Danube Holiday River Cruise? Any feedback from Danube river cruise?

[Kristie Berg]

We're planning our first ABD trip and I want it to be the right one. I know the Danube River Cruise just launched and subsequently the holiday one hasn't happened yet, but it sounds like a magical time to do it. I was wondering if anyone that had gone on one of the first sailings this summer might shed some light on weather or not you think it's a good intro to ABD and also if it'd be worth doing during the holidays. Many thanks.

 

[aggiedog]

http://www.disboards.com/threads/dvc-exclusive-danube-river-cruise.3524853/

 

[sayhello]

I would say it could be a great intro to ABD. We had several families on our Danube cruise that were on their first ABD and fell in love with ABD. I say "could" strictly because you're not getting the full ABD experience. I'm going to be starting a Trip Report very soon, and will get into more detail, but you don't get the sense of "family" that you normally get on a land-based ABD, nor do you get to know the Adventure Guides as well. So if you keep in mind that you would still have parts of the ABD experience to see after you do the cruise, then it would be an excellent choice (also, if you add the Prague add-on, you do get to experience more of the ABD experience, if only for a couple of days. Let me know if you have any specific questions!

Sayhello

 

[WeLoveABD]

I would say it could be a great intro to ABD. We had several families on our Danube cruise that were on their first ABD and fell in love with ABD. I say "could" strictly because you're not getting the full ABD experience. I'm going to be starting a Trip Report very soon, and will get into more detail, but you don't get the sense of "family" that you normally get on a land-based ABD, nor do you get to know the Adventure Guides as well. So if you keep in mind that you would still have parts of the ABD experience to see after you do the cruise, then it would be an excellent choice (also, if you add the Prague add-on, you do get to experience more of the ABD experience, if only for a couple of days. Let me know if you have any specific questions!

Sayhello

I am very curious how they handle the guides-/ sounds like there are still two on an excursion, but as a traveller you won't have just two guides who you get to know and who know you...and the farewell slides are going to be filled with excursions one didn't go on etc.

 

[calypso726]

We're planning our first ABD trip and I want it to be the right one. I know the Danube River Cruise just launched and subsequently the holiday one hasn't happened yet, but it sounds like a magical time to do it. I was wondering if anyone that had gone on one of the first sailings this summer might shed some light on weather or not you think it's a good intro to ABD and also if it'd be worth doing during the holidays. Many thanks.

Aggiedog posted a link to my trip report from the first ABD Danube River cruise sailing. Here it is again http://www.disboards.com/threads/dvc-exclusive-danube-river-cruise.3524853/ I think it is a good intro to ABD but like Sayhello said you really won't get the full impact of what an ABD can be like. Personally, I like the land based ABD experience better because the groups tend to become like a family and you really get to know your guides better since there are only two and you spend everyday with them. I still loved doing the ABD river cruise and will certainly do another one. Heck, I'd love to do the same one we just did again. I would have loved to book the holiday river cruise. I think it is going to be beautiful and spectacular. If the first sailing hadn't been the inaugural sailing, a DVC exclusive and had I not already had the Winter in Wyoming ABD booked this year I would have seriously considered booking the holiday river cruise.

I am very curious how they handle the guides-/ sounds like there are still two on an excursion, but as a traveller you won't have just two guides who you get to know and who know you...and the farewell slides are going to be filled with excursions one didn't go on etc.

I addressed this in the trip report. We all picked our excursions the day we boarded. This gives them an idea of how many people will be on each excursion and they can plan accordingly. Each day that you leave your stateroom to go on your excursion you stop at the reception desk pick and up your security card(s) and another card that is colored to match the corresponding guide's paddle of power. That is how you know which guides you will be with when you leave the ship.

Not having the same guides and group of people is one thing I really missed about the trip. As it happens, we had Steph as our guide more often than not and she and Dean were our post trip guides as well. I would love to do an adventure with them again sometime down the line. They were great. We didn't get Jennae on any of our excursions but did talk to her periodically throughout the trip and hope to have her as a guide at some point too. Daniel and Veronica were two of the newer guides and were absolutely fantastic and I'd be delighted to travel with them again. So while we really didn't get know any of them as well as we would on a regular ABD it was nice to meet them, see them in action and get to know them enough that we'd feel lucky if they were our guides on a future ABD.

We have over 56 pages of photos that ABD took with 42 pictures on each page and the last one has 30 pictures. So that is 2,340 pictures to sort through LOL

 

[sayhello]

I am very curious how they handle the guides-/ sounds like there are still two on an excursion, but as a traveller you won't have just two guides who you get to know and who know you...and the farewell slides are going to be filled with excursions one didn't go on etc.

Yes, that's it exactly. You don't really get to know the Guides as well as you do on a "regular" ABD, where you have the same 2 Guides for every excursion & for meals, etc for a week or more. We got a bit of that on the 2 days of the post-trip add-on, and that was great. And there was no farewell slideshow, not like they do for regular ABD's. They just had a selection of photos running in a continuous loop in the Lounge after the farewell dinner. No music or mass viewing or anything. I really missed that, too. But, as you say, tons of the photos would be of people on excursions you didn't do, so there wouldn't be the inside jokes, etc, anyways.

And as calypso726 says, the Guide photos will include people & excursions you weren't on, also. That's going to take some effort to sort through!

I also really, really loved this trip, but did miss those intimate elements that were missing from the River Cruise experience.

Sayhello

 

[hilarys]

We have over 56 pages of photos that ABD took with 42 pictures on each page and the last one has 30 pictures. So that is 2,340 pictures to sort through LOL

Our guides on BSM loved to take family group photos. We have that many photos from our 5 night trip with only 33 guests!

 

[Kidoctr]

We just got back from this cruise today. Hard to believe we were just in Budapest yesterday and back to 100+ degrees at home now. I would echo everything above - this was our 3rd ABD and it's definitely different than the 2 other "traditional" ABDs that we've done. We had another couple/friends with us and this was their first ABD and they loved it - they want to do another one next year with us. We loved this cruise too and having done a whole bunch of sea cruises before, this was our first river cruise and we were pleasantly surprised at how nice the ship is, how nice the staterooms are (we were in cat AB), and how GREAT the food was (we're foodies). It's not a bad thing, per se, that we didn't get to know the Guides and other Adventurers as well - just different than what we had experienced before. I'll bet the holiday river cruise will be spectacular. Truly, anything by ABD you can't go wrong with - Disney has customer service, organization, and an understanding of the family experience down to a science.

 

[Kidoctr]

We have over 56 pages of photos that ABD took with 42 pictures on each page and the last one has 30 pictures. So that is 2,340 pictures to sort through LOL

Since we just got back home today, our pictures aren't available yet. Do you remember how long it took for the pictures to post? I'm super excited to see them.

 

[calypso726]

Since we just got back home today, our pictures aren't available yet. Do you remember how long it took for the pictures to post? I'm super excited to see them.

I didn't check until just the other day so I don't know when exactly they were up.

 

[sayhello]

My cruise ended a week ago, and our pictures are up!

YIKES!! There are 69 pages of photos!!

Sayhello

 

[sayhello]

I wonder... There were no pictures from the Prague add-on. I didn't get a separate code for that. I wonder how we get them?

Sayhello

 

[Cousin Orville]

I wonder... There were no pictures from the Prague add-on. I didn't get a separate code for that. I wonder how we get them?

Sayhello

Prague was a post cruise add on, right? Maybe it takes a couple of days more

 

[sayhello]

Prague was a post cruise add on, right? Maybe it takes a couple of days more

Maybe. I'll keep checking.

Sayhello

 

[sayhello]

I checked with ABD, and they said there *should* be a separate code for the Prague add-on, but that they didn't have any information on it yet. She suggested I check back on Friday. @calypso726, did you get a separate code for your add-on pics?

Sayhello

 

[calypso726]

Not that I recall. I will have to ask @W@LL-E