APT River Cruises & Tours
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Pre cruise information sorely lacking.
We were unhappy with the lack of information provided to the group of travellers who joined the Amsterdam to Budapest cruise at Nuremberg. We taken to a ship early in the morning but were then told that was not the ship we were joining as due to low water in a part of the river so we were joining a different ship and would be going there by coach after the tour of Nuremberg. At no time on the Vega did anyone tell us it would take 5 hours to get to this other place. After 30 minutes we left and had a whistle stop tour of Nuremberg during which we didn’t have an opportunity to get off the coach. At 11.00 am we were allowed 1 hour to explore Nuremberg but had to be back to the coach at 12.00 noon. ONLY after we set off were we informed that it would take 4.5 hours to get to the ship and actually it took 5 hours to get there. It transpired later that those who came from Amsterdam had been informed by email some time before that they would need to change ship and were provided with a packed lunch including drinks before they set off while those of us joining at Nuremberg were not informed in advance nor were we provided with food or drink for the journey. The first we were able to get something to eat was when we stopped for a break at 2.15 pm more than 7 hours after we had eaten at breakfast time. I am afraid we felt like second class citizens. This meant that after a day of travelling to get to Nuremberg we spent 7 hours in total of our first day of a RIVER CRUISE on a coach. I appreciate that the state of the river is a natural event however the lack of information and the absence of any food or drink for a 5 hour coach transfer is the responsibility of APT and is not acceptable to those of us affected. This was a very disappointing start to our cruise. I will say that the ship was excellent and the tour director did his very best to ensure we enjoyed the remainder of our cruise however missing two stops meant that we spent most of the cruise in big cities 2 days in Linz, 2 in Vienna and one and departure day in Budapest not the meander between Nuremberg and Budapest i envisaged. The riven didn’t become low in water overnight so there would have been ample time to inform those travellers affected by this and it was not done. A poor reflection on APT when there are many other companies to choose from. So far I have no response from customer services to whom I first addressed my unhappiness.