free time we would have . Is this info usually available o river cruises prior to departure ?

 

We had three days in Berlin on our prior to cruise. We had been in Berlin previously and knew that we wanted plenty of time in that city . We were pleased that we had planned the time on our own as Vantage's tour of Berlin was a fast overview. The highlight of Vantage Berlin was hearing a woman speak about her experience as the child of a woman who was part of the resistance in WWII.

[labguides]

In part I, I did not mention that this was on the Chopin which is not owned by Vantage.

We were bussed

To Postdam for exterior tour of San Socui and interior tour of Cecilienhof Palace. Our local guide was very knowledgable as were all the city guides.

This was our first night on the boat. Our Juliet balcony room ( basically a window that opens) was adequate. It was the size I had expected. This boat has space for about 76 passengers and there were about 64 passengers onboard. I like the small size boat.

 

This was our first river boat cruise so some of my expectations were based on cruise ship experience. There was not food available all day. There was coffee/tea available all day. Late afternoon, pepperidge farm type cookies were available.

 

The food was good but nothing outstanding. A small lunch was available in the lounge as was early small breakfast . All meals were served as the same seating.

[labguides]

Magdenberg was one of our stops .About 82% of this town was destroyed in WWII. We toured the church with the largest nave. We had time at Hunderwasser shops/apts. the architecture is interesting and unusual. We did not have time to explore on our own.

 

Our cruise director gave thorough lecture about Martin Luther before we went to Wittenberg where we toured Luther's home.

 

Missen-Dresden we toured a Missen factory where we watched each step of making this porcelain done by hand. Even with rain, we headed out on walking tour. Such a fascinating city. The following morning we could do a walking tour of Green Vault or head out on our own. We opted to walk around Dresden on our own.

 

One of our disappointments with this cruise was lack of free time in each city when we could explore on our own .

 

Our cruise director gave daily talks each evening about the ports for the next day. He was knowledgable which helped prepare us for each port.

[labguides]

The scenery along the Elbe is pretty. A highlight of trip was dinner at the Nelahozeves castle in Melnik. We were greeted by trumpeters in the courtyard , followed by champagne reception, then string quartet concert before lovely dinner.

It was a steep hike from the bus to the castle.

 

Due to repair of a lock, we were unable to cruise into Prague. In place of this, we docked Litomerice. It was a walk a steep into the town. We enjoyed time to walk the town square and time to enjoy a pastry.

 

We were bussed into Prague for a walking tour of St Vitus and a private Styhov Monastary Theology museum . This entire area was jammed with tourists due to holiday, hockey tourney and marathon. Our guide was excellent and kept us moving but gave very little time to appreciate the area. I don't feel it was the guide 's fault. She knew what she has been told to include . The powers that be did not take into consideration of the holiday crowds . Our guide made lunch reservations for us which helped with the crowds .

[labguides]

We had walking tour of Prague during the marathon. Our cruise guide was marvelous at getting us around the marathon while still letting us take in excitement of marathon.

This all ended with final dinner in hotel.

Would we do another river cruise? Would we do it on Vantage? Maybe. Our only complaints were lack of time on our own in each city and poor customer service prior to cruise. The rest of it was great.

 

We did not have Vantage arrange our air. We stayed in Prague an extra day and the headed on our own in Europe for Two weeks.

[beesKate]

I think most river cruise lines will not provide specific information on amount of time in port and the amount of free time. Although they plan for a "morning" here or an "afternoon" there... they don't want to report exact times because things on the river can fluctuate.

It's a situation of managing expectations... if they told passengers they'd have 3 hours in a specific port, and they ended up needing to pull away 15 minutes early because of water levels, lock issues, who knows what... they'd have people complaining. I can understand their approach of not giving this kind of specific information.

Even though I am a big fan of Uniworld cruises, contacting them directly just leads to frustrations... look at their online "forum" where few answers are directly given nor do they seem to moderate their boards. You can email them, but we've never done that so I don't know how responsive they are there.

I would say what you experienced is not unusual.

[cole]

This was our first river cruise. Prior to leaving , we had many questions and found that Vantage customer service was less than helpful . We wanted to know how many hours we would be in each port and how much free time we would have . Is this info usually available o river cruises prior to departure ?

 

We had three days in Berlin on our prior to cruise. We had been in Berlin previously and knew that we wanted plenty of time in that city . We were pleased that we had planned the time on our own as Vantage's tour of Berlin was a fast overview. The highlight of Vantage Berlin was hearing a woman speak about her experience as the child of a woman who was part of the resistance in WWII.

 

I believe we were on the same cruise and prior to leaving, found that questions and answers on Cruise Critic provided much more information than anything I could find or get from the Vantage office. One more reason I always search this website for my information. Other CC folks are so helpful!

Cole

[CPT Trips]

Both on CC and no "Meet and Greet?" ;) ;)

[CPT Trips]

If read you correctly, your major concern with the customer service was their inability to give you port times. From my experience, this is not unusual with river cruising. There are just too many complications that may arise that the best one seems able to get is a vague, morning, afternoon, during dinner, etc. doesn't seem to matter which line.

[caviargal]

Berlin is one of my favorite cities anywhere. We will be there for the 6th time in November, prior to our Rhine cruise.

[Host Jazzbeau]

This was our first river cruise. Prior to leaving , we had many questions and found that Vantage customer service was less than helpful ...

 

Would we do another river cruise? Would we do it on Vantage? Maybe. Our only complaints were lack of time on our own in each city and poor customer service prior to cruise. The rest of it was great.

 

From what you have said, it sounds like you had a typical river cruise and were only let down by your expectation that it would resemble ocean cruising more than it does. I would suggest that as you plan your next river cruise, start with the Sticky at the top of this forum as well as some general reading through the threads here. That will explain the differences between ocean and river cruising so that you will know what is reasonable both from customer service and on the cruise itself. And the friendly folks here will gladly answer any further questions that come up.

[FuelScience]

labguides,

 

Thanks for the review. How long did it take to get from the ship to Witttenberg and the Meissen factory? Did you spend a lot of time that day on busses?

 

FuelScience