I have experienced my first ever River Cruise thanks to CroisiEurope and the MS Vivalidi, my colleague Sarah and I spent 2 nights on-board cruising from Vienna to Linz visiting Krems and Melk along the way.
I flew from Stansted into Vienna with Lauda Motion, everything was on time and went smoothly. Once arriving into Vienna we were to make our own way to the port where the ship would be waiting for us. We were given directions for bus, train or a taxi, I chose the train option it looked quite easy and I like to use the local way around some countries – the train was so easy to use and really cheap, then a short trip on their metro and the ship was 2 mins walk from the metro stop – so if you ever needed to so this I would recommend this way it was really easy and efficient.
Pictures – The Ship
Once on-board I met up with Sarah who had flown from Manchester and we were left to have a look around the ship, on first impression the ship was so clean there was a lovely lounge area which was really brightly decorated which had a bar and an outside area at the back, a restaurant where you were served breakfast, lunch and dinner and a really lovely top deck with lots of sun loungers to enjoy the weather and views. We had a cabin on main deck just up from the reception, it was really clean, lots of storage space, lovely big windows to enjoy the views and very comfy beds!
We had a tour of Vienna by night after dinner, part of this was on a bus and part was walking around the main area of Vienna, with our ‘whispers’ round our neck and headphones in the local tour guide showed us the best bits of this lovely city. We then left Vienna at 11pm and cruised through the night and woke up in Krems the next morning, here we had until 11am to have a look around the area, we were docked 5 minute walk from the town were we had a good look around and enjoyed the lovely little village we walked up to the top of the hill so we could enjoy the view over the village and see the ship docked. One thing we did notice is that nothing was open until 11am but we weren’t there for too long anyway the walk and views were enough!
Pictures – Our lovely morning in Krems
The ship left at 11am and cruised down the Danube for a couple hours to Melk, in that time we enjoyed the beautiful views along the way and a lovely lunch! Once we got to Melk we had a tour of the Abbey again we could walk off the ship to the local area and the Abbey. With our whispers and headphones back on we were given a tour of the Abbey, the highlights of this being the library and the church – they were beautiful, I have never seen so much gold! The ship then left at 6pm, on the way to Linz we came across quite a few locks that we had to go through, this was really interesting to see.
My Overall Opinions on River Cruising and the ship –
- I really enjoyed being able to visit two beautiful little villages in one day and cruising down the Danube in the middle of the day was really lovely – something you just couldn’t experience on a normal holiday.
- The ship was lovely, had everything you needed, really clean, staff were lovely, lots of food – I couldn’t believe I was given a 3 course meal for lunch and dinner! Good job there was lots of walking either side of this!!
- There wasn’t the bells and whistles you would find on a ocean ship but I can see why not – you didn’t really need them and it wasn’t that kind of holiday, you had a full day out, a bit of music in the evening in the bar and you were ready for bed for another day of exploring!
- River Cruising will defiantly be on my list to experience again, I would like to do Budapest and areas around there maybe a Christmas Market one.
Pictures – Melk and Gala Evening