June 3, 2025 • 23 mins
Cape Town travel, Sala Beach House, African safari trip, South Africa travel guide, Durban travel, Table Mountain, Cape Winelands, Boulder Beach penguins, luxury travel podcast, One Slice at a Time podcast, travel planning tips, Stephanie Pakosta travel advisor, Ryan Joy travel agent, African penguins, South Africa wine tasting, Durban beach resorts, Live Life African Safari Getaways, multigenerational travel, luxury family travel
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Edward (00:00):
Hey there, pizza pals! It’s Meltvin, your friendly
neighborhood slice of cheesywisdom, here to kick off this
episode of'One Slice at a Time!'Join Stephanie, the mastermind
of family-friendly adventures,and Ryan, the world traveling
pizza connoisseur, as theyreveal the top five things that
totally surprised them aboutriver cruising.
Buckle up for some tasty traveltidbits, unexpected twists, and
(00:23):
a whole lot of fun—let’s getthis show on the road!
Stephanie (00:34):
Welcome to One slice at a Time.
The podcast where travel meetspizza and bad decisions become
great stories.
Today we're sharing the top fivethings that shocked us about
River Cruising.
Spoiler.
There was schnapps and peopledropping it like it was hot.
I think Stephanie wrote that.
And yes, I have thoughts onpizza in Austria, Slovakia, and
(00:55):
Germany.
So this was me and Ryan's firstriver cruise.
And we had some things that werereally surprising to us, things
that we were not.
Ready for, one of those thingswas the demographics.
So Ryan, what did you thinkabout the mix of people that
were on our ship?
What I expected was to seewheelchairs and walkers Yes.
(01:21):
And canes Yes.
And gray hair.
There were some, bald peopleand, bald people, AARP cards and
all those things, and.
I saw some of those things I sawlike for sure the demographics
are skew a little bit into theretired age group, but this is
not something that isexclusively for retirees.
(01:44):
This is like awesome for avariety of age groups and I
would add that like you have tobe in somewhat good health in
order to do this type ofvacation.
So it's a bit of a misnomer tothink that.
It is only for, older folks, andI definitely was not ready for
just some of the excursions wereI.
(02:06):
Not for anybody that had anykind of mobility issues.
There were bike rides that I wasnot going to take.
So I think that you would've tobe very active to do even some
of the excursions.
And this would be great for afamily group, with some older
children.
My daughters eight.
I don't think I would take heron a river cruise anytime soon,
though there are some cruiselines.
(02:27):
AmaWaterways does the Adventuresby Disney River Cruises.
I know Tauck has some that ifyou don't have kids you can't
even get on the ship.
So those would be more gearedtowards children, but I don't
think, I think like an older,kid that's maybe interested in
the history of those places thatyou're gonna go see, would love
this river cruise and it wouldbe super easy for families.
(02:48):
It's a thing where for kids,there's not e entertainment
that's gonna be geared towardschildren.
Mm-hmm.
On a normal river cruise,Adventures by Disney is a
different thing, but on a normalriver cruise, like they have to
be able to entertain themselvesor the parents are gonna be the
entertainment for the children.
But beyond that, I can't thinkof an adult or, teenager and
(03:13):
above that it wouldn't be greatfor, for sure.
And I think especially for me,this was actually my first time
to Europe.
This was a convenient way to,see some of Europe and.
Have everything taken care offrom start to finish and not
have transfers and logistics andall of that so if you're
intimidated by going, this is agreat way to see countries.
(03:39):
Number two on the list is thatthe food is ridiculously good.
Which was your favorite meal,Stephanie?
Was it breakfast, lunch, dinner,snacks, afternoon tea?
It was, there was like all thesethings.
I know it was every single oneof'em.
Breakfast was about the sameevery day.
There was a lot of options.
(04:00):
Like a cooking station, And thenthey had a few cereal type
stations and the bread selectionand everything to where it was
more buffet.
you could have lunch in thelounge and order off the lounge
menu and have'em bring you likea cheeseburger, french fries or
flatbread pizza, something likethat.
Or you could go down to the maindining room and they were
serving, several differentoptions there.
(04:22):
I don't know my favorite meal.
Everything was just, it was justreally good.
Dinners were just amazing.
The service is amazing, whichalso just makes the food better
when the service from the staffis incredible.
We were there as part of abigger group and yeah, I was
solo traveler, but with a biggroup, so I was in a room by
(04:43):
myself, but I had, but we likehad everybody there.
What was cool is that there wasalways somebody for me to go sit
down and eat with, and if I,there was, you could always eat.
At the lounge, like you said.
But then when we went down fordinner, there was, that we
always had a group together thatwas eating and stuff like that
and the food was fantastic everysingle night.
So it was.
Yes.
So let's talk a little bit aboutChef's Table now with
(05:05):
AmaWaterways Chef's table iscompletely included with your
cruise fare, which a lot of thethings are included with your
cruise fare, which is incredibleabout river cruising.
But this is a special experiencewhere you have, more or less a
private chef for you.
And however many people are inthis tiny dining room, I think,
how many does it hold?
Maybe 20 or 30 tops Ryan?
I'm not quite sure, but it's nota whole lot.
(05:26):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And they have a private chefright there.
Private wait staff.
The very best of the wait staffwork chef table.
So let's talk a little bit aboutwhat you thought about that
experience first and foremost,you must wait until they say Bon
Appetit.
I don't remember the exact dish,they put it down, there was
maybe six or eight of us at thetable, so we're sitting there.
Four servers come over with twoplates each.
(05:48):
They time it so that they putall the plates down in front of
you at the exact same time.
And then I.
I go to pick up my fork andknife and I'm like, I'm gonna
start in on it, whatever thisthing is in front of me.
One of the servers comes over,rushes, puts her hands in front
of my dish.
Do not start.
It's not time.
It's not ready yet.
They had a sauce that they hadto pour over it.
So then they poured the sauceover everybody's dish and then
(06:12):
looked directly, looked medirectly in the eyes and said,
Bon appetit, which then became arunning joke every course
thereafter.
They had to tell me it was okayto eat, but the food, it was
fun.
It was a seven or eight coursemeal and they were really tiny
courses, but it was, I thinkthey had a wine pairing.
Oh yeah.
(06:32):
Wine pairing when I was notoverly impressed with the food
at the chef's table, but thefood in total, like they knocked
it out of the park every singlenight.
So I think I was expectingsomething even more elevated,
but it wasn't like the food wasbad.
I was just like, maybe not.
Yeah.
Some of the dishes were special.
(06:52):
They were different.
Oh, they were, for sure.
Yeah.
The main course I finished andthen they brought me more of it
because they, I don't know, theythought I needed more of it.
I guess.
So extra.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But yeah, no, I liked it.
Yeah, I think for me it was alsobecause we had just finished
with pretzels and beer and sothen we went to Chef's Table, so
(07:14):
I probably just wasn't thathungry either.
Just transitioning to numberthree.
I really enjoyed and wassurprised, how beneficial it was
that the, their ships were notcrowded.
I think I knew that kind ofgoing in, that these are, they
call'em long ships in the Vikingworld and Right.
And they are, they're long, butthey're, there's not that many
people on board and I knew thatgoing in.
(07:37):
But to see the impact of thatwhen you're actually on vacation
and what that means for yourexperience wowed me.
Sure.
Like you said earlier, we weretalking before we started the
show.
If you forgot something in yourroom, it literally was 30
seconds from anywhere in theship to your room.
And you could go grab whateveryou needed and go back up to the
(07:58):
sun deck or go back up to thelounge or whatever it was.
It was, the rooms were, contrastthat with the ocean cruise and
you've got 20 minute, you forgotsomething and you gotta walk 20
minutes back to your room.
You have to wait 20 minutes forthe elevator.
Yeah, forget about the walk toyour room.
You have to wait 20 minutes forthe elevator.
Check-in was just smooth.
Getting on and off the ship forexcursions, there was not a
(08:20):
line.
And I think because of thenumber of people, they can
really control the experiences,right?
So for instance.
It just naturally happened thateverybody congregates to the
lounge at 6:00 PM and we'rethere.
And so the cruise director comesin and he is got a microphone,
and he talks to us about wherewe're gonna be the next day and
(08:42):
what's going on.
And.
Here are the excursions that youhave the option of taking
tomorrow, right?
And there are 15 of you thatsigned up for the bike ride.
And just so you know, it's gonnabe raining and 30 degrees and
the wind is gonna be in yourface.
But if you wanna switch and nowthere's none of you, if you want
to switch, that's no problembecause you don't actually have
to.
You can pre pick yourexcursions, but you don't have
(09:04):
to commit to them until youactually go that morning.
With some exceptions and some ofthe itineraries you have things
that you need to pre-book andsome things that you even need
to pay for.
But largely in the EuropeanRiver crews like with
AmaWaterways the excursions areincluded and you don't have to
pick until you are actuallygoing on the excursion.
So there's so much flexibilitythat offers.
(09:25):
And I think they can do thatbecause of the number of people
that are on the ship.
Even if you wanted to switcharound, so if you picked
beforehand and then you met somefriends and made some
friendships while you were onthe cruise and on the ship, and
the next day you're like, Hey.
We're gonna go here, let's makesure we're in the same group.
You didn't have to worry aboutwhat you had picked beforehand.
(09:45):
You could just go up to thefront desk that morning and be
like, Hey, I need five yellowcards for this excursion.
Yeah.
And they would give'em to youand you could travel with your
new friends.
And.
It's the rivers through Europe.
Mm-hmm.
And so you dock right in themiddle of everything.
And I think that's number fouron our list of things that
(10:07):
surprise us.
I, it is things that we knew,but also seeing it happen and
play out still surprise you.
Like when you dock in Slovakiaand Bratislave and you walk off
and there is you're downtown.
You don't have to take a businto the center of town.
You're there.
(10:27):
Some excursions require buses orwhatever, but Right.
A lot of times you're justwalking off the ship and you're
right there.
And I feel like even some of theexcursions that required buses,
if you didn't wanna go on thoseexcursions, I know me and Kyle
stayed back the day that we arein Linz I had work to do that
day and I could get off theship.
We walked around Linz, We gotback on the ship.
(10:47):
Even if you didn't wanna takethe bus excursions, you were
still close to, some town thatyou could, get off and explore
or, do some shopping, whateveryou wanted to do.
Whereas I took the excursion toSalzburg and saw the whole sound
of music, stuff like that, andand got back late and then met
you guys for happy hour in thelounge.
That's right.
(11:07):
And I think we didn't evenmention, but happy hour in the
lounge.
Like you think about the size ofthese ships, every one of us fit
in the lounge for happy hour.
There was no one standingwithout a seat.
There was not.
Could you imagine everybody onone of these big ocean ships
trying to fit in the same space?
There's enough room for everyoneto come in and enjoy that happy
(11:28):
hour.
There was enough staff to makesure everybody had drinks.
Yeah, it was like cruising with,200 of your best friends.
Yeah.
And you had mentioned the thepretzels and beer a few minutes
ago.
And when we say we dock in themiddle of the action on the
waterways in Vilshofen orVilshofen, yes.
(11:51):
They have a relationship withthe town where they have
actually built out in the port.
They do their own October Festright there, and they do it.
So like every itinerary thathits that town, they're doing
this October Fest.
So even if it's not October, youstill get that.
That's right.
Kind of taste experience, right?
Yep.
March, April, whatever.
(12:12):
You get the music, you get thelater hose, and you get the
beer, you get the pretzels, andthen you get back on the ship
and you go to Chef's Table.
And you're like, oh, I'm sofull.
This doesn't even sound good.
Just gimme the line.
Yeah, but the other thing is thepeople that they have, we had a
couple nights that they hadspecial.
Entertainment on board.
I don't think I was reallyexpecting that either.
(12:32):
Like they had the string trio,but they had them come on board
and played music for us onenight and they were absolutely
amazing.
And then they had, I.
A, a group come on and sing theday that we were in Linz.
And so as we're like gettingready to sail away for the
night, they have specialperformances.
And they do set up all theselittle special things I was
(12:54):
overwhelmed with how incrediblethese performers were.
So that was unexpected.
And then later on they had theDJ.
Yeah I'll say this, and that'swhen you're going through I am
not a, like a classical musicaficionado.
It's not really what I'm into,but I am intrigued enough by it
(13:17):
and I respect it enough, and Iam interested enough to
appreciate it for like a 30minute block.
Right.
And.
What I liked about everyinteraction that I had with it
as I was going through basicallythe.
Home of it through Austria and,and Germany, is that mm-hmm.
We did the excursion to House ofStrauss and we, we listened like
(13:40):
a th 30 minute set.
Same thing when they came onthe, on the ship.
It was not like a two hourperformance, you know?
Right.
It was enough to make you reallyappreciate that you are
experiencing something coolwithout.
Getting into the mandatory funaspect of it.
(14:00):
So I really liked it.
And then to your point, you getto into the evening time, DJ and
they're playing, baby got backand all these other random songs
that just don't seem to fit.
Yeah.
At nine o'clock you're listeningto the String Trio, and then at
10 o'clock you're listening tothe DJ play"Baby Got Back" Yes.
There's something for everybody.
There is definitely somethingfor everyone.
(14:23):
Ugh.
Unprepared for"Baby Got Back" onthe cruise ship sailing down the
Danube Yes.
Are we not?
Absolutely.
So, yep.
I, I think that those tophighlights and then as we've
just kind of talked about, likeit's chill.
Like one day me and Kyle stayedback on the ship kind of seen
Linz came back, but there is somuch to do.
(14:44):
This is not boring at all.
yeah, I had a great time and it,and there was one of the best
days I thought was.
Where we did spend the afternoonhanging out on the sun deck.
Right.
'cause we went in March, andMarch is a little early, in the
season.
Mm-hmm.
In fact, it was the first salewas snow one day season.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it was not particularly warmexcept for one day where it was
(15:08):
real nice.
And we sat up there on the, we,we brought up drinks from
downstairs.
It was great.
Yeah.
Oh, we had a, as you can tellguys, we had an absolute great
time.
So are we gonna go back, youthink?
Uh, yeah, definitely.
I think I've already deposited acruise in Europe.
(15:29):
Now it's time for Ryan's crustyReview.
Brought to you today by CaptainLuigi's Riverboat Pizza Palace.
Europe's only floating vaguelyItalian.
Cruise adjacent pizzaexperience.
Every pizza comes with schnapps,karaoke, and a sauce that they
can't legally define.
Captain Luigi's Riverboat PizzaPalace, because when you're lost
(15:49):
between Vienna and regret, we'rehere and we're floating and we
have cheese.
Let's be clear though, toeverybody.
There is no such place.
Unfortunately there is not suchplace, but, but there, there was
plenty of pizza to be found inAustria, in Germany.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, in Slovakia.
So, uh, I, it's something I've,I just do.
(16:11):
I try to get myself a picturewith, uh, me and pizza in every
place.
So in Vienna, stephanie, you andI, and Kyle went to this place
called Cafe Pizzeria Pino, andmm-hmm.
I would say that this was aplace that.
Checked the box.
So I'll, let me say up front, Idon't go looking, I don't Google
(16:36):
ahead of time.
Best pizza in Vienna looking fora place I just, you let it find
you.
Yeah, I see what I can find.
And this was a place thatchecked the box so that I can
say yes, in Austria, I've hadpizza.
Right.
It was not anything wonderful.
It was cash only, by the way.
But yes, if you're looking forpizza.
(16:57):
And you're on a river cruisethat stopped in Vienna.
It's a short walk from the boat.
That's what it has going for it.
That's exactly what it has goingfor it.
What'd you think about the,pizza in Slovakia?
Okay.
We went to a place called LaPiazza and this was.
Delicious.
(17:17):
This was incredible pizza.
It was like that, almost likethat New Haven style, fresh
basil on top.
We just got a margarita pie andsplit it between a few different
people.
But this was an incredible,incredible pizza stop.
If you're looking for pizza andit, and it's also again a short
walk from the ship, so.
Yeah, that was a great find.
(17:38):
So I was a little concernedabout you trying to find pizza
in Bratislava because we werelike the first river cruise kind
of group.
Coming through and a lot of theplaces were not really open.
'Cause it wasn't really highseason for the tourist.
So they did, we did find a candystore and we went and bought
(17:59):
Ryan some gummy pizza just incase we couldn't find pizza and
Bratislava But he did a greatjob.
Probably the best pizza.
Thank you for that.
Looking out for me there.
But we did find a good pizzathat was great.
And then in Germany, when wewent to.
We went, we had a, actually thiswas harder.
We were searching for a whilefor a place, and this place,
(18:22):
Pizetta it's called, it lookslike it was gonna be like a full
on restaurant.
We got to the place and it was acounter.
With some pizza and a dude whowould warm it up for you and it
was like the square cut pizzatoo, so it was like not, um, you
know, like, not like a circularpie.
It's not New Haven style.
(18:42):
Like what I got in BratislavaIt's not New York style, it was
that square cut, but not Detroitor Sicilian or anything like
that.
It was kind of still kind ofthin, and it was quite good
actually for a place that didn'tlook like it should be.
Uh, it was, it was pretty good.
And also not too far from theship.
(19:02):
I think everybody that triedthis pizza really enjoyed it.
So I know me and Kyle both had alittle slice and I'm like, oh,
wow, this is, this is actuallypretty good.
Absolutely.
So, surprisingly enough, right?
Yeah.
Well, uh.
That I think takes care of the,the crusty review.
But before we finish theepisode, I do wanna talk about
(19:23):
one more river cruise experiencethat we had, and it pertains to
our rooming situation.
We need to compare my roomingsituation versus Stephanie's
rooming situation.
Let me pull up.
If you're watching on YouTube,you'll see some photos here.
This is some pictures fromStephanie's room.
(19:44):
You've got Stephanie's bed,you've got her sitting area.
You got her like other sittingarea, and you've got her desk.
You don't even see that she hastwo balconies in this room,
right.
This is, this is a beautifulroom.
It's, it's a nice big, and thensomewhere is like three floors
(20:06):
below.
Stephanie was my room.
And what took you four picturesto really show?
Stephanie's room.
You get in one picture in mine,like that's the whole room and
it's, you can see my bed and mysitting area.
But if you were to sit in thechairs, your knees would hit the
bed, so, mm-hmm.
(20:27):
I got recommendations.
If you're gonna go on a rivercruise, there's gonna be the
opening price and that's gonnabe, um, this road, basically,
you'll be sleeping below thewater line.
Go, go up at least one level andthe rooms are just so spacious.
Right.
This was perfect for a single,for, for a single traveler
though.
(20:48):
Right.
And I think as you got later inthe year, I would definitely
want at least the French balconywhere you had some windows that
open and you could sit there andenjoy, the scenery as you're
cruising That would be somethingeven more important as the
weather warmed up Now that said,I didn't spend very much time in
my room at all, and I think it'sagain, because we went with a
(21:10):
group and because I had allthese people that were there
with me, I just got outta myroom and wandered up to the
lounge, and I would undoubtedlyfind somebody that, I could.
pal around with, and if Ididn't, I would sit down and do
the New York Times crossword onmy phone until somebody walked
up that did know me.
One more thing though.
Yeah.
(21:31):
Here's the difference inbathrooms.
Ryan's bathroom versusStephanie's bathroom.
Stephanie had like this fullwalk-in shower where she could
stick her arms out and to adance.
And, um, mine, if I turnedaround, I would, you know, hit
my stomach on the, on the wall.
So, yeah, and I'd say like allthe rooms are a little bit
(21:51):
tight.
I felt like mine was about thesame size as a normal, maybe
balcony state room on a.
On a cruise ship.
I mean, I didn't feel a hugesize difference between that or
like a regular balcony room.
Just be prepared for, the roomsare going to be a little bit
smaller but they use this spacereally well.
Even in like your room.
Like they use this space reallywell.
(22:11):
so, yeah.
Like I said, for, for metraveling by myself being the
only person in that room, it wasperfect.
I didn't need any more spacethan what I had'cause I wasn't
really spending a ton of timethere.
But, uh, okay.
That was my little surpriseinterlude there that I tell
Stephanie about ahead of time.
That's okay.
Full of surprises.
Full surprises.
Well, I hope you guys haveenjoyed this episode.
(22:34):
Like Ryan mentioned, I asked himif he would river cruise again.
He's already got a deposit down.
Why don't you tell us a littlebit about.
That cruise that you are goingon and I hopefully I am too.
Okay.
Well, our agency Creating MagicVacations that both Stephanie
and I are a part of haschartered a ship, the AmaSintra,
and we are going to be cruisingwith the godmother, Jenn Lee,
(22:56):
who is hosting the cruise, andit will be, next year.
And on the Duoro River.
So I hope, I hope if you wannajoin us to find out more
details, uh, email us atbookings@oneslicepod.com.
Right or reach out to us.
Facebook, Instagram, we're OneSlice Pod, website should be up
(23:17):
oneslicepod.com, Send us anemail, reach out.
We'd even love to see your bad,international pizza incident.
So send us pictures, send usyour crusty reviews, your crusty
reviews.
But thanks so much for joiningus.
We'll see you next time.
Bye bye.
Hey there, pizza pals! It’s Meltvin, your friendly
neighborhood slice of cheesywisdom, here to kick off this
episode of'One Slice at a Time!'Join Stephanie, the mastermind
of family-friendly adventures,and Ryan, the world traveling
pizza connoisseur, as theyreveal the top five things that
totally surprised them aboutriver cruising.
Buckle up for some tasty traveltidbits, unexpected twists, and
(00:23):
a whole lot of fun—let’s getthis show on the road!
Stephanie (00:34):
Welcome to One slice at a Time.
The podcast where travel meetspizza and bad decisions become
great stories.
Today we're sharing the top fivethings that shocked us about
River Cruising.
Spoiler.
There was schnapps and peopledropping it like it was hot.
I think Stephanie wrote that.
And yes, I have thoughts onpizza in Austria, Slovakia, and
(00:55):
Germany.
So this was me and Ryan's firstriver cruise.
And we had some things that werereally surprising to us, things
that we were not.
Ready for, one of those thingswas the demographics.
So Ryan, what did you thinkabout the mix of people that
were on our ship?
What I expected was to seewheelchairs and walkers Yes.
(01:21):
And canes Yes.
And gray hair.
There were some, bald peopleand, bald people, AARP cards and
all those things, and.
I saw some of those things I sawlike for sure the demographics
are skew a little bit into theretired age group, but this is
not something that isexclusively for retirees.
(01:44):
This is like awesome for avariety of age groups and I
would add that like you have tobe in somewhat good health in
order to do this type ofvacation.
So it's a bit of a misnomer tothink that.
It is only for, older folks, andI definitely was not ready for
just some of the excursions wereI.
(02:06):
Not for anybody that had anykind of mobility issues.
There were bike rides that I wasnot going to take.
So I think that you would've tobe very active to do even some
of the excursions.
And this would be great for afamily group, with some older
children.
My daughters eight.
I don't think I would take heron a river cruise anytime soon,
though there are some cruiselines.
(02:27):
AmaWaterways does the Adventuresby Disney River Cruises.
I know Tauck has some that ifyou don't have kids you can't
even get on the ship.
So those would be more gearedtowards children, but I don't
think, I think like an older,kid that's maybe interested in
the history of those places thatyou're gonna go see, would love
this river cruise and it wouldbe super easy for families.
(02:48):
It's a thing where for kids,there's not e entertainment
that's gonna be geared towardschildren.
Mm-hmm.
On a normal river cruise,Adventures by Disney is a
different thing, but on a normalriver cruise, like they have to
be able to entertain themselvesor the parents are gonna be the
entertainment for the children.
But beyond that, I can't thinkof an adult or, teenager and
(03:13):
above that it wouldn't be greatfor, for sure.
And I think especially for me,this was actually my first time
to Europe.
This was a convenient way to,see some of Europe and.
Have everything taken care offrom start to finish and not
have transfers and logistics andall of that so if you're
intimidated by going, this is agreat way to see countries.
(03:39):
Number two on the list is thatthe food is ridiculously good.
Which was your favorite meal,Stephanie?
Was it breakfast, lunch, dinner,snacks, afternoon tea?
It was, there was like all thesethings.
I know it was every single oneof'em.
Breakfast was about the sameevery day.
There was a lot of options.
(04:00):
Like a cooking station, And thenthey had a few cereal type
stations and the bread selectionand everything to where it was
more buffet.
you could have lunch in thelounge and order off the lounge
menu and have'em bring you likea cheeseburger, french fries or
flatbread pizza, something likethat.
Or you could go down to the maindining room and they were
serving, several differentoptions there.
(04:22):
I don't know my favorite meal.
Everything was just, it was justreally good.
Dinners were just amazing.
The service is amazing, whichalso just makes the food better
when the service from the staffis incredible.
We were there as part of abigger group and yeah, I was
solo traveler, but with a biggroup, so I was in a room by
(04:43):
myself, but I had, but we likehad everybody there.
What was cool is that there wasalways somebody for me to go sit
down and eat with, and if I,there was, you could always eat.
At the lounge, like you said.
But then when we went down fordinner, there was, that we
always had a group together thatwas eating and stuff like that
and the food was fantastic everysingle night.
So it was.
Yes.
So let's talk a little bit aboutChef's Table now with
(05:05):
AmaWaterways Chef's table iscompletely included with your
cruise fare, which a lot of thethings are included with your
cruise fare, which is incredibleabout river cruising.
But this is a special experiencewhere you have, more or less a
private chef for you.
And however many people are inthis tiny dining room, I think,
how many does it hold?
Maybe 20 or 30 tops Ryan?
I'm not quite sure, but it's nota whole lot.
(05:26):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And they have a private chefright there.
Private wait staff.
The very best of the wait staffwork chef table.
So let's talk a little bit aboutwhat you thought about that
experience first and foremost,you must wait until they say Bon
Appetit.
I don't remember the exact dish,they put it down, there was
maybe six or eight of us at thetable, so we're sitting there.
Four servers come over with twoplates each.
(05:48):
They time it so that they putall the plates down in front of
you at the exact same time.
And then I.
I go to pick up my fork andknife and I'm like, I'm gonna
start in on it, whatever thisthing is in front of me.
One of the servers comes over,rushes, puts her hands in front
of my dish.
Do not start.
It's not time.
It's not ready yet.
They had a sauce that they hadto pour over it.
So then they poured the sauceover everybody's dish and then
(06:12):
looked directly, looked medirectly in the eyes and said,
Bon appetit, which then became arunning joke every course
thereafter.
They had to tell me it was okayto eat, but the food, it was
fun.
It was a seven or eight coursemeal and they were really tiny
courses, but it was, I thinkthey had a wine pairing.
Oh yeah.
(06:32):
Wine pairing when I was notoverly impressed with the food
at the chef's table, but thefood in total, like they knocked
it out of the park every singlenight.
So I think I was expectingsomething even more elevated,
but it wasn't like the food wasbad.
I was just like, maybe not.
Yeah.
Some of the dishes were special.
(06:52):
They were different.
Oh, they were, for sure.
Yeah.
The main course I finished andthen they brought me more of it
because they, I don't know, theythought I needed more of it.
I guess.
So extra.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But yeah, no, I liked it.
Yeah, I think for me it was alsobecause we had just finished
with pretzels and beer and sothen we went to Chef's Table, so
(07:14):
I probably just wasn't thathungry either.
Just transitioning to numberthree.
I really enjoyed and wassurprised, how beneficial it was
that the, their ships were notcrowded.
I think I knew that kind ofgoing in, that these are, they
call'em long ships in the Vikingworld and Right.
And they are, they're long, butthey're, there's not that many
people on board and I knew thatgoing in.
(07:37):
But to see the impact of thatwhen you're actually on vacation
and what that means for yourexperience wowed me.
Sure.
Like you said earlier, we weretalking before we started the
show.
If you forgot something in yourroom, it literally was 30
seconds from anywhere in theship to your room.
And you could go grab whateveryou needed and go back up to the
(07:58):
sun deck or go back up to thelounge or whatever it was.
It was, the rooms were, contrastthat with the ocean cruise and
you've got 20 minute, you forgotsomething and you gotta walk 20
minutes back to your room.
You have to wait 20 minutes forthe elevator.
Yeah, forget about the walk toyour room.
You have to wait 20 minutes forthe elevator.
Check-in was just smooth.
Getting on and off the ship forexcursions, there was not a
(08:20):
line.
And I think because of thenumber of people, they can
really control the experiences,right?
So for instance.
It just naturally happened thateverybody congregates to the
lounge at 6:00 PM and we'rethere.
And so the cruise director comesin and he is got a microphone,
and he talks to us about wherewe're gonna be the next day and
(08:42):
what's going on.
And.
Here are the excursions that youhave the option of taking
tomorrow, right?
And there are 15 of you thatsigned up for the bike ride.
And just so you know, it's gonnabe raining and 30 degrees and
the wind is gonna be in yourface.
But if you wanna switch and nowthere's none of you, if you want
to switch, that's no problembecause you don't actually have
to.
You can pre pick yourexcursions, but you don't have
(09:04):
to commit to them until youactually go that morning.
With some exceptions and some ofthe itineraries you have things
that you need to pre-book andsome things that you even need
to pay for.
But largely in the EuropeanRiver crews like with
AmaWaterways the excursions areincluded and you don't have to
pick until you are actuallygoing on the excursion.
So there's so much flexibilitythat offers.
(09:25):
And I think they can do thatbecause of the number of people
that are on the ship.
Even if you wanted to switcharound, so if you picked
beforehand and then you met somefriends and made some
friendships while you were onthe cruise and on the ship, and
the next day you're like, Hey.
We're gonna go here, let's makesure we're in the same group.
You didn't have to worry aboutwhat you had picked beforehand.
(09:45):
You could just go up to thefront desk that morning and be
like, Hey, I need five yellowcards for this excursion.
Yeah.
And they would give'em to youand you could travel with your
new friends.
And.
It's the rivers through Europe.
Mm-hmm.
And so you dock right in themiddle of everything.
And I think that's number fouron our list of things that
(10:07):
surprise us.
I, it is things that we knew,but also seeing it happen and
play out still surprise you.
Like when you dock in Slovakiaand Bratislave and you walk off
and there is you're downtown.
You don't have to take a businto the center of town.
You're there.
(10:27):
Some excursions require buses orwhatever, but Right.
A lot of times you're justwalking off the ship and you're
right there.
And I feel like even some of theexcursions that required buses,
if you didn't wanna go on thoseexcursions, I know me and Kyle
stayed back the day that we arein Linz I had work to do that
day and I could get off theship.
We walked around Linz, We gotback on the ship.
(10:47):
Even if you didn't wanna takethe bus excursions, you were
still close to, some town thatyou could, get off and explore
or, do some shopping, whateveryou wanted to do.
Whereas I took the excursion toSalzburg and saw the whole sound
of music, stuff like that, andand got back late and then met
you guys for happy hour in thelounge.
That's right.
(11:07):
And I think we didn't evenmention, but happy hour in the
lounge.
Like you think about the size ofthese ships, every one of us fit
in the lounge for happy hour.
There was no one standingwithout a seat.
There was not.
Could you imagine everybody onone of these big ocean ships
trying to fit in the same space?
There's enough room for everyoneto come in and enjoy that happy
(11:28):
hour.
There was enough staff to makesure everybody had drinks.
Yeah, it was like cruising with,200 of your best friends.
Yeah.
And you had mentioned the thepretzels and beer a few minutes
ago.
And when we say we dock in themiddle of the action on the
waterways in Vilshofen orVilshofen, yes.
(11:51):
They have a relationship withthe town where they have
actually built out in the port.
They do their own October Festright there, and they do it.
So like every itinerary thathits that town, they're doing
this October Fest.
So even if it's not October, youstill get that.
That's right.
Kind of taste experience, right?
Yep.
March, April, whatever.
(12:12):
You get the music, you get thelater hose, and you get the
beer, you get the pretzels, andthen you get back on the ship
and you go to Chef's Table.
And you're like, oh, I'm sofull.
This doesn't even sound good.
Just gimme the line.
Yeah, but the other thing is thepeople that they have, we had a
couple nights that they hadspecial.
Entertainment on board.
I don't think I was reallyexpecting that either.
(12:32):
Like they had the string trio,but they had them come on board
and played music for us onenight and they were absolutely
amazing.
And then they had, I.
A, a group come on and sing theday that we were in Linz.
And so as we're like gettingready to sail away for the
night, they have specialperformances.
And they do set up all theselittle special things I was
(12:54):
overwhelmed with how incrediblethese performers were.
So that was unexpected.
And then later on they had theDJ.
Yeah I'll say this, and that'swhen you're going through I am
not a, like a classical musicaficionado.
It's not really what I'm into,but I am intrigued enough by it
(13:17):
and I respect it enough, and Iam interested enough to
appreciate it for like a 30minute block.
Right.
And.
What I liked about everyinteraction that I had with it
as I was going through basicallythe.
Home of it through Austria and,and Germany, is that mm-hmm.
We did the excursion to House ofStrauss and we, we listened like
(13:40):
a th 30 minute set.
Same thing when they came onthe, on the ship.
It was not like a two hourperformance, you know?
Right.
It was enough to make you reallyappreciate that you are
experiencing something coolwithout.
Getting into the mandatory funaspect of it.
(14:00):
So I really liked it.
And then to your point, you getto into the evening time, DJ and
they're playing, baby got backand all these other random songs
that just don't seem to fit.
Yeah.
At nine o'clock you're listeningto the String Trio, and then at
10 o'clock you're listening tothe DJ play"Baby Got Back" Yes.
There's something for everybody.
There is definitely somethingfor everyone.
(14:23):
Ugh.
Unprepared for"Baby Got Back" onthe cruise ship sailing down the
Danube Yes.
Are we not?
Absolutely.
So, yep.
I, I think that those tophighlights and then as we've
just kind of talked about, likeit's chill.
Like one day me and Kyle stayedback on the ship kind of seen
Linz came back, but there is somuch to do.
(14:44):
This is not boring at all.
yeah, I had a great time and it,and there was one of the best
days I thought was.
Where we did spend the afternoonhanging out on the sun deck.
Right.
'cause we went in March, andMarch is a little early, in the
season.
Mm-hmm.
In fact, it was the first salewas snow one day season.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it was not particularly warmexcept for one day where it was
(15:08):
real nice.
And we sat up there on the, we,we brought up drinks from
downstairs.
It was great.
Yeah.
Oh, we had a, as you can tellguys, we had an absolute great
time.
So are we gonna go back, youthink?
Uh, yeah, definitely.
I think I've already deposited acruise in Europe.
(15:29):
Now it's time for Ryan's crustyReview.
Brought to you today by CaptainLuigi's Riverboat Pizza Palace.
Europe's only floating vaguelyItalian.
Cruise adjacent pizzaexperience.
Every pizza comes with schnapps,karaoke, and a sauce that they
can't legally define.
Captain Luigi's Riverboat PizzaPalace, because when you're lost
(15:49):
between Vienna and regret, we'rehere and we're floating and we
have cheese.
Let's be clear though, toeverybody.
There is no such place.
Unfortunately there is not suchplace, but, but there, there was
plenty of pizza to be found inAustria, in Germany.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, in Slovakia.
So, uh, I, it's something I've,I just do.
(16:11):
I try to get myself a picturewith, uh, me and pizza in every
place.
So in Vienna, stephanie, you andI, and Kyle went to this place
called Cafe Pizzeria Pino, andmm-hmm.
I would say that this was aplace that.
Checked the box.
So I'll, let me say up front, Idon't go looking, I don't Google
(16:36):
ahead of time.
Best pizza in Vienna looking fora place I just, you let it find
you.
Yeah, I see what I can find.
And this was a place thatchecked the box so that I can
say yes, in Austria, I've hadpizza.
Right.
It was not anything wonderful.
It was cash only, by the way.
But yes, if you're looking forpizza.
(16:57):
And you're on a river cruisethat stopped in Vienna.
It's a short walk from the boat.
That's what it has going for it.
That's exactly what it has goingfor it.
What'd you think about the,pizza in Slovakia?
Okay.
We went to a place called LaPiazza and this was.
Delicious.
(17:17):
This was incredible pizza.
It was like that, almost likethat New Haven style, fresh
basil on top.
We just got a margarita pie andsplit it between a few different
people.
But this was an incredible,incredible pizza stop.
If you're looking for pizza andit, and it's also again a short
walk from the ship, so.
Yeah, that was a great find.
(17:38):
So I was a little concernedabout you trying to find pizza
in Bratislava because we werelike the first river cruise kind
of group.
Coming through and a lot of theplaces were not really open.
'Cause it wasn't really highseason for the tourist.
So they did, we did find a candystore and we went and bought
(17:59):
Ryan some gummy pizza just incase we couldn't find pizza and
Bratislava But he did a greatjob.
Probably the best pizza.
Thank you for that.
Looking out for me there.
But we did find a good pizzathat was great.
And then in Germany, when wewent to.
We went, we had a, actually thiswas harder.
We were searching for a whilefor a place, and this place,
(18:22):
Pizetta it's called, it lookslike it was gonna be like a full
on restaurant.
We got to the place and it was acounter.
With some pizza and a dude whowould warm it up for you and it
was like the square cut pizzatoo, so it was like not, um, you
know, like, not like a circularpie.
It's not New Haven style.
(18:42):
Like what I got in BratislavaIt's not New York style, it was
that square cut, but not Detroitor Sicilian or anything like
that.
It was kind of still kind ofthin, and it was quite good
actually for a place that didn'tlook like it should be.
Uh, it was, it was pretty good.
And also not too far from theship.
(19:02):
I think everybody that triedthis pizza really enjoyed it.
So I know me and Kyle both had alittle slice and I'm like, oh,
wow, this is, this is actuallypretty good.
Absolutely.
So, surprisingly enough, right?
Yeah.
Well, uh.
That I think takes care of the,the crusty review.
But before we finish theepisode, I do wanna talk about
(19:23):
one more river cruise experiencethat we had, and it pertains to
our rooming situation.
We need to compare my roomingsituation versus Stephanie's
rooming situation.
Let me pull up.
If you're watching on YouTube,you'll see some photos here.
This is some pictures fromStephanie's room.
(19:44):
You've got Stephanie's bed,you've got her sitting area.
You got her like other sittingarea, and you've got her desk.
You don't even see that she hastwo balconies in this room,
right.
This is, this is a beautifulroom.
It's, it's a nice big, and thensomewhere is like three floors
(20:06):
below.
Stephanie was my room.
And what took you four picturesto really show?
Stephanie's room.
You get in one picture in mine,like that's the whole room and
it's, you can see my bed and mysitting area.
But if you were to sit in thechairs, your knees would hit the
bed, so, mm-hmm.
(20:27):
I got recommendations.
If you're gonna go on a rivercruise, there's gonna be the
opening price and that's gonnabe, um, this road, basically,
you'll be sleeping below thewater line.
Go, go up at least one level andthe rooms are just so spacious.
Right.
This was perfect for a single,for, for a single traveler
though.
(20:48):
Right.
And I think as you got later inthe year, I would definitely
want at least the French balconywhere you had some windows that
open and you could sit there andenjoy, the scenery as you're
cruising That would be somethingeven more important as the
weather warmed up Now that said,I didn't spend very much time in
my room at all, and I think it'sagain, because we went with a
(21:10):
group and because I had allthese people that were there
with me, I just got outta myroom and wandered up to the
lounge, and I would undoubtedlyfind somebody that, I could.
pal around with, and if Ididn't, I would sit down and do
the New York Times crossword onmy phone until somebody walked
up that did know me.
One more thing though.
Yeah.
(21:31):
Here's the difference inbathrooms.
Ryan's bathroom versusStephanie's bathroom.
Stephanie had like this fullwalk-in shower where she could
stick her arms out and to adance.
And, um, mine, if I turnedaround, I would, you know, hit
my stomach on the, on the wall.
So, yeah, and I'd say like allthe rooms are a little bit
(21:51):
tight.
I felt like mine was about thesame size as a normal, maybe
balcony state room on a.
On a cruise ship.
I mean, I didn't feel a hugesize difference between that or
like a regular balcony room.
Just be prepared for, the roomsare going to be a little bit
smaller but they use this spacereally well.
Even in like your room.
Like they use this space reallywell.
(22:11):
so, yeah.
Like I said, for, for metraveling by myself being the
only person in that room, it wasperfect.
I didn't need any more spacethan what I had'cause I wasn't
really spending a ton of timethere.
But, uh, okay.
That was my little surpriseinterlude there that I tell
Stephanie about ahead of time.
That's okay.
Full of surprises.
Full surprises.
Well, I hope you guys haveenjoyed this episode.
(22:34):
Like Ryan mentioned, I asked himif he would river cruise again.
He's already got a deposit down.
Why don't you tell us a littlebit about.
That cruise that you are goingon and I hopefully I am too.
Okay.
Well, our agency Creating MagicVacations that both Stephanie
and I are a part of haschartered a ship, the AmaSintra,
and we are going to be cruisingwith the godmother, Jenn Lee,
(22:56):
who is hosting the cruise, andit will be, next year.
And on the Duoro River.
So I hope, I hope if you wannajoin us to find out more
details, uh, email us atbookings@oneslicepod.com.
Right or reach out to us.
Facebook, Instagram, we're OneSlice Pod, website should be up
(23:17):
oneslicepod.com, Send us anemail, reach out.
We'd even love to see your bad,international pizza incident.
So send us pictures, send usyour crusty reviews, your crusty
reviews.
But thanks so much for joiningus.
We'll see you next time.
Bye bye.
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