1st River Cruise -- Cost

[John99]

We (retirees) are currently planning on our 1st river cruise after many ocean cruises.

 

Reviewed info from Avalon, AMA, Viking, Uniworld, etc.. Also, we studied the various itineraries plus read comments on cruise critic from fellow cruisers. Finally, we chose the AMA Romantic Danube (3 nights Prague then cruise) in September 2017. (One city on this itinerary is on my buck list - Bratislava) Cat. C - French Balcony.

 

Now I'm trying to come up with a "ball park" figure on cost - cruise fare, port fees, air, insurance, optional tours, tips, etc.. Need to look air fares next year when fares are posted versus AMA. For two persons -- I figure between $14k to $20k.

Does this sound about right? Comments would be appreciated.

 

Because of a AMA sale we need to make a deposit by the end March to take advantage of early booking rates. I'm wondering what we're looking at far as overall cost.

 

John

[Host Jazzbeau]

We (retirees) are currently planning on our 1st river cruise after many ocean cruises.

 

Reviewed info from Avalon, AMA, Viking, Uniworld, etc.. Also, we studied the various itineraries plus read comments on cruise critic from fellow cruisers. Finally, we chose the AMA Romantic Danube (3 nights Prague then cruise) in September 2017. (One city on this itinerary is on my buck list - Bratislava) Cat. C - French Balcony.

 

Now I'm trying to come up with a "ball park" figure on cost - cruise fare, port fees, air, insurance, optional tours, tips, etc.. Need to look air fares next year when fares are posted versus AMA. For two persons -- I figure between $14k to $20k.

Does this sound about right? Comments would be appreciated.

 

Because of a AMA sale we need to make a deposit by the end March to take advantage of early booking rates. I'm wondering what we're looking at far as overall cost.

 

John

 

cruise fare - you know this from the AMA website

port fees - $168 per person

air - AMA may have the best deal, you can't compare until the airlines post their rates (331 days before your return flight)

insurance - AMA may also have the best deal - this is complicated by different inclusions on different policies - I also suggest joining MetJet for superior evacuation coverage for a low annual fee (even lower if you are AARP members)

optional tours - good news about AMA: all tour choices onboard are included

tips - AMA guidelines: "For good service, we recommend 3 Euros per passenger, per day for the Cruise Manager and 12 Euros per passenger, per day for the crew, which will be divided up among the ship's personnel. It is also customary to acknowledge a particularly good performance of a local guide by leaving a tip of 1-2 Euros per tour. Gratuities on most vessels, but not all, may be charged on credit card as well as cash."

Edited March 16, 2016 by Host Jazzbeau

[bubbulz]

Just one note (actually two) regarding airfares:

 

1. In the past, I always used the 331 day rule when looking for flights. However, I found that I was able to book my flights to Europe a full month earlier than I expected this time around. It never hurts to start checking a bit early. That also will give you an idea of what 'good' prices are so you'll know whether or not to jump or wait when the time comes.

 

2. Use Yapta or a similar tool to monitor flight prices. Also, look at flying into/out of alternate airports as that can make a big difference. For us, flying in and out of Budapest was half the price (in Business Class) of flying to/from Vienna or Munich.

[Capt_BJ]

since you are retired you have time

 

here's something to look at as a travel option

 

we took our first river cruise last summer

 

sailing the Queen Mary with a balcony was cheaper than business class airfare . . .

[Got2Cruise]

Since you are retired you might be flexible on the dates. Did you compare various dates? Some dates have special offers such as free air.

[4774Papa]

We loved AMA having done the Rhone River in 2012, but their prices have really gone up. Vantage is an excellent line and its prices are about 20-25% lower in general than AMA.

[Hydrokitty]

We loved AMA having done the Rhone River in 2012, but their prices have really gone up. Vantage is an excellent line and its prices are about 20-25% lower in general than AMA.

 

Hey Papa, have you seen the latest Vantage catalog? They're prices have gone waaaay up as well...to the extent that we're booking more ocean cruises with ports in places we want to see, like Barcelona, instead of river cruising. Our past trips with Vantage, including everything, usually do run $10 to $15,000 for both of us. We do splurge on business class and that can easily double the cost of the trip.

[Host Jazzbeau]

since you are retired you have time

 

here's something to look at as a travel option

 

we took our first river cruise last summer

 

sailing the Queen Mary with a balcony was cheaper than business class airfare . . .

 

It would affect your packing, however: river cruise = casual all the time; QM = formal required:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=49416016&postcount=6

[Hydrokitty]

since you are retired you have time

 

here's something to look at as a travel option

 

we took our first river cruise last summer

 

sailing the Queen Mary with a balcony was cheaper than business class airfare . . .

 

And I'll bet the food was much better too!!!

[Imasima752]

Hi John,

 

Let me start by saying there are many experienced river cruisers and a great host here to give you really good advice. I won’t be taking my first river cruise until this November, so I cannot tell you what to expect, but I can share my experiences thus far with Ama to somewhat answer some of your questions.

 

“Because of a AMA sale we need to make a deposit by the end March to take advantage of early booking rates.”

 

I understand wanting to take advantage of early booking rates (I did the same), but just know that based on my experience, they might offer better rates later this year or early next year.

 

July of last year I booked Cat. BA with an early booking rate. The early booking discount was $250 per person plus we got another $100 off per person and $100 OBC per person through our travel agent. With the discounts, the cruise (not including our hotel stays, air fare or transfers) and port charges ($168 pp) was going to cost a little over $4,200 per person. However, every so often I would check the prices to see if there were any changes. A couple of months later, I started to see some Danube Christmas Market cruises were on sale, but ours was not one of them. Then one day in October I saw that all 2016 AMA Danube Christmas Markets cruises were on sale and there was a CLIA promo for cruise month (October) for an additional $100 off per person. This sale actually made it cheaper for us to move up to an AA! So now we have a Cat. AA with port charges for a bit over $2,950 pp vice $4,200 pp for the slightly smaller BA :-). Currently, Ama still has the same sale going on (though a few of the Christmas Market cruises are no longer included), but now offers free gratuities too!

 

“Now I'm trying to come up with a "ball park" figure on cost - cruise fare, port fees, air, insurance, optional tours, tips, etc..”

 

To compare insurance companies and policies I would recommend looking at insuremytrip dot com. For trip insurance I use Travel Insured as they work with my insurance company so I get a bit of a discount.

 

I usually get the Worldwide Trip Protector policy which provides $1 million for medical evacuation and $100,000 for medical expenses as well as trip cancellation, travel delay, missed connection, etc., or the Worldwide Trip Protector Plus which includes cancel for any reason, reimbursement of Miles or Reward Points, Rental car damage, etc. and ups the medical expenses to $150,000.

 

As for optional tours, there is currently only one limited edition tour available on the Ama website for our cruise and it’s free. If you look at “Already Booked” at the top of Ama’s home page, select Prepare for your cruise, then Europe, and you will see a tab for optional tours that states the following:

 

We offer some optional excursions and tours to help you make the most of your free time. These itinerary-specific tours provide additional opportunities to experience the local culture. Your Cruise Manager and local host can provide additional details, answer any questions and make bookings for these tours. Charges can be paid with cash or credit card. Please note that tour availability is subject to sufficient participation, weather conditions and seasonal suitability. All optional tours and prices (per person) are listed in Euros and are subject to change without notice.

 

AUSTRIA

Mozart & Strauss Concert in Vienna €61

Full-day excursion to Salzburg €67

Schönbrunn Palace €41

BELGIUM

Half-day excursion to Brussels €47

Half-day excursion to Bruges €71

Van Gogh Experience €69

CZECH REPUBLIC

Half-day excursion to Terezin €41

Folklore Dinner Show €61

Lobkowicz Palace €61

FRANCE

Montmartre & Illuminations €56

Parisian Cabaret (Dinner & Show) €146

Seine Cruise & Montparnasse Tower €61

Monet Home & Gardens €79

Le Marais & Opera Visit €49

GERMANY

Half-day Rothenburg €51

Weltenburg Danube Gorge (seasonal) €51

HUNGARY

Puszta excursion with lunch €61

SPAIN

Montserrat €41

Tapas Walk €67

SWITZERLAND

Swiss Mountain €93

 

I don’t know how current this information is, but it should give you an idea of costs.

 

“Need to look air fares next year when fares are posted versus AMA.”

 

Good plan. I like to have everything planned and organized as early as possible and when I started looking at air fares last year (looking at fares for November 2015), I figured it would be cheaper to book Ama’s air package as I was afraid it would cost more this year on my own. Wrong! We’re paying Ama $4,100 pp for business class but we could now book the same flights and class on our own now for a bit over $3,400 pp. This is much less than fares I saw last year. I’m not too upset though as we’re ticketed, Ama did not charge any deviation fees, etc. when I decided to change the flights from what they originally proposed, and I was able to select all of our seats. However, this was the first time I didn’t book my own air and will probably be the last.

 

I hope this helps :-).

 

- T

[Imasima752]

Our past trips with Vantage, including everything, usually do run $10 to $15,000 for both of us. We do splurge on business class and that can easily double the cost of the trip.

 

I have to say I'm surprised at the cost for Vantage as I thought it would be cheaper. With business air, transfer to our pre-cruise hotel, and pre- and post-cruise hotels our Ama trip is costing us a little over $15,600. I guess everything is going up nowadays and I keep reading that river cruising is becoming more popular.

[MaseratiCruiser]

Sorry to burst a lot of price bubbles here but $399 + $120 gratuities, per person, for an 8 day European river cruise on a year old ship, tours & bar drinks included, is what I'm paying. Airfare 20k AA miles each way. Pretty cheap vacation! Have to be ready to go in the next few weeks and I will! I would be glad to share with anyone interested but I don't believe I can advertise travel agencies on this board.

[4774Papa]

Hey Papa, have you seen the latest Vantage catalog? They're prices have gone waaaay up as well...to the extent that we're booking more ocean cruises with ports in places we want to see, like Barcelona, instead of river cruising. Our past trips with Vantage, including everything, usually do run $10 to $15,000 for both of us. We do splurge on business class and that can easily double the cost of the trip.

 

Hydrokitty,

 

I haven't looked at Viking's prices lately. Most of our overseas trip (cruises, river cruises or land tours) we try to keep the total cost at $10,000 for two. Generally, we have been successful at that. For example, our Vantage Douro river cruise and tour along with a few extra days that we add, will cost less than the 10K, counting airfare. Our three and a half Japan and China cruise, with pre-cruise in Japan for 8 days cost us about that, but I used miles for the airfare.

 

 

 

The river cruise prices in general have risen, but so have the ocean cruises.

 

Since I retired in 2010, we have been on 14 ocean cruises and three river cruises that included a land tour. Our wish list is really getting short. We have done the most important trips.

 

We like cruising on Celebrity, but the few remaining cruises that we haven't done is short.

We want to do a cruise of Norway to the North Cape, which Celebrity doesn't have, so we will likely do NCL.

We want to visit New Zealand as well as Hawaii. That is two trips, unless we do a cruise from one to the other.

We will likely do more trips to Europe with a transatlantic one way. We are planning a driving tour of England and Wales in 2017.

 

Life is good.

[caviargal]

since you are retired you have time

 

here's something to look at as a travel option

 

we took our first river cruise last summer

 

sailing the Queen Mary with a balcony was cheaper than business class airfare . . .

 

What does the Queen Mary have to do with a river cruise? :confused:

[sunsetbeachgal]

OP,

 

Like you we are doing our first river cruise (this June!) after numerous ocean cruises. We booked our June cruise on Scenic a year ago, taking advantage of early booking discount and included air on our cabin/sailing, and prices never were lower than that, matter of fact our sailing sold out several months after we booked.

 

We thought the prices for river cruising in general were high compared to ocean cruising, but it is a completely different product with far more included. My expectations going into the booking process were that prices were going to be lower, based on the "two for one" brochures that regularly arrived in the mail, but when we analyzed these offers found that the two for one was based on a very high price that probably no one paid, and that they often didn't include as much as we have included with Scenic. Add to that most of the offers had to be paid in full when booked which didn't appeal to us.

 

One way we have also kept our costs much lower is to do our own hotels, rather than using the Scenic hotels and land tour, which I found the pricing to be frightfully high. We are coming in a week early, touring on our own, and for a week in highly-recommended hotels (although not 5*) we will spend probably half as much or less than the Scenic four day pre cruise tour.

Edited March 17, 2016 by sunsetbeachgal

[Hoyaheel]

What does the Queen Mary have to do with a river cruise? :confused:

 

Someone offered that cruising the QM (presumably from New York to Southampton then taking an intra-Europe flight) was cheaper than flying business class from the US to Europe in order to embark on a European river cruise.

 

That might be the case, price-wise, but we work full-time and that much vacation isn't in the books just yet:cool:

[Canal archive]

Have you looked at any of the all inclusive. Traveling with Scenic this year 11 days for about $11,450 okay your air fare would be more from the States but no port charges, gratuities etc. Sometimes non inclusive looks inexpensive but when you start adding all the bits & pieces it all adds up. Inclusive is not for everyone for various reasons. Our final payment as with all Scenic river cruises was 90 days before the go. Just a suggestion, enjoy whichever cruise you choose.

CA

[TravelerThom]

Sorry to burst a lot of price bubbles here but $399 + $120 gratuities, per person, for an 8 day European river cruise on a year old ship, tours & bar drinks included, is what I'm paying. Airfare 20k AA miles each way. Pretty cheap vacation! Have to be ready to go in the next few weeks and I will! I would be glad to share with anyone interested but I don't believe I can advertise travel agencies on this board.

WOW!:eek: You are not supposed to list travel agencies, but you are allowed to mention cruise lines - what line is that one (and any other clues you can give). Vantage was recently listing a 7 night Amsterdam to Basel close out (last minute, one date only) for $1499 plus tips, port, etc with including air from their US gateway cities which I thought was a fantastic deal, but this looks even better.

 

I have done a number of TransAtlantic cruises and usually tie into doing something in Europe (river cruise, Med cruise, Norway fjord cruise, self-drive trip, etc). TransAtlantics can be remarkably cheap (Celebrity had one this week for $349pp + all the normal add-ons), and the cheapest inside cabin is much better than First Class in the air. So if you can find a decent price on return air (RCCL does offer quite good one-way international airfares) and tie it into a river cruise or something else, you can end up with fantastic deals. Of course it helps to be retired (have time and flexibility), and be willing to piece it all together, but I have more than once been able to do the TransAtlantic and return air (date and city of my choice) for under $1k and then if you can grab a last minute river cruise deal...:):)

 

Thom

[Hydrokitty]

Hydrokitty,

 

I haven't looked at Viking's prices lately. Most of our overseas trip (cruises, river cruises or land tours) we try to keep the total cost at $10,000 for two. Generally, we have been successful at that. For example, our Vantage Douro river cruise and tour along with a few extra days that we add, will cost less than the 10K, counting airfare. Our three and a half Japan and China cruise, with pre-cruise in Japan for 8 days cost us about that, but I used miles for the airfare.

 

 

 

The river cruise prices in general have risen, but so have the ocean cruises.

 

Since I retired in 2010, we have been on 14 ocean cruises and three river cruises that included a land tour. Our wish list is really getting short. We have done the most important trips.

 

We like cruising on Celebrity, but the few remaining cruises that we haven't done is short.

We want to do a cruise of Norway to the North Cape, which Celebrity doesn't have, so we will likely do NCL.

We want to visit New Zealand as well as Hawaii. That is two trips, unless we do a cruise from one to the other.

We will likely do more trips to Europe with a transatlantic one way. We are planning a driving tour of England and Wales in 2017.

 

Life is good.

 

Yes it is!!!I like your plan. I'm trying to convince DH to take cruise fromm Hawaii to Australia but it's only one way, we'd have to fly back and even a stop over in Moorea hasn't convinced him....yet. :D

[dabear]

Let me suggest that the best value (after much research) was on Emerald River Cruises, a new line (2 years old), which is a subsidiary of Scenic . New ships, great amenities, more inclusive that most (includes tours, gratuities, transfers, beverages, etc) at a reasonable fee & was less alot of the competition. Not alot of experienced cruisers on it yet so few reviews. Perhaps wait to see the promotions as recently free air was included. Take a look. we're trying it this summer on an 11 day Danube cruise including 3 days Prague ending in Budapest.

[Hydrokitty]

Let me suggest that the best value (after much research) was on Emerald River Cruises, a new line (2 years old), which is a subsidiary of Scenic . New ships, great amenities, more inclusive that most (includes tours, gratuities, transfers, beverages, etc) at a reasonable fee & was less alot of the competition. Not alot of experienced cruisers on it yet so few reviews. Perhaps wait to see the promotions as recently free air was included. Take a look. we're trying it this summer on an 11 day Danube cruise including 3 days Prague ending in Budapest.

 

Look forward to your review.

[caviargal]

Someone offered that cruising the QM (presumably from New York to Southampton then taking an intra-Europe flight) was cheaper than flying business class from the US to Europe in order to embark on a European river cruise.

 

That might be the case, price-wise, but we work full-time and that much vacation isn't in the books just yet:cool:

 

Thanks for the explanation. I personally would be bored to death on a transatlantic cruise, whether we had the time to spare or not. And I am not a fan of large cruise ships in general so not on my bucket list.

[caviargal]

Let me suggest that the best value (after much research) was on Emerald River Cruises, a new line (2 years old), which is a subsidiary of Scenic . New ships, great amenities, more inclusive that most (includes tours, gratuities, transfers, beverages, etc) at a reasonable fee & was less alot of the competition. Not alot of experienced cruisers on it yet so few reviews. Perhaps wait to see the promotions as recently free air was included. Take a look. we're trying it this summer on an 11 day Danube cruise including 3 days Prague ending in Budapest.

 

 

I will be interested to read your reviews after your trip. To me, value is more than just the cheapest price.

[Hydrokitty]

Thanks for the explanation. I personally would be bored to death on a transatlantic cruise, whether we had the time to spare or not. And I am not a fan of large cruise ships in general so not on my bucket list.

 

I'm with you....the luxury would be fun but spending that much time looking at ocean...I think I would be bored to death and I love ocean cruising almost as much as river cruising.

[dabear]

I will be interested to read your reviews after your trip. To me, value is more than just the cheapest price.

 

I completely agree with you. Value is far more important than a cheap price. That is why after 19 ocean cruises, including luxury, near luxury and premium lines, we avoid certain lines.