Small Ship or River Boat for Family Christmas Trip

[Flredhead]

We love small ships and river boats. We have done both Vantage River cruises and Cruise West. We want to do a family cruise over Christmas this year. Eleven people: 71 years to 2 1/2 yr old. Any suggestions on where to look? Vantage is iffy on allowing a 2 1/2 yr old but I do love those small ships. Any suggestions welcome.:)

[Essiesmom]

There might not be many river cruises at that time of year...too cold...Your choices may be limited. EM

[kitty9]

Cruise West only has two cruises in December of '09, starting in Los Suenos and ending in Colon Panama. There appears to be Rhine River cruises in December, which to be honest, surprises me because I thought the rivers froze over in winter. There are no children's activities on river boats, so be prepared for that. Also, if anyone is disabled, many of those riverboats are not handicapped accessible as they do not have elevators, only stairs.

[steamboats]

Flredhead,

 

American Cruise Lines is offering cruises in December.

 

ACCL stops by the end of November.

 

Majestic America Line and RiverBarge are out of business.

 

That´s all I know about river cruise ships in the US.

 

As for Europe, Kitty9, nope, neither the Rhine nor the Danube river are freezing over (must be a real cold winter for that). The only problem is the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal which can freeze over. Also the Elbe river might freeze over. We did have problems last winter.

 

I don´t know about Vantage but all other river cruise companies do offer Christmas Market cruises in December in Europe and also cruises over Christmas and New Years Day. In fact they are getting more and more popular. I definitely know that AMAWaterway, Avalon, Grand Circle Travel, Uniworld and Viking do offer Christmas Market cruises (but be aware that Christmas Markets are closing on Christmas Eve in most locations). A pretty popular route is Nueremberg (some have a pre cruise option in Prague) to Vienna or Budapest. That´s the itinerary I´d suggest as those are the more traditional markets (Nuremberg has the oldest market of the world). Other itineraries are on the Rhine river (Amsterdam - Basel).

 

FLredhead, as you´ve done river cruises before I think you´re aware of the fact that river cruises generally tend to an "older" crowd. You usually will not find any family entertainment or other kids aboard. But if you´re o.k. with that it´s a great way of cruising. My DD is used to river cruises since she was 18 months old and still like them (now 9yo).

 

steamboats