Reservations required for ABD river cruise excursions?

[Eastridge]

I recently heard that all ABD river cruises now require advance reservations for the excursions. I know that was required for the Rhine cruise but I thought the Danube didn’t require those.

If you recently went on an ABD Holland, Danube or Rhone cruise, can you confirm that you had to reserve excursions in advance? If so, how far in advance could you reserve?

Thanks

 

[Mathmagicland]

I recently heard that all ABD river cruises now require advance reservations for the excursions. I know that was required for the Rhine cruise but I thought the Danube didn’t require those.

If you recently went on an ABD Holland, Danube or Rhone cruise, can you confirm that you had to reserve excursions in advance? If so, how far in advance could you reserve?

Thanks

We were not forced to make choices early. We given the opportunity to make early excursion choices approx 10weeks prior to departure if we chose to do so, and this was via an email with a date when choices could start being sent in. I was told adding or changing choices after on board could not be guaranteed and would be on a space available basis only.

I sent in choices for some but not all, as I wasn’t sure on a couple of them. We were not locked to those choices, as we were given the opportunity to change or add choices with the guides during the first night on board. I added the couple I had not made ahead of time. After that first night, some excursions were locked in or full as I later overhead someone wanting to make a change for one the day of, and they were told that was not possible. We could drop our choices later, as I ended up dropping two of mine the day before, when the port locations were unexpectedly changed due to river circumstances, and I chose to spend time in the towns on my own instead.

This was all for the sold-out Tulip Time Holland and Belgium this past April. I can’t speak to how it might work on others. The Rhone will have its first sailings starting next June 2026, as the Covid-timing departures ended up being cancelled.

 

[Eastridge]

Thanks for sharing your experience on the Holland cruise!