Our trip started with a journey to Heathrow where we stayed in the Thistle hotel near terminal 5. As we had an early start, we used the POD to terminal 5 which was quick and convenient. Five minutes later we arrived. Group check-in with BA was smooth and we were through security in a few minutes. No queues at all!
The flight to Vienna with British Airways was great, they provided bottles of water and snacks during the flight. On arrival in Vienna, we were met by our holiday Taxis minibus transfer in the arrivals hall.
We travelled about 20 minutes to the Hilton Vienna Danube Waterfront Hotel where the CLIA conference was being held. The CLIA staff had everything organised extremely well, we received our lanyards and brochures and proceeded to the conference hall for an afternoon of listening to guest speakers talk to us about all elements of the river cruise industry. We watched clips of places to visit whilst on a Danube Cruise such as Budapest, Vienna and Bratislava.
After the conference, we transferred to our river ships for the evening, we were very lucky as our ship cruised the short distance to pick us up directly outside the conference centre. We made our way onto the luxurious river ship for our evening meal and stay for 1 night. We were met by attentive staff on check-in and porters took our luggage to our french balcony cabin, which was so spacious and well appointed, everything you could possibly need.
We attended the pre-dinner cocktail party which was followed by a sumptuous 5-course dinner, where the service was outstanding and the quality of food and drink was first class.
Our second day started early with an a la carte breakfast, there was a wide choice of food and we enjoyed beautiful views of the river Danube while we enjoyed our breakfast. Following breakfast, we started our three ship tours, we were lucky enough to visit a range of river cruise ships, each one distinctly different.
We toured the different communal areas and visited various styles of cabins on the different decks, this gave us a clear insight into what the choices are for guests. Each river cruise company gave us a short presentation outlining the benefits of cruising with them and what was included in the cruise price.
Next came lunch, Avalon envision hosted a beautiful buffet lunch. There was a wide variety of delicious dishes and the drinks flowed throughout our meal. The restaurant was decorated beautifully, staff were so attentive. Later that afternoon we joined an excursion named ‘Cake and Wine Tour’. This was just up my street!
Our guide was informative and we enjoyed a bus tour around the city of Vienna. The guide told us about each main site that we passed. We then were dropped off near the famous Lipizzaner Riding school where we had a short walk through the city to our first stop which was café Sluka, there we sampled the delicious but very rich Sachertorte with whipped cream. This was accompanied by either coffee or hot chocolate. It was truly amazing and of course no calories at all!
Following our cake stop, we made our way a short distance across the city to the Schlumberger sparkling wine cellars. The guided tour was brilliant, we learnt how the riddling process worked and realised that it takes a considerable amount of time to make sparkling wine. We wandered through the maze of different cellars with our guide who clearly explained each stage of the process. The member of staff was enthusiastic and very informative. We enjoyed tasting a variety of different sparkling wines and had free time to shop in the wine cellars. I thoroughly enjoyed this excursion, what can be better than cake and sparkling wine?
We returned from our excursion in time to get ready for our second stay on a different river cruise ship. Again, our ship was luxurious, the staff were attentive and extremely friendly. This ship had a lovely atmosphere to it.
At dinner we again enjoyed a fantastic array of food, the menu was varied and to be honest, I ate the best fillet steak of my life. It was truly delicious. I could have quite easily eaten another one as it was so nice but don’t think the waistline could stand that. The entertainment was taking place in the lounge bar that evening and this continued well into the night.
Day three started with a buffet breakfast followed by three more ship visits. We were lucky enough to visit the stunning Scenic Jasper. The décor was beautiful, staff were very attentive. We enjoyed a short presentation before embarking on a self-guided tour of the ship, every cabin type was visited as well as the beautiful gym, salt room, restaurants, bars and sun deck. This was a stunning ship.
We also had time on the Avalon Envision, it was lovely to spend more time on this beautiful vessel. We were greeted with Prosecco and canapés on arrival before having the opportunity to look around each part of the ship.
Sadly, the CLIA conference and ship visits came to an end. What a great three days we had. We learnt so much about each river cruise company along with making great friendships amongst our group. I can highly recommend everyone to experience a river cruise, I certainly will.
I have come to appreciate that there truly is a river cruise for everyone.
