Schonbrunn vs Hofburg in Vienna on Blue Danube Criuse
We're booked on the May 13 westbound Blue Danube cruise and are now thinking about the options at various points. We're stuck on the choice on day 6 between the Schönbrunn Palace or the Imperial Apartments at the Hofburg.
It looks like there is a lot to see at Schönbrunn, both inside and out, and it's not very clear which areas are covered by the Tauck tour. The Tauck tour at Hofburg seems to focus on the imperial apartments.
Any insight into the coverage of these two tours would be helpful.
Or might we do the Tauck tour of Schönbrunn and do Hofburg on our own during free time the day before?
It looks like there is a lot to see at Schönbrunn, both inside and out, and it's not very clear which areas are covered by the Tauck tour. The Tauck tour at Hofburg seems to focus on the imperial apartments.
Any insight into the coverage of these two tours would be helpful.
Or might we do the Tauck tour of Schönbrunn and do Hofburg on our own during free time the day before?
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It may depend on the weather - beautiful day go to Schonbrunn, not so great head to the Hofburg. Or take a vote among our group and go with the majority. I suspect either will be interesting.
Check the archives to see what I and others said because I don't remember fully what I said back then, but we visited Schönbrunn Palace. It was a guided tour of the palatial summer palace (mainly the main rooms as opposed to living quarters) with a little free time to wander the grounds (check them out online too.) As you can see from my photo of the back lawn of Schönbrunn, the flowers weren't in bloom yet in mid-April. : (
We walked to the Neptune fountain though some of the more adventurous (and athletic) in our group went all the way up to the Gloriette, commissioned by Maria Theresa. It looks close but check out the size of the people- it is farther away and higher than it looks in the telephoto shot!
The Schönbrunn Palace is at the far side of town so not as easily visited on your own as is the Hofburg which is right in town a block or so from the shuttle bus stop. You will actually receive a guided walking tour in the morning that passes a few of the Hofburg courtyards. I think on the apartments tour you get to see Sisi's (Empress Elizabeth) apartments, her china and silver collections, etc.
My suggestion is to see the Schönbrunn with Tauck, and if you want, book a visit to the apartments and do it on your own during the longer free afternoon. After the Schönbrunn you can ride the shuttle back to the boat or they will let you off at Albertina Platz which is just a short walk from the Hofburg.
We actually we bailed out a few minutes before the end of the town (bus ride around the Ringstrasse) and Hofburg grounds tour (everything is really close and compact in the old city!!!). The tour passed right by the Spanish Riding School. The ticket office was in part of the Hofburg. We purchased tickets to observe the last 45 min. of the Lipizzaner morning exercises at the Spanish Riding School arena- weekdays, starting at 10:00, they have a 2 hour session in the arena with grooms and riders doing simple maneuvers- NO jumps and no photography (except for one sneaky scofflaw which I will not name.) By going after 11:00 we got a big discount and had a chance to see all we wanted (2 hours would have been too much). Then we ate a few blocks away at Café Central, walked around a bit, and came back for a guided tour of the Riding School, arena and stables. Though we couldn't touch them, we literally got nose to nose with the horses! We booked the School tour a month or more before leaving the states.
Each horse has his very own every-day and formal tack.
Yes, I found the posts on your question there. Unfortunately, it seemed to me the responses there were not specific to the tours associated with the cruise (are the Tauck tours of those places the same as those offered for land tours?) and didn't offer much help in deciding, as you say.
I am interested in your statement that you don't have to decide until you get there. I was under the impression that Tauck asked for a decision in advance so they can plan on the number of people taking each option. Is that wrong?
Terry
"Today is a day filled with choices! First, enjoy a guided city orientation tour by coach, including the Ringstrasse, the Opera House, Parliament and City Hall. You may then choose a guided tour of magnificent Schönbrunn Palace, or a guided tour of the Sisi Museum at Hofburg Palace. These choices are spontaneous, and are not necessary to choose in advance. Afterwards, you may choose to have lunch on your own and further explore all the city has to offer, or you may return to your riverboat for lunch on board and a free afternoon to do as you wish; shuttles will run between the riverboat and city center throughout the afternoon." I assume the green book will say something very similar - won't seem it for another month at least.
By contrast, the itinerary when you just select the cruise says,
"Wake up in Vienna, evoking quintessential images of Old World Europe. Sightseeing today includes your choice of guided visits to the Habsburgs’ illustrious Schönbrunn Palace, an architectural masterpiece and Austrian cultural treasure, or a tour of the Hofburg – another former Habsburg royal palace that today is Austria’s official presidential residence – including the Sisi Museum and the Imperial Apartments. Spend the remainder of the day as you please in Vienna.". The write up for Blue Danube seems to be pretty much the same."
This is our fourth river cruise and I've never had to select anything more than a day or two in advance if that.
In general, the tours are pretty similar but timing can change which can affect whether you have extra time on your own, options on return shuttles, etc. Also the TDs can sometimes sneak in some extras like we got an visit to a ceramics museum in Rouen.
That's encouraging. We should receive details from Tauck in a couple of weeks and we'll see what that says.
Terry
What does it say when you go to your reservation on the website?
We did Blue Danube, eastbound, Prague to Budapest in April 2018. We were supposed to select excursions (Cesky Krumlov vs Salzburg, Hoffburg vs Schonnbrunn, etc. and extra stuff like the bike rides or staying aboard) about 60 days prior to the start of the tour. Things got screwed up, we and many others never received the selection email, so were late making our selections. We alerted Tauck who sent the selection email and we submitted our selections. We were also advised we could make changes once we got on tour if we desired.
As has also been the case on other tours, the website, the Green Book, and the actual schedule were sometimes different! That can make it hard to pre-plan, but everything worked out perfectly for us.
Day 7 (first day in Vienna on eastbound trip):
1. Bus tour- Ringstrasse and a morning walking tour focusing on medieval Vienna, or
2. A morning walking tour focusing on the Jewish district of old Vienna, or
3. A bike ride in the city.
Shuttle buses from Albertina Platz to the boat
Afternoon free- we (made a short visit on our own to watch the Lipizzaner Morning Exercise, had lunch, then took a non-Tauck guided tour of the Spanish Riding School and Lipizzaner stable).
Dinner at Palais Pallavicini
Day 8 (second day in Vienna)
1. A tour of the Habsburgs’ Schönbrunn Palace, an architectural masterpiece and Austrian cultural treasure, or
2. The amazing Imperial Apartments at the Hofburg, Austria’s official presidential residence, Sisi museum and Silver Chamber, or
3. Spanish Riding School (Note: this was only to watch the Lipizzaner Morning Exercise, and not a tour of the school or stables. Some people may have selected this option, but we never met any of them)
Limited free time to explore more of the city on your own. (We walked around the area in front of the Hofburg, took a 15 - 20 min (?) carriage ride, stopped at a Tesla dealer, visited a chocolate shop- the wall behind the counter was a chocolate waterfall!- etc.)
Mid-afternoon departure for Bratislava. (shuttles took us back to the riverboat "before our afternoon cruise to neighboring Slovakia.")
As I said, things can change, and they may be slightly different on a westbound voyage, but I have all the shipboard "Daily Programs."
Thanks for putting me on to this, Claudia
I'd looked at it before, but never realized it was different than that's listed under the cruise other than adding the specific dates. It's much more detailed, with a few changes in activities at various stops. I'm glad to find the additional details.
However the wording about choosing options for the Blue Danube cruise is different than what you saw for your cruise. All options are labeled "pre-selected sightseeing choices include" except for the last day, walking tours in Prague, which says "You may indicate your preference this morning; it is not necessary to choose in advance."
I'm not surprised as I expected they need to pre-plan capacity, but it is interesting that there are differences in approach between different cruises.
Thanks, Alan. That's what I expected, probably within limits on availability.
That's what I've found now that I compare the "your tour" itinerary under my reservation with the one listed under the cruise on the website. The latter is much more detailed, with some changes. What I saw there for Vienna is very close to what you outlined. Looks like they've ironed out some details since the itinerary was written for the cruise page.
Terry
Having choices is nice if you have different interests than others. Gives you a little more flexibility.
Terry
In addition to the competing choices and our desires in Vienna, we also had conflicts between Cesky Krumlov and Salzburg which I also discussed here- we did Cesky pre-tour with a guide and driver (from PragueWalker) so were able to go to Salzburg with Tauck.
In Prague we also did something similar to what we did in Vienna. On Day 2 we had a choice between "a walking tour through Prague's ethereal Old Town, including a visit to St. Agnes Convent" or "a walk through the city’s poignant Jewish sites in Josefov, the historic Jewish Quarter." We wanted to do both, so hired a guide (from the same company) to give us a tour of the Jewish Quarter in the afternoon of Day 0 (we arrived in Prague a day early). She was fantastic!
So, since you are on the westbound cruise, an depending on whether you plan to stay an extra day or two, or when your flight leaves, you could do something similar.
To help plan, I made a paper schedule of the the days when we had free time and the days we had excursion choices. If I had doubts- Tauck wording was confusing in places- I called Tauck to get more granularity about what was scheduled, including when and where walking tours started and ended. I also looked at Google maps to get a better idea where places were located- which was especially important in Vienna. Then I figured out if and when I could add additional activities, and finally booked guides/drivers, and where recommended or necessary, tickets (Spanish Riding School tour). It was early in the season (mid-April) so we didn't need advanced tickets for the Cesky Krumlov Castle, but the Spanish Riding School tour has specific, limited, times and the group sizes were small, so we booked those tickets several months in advance (no deposit required).
It was a wonderful tour, but despite all the extra planning and activities we squeezed in which made it even better, there was still too much to see and not enough time! : )
That's the other one we are debating about. :-/
Thanks for the ideas. I've also made a schedule showing all choices and all free time. Then have been researching possible points of interest for where there is free time. I also noted the local currency for those places to get an idea of where we might need to get some and maybe a clue about how much.
Terry
We never got any currency other than Euros which we got from an ATM upon arrival in Prague. A friend gave my wife a 1000 Forint bill ($3.60 USD), in Budapest, just in case, but she never spent it. There was only place we needed Forints- a Gelato stand- but they only accepted coins. Everywhere outside Hungary we used plastic or Euros- even at MacDonalds in Bratislava (we eat at one Micky D's every trip : )
Blue Danube was our first river cruise. We weren't sure about having so many people on a tour (we usually do small group tours) but it was just fine, a wonderful tour. We were joined by 3 people who we met on K&T a few years ago and again on Peru & Galapagos a few years later, plus two of their friends. I coordinated our day trip to Cesky Krumlov- it was me and my harem of 6 lady travelers!
Our crew with Cesky Krumlov castle in the background:
Are we talking the Boone that is at the opposite end of NC, about 4 1/2 hrs west of (little) Washington where we live?
That's helpful. I've been wondering as I see more details of the tour if we really need any local currency.
Yes, we're from the Boone you know of. We're in the mountains at the far west end of NC, where it's 14 degrees tonight heading for 9, but the wind has died down a lot so it's not bad. We had a great trip to Washington several years ago. I was the "trailing spouse" on a business trip for my wife. We stayed at the Pamlico House B&B and had a great dinner at a place in an old bank building. I played tourist at Bath while my wife did business.
Terry
Euros in Czech, Alan? And why the McD tradition? I haven't been to one in 40 years, since college days :-)
The entertaining thing about them in other locations is the local "delicacies" on the menu that you won't find at home.
In Paris they had a double patty hamburger on a baguette. Dublin has McFlurries using Cadbury's.
Just checked out the menus (you can find it all on the internet) for Budapest and Vienna. In Budapest you can have a spicy pork burger and something that looks like 2 pancakes with cheese in between billed as "double cheesecake room". In Vienna they have donuts with the tag line "mini donuts, maximal gut!". Gotta love it.
They accepted both crowns (Koruna), the official currency or the Czech Republic, and Euros in Prague.
McD tradition, I don't remember how it started, but is just something we do (lunch only) just once on each tour if we run across one (none in Kenya or Tanzania). We don't make any special effort to seek them out. The worst one (by far!), food and service- Munich. Biggest surprise- finding one in Cusco, right on the main square, the Plaza de Armas. Best fries- London. Most modern (decor and kiosk ordering years before they started showing up in the US), etc.- Dresden and Rome. We rarely go there when at home : )
Yup, certainly some "interesting" offerings not seen at home!
It takes a long time to get from the boat to the old town center, so you waste a lot of time going to the boat for lunch.
We loved the Danube trip, so I hope you have a great time.
TO ALAN—We kind of have a McD tradition of our own, and like you, we seem to find ourselves stopping there, or at least laughing about stopping there on most trips.
I remember walking along the Champs Elysee in Paris, just dying for a Diet Coke. With ICE!!! Just then we spotted the golden Arc de McD and hurried on in. While sitting there happily sipping Coke and resting our tired little feet, we saw 6 other people from our tour and a honeymoon couple from Houston, all so happy to have a little touch of the USA in the midst of the the Parisian glamour and fine cuisine. It makes me smile just to think about it.
Cheers, happy travelers❣️
That's helpful. Sounds like a plan.
Terry
We were dying for a Coke with ice or more than just one or two cubes during England, Scotland, Wales in 2013- the hotest summer in England in decades. Except for the bar tender at the Royal Horseguards who didn't try to "ration ice" (he knew we wanted ice- he was Canadian), the only other place turned out to be close to the Royal Horseguards Hotel where we were staying! It was a Subway but almost hidden in a pedestrian tunnel by the Embankment tube station- it actually had self-service ice and soda machines!
Like British, we value sightseeing time over dining time.
Our cruise did happen in mid-May, and we did opt for the Schonnbrun excursion and see the Hofburg Palace during our free time. That worked well, except that the Sisi apartments exhibit is huge! You either have to plan several hours there or mind your time and hurry through the initial sections if you want to spend time on the actual apartments.
It is always great when a plan comes together (or almost so)