Need river cruise advice

[Glamourpuss1000]

Glasses even! Predictive text strikes again!

[Paulchili]

I just got off a Viking cruise less than two weeks ago. You can have "still" water (no bubbles) any time of day. The people I traveled with had the house wine or beer for lunch and dinner but I don't like wine or beer so either I had Coke or water. No problem.

 

Thank you - that helps.

[Solent Richard]

My wife & I are planning a European river cruise. Most of the trips include alcoholic beverages, but neither of us drink.

Is there a cruise line that offers a price without the booze?

 

I have experience with a number of river cruise lines.

 

I think you will find that there are cruise lines that have lower prices and no 'FREE" alcohol. However, they are the cheaper end of the market and neither do they include excursions as the market leaders do.

 

Examples of these 'budget' lines are CroisiEurope (who do provide drinks at meals but you pay for excursions) and Phoenix Reisen who really are very German orientated.

 

Here's a link to my latest river cruise review, I hope it is of interest...

 

https://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2017/05/12/viking-eir-rhine-getaway-april-2017/

[pacmom]

Croisi does offer bar and soft drinks all day long. They do charge for premium. We were on a Croisi ship this past Oct.

[PhD-iva]

Try Grand Circle Tours, which yes is a value-based, budget river cruise line. They do include "free" wine at meals, but it is such swill that it can't add much to the cost of the cruise fare. Most excursions are included in the fare. We sailed in AUG 2008 on a Seine River cruise. I would say that we were unlucky to get a subpar tour director, we didn't like the wine, and during the daytime the twin beds in each stateroom are positioned as two sofas. These are too narrow to be able to nap on the sofa (I weighed about 150 pounds, so just a little overweight). Everything else was fine, the price was right, so overall we would recommend them.

[CPT Trips]

Things have changed on GCT since 2008. House wine, draft beer, and soft drinks included when the bar is open. Wine is certainly better, on our Danube cruise they served different local wines with dinner each night. Naturally, quality is subjective.

 

If you want to nap, they will lower the bed upon request.