Caligirl58

We are fairly new to international travel. We (foolishly) put it off until my husband retired - then were able to only get in two river cruises before Covid came along. We have a list of places we'd like to visit, but with our lack of travel experience, we'd like to find a TA who can advise/guide us as well as help with the travel arrangements for future river cruises as well as 'land travel' abroad. (Husband is currently not open to the idea of ocean cruising on a large ship - but I'm hoping he'll consider a small ship....)

Got2Cruise - If you work with a large agency (assume you mean online?) - does one agent handle all of the arrangements for your trip? And is that agent the one you would contact if you ran into an issue?

I apologize if it seemed that I was treading too close to the violation line. I wasn't asking for recommendations at all (although I wish those were allowed!). I'm just hoping to get ideas of how others approached their search. I thought we had gone a good route and asked the right questions when we found our first two agents -- maybe we were just unlucky. We aren't picky and hard to please -- we just want to find someone who is knowledgeable about river cruising and will be available if we run into a problem.

I understand the CC guidelines that TA recommendations are not allowed. And I have read JazzBeau's sticky about choosing a TA. But I am curious how those of you with great travel agents were able to find them? For each of our two Uniworld river cruises, we used a travel agent from a large national automobile association (different agent for each cruise - from different branch locations in our city). Each one had been recommended to us - one by multiple cruise line representatives at the annual travel show, the other by friends. Unfortunately, we were underwhelmed by both of them. (Multiple mistakes made, unavailable when we had an issue while traveling, etc.) So as we look ahead to future cruises, we are starting over in our TA search. Although we did appreciate the discounts available to us through the automobile association, if we have to choose between discounts and good customer service, we'll forego the discounts. For those of you who have a great agent, how did you find them? Did you choose a local travel agency? Is your agent part of a network like Virtuoso? How did you find agents knowledgeable about river cruises (vs ocean)? Thank you for your advice.

Not butting in at all -- I appreciate your input. I agree about "cruising cash" -- but as retirees, just want to use our travel dollars (and years!) wisely. It sounds, though, that this cruise might be enough different from our previous cruise to justify the expense.

Ritabob - Thank you so much for your response. We appreciate your thoughts about the Mozelle and about the River Queen. We enjoyed both of our previous Uniworld cruises, so I'm sure we would enjoy this one. Just trying to decide how to best spend our future cruising dollars!

I'm curious about this, too. Can anyone comment?

We have only done two river cruises - both on Uniworld. Castles Along the Rhine (Amsterdam to Basel) on SS Antoinette in 2017 and Delightful Danube & Prague (Budapest to Prague) on SS Beatrice in 2019. Enjoyed them both very much - especially Castles Along the Rhine. Now we are planning our next river cruise for Summer, 2024. Some friends (two couples) have already booked Uniworld's Magnificent Moselle & Rhine (Frankfurt to Frankfurt) for late July, 2024 and want us to join them. We know we'd enjoy traveling with them, but we have been reluctant to book, knowing that the Rhine portion of the itinerary will include many of the same stops as our CATR cruise in 2017. Some of the things we are struggling with: Do we want to spend the money knowing that part of the trip will be a repeat - or instead choose a different cruise with an itinerary we have never seen.? Is the Moselle portion of the cruise enough to justify seeing the Rhine portion again? Also- the MM&R cruise is on the River Queen, which - as of now - is not a Super Ship. Will we notice a significant difference in terms of amenities/service? I realize no one can make the decision for us, but if you have thoughts about the MM&R cruise, the River Queen, or anything else that might influence our decision, I'd welcome your input. Thank you.

Thank you both for taking time to respond. Your thoughts are very helpful and confirm what I already suspected. But it's always good to get that confirmation. Jazzbeau - I saw that there was a forum for American Queen but somehow missed that there was also one for American Cruise Lines, so I apologize for that. I did, however, find the ACL reviews and read them.

Our experience with cruising is so-far limited to two Uniworld European river cruises (although we are currently researching and plan to book others). We recently received the newest catalog for American Cruise Lines, and some of the itineraries look like they might be fun and interesting. Obviously, it would be a different cruising experience than Uniworld, but I'd love to hear opinions if any of you have taken any of the American cruises. We are mid-60's, good health/mobility, and enjoy good food/wines, if that helps. Thank you for any thoughts.

hbbae - Thank you for reminding me about the 'butler aspect' of Silversea. We have only taken two cruises - both Uniworld - and have never experienced butler service. While I'm sure it would be a novelty, I think we would probably feel much like you do. Also appreciate your impressions of Oceania, as they seem to have several itineraries we'd enjoy.

😲Thank you for posting this, Jazzbeau. These guidelines are definitely more formal than what we experienced on Uniworld. By Silversea's definition, the dinner dress code on Uniworld would be considered "Casual". Except for the Captain's Dinner, which would be considered "Informal".

Thank you. I will look closely at those. I agree -- not sure my husband would like the ship-within-a-ship concept. At least not for his first ocean cruise. But we have friends who did the MSC Yacht Club and loved it.

I appreciate your insights!

I will look forward to hearing your impressions of Silversea after your cruises. Will definitely give it more consideration, as I had pretty much taken it out of the running based on the comments I had read about it being very formal.

That's interesting -- I always thought of Uniworld as being a little more formal than say Viking or AMA. I've never cruised with them - just had that assumption. But I'm very glad to know that dressy slacks/top are appropriate on the ocean lines, as that is what I like to wear.

Thank you all so much for taking time to reply. Your responses are very helpful. Some of the cruise lines you have suggested are ones I had wondered about, but others I had not even considered. So I will make a 'short list' and research each one. I may have more questions as I do. A couple of questions have already come to mind. For those of you suggesting Silversea -- have you found it to be significantly more formal (in atmosphere/dress code) than Uniworld? I had read some message board comments that made me wonder if it was. We did not find Uniworld to be too formal, which we liked. Of course, we ran into a few 'stuffy' pax, but you are going to find that anywhere. Also - I worry a little about seasickness, since we have never done an ocean cruise. Windstar is one of the lines I had considered, but I wondered if those ships might be more prone to causing seasickness? Maybe that's a silly question. We did enjoy that Uniworld was all-inclusive. Not having to pay a balance at the end of the cruise is just a nice way to end the experience. Again - thank you for helping me to narrow down our options.

If you have done both ocean and river cruising, I would love to get your thoughts. My husband was adamantly opposed to the idea of a cruise for many years. He had no interest in huge mega-ships (like Carnival, Royal Caribbean, etc.) filled with rowdy crowds. I finally convinced him to try a river cruise on Uniworld - Castles Along the Rhine - in 2016. It was wonderful, and we both loved it. We did another in 2018 - Uniworld's Delightful Danube and Prague. Felt that Uniworld had slipped a bit in value, but still had a great experience. Now we are considering an ocean cruise, since we'd like to visit some areas not serviced by river cruises, ie Mediterranean and Northern Europe. But we're wondering which ocean cruise line(s) might be comparable in overall experience to Uniworld. Especially ones with smaller ships/fewer passengers. I've been researching by reading CC message boards for several cruise lines, but I'd really appreciate recommendations from those who love river cruising. Thank you.