Erin Foster, coauthor of The Unofficial Guide to Disney Cruise Line, shares with us her experience on a Disney River Cruise excursion in Vienna.
Disney is now offering European river cruises through their Adventures by Disney world travel arm. The river cruises are similar in many respects to the popular Disney Cruise Line megaship ocean cruise sailings (fantastic service, plentiful food), but one major difference is that port excursions are included in the price of your river cruise, while they are an extra expense on the ocean cruises.
Because port excursions are included, and are so much fun, you will absolutely want to take advantage of all the culture and exploration they have to offer. At each stop you’ll have a number of options from which to choose. In Vienna, Austria, my family chose to spend the morning at historic Schonbrunn Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage site that is both grand and playful. The exquisite gardens include lush plantings, as well as open spaces for children and even a hedge maze to get lost in, temporarily.
After touring the artifacts and architecture in the main Palace, we moved to outbuildings on the grounds where we had a private strudel-making demonstration, complete with a generous sample of the apple pastry, and a behind-the-scenes look at the Palace’s famed marionette theater.
Adventures by Disney River Cruising: Excursion in Vienna
During the afternoon, we opted to head out on our own to the Naschmarkt outdoor shopping pavilion, but other groups on our cruise headed out to the Spanish Riding School at Hofburg Castle or to Klosterneburg Abbey via bicycle.
Evening offerings included a visit to a traditional Wine House for, you guessed it, a wine tasting, or our selection, a concert of Mozart and Strauss music–a glorious night of soaring strings accompanied by traditional dance demonstrations.
And all of that was just one day of our trip! After seven similar days we felt fully immersed in the sights and sounds of the Danube River area, and it was all included in the price of our trip.
