My wife and I are considering a river cruise on the Danube or Rhine in December to see the Christmas markets. I am wondering if it's worth the added cost to get a balcony room on the ship, or if it would be too cold to enjoy it. We could save a lot of money by getting a 'French balcony' instead of a true balcony. Also, any recommendations on a cruiseline would be appreciated.

We took a Viking cruise and had a very small balcony, but I don't think it was quite the same as a balconey on a big ship. We felt that Viking was excellent even though our ship was older and about to end its service.

If you have a window, I personally would not spend the money for a balcony. It will, IMHO, be too cold to sit out on it. Christmas time in Germany and Austria can be pretty cold - good coat weather. As a matter of fact, are you going to be stopped in some port during the day every day? If so, it will be dark by evening when you are on the ship. Some lights at night will be pretty, but not worth a lot of extra money, again, MHO. Save the balcony for someplace nice and warm like the Caribbean.

Thanks Reme and Sassafrass for your thoughts. I'll look into Viking River Cruises and will probably skip the balcony.

We have been on Christmas Market river cruises with Grand Circle, Vantage, and Viking. I don't think you need to spend the money on a balcony. We did the first year and never used it. With the newer ships with French balconies, you still have the views and don't have the expense.

We liked Grand Circle and Vantage and would travel again with either of them. The ships were decorated for Christmas and you had a lot of holiday activities. We liked having a dedicated tour director for each 1/4 of the passengers. The staff on both Grand Circle and Vantage were warm, and they seemed to enjoy having us as passengers. They went out of their way to make sure we had everything we needed and spent a lot of time helping us plan our independent activities.

On the other hand, other than going to the markets, there was very little "holiday" experience on our Viking cruise (which we took in December). There was one tour director for the entire ship, and we had different local guides in each port. There was norovirus on the ship, and some of our fellow travelers were sick. There was no communication about the illness, and the cleanliness on the ship was not up to the standards we were used to. We would not travel with Viking again.