Help - trying to choose the right line to be on for river cruisint

[WhansaMi]

T

Usually you are stopped at an building or historic site for the guide to give their spiel

All the local guides we had were very good & spoke English very well

 

River cruises are not for everyone but you will not know until you try for yourself ...it is just a shame it costs so much$$ to find out ;)

 

LYN

 

Lyn, unfortunately, we didn't fare as well with our local guides. We really had only one really good one (and of course, that is subjective... to me, a good guide speaks well, but also give stories to provide historical context), several mediocre ones, and one whose English was so bad that many in our group tuned their headphones to the channel of the neighboring group.

 

BTW, that was something I didn't really enjoy.... because the groups were fairly large, they provided us with headphones. That bothered me. I am very sensitive to sounds. I discovered that my IPod earbuds fit the receiver, but it didn't improve the quality of the sound much.

 

Again, it comes back to my assumption about smaller groups, something I should have asked specifically about.

[sippican]

That was our intention ..do the included walking tour then DIY to see other things ...in some ports just DIY

But like all good plans we came to realize that what you read in the brochure is not always the way it happens in reality

I am not an OLDIE in age but recently had a knee replacement done so I was taking the easy walking tours

we only had 1 lady that was slower than the rest but she was 93 had a hip replacement a few months before & both her knees done ...she did very well considering & when she had enough her daughter would just leave the group & they would go sit & rest so as not to slow the group

No one complained about having to wait a few minutes for her to catch up

Usually you are stopped at an building or historic site for the guide to give their spiel

All the local guides we had were very good & spoke English very well

 

River cruises are not for everyone but you will not know until you try for yourself ...it is just a shame it costs so much$$ to find out ;)

 

LYN

 

Thank you for the clarification. Your impressions are very helpful.

I can see I have tons of research to do.

[pacmom]

WhanasaMi, just read your review and what a bummer for you. Fortunately when we took our first rvicer cruise 11 years ago, our TA was able to help us understand the brochure language. We have done 1 Vantage trip and while it was good---Christmas market cruise--will think hard about sailing with them again. It was our only trip with USAers only. There were a few groups of women travelling together who were delightful. The couples were not inclusive at all. Fortunately we were travelling with another couple so always has pleasant dinner companions.

 

We made one big boat ocean cruise and never again. We now sail on small 650-700 pax ships--mainly on Oceania. We really enjoy river cruising and keep searching for new ones. Safe travels whereever they take you. Pat

[newfirsttimer]

Sorry you did not enjoy your first river cruise. I did one last year with AMA, 7 nights Prague to Paris, and it was wonderful. Enjoyed every stop, every tour and every tour guide (perhaps the one we had in Nuremberg was too detailed in the history for my liking). Loved it so much I am doing my second river cruise this year, 14 nights Amsterdam to Budapest with Scenic and am hoping that I will enjoy the stops and guides just as well. I personally enjoy the pace of river cruising and I like it that others have done the planning and picked the sights to see. I am not a big DIY person except for the pre and post cruise parts. As other people have said, river cruising does not appear to be for everyone just as big ship cruising is not for everyone. I agree with Lyn, it is too bad it is costs so much to find out whether or not you enjoy it.

[kazu]

Sorry you did not enjoy your first river cruise. I did one last year with AMA, 7 nights Prague to Paris, and it was wonderful. Enjoyed every stop, every tour and every tour guide (perhaps the one we had in Nuremberg was too detailed in the history for my liking). Loved it so much I am doing my second river cruise this year, 14 nights Amsterdam to Budapest with Scenic and am hoping that I will enjoy the stops and guides just as well. I personally enjoy the pace of river cruising and I like it that others have done the planning and picked the sights to see. I am not a big DIY person except for the pre and post cruise parts. As other people have said, river cruising does not appear to be for everyone just as big ship cruising is not for everyone. I agree with Lyn, it is too bad it is costs so much to find out whether or not you enjoy it.

 

Would you mind to share more about your AMA cruise please? How close you were to town? how big were the tours? how small was the room?

What made your cruise special?

 

I'm trying to decipher all the info and any help you would be willing to share would be most appreciated. Thanks;)

[Snow cat]

I want to thank all for your comments, this has been very beneficial for my research.

 

I was considering a river cruise, but definitely want to DIY the ports. It seems like its a bit difficult to do that.

[caviargal]

I want to thank all for your comments, this has been very beneficial for my research.

 

I was considering a river cruise, but definitely want to DIY the ports. It seems like its a bit difficult to do that.

 

As someone who DIYs in most every port, I have never found it the least bit difficult to do so.

 

We also have often met the boat at the second port of the day so we can maximize our time in town and minimize our time cruising. We use public transport and have never had an issue.

 

kazu, on AmaDante last year we had the French Balcony cabin and our friends had Aquarium class. Both cabins were comfortable and well appointed. Guides were hit or miss but we are not fans of guided tours for groups. There were generally 4 buses that handled 150 or so passengers and walking tours offered 4-5 groups.

 

In some ports we walked off the ship right to town and in others (Nuremberg was one) we had to drive in so that is more port dependent than line dependent in my experience (5 cruises on two lines).

 

What made AMA special to us was the outstanding attention to detail evident in every aspect of our trip; very good food; great staff that was warm and fun; the best evening entertainment of any cruise we have taken so far; very nice wines included with dinner; little extras throughout that we really enjoyed.

 

We have never been overly impressed with the guides on any of our river cruises and we really prefer to see what we are interested in and at our own pace so that is what we do.

 

It is essential to carry the phone number of the front desk with you if you DIY as we also had the experience of not being able to find our boat while on Avalon in 2010. It was snowing, sidewalks were slick with ice and it was an ordeal to locate the boat, even though we called several times to speak with someone. They had marked the map completely wrong and then did not bother to tell us that we had to go through one boat to get to ours, which was not at all visible due to the size of the boat parked next to the dock. That night was the most negative experience we have had on any of our cruises. We literally walked for hours looking for the boat, and had to traipse in snow and ice to the nearest hotel to call.

[kazu]

Thanks very much caviargal:):) your insights are appreciated:D

[kcscrapper]

It would be nice to have some resource that really gave a head to head glimpse into what each cruise line has to offer. It wouldn't be with the purpose of proving one line is better than another, but to let people make an informed choice. People *want* different things, and some things are more important to people than others. Categories could be things like "dinner seating times", "primary customer base", "sleeping arrangements", and so forth.

 

Just starting some research on a river cruise - we are considering the Nile at the end of next year - and thought Cruise Critic would be a good starting point. Frankly - I don't even know what the available river cruising options are!

 

Does any one know if such a resource, as mentioned above, is available?

[LHT28]

Just starting some research on a river cruise - we are considering the Nile at the end of next year - and thought Cruise Critic would be a good starting point. Frankly - I don't even know what the available river cruising options are!

 

Does any one know if such a resource, as mentioned above, is available?

You may want to start a new thread as many may not look at this one