?s - For those who LIKE ocean cruising and have done a Rhine river cruise.

[Gourmet Gal]

I have cruised with Silversea, Celebrity,

Princess, The World Ship (ResidenSea), private yacht charters and Uniworld with an upcoming Crystal ocean and Tauck river cruise. I really cannot say I prefer one over the other because I usually choose a cruise for the itinerary, not for pampering. I go to a land-based spa or resort for that. Although I do enjoy excellent service and cuisine. MLB, from what you've written I think you would enjoy a river cruise because it is a little different from your past style of travel and you seem very open to the prospect. River and ocean cruises are certainly different and if you can manage the cost structure you can appreciate the "floating hotel" aspect of a river cruise. Also, if you enjoy meeting new people you may find a river cruise very conducive during cocktail hour, on the tours and at dinner because the seating is usually a bit cozy. If you've not spent much time in Germany or Switzerland you might consider a cruise that begins or ends in Basel and from there it is so easy to drive all over Germany or Switzerland for at least a few more days. Study and compare itineraries to determine the amount of free time and daytime cruising. There will be some daytime cruising especially on the Rhine, Moselle.

[exbiologist]

I'll just add one thing as I haven't cruised nearly as much as most of you, but have done a lot of traveling outside of cruising and group expeditions stuff. Anyway, you can find a "sea day" equivalent when river cruising. We have one scheduled while going through the Iron Gates on the Danube

[SuiteTraveler]

I've done a lot of ocean cruising and then Uniworld's Castles of the Rhine - which was AWESOME. We went in early May and before we boarded the ship, we spent a day at the Keukenhoff - which was incredible! So...here's the thing. You cannot compare a river cruise to an ocean cruise at all. These are completely different types of vacations. A river cruise is completely pre-programmed and organized where everyone eats at the same time and everyone does everything mostly together in a group but it is a small number of people, like a small town and these are your traveling companions and hosts on this vacation. If you like traveling with other sophisticated travelers and seeing sights, you will love river cruising. The food we had on Uniworld was better than anything we've had on any ship. The chef got off the ship each day and sourced local ingredients and wine along the river and the menu was designed to depict food from the area in which we were sailing. The staterooms are tiny due to the width of the river, but the Suites are about the size of a balcony cabin on a ocean going cruise ship. There really are not any "days at sea" although during one segment of the Rhine we spent the morning taking photos. The other days had been sunny and mild, but this day was cold and rainy - perfect for capturing atmospheric photos of the castles. So, what you should know: No one spends much time onboard a river ship. No one hogs lounge chairs on deck or lays out in their swimsuits. In fact on our cruise, no one used the pool or movie theater at all. Everyone gets up in the morning, has a nice buffet breakfast and then it's off to the buses for touring. Often we came back to the ship for lunch or in one case Uniworld gave us money for lunch in town. Sometimes there was an afternoon tour or there was an optional afternoon tour - we took them all. Then we would be back onboard for a 7pm dinner. After that, we might hang out in the lounge for an hour or two and listen to the combo and then it was time for bed as we were tired.

 

So no big shows, no casino, nightlife was a combo and some dancing that ended pretty early as we were all tired from lots and lots of walking tours that usually began with a bus ride. There is no room service, snacks are put out in the lounge for tea and at various times, but that's it between meals. Breakfast and lunch are both buffets. Dinner is table service and on Uniworld wine is included with lunch and dinner. We only bought one cocktail while onboard.

 

So I would not compare a Uniworld cruise to an ocean cruise at all, not even a Med cruise. This is a completely different way to travel and it is focused on the tours, not the ship.

[Host Jazzbeau]

SuiteTraveler's post above is a good summation of what river cruising is like, although each river line will have some variations. Many of the newer ships have larger cabins, some lines have menu service at breakfast and lunch in addition to the buffet, some do have tables for 2 in the dining room and one or two allow some flexibility on dinner time, some bring on local entertainers some evenings, some have a range of shore excursion options (but all break the shipload up into smaller groups for touring). But you are paying for a pre-programmed trip, so it is a very expensive method of travel if you are determined to go your own way.

[Lois R]

Suite Traveler, excellent post:)....I believe many of us tried to tell the OP that it is not a fair comparison, actually I agree

with you 100%......you really cannot compare these 2 forms of cruising......I mean you can but not really;p as they are just so

totally different from each other.

[Second seating]

After close to 40 ocean cruises and some land vacations in Europe because my husband had work there, we went on a Uniworld Christmas Markets cruise. Only 1 ocean cruise since! We fell on love, 7 Uniworld cruises later I would not hesitate to go on another one. If we now go on ocean cruises it is on Paul Gauguin or Windstar I do not like the size of cruise ships now and the food is not as good as it used to be. Suite Traveler posted a very good description of River Cruising Unworld now include drinks.

[Hydrokitty]

We have done 36 ocean cruises, we are currently on a Viking 23 day cruise Amsterdam to Bucharest we are in day 8 this is our first river cruise and it will be our last! It's much to regimented for us, plus don't like the no room service and quite frankly the food has been pretty bad, we are in a suite but storage space is very limited, staff is very friendly but that does not make up for the bad food and regimented routine!

 

 

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YIKES...that's a long time for a cruise you're not enjoying. What a shame. I'm surprised that you don't have room service in a suite, but if the food isn't good, it doesn't much matter where you're eating it! I've done 8 river cruises, none with Viking, but we're always had time on our own in most ports and some like Cologne and further downstream dock in areas where there are lots of shops available. Would it be possible to bring some food on board? Obviously you can't bring a box of pasta and pound of chop meat, but maybe some fresh fruit and freshly made sandwiches plus cookies (macarons are fantastic) would keep the wolf from your door. As for regimentation, on the river cruises I was on we didn't HAVE to do everything that was planned. I recommend the arrival orientation walking tour so you find out what's there and more importantly where things are in relation to where your ship is. Good luck....I really feel for you guys.

[Gourmet Gal]

You bring up a good point Hydrokitty. Booking such a long cruise as a first timer on a river can be challenging. For my first river cruise I booked a 13 day Uniworld cruise and as enjoyable and excellent as it was I was more than ready to get off that ship after a week. It did feel a little too regimented and now I cannot even remember which towns we went to because eventually many of them seemed the same. I didn't think I would even do another river cruise but now after a couple of years its appealing again and we're taking a Tauck cruise with some friends ...13 days. We're actually planning to break off and doing a few things on our own and being with friends will hopefully make it more fun. So perhaps a tentative first time river cruiser might consider a shorter cruise rather than a longer one and just tag on some land touring.

[TrulyBlonde]

You bring up a good point Hydrokitty. Booking such a long cruise as a first timer on a river can be challenging. For my first river cruise I booked a 13 day Uniworld cruise and as enjoyable and excellent as it was I was more than ready to get off that ship after a week. It did feel a little too regimented and now I cannot even remember which towns we went to because eventually many of them seemed the same. I didn't think I would even do another river cruise but now after a couple of years its appealing again and we're taking a Tauck cruise with some friends ...13 days. We're actually planning to break off and doing a few things on our own and being with friends will hopefully make it more fun. So perhaps a tentative first time river cruiser might consider a shorter cruise rather than a longer one and just tag on some land touring.

 

Totally agree. We did a back to back and I may have had a better perspective, but 2 cruises was way too long with the regimentation and poor food.

Leaving tomorrow for a flight to Prague with a Danube cruise with Tauck. 300 sq. ft suite, all inclusive, great reputation and only 10 days. ;-)) Learned my lesson.

[Hydrokitty]

Of course you're both right, but unfortunately that ship has sailed our first one was 15 days Rhine and Danube from Amsterdam to Budapest and it was fantastic....as for Tauck I haven't used them but my Mom and her friends did several times.....top of the line on all counts is what they said..

[Hoyaheel]

I think there's a fine line between too long and not long enough for a first time. If you do 7 days, it might only be 4 or 5 actual nights on the cruise (depending on specifics - river cruises are notoriously odd about what they count as a "day" when you look at itineraries on websites:rolleyes:) Our first was 9 nights and I think that was great - we both wanted more than a short 7 day trip but 14 seemed too long (we're not retired....)

[Hydrokitty]

I think there's a fine line between too long and not long enough for a first time. If you do 7 days, it might only be 4 or 5 actual nights on the cruise (depending on specifics - river cruises are notoriously odd about what they count as a "day" when you look at itineraries on websites:rolleyes:) Our first was 9 nights and I think that was great - we both wanted more than a short 7 day trip but 14 seemed too long (we're not retired....)

 

You'll get there!! We've reached a point where we won't look at anything that's LESS than 14 days....DH doesn't like long flights any more so I have to plan a lot of "down" time....oh well, I deal with it as best I can. :p

[Hoyaheel]

I wouldn't spend 14 days on a river cruise. I find them too expensive for what you get - and I'm a DIYer, so....We did actually spend 3 weeks in Asia in Nov/Dec - did a 10 day cruise on Azamara with pre & post cruise stops in Singapore and Hong Kong. Plus 3 days to get there and 2 to return, so...I too have an algorithm about how long the flights take and how long I have to be there to make the flights worth it :') I wouldn't mind spending 3-4 weeks in an apartment in Europe, though......

[mlld3536]

I wouldn't spend 14 days on a river cruise. I find them too expensive for what you get - and I'm a DIYer, so....We did actually spend 3 weeks in Asia in Nov/Dec - did a 10 day cruise on Azamara with pre & post cruise stops in Singapore and Hong Kong. Plus 3 days to get there and 2 to return, so...I too have an algorithm about how long the flights take and how long I have to be there to make the flights worth it :') I wouldn't mind spending 3-4 weeks in an apartment in Europe, though......

 

Haven't done my first cruise yet--waiting for Christmas Markets. But the apartment rental, that we know:

 

2001 Rome 3 weeks

2002 Florence 4 weeks (taking Italian classes)

2005 Venice 4 weeks (more Italian classes--no, definitely not fluent)

2007 Rome 1 week

2009 Paris 3 weeks

 

This kind of vacation is very economical, and it is wonderful to go to the markets and be able to actually cook some of the wonderful things you see there. The down side, of course, is that you are more limited in the variety of places to visit. (Yes, you can do short trips. We have not done as many as we'd like since we are extreme budget travelers. This year's cruise will be our big exception for our 50th anniversary.)

[Hoyaheel]

The down side, of course, is that you are more limited in the variety of places to visit.

We prefer it that way. I'd prefer to do more trips over time and see/do more in depth things each trip in fewer places (like, one place!) Variety is the spice of life - thank goodness there are so many options out there!:D

[RDC1]

I have done a number of ocean cruises on a variety of cruise lines. Last year we spent 70 days on ocean cruise lines.

 

We have also done several river cruises on a few different lines.

 

In general the river cruises are less flexible when it comes to meal times. A normal day is to take a morning excursion, then either stay in town or come back to the ship for lunch. Then in the afternoon either another excursion or go into town on your own.

 

While there are some differences between cruise lines as far as quality of food or the number and quality of included excursions, a lot of things are the same. I have always wondered while the river cruise don't have a option for lunch that stays open longer (even if it was just sandwiches) so that you could stay in town longer and still get something to eat when you go back to the ship. Instead of having to come back and then go back out if you want to eat on the ship on many of the lines.

 

The fixed approach to dining and the way excursions are handled do make river cruising seem far more structured.

 

Unlike others on this board I have found the similarities between cruise lines to be more than the differences, even at different price points. So I would certainly consider lower price point lines, with doing your own research, unless there is some specific you absolutely want (electric bicycles for example).

[Gourmet Gal]

Tauck will give you cash to buy lunch in town of you don't want to come back to the ship for lunch.

[Second seating]

On Uniworld you can order sandwiches in the bar.

 

Second seating

[SuiteTraveler]

Well, I've learned a great deal from goldenrod's thread on the River Cruising board. These river cruise lines are NOT created equal and the main thing I have to say to people thinking about booking one is do a LOT of research and find out facts about the river cruise line you will choose BEFORE you book. Read as many reviews here as you can. Find out if there are posts on Yelp.com about it and read them. Look at blogs about people's vacation on the river cruise line and ship you are considering. Find out what kind of food they serve to make sure it meets your expectations. Look on TripAdvisor and anywhere else you can to determine if the river cruise line and ship are for you. If you are going to buy airfare through the river cruise line find out what other cruiser's experiences have been when they did that. Find out about the food. Apparently, Viking serves American food in Europe (according to goldenrod and the menus I found on a blog from 2015). For some, that is unacceptable. For others, that would be an asset. For some Viking cruisers, they plan their cruise so that they go to on land restaurants for lunch daily. So I encourage anyone who wants to book a river cruise to find out all they can about the river cruise line they are considering BEFORE they make the booking. Make an informed choice so you will not have a disappointing vacation.

[mlbcruiser]

Lots of good info., tips and comments since I last checked this thread! (My instant notifications don't work at present and haven't for several months. Not the first time this has happened with this website.)

 

RDC1, sounds to me like the similarities between river cruise lines run similar to the way similarities are with various ocean cruise lines. Sure, there are differences as well, but a lot of basic things tend to be very similar. Even just reading the various river cruise websites I got that impression.

 

Suite Traveler, prior to and also after my OP, I did actually do a LOT of reading of reviews, river cruise line websites, checked various posts on TripAdvisor, ran a general inquiry online for reviews of this or that line or ship, did searches for photos of various ships, and even did a small bit of researching the various ports. Found out quite a bit about several lines. I knew we wouldn't be able to afford the high end lines so didn't really bother with those.

 

So . . . . for the record, I think we'd have been fine with any one of several different lines, but I pretty much narrowed it down. Although we were considering doing a river cruise in 2018, I rec'd. an email for a sudden (true) half price sale (not fake 2 for 1 sale) for remaining 2017 cabins from one of the lines I'd been looking at and had signed up for emails from. (I am SO glad I didn't pull the trigger on a sailing for next yr, which I had almost done!) The availability was extremely limited and I'm very happy I acted fast as the availability was only there for a nanosecond! So we will do our river cruise early this summer and hopefully all will go well.

 

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

[Lois R]

Good morning, so you booked........which one? What cruiseline and the itinerary?

[Cyber Kat]

When I posted my original question, I was looking for replies only from those who LIKE ocean cruising. I felt that those would be the people who could give me the input I am looking for (and it's the reason the word LIKE was capitalized in the title). Either some people missed that, or simply wanted to put in their 2 cents anyway. So the comparisons between the 2 styles of cruises are well intended but not what I was interested in finding out. So I will bring up a couple of things and skip some others.

 

I think I know I'm on the side of those who can find enjoyment in most types of travel. Some types enjoyed more; some types not quite as much. If ocean cruising wasn't fun or interesting, the CC boards regarding that type of cruising wouldn't be so active nor so large. Yes, I know there are more ships but those have increased a great deal in the last few decades and river cruises are increasing a lot, too. So both styles of cruising have their appeal.

 

It's not hard to find a mainstream cruise fare costing about $100/day per person. Even less for a transatlantic sailing. (This can be true on almost any mainstream cruise line for most of the most destinations, though not all.)

 

As for the hidden costs of cruising and the things that are included with the higher end cruises, I have not personally known anyone who has spent $2000 onboard a cruise in addition to the cost of the cruise itself. Our highest onboard expenditure on any of our cruises (a couple of them have been 12 days long, but that has been our longest) was $475 - all together, not pp. - and it was because of a ship conducted diving excursion which is always pricier than when you arrange one independently. Usually we get at least one onboard credit and often 2 as those are so easy to get. I do know that some of our friends who cruise have talked of spending as much as $700 or $800 both couples and families (alcohol and shore excursions mostly, even with a couple of kids along and with some onboard shopping thrown in). I overheard one man talking to his buddy on a ship's pool deck who was very upset when he found he and his wife had spent $1,200 on mostly alcohol with 2 days still left to go of a 1 week cruise. (Not our style to drink a lot, but we get free drinks early to mid evening on 2 of the lines we've frequented enough to be a certain level past cruiser.) Don't take my word about costs, though. Here is something that gives a better picture of usual onboard expenditures. After this I will focus on other things - like port and other information. (BTW, that $1,454 in the first article INCLUDES the cruise fare):

 

Typical cruise spending and expenses - Cruise Market Watch

 

 

The average cruise passenger spends a total of $1,454 per cruise. Note this is for all cruise lines, luxury to contemporary. With the typical cruise lasting 7.1 days, this amounts to a per passenger per day (APCD) projected to be $205, with $155 per day ticket price (75.6%) and $50 per day on-board spending (24.4%).

 

www.cruisemarketwatch.com/articles/typical-cruise-spending-and-expenses/

 

Okay - this I can address :cool: I do LIKE ocean cruising. In fact, I REALLY LIKE ocean cruising, but I'm not wild about the huge Mega Ship/floating theme park/shopping mall/hotel extravaganzas all the main stream lines seem to do up to these days. I do NOT like traveling with 6000 other people at the same time.

 

We really LOVE the Carnival Pride - nice layout, not bad food, plenty of it, only 2500 people and cheap! And it sails from Baltimore which we can drive to in 3 hours. I do LOVE my sea days. We always get a balcony and I can lay out there and just soak up the views. We do some trivia or games. I like to dance, so the parties are fun. We're not big on the shows, but take them in occasionally. We like sitting at a bar with a drink or two and chatting with the bartenders and other cruisers. I can take or leave the slots in the casino. Once in awhile I visit the spa - but hate the hard sell afterward. We usually do the specialty restaurants. We don't drink enough to get the drink package. We usually have some OBC and spend about $1000 for the 2 of us on an 8 day cruise. I must confess - I do buy photos ;p We usually get a bottle of wine with dinner, and we sometimes book an excursion through the ship.

 

We've been on a fair number of ocean cruise. We took our first river cruise - Viking Rhine Getaway - last August and LOVED it - every minute! MUCH more expensive that an ocean cruise, but a different experience altogether as others have said.

 

We've traveled a lot. We go to Bermuda frequently - flying in and staying. We've been to Europe on our own, and with a group. I really like Europe, and saw the river cruise as a way of seeing a lot of different places without having to pack and unpack or live out of a suitcase. It's my big UGH! I like to stay put as far as that goes, but I want to see a lot of different things - river cruising solved that problem.

 

A lot of people have issues with Viking and I won't go into that here - but they treated us well. The food was great - not 24/7 like on an ocean cruise, but you can have breakfast or lunch in the dining room or hit the buffet and there's a decent period of time to do so. Viking did have a 24/7 coffee station with specialty coffees, tea, juice & water. It was stocked with muffins and pastries in the morning and cookies (cookies to die for!) in the afternoon. They are very generous with the included wine and beer at lunch & dinner - champagne in the morning for mimosas with breakfast if you want.

 

There are no spas, no casinos, no big shows, no photographers popping out to get you to take a photo (but the crew was more than happy to take photos with our camera), no shops, no gold or silver by the inch, no kids screaming and splashing in the pool, or drunk adults who seem to drink all day and never get out of the pool :eek: They did have some trivia contests and local musicians or a piano player at night. With a small number of passengers, you get to know people quite quickly and it sort of felt like being at a house party with a bunch of friends.

 

We did splurge on a balcony. It was small but adequate and we used it enough that we felt it was worth it. I loved going through the locks, and would get up if we went through one at night - out in my pjs with my camera :cool:

 

I LOVE being on the water - I can be on a cruise ship on the ocean or a canoe on a lake. So I got to be on the water AND I got to see a nice chunk of Europe as well.

 

If you are going to do a river cruise, I highly recommend doing pre and/or post cruise stays. We did 3 days in Amsterdam (love that city!) and 2 days in Lucerne - which we fell in love with as well. You're spending big bucks on airfare - take advantage!

 

We have a trip to Bermuda coming up, a cruise on Carnival to Canada/NE, and a Viking Ocean to the West Indies. Looking forward to the last - only 930 passengers! We will probably alternate between Carnival for cheap and Viking because we enjoyed traveling with them. We are currently considering the Viking Grand European Tour - Budapest to Amsterdam with extra days in Amsterdam, and Viking Ocean - Montreal to NYC - something completely different!

 

Hope that helps you decide, but it's really two completely different travel experiences. I like a variety!

[Cyber Kat]

We have done 36 ocean cruises, we are currently on a Viking 23 day cruise Amsterdam to Bucharest we are in day 8 this is our first river cruise and it will be our last! It's much to regimented for us, plus don't like the no room service and quite frankly the food has been pretty bad, we are in a suite but storage space is very limited, staff is very friendly but that does not make up for the bad food and regimented routine!

 

 

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I feel compelled to add my differing opinion here - just my opinion, mind you. I didn't feel "regimented" on our Viking river cruise at all. You were free to do the tour, or to take the maps from the front desk and explore on your own.

 

I did not miss room service when it was just a short distance to the buffet or the coffee station with the muffins and the cookies (did I mention the cookies :hearteyes: - I needed the extra walking to make up for the cookies!). We had plenty of storage space in our veranda cabin (glad I didn't book a suite :cool: ) We thoroughly enjoyed the food, and while we are not gourmands we enjoy eating out at fine dining establishments frequently, so I do have a comparison for that.

 

And quite frankly as much as I also like ocean cruising - I didn't miss it, because I wasn't trying to make a comparison. I just looked on the river cruise as something different. I can't wait to book our Grand European Tour!

[Cyber Kat]

So . . . . for the record, I think we'd have been fine with any one of several different lines, but I pretty much narrowed it down. Although we were considering doing a river cruise in 2018, I rec'd. an email for a sudden (true) half price sale (not fake 2 for 1 sale) for remaining 2017 cabins from one of the lines I'd been looking at and had signed up for emails from. (I am SO glad I didn't pull the trigger on a sailing for next yr, which I had almost done!) The availability was extremely limited and I'm very happy I acted fast as the availability was only there for a nanosecond! So we will do our river cruise early this summer and hopefully all will go well.

 

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

 

Sounds like you did your research job well. We did pretty much the same - looked at a number of different lines and made our choice based on several factors - one of which was a port we wanted.

 

Have an awesome time! Live in the moment and take lots of photos - but don't get too busy taking photos, to miss some amazing places!

[Gourmet Gal]

Lots of good info., tips and comments since I last checked this thread! (My instant notifications don't work at present and haven't for several months. Not the first time this has happened with this website.)

 

RDC1, sounds to me like the similarities between river cruise lines run similar to the way similarities are with various ocean cruise lines. Sure, there are differences as well, but a lot of basic things tend to be very similar. Even just reading the various river cruise websites I got that impression.

 

Suite Traveler, prior to and also after my OP, I did actually do a LOT of reading of reviews, river cruise line websites, checked various posts on TripAdvisor, ran a general inquiry online for reviews of this or that line or ship, did searches for photos of various ships, and even did a small bit of researching the various ports. Found out quite a bit about several lines. I knew we wouldn't be able to afford the high end lines so didn't really bother with those.

 

So . . . . for the record, I think we'd have been fine with any one of several different lines, but I pretty much narrowed it down. Although we were considering doing a river cruise in 2018, I rec'd. an email for a sudden (true) half price sale (not fake 2 for 1 sale) for remaining 2017 cabins from one of the lines I'd been looking at and had signed up for emails from. (I am SO glad I didn't pull the trigger on a sailing for next yr, which I had almost done!) The availability was extremely limited and I'm very happy I acted fast as the availability was only there for a nanosecond! So we will do our river cruise early this summer and hopefully all will go well.

 

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

 

It pays to do a little research anc great that you did enough to know a hood deal when you saw it.

 

Drumroll....so which line did you choose?