I've been reading about the river cruises (of Europe) all over the Internet, and I'm wondering if they are as regimented as it sounds. For instance, is it possible to skip the "included" tour and go alone for lunch in the town the ship is docked in? If someone wants to shop,walk,eat, drink- instead of going through another church, can they? Or must one always be with the rest of the passengers? Thanks!

Unn I've taken only one river cruise(Rhine) and had no problem doing something on my own.It's inportant to notify the guide or tour leader of your plan so they are aware and don't look for you when they count heads.

Unn: I'll second what Charlie said. We will be taking our second river cruise this summer and although we took all the included tours, we were certainly able to skip if we wanted to for independent touring. However, it is really important to tell the tour guide or cruise director in advance that you will not be with the group or it will throw everyone off schedule. One good feature of Viking River Cruises is that you stay with the same group of 20-30 people throughout the cruise on your shore excursions. After the first day or two, if someone's missing, you know exactly who it is.....and perhaps why (staying on board ship, going into town on their own, etc.) I must say that having cruised on Princess, Orient, etc., it's wonderful that river cruises include nearly all port excursions at no additional cost. It makes budgeting for the trip much easier. Mimi

We did a Rhone River tour thru France and the excursions were EXTRA-,so if we just wanted to walk thru the town instead of the excursions, we did that...

However, if you are pre=paying , or if your excursions are included in the price, you CAN skip the excursions but you end up losing your money....

Excursion group leaders try to keep the group together-depending on where the excursion is going......as you hold up the group if you go off on your own and they have to wait up for you....

SO , if you know ahead of time that you want to go on your own...skip the excursion.....

Help, anyone..........I'm trying to locate a report on Russian River Cruise and when I type in the space "word or phrase" or "topic" on the home page for Talk there is no place to click FIND as the instructions under Help tell you to. Please E-Mail me at AOL.com

Betty - it's on the EUROPE forum. In the search box, type in "my russia" and it will pop right up.