On our way back to Budapest at the end of our cruise we were supposed to styop at Estergom but low water level preventedd us from docking so we could only look at it from the boad deck.
Esztergom was the capital of Kingdom of Hungary from the 10th until the mid-13th century when King Béla IV of Hungary moved the royal seat to Buda and is the birthplace and coronation site of Saint Stephen I, the first king of Hungary. It is a great shame we missed this as it is rich in history and posesses a Church, Castle and Museum as well as many fine Baroque houses that would have been worth a look. It wasn't to be so we had to be content with a few photos taken from the boatas we stood off the port.
Perhaps as a consequence of not landing at Esztergom we were treated to a night-time cruise up the river past the main sights beside the river at Budapest. This was a very enjoyable way to spend our last few hours before the end of the cruise and made more so as it was during the evening when everything was lit up including the magnificent Houses of Parliament. We travelled as far as the Rákóczi Bridge, location of the National Theatre and MÜPA, the Palace of Arts before sailing back to our mooring, ready for packing to leave the next day
As a poscript to our first river cruise we had both good and bad experiences. On arrival and finding that there was no functional air-con we were quite critical of Tui and their actions in a) not preparing us for the shock and b) not communicating on board to explain adequately why this was happening and what they intended to do about it. We knew from some of the staff that this problem was a long-standing one and not restricted to the Isla which we were on but also on the sister ships Maya and Skyla. The conditions under which the staff had to work would not have been acceptable in the UK and I believe that after this summer (2026) all three boats have gone into dry dock for repairs. After many complaints from passengers Tui decided to put us into a local hotel for the first night whilst they attempted to repair the air-con. We were lucky to be put into a very nice hotel (the Movenpick) and had an enjoyable evening in Budapest Centre, including food and drink in the Time-Out Market, which we recommend for an informal and inexpensive meal. The hotel rooms were paid and the cost of the food for the first night compensated (£30pp).
The following day we were taken back to the boat with the news that the air-con for the cabins had been fixed although all other areas, including the restaurants had not. And so we set off on our cruise for which we have few complaints other than the problem of no air-con in the general areas; fortunately the weather was excellent and we spent most of our time on the deck under the 'smokers' canopy drinking and socialising with some very good friends we met. Here I must add that two of these friends (Mark and Chris) as well as our own group (Marion and Gayner) made up for most of the negatives that we could have had if they had not been there.
Having returned and read of the experiences of people on other cruises with Tui, I would caution about doing a river cruise in June/July, especailly if the weather is very hot and the water levels are low which have restricted many of the places that can be reached by the boats. Also Tui's response from passengers' complaints post cruise has been totally unacceptable and our friend Mark is still trying to get some sort of compensation from Tui.
