European River Cruises comparisons
 

My spouse and I love ocean cruises. Recently; I've had friends comment on enjoyment of European River Cruises. Are there equal benefits? Are costs comparable? Are lodging aboard comparable to balcony/window lodging aboard ocean cruises? Are meals comparable?
Thank You.

we did a River Cruise down the Rhone River in France.
It was wonderful...the cabins on this ship had teak floored bathrooms...there is only a salon with a piano player for nite life...and dinner is NOWHERE as heavy as US Cruises.
There is normally a buffet for brfst and lunch and order off menu for dinner...Normal portions- pretty good but not great food.

BEST part of the cruise as going thru the locks ie. like Panama Canal only up close and personal. I actually loved it more than Panama Canal.

You also get off in these teeny french towns and either do tours or walk around the towns. Veryyyyyyyyyyyy relaxing.

They only hold about 120 passengers and are normally 2 stories high. On the top deck there may or may not be a pool but there r deck chairs and the views are amazing.

I did Franch and now i want to do Italy.

Lodging? defnitely smaller and no balcony..

We have done two Tauck river cruises, Amsterdam-Budapest and the next year, Bucharest-Budapest. I would do the entire trip again in a minute!!! The rooms are smaller than traditional cruise lines, but they are very well fitted with furniture all attached, large picture windows, lovely dining room with open seating. The upper patio can be used to sit out and sightsee if the weather is good. As mentioned, the highlight are the locks, very interesting. The trips off the boat, walking or bus, are wonderful, interesting and informative. IF you don't feel like getting off, you can stay on and many times the boat continues down the river, picking up the group down the way. We liked the port side at the front of the boat....less engine noise in front and port side you can see all the river traffic which is pretty interesting. Our tours had less than 100 and 3 tour directors, splitting the on land tours into three groups. We had breakfast and lunches(mostly on land) as buffets, dinner served from menus, wine included, as were tips and all charges, we wouldn't have spent another penny.

What is included in the fare on the river cruise? Are the sightseeing trips part of the price?

We did a Grand Circle riverboat cruise from Austria to Amsterdam. Loved it. The cabin was a tad bit smaller than other cruises we've taken, but didn't bother us at all. All cabins had a window. Food was great. Crew was fantastic. At most stops a free walking tour with a guide was included in the cost. There were a few optionals offered for a price, but we didn't take any of those. We had a great breakfast, went on the included walking tour, back for lunch and a rest, then returned to shore to do some exploring on our own. Back on board for reading, visiting, resting, then an excellent dinner. We will definately do another riverboat cruise.

We are doing a Univworld cruise on the Danube River on the River Beatrice right now and is wonderful. We left from Passau, Germany and ended up in Budapest today. Our ship is beautiful and the staff is wonderful and we stopped at some great cities - both large and small. I would highly recommend this tour company and also this ship.

ttt

Cali,

We are going to do that very trip with Uniworld in June 2011 - do you plan to write a report? Perhaps we can get in touch some other way if not. Glad to hear you had a good experience.

We have done two River Cruises with Grand Circle and loved them. We have also used Overseas Adventure Cruises, which holds 50 passengers and loved the small ship. I highly recommend both. I did one big cruise ship on the Baltics and you would have to hog tie me to do another. I didn't like being one of 3,000 people. We like the small and personal like the River Cruises and Small ship.

socaltraveler, I am hoping to find a minute to do a trip report on our cruise. Hopefully, I can do it in the next week. We loved Uniworld and loved the trip. Will you be on the River Beatrice? It is a wonderful ship and the staff is fabulous. We hated to see the trip end. Are you going anywhere pre or post cruise? We went to Berlin (not part of the cruise) and then to Prague (part of the cruise) and then were taken by motorcoach to Passau where we got on the ship. We are so glad we went to Prague as we loved it. We also really enjoyed Berlin. Actually, we loved every minute of the trip.

Yes, we will be on the River Beatrice, with two other couples. We are not doing Uniworld's pre and post packages but we are going to start in Prague for 4 nights and end in Budapest with 3 nights. I am currently booking hotels in Prague and Budapest, and transfer from Prague to Passau; we would like to stop in Cesky Krumlov on our way to the boat. I look forward to reading anything you have to say about the trip.

I am sure you will love the River Beatrice. We had family members with us and all of us loved everything about the trip. We were told that we had the best weather of all the cruises this summer as they had had a lot of rain. We had very nice weather with no rain on the cruise so were able to enjoy being out on deck while cruising during the day. The mostly tour during the day or do short time cruising, but there is one day where we cruised all afternoon and during the night too. I think you will enjoy your time in both Prague and Budapest as there is a lot to see. Also enjoyed the food everywhere. I will look back over my notes and try to do a trip report and give you more info as soon as I have a few minutes.

Cali - if you think of it, can you post here when you write up your trip report? I don't often check out this part of the forum and don't want to miss it! Thanks!

kwren, I will post here when I do it. I hope to find some time this weekend to do the trip report.

Cali (or anyone else),
would you please address the smoking issue on your cruise? Was there smoking in cabins and elsewhere? I have heard mixed reports regarding it and if you are a non-smoker or don't want to be around it, that it is a problem. thanks.

I published an extensive review and comparison on Luxury Cruise Talk, following the Danube cruise that we took in September. See http://www.luxurycruisetalk.com/ubb/...c;f=1;t=005281.

charli, I have very bad allergies and I didn't notice any smoke at all on our cruise. I didn't even check to see if it was nonsmoking, but it must have been as I really didn't notice any on any part of the ship and I would have been complaining about my allergies every minute if there had been smoke. Hope you are as lucky.

Has anyone cruised on both Viking and Vantage ships? I have done 4 Viking and would like to try Vantage cruise.