Cruise was fantastic. Cindy, Tara and Ray were awesome TD. The boat and staff were outstanding and the cruise director Abraham may things run like clockwork. Enough for the review. Here are some practical tips that you may find helpful.
Prague is a magic. You will not have enough time there.
The Marriott is well appointed and in great location. The breakfast buffet will not disappoint and has everything you need and you probably won't have to have lunch. The hotel is located 15minutes from the old town square and another 5 minutes to the Charles Bridge. It is 3 minutes from the underground system where you can but tram tickets as well. The hotel did not have tickets for purchase. There is a main tram stop adjacent to this. You can take tram 15 to the bottom of the castle and then grab tram 22 to go up to the top of the castle district and walk downhill. Remember to validate your ticket in the little yellow box when you get on. You can buy tickets that are good for a set period of time and you only validate it once.
There is a grocery store 2 minutes from the hotel. In 5 minutes you can me at a number of places to eat. Close to the hotel we ate at Lokol for dinner the first night, Sister Bistro and Pauls for a quick small lunch, and the Municipal House for an afternoon desert. Other very close(100 yards) places to eat are Red Stag, Sia, and Kolkovna Ceinice. There a ton of great restaurants in Prague.
Try to take in a classical music concert. They are frequent and relatively inexpensive. We used Classictic.com for a 6 PM concert at the Minor Chapel, walked to see sunset on the Charles Bridge(5 minute walk), had dinner at Mlynec with a bridge view, and then walked back to the hotel with Prague lit up at night.
The tours do not include the Charles Bridge other than seeing it from the bus. You will need to venture there on you own. The bus did drop people off after the Cathedral tour. It is worth an evening visit and also a sunrise visits. At sunrise there are basically only photographers there and in my opinion is one of the best time to take pictures. Stop a grab a coffee and pastry on the way back to the hotel.
We did two tours outside of the Tauck included tours. Both were through Prague Walkers. One with Tereza of the Jewish Town which was fantastic and having only the three of us made for an intimate tour of an important part of Prague's history. The second was with Lucie which was fantastic as well and that was of the Castle Town and Prague Castle. The Tauck tour of the castle is basically the Strahov Monastery where actually get to go into the libraries rather than standing at the door and St Vitus. There is so much more to the castle and surrounding area. She was happy to alter the typical stops knowing that we were going to the libraries on our tour and that we didn't need to have her get us back to the hotel. Instead she took us into the lesser town where we spent the rest of the day on our own.
The walking tour of the Old Town is mostly outside. The only interior that we did was St Agnes Convent. For the best sites of the city you can climb the Powder Tour or one of the Charles Bridge towers. There is also a tower at the Old Town Square at the town hall. For a small extra charge there is a lift to the top rather than walking the stairs.
For the dinner at the Lokowicz Palace, you will be walking from the shuttle van drop off. This is on cobblestones. This won't work with heels. Either wear flat shoes or bring a small tote with you heels and switch once inside.
For men; yes I brought a sport coat, yes I wore it more than once, and yes for this tour I would bring it again. One evening it was a little warm so I ended up taking It off during dinner.
If you are going eastbound, Prague to Budapest, the luggage pull if you are going to Regensberg is 7AM. For those who are new to luggage pulls, this means that your luggage except what you need for the day has to be packed by 7 AM and inside your door with the Tauck provided tag. You will not see this luggage until you get on the ship. The bus leaves for Regensberg at 815. That is the departure time not the loading time. It takes 3 hours to get to Regensberg with a rest stop about 2 hours into the trip. If I had limited time in Prague, I would skip Regensberg even though the sausage and beer at the Historische Wurstkuche is great.
I love Prague and didn't get to see all of what I wanted. I am sure I will be back.
