jtf1943

We are planning a Europe river cruise next summer, specfically the Danube from Budapest west to Vienna or Amsterdam. We are interested in a deluxe cruise with a comfortable cabin, excellent cuisine, and top notch service. Any suggestions for cruise lines that meet our criteria ?

tower

Firstly, jtf, I am not a cruise lover by any means. Secondly, only three times have I cruised in over 60 years of travel; a delightful barge trip in Alsace-Lorraine; a freebie as a guest lecturer on a cruise L.A. to Mexican Riviera; and finally, in 2008, a superb Viking river cruise, Moscow to St. Petersburg.

I can highly recommend Viking...it will fit all of your criteria as you clearly stated above. Not only that, the company has been diligently improving the quality of their Russian cruises with new state-of-the-art craft, all owned staffed and outfitted by Viking.

Call their Woodland Hills headquarters (CA) office 877-668-4546. Offices in Boston, also. They do advertise an Amsterdam-Budapest, but I'm not sure about the reverse.

Stu Tower (if interested, I'll be happy to post my pix of the Viking cruise which may give you a feel for it)

Dukey1

Viking often has 2 for 1 deals on their website.

johnnyomalley

I've been researching similar cruises for the last year or so. The top 3 from my research are Uniworld, Tauck and Viking.

Look at cruisecritic.com for reviews from people who have been on river cruises. They are very different from ocean cruises.

Rastaguytoday

There's also AMAWaterways, that generally gets better ratings than Viking.

Dukey1

Read the ratings <B>carefully</B>.

Delaine

I would recommend Tauck. I've taken a number of their land tours in Europe and last year took a small ship cruise with them down the coast of Croatia and Montenegro that began and ended in Venie. Everything (shore excursions/tours, all gratuities, etc.) was included. The food was good and service was great. They are expensive, but in this instance, I think you get what you pay for.

HappyTrvlr

We have taken Viking's Russian River cruise, and Danube Cruise(Nuremburg to Budapest) and AMAwaterways Mekong cruise in Cambodia and Vietnam. I would give AmaWaterways the edge over Viking in regard to service and amenities, food.I have also read praise for Uniworld. In comparing the two Viking cruises, we much preferred the Russian one over the Danube as it was much more interesting trip. If you do the Danube, I suggest you do what we did. After spending extra time in Budapest, we took a train back to Vienna, very easy, to explore that city more for several days as we didn't get to see that much on the short stop there. We are not big ship cruisers either and usually travel independently for up to six weeks at a time. We found we could explore on our own at the river boats stops,and eat lunch or dinner off the boat.

VannyChhan

I haven't sailed a river cruise, but based on what I've read, AmaWaterways and Tauck both meet your criteria.

If you're interested in a day-by-day account of what to expect, you should read FromTheDeckChair.com's live voyage reports. Excellent insight!

http://avidcruiser.com/ftdc/2011/12/...-report-day-1/

http://avidcruiser.com/ftdc/2012/09/...-report-day-1/