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European River Cruises?



 
 
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  #1  
Old April 3rd, 2004, 01:42 PM
Dan W
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Default European River Cruises?

Wife and I are thinking of doing a river cruise on the Rhine next year.
Anyone have any recommendations?


_
(_) Daniel Warren, RPh
_______// Marion NY
(________) Clinical Pharmacist
\ /
| Rx |
/______\
(________)

  #2  
Old April 3rd, 2004, 06:12 PM
Mike Cordelli
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Default European River Cruises?

We've taken Uniworld on a couple of river cruises in Germany (Christmas
markets) and France (the wine cruise just as they were starting to pick the
grapes). Both were excellent, indeed the wine cruise was one of the best
vacations we have ever taken. E-mail me if you want more details.

There are some downsides, the ships are very small, like 100 people or so
(that could be an upside too), they aren't as formal as larger cruises, and
you are totally at the mercy of the rivers. First time rivers had too much
water for the ship to get under some of the bridges, so some trips were
longer bus rides then planned, second trip rivers were very low and
navagitation was difficult at times (though they rearranged their schedules
for us to make it all).

Also consider doing cruise line air on this one, if the river conditions
don't let you get back to the port you were planning on flying from (like
the first one) you will be in for a real mess trying to change your flights.
Besides, if it's like the last two years, cruise air will be free or next to
nothing.


"Dan W" wrote in message
...
Wife and I are thinking of doing a river cruise on the Rhine next year.
Anyone have any recommendations?


_
(_) Daniel Warren, RPh
_______// Marion NY
(________) Clinical Pharmacist
\ /
| Rx |
/______\
(________)



  #4  
Old April 4th, 2004, 01:07 AM
Mike Cordelli
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Default European River Cruises?

Not a problem at all.

The German Christmas markets one that started the week after Thanksgiving in
2002 had rivers that were too high for some of the bridges. There was
intense flooding in parts of the area, there was water hundreds of yards
from the river bank, one place had a soccer field where all you could see
was the tops of the goals. The ship was supposed to get us in someplace
where we would fly from Munich to come home, they couldn't go down that
river at all, so everybody ended up in Frankfurt instead for their flights.
That was on the River Princess

We started in Cologne and found our way to Rudesheim, Heidelberg,
Rothenberg, Nuremberg, and Frankfurt. The river that got us close to
Nuremberg was too high at one bridge, so that became a very long (two and a
half hour) bus ride from where the ship was. We loved it so much though
that we flew over and revisited several of those locations this year by
land.

It gave us the ability to stop at a few places not planned which worked out
perfectly.

We were on the Rhone Princess the first week of August last year (03) and it
was in the middle of their drought and heat wave, the rivers were quote low.
The Rhone Princess takes up very little space under water, so it was fine,
there were places where normally two ships could pass at once, but because
of the shallow water, one had to wait for the other to go by.

That trip was from Lyon to Arles, and it was wonderful. Grape picking
season was the earliest it ever was in history, so we were there literally a
week before they started picking.

Cabin selection - I don't see that much of a difference. The two or three
decks on the Uniworld ships tend to have as their differences the size of
the window. We went for the second level with the picture window and in
both cases were moved up to the upper deck with the larger windows. Being
in a higher deck also meant your window wasn't at eye level when the boat
was docked.

In each of the towns we docked in the ship was within walking distance of
the center of town. Many of the smaller towns on the French cruise were
only two or three streets wide, with one town on one side of the river, and
another on the other side. But we never docked in the middle of noplace,
never took a cab to get anywhere, etc. Very good restaurants and bars were
always within walking distance (the food on the ship was quite good, but at
the same time, you are in France, and some of the best food is available for
very little money, so we ate out as much as we ate in, usually a group of
six or eight of us would go for dinner, and wine).





"RTCReferee" wrote in message
...
"Mike Cordelli" wrote:

Instead of email, would you mind answering a few questions here, please,

for
the benefit of all?

Which boats were you on?
Which month and which river was too high?
Which month and which river was too low?

How important is cabin selection on these cruises?
How close do the boats dock to the centers of town?
What was the route of your German Christmas market cruise?

Thanks.



  #5  
Old April 4th, 2004, 01:55 AM
RTCReferee
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Posts: n/a
Default European River Cruises?

Thanks for your detailed and quick response.

We would like to take one of these river cruises in Europe. There is a river
barge, as opposed to canal barge, that does the Provence area, too, that looks
intere$ting.
 




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