rogerdawhip

I just reserved GCT's new Bordeaux river cruise for May 2015....$500 fully refundable deposit.

It has not been publically announced yet. They sent out emails to their frequent travelers.

Most river cruise companies have a northern France river cruise, i.e. Paris to Normandy. I traveled on GCT's 10 day river cruise last July and thoroughly enjoyed it. They have regular balconies but their boats do not suit everyone....drop down Pullman type beds and older ships. Take a look at GCT, Vantage, AMA, Uniworld, and Viking also. Most all have regular balconies.

I have traveled on nine GCT river cruises since 2001. I keep a log of the costs on all my trips and the price for the base trips have not increased that much. For July 2014 their base cost of the Vienna to Amsterdam cruise is $3195. When I traveled on the same cruise in 2001 the base cost was $3050....$145 in twelve years is not much of an increase. The main increase is the airfare. If 2001 GCT charged $600 for RT air from NYC...now it is $1450. Granted, GCT now charges for some optional tours that were in included in 2001. The total for these optionals is about $250.

I did this trip last year (July 2012) and have their winter Adriatic trip planned for January 2014.

I loved the ship. The small size (50 passengers) makes it easy to get to know most everyone. The crew and service is fantastic.

In Dubrovnik, we had a evening walk through the city and then a more extensive city thru the next morning.

My favorite stop was Korcula. We dock overnight right in old town. There was a festival going on so we had much to see and do on our free time.

My only complaint is some of the passengers could not handle all the walking and constantly complained. I guess they never read the brochure or pre trip materials.

I have been on 20 GCT/OAT trips and wish this one had stayed OAT. The only good thing about rebranding to GCT is they now use headphones.

I wonder if Viking being a large advertiser on CC factored into the decision.

It's no so much the noise as the sudden jolt when the ship ocassionally hits the side of the lock when you are sound asleep. It does not happen very often but you'll feel it when it does.

roger

Great review.

I have travelled on many river cruise since 1999 but have not tried Scenic. The main reason is that I travel solo and they are out of my budget. The thing about the wine at lunch really is absurd. We always have received our wine as soon as we sat down.

Who is this Tom Baker person? I have never heard of him. I can tell you that he is wrong about Avalon's clientele. How rude.

I agree and he should get his facts straight if he is such an expert. He says GCT ships are high density with 160+ passengers. They have 2 ships with 164 passengers capacity, 4 with 140, 1 with 120,1 with 90, 2 with 60 and 3 with 50. Their 2 Russian river ships have a capacity of 216. I do like his comment about GCT passangers being cerebral minded. The definiton of cerebral is ... If you are a cerebral person, no one would ever call you a drama queen. You make decisions using your intelligence and cold, hard facts, instead of your emotions ...

I mentioned in an earlier note that I'm planning on taking this trip with GCT in June/July 2015. I have heard the dining room is very crowded. Did it seem that way to you?

Roger

I'm really enjoying your blog. I just returned from GCT's Paris to Normandy cruise and plan on book the Provence trip in 2015. I did this trip in 2003 on GCT's 120 passenger ship M/S Ravel which they no longer own. I'm looking forward to the smaller ship.

Roger

I have been upgraded on four of my last five Princess cruises. My best upgrade was from an inside to an aft balcony on the Grand. I am Elite and always travel solo. I think the Elite has something to do with it.

I agree with Oxjohnno .... Caviargal hijacks many threads to tell us that AMA is the only river cruise line we should travel on. She constantly attacks those who disagree with her.

While AMA is a quality line, I have traveled with them once (out of a total of 14 river cruises) and found out it wasn't for me.

As has been stated many times before each river cruise line has its own unique clientele and we all chose what we like the best.

Only 24 people on the ship ???

Yes...it is a small but very modern river boat with only 15 cabins. There are pictures of the ship on their website www.oattravel.com

Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) has a 10 day trip to Peru that includes 6 days on the Amazon River. The ship accommodates on 24 passengers. I did this trip 2 years ago and other than the heat and humidity is was great.

I've done the cruise in September and late June. Weather was a little cool in September. I loved the June trip because it stayed light until 2-3 am in St Petersburg.

Roger

The cigar lounge is the Snookers cigar Bar on deck 6 next to the casino.

I agree that no internet is a problem for some and many people do not like the fold down beds. But for $1000+ less I can do without some amenities for 14 days. As for the beds, I've been on 7 GCT river cruises and at 6'2" I've never had a problem sleeping.

As indicated on previouse posts I have traveled with GCT 9 times(six river cruises) and am traveling with them again in February. I have had problems (mostly airline related) on a few trips and GCT always helped when they could. On my last river cruise with them, Birtish Air misplaced my luggage for a week. GCT kept in constant contact with British Air and gave me free laundry service for the 7 days.

I travel with GCT primarily because of their single supplement policies. They seem to be consistantly cheaper than all other companies.

In the past 5-6 years I have read many negative comments concerning GCT on many boards. When things go right, no one says much but let osmething go wrong and all #@$% breaks loose. Many of GCT's problems have been corrected but thier customer service is still lacking.

Grand Circle Travel has a geat 14 night Rhine/Mosel trip from Basel, Switzerland to Antwert, Belgium. I did this trip in both directions in the past two years and highly reocmmend it. They have great information about this cruison their website www.gct.com. They have 6 different ships doing this itinerary and all have balconies.