Comparing Cruise Lines

[Cyber Kat]

Laughing at your tablecloth reference....one of our favourite restaurants was ran by a Chef from a major city who decided he had enough to the "rat race", and moved to the country. You got a 5 star dinner, but in a very casual environment - I think the first year we went to his restaurant, he was using paper placemats!

I want to be comfortable on my holidays, luxury is all good, but comfort is better for us. I'm more interested in what we will be seeing than how our fellow passengers are dressed.

 

The tablecloth reference was for Carnival Cruise lines highly controversial decision to eliminate tablecloths in the main dining room. They have new tables that have a high gloss and everything slides around. I'm guessing the designers forgot they were designing for a seagoing dining room on a vessel that might encounter waves :) It was a challenge! I'm in the bring back the tablecloths camp :D

 

On land or a river cruise, it doesn't matter much because nothing is moving quite as much! I too like to be comfortable, but luxury for me is great food, excellent service and bit of pampering. I can be comfortable while I'm being pampered!

[caviargal]

Sunsetbeachgal,

 

The rooms (we booked 315 on the diamond deck) are they as comfortable as advertised?

 

 

We were in 310 on Diamond Deck on Scenic Diamond. Loved the Scenic SunLounge, bedding was excellent (we appreciated the pillow menu) and room was very comfy.

[Roz]

I had a similar experience to Lois. Did my first river cruise on Uniworld last year and now have another one booked with them for next year. The atmosphere onboard and their solo pricing suit me just fine. Uniworld made a very good first impression on me. My TA sailed them as a solo and she highly recommended them based on her own first hand experience.

 

I just back from an Alaskan cruise, and of course discussed my past cruising experience with other passengers. I was absolutely amazed at the number of very sophisticated and well traveled people who thought Viking was the only carrier that did European river cruises. They just assumed I sailed Viking, and were amazed to find out there are numerous other companies out there. Unless someone is booking with a TA that has river cruise experience, I can see where a lot of people just go online or pick up the phone and get in touch with Viking. You can't knock their marketing - they've gotten the word out there and are a household name.

 

Roz

[Sonoran_cruiser]

Just back from a Budapest to (almost) Nuremberg Danube cruise on Emerald Waterways Emerald Sun. Great ship, great staff, and quite good food.

 

Two of my traveling group didn't like the food that much, or the fact that they "couldn't get something to eat between lunch and dinner" (meaning - outside of regular dining hours). Apparently they expected this ship to have a 24/7 pizza and hotdog stand :rolleyes:

 

We did pre (in Budapest, by ourselves) and post (in Prague, with Emerald) extensions, and I would definitely recommend spending a few days in each of these cities. Our post-dinner evening cruise along Budapest waterfront was definitely a great way to kick off the cruise!

 

Note - we choose Emerald Waterways over Viking due to the total price available (including air) when we were looking in Sept 2015 (plus the final payment policy for Emerald - 90 days before sail). You definitely see lots of Viking ships on the Danube, but don't know if that's necessarily a good thing.

[Riversanddale]

We've just returned from our first Avalon cruise after many Viking cruises. Weve always found the crews to be wonderful with few exceptions. Tours were very comparable and very good with many local guides working for multiple cruise lines. Laundry prices and bath amenities were almost identical. Our Avalon boat had a second lounge-reading room which was very handy. We've not found good internet on any of our boats no matter the country or cruiseline using both Apple and android devices.

 

The big difference we noticed from day one with Avalon was that the food was much better -fresher and better presentations. Too much of Viking's food was pre-prepared and finished off on the the boat. Avalon had wonderful cream soups with lots of flavor. Viking had broth soups that, like their ice cream, it was hard to tell one flavor from another. Drinks were much pricier on Avalon and happy hour sale prices were often late at night after dinner rather than before.

 

The downside of Avalon for us was that we couldn't board till 4pm and had to be off the boat early. Viking is very flexible with morning boarding if you like and mid-day deboarding. You need to be out of the cabins but you're very welcome in the lounge. This flexibility makes it so much easier to coordinate incoming flights and trains and hotel checkout times. The same with deboarding.

 

Watch itineraries closely as ports are often the same but itineraries not so much. Viking has a great itinerary on the Duoro, not so much in southern France. And, Viking's new long ships can't always dock downtown, I.e. Paris, Arles and others.

 

As you say, it's not easy to compare apples to apples when you throw in plums and peaches and pears into the mix. Enjoy your travels. Each experience is unique.

[Roz]

Riversanddale, thank you for your review. Would you sail Avalon again?

 

Roz

[Cyber Kat]

We've just returned from our first Avalon cruise after many Viking cruises. Weve always found the crews to be wonderful with few exceptions. Tours were very comparable and very good with many local guides working for multiple cruise lines. Laundry prices and bath amenities were almost identical. Our Avalon boat had a second lounge-reading room which was very handy. We've not found good internet on any of our boats no matter the country or cruiseline using both Apple and android devices.

 

The big difference we noticed from day one with Avalon was that the food was much better -fresher and better presentations. Too much of Viking's food was pre-prepared and finished off on the the boat. Avalon had wonderful cream soups with lots of flavor. Viking had broth soups that, like their ice cream, it was hard to tell one flavor from another. Drinks were much pricier on Avalon and happy hour sale prices were often late at night after dinner rather than before.

 

The downside of Avalon for us was that we couldn't board till 4pm and had to be off the boat early. Viking is very flexible with morning boarding if you like and mid-day deboarding. You need to be out of the cabins but you're very welcome in the lounge. This flexibility makes it so much easier to coordinate incoming flights and trains and hotel checkout times. The same with deboarding.

 

Watch itineraries closely as ports are often the same but itineraries not so much. Viking has a great itinerary on the Duoro, not so much in southern France. And, Viking's new long ships can't always dock downtown, I.e. Paris, Arles and others.

 

As you say, it's not easy to compare apples to apples when you throw in plums and peaches and pears into the mix. Enjoy your travels. Each experience is unique.

 

Thanks - this is very interesting. When I narrowed things down - I was looking at Avalon and Viking. We chose Viking for several reasons, but one of the reasons was the stop in Kinderdijk. Avalon seems to spend 2 days docked in Amsterdam and we didn't want that. Also they don't have balconies/verandas. I know we won't use it much, but we like to have it available. The price was pretty much the same, so we went with Viking.

 

I've been happy with our interaction with them so far - hoping our cruise goes as well!