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| Unrepentant Dork Gadfly  |
Has anyone done a European River Cruise? For background, Rob and I have never done an ocean cruise and it doesn’t really interest us. I’m afraid of boats in open water (I’m more or less ok if I believe I can swim to shore) and we aren’t into the cruise activities or the sun or the big crowds. But River cruising appeals to us because we like the idea of seeing a bunch of different places without having to take a train or rent a car to get there. We do enjoy guided tours and tend to book a few whenever we travel anyways. While we are both still in our 40s, we love the museum/culture/food parts of travel so we fit into the standard 60+ crowd River tours attract. While we are capable of booking and planning our own trips (we did Prague/Vienna/Budapest several years ago, for example) we haven’t been to much of Europe so seeing the typical sites is still ok with us. We are looking at doing Amsterdam to Basel in summer 2023 with Viking. Unfortunately off-season or shoulder season isn’t an option for us because I’m still teaching so summer it is. We are planning on an A level balcony cabin. Tips? Tricks? Advice?
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| Pinta & the Santa Maria Has Achieved Nirvana  |
My sister has done several, and really enjoyed them. She and my b-i-l haven't done a lot of European travel, so hitting the tourist sites was totally fine with them. She says be prepared to walk a lot, and figure that the "event" is getting off the boat and touring around, not the boat itself. I mention this because she said there were a lot of people who only rarely left the boat. She also said that her cruise (Viking) offered a lot of group tours off the boat, but they had more fun just going off on their own. But, big caution, do not be late returning. They have a schedule and the boat won't wait for stragglers. If you're left behind, it's up to you to independently figure out how to meet up with the boat on its next stop. Unfortunately, she did say it was crowded during the summer season. Their last one was through Germany/Bavaria, etc., just after Thanksgiving. She said it was cold but everything was decorated for the holidays, and the open markets and squares were more filled with locals than tourists. | |||
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
We have never done one, but have talked about it, so we will be interested to hear your experiences. In addition to the idea that your hotel room travels from place to place, another thing I like about cruises is that you get to go from place to place without worrying about luggage. | |||
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| Unrepentant Dork Gadfly |
Yes! We do intend to ditch the group in larger cities when we are docked for a whole day to do our own exploring (and eat lunch in local restaurants rather than on the boat) but once we started reading the excursion descriptions we were really excited about many of them. And we don’t plan on being on the boat whenever it’s docked. It’s a floating hotel, in our minds. Though some of the on-board evening lectures, cooking demos, etc while sailing do sound enjoyable!
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Minor Deity |
That's why we want to cruise the Hawaiian islands. You see most of the islands without schlepping bags and checking in and out.
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
Having taken a couple of cruises, at least in the Caribbean, the effort to get off and on the ship is not dissimilar to the check-in process. I don't know whether it would be easier in the Hawaiian Islands, since it's all the same country. | |||
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| Pinta & the Santa Maria Has Achieved Nirvana |
But you miss the whole experience of island hopping via airplane. I'm not sure if it's the same now during COVID, but I would just crack up at the people going on/off the island-to-island planes. Flip-flops, bathing suits, grocery bags full of groceries, and the omnipresent pink cake boxes. Definitely a cultural phenomenon... like taking the bus, only it's a plane. | |||
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| Minor Deity |
Yeah, but you don't have to fly or schlepp bags.
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| (self-titled) semi-posting lurker Minor Deity  |
I don't have anything helpful to add, but I just wanted to say that "schlepp" is one of the best words, in any language.
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Beatification Candidate |
I have no experience with river cruises, although I've looked at both European and North American cruises quite a few times. I'll be very interested to hear of your experience. The closest I and my wife came to this was when we returned from Brazil to the USA on a freighter after my first tour of duty in Rio de Janeiro on an engineering/construction project. The shipping company's misfortune was our good luck as another ship in their fleet suffered prop damage on a sandbar in a harbor and our ship was directed to make all possible port calls to pick up as much cargo as it could transport. This stretched our trip out to 5 weeks with 9 stops after leaving Rio before heading out to the open sea for the USA. Our ultimate destination was "first US port of call north of Norfolk, VA" as the cargo ultimately dictated where the freighter sailed. Most often it was NY. but there were no guarantees. Ultimately, we sailed into Brooklyn on a cold winter day. I was on deck as we came in under the Verrazano Narrows bridge with multiple shirts and jackets on because we didn't have any winter clothes with us. We were able to go into town at most ports and since we had learned some Portuguese and knew something about local customs, we skipped any tours and just set off to see what we could see. This worked out well, although at one point we came close to missing the sailing because of a train wreck delaying our return. We had to hire a taxi to make it on time. The ability to leave all luggage on board is a big advantage to my mind. It's also another reason that I like to drive to destinations that are not too distant. We often pack a large case that stays in the vehicle and transfer each day's requirements to a small case that we take into the night's accommodations so there is less to tug along. Big Al
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| Unrepentant Dork Gadfly |
That sounds like an amazing experience! Thanks for sharing the story!
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Foregoing Vacation to Post |
How can you know if you’d like a multi-day river boat tour? You could take a single day river cruise day trip as an introductory tour. Then see how you like it. I once took the CAF (Chicago Architecture Foundation) one day river tour and liked it. Another issue can be sea sickness. I once got it but it was on a small sail boat which rocks more with the wave action. A Dramamine tablet for motion sickness took care of it. Larger boats don’t pitch and roll with the waves. On a multi-day boat trip, check how many ports of call there are and where and for how long. My sister once went on a Caribbean ocean liner cruise. She said the ship docked at ports near where all the gift shops are located and only for a couple of hours. There wasn’t not enough time to see much of the town or the island. | |||
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| Unrepentant Dork Gadfly |
We have done the Chicago Architecture Cruise as well and loved it, as well as a few short river cruises in Europe. I do get seasick but not on small rivers. It’s a problem on lakes, no matter how big the boat (for me, anyways). From what I understand, European River Cruises operate very differently than Caribbean ocean cruises. The ocean cruise experience is much more about the ship and its amenities, whereas the river cruise expectation is that you won’t spend a lot of time on the boat if you aren’t sailing. They don’t have activities the way the huge ocean liners do!
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| Beatification Candidate |
My wife and I did the Chicago architectural cruise the day after a Chicago-area piano party. We both enjoyed it. I was very impressed with how much the guide on the boat added to the cruise with his commentary. If you have any interest in buildings and the urban environment, it's time well spent. Big Al
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