Lazy River Cruising

[5waldos]

We are off for our first river cruise in August with Crystal. Reading many of the reviews here people comment about how busy busy they are and how tired at night. But looking at the pictures it seems like the nicest thing to do would be to simply stay put and watch the very beautiful world go by. Many years ago we took a train from London to Frankfurt and just watched the scenery- gorgeous.

 

Is it possible to simply be lazy and take in the sights or will be miss out on the experience.

[TravelerThom]

...Is it possible to simply be lazy and take in the sights or will be miss out on the experience.

YES

 

My personal opinion is that I don't want to miss out on the walks, tours, etc.

 

BUT it is possible to sit on your balcony, on the sun deck or in the Lounge and just watch the world go by, and that can be quite enjoyable.

 

You are not required to do anything - the option is yours. If you do stay aboard when most are off the boat let Guest Services know. Some tours include meals off the boat, but most lines will provide you an onboard meal if you let them know.

 

ENJOY

Thom

[Got2Cruise]

The issue is what sights will you be seeing? No sense traveling all the way to Europe if when you look out your window it looks like your backyard. Many itineraries travel at night and are at stand still during the day.

[Hoyaheel]

River cruises are too expensive for me to be comfortable skipping included tours. If I want lazy, I choose a different type trip. But it is your trip and you are free to do or not do anything you want....

[Shorex]

Most river cruises do most of the cruising at night. Crystal has taken a very different approach -- there will be days of cruising. If you compare the schedule for the first cruises on the Crystal Mozart to the similar ports on other lines you can easily spot the difference. So, IMO, you will have the best of all possible worlds in your experience. Daytime lazy cruising and also fabulous tours.

 

Please do give us a full report when you return.

[Lois R]

Hi,:) you can do anything you want, be lazy or busy;)...but, in my opinion,

you will not see many sights by staying on the ship. Besides the wonderful

cruise experience (service/food) on board, the real part of the River Cruise

is seeing the places.....(again, in my opinion).

But, it is your cruise and you may certainly stay on board and be lazy.

[Hydrokitty]

It,s your vacation and nobody will tell you that you MUST do anything. But I would bet the rent once you get there you will want to do more. It can be whatever YOU want it to be. Personally I think if you primarily want to watch the world go by in peace and quiet, you might like an ocean cruise more.

[5waldos]

I do realize that nobody will shoo me off the ship but ocean cruises don't have much in the way of sights to see, although I do love the ocean. The Danube River has beautiful towns and castles and scenery every place you look. And yes I guess that the Crystal approach of doing some cruising in the day time will be what I am looking forward to at times.

 

I guess we will try to do a bit of both. I no longer have the need to see every Castle and town square- have done piles of that on land. Obviously there will be things that we do especially want to see/do but I think I will try to carve out times where we can just float.

[Conejored]

We did a bit of both on our Ama cruise a few years ago. Some of our most memorable days were just sitting on the front of the top deck and enjoying the stunning scenery go by with maybe 10-15 others who stayed on board. We usually did this when the daily tour was a longer bus tour away as are not fond of sitting on a bus. Days where we just docked in town we took the walking tour and looked around on our own (or took a bike). We were on a 14 day Budapest to Amsterdam tour which I think lends itself more to this since it is longer and after a few days, just sitting and watching the wonderful scenery makes a good break from the go go go of the other days.

Edited June 18, 2016 by Conejored

[Floridiana]

You can do the lazy river cruising on the Mekong. The ship travels mostly during the day and excursions are short so you always come back for lunch. The landscape is rural, flat, small villages, no castles and only a few temples, one or two churches in Vietnam and a few mosques in Cambodia in addition to the temples. Many local river boats, fishermen with nets, water buffalo, water hyacinths slowly float on the water. It is a relaxing trip. I found the small towns and villages on our excursions fascinating.

[5waldos]

That does sound lovely

[pully8]

we enjoy the process/journey of cruising especially on a beautiful ship. we dislike herding and are not fans of bus trips but love the train trips in Europe particularly Switzerland.

I agree feel free to do as you wish on a river cruise. we have found doing the same route at a different time of the year, spring/autumn is also lovely to enjoy. the tours are ok some are better than others and sometimes visiting the same city/place with a different guide you see completely new things.

 

enjoy your trip and will look forward to your review.

[sunsetbeachgal]

We are on the last day of our Rhine river cruise, and what makes it tiring is that on our cruise the tours leave at 9am every morning, therefore we set the alarm every day in order to allow enough time for coffee, breakfast, etc. Of course, you don't have to take a tour, but we opted to.

 

We set sail most days in the afternoon. Some of the scenery is lovely, but we saw nuclear power plants up close, steel mills, factories, barges, etc. This is what I expected as a river is used for commerce, just don't expect it all to be pretty!

Edited June 19, 2016 by sunsetbeachgal

[rogerdawhip]

GCCL has two trips this summer from Amsterdam to Vienna that include 80 hours of daylight cruising. I am book for the August cruise. I've done this itinerary four times (different directions, different times of year) ad am looking forward to their alternate itinerary.

[5waldos]

GCCL has two trips this summer from Amsterdam to Vienna that include 80 hours of daylight cruising. I am book for the August cruise. I've done this itinerary four times (different directions, different times of year) ad am looking forward to their alternate itinerary.

 

Can that be right? 80 hours of daylight cruising? That is 8 hours daily or something.

[Hydrokitty]

Can that be right? 80 hours of daylight cruising? That is 8 hours daily or something.

 

That is a lot....maybe Roger will clarify. Could be a typo.

[Floridiana]

Sun rises at 5 am and sets at 9:30 pm in Berlin in summer. Paris has daylight at 10 pm. Let's say around 16 hours of daylight and a cruise of 10 - 14 days.

[rogerdawhip]

I misread the brochure from GCCL. It says there is more than 70 hours of daylight cruising. This is a 14 night trip so that averages to only 5 hours a day.

The second day is cruising all day from Cologne to Kaub arriving a 6 pm. That would be approx 12 hours of cruising on that day.

[notamermaid]

rogerdawhip,

 

I do like this itinerary for its differences: https://www.gct.com/trips/river-cruises/europe/the-great-rivers-of-europe/2016#anewperspectivetwodeparturesonly

 

One of the few itineraries that has neither Koblenz nor Rüdesheim as a stop. You even get a complimentary ticket to visit Pfalzgrafenstein, that is the former tollstation on an island in the Rhine. They take you to the top of the Lorelei rock. You can sample some Äppelwoi (the local cider) in Frankfurt. Lovely ideas.

 

Cruising from Cologne straight to Kaub is a nice idea, you see lots of hills, castles, the Bonn skyline, Remagen bridge site, Andernach gate (a rock formation the marks the entrance to the Neuwied basin, where the valley widens), Koblenz Ehrenbreitstein and then the narrow gorge that is so famous for its castles.

 

They offer an optional tour to see the BMW plant and stop in Vilshofen instead of Passau.

 

Really interesting.

 

notamermaid