5 July
Farewell to the cruise ship
7:00 – All bags had to have coloured tags and placed outside the cabin doors by then.
This meant an early start and breakfast. Some people were making their own departure arrangements; some were taking the extension to Prague by bus; we were going home to Melbourne but our flight was not until 7 pm.
At breakfast, it was time to farewell our fellow passengers and then move to the Horizon Lounge to kill time until 4 pm.We checked out of our cabin before 8 am and returned our keys. Our suitcases were placed near the cruise director’s desk.
Buses arrive for the Prague extension groups
12:00 – Lunch was available to us for 6 Euro. We had tried a local pancake shop nearby but it was unpalatable, so we ordered the BLT sandwich on board and it was delicious. Others who ordered fish and chips were also happy with it.
We didn’t enjoy the local pancakes at a nearby restaurant.
The ship does not rest; throughout the day the new group of passengers doing the cruise in reverse began to arrive. There was a new captain, engineer, cruise director and some new hotel staff. We chatted with some of the new passengers and gave them some tips.
16:00 – We were collected by the shuttle for the transfer to Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD), which is still called by its old name Ferihegy by some people.
Flight 1: BUD-FRA
We had a short flight on Lufthansa LH1341, which left at 7 pm and landed at Frankfurt at 8:45 pm.
Lesley at Frankfurt airport
Flight 2: FRA-SIN
The next flight was on Singapore Airlines SQ325, which left Frankfurt at 10 pm and arrived in Singapore at 4:25 pm. The economy class dinner wasn’t particularly exciting but the seats were good and we slept well.
SQ dinner in Y class
6 July
Flight 3: SIN-MEL
The final flight was on Singapore Airlines SQ227, which left Singapore at 9 pm and arrived in Melbourne the next morning at 6:20 am. This flight was also fine.
Departing SIN at gate A2
The End
This was a fantastic holiday of a lifetime and a collective review of the Amsterdam-Budapest cruise is on this page. We hope you also have a similar grand vacation some day.
Our daughter made this sign to welcome us home!
Day by day
- Days -1 to -3 – Paris Extension
- Day 1 & 2 – Amsterdam
- Day 3 – Cologne
- Day 4 – Rhine Gorge – Rudesheim
- Day 5 – Miltenberg – Wertheim
- Day 6 – Wurzburg – Rothenburg
- Day 7 – Bamberg
- Day 8 – Nuremberg
- Day 9 – Kelheim – Regensburg
- Day 10 – Passau – Salzburg – Linz
- Day 11 – Melk – Durnstein
- Day 12 – Vienna
- Day 13 – Bratislava
- Day 14 – Budapest
- Day 15 – (This page)
It’s great that you are doing all those other places as well. It will give you time to see the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, as the cruise itinerary didn’t take us there.
We are doing your exact cruise right down to the same cabin.
July 18 Depart from Amsterdam to Budapest.
Before cruise:
2 days in Frankfurt
5 days in Munich
3 days in Salzburg
1 day unknown
2 days in Dusseldorf
2 days in Amsterdam
CRUISE
1 day in Budapest
2 days in Prague
5 days in Berlin
1 day in Frankfurt.
1 day on Delta Airlines
Thanks very much for the comprehensive review, answered many of my questions. We’re doing the trip in reverse starting in Prague in July 2015.
Great reviews,thanks for sharing