waverly

To OP you pose an interesting question, and one that is somewhat difficult to answer. I've been on three European river cruises, all with Viking. On two of those I received free airfare. Other costs such as transfers to/from airport/ship were included as were a daily tour that may have included admission into a church, castle or other historical site. And of course 3 meals as well as wine/beer with lunch & dinner.

 

I went to a travel booking site and looked at airfare from IAD to Charles de Gaulle and checked current airfare for the first week in April (2018) , about $750 pp, a week in a Paris hotel at $200 a night, and allowed $75 pp per day for food, and came up with $3950. That's about what I paid for our last river cruise (Not including the 3-day Paris extension, gratuities or optional tours). Granted, we stayed in the lowest cabin category.

 

The most I paid for any trip was a 12 day cruise to the Baltics on a major cruise line. I had no idea I was spending as much as I was (And I thought I had gotten an excellent deal on both cruise fare and airfare that I had purchased separately) until I sat down and added up the costs from the cruise, airfare, transfers, independent tour operators, etc. To this day I refuse to tell my husband how much it cost. However, it remains as my all-time favorite vacation.

 

In the end I think its not how much something cost, but how much value did you receive, and that's a question each person needs to determine for themselves.

 

Happy Travels!

We have been on three AMA cruises and I just wanted to post a similar calculation you just did and came to the same conclusion. - River cruises are actually not overpriced. adding up meals, hotel accommodation, sightseeing and transportation one will end up with about the same per day costs. We paid $ 2695 (about $ 385 per day) for the lowest price stateroom on a 7 days Danube cruise. Our price included early booking discount of $ 250 and $ 600 discount provided by our agent.

We will keep on cruising !

whether you will encounter a problem also depends on the ship you will be traveling on. Right now concerns are low water-levels. Viking ships have a bigger draft than ships of other cruise lines and will therefore get effected sooner by low water-levels. For example, last year Viking had to bus people around while AMA was still able to cruise.

Christmas Markets are in full swing during Advent - 4 weeks prior to Christmas Eve - and they close on 24 December. We did an AMA cruise starting in Budapest on 23 Dec to Prague. New Year's in Prague was memorable. Some Christmas Markets were still open until New Year's, however with maybe half their stalls. The special flair of Christmas Markets after Christmas is not there any more. To experience this you definitely have to go before the 24 Dec. We have been several time in Austria & Germany during this time period and always liked it.

just google your question and you will get a big list of answers. I am not allowed to list here all the rating sites you will find.

If you take AMA's insurance "cancel for any reason" you get 100% back - however only credited towards an other AMA cruise within two years.

we have been on 4 AMA-Waterways cruises and were never disappointed.

Every single cruise exceeded our expectations. We will certainly book with AMA again.