I'm very surprised that there was a limit in the number of people on certain excursions as choose whatever you want and flexibility to change your mind were big selling points.
Yes I was very surprised too! I was under the assumption that a benefit from doing the
ABD river cruise, as opposed to a regular river cruise, was that everyone who wanted to do an excursion would be able to and that we would be able to change our minds. Yet I was told that they did not have that flexibility.
Quick questions about the restaurants:
1) You mentioned Dinner was formal. How formal?
2) The chef's table: Do they mix smaller parties on the table of 8? I actually don't mind being mixed in, and would like to experience the chef's table but am either a party of 1 or 2 on this cruise.
Dinner in the main restaurant was more "formal" to me based on the fact they served a four course meal, rather than that everyone got dressed up. Now I brought dresses every night and changed for dinner, and I was actually surprised at how many people got changed for dinner, but there were certainly many people who wore the same clothes they wore on the excursions. So you certainly did not have to change for dinner. Ama suggests "casual" attire for breakfast/lunch and "smart casual" for dinner so it really depends how you interrupt that, but I would argue that you do not need to get dressed up at all unless you want to.
For the Chef's Table, I think if everyone on the ship wanted to eat there, then they would put different parties together on the table for 8. The table for 8 is in the center of the room while the tables of 4 are along the windows. You get great views from all the tables but you are closer to the windows in the small tables. I was in a group for 7 so we made our reservation for the Chef's Table right away because we wanted to make sure we could get the large table and not be split up. You should definitely take advantage of the Chef's Table and since you will be with at least one other party anyway, I would just request being put at a 4-top or 8-top when you make your reservation.
Questions: how many people did the post-cruise extension?
Was there a/c on the motor coaches? I read a review that said the ABD coaches were not as nice as some of the other cruise companies and at one point one of them had no a/c (it was broken).
I think almost 50 people did the post-cruise extension, which greatly surprised me because I thought it was so expensive! Now a good portion of those people were the DVC/ABD execs and the film crew, but there were still a great many DVC members who did the extra night. Friends from our traveling party joined the post-cruise extension and they loved it because they got to spend more time in the Netherlands and I saw some fabulous pictures of them with the windmills. They also ate in a guildhall (I think) for the farewell dinner, which looked really cool. Veronika, Betti, and Byron were the ABD guides who led the extension and I am not sure how they will do it on future cruise.
So the coaches - ABD contracted with its own coaches and drivers for the Switzerland, France, Germany portions of the cruise. There were three main coaches that followed us up the Rhine and then we got three new ones once we were in the Netherlands. I was lucky in that the majority of the coaches we utilized for our excursions had a/c. However, one of the coaches did have broken a/c and it was a rough back from one of the excursions for all the people on that bus. The next day I was actually on that bus for an afternoon excursions and it was toasty! Fortunately we just had a 15 minute ride so we dealt with it, but for those hour or longer bus rides it would have been tough. Because ABD contracts the excursions and buses, I did not see the insides of any of the usual Ama Waterway buses so I have no idea how much nicer they were inside than ours. I was happy with the coach situation - other than the brief a/c issue that I hope would be resolved better for you summer travelers - but this is my first ABD so I do not know how the coaches normally work!
On the Danube river cruises, you were only allowed one dinner at the Chef's table. But it was included in your cruisefare. Everyone got a chance, but if you had a specific date you wanted, you needed to sign up earlier rather than later.
@*WDW*Groupie* -
@sayhello had the same experience we did! The Chef's Table is available for everyone on the ship to eat there once and yes, if you have a specific date in mind (or were trying to avoid interrupting the evening tours like we did) then I would recommend making reservations as soon as you have an idea what date you want. Because our ABD group was about 30 people smaller than a sold out tour, there were usually spots open for each Chef's Table and they kept reminding people about it so I don't know if that's normal or they were trying to encourage people to go.
I promised him that he will not be spending the week looking at churches and museums. We are planning to go to London for a few days after the cruise to make this into a 2 week vacation.
