What is the most reasonably priced way to get from Nuremburg to Munich? We will be getting off from a river cruise and need to get to Munich to fly home.

Just book a train at the German Railways site www.bahn.de/en from €19 or so if you pre-book.

Train is definitely the easiest and possibly the fastest but if you're a tightwad, then you can look into a rideshare: http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de/ (it shows a bus fare as low as 5 Euro).

Buy a Bayern Pass, which is very cheap, and gives you unlimited travel within Bayern region by train. If you are 2 people traveling together, the pass will cost only 26 Euros. For one person I think it is about 20 Euros or so.

If you are traveling on a weekday, I think you can only hop on a train after 9am or so on this pass. Valid on all Regional trains. Will also cover all forms of other transport also (subway, trams, bus etc in both Munich and Nuremberg on that day). Great value for money.

A Bayern Pass might be the most cost-effective train travel, depending on how many is in "we".

The beauty of the Bavarian Pass is that you do not need to pre-book - just buy the pass and hop on any regional train - these trains may take longer and are not as comfy but you are not stuck in a specific train that you must buy weeks in advance to get - you probably do not know exactly when you will get off the cruise, etc - so the Bayern Pass is the cheapest deal (besides the bus which probably has sporadic departures - so ignore Man in seat 61's advice in this matter and do the Bavarian Pass that lets you jump on any regional train and will be cheaper if two or more are traveling even then the discounted fast train tickets.

For lots of great tips about German trains check out these IMO fantastic sites - www.seat61.com (Man in seat 61 who posts above his commercial site); www.ricksteves.com and http://www.budgeteuropetravel.com/id9.html.

Anogther plus of the Bavarian Pass over the 19 euro discounted fares (which are not nearly always available) is that you can use it for buses and trams and U-Bahns and S-bahns the rest of the day in Munich - not so with the 19 euro fast train ticket.

There are few direct regional ('D') trains running between Nurnberg and Munich but there are frequent rial links by taking D (regional) trains from Nurnberg to Ingolstadt and changing to another D train to Munich- this way regional trains would take about two hours all told including the change in Ingolstadt vs 1 h 10 min to 1 h 24 minutes by direct ICE trains.

Regional trains are not nearly as comfy as ICE trains IME, even having hard metal or plastic seats at times but the value for the OP is arriving by cruise you never really know when you will get to the Nurnberg train station so unless you want to build a lot of fudge time in and then perhaps be left twiddling your thumbs for a few hours - and with full fare so so high the most cost-effective way is to buy the Bavarian Pass and use i on regional trains - clearly marked as 'D" trains on schedules and overhead signs on the platform - do not be afraid of getting on much fancier ICE trains be mistake.

So the suggestion of getting a 19 euro fare on ICE should be qualified in this case - unless the person does know exactly when they can get to Nurnberg's train station.

Sorry pal.. no more "D" trains.. they have vanished in my youth

OP should use the Bayern ticket, though.
The direct regional express trains (RE trains) use the highspeed line between Nuremberg and Munich.
So they don't need much longer than ICE trains. And they are almost as comfortable (no plastic seats).
In addition to the direct line via Ingolstadt, there is another line from Nuremberg to Munich via Regensburg. That latter route is indeed time-consuming and should be avoided.
In any case, the validity of the Bayern ticket also for subways, trams, S-Bahn, in MUnich (and Nuremberg) is also worth mentioning as Pal did. OP will not have to fiddle around with the Byazantine fare system in Munich to get a S-Bahn ticket from central station to airport.

Sorry pal.. no more "D" trains.. they have vanished in my youth>

I'll have to check but I got the 'D' think off the www.bahn.de site just before I posted.

If you look for a snack in Nuremberg railway station, go to the butcher in the main hall (place 41 in this plan) http://www.einkaufsbahnhof.de/de/nuernberg/lageplan

After a dozen years of business travel, it's in my top 2 list of fastfood shops in Germany. If I get to Nuremberg or need to change trains there, I always try to get some of their sausages or a beef patty in a bun.

Pal.. in all fairness, I must admit that there are literally a handful of "D" trains left. Usually as "D-Night" sleeper trains towards Southeastern Europe destinations.
As regular day trains you have regional trains like IRE, RE and RB trains - which can be used with the day passes like the Bayern ticket.
And long-distance trains of the types of IR, IC and ICE - which must not be used with the Bayern ticket.
These labels for trains are only used by Deutsche Bahn, though.
The other railway companies use different designations, usually an abbreviation of the company name and not by type of trains, like BOB, BRB, NOB, Metronom, ALEX, Connex and dozens other. For ticketing purposes also those "non-Deutsche Bahn" services can (mostly) be used with day passes like the Bayern ticket.
Actually, the Bayern ticket is also valid on most regional bus lines in Bavaria, as on any "Verkehrsverbund" means of transportation from city buses to subway, and the regional trains.
So, in fact, it is not a rail pass only, but a day pass for (almost) any type of public transport in the state. Those services which do not accept the day passes are usually some regional bus lines - but the exemptions are that few that it has hardly any relevance.