Just finished great Rhine River cruise!

quinnc19

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 18, 2008
I'm sad that my trip is over, but I wanted to post to say that we had a great time and in fact everyone I spoke to said they also had a great time. I didn't hear any real complaints about anything. Everyone seemed happy with the excursions, dining, guides, etc. It was really fantastic. There were evening activities scheduled on most of the evenings. On a couple of occasions the guides spoke about themselves and their lives in other countries, which was really wonderful. And they also had a free cocktail hour to encourage guests to mingle. I thought it was a great combination of what's best about the land-based trips and what's best about the cruises. I'm definitely going to be doing another one in the future! Please let me know if you have any questions.
 
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You should definitely consider doing the Danube one. I enjoyed the Rhine river but some of the ports we stopped at on my Amawaterways cruise were dreadful (a warehouse parking lot for example). With the Disney Amawaterways Danube cruise with every stop you could go out on a walk and explore shops, restaurants, really close to the ship.
 
We will be doing the Rhine on 7/23. What excursions did you do? Any tips?
 


We are on the July 2nd cruise. Any info on transfers from the airport, from the hotel to the ship, how embarkation works, etc.?
 
We are on the July 2nd cruise. Any info on transfers from the airport, from the hotel to the ship, how embarkation works, etc.?
I took a taxi from my non-Disney hotel, but we were one of the first to board and the staff were very helpful in helping me get to a design museum I wanted to tour in Germany. There were food and beverage offerings available when I boarded at 12 and then more were available when we returned about 430, which was all aboard time.
 


How is the level of service in comparison to DCL?

I thought it was at least on par with DCL. The AMAWaterway's crew were wonderful. It was also kind of nice to know they weren't doing it for just for tips, since they were already included. In terms of the ABD guides, I also thought they were outstanding and that we got to know most of them over the course of the week. I think it was helpful that they had a few presentations that the guides did about themselves, where they were from, etc. Particularly impressive were Betti's discussion of how she was ashamed to be German growing up (and how she overcame that) and Veronika's discussion of her escape from communist Hungary as a child.
 
We will be doing the Rhine on 7/23. What excursions did you do? Any tips?
We really enjoyed our excursions and from the discussions with some other folks later on, we would've been happy to do alternate ones as well . The one that my daughter and I both thought was completely outstanding was the canoe trip in Strasbourg. She also really liked the horseback riding and I enjoyed it but I wouldn't put it as my top experience. And we both also really enjoyed the tour of the Van Gogh Museum and the painting workshop. I had been to that museum before and thought that the docent really added to my enjoyment of it. And the painting workshop was well done with a surprise that I will not disclose here. One thing though, the painting was fairly large and would not fit in our carry-on bags , so FYI. In contrast, the clog was quite small so maybe that will help you in planning :-)
 
One thing I wished I figured out earlier on in the cruise was that you can get a mimosa at breakfast! Another tip is I thought the coffee from the fancy espresso machine was far superior to what was served in the dining room. So, I would bring my own mug down to breakfast, and then get a to go cup if I was running late for an excursion.
 
We are on the July 2nd cruise. Any info on transfers from the airport, from the hotel to the ship, how embarkation works, etc.?

We did a pre-night booked through ABD and they picked us up at the airport.

From the hotel to the ship you could either take a bus at 12pm or 3pm to the ship from the hotel. The adventure guides were in the lobby taking down people's choices for excursions.

Embarkation was pretty much just walk on and get your key if you're there after 3pm.
 
Thanks for the info! We are staying at the Radisson Blu, which is the ABD hotel, but booked on our own since it was so much cheaper that way. I assume that means we need to do our own transfers from the airport, which is fine. Good tip on the mimosas and coffee! So glad to hear you had fun.
 
Thanks for the info! We are staying at the Radisson Blu, which is the ABD hotel, but booked on our own since it was so much cheaper that way. I assume that means we need to do our own transfers from the airport, which is fine. Good tip on the mimosas and coffee! So glad to hear you had fun.
I would check what the current policy is with ABD. Sometimes, if you're staying at the ABD hotel, they'll still give you the airport transfers even if you booked the pre-night yourself. The policy keeps changing, so ABD is really the only one that can tell you for sure.

Sayhello
 
Thanks to all for the information. The river cruises are something I am considering to do in the future.
 
We just finished our Rhine cruise today. We had an amazing time! My two daughters 6 and 8 had the time of their life. The adventure guides were great- they bonded so well with kids and adults alike. The ship was amazing and we really loved the size. It never felt crowded and it was great getting to know the other guests. We had such a great time! A couple of tips:

After the first day you can't really change your activities so give some thought to your plans
We did the horseback riding and I would probably pass on that adventure- it was about 4 hours of driving for the day and the horseback riding was fine but not amazing. It seemed like the other groups enjoyed their adventure more.
The canoeing was such a great experience. I highly recommend it!
The Van Gogh painting and clog experiences were both great- but as someone mentioned above it's a full size canvas. so leave some space in your suitcase!
Don't feel like you have to go to every activity- by the end of the week you are exhausted- so don't feel guilty with enjoying some down time or taking a couple of hours to just wander at your own pace.
The guides host a junior adventurer dinner every night and it's a great way for the kids to make friends and for the adults to have some alone time. Encourage your kids to check it out.
 
Thanks for the info! We are staying at the Radisson Blu, which is the ABD hotel, but booked on our own since it was so much cheaper that way. I assume that means we need to do our own transfers from the airport, which is fine. Good tip on the mimosas and coffee! So glad to hear you had fun.
We also booked the Raddison on our own. We still were able to have Disney take our luggage from the hotel and could also use the transfer if we wanted. We actually ended up just walking to the ship once we finished walking around Basel. It was an easy walk- probably a mile 1 1/2 mile walk.
We did have to get our own Taxi to the hotel.
 
We're onboard right now. If anyone has questions, I'll try to answer. So far, it's been fine. Not totally amazing, though the zip lining was fun, but nice. Anyway, if anyone does have questions, happy to try to answer as best I can.
 
We also booked the Raddison on our own. We still were able to have Disney take our luggage from the hotel and could also use the transfer if we wanted. We actually ended up just walking to the ship once we finished walking around Basel. It was an easy walk- probably a mile 1 1/2 mile walk.
We did have to get our own Taxi to the hotel.

I'm curious. Is this where you met the ship?

https://goo.gl/maps/byHhARN6rHN2
 
Yes that looks right. I think sometime location can vary a bit but that is where our boat and Viking ship was last week
 

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