Anybody done a APT river cruise

On Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:03:53 +1030, "Jim Smith"
wrote:

>Anybody done a APT river cruise?
>
>I am doing a "Magnificent Europe" Tour in October. Budapest to Amsterdam
>A few questions are :-
>The itenery they provide dosent quite work [they say its the reverse of the
>Amsterdam-Budapest itinery].
>What power point fittings in the cabin? (Euopean round plugs, square,
>multi, etc.) will want to use my laptop and want to bring the correct plug.
>Any tips? brickbats?
>
>Jim

Normally river ships have standard European round 2-pin plugs.

As far as itineraries are concerned, get as much detail from the
tour-operator as possible. Insist on speaking to a product manager if
someone in a call-centre is unaware of the details. The scenic
highlights should be done in daylight, e.g. Danube Bend, Wachau
district of Austria, Rhine Gorge Rüdesheim - Koblenz. The River Main
is wonderful in places too. Find out how much you'll miss seeing by
overnight sailing.

Beware, too, of "shore excursions" by tour-bus. Some of them go from A
to B by road whilst the ship sails from A to B so again, you might
miss out on sailing a scenic stretch of river.

If excursions are optional and you have to pay extra for them, beware
of pre-booking. If you decide not to go because it's chucking it down
with rain, you won't get your money back. Better to decide on board
what excursions you want to do.

Haven't done an APT cruise, but worked for several other companies
doing Rhine, Moselle, Danube and Netherlands Inland Waterway cruises.



>


Keith (formerly of Bristol UK)
now moved to Berlin/nach Berlin umgezogen
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On 2/24/2008 3:33 PM Jim Smith ignored two million years of human
evolution to write:

> Anybody done a APT river cruise?
>
> I am doing a "Magnificent Europe" Tour in October. Budapest to Amsterdam
> A few questions are :-
> The itenery they provide dosent quite work [they say its the reverse of the
> Amsterdam-Budapest itinery].
> What power point fittings in the cabin? (Euopean round plugs, square,
> multi, etc.) will want to use my laptop and want to bring the correct plug.
> Any tips? brickbats?

I have, and posted a bit about it earlier in a thread about hotels
I'd booked last December. We took an Avalon cruise from Vienna to
Prague, billed as a river cruise up the Danube.

I had never done any kind of cruise before, and while the room was
adequately comfortable (if a bit small) and food on-board was all right,
I doubt I'll ever do a cruise of any kind again; it's just not my kind
of travel. It seemed to be a nice sort of cocoon for the Yanks, Kiwis,
Aussies, and Canucks on board, the kind of thing I don't need or care
about, since I can communicate just find in German. The cruise ended
at Nürnberg, and we escaped the boat for a nice Christmas goose dinner,
eschewing the turkey dinner served on-board. The cruise line loaded us
all into a bus for an easy trip to Prague.

Reverse itineraries may have compromises, but it'll still be more or
less similar to the forward itinerary. Power points are European-style
round-pin plugs. In some cities, you won't be anywhere near the center
of town when you dock (Nurnberg in particular; we had to figure out a
walk-bus-train combination to get into town), while others will place
you comfortably close to public transport (Vienna, for instance) or
the city center. Bus tours will be organized for just about everywhere,
many (but not all) of them included in the overall cruise price. Fine
for some people, but that kind of thing drives me up a wall. Just give
me a map and a ticket for the public transport, and I'll sort it on my
own, thank you very much.
--
dgs
--
dgs
 >> Stay informed about: Anybody done a APT river cruise