Rafting river boats together.

[Snowcat1]

We are booked to take a Viking river cruise next May. But my husband has been reading about how the river boats are rafted together at many of the ports and thinks this will be a big negative for this cruise. Has it been a big detractor from the enjoyment of the cruise, for those of you that have experienced this?

[dd57]

Depending on which river, almost all river cruiselines raft together at some ports.  When we did the Grand European, we rafted with ships from other lines.  On the Bordeaux cruise we never rafted.  It just depends on how many ships are competing for how much docking space.

 

Rafting didn't bother us.  Most of the time you are off the ship while rafted together.  Just remember to close your drapes before going to sleep and peek out in the morning before opening them again.  But because you are so low to the water, you have to do this anyway since there are often walkways next to where you dock and passersby can see into your cabin.

[pontac]

Rafting is getting more common owing to the huge increase in cruise ships.

 

It only happens when boats are moored (obs) and that is usually at night. If moored during the day guests are probably on an excursion.

 

The biggest detraction is if one has a cabin with a balcony as the other boat's cabin balcony my be right alongside yours, and inhibiting sitting outside. And the other boat obstructs your view.

 

However, it's just one of those thing. The amount of cruise ships now, and thus the number of cabins available, means there's fierce competition for passengers and prices are less than they'd be than if there wasn't so many boats.

 

Has it been a big detractor to our cruising enjoyment? No.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Rafting can be a hassle, but in my opinion it diminishes but doesn't destroy the charm of river cruising.  In the same way that veteran travelers saying "it's too bad you missed X place back in the day before it got so crowded" – X place got so crowded because it is so charming, and it still is charming.  Not going because of the crowds means you don't get to enjoy the charm.

[joy1rn]

We are currently on the Viking Gulvieg in Passau and are connected to another Viking but we are all off on excursions most of the day. The ship next to us had to walk thru our entryway to go ashore. No big deal. We couldn’t sit on our balcony but just went up to sun deck for a short time after excursion. I wouldn’t call it a deal breaker.⛴️

[Host Jazzbeau]

One thing about rafting is that it does change the appeal of various cabin locations for the time when docked.  The cabins on the lowest deck are least affected, because there's always a 50% chance you'll be up against the dock anyway.  Cabins on the middle deck are most affected (I think) because the rafted ship may block all your light as well as your view.  Cabins on the top deck should still get some light (but they have the Sun Deck noise issue).  French balconies are probably less affected than real verandas.  Does make the cabin selection issue a little more complicated!

[gnome12]

2 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

 French balconies are probably less affected than real verandas.

I’m not sure if I agree with that. With a French balcony your room might be right up against another French balcony cabin with no space between. At least a real balcony has a bit of air between you. 

[mskaufman]

I didn't find it a big deal.  It was mostly at times when we were off the boat.  I guess if I was sitting on my balcony and there was a boat instead of a view it would make a difference.  I am not sure there is a way to predict when this will be done.

[Host Jazzbeau]

[moved to main River Cruising forum since it's not about a port]

[Canal archive]

For a start in canal parlance U.K. style it’s ‘breasting up’ in my cruising since 2011 we’ve breasted up a handful of times, never overnight and usually during an excursion. Twice we’ve shared a glass with our neighbours and each had a sneaky peak at each others cabin, interesting - AMA & Uniworld - in one case our butler was gobsmacked at what we were doing but brought our four as requested cocktails no problem (points to Scenic there). On another we’re on the sun deck and on our neighbouring boat a guy was doing Tai Chi so, I mean you’ve got to ask haven’t you and an impromptu lesson ensued  I’m sure it was an American who said if your handed peanuts eat them. 

[Roz]

Rafting or no rafting, I've enjoyed all my river cruises.  

 

@Snowcat1, what exactly about rafting is bothering your DH?  

Edited June 27, 2023 by Roz

[Got2Cruise]

 You might be disappointed if you planned to sit on your balcony and enjoy the view. Also those with mobility problems might have an issue in some stops. 

Edited June 27, 2023 by Got2Cruise

[pontac]

That's true. Boats of same design can walk through reception area, but moored to a boat that doesn't have a reception area that aligns means - if that other boat is between yours and the river bank - going up to sundeck, crossing over to the other boats sun deck then down their stairs.

[sharkster77]

One of the big differences, river vs ocean, is that on a river cruise you really aren't in your cabin very much, mostly for sleeping and changing clothes.  There are no sea days, so no sitting on the balcony watching the world go by---most sailing is done while you sleep.

 

If you are day sailing it is in a scenic area (middle Rhine, Wachau valley) and the best place to view the scenery is not on your balcony, but on the top deck or the lounge (floor-to-ceiling windows).  When there was that rare chance to watch the world go by, it was very pleasant doing that from the lounge or top deck.

 

Rafting is a part of river cruising---OP, don't let that discourage you!   When you are rafted, you are most likely waking up in the morning, or off the ship.

[pontac]

37 minutes ago, sharkster77 said:

When you are rafted, you are most likely waking up in the morning

 

So true. So if you sleep naked, don't pull open the curtains when you get out of bed in the morning. There could be someone else's window alongside yours 😁

[tulok]

We have rafted a few times and sometimes it’s the other passengers that come through your boat and times you go through theirs. It really isn’t a big deal. In southern France, we rafted next to a boat that had a great band on the sun deck. (wish I could remember the brand because we wanted to try them after being next to them). I like seeing the other brands.

[Canal archive]

Sometimes this getting cosy is only because the boat on the inside is late leaving or the one on the outside is early arriving. DH reminded me that once walking through next doors reception the staff were definitely iffy about our presence, couldn’t have looked further down their collective noses if they’d tried. So my aforesaid DH asked the obvious ‘I’m in charge’ if it would be possible for them to show us their lounge, bar and if possible restaurant as we could then consider them for a future cruise. He was answered with a resounding no, no explanation at all needless to say we were all not impressed nor was he, as a marketing man he does know how to work a room so he was not impressed. What an opportunity to miss! Never mind on our return they’d gone, actually never to be seen again. Only twice in our river cruising experience has another crew been ‘off’ this one and once moored behind a different brand and they were (the hotel crew not maritime) really objectionable, you really do not see this on the rivers.

[CPT Trips]

4 hours ago, Canal archive said:

So my aforesaid DH asked the obvious ‘I’m in charge’ if it would be possible for them to show us their lounge, bar and if possible restaurant as we could then consider them for a future cruise.

I asked this a couple times when rafting. Response ranged from the curt, unfriendly “no,” to a cheery “certainly, take a look around.”

[Canal archive]

Curious you’d think they would want to sell their product.
Just working out where the challenges are in Paris at the moment due to arrive there lunch time Saturday.

[RobInMN]

On our 2 recent river cruises, when rafting, passengers never went through the other ship. instead, they came over, took the stairs up to the top deck, crossed on the top deck, and then back down and off. We were on both sides of this.

Figured this was a change with security in mind.

Even so, I'm not sure that's logistically possible in every case due to ship design and what level the first ship exits on. But seems like when it is possible, they prefer to do it that way now.

[notamermaid]

It did not bother me. I went through a ship and walked over another ship. In Vienna it was awkward because we had to cross over two ships. The sun decks were not fully aligned. You needed to be mobile to do this walk. But then, river cruising is not something I would recommend for anyone that cannot walk unaided.

 

Mostly we hardly noticed the rafting otherwise as we were out and about during those times.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Canal archive]

As Pontac pointed out earlier it’s all do do with ship design and layout. We first thought about security but I expect you’ve noticed how quickly the crew get to know their customers I’m pretty sure a stranger wouldn’t last long just wondering around.

[Daisi]

12 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

. In Vienna it was awkward because we had to cross over two ships. The sun decks were not fully aligned. You needed to be mobile to do this walk. But then, river cruising is not something I would recommend for anyone that cannot walk unaided.

 

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

 

One one of our last stops on the Rhine, we had a Crystal ship raft with us, with them being on the outside. I was really curious to see the ship as had heard so much about them. when I looked at how they laid the "planks" down for the passengers to walk across, considered the height, and realised there was no railings, I was really glad that we never had to do that. I suffer from vertigo once in a while, and as long as I have a railing, I am fine on stairs. Walking just a couple of inches that high up, I'd be wanting someone (DH) very close to grab on to so I would be ok.

[Canal archive]

Similar here not to special on my pins these days a handy DH is extremely useful in such cases.

[CastleCritic]

5 hours ago, RobInMN said:

On our 2 recent river cruises, when rafting, passengers never went through the other ship. instead, they came over, took the stairs up to the top deck, crossed on the top deck, and then back down and off. We were on both sides of this.

Figured this was a change with security in mind.

Even so, I'm not sure that's logistically possible in every case due to ship design and what level the first ship exits on. But seems like when it is possible, they prefer to do it that way now.

During Covid recovery AMA did have this as a policy, if a ship rafted to us they went up and over, no exceptions (this resulted in a few people getting lost on what stairway to go down and ending up at the locked bow lounge door).  They don't now, we had people through the ship again in May.

 

Generally it just depends on the layout of the ships, between the AMA ships and viking for example, top deck is the only option, the lower decks dont line up.

 

On my last cruise we had an odd ship (the very wide AMA Magna) which could actually dock to its neighbor on the 2nd or third deck (as well as disembark to shore)  by sliding part of its side signage out of the way (assumably in addition to the top deck).  We had passengers come on board the third deck go down the stairways (plural) in the middle of the ship and then out the other side as well as just walk through the lobby on 2nd deck.

 

And yes the "dont open the blinds" thing is real, I had a cruise manager say he had done it personally, and I saw it personally (they were in their underwear granted) back in May when we swapped sides in the raft for a minute.

 

In my experience the crew from both ships will supervise the process pretty well to ensure that there are no security issues or people getting lost (as well as help people up and down steps).  And Ive yet to see a passenger passing through do much other than just say hi to the crews.

Edited June 28, 2023 by CastleCritic