Trip Report! ABD Danube River Cruise w/Prague Add-on !!UPDATED!! 9/17/17 Re-posted all the Photos!!

[alldiz]

Hi sayhello quick question.

Does the river cruise have a kids menu... My 14 yr old good traveler but terrible eater:-(
Also on regular ABD, did u notice if they have kids menu?'
Thanks
Kerri

 

[sayhello]

Hi sayhello quick question.

Does the river cruise have a kids menu... My 14 yr old good traveler but terrible eater:-(
Also on regular ABD, did u notice if they have kids menu?'
Thanks
Kerri

Hi, Kerri. I don't have kids, so I wasn't totally paying attention to that. I'm sure someone who does will answer.

That said, the kids frequently ate dinner upstairs in the Lounge with the Adventure Guides, and they had a more kid-friendly menu up there from what I was told. And the breakfasts and lunches onboard were buffets (with an option to order off a menu, too). So there was a lot of selection.

On the couple of excursions that included lunch, I know there were kids' options in Salzburg, I don't recall about the Lazar Equestrian park. And for the first dinner on the Prague add-on, they had a kid's option.

And the only non-Adults-Only ABD's I've taken with kids have both been cruises (River cruise and ABD-add-on to the Med cruise). So most of the meals were on the ships (I know the Magic had kids' meals!) but I don't recall about the lunches on shore.

Sorry I can't be more helpful, I'm sure you'll get some answers from DISers who traveled with children (or are more observant than I am).

You might want to start a separate thread asking your question, as some folks might not see it embedded in this thread.

Sayhello

 

[alldiz]

Thanks I will for sure when I book!
Although most likely no ABD till 2018 or 19:-( All booked up already lol... Next year is med cruise in April and then Disneyland, Aulani and and Hawai cruise July Then 2018 will be daughter disneyworld trip with her friends instead of sweet 16. So don't know if we can swing it that year. So many trips I want so little time
Thanks
Kerri

Hi, Kerri. I don't have kids, so I wasn't totally paying attention to that. I'm sure someone who does will answer.

That said, the kids frequently ate dinner upstairs in the Lounge with the Adventure Guides, and they had a more kid-friendly menu up there from what I was told. And the breakfasts and lunches onboard were buffets (with an option to order off a menu, too). So there was a lot of selection.

On the couple of excursions that included lunch, I know there were kids' options in Salzburg, I don't recall about the Lazar Equestrian park. And for the first dinner on the Prague add-on, they had a kid's option.

And the only non-Adults-Only ABD's I've taken with kids have both been cruises (River cruise and ABD-add-on to the Med cruise). So most of the meals were on the ships (I know the Magic had kids' meals!) but I don't recall about the lunches on shore.

Sorry I can't be more helpful, I'm sure you'll get some answers from DISers who traveled with children (or are more observant than I am).

You might want to start a separate thread asking your question, as some folks might not see it embedded in this thread.

Sayhello

 

[sayhello]

Thanks I will for sure when I book!
Although most likely no ABD till 2018 or 19:-( All booked up already lol... Next year is med cruise in April and then Disneyland, Aulani and and Hawai cruise July Then 2018 will be daughter disneyworld trip with her friends instead of sweet 16. So don't know if we can swing it that year. So many trips I want so little time
Thanks
Kerri

I totally get the so many trips, so little time thing!
By the way, I was just looking over calypso726's trip report, and she said there *was* a kid's menu on the ship, on the back of the normal menu! She posted a photo of one on this page of her report:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/dvc-exclusive-danube-river-cruise.3524853/page-4

Sayhello

 

[sayhello]

Day 4 – Vienna, Austria – City tour & Schönbrunn Palace, OYO time, the Spanish Riding School & Mozart & Strauss Concert

So this morning, we awoke in Vienna! We had a long, but fabulous day ahead of us. The meeting time to get started depended on the color group you were assigned to. (I don’t recall for sure, but I’m pretty sure we got our colors the night before so we’d know which group we were in). I assume it was to facilitate the staggering of our activities at Schönbrunn. There was only a 15 minute difference, so it wasn’t that big a deal. (Although, at the time, I REALLY wanted to be in the group that got that extra 15 minutes of sleep!)

My group got started at 8:15am. We boarded our motorcoach for a city tour of Vienna. Our driver definitely took the long way to get there so we could see the sights along with commentary from him on what we were seeing. It wasn’t just a nice euphemism for the bus ride to Schönbrunn Palace.

Not sure what this place is, but I really liked the looks of it.

This wheel was part of an amusement park that is currently undergoing expansion.

The non-risky way to swim the Danube River.

More cool buildings

Then we arrived at the very impressive Schönbrunn Palace. Much of the grounds are a public park now, with some areas requiring admission to see.

We headed straight to our first activity: The Strudelshow (strudel making demonstration).

The audience area was set up with bistro-type tables and chairs, and they had the most amazing slices of strudel sitting at all the places, waiting for us. (We also got soft drinks, coffee, etc., with our strudel).

We had a young woman doing our demonstration, and she was so cute and enthusiastic! And talented! She showed us how they stretched the dough out, much like you see them do with pizza dough, but she did it with her fore-arm! Watch the video



She stretched it so thin, you could see the brochure through it!

That’s a serious log full of filling!!

This part is so clever! Never would have occurred to me.



After the Strudelshow, we headed back out to the main courtyard of the Palace for the requisite photo taking.

At this point, the kids all went off with 2 of the Guides to a special area they had set up for them to play games, dress up, etc. The adults went for a tour of the Palace itself. It was lovely and opulent as all such Palaces are. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed! It was quite a lovely Palace.

After our tour of the Palace, we had some free time to shop at the gift shop or wander around the grounds before we were to meet up again in the main courtyard. I decided to hit the gardens around the back of the Palace. There were parts of the gardens that were fenced off and required a separate entrance fee to go in, but the areas that were open to the public were more than large enough and lovely enough to occupy me during the short free time we had.

Peeking into the fenced off area.

The lovely public gardens of Schönbrunn.

I thought this was a cool statue of lovers. I totally didn't notice the guy underneath until I looked at this photo later. Makes me wonder what's going on??

After my wanderings (I made a complete circle around the building) I made it back to the courtyard JUST in time for our meet-up (and reunion with the Junior Adventurers). We then walked over to a building where they had a marionette theater set up. We started in a back area where they had all sorts of very intricate marionettes on display.

Then we were taken in to a small (VERY warm) theater where the master puppeteers there put on a short performance based on The Magic Flute. It was mesmerizing! The fluidity and intricacies of the movement of the marionettes was just unbelievable! Really a phenomenal, engaging performance.

I was actually glad that no photos were allowed during the performance. I allowed myself to just be absorbed in the moment. Sometimes losing that is one of the downfalls of taking photos…

Afterwards, we were able to go back in the display area, and a couple of the puppeteers allowed to us to try our hands with a couple of much smaller marionettes. It was really, REALLY hard to even make him take a step!

After that, we headed back to our motorcoaches. We were given the option of being dropped off in the main area of Vienna, or going back to the ship for lunch. They explained that shuttle buses would be running back and forth between the bus stop where we were dropped off and the ship for most of the afternoon. You were free to spend as much time as you liked in town. (If you missed the last shuttle, you were on your own to get back to the ship in time for sail away.) I opted to get dropped off (and took a picture of the sign so I’d know where to get back to. Or could show it to someone if I got totally lost!)

I wasn’t terribly hungry since I’d had both a nice breakfast *and* a fabulous hunk of strudel, so I looked around for something quick I could eat and then start doing some sightseeing. There was an area right next to the bus drop-off that had several restaurants and stands and such. As I was walking past a free-standing place, I noticed the guy inside slicing up an amazing looking sausage, which he served to a guy with mustard and a little fork. I asked him what it was (and took a photo of the name so I’d remember it). It was called "Käsekrainer”, and it was the absolutely most delicious sausage ever! Crisp on the outside, with cheese and just the right amount of spice. That and a bottle of ice cold water just hit the spot!

Continued in next post

 

[sayhello]

Continued from the previous post.

I decided to start my wanderings in Vienna at St. Stephen’s Cathedral, which I’d heard was lovely. Unfortunately, we were there on a Sunday, so not much was open besides things like Schönbrunn and the Cathedral, and the Imperial Palace area. So no shopping for me!

St. Stephen’s really was beautiful. It was a soaring Gothic structure with amazing ceilings, tons of stained glass windows and a LOT of gilded statuary all around.

There were lots of folks hanging around the outside of the Cathedral trying to sell folks tickets to Mozart concerts all over town. Fortunately, I was honestly able to say to them “I already have tickets for tonight”, and keep on moving.

The street outside of St. Stephen’s.

I then decided to head over to the Imperial Palace, where I was eventually going to meet up with ABD for a tour of the Spanish Riding School.

The area around the Imperial Palace

This was just kind of a random doorway.

It was impossible to get a pic of this statue without people.

The Imperial Palace

They had netting set up in several areas to prevent birds from landing on and messing up those areas. It’s apparently a huge problem.

Across from the Spanish Riding School was the Sisi Museum in the Imperial Apartments (the museum was about Empress Elisabeth). I’d heard a lot about Sisi from @SingingMom and about this museum, so I wanted to check it out. But I didn’t have enough time to see it before we had to meet for the Spanish Riding School tour or to do it after the tour (as the Museum closed shortly after the tour would be ending). They refused to let me split the time (go in for a while, leave for the tour which was just across the way, then come back in) and were pretty affronted that I suggested speeding through it rather than not seeing it at all, so I just ended up skipping it this time. Next time (and there *will* be a next time, NOT on a Sunday!)

Some other families showed up outside the Riding School, and then the group from the ship arrived with our Guides, and we headed in. The place is really quite impressive.

The Parade grounds of the Riding School. Very fancy. And yes, it *is* actually a school.

Unfortunately, all the Lipizzaner stallions (who are the performers) were on Holiday for July & August, so there were no shows going on. But the mares and ponies were on site, so we got to see them.

We sat in the stands in the Parade grounds for a talk by our tour guide. After we were done there, we took a walk along the gallery that you can see to get to a door to the outside areas. As we were walking around the very narrow gallery, there was suddenly a very loud THUMP in front of us. Several of us thought someone up front had knocked over a row of the seats, which were not affixed to the floor. But it turns out that a woman in our group had not seen that there was a step in front of her (the floors were very uneven) and tripped and hit the wooden floor, literally face-first!! Everyone was, of course, VERY concerned. Fortunately, Danny was right there, and a few of us called to the back to get Birdie up front with him. We found out at that point that one of the Guests was a doctor, and she ran up front to check the woman out. She was awake and in good hands, so the rest of us, although shaken, were herded out to continue the tour with the folks from the Riding School.

We were shown the tack room where they kept all the saddles and harnesses for the show horses (each student was assigned a specific horse to work with & care for).

We then were taken into the stables, where we were able to see the mares and their ponies (no photos allowed!) The students who took us around were very knowledgeable, and told us a lot about how the horses are bred and trained.

After the tour was over, we were rejoined by the poor woman who fell and her husband. She had cold paper towels to hold on her poor swollen nose. She was greatly embarrassed, but had apparently done herself no permanent damage. Many of us assured her there was no reason to be embarrassed, as it could EASILY have been any of us.

We then headed to catch our motorcoach back to the ship.

Some cool steps we passed on our way back to the motorcoach.

On the motorcoach we passed these cool buildings. The one on the left is supposed to look like a wave, and the one on the right like a sailboat. I maneuvered my way around the motorcoach to get this photo (and got yelled at for standing up while the coach was moving – they’re pretty strict about that in this area) only to find out they were right across the river from where the AmaViola was docked, so I could have easily waited!

This night, there were two evening activities you could choose from: a Mozart concert or a wine tasting at a Viennese Wine House. If you were doing either of these activities, they had arranged for an early seating for dinner so that you could eat and be ready to leave for the activities. (Normally there was only one seating).

I decided to do the Mozart concert. I mean, how many chances do you have to say that you attended a Mozart concert *IN VIENNA*??

I had made a lot of use out of the fan I bought at the Market in Budapest. (A lot of the days had been fairly hot & humid). But the main reason I’d bought it was because @calypso726 and others had reported back that it had been *really* hot & humid at the concert. So I made sure I had it with me for this evening. Here’s a shot of me at dinner with my fan. (And I have to say, I really loved that upholstery on the booths).

On our way back to Schönbrunn for the concert, we were told about the venue, which was called the Orangery. It was, literally, a greenhouse on the palace grounds, where they used to grow oranges. So that explained the heat. It wasn’t *too* bad when we arrived, but as the evening wore on, the humidity *did* get rough. I was SO glad I had my fan, and some people spent a pretty penny to buy fans at the venue.

That said, it really *was* a beautiful place for the concert, with pretty nice acoustics (but really bad sight-lines). It was SO very cool to sit there, knowing you were experiencing a Mozart and Strauss concert while IN VIENNA! Well worth braving the heat for. (The only thing I didn’t like is that you could not get ANY sort of list of the pieces being played unless you spent the 5 euro on a big, glossy program, which I did not want. They actually had the list printed separately, and just inserted it into the glossy booklet, but they would not provide that separately. I ended up buying the glossy program, because I just couldn’t stand to not know the names of the numbers, but I kind of resented it.) But that was a small annoyance compared to the rest of the evening.

After that, it was a pleasant walk to where they’d parked our motorcoaches, and then back to the ship.

Next up: Day 5: Krems, Durnstein, Melk and the gorgeous Wachau Valley.

 

[walnut611]

What a beautiful fan, Sayhello!

 

[SingingMom]

Yes, you MUST return to see Sisi!

 

[sayhello]

What a beautiful fan, Sayhello!

Thanks! It was very useful, but the fact that it's pretty makes it a really nice souvenir!

Yes, you MUST return to see Sisi!

I'm sure I will!

Sayhello

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Love the fan, and that sausage looks awesome! So glad you are continuing the trip report. Can't wait to read more. Btw, I would have been annoyed to have to buy that program, too!

 

[sayhello]

Love the fan, and that sausage looks awesome! So glad you are continuing the trip report. Can't wait to read more. Btw, I would have been annoyed to have to buy that program, too!

Thanks, CaliforniaGirl09! I should have the next part of this report up by the weekend. (And I'm still smarting about that program. I have no clue what to do with it. Maybe I should scan it, so I can then recycle it. I really don't have room for a big, glossy program...)

Sayhello

 

[carpenta]

Loving the review Sayhello. Kiss that camera for me for it takes such wonderful pictures. As far a the glossy brochure I usually wait until the end of the performance and usually pick a discarded one. Over the years I have a couple plastic totes with all those "cherished" programs....what do I do with them now? lol.

 

[SingingMom]

....I'm still trying to figure out what to do with three handmade Czech marionettes.....

 

[sayhello]

....I'm still trying to figure out what to do with three handmade Czech marionettes.....

Yes. There's a reason they don't do that activity any more...

Loving the review Sayhello. Kiss that camera for me for it takes such wonderful pictures. As far a the glossy brochure I usually wait until the end of the performance and usually pick a discarded one. Over the years I have a couple plastic totes with all those "cherished" programs....what do I do with them now? lol.

Thanks, carpenta! I do love that camera!

I have WAY too many things (maps, brochures, programs) that I've collected over the years. I'm trying to downsize. I really didn't need to add to the pile!

Sayhello

 

[Skatetigger]

I loved the Kasekrainer, our guide Christine had told us about them and i had at least 3 during our Central Europe adventure. And that Strudel at the Schonbrunn was the best strudel i have ever had

Also I am unable to see the pics, is there a setting i need to fix.

 

[sayhello]

I loved the Kasekrainer, our guide Christine had told us about them and i had at least 3 during our Central Europe adventure. And that Strudel at the Schonbrunn was the best strudel i have ever had

Also I am unable to see the pics, is there a setting i need to fix.

The food was pretty darn good on this trip! Wish I could find a place that sells Kasekrainer around here (or maybe I don't! That could be dangerous!)

As far as the pics are concerned, it looks like there's an issue with Photobucket. I can't see the photos either, and I can't login to their site. Hopefully they get it cleared up soon!

Sayhello

 

[Skatetigger]

The food was pretty darn good on this trip! Wish I could find a place that sells Kasekrainer around here (or maybe I don't! That could be dangerous!)

As far as the pics are concerned, it looks like there's an issue with Photobucket. I can't see the photos either, and I can't login to their site. Hopefully they get it cleared up soon!

Sayhello

Looks liek the pics are working again , oh and if you want to find the Kasekrainer, it looks like Wegman's might have them but I haven't gone to the one not to far from me to check. It shows on their website. It was sadly one of the first things I looked up when I came home

 

[sayhello]

Looks liek the pics are working again , oh and if you want to find the Kasekrainer, it looks like Wegman's might have them but I haven't gone to the one not to far from me to check. It shows on their website. It was sadly one of the first things I looked up when I came home

We don't have Wegman's around here. Perhaps that's a good thing!

Sayhello

 

[Cousin Orville]

Beautiful gardens at Schonbrunn. When we were there they had a Christmas market set up in front of the palace. I have fond memories of my kids having a snowball fight in back... until one of them got smacked by a snowball in the face and then it was no more fun for him. . Ah, such is life

 

[sayhello]

Beautiful gardens at Schonbrunn. When we were there they had a Christmas market set up in front of the palace. I have fond memories of my kids having a snowball fight in back... until one of them got smacked by a snowball in the face and then it was no more fun for him. . Ah, such is life

Oh! A Christmas market there? That must have been beautiful. And the gardens in snow must have been beautiful, too! And it's always fun and games until somebody gets smacked in the face...

Sayhello