We just returned -yesterday- from a cruise on the lower Danube withy Viking. It was great. The food, staff and cabins were great, even in an older ship. I have trouble with shore excursions and they were a little better on this trip. I still think there is too much talk and too little see, and too much shop time. The only other problem was CDG and that is not the cruise lines fault. If the French want a ridiculous airport let them have it, but I will try to avoid it. Maybe some one could do a web site to help get around airports?

We've only been on one river cruise. The shore excursions were poor quality but so are most of those from the cruise liners nowadays. The biggest disappointment for us was that our riverboat stopped well out of the towns, they had coaches at set times but we'd hoped that we could just hop on and off whenever we wanted. The best things was the cabins, the best that we've experienced on any kind of cruising, plenty of space and places to store things.

I did the 15 minute Danube Cruise on Uniworld from Bucharest to Vienna.

I could not have been more pleased.

All shore excursions were good , and I was happy when I had time to myself , because I did my home work well and knew where all the major sites were in each place.

Glad to hear the Paris to Normandy was great, it is on the list

I've done 5 river cruises and been happy each and every time!

My daughter and I went on the Uniworld cruise out of Paris to Normandy the last week of Oct. 2011. I cannot say enough good things about the crew and the places we visited. It is our favorite trip of all times, and we have traved alot.
The rooms are small as you would expect.

I mean I did a 15 day Danube Cruise not 15 minutes

newp:

You will not have to swim to shore if the boat sinks!

Our Uniworld captan said he did some simple math, the Danube is 90 feet deep and the boat is 170 feet high.

`Just go to the top`deck and have a beer while the boat sinks`

Loved Viking River cruise in China. Yes, we had to take a bus to any tours but the cruise itself was great. Will take another one in Europe. Everything we needed was on board even a tailor who made me a great jacket! A lot of cruise ships dock in not very pretty areas (unlike those who dock in SF) so expect to take some kind of transportation to get anywhere.

We had a wonderful cruise on the Seine with Peter Deilmann about 6 years ago. Always wanted to do another but they went out of the river cruise business. Can anybody recommend another river cruise line of the same caliber?

July we are scheduled for a Grand Circle cruise on the Elbe R. from Prague to Hamburg. This will be our 7th GCT trip...very nice Holland-Belgium river cruise 2009 also Seine R. last year plus several land tours.
Bill in Boston

we're looking into our 1st river cruise...does anyone have any thoughts on the Vantage River Cruises? pros-cons?