Why are you interested in river cruising?

[Talisker92]

All of the above

[HijinksAndSue]

Just joined the board today and figured since I couldn't find an "introduce yourself" thread on the River Cruising section, I would just chime in here. :D

 

I answered "other" because it's SORT OF "all of the above."

 

Destination-intensive? Absolutely. Smaller ship, definitely. Ability to explore, hell yes! And, yes, I do love having at least SOME of the itinerary already laid out for me so I can do the small stuff (picking some off the beaten path sites, etc.).

 

 

I admit I am just beginning to do my homework -- and I know there is NO better place to do it than on the Cruise Critic board -- so here is our situation ...

 

We'll be celebrating our 30th anniversary next summer (planning on a late summer/early fall 2014 cruise). Looking for an awesome vacation for me, my husband and our daughter (early 20s).

 

We've definitely all agreed that Europe is our first choice (the high likelihood is that we'll do a Spain or Spain/Portugal cruise though personally I'd be happy with France as well). Hubby has never been to Spain and that's one of the three places on his bucket list (and the only one that has river cruises). So we'll plan with Spain as the priority but if for some reason that doesn't work out, I think none of us would complain about returning to France via the waterways!

 

We'd love to get to as many different locales as possible (and think what we'll probably do is sandwich the cruise with 2-3 days on land or in port on either side ... no pun intended with in Port but you can take it as one if you choose!)

 

The reason I say "sort of" on the "first post" headline is that waaaaaay back when I was on Cruise Critic when we were planning our first and only cruise, a Caribbean cruise. It was so long ago that I not only don't remember my screen name, I am sure I don't have the same e-mail address anymore LOL!. It was, I think, 1997 or 1998 because my daughter was 7. It was AWESOME, and Cruise Critic was a godsend in so many ways. I know our trip wouldn't have been half as wonderful without this board.

 

My daughter and I both LOVED LOVED LOVED the cruise experience and wanted to do it again. Hubby not quite as much, only because he felt it was too big, he spent too much time waiting in line for the tenders and not enough actually seeing the places. But the concept of a River Cruise seems to be a lot better in terms of the things he DIDN'T love, while still providing us with the things we DID love ...

 

Plus, when we went to France in 2009, it was a wonderful, wonderful trip but I admit that being pretty much solely responsible for ALL of the planning (flights, train tickets, hotels, car, directions, reservations) was a little stressful. And you never really knew what you'd get.

 

I love the idea of a river cruise where we can have wonderful accommodations and views, plenty of time to relax but ALSO an easier way of getting on land to visit the sites and towns and cities. Etc.

 

I can't wait to read as much as possible on here to get people's opinions of the cruise lines, the itineraries, the vessels, etc.

 

I realize that traveling as a trio with a younger adult may rule out the 50+ and 55+ trips I have seen but hoping we'll find a wonderful match for all of our needs and desires ... comfortable, upscale, lots of options, great food, etc. (We make a wonderful three-person traveling party, IMHO ... off chance there may be four of us by then, but it would be two staterooms either way, I guess.)

 

Okay, sorry if this is TMI. But I look forward to being the beneficiary of all of your experiences and sharing them along the way in the year to come! Thank you in advance!!!

[grand isle joe]

Welcome to Cruise Critic on behalf of us all.:) Check out Tauck cruises for they are the only one we found where 3 can be in a cabin. 1st class all around and the room was really big for 3 and even had a tub as well as a shower stall in the bath.

[Wingtips56]

I voted "Other" too, for a variety of reasons. The biggest reason would be visiting the interior ports and grand cities that don't happen to be on an ocean or big sea, partially as we are beginning to run low on new port cities. We loved the river cruise tying up right downtown in Budapest and other places. With ocean cruises, you often port a long way from your desired city, so you are usually stuck with some big bus excursion mostly just to get there....I mean, "Rome on your Own" at $60-70 just to get there! (though you have better assurance of making it back before sailing than taking your chances with TrenItalia).

 

But our last river cruise was very busy, not giving us as much time to poke around on our own as we thought, partially because the tours were too good to pass up. And we really like being in town AFTER all the tour buses leave, so you can actually move around and mix with the relieved locals. On our last itinerary, we generally pulled out around dinner time, so we didn't get evenings ashore like we thought.

 

So on our next European river cruise, we'll look for a more gentle itinerary with free time in the afternoons and evenings, maybe with some in-port overnights, or perhaps some re-run ports but just go on our own during the day, having already done the tours. And we'll do more touring around before and after the cruise, for our land-tour/towns-at-night desires.

 

However our next trip booked is a Vietnam/Cambodia/Mekong River cruise package, where we will take advantage of all the organized tours, as we'd not have a clue what to do on our own, and never figure out the language and safe dining.

[dons_shopper]

I like ocean cruises but also enjoy river cruises.

Why river cruises: I love to lean back and watch the scenery passing by. It is so relaxing.

And it is nice to get to know the people you are travelling with.

[franski]

Welcome to Cruise Critic on behalf of us all.:) Check out Tauck cruises for they are the only one we found where 3 can be in a cabin. 1st class all around and the room was really big for 3 and even had a tub as well as a shower stall in the bath.

 

Or - look for an itinerary and date that waives the single supplement... and book 2 cabins. Not sure I would want to share a cabin with one of my children on my 30th anniversary cruise!!! :D

 

Welcome back to Cruise Critic!! Hopefully we can be as helpful on this thread as the people were before.

 

Fran