Look at AMA Waterways. All English Speaking and geared for US, UK, & Aussie guests. Newest ships in the industry w/ 170 sq.ft. cabins, flat screen TV w/ free internet in your cabin, unlimited GREAT wine with dinner and really fine dining.
I have sailed with them 3 times and you cannot do better.
Ck their website
Note Euro site includes a company that is no longer in business, Peter Dielmann Cruises.

tvlirish, my husband and I are in the process of picking an AMA Waterway's cruise for this summer and having trouble deciding. Since you have been on 3 of them, I was hoping you could offer your opinion on the ones we are considering. 1. Blue Danube Discovery 2. Black Sea Voyage, and the Enchanting Rhine.

tvlirish, for the Enchanting Rhine because the dates don't work. Besides the other 2, we are also looking at the Magnificent Europe. Thanks.

We just complete a river cruise on Avalon Affinity. It is a new ship and was lovely. Large, well appointed cabins at 172 sq ft minimum, lovely public areas, very good food, wonderful service and included wines and beer at dinner.

All English Speaking and geared for US, UK, & Aussie guests.

The firm mentioned,Euro River Cruises, is not the actual cruise operator but rather a booking firm for vaious cruise companies. I recognize various ship names of various firms on the offered listings.My opinion which ever cruise you wish, book directly with the actual cruise firm.
Why use a Middleman hopefully this can help to avoid potential problems.

I live close to the Danube, do not make these voyages but do have contact with passengers sometimes.
As mentioned , The Dielman river cruises are now out of business and I hear less than great things from Viking passengers about the Viking boats.

I wonder if anyone has purchased Deilmann's boats? We had an absolutely marvelous cruise on the Seine with them. Were hoping to do another one when they closed down. sob -

The Mozart , on e of the Dielmann boats was impounded this past summer for mumerous unpaid dabts including wage taxes, health insurance etc. Eventually this mateer was apparently at least partially resolved as at least I saw the Mozart later on the danube.
Have not seen it or sister boats in some months. I was told the river portion of the business was bankrupt.
The sea going dream ship , the Deutschland, continues to operate

DH and I took the Magnificent Europe cruise,Budapest to Amsterdam 2 years ago with Avalon. It was absolutely wonderful and even after 2 weeks we hated for it to end. We are scheduled on a southern France river cruise with Avalon in April.Can't wait. We have only rivercruised with Avalon,owned by Globus, but I have heard really good things about AMA and Uniworld too. You really can't go wrong with any of these 3 companies. This should give you a starting point to compare all 3 companies.We got a 2 for 1 deal with Avalon for April thru affordabletours.com which was just to good to pass up.Don't pay full price no matter who you book with. There are always deals to be had.Sometimes 1/2 off,free air etc etc.

Are the cruises at all active? Are there walking tours in the cities or are you just on a deck chair for days straight?

With Grand Circle Travel you get walking guided tours in the towns as you get off the river ship. Entertainment on the ship is genally by locals. Dinners are wonderful. We've taken 5 river cruises with them and we'll take Christmas Markets on the Danube with them Dec. 2010.

I did the GCT Danube Christmas Markets cruise in December 2005 and still dream about the breakfast buffets. Cultural activities were really good, as were the on-board tour directors and the local tour guides at port stops. The highlights, of course, were seeing the Christmas markets in Vienna, Passau, Regensberg, and Nürnberg. I hope to go again one of these years, having now convinced my husband that he would really enjoy a cruise instead of always being the driver of the car.

Agree with 'letsgo39' about affordable tours. They are middle men, but discount the tours of many different companies. Another is www.cheapertravel.com/rivercruise/ Have checked both companies and they are both listed as A+ with the BBB. GCT could have financial problems. You can check my post of an article in the Boston Globe. Two brothers litigating against each other. Not sure what is the latest. Richard

We are very active and were concerned about this. We ended up taking some of the included walking tours but for the most part ventured out on our own in each port of call and stayed til we had to get back.

While it was not the crazy pace we generally keep in Europe, we enjoyed it for what it was and also adapted the experience to our personal style. We often dined at local spots in port and maximized every minute.

We're going on a trans-Atlantic 2 week cruise on Royal Caribbean. If anyone has done this, we'd like to know what to expect in the dining room, that is, the food; is the entertainment all song and dance reviews and will we get an opportunity to dance? (We don't have much info from the cruise line; maybe it's too early?)

Go to cruisecritic.com and you will get lots of info.

There will be dancing nightly in addition to a show. Food is typical mass market cruise food = banquet quality. Extra charge restaurants are much better.

I did go to cruisecritic.com. Thanks!