Just Returned from Gate 1 Danube River Cruise
 

We recently completed a Gate 1 Danube River Cruise with a 3 night pre-cruise extension in Prague and a 2 night post-cruise extension in Budapest.

In Prague, we stayed at the 5* Hotel Imperial, a lovely hotel only a few minutes walk to the Old Town Square. Rooms were on the smallish size but quite nice. The breakfast buffet was extensive and there were many restaurants in the area.

In Budapest, we stayed at the 5* Hotel Corinthia, an amazing hotel in the heart of the city. Our room was quite large in comparison to the Hotel Imperial and everything about this hotel was topnotch.

We were bussed to Nurnberg on the 4th day where we boarded the MS Sound of Music, our home for the next 7 nights. We were on the middle deck (No. 2) and had a large window that opened, which we enjoyed both for sightseeing and ventilation at night. We paid an extra $250 pp over the base fare for this cabin.

The MoS is not what I would consider a “luxury” ship but the prices are lower than those companies and I felt we got a great deal. Service was excellent and the food was good and plentiful as was the wine and beer. Entertainment onboard was varied and mostly excellent.

We had local guides at each port (Nurnberg, Regensberg, Melk, Vienna and Budapest) and they were all excellent.

We paid for the Gate 1 airport transfers and everything went smoothly on that end as well.

Considering the price we paid for this trip, I would not hesitate to travel with Gate 1 again

Great info bettyk, my dad and stepmom are looking at a river cruise for their next trip. I have used Gate 1 on land trips and they do offer a lot for the money. I never thought of Gate 1 for a river cruise but I will mention this as food for thought.

I have been looking at river cruises on other cruise lines for 2014 and prices are much higher than what we paid for our Gate 1 trip and ours included 5 nights hotel with city tours as well as the 7 night cruise.

I contacted Gate 1 about their 2014 schedule because they don't have much listed on their website. They told me that they should be published in July or August and to check back.

Betty, We are going on a Danube cruise in November with Viking and will have the extension in Prague. Could you give me more advice? What did you do in Vienna? Optional tour or on you own for the "free" afternoon? Nuremberg? Also, did you stop in Passau? What was your favorite part of Prague? If you would be so kind as to give me some advice, I would be most grateful!

marlib, if you have never been to Vienna before then I would consider the optional tour IF it is a visit to Schoenbrunn Palace. Otherwise, just walk around the old part of the city, pop into St. Stephen's cathedral, have a coffee and pastry in Demel's or one of several local landmark cafes in Vienna. In November, it may be too cold to enjoy one of the local parks, but you might want to spend time inside the beautiful Fine Arts Museum on the Ringstrasse or see the Imperial Apartments at the Hofburg Palace.

In Nuremberg, we sailed right after our morning tour. We had a little free time and we wandered around the area near the old town square. There are several nice churches and shops. But, honestly, it was raining while we there so we only wandered about a bit before finding a nice, warm coffee shop.

We did stop in Passau. Hopefully, the city will have recovered sufficiently for your visit after the horrible 500 yr floods that occurred right after we returned home. As in most of the old town centers, the Cathedral (St. Stephen's) and Rathaus (town hall) are two of the main sights as well as the lovely Baroque and Gothic architecture.

When we were in Prague, it rained the entire time so our visit wasn't as pleasant as I'd hoped. But Prague is a beautiful city. The Castle, the very large Old Town Square, and St. Vitus Cathedral were all worth seeing. We did the optional all day tour of Cesky Krumlov so our time in Prague itself was a little limited. Hopefully, we will return again with better weather and more time for exploring.

Very nice review. If we ever decide to take a river cruise Gate 1 will be seriously considered.

I just got back a week ago from a River Cruise from Amsterdam ...through Germany and onto Vienna.

marlib1951:
if you have any free time in Vienna ,then like bettyk said go vist Schonbrunn Palace and grounds.

I was in Passau also and I was very luck because all the flooding was gone and the cleanup is in progeress but it did not hamper me from seeing the places I wanted to.

In Nuremburg it was very hot about 90 F .
Like anything else , there is lots to see if you know where you are going when you have free time.

In Nuremburg you can walk the "Historic Mile" which will take you from St. Lawrence Church ( a must see) and up to the Kaiser Castle Complex perched on a hill with nice views down to Old Town Nurembug.

The Old Market Sqquare ,which is your focal point, has the "Beautiful Fountain "...take pictures here and don't forget to turn the gold ring (on the gate fence surrounding the Fountain)three times for luck !!!

Also across from the Market Square is the Lady Chapel Church...go inside,it is open and free.

Also try to time being here at 12 Noon and you will see the Clockspiel procession ,, it takes about 5-6 minutes once it starts.

There is no such thing as a favourite part of Prague ...the entire city is something to behold.

You can walk to any place you want to go in Prague.

I do not know how many days you will be in Prague...I was there a week..

Divide Prague into sections and try to see 2-3 a day.

In Prague you can walk up PetrinHill (almost in the centre of town) then when you get near the top....climb Petrin Tower for those breath taking views over Prague.

Don't get me started on Prague ,I could talk for hours about this place. :)
It is the nicest place I have seen in Europe.

( To my friend jacketwatch, congratulastion to the Blackhawks !!! :) )

Percy my main man!! What a series, what an ending. And now the business of hockey has moved on, Bolland and Frolick have both been traded for draft picks but that freed up money to resign Bickell. We are so lucky to have witnessed such an unbelievable ending. Welcome back sir!

Thank You jacketwatch.

I did not get much hockey news in Europe but I did manage to see the hilites.

and I was home on the day of the final game to see those two quicks goals!!!

Oops sorry to hijack your thread bettyk.
Back to travel business now !!

Thanks, Betty & Percy for all the information!

We joined the "sound of music" recently in may of 2013.I do not recommend this cruise to anyone wishing to cruise.From a scale of satisfaction of 1 to 10 our satisfaction barely reached 1.The ships facilities are of the poorest quality that you can imagine.Although the housekeeping staff was the only friendly and helpful staff, the food was horrible and never coming out in time to us.We have even found a " screw" in our soup.Everybody from the staff including the executive chef Viktor Szoboszlai and a person named Richard I guess,who is a corporate chef from the office of the River Advice company tried to make up with different excuses.The food was either salty or with no taste,or with the seasonings missing.
One night when we made a complaint about the food,this c..ks....r executive chef was trying to say that he is the best chef in the world and he doesn't think that he needs cooking lessons from some stupid Americans....I will never forget this cruise for the rest of my life.

sjohn, I find it hard to believe that you were on the same ship that we were on also in May 2013!!

Our experience was completely different as you can see from my posts.

I heard no one complain about the food or much else on our cruise. But I guess it is difficult to please everyone.

We are certainly concerned by the comments about the food on the Sound of Music. Please contact our customer service department with your booking information as we would like the opportunity to review your concerns.

As this was the only post ever by sjohn, I doubt you will hear anything from him/her.

bettyk great report, I never thought much about going on a river cruise but from your report I will put it on my new things to try list, once again great trip report.

bettyk, thanks for the info on Gate 1 and your river cruise on Sound of Music. We are on the email list for Gate 1 and I wondered how booking a cruise/trip with them would be. After reading your report, would definitely consider them for future cruises. We have done one river cruise but not been to Prague and that is on my wish list. We have been to Christmas Markets in Nuremberg. We took a tour of the Documentation Center and found this to be a most sobering experience.

While you can book directly with Gate 1, I was happy with our booking via Vacations to Go. The agent I spoke with took good care of us and we saved an additional $100 per person with their sale.

We are going in a few weeks with Gate 1. How does the wine and beer work? We like to sit and have a glass of wine before dinner. Is that possible or are you only served wine during the meal?

This discussion is from 2013!

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benh, this is an old post however I think this will answer your ?. Tho we’ve not done a river cruise with Gate1 I can tell you, yes, you can always have a glass of wine, beer or whatever outside of dining times, when wine and beer is included, you’ll just have to pay, unless you have some type of spirits package. Hope this answers your question. Enjoy your river cruise.