Danube River Cruise - October 2021

[SeaandSky5]

Hi All,

We are booked to cruise with Avalon on October 25th - with 2 days in Berlin and 2 days in Prague preceding our river cruise. This is a Danube cruise for wine lovers. 🙂  I have a couple of questions:

1. Anyone else reading this thread on this cruise with us?

2. Has anyone cruised recently to any of these countries and what has been your experience with entry requirements?

• Germany
• Austria
• Czech Republic
• Slovakia
• Hungary (just recently opened their borders, so this may be a bit premature to ask)

3. Anyone who has recently cruised here had mixed doses of vaccine? (We are both AZ + Moderna, and I think reading through all of the various requirements that the EU countries are now accepting mixed doses)

4. Has anyone cruised with Avalon since they started up again and do they provide regular testing?

5. Does anyone know if Avalon will provide COVID testing upon departure? We will need one to return to Canada, and I am fairly certain we will need a PCR test, not a rapid one. 

 

We are trying to decide if we are going to move our cruise to 2022 although this particular cruise is not offered next year from what I can see. 

Am I being overly cautious?

Thank you in advance. 

[Daisi]

If you are nervous, we just changed our Danube cruise from May 2022 to Sept 2023 through Avalon's excellent Peace of Mind plan.  You will have to decide soon if you wish to do this if you are still eligible, so if you have any qualms, you may want to consider it.

Edited August 28, 2021 by Host Jazzbeau
cleaning up after merge

[notamermaid]

@SeaandSky5 There is the consideration of the EU to recommend restricted entry to its countries again: https://www.travelpulse.com/news/impacting-travel/officials-weigh-the-cost-of-closing-eus-borders-to-american-tourists.html

 

It may be a consideration for you, if it happens. Read the tourism news closely next week.

 

I agree with Daisi that this may be best posted as a new thread.

 

notamermaid

 

[SeaandSky5]

1 hour ago, Daisi said:

Thanks, Daisi. This is definitely a consideration and we will need to decide early this week if we will move our cruise to next year. 

I will start a new topic for this particular question and will hopefully get a few responses before next week. 

Take care. 

 

You would be best to copy & paste this to a new topic.  I believe some either are or have just finished a a Danube cruise but they may not be checking out a topic for AMA or the Seine.  

 

If you are nervous, we just changed our Danube cruise from May 2022 to Sept 2023 through Avalon's excellent Peace of Mind plan.  You will have to decide soon if you wish to do this if you are still eligible, so if you have any qualms, you may want to consider it.

 

[SeaandSky5]

35 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

@SeaandSky5 There is the consideration of the EU to recommend restricted entry to its countries again: https://www.travelpulse.com/news/impacting-travel/officials-weigh-the-cost-of-closing-eus-borders-to-american-tourists.html

 

It may be a consideration for you, if it happens. Read the tourism news closely next week.

 

I agree with Daisi that this may be best posted as a new thread.

 

notamermaid

 

Thank you @notamermaid. I appreciate the link. We are Canadian but will review all the travel news out of the EU next week very closely. 

 

[notamermaid]

18 minutes ago, SeaandSky5 said:

We are Canadian

Oops, apologies. Ontario, Canada of course! I hope Canada is not drawn into this next week. As for the Danube, it is five countries you will travel through you say, so that is a bit of a worry. I understand your concern, people have reported here about problems with air travel. On the river it sounds okay right now. Hopefully someone will report directly from the river for you.

 

notamermaid

 

Edited August 28, 2021 by notamermaid

[ljandgb]

I just started another thread about our Avalon Danube trip starting tomorrow.  We are doing the full route - Germany to Hungary, with a few days in Prague beforehand.  We're in the US, so some of your questions may not apply, but I can try to answer what I can.

 

I do know Avalon said it would provide testing for the return home.

[SeaandSky5]

2 hours ago, ljandgb said:

I just started another thread about our Avalon Danube trip starting tomorrow.  We are doing the full route - Germany to Hungary, with a few days in Prague beforehand.  We're in the US, so some of your questions may not apply, but I can try to answer what I can.

 

I do know Avalon said it would provide testing for the return home.

Thank you very much! I hope your trip goes smoothly. 

 

[gnome12]

7 hours ago, SeaandSky5 said:

Does anyone know if Avalon will provide COVID testing upon departure? We will need one to return to Canada, and I am fairly certain we will need a PCR test, not a rapid one. 

There are actually a lot of acceptable tests, but the only ones you are likely to find are PCR and RT-PCR. The big one is that an antigen test is not good. I’m not sure what your route home is, but I read a blog post from someone flying back from Frankfurt and he said it was a nightmare because a whole lot of people didn’t know that they needed a PCR test (including him - a travel blogger).

[gnome12]

38 minutes ago, gnome12 said:

There are actually a lot of acceptable tests, but the only ones you are likely to find are PCR and RT-PCR. The big one is that an antigen test is not good. I’m not sure what your route home is, but I read a blog post from someone flying back from Frankfurt and he said it was a nightmare because a whole lot of people didn’t know that they needed a PCR test (including him - a travel blogger).

This is the page that lists all the acceptable tests

https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/covid-vaccinated-travellers-entering-canada#entry-vaccinated