Douro River - which operator?

[basso]

It seems there are three operators for the Douro Queen - Brendan, Trafalgar, and Uniworld. Has anyone who made this cruise noticed a difference in the treatment of passengers by the different operators?

 

Thank you,

Bill

[VAGuy]

I believe there are two operators of river cruises on the Duoro which cater to the English speaking market: Uniworld(http://www.uniworld.com) and Amadeus Waterways (http://www.amadeuswaterways.com). Trafalgar and Brendan are sales agents for these tours along with many other TA's which can be found on the internet. Incidentally, both Trafalgar and

Uniworld are owned by the same company, a travel conglomerate called the Travel Store.

 

There is also a French company Croisi (http://www.cruise.croisieurope.com) which operates a Duoro cruise. However, I think they marketing more toward the European market.:rolleyes:

 

Perhaps Steamboats could provide additional information.

[H2Otstr]

We are signed up to take the September 2nd cruise with Amadeus. The first 3 days is a land tour in Lisbon, and then the river cruise on the Douro, and then we are staying 2 extra days in Porto.

[laughoutloud]

We sailed last with CroisiEurope last August. The Douro cruises are their most international - we had 16 different nationalities on board! They are a French cruiseline, and all announcements are in French & English, although there was a large German group w/ translator, as well as a Portuguese-speaking crew. We all got along marvelously, each speaking the few pharses that we could in the others' language.

 

If you are the least bit adventurous, please do forego the "cruise catering to American guests with American tastes' and experience the truly European cruiseline CorisiEurope. They were fantastic.