First River Cruise- Looking for Recommendations

You may not find a river cruise to be relaxing if you do the tours in each port. I feel like I'm on the go the whole time.

 

Roz

Good point...while I really enjoyed our first river journey, it did sort of feel like a busy land tour that happened to use a boat for accommodations. But, since I like land tours also, that was fine too.

Fortunately we are fixed dining time people, and not much into the entertainment. We cruise to relax and recharge, so low key is perfect for us. Thanks for the info!

We had different and varied entertainment every night onboard our riverboat in the lounge. All were very accomplished performers. I think what some people may find lacking is not having the big theatre and the larger-scale shows that go along with that sort of venue.

Good point...while I really enjoyed our first river journey, it did sort of feel like a busy land tour that happened to use a boat for accommodations. But, since I like land tours also, that was fine too.

That is exactly where the concept of a river cruise comes from. They were developed by people involved in land tours as a way to bring your accommodation with you, and avoid the hassle of having to pack up every morning or so and deal with luggage on a daily (or almost daily) basis.

Inflexible dining times? What line? On our Tauck boat, we could go to dinner whenever we wanted within the timeframe during which dinner was offered.

Not true of every line, but dining times are relatively inflexible on most lines. People have complained that on Scenic they bring each course out to everyone at the same time, which is pretty inflexible to me. Viking seems to have fairly strict arrival times for the MDR. Uniworld is somewhat more flexible.

Inflexible dining times? What line? On our Tauck boat, we could go to dinner whenever we wanted within the timeframe during which dinner was offered.

Most mainstream lines had been everyone eats at 7:30 but that is slowly changing. If it’s a dealbreaker one needs to research carefully.

Uniworld has small but excellent bar menu between dining room times. Just needed this once!

Second seating

Inflexible dining times? What line? On our Tauck boat, we could go to dinner whenever we wanted within the timeframe during which dinner was offered.

On AmaWaterways I suppose you could show up "late," but you would most likely be joining a table where everyone had already started thier meal, unless you arranged to "reserve" a table by bribing a waiter to break the rules.

More on that that strategy here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2673125

another factor to kick in ... when we did our last river (8 days Budapest to Nurem') we compared airfare to QM2 and guess what

 

a balcony on QM2 was less than business class air ....

 

so we went all in .. a few extra days on either side of the river with a trip from Nur' to Hamburg then 9 days on QM2 Hamburg to NYC

We love Cunard! Sounds like you did the transatlantic round trip? How did you get to Budapest?

Not true of every line, but dining times are relatively inflexible on most lines. People have complained that on Scenic they bring each course out to everyone at the same time, which is pretty inflexible to me. Viking seems to have fairly strict arrival times for the MDR. Uniworld is somewhat more flexible.

Didn't happen that way with Tauck....meals were served the same as on any ocean cruise I've been on...appetizer first, then entree, etc.

Didn't happen that way with Tauck....meals were served the same as on any ocean cruise I've been on...appetizer first, then entree, etc.

I think you misunderstood what I said about Scenic. People have said that appetizers were served to everyone at the same time. When that course was finished, again the entire dining room would be served their entrees, etc. This is only what I read here on CC; I have no personal experience with Scenic.

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I think you misunderstood what I said about Scenic. People have said that appetizers were served to everyone at the same time. When that course was finished, again the entire dining room would be served their entrees, etc. This is only what I read here on CC; I have no personal experience with Scenic.

I am on the Scenic Opal now, and that isn't quite correct, although it's close. Everything is done in lockstep within each waiter's workstation, but the flow varies from station to station. So we and the tables around us all get served each course at the same time, but the next station over gets served at different times. I have no idea how it's staggered, and it doesn't necessarily make sense. For example, the first night our station was served before the station behind us through most of the meal (e.g., we were on our entrees just about when they got their soups), but then our station had a huge gap between the entree and dessert, while the station behind us caught up and got their desserts before we did. Honestly, it hasn't felt all that regimented, but it does definitely mean you can't just get a quick dinner.

Not true of every line, but dining times are relatively inflexible on most lines. People have complained that on Scenic they bring each course out to everyone at the same time, which is pretty inflexible to me. Viking seems to have fairly strict arrival times for the MDR. Uniworld is somewhat more flexible.

We did a tour of the galley on our Avalon Danube cruise last year and if you saw the size of these galleys, you'd understand why each course is brought out to everyone at basically the same time. As the chef explained, once the appetizers are done, the staging for the entrees must be done, using the same galley space. There simply isn't enough room on most ships to have mulitple staging areas. Did a tour of the Crystal Symphony's kitchen on our AK tour and it was a totally different story - the kitchen was huge!

I do think some ships are loosening up the dining hours. Seem to recall Avalon being one of them. Personally I liked dining with everyone at night. Got to meet a lot more people that way, rather than everyone just straggling in at different times like on an ocean cruise. Set or flexible dining hours would be something to check-out before booking if it is important to you.

Do a 7 day cruise and do pre and post on your own.....The cruise companies charge WAY to much for the pre and post. It is half the fun of the trip to plan, so the more you want to do, the more your read and it is really easy to DIY...plus we always have a TA to pull everything together.