Comparing Cruise Lines

We are planning our first River Cruise. I thought it would be simple to make a spreadsheet to compare 2017 Danube Cruises on Viking, AMA, Avalon, Uniworld, Scenic. However it is hard to do Apples to Apples. Due to variations in Length of cruise; Air Fare yes/no; include/exclude Prague etc.

I just want to start with Nuremburg to Budapest and then add options.

Has anyone done a comparison of basic costs between cruise lines.

I don't think it is possible to do a real spreadsheet because of all the variables.

By the way I would add Tauck to your list. Perhaps the best would be the total cost divided by the number of days and then compare what is and is not included. We are doing a Tauck "Blue Danube" cruise next year and compared it to Vicking. Tauck includes two nights in Prague and two nights in Bufapesst with tours, dinners and all transfers. When I added the extra days to the Viking cruise price and then added their optional days in the two cities the price was very close, but Tauck included all gratuities, ALL Drinks, and all excursions. In the end Tauick was a better deal for us.

The big problem with comparing is that all the lines on the Danube are different lengths and different itineraries. Good luck with your search, but I would find a line that best meets your type of travel expectations and goes to the places you want to see.

I narrowed down what was important to me and went from there. We are doing Prague to Paris. I chose Avalon for the staterooms. We do tend to enjoy our peace and quiet in our room and I loved that the room opens up to essentially become a balcony. I loved that the beds face the windows not a wall.

I agree with Gregdude as there are so many things in what makes the trip right for what you might want it to be. One thing I looked for was how old the ship was. We are taking our first river cruise in October on the Danube with a Prague add on. We are sailing on the Amber ship new this spring to the fleet of Scenic. I had heard many good things about there tours but never know until it is your tour. Are tour is all inclusive. There air department also found a good price on business class airline tickets which was also important to us. Hope this gave you a few ideas for thought.

Hi Ted,

>I just want to start with Nuremburg to Budapest ..

Good.

How many days? What's your budget? Do you need a balcony? Are included drinks important? Do you need a hotel bed or are bunks ok? Are you a foodie? Do you require wifi? ETC.

After you have made your list you will have to inspect each web site to see how they match.

I was able to reduce our possibilities to 3 companies in a very short time.

We ended up with Avalon.

Ira

Also if your dates are flexible you might find a deal with one of the usually higher priced lines. The sticky that explains the service and personality of each line is helpful. Some of us like high end everything and are willing to pay the cost, while others want a good value. I would narrow it down to two or three then do a day by day cost comparison. Include tips and alcohol.

WE DID COMPARISON AND ENDED UP CHOOSING EMERALD FROM NUReNBERG (& Prague precruise) TO BUDAPEST. Their ships are all new, cabin sizea are larger than most, transfers, gratuities, Wine & beer included at lunch & dinner, bicycles, tours etc. all at a reasonable price. Their ships have a pool that converts to a cinema at night and although a new cruise line, has gotten very good reviews recently.

WE DID COMPARISON AND ENDED UP CHOOSING EMERALD FROM NUReNBERG (& Prague precruise) TO BUDAPEST. Their ships are all new, cabin sizea are larger than most, transfers, gratuities, Wine & beer included at lunch & dinner, bicycles, tours etc. all at a reasonable price. Their ships have a pool that converts to a cinema at night and although a new cruise line, has gotten very good reviews recently.

A dive in theater? :p

Thanks for all inputs. I now see I was going at it the wrong way, best to list what we want and then compare lines that fulfill the wish list.

I will add Tauck - I have heard that all things considered they are not that much more expensive. I hoped my 'basic' spreadsheet would give me a range and then I could say, ' But Tauck adds this and this, for this amount extra'

One question - does any cruise line have more / less problems with low / high water ?

WE DID COMPARISON AND ENDED UP CHOOSING EMERALD FROM NUReNBERG (& Prague precruise) TO BUDAPEST. Their ships are all new, cabin sizea are larger than most, transfers, gratuities, Wine & beer included at lunch & dinner, bicycles, tours etc. all at a reasonable price. Their ships have a pool that converts to a cinema at night and although a new cruise line, has gotten very good reviews recently.

We are doing Emerald Waterways but doing the opposite from you (Budapest to Nuremberg). We really like all the different options that were available. We leave in 2 weeks and reading up on some of the places and seeing pictures I can't wait to see everything in person.

Hello Tedferg,

Thanks for all inputs. I now see I was going at it the wrong way, best to list what we want and then compare lines that fulfill the wish list.

 

I will add Tauck - I have heard that all things considered they are not that much more expensive. I hoped my 'basic' spreadsheet would give me a range and then I could say, ' But Tauck adds this and this, for this amount extra'

 

One question - does any cruise line have more / less problems with low / high water ?

One cannot generalize the high and low water situation and no line really fares better or worse than any other in general. However, on this board the most low water issues last year were mentioned by Viking cruisers. I do not mean much more than others, just more on the whole. In the end it is also down to luck, i.e. do you happen to travel at a time that has been unfavourable for you as regards the weather?

These water problems have been discussed a lot in the last three years here on CC. Basics you need to know: low water - more in summer and autumn - the captain and the company determine when they have to stop sailing, high water - mostly at the end of winter and in Spring - the local authorities close the river in accordance with the safe river levels - rules laid down in writing and adhered to by all river traffic.

What season/month would you prefer to travel in? Something to consider...

I hope you find the right itinerary for you at a reasonable price.

And if you have time at the end of your cruise in Budapest - stay a little longer. Budapest is a great city.

notamermaid

Thank you Notamermaid - I thought some lines handled water levels better by having lower drafts than other lines.

Ted

I think I need to clarify - sorry about this.

I meant to say that of the boats that have the deepest draft, which are the boats that are 135m long, Viking has mentioned the most as having problems. Of course, the boats that are 110m long fare better in general. If you chose the smaller size you would automatically reduce the likelyhood of problems in draught.

As for high water - see above.

notamermaid

If you search the web enough you can find the draught or depth below the water line of most of the river cruising companies ships, I know that Scenic are a metre or less which is very shallow considering our narrowboat is about two thirds of a metre. It is also a consideration that the cruise line has several boats on any particular river it means they can sort out ship swaps as last year between, I think Regensberg and Passau.

Chose well and you will get hooked on river cruising, CA 🇬🇧

We are planning our first River Cruise. I thought it would be simple to make a spreadsheet to compare 2017 Danube Cruises on Viking, AMA, Avalon, Uniworld, Scenic. However it is hard to do Apples to Apples. Due to variations in Length of cruise; Air Fare yes/no; include/exclude Prague etc.

 

I just want to start with Nuremburg to Budapest and then add options.

 

Has anyone done a comparison of basic costs between cruise lines.

I recently did the same as what you are doing (comparing). We are doing Amsterdam to Budapest May 15/2017. I have booked with Scenic because I am getting more for my money, Viking seems to be very popular, but was $1,000.00 more than Scenic at the time. We are getting free air, free gratuities, free excursions (even the highend ones), make sure you check into the higher end excursions, some charge $125 pp more. free alcohol 24/7, anything you want to drink except the very expensive champagne and the highend scotch, also your fridge is stocked with whatever you want to drink. Others give you free beer & wine at lunch & dinner and some only at dinner. We are also getting 1 kilo pp of laundry done halfway through the cruise. We have a balcony, not just the window that comes halfway down. Scenic is fairly new to the U.S. with their advertising, been advertising in Canada for quite awhile, they are an Australian company.

Good luck on your search, and have a great cruise, it will be amazing with whoever you choose.

Marlster

I tend to do spreadsheets for these things, but they are unique to me, and I don't take them very far. I was researching Normandy and several other routes for 2017, and included stuff like, overall price, cabin size, per diem, duration, size of ship, inclusiveness, pre- and post-extension costs, particular ports or excursions I wanted to see, things like that. It helps. Haven't made any decisions about it yet, booked up until February 2017 but not beyond at the moment.

Oh, and for my Normandy search, I think Avalon was winning.

We were doing Tauck Amsterdam to Budapest this fall, but we cancelled due to the high cost because of the drop in the Canadian $.

A golfing friend suggested I use his travel agent for suggestions ! Someone who has a lot of experience and might get a better price. Now there's an idea :-)

A golfing friend suggested I use his travel agent for suggestions ! Someone who has a lot of experience and might get a better price. Now there's an idea :-)

Your friend is correct to suggest this. We did this cruise a couple of years ago (Budapest to Nuremberg). We went on Viking, and my TA got us a great deal with 15% off. The itinerary is called "Romantic Danube". I strongly suggest that you add Prague to your cruise. We did it on our own from Nuremberg. And, if you can stay a few days in Budapest I would recommend that too. Both are wonderful cities.

A golfing friend suggested I use his travel agent for suggestions ! Someone who has a lot of experience and might get a better price. Now there's an idea :-)

We used a travel agent from a well-known online agency for our first river cruise,mainly because we were river cruise newbies and thought her advice would be helpful. We had already picked the cruise and all she did was recommend a cabin and make the reservation for us. We had no idea that some agents offer additional discounts that ours never mentioned. We were smarter on our second cruise and used a different agent that did give us a nice discount on top of the sale price for the cruise. So shopping around for agents that do offer discounts and specialize in river cruising is definitely worthwhile!

We are first time river cruisers (it is almost here!) and decided on the Rhine (Basel to Amsterdam) and did exactly what you are doing. Like another poster we decided on Scenic as they seem to be all inclusive. My booking included free air, and I couldn't be more pleased with the flights, we came in early and had to pay a small deviation fee which I expected. If you are doing pre or post cruise hotels you might want to price them out yourself versus using the cruise line hotel packages which can be considerably more expensive. I did quite well on my own but I'm sure each is a case by case basis.

I also did not want to go with any type of "special" which required payment in full at time of booking, as we booked nearly a year and a half before travel. We out a deposit and then I think final payment was 60 days prior to travel.

My first riverboat cruise, I did the same thing that you did. We went with AMA from Amsterdam to Trier plus Paris extension at Meridien Etoile. The ship was beautiful. The staff and the food were excellent. The tours were a mixed bag. Some good. Most crowded and boring. Some of the guides had attitude. On that cruise, we kept hearing people commenting how much better Viking was. Everywhere we docked ( mostly out of town), we saw Viking gangways in town. Next cruise we went with Viking. Location is important. Most of the cruise lines are good cabins and food. For me, the local tour guides are important. Viking excels.

If you are comparing cruise lines pricing using published prices on websites or in brochures, those numbers are high and you can get much better deals especially when using high volume, online companies. I cannot name the online company I use, but I can say that I have used them for my last 4 river cruises and I have been very satisfied. The online company I use is award winning and it represents many of the most traveled river cruise lines.

I start with the river and the cities included in the offering and go from there to look at specifics.

Please pay special attention to the itinerary port by port. For instance, there are real differences on how far various ships can sail on the Seine and the Rhone.

Ted, you and Fuel Science need to get together. He/she posted a separate thread about spreadsheets.

Roz

Ted, you and Fuel Science need to get together. He/she posted a separate thread about spreadsheets.

 

Roz

Yes I saw that and did respond to Fuel Science :-)

We are planning our first River Cruise. I thought it would be simple to make a spreadsheet to compare 2017 Danube Cruises on Viking, AMA, Avalon, Uniworld, Scenic. However it is hard to do Apples to Apples. Due to variations in Length of cruise; Air Fare yes/no; include/exclude Prague etc.

I did some simple research in Feb 2015 between Vantage and Viking...Obviously the prices are different now, but the comparison should be fairly accurate. I'm posting so you can see how easy it is to compare the same cruise with different companies.

I chose a basic 15 days Grand European Amsterdam-Budapest 15 day in July and selected cabin level with a french balcony.

Viking:

basic fare (2/1)............................$5,862 per person.....$11,724 per couple

with air from New York economy: 1,195 2,390

Total (no tax, port charges) $7,057 $14,114

Vantage: (sailed with them 8x only one I know) Bonn-Budapest 15 days in July for cabin level with french balcony.

basic fare......................................$4,899 pp .......$ 9,798 couple

with economy air from NY 1,599 3,198

Total (no tax, port charges) 6,498 12,996

What you have to keep in mind is that the per person cost doesn't count for either company because there's the single supplement, so all prices listed on both web sites are "per person, double occupancy".