Danube River Cruising

The optional tours that we took were great.  We took more of them than we had originally planned, but they were well worth the money. 

The food was very good.  The breakfast buffet consisted of fruit, cheese, bread, eggs (hard cooked, scrambled, and an omelet station), various meats, hot cereal, cold cereal, yogurt for example.

At lunch there were two soups each day.  A change from last year is that there were two menu offerings each day in addition to the buffets.  The buffet had two meats and one pasta vegetarian offering, along with a salad bar, cheese bar, and wonderful desserts.

Dinner had two standing menu items which were chicken or salmon.  The meal consisted of appetizer, soup, salad, main course, and dessert.  Each night there was plentiful local wine to go with the meal.  I didn’t have anything that I wasn’t pleased with.

Evening entertainment consisted of a talk on diamonds, a trio playing classical music, the crew show and a play that Isabel put together with various members of the audience.  What a lot of fun.

We took the bullet train into Paris.  It was neat to see how fast the countryside passed by us.  In Paris, we were taken directly to the hotel where a special desk has been set up to give us our room keys.  The luggage had been sent by truck from the ship so it was delivered to our rooms shortly after we checked in.  The hotel, Le Meridien Montparnasse, was very nice and located near the southern train station and the metro.  

We took two of the optional trips, the Artists Quarters of Montmartre, and Versailles.  Trips to the Louvre and Moulin Rouge were also included.

We stayed for an extra day and took the metro to tour Notre Dame, Arch de Triumph, and the Eifel Tower. 

The tour was wonderful and we are already planning our next river cruise.