ABD - Oktoberfest-themed Danube River Cruise 2019

HI_Tig808

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jul 31, 2019
I hope I'm doing this right .. new to DIS Boards .. not new to Disney, DLR, WDW, DCL, or DVC ... please tell me if I'm not doing this right ...

Our first ABD is an Adult Only Oktoberfest themed River Cruise up the Danube. It starts in Budapest and ends in Germany. We are doing the pre-arrival of staying in Budapest for a couple of days to acclimate. We leave tomorrow. Disney has us staying at the Marriott Budapest. When we get to Germany, we are staying in Munich for 3 days to enjoy Oktoberfest in Munich. Unfortunately, Disney could only get us 2 nights in Munich so we are AirBnB'ing it the last 3 days. Super excited, I hope to update this thread each day of our trip. We'll see if I'm successful or not :)
 

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Yes, this is the right place! Looking forward to hearing your review. ABD had a mini-Oktoberfest for us on the last day of our cruise and it was a lot of fun. Yours will be a blast.
 
The Amsterdam airport is very nice and comfortable. It is also very large and you have to go through passport control to get to your connecting flight. We almost forgot that in determining the time to walk to our gate.

The picture is of tulips at the airport ... they're rubber!!! Look sooooooooo real. Plan to get some for my mom on the way home.

Next stop, Budapest!!!!!
 

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The Amsterdam airport is very nice and comfortable. It is also very large and you have to go through passport control to get to your connecting flight. We almost forgot that in determining the time to walk to our gate.

The picture is of tulips at the airport ... they're rubber!!! Look sooooooooo real. Plan to get some for my mom on the way home.

Next stop, Budapest!!!!!
Enjoy Budapest!! It's a really beautiful city. Very walkable, lovely architecture!

Sayhello
 
Arrival at Budapest didn't go smoothly for us. Our baggage is still in Amsterdam. Hopefully we'll get it tonight or early tomorrow.

Having never been to Budapest, the directions given in the ABD guide were a bit confusing. It states we have to go through passport control and customs ... NOPE. Not in Budapest .. we even double checked with the guide, he confirmed that the is no passport control or customs to go through (if you have nothing ro declare). So that confused us because we kept looking for passport control.

We are doing the pre-nights through ABD, staying at the Budapest Marriott. By the time we got out of the airport, it's past dusk, so hard to see much on the ride to the hotel. But got to the room ... and we have this BEAUTIFUL view.

The Marriott is on the Pest-side of the Danube. The picture is of the Buda-side across the Danube. 20190925_185927.jpg20190925_190008.jpg
 
Love it-we were in the corner room in your first photo this June. Budapest is a wonderful city, I hope you have a great time :)
 


Budapest along the Danube at twilight is one of the prettiest man-made things I've ever seen! Wait until you see it from the river! :)

Sayhello
 
Day 2 in Budapest. Started by seeing the outside of St. Stephen's Basilica. Toured the Parliament Building, beautiful! Saw the Shoes on the Danube Memorial. The pairs of baby's and children's shoes struck me the hardest 😪

Afterwards, we walked across the Chain Bridge, took the Buda-Castle funicular up the hill, and walked through the castle area. Saw so many statues!! Walked back across the Margaret Bridge to our hotel and our baggage! YAY!

Tonight we hit the Ruin Bars!! (No pics shown ☺ 🤙)
 

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More pictures
 

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Fun fact: I forgot to write this last night but the toilets are not free. You have to pay to use the toilet in most public places. Anywhere between 150-300 HUF and I was drinking a LOT of water and liquids yesterday 😂😂😂
 
Having never been to Budapest, the directions given in the ABD guide were a bit confusing. It states we have to go through passport control and customs ... NOPE. Not in Budapest .. we even double checked with the guide, he confirmed that the is no passport control or customs to go through (if you have nothing ro declare). So that confused us because we kept looking for passport control.

YES. We were so confused when we landed in Budapest. We picked up our luggage and walked into what we thought would be some sort of customs or passport check area but there were no employees there. I happened to spot a person holding an ABD on the other side of an open exit door so we went to them. We were really worried we were doing something wrong.
 
Day 3 / Cruise day 1

The ruin bars were sooooooooo fun! We all had a blast!

This is the morning we drop off our baggage to the ABD guides. We forgot to bring our excursion list with us (because we packed it), so the guide helped us fill out a new form ... lucky we knew what we wanted to do but the guide was super helpful in ensuring we had the information needed to make the proper choices.

After dropping off the bags, went to the St. Stephen's Basilica ... pictures do not do it justice! Would highly recommend going up to the observation platform and into the treasury ... so worth the 1000HUF! You can see for miles! Then we walked over to the Dohány Street Synagogue but we couldn't spend as much time the as we had to be back at the hotel for our bus pickup to the boat.

Note: if you stay at the Budapest Marriott our breakfast was included. Now I do not know if this was our Marriott Rewards or if it was part of the ABD

Once we got on board, there was food and drinks in the lounge. Checkin process was quick, but you have to have your passport with you to checkin.

Rooms are nice, small of course, but nice. We did the welcome aboard and safety brief with the crew and toasted champagne with the crew (they had orange juice). Dinner was delicious but the server forgot the palate refresher of the sorbet ... disappointed by the service but very happy with the food. After dinner was a show, local Hungarian traditional dancers and music ... fun and enjoyable.

Note -- tired to add more pictures but having issues with this site and the slower wifi, maybe I'll add more after we get home
 

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It wasn't until we walked up all of the stairs in St. Stephen's Basilica that we realized there was an elevator. 😡
 
Day 4 / Cruise day 2

Posting later because we were enjoying the evening.

First we went to the Great Market, such a neat place, wish we could have spent more time in there. But ABD has so much jammed into a day!

After the Great Market, we went to the Lazar Equestrian Center. Beautiful place & horses, great show, SOOOOOOOO much good food! The goulash was ono!

Tonight was the night we made reservations at the Chef's Table. All guests are allowed to make one reservation for this special meal. It's in a different area than the regular dining area. Was a WONDERFUL meal. One guest at our table was overly picky and loud about it, so that put a bit of a damper on the meal. However, they knew it was our anniversary, so we got a special cake and music. Disney doing its magic again!

The evening was finished with the adventurers, a movie, and many libations!
 

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