aliced

We thought we were done with all European travel, but want to convince my husband to try a river cruise. We've done 3 ocean cruises, and loved them, and for the most part, we see one country at a time on our own on more than a dozen trips. But good friend and her boyfriend are booked on Vantage in early December, and Germany is one country we have not toured. This would be ideal,, as previous trips have been in summer/fall, so ready to try the Christmas Mkt time, and have only been to one stop (Vienna) many years ago. Also have not seen Budapest, the origin city. Others go to/from Amsterdam & Zurich, and have visited those. We definitely would want to do river cruise with friends with whom we know well. What do you think of this line? It would be easy for us (for once) as they reserved already, we'd just have to sign on. I am an undefatigable researcher/planner, so this would be a piece of cake. We live in NYC area, so warm clothes/weather not an issue.

janisj

I've taken one Vantage river cruise so not an expert by any means -- but would not hesitate to take another one. It was a German Christmas market cruise actually over the Christmas holiday period so markets were only open a few of the days of the cruise. Never having taken a river cruise before, I mostly took it 'on spec' because 1) sailing over Christmas Eve/Day was cheaper, 2) Vantage was much cheaper than say Viking, and 3) there was no single supplement -- can you see a theme here I was being cheap. I was in a single cabin down below the water level with just a porthole that I'm too short to see out . . . the price to pay for no single supplement. But the regular cabins I saw 'upstairs' looked quite nice

BUT I really enjoyed it and was quite impressed with the quality and choice of food, most of the staff were great, and the excursions were well planned. On the walking tours people were divided up by mobility ('self-divided' -- it wasn't mandated but everyone benefitted) so the more fit people could really stride out, more sedentary folks could take their time and not be rushed, and those with mobility problems were in their own group and were taken by van or had their tour modified in some way.

Being actually over the holiday there were several 3 generation and one 4 generation family groups. So I think there were more children and teenagers than on a different sailing date when I assume the crowd would be predominantly old geezers

aliced

Thanks JanisJ, we'll be home for Christmas and will opt for a cabin w view, but worth a try, and our friends have similar standards to ours!

janisj

To clarify -- on my ship ALL the cabins had views / full sized windows (and I 'think' Juliet balconies) except the singles on the lower deck.