ollibarb

Hi All

I am just off the silhouette this AM. Overall it was a really good trip and a much nicer overall experience then my Norwegian cruises. If anyone has any questions I will try and answer them but I have no pictures of menus etc so I may not be as much help if you are looking for very specific information

Thanks for fielding questions. How was the regular coffee. Trying to decide if a coffee drinker needs to get the non al package if they only drink plain black coffee.

Any recommendations for embarkation - time- places to go- things to do on first day?

We sailed on Viking this sept and it was wonderful - no complaints. This was our first river cruise and we loved it. We did the Grand European - Budapest to Amsterdam .... Unfortunately- every other cruise we have been looking at seems pale in comparison. We did the best first - seeing 5 countries in 14 days and all wonderful!!

So - I am looking at Uniworld because it is all inclusive- tips too and they may have different itineraries.

Will be happy to answer any questions about Viming! It was a trip go a lifetime!

That is our targeted itinerary for 2015 - just have to decide which company has the best package as well as reputation. We just reading the Uniworld version and was impressed. Building a spreadsheet to compare the top 4 companies and of course using CC reviews and input like yours. ; )

dcruisers - thanks for the question. Have you sailed with Uniworld? Tauck ? AMA ? Looking at a first river cruise in summer 2015. Any advice?

We took our first river cruise in June 2013 from Germany to Budapest. We started out with 3 nights in Prague at the Hilton which was great. You don't need to do that with the cruise line. Unfortunately Europe had the worst flooding in 500 years so we were deeply affected. Our cruise line was AMA and they handled the situation in an excellent manor. We were bused to most places and we were on put on 2 different boats during our 1 week cruise. The last night they had to put everyone up in a Hotel because the locks were broken. This was an extreme case of flooding and they took care of their passengers. Everyone received a full refund to be used on another cruise up until December 2016. Felt this was extremely generous.

They had good excursions, everyone had their own headphones so you did not have to be on top of the guides. Food was good not great. This are big differences between river cruisng and ocean cruising.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Melodye

Thanks Melodye. I agree that it is what happens when things go wrong that separates great cruise lines from good cruise lines. Your note gives us an example I think is crucial to making the decisions. Anyone else have experiences when things go wrong?

We plan on doing a river cruise in late fall of 2015.

 

I want to start planning early. We want to do Amsterdam to Budapest if possible. I notice some companies only do to Vienna or they don't start in Amsterdam and only start in Cologne.

 

Has anyone done a spreadsheet comparison on a few companies? Would you be willing to share what you have found out and what items you compared.

 

It would give me a start to narrowing down a cruise line. There seem to be many more differences in river cruise lines than in ocean ones. At least that is my perspective.

 

The only river cruise we have done was with GCT on the Nile.

 

Thanks

Cheryl

Cheryl - looking for the same comparisons as we are looking at a 2015 cruise and the Amsterdam to Budapest is a top itinerary. This would be our first river cruise and note the differences. Based on recommendations from trusted sources, AMA, Tauck and Vantage have made our short list. We love to stay in touch as we keep looking.

Barb

Pia,

As you can see there are several of us who are eagerly awaiting your posts as we will be departing on the Coral when you return on the 4th of May. Any and all recommendations will be greatly appreciated. Your posts will help the days pass quickly ... Thanks!!

Barb