Have you seen our new river cruise section?

Cruise Critic's just unveiled its new design for river cruise-related trips (same URL: http://www.cruisecritic.com/river). We think it's got a better layout, is easier to access content you want, pulls in threads from both forums and community review ratings, and such. There's more we want to do (we're ramping up on coverage of river-only cruise ports, assigning more ship reviews -- especially but not limited to Scenic and Grand Circle Travel, and some of the lesser-known U.S. lines), and creating more opportunities for editorial coverage of rivers and cruise lines.

Can you wander over and take a look? And before we get started on phase 2 of the section, please (and I know you won't be shy): Tell us what else we need to do to make editorial on river cruising as useful as it possibly can be for you.

Thanks. Any questions, post 'em here and I'll come back and answer them.

Carolyn

Carolyn Spencer Brown

Editor in Chief

Cruise Critic

I only did a quick look at your new page and so far it looks good. I have been on 14 river cruises since 2001 and hope to continue for years to come. As a solo traveler, they are my favorite type if travel. My only concern is you leave out Vantage and GCT when selecting certain area of cruising, i.e. European, Russia, etc. You should give CC viewers all options in the future.

I just glanced at the new site, and was surprised to see Vantage was not listed among those companies offering river cruises.

I was also surprised not to see Scenic Tours listed.

While Tauck may be listed on your cover page, I'm stunned that a premium line is not in your rating of either river cruises or overall:confused:

I think it's a great way to start and I'm sure features and information will be added as work on the site continues.

I only did a quick look at your new page and so far it looks good. I have been on 14 river cruises since 2001 and hope to continue for years to come. As a solo traveler, they are my favorite type if travel. My only concern is you leave out Vantage and GCT when selecting certain area of cruising, i.e. European, Russia, etc. You should give CC viewers all options in the future.

Hi

I have been on 3 Vantage river cruises and would like to compare it to others.

Thanks

Tom

Great points, and thanks for the feedback. We're ramping up on GCT as we speak (we have a contributor on an exotic Danube cruise this week on River Adagio, so will have lots of good content from that, including a ship review). She's also posting impressions once a day on our Facebook page -- facebook.com/cruisecritic.

We have not had good luck with working with Vantage. We've tried to reach out and aren't having any success at all. We hear from readers that it's a good cruise line and we'll keep trying but our lack of coverage is not by design.

Thanks again.

Carolyn

I only did a quick look at your new page and so far it looks good. I have been on 14 river cruises since 2001 and hope to continue for years to come. As a solo traveler, they are my favorite type if travel. My only concern is you leave out Vantage and GCT when selecting certain area of cruising, i.e. European, Russia, etc. You should give CC viewers all options in the future.

Hi there, it's listed. You should start here with our Scenic corporate profile: http://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/cruiseline.cfm?CruiseLineID=144.

I just tried my first Scenic Cruise (Scenic Crystal) and am in the midst of writing a ship review. It's an excellent line and stay tuned as we ramp up our coverage of Scenic.

You'll also find plenty of Scenic customers on the forums so free to ask them questions (or email me directly at editor@cruisecritic.com).

Thanks!

Carolyn

I was also surprised not to see Scenic Tours listed.

hi, newlondon, not sure I understand your question. Tauck is one of the highest rated river lines out there -- 100 percent of our members who have reviewed it give it a superb rating (http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/cruiseline.cfm?CruiseLineID=105). And I reviewed a Tauck Jewel cruise last summer and scored it a 5.5. You can't get a better rating than that!

That link is here: http://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/review.cfm?ShipID=529.

If I'm misunderstanding your question, please let me know. One downside for Tauck is that only seven members have written reviews -- we all need to encourage its customers to write to us about their trips!

Carolyn

While Tauck may be listed on your cover page, I'm stunned that a premium line is not in your rating of either river cruises or overall:confused:

Hi, Tom, have you written cruise reviews for our community about your trips? It'd be great to hear your perspective about your Vantage cruises....

Carolyn

I have been on 3 Vantage river cruises and would like to compare it to others.

Thanks

Tom

Hi

I have been on 3 Vantage river cruises and would like to compare it to others.

Thanks

Tom

(1) Why do you have 3 separate areas within the Message Boards for river cruising, with so little activity in any of them? [River Cruising; River Cruising--River Cruise Ports, Europe; and Special Interest Cruising--River Cruises]

(2) What happened to the plan to divide up the River Cruising Roll Calls by Cruise Line?

I followed your URL to the new page and liked the list of cruise lines, but can't see how this pulls in forums. Other than near the top where you go to forums and then which forum you want, how are forums linked in. I must be missing something.

Nice site. I am having trouble finding any info and or reviews on Amadeus, which people seem to confuse with AMA. Help!

Also would really like to know which rivers specifically have trouble with low or high waters affecting cruises. Or maybe the percentage of cruises?

Hi there, it's listed. You should start here with our Scenic corporate profile: http://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/cruiseline.cfm?CruiseLineID=144.

 

I just tried my first Scenic Cruise (Scenic Crystal) and am in the midst of writing a ship review. It's an excellent line and stay tuned as we ramp up our coverage of Scenic.

 

You'll also find plenty of Scenic customers on the forums so free to ask them questions (or email me directly at editor@cruisecritic.com).

 

Thanks!

 

Carolyn

Carolyn, if you go to the link you suggested, www.cruisecritic.com/river, Scenic Tours is not listed as a River Cruise Line. Yes, I know there are reviews in the Member Reviews as I have posted one, however, this particular link, which is where you directed us, does not contain Scenic. Perhaps there are too many places on the main board to access river cruising and that is part of the problem.

Hi, Tom, have you written cruise reviews for our community about your trips? It'd be great to hear your perspective about your Vantage cruises....

 

Carolyn

 

Hi Carolyn

I'm sorry to hear that Vantage won't cooperate. I joined CC in 2010 and have only been on 1 Vantage trip since then. See

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1673620

 

I have also answered questions on various threads.

 

Tom:)

Carolyn,

In the Choosing a River Cruise Line listing, I still don't see Scenic; I even tried refreshing the page after I got there using your original link. My list shows: . . . Lindblad -> St. Lawrence -> Tauck . . .

On the We Talk Ship sidebar showing the Top 10 River Cruises, would it be possible for the See all Overall Rankings link to show only river cruise lines instead of the entire population of passenger vessels?

Thanks!

You are absolutely right -- we missed that! (We also missed Vantage but that's another story). We'll add it in, thanks for pointing that out.

Carolyn

Carolyn, if you go to the link you suggested, www.cruisecritic.com/river, Scenic Tours is not listed as a River Cruise Line. Yes, I know there are reviews in the Member Reviews as I have posted one, however, this particular link, which is where you directed us, does not contain Scenic. Perhaps there are too many places on the main board to access river cruising and that is part of the problem.

Hi, Live4cruises, see message posted today about Tauck. I misunderstood the original question :)

We've more tweaks to make on the river section (among 'em include a page on the rivers/ports themselves, and another page that goes into more detail on the cruise lines). At least these are on my wish list. I don't think the We Talk Ship sidebar that ranks the top 10 really works at this point. If every ship listed has the same score it's not all that helpful. It could be useful as we get more and more member content. But right now...not so sure.

We're talking about possibly changing that, and feeding in the newest member ship reviews there....

Carolyn

Carolyn,

 

In the Choosing a River Cruise Line listing, I still don't see Scenic; I even tried refreshing the page after I got there using your original link. My list shows: . . . Lindblad -> St. Lawrence -> Tauck . . .

 

On the We Talk Ship sidebar showing the Top 10 River Cruises, would it be possible for the See all Overall Rankings link to show only river cruise lines instead of the entire population of passenger vessels?

 

Thanks!

Are you going to do a sticky here with the link?

Hi Carolyn, Sorry if I wasn't clear. On your link there is a list of the 10 best river cruise boats-I'm surprised no Tauck boat is on that list but so be it. Under that list, however is a long rating list and Tauck is not on that-a surprise to me.

I just glanced at the new site, and was surprised to see Vantage was not listed among those companies offering river cruises.

I agree, Vantage gets a lot of "air" on cruise critic and it should be listed on the home page, along with its ships. Otherwise it looks great.

Hi, Tom, have you written cruise reviews for our community about your trips? It'd be great to hear your perspective about your Vantage cruises....

 

Carolyn

 

I have been on 3 Vantage river cruises and would like to compare it to others.

Thanks

 

Tom

I've written several reviews on Vantage and have been on 5 of them, all of which I reviewed, latest just last month. There are a lot of people who write about Vantage and ask questions about them. I find it hard to believe that you've called them and they aren't interested. Of course, if you've e-mailed or left telephone messages that would be a different story!:)

i agree, vantage gets a lot of "air" on cruise critic and it should be listed on the home page, along with its ships. Otherwise it looks great.

please please ..

I've written several reviews on Vantage and have been on 5 of them, all of which I reviewed, latest just last month. There are a lot of people who write about Vantage and ask questions about them. I find it hard to believe that you've called them and they aren't interested. Of course, if you've e-mailed or left telephone messages that would be a different story!:)

Is it because U have to book direct with them .