Gate 1 Travel Christmas Market Cruise Wrap Up

So we have finally come to the end of our blog series for our December 2024 river cruise. (Yes, we’re very behind, but there’s a lot to share!)

So it’s time to wrap up our experience. We’ll give you the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of our Gate 1 Travel 11-day German Christmas Markets with Prague vacation.

 

First, The Good

This was our tenth Gate 1 Travel vacation, but our first river cruise.

The MS Monarch Queen exceeded our expectations. We liked the idea of seeing multiple cities without packing and unpacking and long bus rides between them. However, the ship, the crew, and the food were all incredible!

Spoiler Alert: our next vacation happened to also be booked on the Monarch Queen, so we’re glad we really liked it!

Prague was incredible. We went a few days early and really enjoyed the history and the food. We both commented that we’d really enjoy another vacation there to explore more of the city and the surrounding area. But it would definitely be in the Spring!

Wurzburg may have been our favorite city on the cruise. The Residenz Palace was spectacular, and there was a lot we didn’t get to see in one day.

 

 

Frankfurt was probably our favorite Christmas Market. There were many stalls and displays, and it would have been fun to spend a few nights seeing everything lit up.

Lastly, has to be the people we met. We met some incredible people. Some we’d wander the cities with; others it was a few lunches or a beer; and with a wonderful group, we spent most of our dinners and still keep in touch with them today.

 

The Bad

Honestly, we’re on vacation at one of the most magical times of the year – there are very few bad things.

We have to be honest, the one disappointment was the overabundance of mass-produced Christmas ornaments. 

Neither of us wears jewelry, and we don’t need to buy more heavyweight clothing; there were plenty of both locally made. There were some handcrafted ornaments and decorations, just not as many as we’d expect.

We’ve both commented that we’d like to do another Christmas Market trip, despite the cold weather. However, we would probably pick a few cities and spend more time in each city. They really come alive at night, and we felt like we didn’t see as much as we would have liked.

 

The Ugly

Truthfully, there was no ugliness. 

Aside from some rain, we had decent weather in December and had a wonderful time, coming home with incredible memories.

 

What’s Next?

We did several trips in 2025 and will be diving into those!

First up: our second Gate 1 Travel river cruise. The next trip will be a 14 Day Tulip Time River Cruise with Amsterdam, Brussels & Paris.

Spring in the Netherlands is something we’ve talked about experiencing, and the iconic Keukenhof Gardens is a bucket list item – and did not disappoint.

 

 

And while Chuck had been to Paris years ago, Mark, the retired Chef, had NEVER been. So it was quite a culinary adventure all around.

 

 

We hope you follow along!