We chose our 2 week river cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam with Travelmarvel mainly from an economic point of view. My husband and I were travelling with my sister, and the single supplement for her on APT and Scenic was outrageous, and the single cabins were on the bottom deck at waterline. With Travelmarvel, my sister paid NO single supplement (she was not therefore eligible for free airfare, but still a lot cheaper) and her cabin was next door to our suite on the top deck. We were a little bit anxious that the river ship might not be as nicely appointed as Scenic or APT, but we need not have worried. The ship was lovely, our cabin as spacious as a river ship can be, and the staff and food was excellent. Complimentary wine, beer and soft drink is available at lunch and dinner, and bubbles are available for free at the breakfast buffet too if you feel like it. The staff are very generous with the wine at meal times, with no waiting for a refill. The only problem on the cruise was that we had to change boats halfway through as a Viking river boat had smashed into one of the canal locks and boats were unable to get through. This of course was in no way Travelmarvels fault, and they made the change from the Travelmarvel Diamond to the Travelmarvel Jewel as painless as possible. Before joining the river ship in Budapest, we did a 2 week Travelmarvel tour of Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia. This tour also was fantastic, with above average hotels, food and tour guide. We thoroughly recommend Travelmarvel. Read Less

We normally drive around Europe but decided that a cruise would be nice and the Rhine river goes through a very pretty area of Germany. We were doing the two week trip from Amsterdam to Budapest. 15th October to 29th October. Due to low water levels however the Rhine is currently not navigable and so on the second day whilst still in Amsterdam we were advised that a lot of the trip would be by coach and staying in hotels. APT gave us the choice of staying onboard or flying home from Amsterdam the following day with a full refund. We choose the latter and less than a week later we have received a full cheque refund. It would also now appear that the Danube is very low and has been for some time so the latter part of the cruise from Vienna to Budapest would also be by coach/hotel. APT/Travelmarvel have now cancelled river cruises for the foreseeable future. (Check out their website). APT and ROL who we booked the trip through have been extremely professional and efficient. We are very impressed with the way this situation has been handled. We hope to re-book a river cruise sometime next year with APT/Travelmarvel. Hopefully the rivers will not be either in flood or dried out! Read Less

Never tried river cruising before as previously Ocean and Sea cruises. Route looked like it would have good trips available. Started badly as we were not informed of river level problems until we arrived at Budapest airport, whilst majority of other guests were notified and offered alternatives 2 to 3 days earlier. Had to stay at 2 Hilton hotels in Budapest and Vienna and take coach to ship in Germany. Cabins were good and had all amenities expected. Evening entertainment on board was poor and a great disappointment compared to Ocean/Sea cruises. Dining was average - no wow factor to food but waiter service and drinks service was slow and lacked any real attempt to impress the guests, and occasionally rude. Worst part was the cabin steward not knocking on our door and walking straight in whilst we were getting ready for dinner. My wife was in her underwear and was very embarrassed. Trips were generally very good at each docking and the dinner cruise in Budapest and Orchestral concert show in Vienna were great highlights. Gym was limited due to space and had 2 machines and a mat. We met many new friends on the cruise from the UK, Australia and Tasmania. Embarkation was efficient and well handled. Overall we were very disappointed with the cruise as the large cost was not reflected in the service we received. Read Less

We chose this trip from an Readers offers Ltd advertising literature it was supposed to be APT but we later found out that as Travelmarvel its the more budget arm of APT so you need to see APTs brochure to find out the difference.The cruise was not cheap at £6600 and that was supposed top be discounted. Glad we didnt pay full price.According to the write up we had from ROL all sightseeing excursions were included not so ! and drinks which were subject to cruise lines Ts&Cs which of course you are not given until after you have booked. They are only included at meal times.There are no swimming facilities on these ships and i was told later thats because its a travelmarvel ship not an APT one.We didnt start well as the air travel arrangements that Travelmarvel arranged dispite being booked for twelve months in front were abysmal ive flown from America and not took as long.The Cruising we payed extra for what was advertised as a balcony.it was no more than a French window. Which you couldnt use a lot of the time because it was either nigh time and you were asleep or being moored against another ship.These ships have been desigined badly from the point of view that a lot of the time you cannot stay on the sun deck because of low bridges and that was with the lowest water levels on record these things were not readily mentioned. So this put another dampener hence we had to re pack our cases midweek and transfer by road to the sister ship the Jewel. That was out of there control but we did 150-200 klms by coach. The cruising is also a con as most is done at night and out of 12 days we probably only enjoyed quality river cruising for about 20hrs. Cabin and staff were good as was the food.Cruise director was in the main good but enjoyed his own act! So did we think it was VFM ! no ! Is Travelmarvel Marvelous Not as much as they would like to think ! Read Less

My husband and I recently travelled from Budapest. We explored Budapest on our own and joined the ship under our own steam. We spent an hour trying to find the boat, which was not where they explained it would be, and we were lucky to have a patient taxi driver who did endless u-turns and asked many questions of the locals to finally find it. Travel Marvel is at the cheaper end of the market, so you get less of the items you might not want less of. It is also clear their boats get the least central berths in major towns. For the cheaper amount you get very average food, less communal space, and cheap deckchairs on top with no waiter service. The roof-top as a space is also very limited, since it is shut down for days at a time, because of low bridges (this may not be limited to Travel Marvel boats, but should be remembered if you like to get out of the confined space of a river boat). The saving grace was our French Balcony cabin which was very comfortable with lots of places to stow your gear. We were most disappointed in the food and the dining room. They squashed us in and the air conditioning strained to provide the coolness we all craved. The food was poorly cooked, a lack of fresh vegetables (very little green) and the fruit lacked variety, mostly melons of varying colours. One day we had fresh strawberries. The German fields were full of ripe strawberries - but we only had them once. The soups tasted like reconstituted Oxo cubes with rehydrated bits of vegetable. The ubiquitous roast chicken (always the fall back position on the menu), came with oversalted gravy. Wines served with meals, were low-end and unvarying, the white mostly a chardonnay, and the red nearly always German (neither of which were good tasting wines). The staff were extremely hard-working, always smiling and very polite, but most had little English, so it was a struggle to be understood, especially noticeable in the dining room when you wanted information on the food or wine. Finally, the evening's entertainment was held in the one Lounge Area which also contained the bar. If you didn't like the entertainment, and the roof deck was shut down, there was nowhere to sit with friends for conversation and/or after-dinner coffee/drinks, other than a few chairs in reception. Read Less

Travelmarvel did a great job from start to finish. The Jewel is small but elegant. The whole crew is superbly trained and the desire to please the guests is obvious in everything that they do. The food was first class and the wine plentiful, and good! The cabins are small but perfectly functional. Plenty of storage space for two people. Big thank you to our cabin stewardess, Julia, and our waiter in the restaurant, Pan. Both did a splendid job. Bartel, our cruise director, is extremely knowledgeable about all the areas that we traveled through and forever helpful. The itinerary from Budapest to Amsterdam is action packed with some form of included excursion every day. We did not do any of the optional excursions but did not feel as though we missed out on anything. Some of these involved extensive bus travel that did not sound too attractive. Overall excellent and exceeded our expectations.Highly recommended. Read Less

We chose this cruise as advertised in the telgraph, as it seemed to entirely fill our requirement by calling at several cultural centres along the Danube, then the Danube-Main canal finally along the Rhein to Amsterdam.We elected to have two days in Budapest and this was very satisfactory, the Hotel was exceptionally good. First impressions of the ship were agreeable, the cabins were clean and though small, well appointed. Organised ship tours and tips were all included. the first meal on board seemed satisfactory. Next day the journey started with a Bus tour of Budapest, which though appearing short was fairly comprehensive though hurried. The Captains welcoming dinner that evening was satisfactory as expected, however the food appeared bland. The next stop was Vienna where the organised tour was not well organised and people had no free time within the tour, being hurried from different venues particlarly an interesting street market when a simple 'you have a hour , meet back at this point would have avoided being hurried to a pancake tasting, followed by a mediocre wine tasting and dried up cheese sample! we eventually broke off from this tour and did our own thing, which was most satisfactory, arriving at the bus pick up at the appointed time Next day also in Vienna there was no provision to do 'your own thing' and as the ship moved to a new position, returning later to it's original position which precluded getting off. It was apparent at this time that many people were coughing and were in some distress. This manifested in some 40 peple becoming ill and eventually a Doctor came on board at the request of passengers and not initiated by the ship. With so many people becoming ill it is difficult to understand why no initative was not taken by the Cruise Company. As it was it seemed that most people suffered from a severe chest infection, some ten being prescribed antibiotics, the doctor consultation and the drugs paid for by each patient. My Partner and I, were recovering naturally, however we were not well enought to go ashore until the ship reached Rudesheim. Here we had hoped to have some respite from the Bland and uninteresting food on the ship, however that was not to be as the ship sailed at 2pm before the restaurants opened! And so, we gradually got better and looked forward to a day in Cologne, which as it happened did not happen!. The ship had docked that night at some mysterious location and only proceeded to Cologne next morning, arriving at mid morning. We could not understand why the ship had not contiued overnight. The ship was docked some distance from the city centre and it was raining, people who went off early on a tour returned at 2pm when the coach was available to 'shuttle' but as the last returning shuttle was at 4.30 there was no time to make a satisfactory visit. Early in the day we had asked for a shuttle sevice to the City but were told we would have to get a Taxi! which seemed a retrograde way to treat passengers who had paid quite a large sum for the cruise and now wishing to do some shopping. Finally we arrived in Amsterdam and did the included canal excursion but as the windows of the Canal Boat were so misted up we saw little. Its was mentioned to the guide but she had no was to rectify that situation. By this time we had had enough, being exhausted from sickness and disapointed from the lack of consideration. and poor food. We also found it exasperating that people would complain at the table about the quality of the food but when asked by the staff if 'everything was 'OK' responded by sayin 'yes it was lovely' when in reality it was poor. It is unlikely that we would travel with this company again. Read Less

Great offer from Iglu Cruise. We chose a lower deck cabin with two very large circular portholes. The cabin was very roomy with lots of storage and beautiful shower-room. It had safe deposit box, fridge and three free bottles of water daily. The beds were very comfortable and the cabin kept immaculately clean. Embarcation was very smooth and our reception very welcoming. The staff in all areas were friendly, efficient and professional. The whole ship had a very family-atmosphere from the Captain down - everyone was very approachable. The food, drink (included with lunch and dinner), and service were some of the best we have encountered. The food and drink supplied reflected the areas we travelled through. The variety and quantity of food was excellent at all meals. On two evenings local entertainers were brought on board, which proved to be popular with the guests. The ports of call (even the ones we had not heard of) were excellent with very good guides. During excursions we were supplied with radio headsets enabling us to get a good commentary from the guides. Disappointed we did not stop at the Square of the Heroes in Budapest. However, we were delighted with the evening sail up the Danube in daylight, coming back down to Budapest in the evening with all the lights on. Optional excursions: They were our only disappointment. Trip to Schonnburg Palace. We spent one hour with guide in Palace and then had one hour to see the extensive gardens, carriages museum, zoo and maze. We would have preferred much longer in the grounds. Also, when we went to the Vienna concert we were unable to see the dancers due to the poor seating - and we were near the front. An excellent cruise we would recommend. Read Less

We had a wonderful cruise on the Travelmarvel Diamond, all the crew we had contact with were cheerful, efficient and helpful and our cruise director, Marion was exceptional. The ship is a bit older than the newest ships but was still very clean and comfortable with everything we needed for a great cruise. Our stateroom had enough room for the two of us, with plenty of storage room so that we were able to empty out our suitcases and put them under our bed. The only problem with our room was that we weren't able to adjust the air-conditioning so that it was cool enough to sleep comfortably, we were able to counteract this by leaving the window ajar. We enjoyed the meals on the ship and found there was enough choice to suit most tastes. We generally had the light lunch provided in the lounge as we found we didn't need another large meal. There was tea, coffee and hot chocolate available all the time and iced water and iced tea available in the lounge. Wine, beer and soft drink were free with meals and for purchase in the lounge at other times. There was a very good pianist who played at lunchtime and in the evening and we also had various entertainers come on board the ship in the evening. The included daily sightseeing tours were very good with on the whole very good local guides who were very informative. We also participated in a few optional tours which we really enjoyed and were glad that we paid the extra to do them. Read Less

My wife and I thought this cruise was terrific. The ports of call were very interesting and all the local guides wonderful. The ship itself was lovely and the staff just outstanding. It was the little things that happened without being asked that made the difference between this cruise staff and other cruises we have been on. Thought the Travel Marvel level of cruise excellent value as you could choose any of the extra tours as you wished. Would unreservedly recommend this Travel Marvel cruise. Read Less

Travelled on both ships as we were bused between the Danube and the Rhine. This was done smoothly whilst we were on a excursion. The very low water level required this. The tour was very good. POSITIVES Tour leader Herbert was excellent and all tour guides were outstanding. The staff were very friendly and helpful The rooms had more than enough storage, bathroom was big enough and the sliding door was good to watch the scenery and get fresh air. Bed very comfortable and food was very good and seemed endless. The drinks were available for lunch and dinner and were unlimited. Public areas were always being cleaned and the hand hygiene was monitored more on the Diamond than the Jewel. The lounge area was comfortable and upstairs deck good for a walk but was closed for 4 days as apparently is usual for the river cruise due to the bridges - not told about this prior NEGATIVES Fitness area very small Musical evening in Vienna was disappointing for price. Castle and visit to Bonn should be replaced by a stop in Cologne. Overall the cruise was very good and the scenery was excellent and included tours were well planned. Read Less

I have sailed lon ocean cruises many times but this was my first. It was great, all I had to think about was what to have for dinner. Everything was arranged tours etc and I got a call reminder 15 minutes before the tour left. I did not realise how fantastic some places were, like Vienna, Bamberg etc We saw some amazing places and met some great people. The staff of the ship ( we were also on diamond) due to water levels )were awesome. Herbert the cruise director was amazing loved his work. Read Less