We arrived on our own air and stayed three days in Switzerland before the cruise. One day in Zurich where we took city tours and then took the train to the embarkation port of Basel where we stayed two nights.

Basel was a wonderful stop as the hotels provide free Tram and bus tickets for the duration. We then just hoped on and off trams seeing the wonderful city and visiting all the sights. On the day of embarkation we learned that the taxi would be quite expensive (for us Americans) so we elected to take the free tram.

Since the cruise could only be boarded in late afternoon after 4, we scoped out the docking point by taking trams in the am and sighting along the river from the bridges until we saw the ship. Then in the afternoon after a late checkout we took a direct tram to the closest stop and walked our wheelie bags three blocks to the ship (we're senior citizens). Read more