When a friend told me he was thinking of trying a European river cruise instead of his usual
ocean cruise, I had to sit him down and run him through the series of things that had
thrown, surprised and I had not been ready for when I have been river cruising.
Things that I want to share with you as so many people I meet on river cruises come up
against these same issues, and it's worth you knowing about them too.
If you're new here, welcome aboard, I'm Gary Bembridge.
It's my goal to make it fun and easy to discover, plan and enjoy unforgettable cruise vacations.
Very quickly, once I was on my first river cruise, I realised it had very little in common
with ocean cruising.
It was much more like escorted bus tours that I've been on, for example, around Florida
or even around Tanzania.
River cruise feels much more like escorted touring by river than river cruising and cruising.
Why is it so similar?
Well, first of all, size, it's a smaller and more intimate group.
You have 100, maybe up to a maximum of 200 or so passengers.
Everyone gets to know who you are.
Everyone gets to know you as you would on an escorted tour.
So, it's less good if you want to be left alone.
The format and structure are reminiscent of escorted tours that I've been on.
It's regimented.
There's a strict, fixed, daily schedule with narrow windows of time to do everything, and
limited choices.
Everyone does the same thing at the same time, eating, tours, briefings.
Let me run you through a typical river cruise day.
You have an announcement in the morning to get you up, and that can be early, around
7:30 to 8:00 in the morning so it's not particularly good for late risers.
You then have about an hour or so for breakfast and then you're off on your first included
morning tour.
There may be a choice of tours and you're normally split into groups, there'll be a
slow walker option and so on.
You go back to the ship for lunch, which you will have about an hour to do.
You'll sail to the next port, or you'll go on another tour, or you're just sailing.
Then in the evening before dinner, you have a briefing session on what's going to happen
on the next day.
You then have dinner and there may be some local entertainment, or there's normally just
the pianist playing.
And then you, basically, repeat it.
Some days it could be a full day tour.
So, for example, when I was on a Viking Danube cruise we went to Bratislava, that was a whole
day tour.
On an ocean cruise you're free to plan and do what you want, when you want.
There are, of course, options and choices in a daily program, which is packed full of
activities with lots of choice throughout the day.
You can opt out, you can opt in, but on river you don't have that degree of choice.
There are limited things to do.
On an ocean cruise, you don't have to stick to the dining schedule.
On a river there's usually only one dining venue, or at most there might be a restaurant
and some sort of informal option, for example, there might be some light lunch options served
in the lounge.
Food is only available on a river cruise at these dining times.
There's no room service.
So, for example, I got a complaint just this week from, someone who had done many ocean
cruises.
She went on a Viking River cruise and was absolutely frustrated to find that she could
only get meals and food at those set periods of time: breakfast, at lunch and at dinner.
There was no food out of that time.
Of course, on a river cruise, you can self-explore if you want to, but it's not very common to
do.
So, for example, I decided I wasn't going to go on one of the tours when I was on an
Avalon Rhine cruise, and they came to find me to find out why I wasn't going on the included
tour.
You go on a river cruise to be part of the program.
So, the first realisation I had was that river cruise is not cruising as I knew it.
It's an escorted tour that happens to be on the river rather than on the road.
There are a couple of other key differences to ocean cruising I discovered that I hadn't
thought about enough, nor the consequences of them.
Some of the differences are plusses.
So, for example, embarking and disembarking on river cruise is simple, fast and easy,
unlike when you go on an ocean trip.
It's pretty much like checking in and out of a hotel.
There are no lines, there's no check-in hoo-ha.
It's much more flexible in terms of the time you need to arrive.
Of course, I knew a river cruise ship is dramatically smaller than an ocean cruise ship, but I hadn't
fully appreciated the knock-on effects that come with that.
Unlike ocean ships, all river cruise ships are basically the same, and have very limited
facilities.
They are the same size and shape because they're constrained by the height of the bridges they
needed to go under, and the width because they need to get through locks.
Once you're inside, they are all basically the same too, unlike an ocean ship, where
there's variety and lots of differences.
On a river cruise ship, you have a lounge or a bar area where you have your drinks and
briefings.
You have the restaurant which can seat everybody at one time.
You have a little reception desk and a sundeck which may have a hot tub or a plunge pool
in many cases.
There are no entertainment facilities like casino, shops, no specialty dining venue,
no choice of bars, no production show area or theatre.
There's not entertainment every night.
I like to work out but found that most don’t have a fitness room, or if they did it is
tiny with a bike, a treadmill, and a rowing machine.
They do not have a spa though some have a massage room.
And so that was the big shock, the realisation, having been cruising, that you're used to
all these facilities and choice, which you will not have and do not have on a river cruise.
Cabin choices are limited.
Basically, it's all about location.
You either go under the water line or above the waterline.
Under the waterline is the lowest level of cabins and you have a window about three quarters
of the way up, which is just above the water level.
They're not my favourite cabins because I found them a little bit noisy when sailing
and enclosed feeling.
If you have cabin above the waterline with beautiful windows or balcony, because the
rivers are busy and they all call on the same places, river cruise ships dock alongside
each other.
So even if you pay extra to have one of these cabins, you may find it can be dark and a
few feet away from you, is another ship with somebody staring back at you.
The rhythm of sailing is very different to the ocean.
Ocean ships tend to sail at night and spend the whole day in a port each day.
On a river cruise it's different.
There is no set pattern.
Some days you may call on two places and sail some of the day.
Others you stay in one place all day.
Some days you sail and night, and some you do not.
It's very port intensive and you often call at two places in one day.
On the plus side, there is scenery all the time you're sailing, unlike at sea.
And you dock in the heart of the places you're calling on so you can walk off right into
the action.
The distance you cover is much less than by ocean, so it’s an intensive look at a region.
I realised how short the distances were when on my last Viking and Emerald cruises the
tour bus, drivers and guides were the same every stop.
They would normally go home each night and then just drive to join the ship each morning.
On an Avalon Rhine cruise I had the choice of cycling between the two places where the
ship was sailing that day because it was around 15 miles away.
I read on Cruise Critic, that a river boat might need up to 12 hours to sail along a
distance and a journey that would only take you two hours by bus.
One plus, unlike an ocean cruise, is there's no chance of you getting seasick.
There's barely any motion and movement on the rivers.
So, for the first time I could entice my father-in-law, who's really obsessed with getting seasick,
onto a river cruise.
Talking about sickness, there's no medical centre, unlike on an ocean cruise ship.
I fell ill on an Emerald Waterways cruise between Bucharest and Budapest, and I needed
to see a doctor.
I discovered the lines know of medical centres or local doctors along the route.
They took me there, and I got sorted out.
On ocean cruise if you feel ill, you have a medical centre to go to.
All of these I realised that all these differences and things that make a river cruise experience
very different to ocean cruise experience also has a massive, big impact on who goes
on a river cruise.
Despite what river cruise lines ads suggest, it's still a traditional crowd who go river
cruising.
The rivers where the bulk of European cruising happens, like the Rhine and the Danube and
associated rivers are peppered with old historic towns, the tours in these places are culturally
focused and usually walking tours through the towns that focus on the history, culture,
and often cathedrals, appeal to that audience most.
There is some change underway, and on more recent river cruises I'm seeing more food
and wine tours.
For example, on my last CroisiEurope Loire cruise we had more of these included and we
visited more châteaus.
On AmaWaterways and Avalon I had more active hiking and bike tour options, and on Viking
we went to see performances of a small opera group in Vienna.
However, the places river cruises go to means they call on historic, cultural places.
It’s more laid back, and so attracts people who are interested in that.
It’s not going to attract young families or young couples who want to go out partying.
Though some lines like Uniworld and AmaWaterways are trying.
It does tend to be a slightly older crowd.
Separate to age, the nature of river cruising will, based on what I have experienced, always
appeal to a specific type of traveller.
When I chat to people on river cruises, they tell me the format of river cruising suits
them as they like that it's a curated, highly organised tour.
All they do is decide which river they want to go on, when they want to go and which cruise
line they want to go on, and then that's the last decision they must make because the rest
of the program is sorted in detail for them: every meal, every tour, any entertainment.
It's all planned and sorted out for them.
River cruises, as I told my friend, are costly, especially when you compare the day cost of
a river cruise versus the day cost of an ocean cruise.
Now, admittedly, there's a few reasons for that.
The ships are smaller than ocean ships, they can't amortise the cost as much, and you are
paying to have a more intimate experience.
And then there's lots more inclusions.
In addition to your cabin and all your meals, many have some or all drinks included (most
include beer and wine at your meal at a minimum).
Excursions are included.
Wi-Fi is included.
Often transfers to and from the ship are included.
I do like to have flexibility when on vacation, and so I find river cruising more restrictive
often that I like.
And although enjoyed doing them, I don’t think I would repeat many of the cruises I've
been on because I found, when I went on my second Danube trip and my second Rhine trip,
it was too familiar.
We called at the same places.
The tours were the same.
We were seeing the same things and there wasn't as much opportunity to do and look at things
in a different way.
So, although I'm not sure I'd repeat a route, it is a fantastic way for seeing the interior
of Europe in a very intensive and simple way because it's so curated, and so trying new
rivers appeals to me.
I found this out, for example, when I tried a trip on Emerald which went from Bucharest
to Budapest, and I got to see all the former Eastern European countries making up Czechoslovakia
and hear their stories and find out all the history and see places that would have been
much more challenging to do if I'd done a land-based tour.
Also, there are some theme river cruises like the Christmas markets, which are exciting
to as you go right into the heart of all the key Christmas markets.
So, I look at river cruising when I'm looking for something specific like that and when
I don't want to spend much effort planning and I'm prepared to be scheduled, organised,
and make no decisions.
And that is my advice to my friend considering trying one out.
To find out what the best river cruises to do and lines to go with, watch this short
playlist of two videos where I reveal the must-do river cruise trips in Europe, starting
with the best first and second cruise to do, and which lines to do them with.
See you over there.