Now that the cruise lines (ocean) have included the tipping automatically, what is the set-up for river cruising? We are embarking on our first one in '07 and wish to start checking out details.
Any thoughts will be appreciated. (We will be on Viking Cruises)

I wouldn't want my cruise ship to tip too much regardless of whether it was on a river or ocean. I don't swim very well.

On my 11 day Rhine cruise they made recommendations at the end what to tip. It was to be deposited in a communal box in the dining room. I gave two people indiviual tips because I felt appreciative of the assistance they had provided me.

Viking recommends tipping $10 per day per person. We just came back from a Viking River Cruise trip through Burgundy and Provence on the Saone and Rhone rivers. We loved it. Ahead of time, I figured the tip for the trip at 110 euros. At the end I added another 5 euros for good measure. At the prevailing exchange rate, that came out to about $145.

We just completed a wonderful river cruise on the VANTAGE River Explorer from Budapest to Amsterdam over a two week period. They recommend a tip of $12 per person per day to be distributed to the cabin stewardess and the lounge and dining room staff. There is also a recommended ip for the individual program directors and ours was WELL WORTH it.

We took a river cruise earlier this year and were given guidelines for tipping. I think it was about $10 per day/per person, all to be put in a box on the last day and divided evenly among the crew. We tipped more generously and tipped two crew members individuallly as well. If your experience is like ours, you'll find yourself wanting to tip more than suggested because the care and attention provided are amazing.

And people complain about tipping tour guides $3-5 a day and the driver $2-4???

Just to clarify -- the tips for the crew are in addition to the tips for guides and bus drivers. And the per person refers to the passenger, not each crew member.