After enjoying breakfast at the hotel, we gathered our things and boarded the river cruise van to take us to the river Danube where we would board our ship. Luckily, despite what the welcome packet described, we were able to enter our rooms and get settled as soon as we boarded. Our room is quite nice, with two beds, a couch a desk and a decently sized closet. Despite me having quite a few bags and suitcases, I was able to put things away without to much spilling out in odd places.
After getting settled, we immediately went to the Waterside Restaurant, the main dining room for the ship. For breakfast and lunch, the meal is served buffet style whereas dinner is often served like normal. Thus, we had a pretty decent lunch with most of the members from our group sans Uncle Frank and family. Around 2:00, we boarded a bus for our Vienna City Tour. Unfortunately, the area we were heading to, was essentially the same area I had walked through many times in the last couple days. Nonetheless, the guide did explain parts of Austrian history that I wasn’t that familiar with, mainly tales of their empire pre-World War I. With some free time on the tour, I found a wonderful cafe to enjoy an epicurean pastime of mine: drinking. I had a “sundowner” while others partook in the capitalist pastime of shopping. After a while, we returned back to the bus which in turn took us back to the ship where we were greeted by Uncle Frank, Auntie Annie and Johnathan. Everyone took some time to relax before meting in the Waterside for dinner.
Just to outline the cruise, every day there is usually a morning excursion whether it’s a walking tour, bike tour, or other pre-arranged activity. In the afternoon, there is also an excursion, tour or bike tour. Typically, in the Bistro area, there is food in the form of cold cuts and bread as snacks throughout the day and then other meals are then able to be had at the Waterside, Blue Restaurant and in some cases, Tapas at the Bistro. There is a bar that serves cocktails for free from noon to midnight and the sommelier typically recommends one red and one white for dinner. The ship also has a fitness center, spa/indoor pool. Finally, each room has a butler who comes by and freshens the room, provides room service and other services that one may require. It’s quite an extensive experience, one that can seem intense for cruise noobs like myself. Nonetheless, it’s been amazing and the days to come have been just as fun as the first.
Yeh Heard It Here 