River cruising

[bazzaw]

I would like to start a thread about river cruising in this CC sub-forum - as it relates to Aussies who have done or are thinking of doing this form of cruising.

 

I will start by saying that , although I have heard people have complaints or negative thoughts about coach touring and sea cruising, I have yet to hear a single negative thing about river cruising. EXCEPT - for the thought that it is expensive. Personally, I think this may just be a matter of how it is considered , and it may not be as expensive on a daily basis as first thought.

 

My first question to those who have done it -- is, how does it really work?? For example, we have done a few Coach tours. These work by the fact that you drive (sometimes a long distance ) from place to place, where you commonly often have only short stops -- and sometimes you have a full day with two nights in some places. On these Coach tours, there are "some" included land tours (depending on the brand of coach tour, some being more expensive than others) and commonly offer "optional extra" land tours. You therefore spend quite some time on the coach looking out the window at the passing countryside - which is not so good when on major highways but better on smaller country roads. When we have done these, we have enjoyed them - but I can understand why some wouldn't.

 

So - when do the river cruises "cruise" -- at night, during the day?? If you cruise during the day, I could imagine that you don't see as much of the land as when on the coach tours ( depending on the river), but if at night, you would probably see more of the towns that you stop at during the day??

 

Any thoughts re this much appreciated.

 

Barry

[bazzaw]

I note from another CC thread regarding APT river cruising

 

 

APT picked us up from the airport and returned to the airport No taxi costs to get to and from the hotels

Drinks were free with meals Wine beer softdrinks

Tips were also included with the price

 

Airport transport is a good feature -as is "no tips". What about the "free" wine? Was it any good?? :)

 

Barry

[annenic]

We did a long river cruise - Buccharest, Romania to Basel, Switzerland - 28 days- in 2010.

 

IMO this was too long. It was fascinating but after a while all the towns we stopped in began to merge into one and my memories of the last week are all a bit fuzzy.

 

However, we did enjoy the cruise very much and would definitely recommend. The wine was good - not exceptional, but not horrible cheap stuff either.

 

The ship sails during the day sometimes and the view is spectacular. It mostly sails during the night but some nights the ship is docked overnight and you have the chance to explore the port in the evening as well as during the day. There were a couple of ports that we stayed a couple of nights and this was great - gave us a real chance to "visit" places like Vienna.

 

It was the bus tours that I found a bit frustrating. You could select which tours you wished to do and some were absolutely fantastic. The problem I found though (on our cruise) was that there were a couple of older people who had walking frames and many times the tour was paced at their speed. I didn't want to go so slow...but then I didn't want to miss out on the information the guides were offering. Also when it came to jumping on the bus these older gents were again very slow....plus there was a group of two couples who ALWAYS got on the bus first and took up the first row of seats - making it much harder for the disabled guys to board....and some of the buses in Eastern Europe were difficult to board even for fit folks - the stairs were very steep and very skinny as was the aisle down the middle of the bus.

 

River cruising is a very different experience to ocean cruising. The entertainment in the evenings was local bands, or school children performing etc from the town in which we were docked. It was lovely - but when it was finished - usually around 9.30pm - that was it for the night.

 

The crew and staff on our ship were absolutely wonderful - and after 28 days we felt like family. Saying 'goodbye' was sad and there were hugs all around.

[bazzaw]

Thanks Annenic

 

a few questions please .

 

Which cruiseline did you use? And what buses are you talking about?-- included day tour buses?

 

Do they also have "optional extra" tours? -- Do these or anything else ever conflict with the included day tours?

 

Barry

[annenic]

Hi Barry,

 

We went with Uniworld and I can't speak highly enough of this line. They were fantastic.

 

With this cruise there were some "included" bus tours and there were some "optional" tours. In Romania, Bulgaria and the eastern countries a number of the "tourist" sites were a fair distance to travel but the further west we cruised, the more villages and towns and touristy things were right on the river so no need to necessarily do the long bus trips.

 

There were quite a variety of optional tours each port but unless there was a certain number of people wanting to do the tour - some of these tours didn't go ahead. I can't remember the optional tours conflicting with the included tours.

 

Anne

[pully8]

we are from oz and love river cruising. we have done 4 and about to do 2 more.

 

it is a great way to travel. ours were to europe and 3 were in spring and 1 in autumn. we combine independent travel either side too. ours were with avalon. they look after you.

 

we would like to try ocean cruising but would prefer say a smaller ship like oceania, where we have heard and read have a quality product and good food.

 

we do not mind paying for good service/accommodation and dislike being treated like cattle or rushed.

 

we like value for money. we did a coach tour of nz paid a premium price with a well known oz company and found some of the accommodation to be lacking. dirty cups from the previous occupants, no aircon...it was summer and hot. full crowded bus etc.

we did get some compensation but would have preferred the experience we paid for. we are cautious when reading promotional material and read lots of reviews.

good luck with your search its a good thread idea.

[roaming_kiwi58]

We have done 2 European river cruises with Uniworld (one was a week long, the other was 2 weeks). We have also done a 2 week river cruise with APT - this was in Russia, from St Petersburg to Moscow. All have been excellent, and we hope to do another one in the future.

Transfers from/to airports at the beginning and end were all included. Wine with meals was also included. Most of the shore excursions were also included, and there was often a choice of included shore excursions. We also had some additional optional shore excursions. These were timed not to conflict with the included shore excursions. Often we were moored right in the township, so we didn't even need a bus to go on a shore excursion. You do do quite a bit of walking, but in several places on our last cruise there were shuttles provided for you to use in your free time, if we were moored a bit further away from some point of interest.

On our last Uniworld cruise (August 2012) they had introduced "gentle walking" groups for each shore excursion. So the people who were slower on their feet could be in a group which did the tour at a slower pace. We therefore never had a problem with slow members of any group. The groups for the shore excursion were always kept below 20 people (and were often smaller than that), and you got "whisper" sets, so you could hear your guide talking.

Sailing time was a mix of overnight and during the day.

The tour directors, who travel with you all the time, attended to your every issue/problem and were excellent.

The river cruises may seem relatively expensive, but when you consider what is included we think they are reasonable value. We spend very little when on a river cruise - just a few souvenirs along the way.

A great way to travel!

[fishtaco]

Went to Cambodia for a week after the VOS Asia cruise and see the Mekong River boats in Phnom Pehn,they stopped for 2 nights on a 2 week Mekong cruise,the boats looked amazing like old fashioned paddle steamers (without the paddle wheels) I would do this river cruise!

 

Trouble is I have backpacked Europe twice and done SE Asia so many times that I no longer do Churches or Temples so i would be pretty disinterested in any tours on some river cruises.

 

Our tour coach of Saigon had a person with a walking frame and we were held up waiting for them to board but they missed out on most of the walking tours as they were so quick,also some really big people sat in the first 2 row "Disabled" seats making it harder for the ones with frame to get on or off.

 

Why do over weight people think the disabled seats are for them to snap up and take 2 seats each?

 

Funny with the rickshaw tour as they were single seaters and the big people had to stay on the coach much to the delight of the rickshaw drivers who were laughing their heads off at the ones who scored the last off coach big guys lol they couldnt fit in the rickshaw and the last 2 drivers started sweating and complaining the moment the big guys stepped off the coach lol

 

I would imagine a Mekong Delta cruise wouldnt suit those needing assistance as the ramps and stairs were way to steep on the boats?

 

Den

[need_a_holiday]

I did a Mekong cruise and really loved it, a fascinating place to visit and there is a lot of life on the river - villages, markets and fishing. A friend just came back from a Ha Long Bay cruise, said it was draw droppingly beautiful but there was not a lot to do. I would recommend a Vietnam river cruise if you want less luxury but more adventure and friendly locals. The food is very good and the prices are low.

[Topaz_M]

I took my teenage daughter on a Viking cruise on the River Danube - Christmas Markets in December from Vienna to Nuremberg.

 

So many memories you would not get by visiting those towns any other way except by the river: Beautiful scenery with falling snow, the sound of ice tinkling as it was broken on the river, the locks, amazing history on the walking tours.

 

The service was excellent: porters came off the boat to take our bags out of the taxi (we had stayed in Vienna so did not take advantage of the airport transfer), warm cloths when reboarding after time ashore, as well as hot toddies and soup. Food and drinks were excellent.

Local entertainment at night or during the time we were doing any cruising during the day. Demonstrations of apple streudel and sausage-making, with plenty of samples afterwards. The itinerary was packed if taking advantage of everything offered. And FREE bingo - I won a t-shirt, bag, biscuits and a necklace :)

 

The tours were included for each port but we also took advantage of an optional night tour in Vienna to the theatre/orchestra and a day trip to Salzburg. Luckily we had very few passengers unable to board the buses and Viking made it clear that the walking tours were for the more able-bodied passengers with the option of a gentler tour version.

 

Very similar to accounts of Uniworld.

 

Yes it was more expensive than sea cruising but would definitely do one again with extra time in Europe or just the China trip including the Mekong would be amazing.

[Thecat123]

I note from another CC thread regarding APT river cruising

 

 

APT picked us up from the airport and returned to the airport No taxi costs to get to and from the hotels

Drinks were free with meals Wine beer soft drinks

Tips were also included with the price

 

Airport transport is a good feature -as is "no tips". What about the "free" wine? Was it any good?? :)

 

Barry

 

We did one with APT Tours last year and the biggest difference we noticed was the little things which started adding up

APT picked us up from the airport and returned to the airport No taxi costs to get to and from the hotels

Drinks were free with meals Wine beer soft drinks

Tips were also included with the price

They even gave out coins to go to the toilets

We found we weren't paying for every little thing like big ship cruising. You basically know what the holiday is going to cost before one leaves home

Shore excursions were built into the price

We have just done a 14 night cruise around NZ and ended up paying about $2000.00 on top of the cruise price. Soft drinks and 3 shore excursions

 

Barry I have copied the rest of my comments for those who might not have of seen it. We did the 21 night Prague to Paris tour. The point I was trying to make was for one to take the total cost of a holiday not just the orginal cost. It was really good to get off the river boat with a tiny account. We just never felt we were putting our hands in our pockets for anything. APT even paid for the trip up the Eiffel Tower

The only thing wrong was the tour was full of Aussies and we were the only Kiwis :D

I would also agree with most of the other comments

Some of the other things we picked up on with APT was we were not just another passenger We had someone very approachable in the way of a tour leader that one could actually talk to and made to be felt important

Some have mentioned dividing the cost into days etc but I don't think one can really compare different trips to another as every trip is different. eg A lot of sea days cruise is cheaper than a cruise which is an very port intensive cruise. A cruise through Panama Canal can't be compared to a cruise with lots of sea days etc etc

Our next cruise is with Seabourne on the Quest for 21 nights Buenos Aires, Port Stanley, Antartica then back to Valparaiso so how would one compare this to any other cruise as a per day rate?

We would definatley do another cruise with APT Tours on one of their river boats again but still have other areas to check out first :)

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Has anyone heard how the river cruises are getting on with all the floods at the moment?

 

 

[Aus Traveller]

Has anyone heard how the river cruises are getting on with all the floods at the moment?

 

I haven't heard specifically, but I know that the companies have a proviso that if the river levels are too high for the boats to pass under the bridges, passengers are taken by bus. That would rather defeat the idea of a river cruise in my opinion, but of course there is nothing else that the companies can do.

 

With all the new boats coming into service, I think there will be traffic jams on the river next year.

[Topaz_M]

Yes I saw a post on FB that buses were in use.

 

As usual unhappy campers who did not read their cruise contract .... ;)

[cjm66]

Has anyone heard how the river cruises are getting on with all the floods at the moment?

 

 

 

A friend passed this link on mainly as evidence that Australia is not the only country of droughts and flooding rains.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2335665/Heavy-flooding-Europe-forces-river-cruise-cancellations.html

[The_Big_M]

Just back from there, and was in the middle of it, in Prague.

 

I have to say that things are organised very well for it, especially compared to here. They are much more established and prepared for it, and for many in the affected areas, life goes on pretty normally. However, there are impacts on those directly affected, and river cruises are one. The disruptions are minimised, but when water is 7m higher than normal, there's no way those boats are going under those bridges.