River Cruising placement of room

My husband and I are planing to take our first river cruise. We are looking at traveling on Vantage or is there another cruise company that someone would recommend over Vantage. We also wonder if the placement of the room makes a difference. Is is worth the extra charge to be higher on the vessel.

Vantage is a great company as are most others. Which is best is a matter of taste as most people on this board attest. More often than not, once someone has been on a certain river cruise line they tend to stick with it and usually say glowing things. I have only been on three different lines for a total of 10 river cruise. If you are not sure about Vantage, check out the other websites obtain brochures. Others are AMA Waterway, Avalon, Viking, Uniworld, Scenic, Dielman. There are a few more but their names excape me.

Location on the ship usually does not matter. The main difference in decks is the type of window you get. The top deck often has balconies of some type while the bottom deck only has half windows.

As on an ocean cruise, you will spend little time in your cabin. However, if possible, I would suggest a cabin with a large (full) window rather than a cabin on the lowest deck, which will probably have only a half (up high) window. (But then, I'm short, so I'd never be able to see out of that half window LOL.)

As on any cruise, cabins nearest the dining room are noisier (people line up outside your door before the dining room opens for meals) plus those towards the stairs are noisier (late night revelers saying goodnight to each other, etc.), but, other than that, the location doesn't really matter too much.

If there will be a lot of locks on your trip, don't get a cabin near the back of the ship where the engines are. There is a lot of engine noise involved when going through the locks and it can make sleep difficult.

There are both bow and stern thrusters. To be comfortable select a cabin middhip, but not next to the elevator. Your budget will determine the deck you choose. We have had windows that a full length and those that are large picture windows. The only ship I would avoid the bottom deck is the Viking Sun--plumbing noises very loud all day and nite.

Yes the full lenght windows are wonderful, fresh and floor to ceiling view. We didn't apprectiate ours to the maximum because it was Dec. We really do not spend a lot of time in our cabin and since they have no screens and automatically turn off the A/C really wouln't want the window open at nite. It is a wonderful cruising experience no matter what size window.

We actually had a cabin right by the stairs - and close to the dining room - on the River Baroness ---> and I thought we had the best cabin. We did not find it noisy at all --> and there were no line-ups for the dining room. Now - the windows, and cabins, are all the same on the Baroness --> so an increase in price just affected where you were on the boat.

Perhaps we didn't have the same degree of "merriment" on our cruise, but we didn't find there were any late night revelers to worry about.

Lots of good advice here on what to avoid - but, as pacmom mentions, your budget may be a key deciding factor.

I've never been on a river cruise before but read on these boards that the bottom deck could be very close to the water line and when going through the locks, you'll probably see concrete locks when looking out the window. Also read that the windows on the lower deck could be very high and if you're short you might not be able to see out of them unless you stand on the bed.

Also read that the view is nicer the higher you get (sort of like getting a room on the 2nd floor of a hotel vs. the 3rd floor I guess - a more expansive view from the 3rd floor rather than the 2nd).

Read not to get near the bridge or the engines (I believe Avalon has the bridge in the back), nor the stairs, elevator (not all boats have elevators), or dining room. Read that the lower deck can be noisier than other decks on some lines.

Well, I believe that leaves just the Captain's suite! :rolleyes:

So, I stopped reading and booked a cabin midship on the top deck of Avalon Tapestry - close to the suites - figuring the suites "MUST" be the best cabin placement possible right?! (we'll see.) Originally was booked near an opening somewhat midship, was concerned that opening might be a place for crew storage of stuff or a congregating place for guests so asked to be moved to another location not adjacent to that open (and undefined) area.

If you're wondering what a french balcony is, don't think you can sit on it - think more like 12" or so (or less) deep so you can kind of "hang out" and peer around from it. Some boats have french balconies - some have full balconies.

And, for MY next question - port or starboard, I was advised that it doesn't really matter since most spend most time up on the sky deck when sailing and that in some ports they dock port and other ports they dock starboard and that often there's another boat tied up alongside so that you'll be looking at the other boat - not necessarily a scenic view.

Like I said, I've never been on a river cruise before, so I'm hoping this will work out just fine as I'm a light sleeper!

Just an FYI usavvy2 . . . some of the locks are really deep/high. You see nothing but wet concrete whereever you are!

a couple of posters have some valuable information on placement of cabins in another thread that I hadn't read before (e.g., top deck hears Sky Deck joggers, chairs scrapping, bottom deck cabins could see the water level and debris floating by). Read it for yourself on this thread - I felt it was worth surfing over to that thread!

We just booked the Grand Rivers of Europe for March 12-27, 2010. Booked with GCT and are on the lowest deck. It has a high window in the room - but the TA with GCT really recommended this cabin and says we will love it - she was surprized it was still available.

As suggested, we plan on spending most of our time on the decks and in the towns - and as long as we have light coming in - we are good! We will post a review on return to let you all know our experience.

As some other posters have mentioned, be extremely careful of where your cabin is in relation to the thrusters. I spent many sleepless nights on a ship (no longer in service). The cruise director would not move me to any empty cabin even though they were the same size. The company did give me a credit as they were very unhappy that I was not moved.

You are not likely to find many late night merrimakers on River cruises!!

One thing that was important to us was on some GCT and i suspect Vantage line ships the library doubles as a smoking room. Later at night the smoking/library becomes a drinking smoking room and can get rowdy and loud. Any level is fine on a river boat just watch out for the library/smoking/drinking room. Best of luck!!

All,

On Uniworld's River Countess, there is no smoking inside the ship at any time. Smoking is only premitted on the top or sun deck.

Panzerman

One thing that was important to us was on some GCT and i suspect Vantage line ships the library doubles as a smoking room. Later at night the smoking/library becomes a drinking smoking room and can get rowdy and loud. Any level is fine on a river boat just watch out for the library/smoking/drinking room. Best of luck!!

On Vantage there is NO smoking anywhere except the upper deck! the library was a quiet place to read a newspaper and was a library 24/7. i can't speak for other cruise lines, but I can say that Vantage was very strong on the no-smoking policy. some of the other comments I read on this thread bear repeating:

1. It is unlikely that you will find late night revelers on a river cruise....this is very true AND even if you did have a group that liked to party into the wee hours, the lounge located on the opposite side of the cabin area with the main lobby in between. Cabins are in the rear (stern) and lounge is in the front (aft) so it would have to awfully loud to disturb anybody.

2. Locks: if you're going on the Castles on the Rhine there are over 100 locks! Most of them are passed through during the night and I have to say that we were on the top floor of cabins and not once were we wakened by noise, thrusters, lights or anything else. During the day, it's true some of the locks are changing depth to the extent that you can't see anything but a wall of concrete for the 30-40 minutes it takes to complete the process, AND you can actually reach out and touch the wall fo the lock if you're so inclinded.:D